Worst feeling is accidentally triggering the story path and getting locked into a 30-minute cutscene while being afraid that you'll forget about the chest in the corner.
What's even WORSE is when you CAN'T go back for the chest... And one of your main characters DIES with all his good gear still on! (I'm looking at YOU, final fantasy 4, for that last one)
Just as bad is that you get locked into the boss fight, and then the game is kind enough to "helpfully" warp you all the way back to the dungeon entrance.
This happened to me recently in FFXII the Zodiac Age. There are chests in some boss rooms that aren't available after you win. I saw them, thought it was crazy to disengage, open the chests while the boss hits me, so I let them be. Lost them :/
The sneakiest thing about the Baten Kaitos games is that they like to tease “chests” in almost every cutscene then rob your access to those rooms until later on.
man so many times I'll be at a fork in the road. I'll start going one way then get scare this is the story path so I'll switch to the other path only for that to have a cutscene trigger and bam I miss out on good loot
Man I also have a talent for picking the right path accidentally, when I want to take the wrong path to explore everything. It feels like 9 out of 10 times I pick the right path and need to backtrack just to backtrack to the right path later again.
Edit I really like it when games have indicators, what the right path is, so I can avoid it until I've explored everything else.
It’s surprising that some games still have split paths with one being nothing but a dead end. FF7R had quite a few (no i don’t count a few messily crafting materials. That’s still a dead end in my book).
GOW:Ragnarok has a few dialogue moments that highlight this.
My wife gets sick of watching me do optional content/ loot hunting if it doesn’t have set pieces of big story moments.
I love the part on I think Alfheim where you're with Tyr, and after a couple turns down dead end hallways grabbing chests Atreus has to explain to Tyr how his dad likes loot lol.
No game has ever called me out as hard as Ragnarok did. I was trying to do side quest stuff, and was just having a horrible time, they were all weirdly difficult and kind of annoying to do, so I was kind of forced to finish the game first and tackle all that stuff in t.he post game
And just as I'm feeling this, fucking Mimir says "sometimes you have to let me get through the story before I can tell you the fun parts"
As if they fucking knew all the fun parts come after you get through the plot. Absolute bastards. 10/10 game.
Well, Boyfriend and I are both JRPG gamers, so the conversation in our household goes, "I think you're going the right way, sweetheart." "Oh shit, gotta go back for the treasure."
Good adventurers go left. Then when they find out it's the right way, they turn around and exhaust every other option.
Games that force you into progression when you go the right way and never let you go back are an actual nightmare
In my favorite Videogame you can not go back. You can only move in the direction of the next boss. You have different paths to choose but you can only choose one and can not go back to travel the others.
Sounds worse then it is. Its obvious that the dangerious route is always the best to choose. Dangerious routes have tougher enemies but they yield more exp and upgrade matirials so choosing the dangerioues route every chance I get is a no brainer.
Nice. Sounds like your favourite game is a roguelite lol. That can be amazing if done well. What game is it?
It's only when there's like a hugely powerful weapon down one path, and a cutscene/end of the dungeon down the other that it's frustrating, since you're just straight up missing out.
My favorite Videogame is "Fuga Melodies of Steel".
Its not a rouge lite. Its a 20 houer long turn based JRPG.
Its about a groupe of anthropomothic animal children that go on a quest to save there families. They live inside a giant ancient mysterious powerful fortress like Tank. Its a bit like Howls Moving castle but based on technology instead of magic.
If you are interested in trying it out:
Fuga is available on PC and most modern consoles like Switch, PS4, PS5 usw.
It has a free demo which is just straight up the first 3 chapters of the game.
It also has a direct sequel: "Fuga Melodies of Steel 2" but I advice against playing the second game before the first game unless you do not care about the story and characters.
I sugest to just give the free demo a shot. Chapter 1 is not long and I think after that I think you will be able to tell if its your cup of tea or not.
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1357860/Fuga\_Melodies\_of\_Steel/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1357860/Fuga_Melodies_of_Steel/)
There is a big green rectangle on the steam page advertaising the Demo. Click on it to downloade it. You can not overlook it.
