Screwing it up

[E. Randy Dupre]

Ah, the sweet, sweet frustration.

You put your all into a game, get as immersed into the world as is possible and then, all of a sudden, you find out that you've ****ed something up early on that's now preventing you from seeing everything that it's got to offer.

Last week I decided to play through Skies of Arcadia Legends. I put in 36 hours or so on it this time last year, but had to abandon it because of work. Eventually forgot all about it, which means that coming back to it a year later I've forgotten most of the plot, characters, battle system, etc., and have had to start over. Eighteen hours in, and I've just found out that I missed a discovery in Maramba. It's so long since I should have found it that when I just went to the nearest Sailor's Guild to sell info on the others, it's got the words "Discovered by Domingo" next to it.

And I don't have a save point early enough to rectify the mistake. So now I face the twin horrors of either carrying on and finishing the game without the 100% discovery stat needed to open up some of the secret stuff or starting the entire thing over from scratch. Again.

'Annoyed' would be putting it mildly.

[mrfrosty]

Whoa. Buggered. In that situation, I'd leave it another year before I touched it again, enough so that I'd forgottn almost everything about it, then started again. If you don't get the perfect discovery rating, you'll miss the funky **** that unlocks. You'll need to start again anyway..

[E. Randy Dupre]

[mrfrosty]

Mwahahahaah! You must become an insane saver. You turn a corner, you save. The character moves cos you haven't pressed a button in a while, you save..

[dataDave]

My DC skies decided to crash everytime I attempted to enter the final dungeon. I left it for 30 months before completing it on the cube.

[Abhisara]

You put your all into a game, get as immersed into the world as is possible and then, all of a sudden, you find out that you've ****ed something up early on that's now preventing you from seeing everything that it's got to offer.

I just hit this exact problem playing Terranigma today having got 3/4 of the way through it, and my earliest save isn't far back enough to rectify it. Bloody annoying . Now I don't feel like continuing it or starting from scratch.

[Magnakai]

Erk, what did you miss in 'Nigma? That's one of my favourite Snes games...
If you just missed a piece of Magicite, then don't worry.

[Abhisara]

Nah, I've probably missed quite a few of those already, but then again I haven't really needed them (so far).

I missed upgrading the town of Freedom to its third state because I got the aeroplane before helping Bell and Eddie with their inventions. Now those two won't accept the letters you get when Nirlake burns down, so the knock-on effect is that I can't rebuild Nirlake or upgrade Suncoast either.

I know it's not vital to the game's completion, but it's like I've missed out on a little piece of the game. Anyway, now that I've calmed down a bit, I think I'll restart it from scratch over the weekend. This game certainly deserves to be completed properly

[112]

My DC skies decided to crash everytime I attempted to enter the final dungeon. I left it for 30 months before completing it on the cube.

Bloody hell thats like nearly 3 years! i tried to do the same but it jus wasnt the same the second time round! and i literally gave up as a result! besidestehre are too many great games to play already so no time to piss about with older stuff.

112

[Magnakai]

Abhisara: Ack... I thought you'd perhaps voted wrongly or something. I wasn't aware of that bug/feature/thing...
I'd definitely get Nirlake and Suncoast up to their full states. There are a few sub-quests that you'd miss by not doing that.
Incidentally, I'd be curious to know what you make of the game after you finish it...

[Robster]

started to play the original LOZ on famicom mini series not long ago. Blasted thru it and got ot the last dungeon and could get past a certain point.

Racked my brains and realised i forgot to pick up something in the last dungeon that was vital to progression to Gannon. Arrgghhh..........


Put it down and nevr went back to it, dont have the paitence so I have it marked as unofficially completed now

[Ady]

This sort of thing used to happen a lot in old games (particularly click and point adventures), which is why I don't appreciate it in this age of save points and such. To me, it smacks of poor game design.

It's also why I've never liked the Resi games. Not enough ammo for a boss fight or tricky foe? Tough. Start over. ft:

[mrfrosty]

What's wrong with being a conservative player? If you don't need to kill it, don't kill it. Having a save option mid-game is handy but takes some of the fun out of it. I don't have a problem with save points or end-of-level saves. It forces you to raise your game. And there's nothing wrong with a little backtracking to find ammo, specially in Resi..

Having said that, some games really do need mid-game save options... It can be a right **** if you don't have them...

[superkully]

Kings Quest 5, I got horribly stuck near the end.

In them days there was no Internet game faq sites so it was after months of brain wracking that I found out that very near the begging of the game when a rat had run across a path in the forest, I should have clicked it. It only ever did its little run once.

That has to be one of the most hideous design flaws ever.

[Ady]

What's wrong with being a conservative player? If you don't need to kill it, don't kill it. Having a save option mid-game is handy but takes some of the fun out of it. I don't have a problem with save points or end-of-level saves. It forces you to raise your game. And there's nothing wrong with a little backtracking to find ammo, specially in Resi..

There's nothing wrong with being conservative, but it's unfair to punish the player for not knowing what's round the corner.

When you first play a game like that, you're likely to be a little trigger happy (it's only natural) until you're more familiar with the game. As such, this sort of mechanic should be reserved for higher difficulty settings (for the benefit of those who enjoy forced repetition).

Also, there are some points where you have to shoot. Get the balance wrong (ie shoot too much), and you're screwed, but you don't know that until it's too late.

I think you misunderstood my point about saves. I never even implied there was anything wrong with them.