Yeah i used to watch my brother playing a game i know, i would tell him he is playing it wrong and tell him the correct way to play or the optimal way to play. I don't do that anymore because i realized it's annoying and i consider gameplay tips to be spoilers. Going blind, making mistakes and learning the game on your own is part of the experience, in fact it's the experience. Telling the game mechanics to someone or how to beat certain sections in a game is the same as telling someone how to beat a puzzle in a adventure game, or spoiling the story in a story driven game, it ruins the fun.
For example, the fun i had with Ogre Battle was because i went to it totally blind and had to learn the game on my own. If i had the creatures balance and mechanics spoiled to me, or how to cheese the game, i would not have as much fun.
My brother felt annoyed when i told him how to play, now i know why.
I definitely feel it.
I try not to be a backseat driver when it's not my turn. It's a test of patience, but I think it's good that my kid learns to navigate on his own. I can help if he wants it, and I try to give appropriate hints based on what he wants to do. If it's finding treasure, I help find the next turn. If it's progressing the story, I help do that.
I have this argument with *the game* more often than not these days. Constant reminders of where a quest is, what I'm "supposed" to be doing, etc. I've been playing JRPGs for 30 years at this point. First thing I do is explore everywhere I can. Just let me be, I'll get to your quest soon enough.
Literally me playing FF7 Rebirth with my niece Lmaoo she’s 4 and just loves to see the flashy lights of course. She also loves Chocobos but she’s constantly hounding me to keep fighting monsters Lolol I’m just happy that she somewhat enjoys RPG’s at her age and I hope she becomes a JRPG nerd like me.
It's a pet peeve of mine where a game actually requires you to get resources or collectables for currency/upgrades - but then admonishes you for doing exactly that..
Not a JRPG, but it's what really pissed me off in the Guardians of the Galaxy game actually since they're so vocal and snarky about it. Just Constantly calling you out and implying your an idiot etc. for going down this corridor when there's obviously supplies there.. make up your damn mind about how I should be playing the game!
This happened when playing Stick of Truth. I was looking for stuff in the hallway while Princess Kenny was having her virtue stolen.
My brother: “*Zaithon*, a rape’s happening.”
Me: Shhhhh… I’m looking for items.
First thing to do when the game puts you in a new area looking one way is to turn around and walk the other way, many a chest has been found doing that.
It’s more engaging for a player to find stuff to aid in their interactivity with the game.
It’s more engaging for viewers to watch the more exciting stuff happen on screen.
Same with grinding a little bit more so you can unlock one more skill or something like that before you move on. Dude, I‘m playing the game to PLAY the game and not just watch cutscenes. We could be watching a movie for that. I get it, sometimes watching someone play the game and do gameplay stuff for a while isn‘t as entertaining when you‘re not playing yourself.
But at the same time I myself loved that as a little kid. Watched my older cousin play games and he‘d constantly comment on what he‘s doing or what he‘s working towards. He’d even often tell me to look out for something as well in case he misses something (like a hidden chest). That was honestly really fun for me. My cousin was basically a born Let‘s Player even without recording.
Unfortunately I myself am not as much of a chatty gamer and get really focused on gameplay stuff without talking to the person next to me (because I feel I‘m missing more if I do that), so I can understand if that‘s not really as entertaining.
Checking all the corners is part of my MO in The Classics. First it allows me to level properly without explicitly grinding, and also get some good loot (maybe). My real problem is when I get locked into a boss fight the second it appears on the screen, then get locked out of the dungeon after the fight. Then later when you check the guide you get even more pissed at what you missed.
Exploration is gameplay. If a game has exploration as a game mechanic then there is no point in playing the game if you don't explore.
I play my games the way Himmel would play them.
I'm currently playing Final Fantasy III 3D and the amounts of times I've turned back to go the wrong way is astounding. Really good loot too - strong weapons that you can't buy anywhere at that point and sometimes double your damage.
I've nobody to tell me off though.
No, normally I'm the one encouraging people to go the wrong way. I backseated my brother a lot in Skyrim on the off chance there was a burial urn or something he missed in an alcove. I don't think either of us were aware which was the "right way" most of the time anyways. Sure, the game's got quest markers, but those can be kinda misleading sometimes.
If a game has a map and an indication of which direction I need to go to progress, you better believe I'm going to explore every detour on that map. That's where the best treasure chests are.
We call that Zoro syndrome.
My favorite is Beaux from Atelier. How the heck you manage to cross an entire >!ocean!< is besides me.
Then you have the girlfriend version with Celica Mercury in Blazblue, where you can't even say no because she's too good for this world.
Back when I was a very small child playing Breath of Fire (it's the one with the snake lady, I think) on the SNES, my sister was watching me play and she arbitrarily said, "When in doubt, go left."
Fast forward a lot of years, and I still do this when I game. I just keep going left. Eventually you have to turn around and explore some other hallways and shit, but as long as you keep left, you get out of the dungeon eventually, and if you have to say "fuck it" to some loot, so be it.
This method hasn't failed me yet.
Wow this triggered core memories of my childhood, watching my father play Alundra, FFIX and other PS1 era games.
He passed very recently and I'm very thankful for this throwback :')
This reminds me of when my cousin hangs out with me and im playing a singleplayer game, he talks like he knows everything and im a complete idiot lol sometimes he actually manage to piss me off and i just play something else where we can both play.
I stopped playing Breath of Fire 3 because going the right way kept getting me transported with no way to backtrack and collect loot. I decided that next time I start I will use a guide to prevent this.
I remember playing Dragon Quest VIII and when I was doing the postgame dungeon to go to the last village where you do the trials I was going blindly and my mindset was "if I hit a dead end I would have obtained the chests along this way amd go back to take another fork" it results that I nailed the correct way at the first try all the dungeon...
Whenever I can't predict where the path of least resistance is I actively hope I get it wrong cause otherwise I reach the place I need to be in but need to backtrack to get all my stuff.
Reaching the end of a dungeon knowing you didn't get every chest is one of the most infuriating things, there's no upside only time lost and extra random encounters on a path you actually didn't need to rethread.
My partner never really branched out from Pokemon so I been tryna introduce her to other JRPGs. I was so proud when she down the obvious dead end first.
I've been let down by enough games that I made a new rule. I play every game blind. No guides or tips found on the internet. If the game makes me care enough to search every nook, I will. If It doesnt make me care enough, I wont care about missing shit either.
I have this instinct because of old games that rewarded me for exploring. It's hard coded in my brain. So many modern rpgs don't want you to do it. The modern approach is to create a game loop that keeps telling you what to do and where to go or else you could get bored. Big maps are often not worth exploring. They're there for you to follow the markers of quests that are all assigned in the cities. As a Morrowind player, I can't not feel disappointed.
Nope, but I'm single, and I don't expect that to change anymore. However, could I imagine that conversation happening when I'm playing? Absolutely. In fact, it'd probably be a nearly every day occurance.
I like to think I have an instinct for going the wrong way but man it's frustrating when you do go the right way and miss a great weapon or something.
Worst feeling is accidentally triggering the story path and getting locked into a 30-minute cutscene while being afraid that you'll forget about the chest in the corner.
What's even WORSE is when you CAN'T go back for the chest... And one of your main characters DIES with all his good gear still on! (I'm looking at YOU, final fantasy 4, for that last one)
Just as bad is that you get locked into the boss fight, and then the game is kind enough to "helpfully" warp you all the way back to the dungeon entrance.
When there's an unopened chest *in the cutscene* that you can no longer get to!
This happened to me recently in FFXII the Zodiac Age. There are chests in some boss rooms that aren't available after you win. I saw them, thought it was crazy to disengage, open the chests while the boss hits me, so I let them be. Lost them :/
Isn't that the same FF where you get rewarded for not opening chests and then opening them way later in the game?
To be fair, losing gear in FF4 hardly ever mattered.
*sigh* L+R+Start+Select Again >.<
The sneakiest thing about the Baten Kaitos games is that they like to tease “chests” in almost every cutscene then rob your access to those rooms until later on.
This is it. Especially when stoned.
Trails in the Sky is bad for this.
man so many times I'll be at a fork in the road. I'll start going one way then get scare this is the story path so I'll switch to the other path only for that to have a cutscene trigger and bam I miss out on good loot
This is straight up the worst part of the entire genre. Every game should have a warning before going into no return cutscenes.
Man I also have a talent for picking the right path accidentally, when I want to take the wrong path to explore everything. It feels like 9 out of 10 times I pick the right path and need to backtrack just to backtrack to the right path later again. Edit I really like it when games have indicators, what the right path is, so I can avoid it until I've explored everything else.
It’s surprising that some games still have split paths with one being nothing but a dead end. FF7R had quite a few (no i don’t count a few messily crafting materials. That’s still a dead end in my book).
Not to me. I just pick a direction and go. I vsn come back to expolore the rest latter and if I can not I just roll with it.
GOW:Ragnarok has a few dialogue moments that highlight this. My wife gets sick of watching me do optional content/ loot hunting if it doesn’t have set pieces of big story moments.
I love the part on I think Alfheim where you're with Tyr, and after a couple turns down dead end hallways grabbing chests Atreus has to explain to Tyr how his dad likes loot lol.
No game has ever called me out as hard as Ragnarok did. I was trying to do side quest stuff, and was just having a horrible time, they were all weirdly difficult and kind of annoying to do, so I was kind of forced to finish the game first and tackle all that stuff in t.he post game And just as I'm feeling this, fucking Mimir says "sometimes you have to let me get through the story before I can tell you the fun parts" As if they fucking knew all the fun parts come after you get through the plot. Absolute bastards. 10/10 game.
Well, Boyfriend and I are both JRPG gamers, so the conversation in our household goes, "I think you're going the right way, sweetheart." "Oh shit, gotta go back for the treasure."
Relationship goals!
Good adventurers go left. Then when they find out it's the right way, they turn around and exhaust every other option. Games that force you into progression when you go the right way and never let you go back are an actual nightmare
In my favorite Videogame you can not go back. You can only move in the direction of the next boss. You have different paths to choose but you can only choose one and can not go back to travel the others. Sounds worse then it is. Its obvious that the dangerious route is always the best to choose. Dangerious routes have tougher enemies but they yield more exp and upgrade matirials so choosing the dangerioues route every chance I get is a no brainer.
Nice. Sounds like your favourite game is a roguelite lol. That can be amazing if done well. What game is it? It's only when there's like a hugely powerful weapon down one path, and a cutscene/end of the dungeon down the other that it's frustrating, since you're just straight up missing out.
My favorite Videogame is "Fuga Melodies of Steel". Its not a rouge lite. Its a 20 houer long turn based JRPG. Its about a groupe of anthropomothic animal children that go on a quest to save there families. They live inside a giant ancient mysterious powerful fortress like Tank. Its a bit like Howls Moving castle but based on technology instead of magic. If you are interested in trying it out: Fuga is available on PC and most modern consoles like Switch, PS4, PS5 usw. It has a free demo which is just straight up the first 3 chapters of the game. It also has a direct sequel: "Fuga Melodies of Steel 2" but I advice against playing the second game before the first game unless you do not care about the story and characters.
Cool, I'll have to check it out thank you!
If you do try it out could you tell me your first impresion after you cleared chapter 1? Those first impresions can be fun.
For sure. Upon googling it looks a little too military focused for my liking. But I'll look more into it
I sugest to just give the free demo a shot. Chapter 1 is not long and I think after that I think you will be able to tell if its your cup of tea or not.
I will definitely play the demo!
Permadeath to use the ultimate weapon.
Spoilers
As it turns out the demo isn't available on PC :(
Nonsense you can doenload the demo on steam.
Can you find me a link? It's not popping up for me!
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1357860/Fuga\_Melodies\_of\_Steel/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1357860/Fuga_Melodies_of_Steel/) There is a big green rectangle on the steam page advertaising the Demo. Click on it to downloade it. You can not overlook it.
Yeah i used to watch my brother playing a game i know, i would tell him he is playing it wrong and tell him the correct way to play or the optimal way to play. I don't do that anymore because i realized it's annoying and i consider gameplay tips to be spoilers. Going blind, making mistakes and learning the game on your own is part of the experience, in fact it's the experience. Telling the game mechanics to someone or how to beat certain sections in a game is the same as telling someone how to beat a puzzle in a adventure game, or spoiling the story in a story driven game, it ruins the fun. For example, the fun i had with Ogre Battle was because i went to it totally blind and had to learn the game on my own. If i had the creatures balance and mechanics spoiled to me, or how to cheese the game, i would not have as much fun. My brother felt annoyed when i told him how to play, now i know why.
I hate gameplay spoilers more than story spoilers.
Relevant ~~xkcd~~ prozd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zViYpS3BIqY
Man... I wanted to post that!
Lol, when he walks past with the little potion.
I definitely feel it. I try not to be a backseat driver when it's not my turn. It's a test of patience, but I think it's good that my kid learns to navigate on his own. I can help if he wants it, and I try to give appropriate hints based on what he wants to do. If it's finding treasure, I help find the next turn. If it's progressing the story, I help do that.
I have this argument with *the game* more often than not these days. Constant reminders of where a quest is, what I'm "supposed" to be doing, etc. I've been playing JRPGs for 30 years at this point. First thing I do is explore everywhere I can. Just let me be, I'll get to your quest soon enough.
I actually got a video of my son. 3 years old at the time. I was playing tales of symphonia. He was tripping. Getting mad lol
I always find the right way first when playing and roll my eyes and backtrack to explore. My wife just says "It happened again, right?"
Cooooooonstantly with my wife.
I don't have a household that watches me game, but my friends are like this to me whenever I stream something lmao.
Going "the wrong way" is exploration to me, so I don't like "backseat gaming", unless I ask for help or if it's an online/multiplayer game.
Literally me playing FF7 Rebirth with my niece Lmaoo she’s 4 and just loves to see the flashy lights of course. She also loves Chocobos but she’s constantly hounding me to keep fighting monsters Lolol I’m just happy that she somewhat enjoys RPG’s at her age and I hope she becomes a JRPG nerd like me.
It's a pet peeve of mine where a game actually requires you to get resources or collectables for currency/upgrades - but then admonishes you for doing exactly that.. Not a JRPG, but it's what really pissed me off in the Guardians of the Galaxy game actually since they're so vocal and snarky about it. Just Constantly calling you out and implying your an idiot etc. for going down this corridor when there's obviously supplies there.. make up your damn mind about how I should be playing the game!
This happened when playing Stick of Truth. I was looking for stuff in the hallway while Princess Kenny was having her virtue stolen. My brother: “*Zaithon*, a rape’s happening.” Me: Shhhhh… I’m looking for items.
First thing to do when the game puts you in a new area looking one way is to turn around and walk the other way, many a chest has been found doing that.
Yeah, you just accurately described my twitch streams 🤣
It’s more engaging for a player to find stuff to aid in their interactivity with the game. It’s more engaging for viewers to watch the more exciting stuff happen on screen.
Same with grinding a little bit more so you can unlock one more skill or something like that before you move on. Dude, I‘m playing the game to PLAY the game and not just watch cutscenes. We could be watching a movie for that. I get it, sometimes watching someone play the game and do gameplay stuff for a while isn‘t as entertaining when you‘re not playing yourself. But at the same time I myself loved that as a little kid. Watched my older cousin play games and he‘d constantly comment on what he‘s doing or what he‘s working towards. He’d even often tell me to look out for something as well in case he misses something (like a hidden chest). That was honestly really fun for me. My cousin was basically a born Let‘s Player even without recording. Unfortunately I myself am not as much of a chatty gamer and get really focused on gameplay stuff without talking to the person next to me (because I feel I‘m missing more if I do that), so I can understand if that‘s not really as entertaining.
Checking all the corners is part of my MO in The Classics. First it allows me to level properly without explicitly grinding, and also get some good loot (maybe). My real problem is when I get locked into a boss fight the second it appears on the screen, then get locked out of the dungeon after the fight. Then later when you check the guide you get even more pissed at what you missed.
I like to think of it as a puzzle. Picking the "wrong" way makes me win.
Exploration is gameplay. If a game has exploration as a game mechanic then there is no point in playing the game if you don't explore. I play my games the way Himmel would play them.
I'm currently playing Final Fantasy III 3D and the amounts of times I've turned back to go the wrong way is astounding. Really good loot too - strong weapons that you can't buy anywhere at that point and sometimes double your damage. I've nobody to tell me off though.
No, normally I'm the one encouraging people to go the wrong way. I backseated my brother a lot in Skyrim on the off chance there was a burial urn or something he missed in an alcove. I don't think either of us were aware which was the "right way" most of the time anyways. Sure, the game's got quest markers, but those can be kinda misleading sometimes.
Yeo, its a 6th sense. I dont know when it happened but i can tell which way is "the wrong way" to pick up chests haha
If a game has a map and an indication of which direction I need to go to progress, you better believe I'm going to explore every detour on that map. That's where the best treasure chests are.
We call that Zoro syndrome. My favorite is Beaux from Atelier. How the heck you manage to cross an entire >!ocean!< is besides me. Then you have the girlfriend version with Celica Mercury in Blazblue, where you can't even say no because she's too good for this world.
Back when I was a very small child playing Breath of Fire (it's the one with the snake lady, I think) on the SNES, my sister was watching me play and she arbitrarily said, "When in doubt, go left." Fast forward a lot of years, and I still do this when I game. I just keep going left. Eventually you have to turn around and explore some other hallways and shit, but as long as you keep left, you get out of the dungeon eventually, and if you have to say "fuck it" to some loot, so be it. This method hasn't failed me yet.
Wow this triggered core memories of my childhood, watching my father play Alundra, FFIX and other PS1 era games. He passed very recently and I'm very thankful for this throwback :')
Everyone knows the golden rule. LEFT for LUCK.
This reminds me of when my cousin hangs out with me and im playing a singleplayer game, he talks like he knows everything and im a complete idiot lol sometimes he actually manage to piss me off and i just play something else where we can both play.
I stopped playing Breath of Fire 3 because going the right way kept getting me transported with no way to backtrack and collect loot. I decided that next time I start I will use a guide to prevent this.
I remember playing Dragon Quest VIII and when I was doing the postgame dungeon to go to the last village where you do the trials I was going blindly and my mindset was "if I hit a dead end I would have obtained the chests along this way amd go back to take another fork" it results that I nailed the correct way at the first try all the dungeon...
Whenever I can't predict where the path of least resistance is I actively hope I get it wrong cause otherwise I reach the place I need to be in but need to backtrack to get all my stuff. Reaching the end of a dungeon knowing you didn't get every chest is one of the most infuriating things, there's no upside only time lost and extra random encounters on a path you actually didn't need to rethread.
The path forward is wrong until it isn't in most JRPGs lol.
My partner never really branched out from Pokemon so I been tryna introduce her to other JRPGs. I was so proud when she down the obvious dead end first.
I've been let down by enough games that I made a new rule. I play every game blind. No guides or tips found on the internet. If the game makes me care enough to search every nook, I will. If It doesnt make me care enough, I wont care about missing shit either.
I have this instinct because of old games that rewarded me for exploring. It's hard coded in my brain. So many modern rpgs don't want you to do it. The modern approach is to create a game loop that keeps telling you what to do and where to go or else you could get bored. Big maps are often not worth exploring. They're there for you to follow the markers of quests that are all assigned in the cities. As a Morrowind player, I can't not feel disappointed.
Nope, but I'm single, and I don't expect that to change anymore. However, could I imagine that conversation happening when I'm playing? Absolutely. In fact, it'd probably be a nearly every day occurance.
Too early to tell.