30 Days of Video Games - BONUS: Why Do You Play Games Pg. 142

[The Deleter]

Day 10: Most Immersive game

 

Honestly, with how much I go on and on about Wonderful 101 and how into it I was, you'd think that that game would be my my choice. Even a few hours ago, I would have thought that as well. But then, I remembered something... A game I played a while ago, which had such a good atmosphere, I hardly ever dared to play it at night...

 

 

 

Metroid Fusion

 

Oh goodness, this game.

 

When I found out that I would be getting 20 free games for my 3DS, I was overjoyed. I waited all night long for them to appear on the download list in the eShop, and once the GBA games were uploaded, this was the first of the lot I downloaded. Immediately I started sampling all the games, and when I got to this one, I was so hooked onto the gameplay, I couldn't put it down.

 

Big. Mistake.

 

The space station shut down. An explosion occurred. My pathway was blocked off. The lights went out. A threat was onboard; a threat I already guessed. Mutant creatures popped out of the woodworks, human husks were possessed by viruses, and all I had to comfort me was a computer program. I was alone, in a den of monsters, with one single mission: Go further in. On I went, yet instead of reaching the goal, through some sequence-breaking, I found myself freezing off my health in a icebox.

 

Then I saw it.

 

A giant, frozen form of a monster, part lizard, part pteranodon. The leader of the space pirates, Ridley, staring down at me from his frigid prison. I ran out of health, and I perished.

 

"Click" went the light switch.

 

 

This game is legitimately creepy. From the way the music turned off when an event occurred, to the separate cutscenes of SA-X hunting me down, to the basic atmosphere of it all, this game made me feel like I really was on an abandoned space station with a monster hunting me down because of it's thirst for power. And I loved every second it.

 

Day 10: Complete

[Mania Pipe]

Day 10: Most Immersive Game:

 

 

The Mass Effect series, well Mass Effect 1, was the series that totally got me immersed in its world. I don't think there was any game that I played that actually brought me into its world. The many uncharted worlds to explore, the people you met, how you choose to act, the customization feature to your character, the choices you make that have consequences, it's like you're seriously writing your own story and it was seriously an amazing thing for me to experience and it's what got me into the series.

[Echidna Adventurer CC14]

Most immersive game...I think I'll go with an entire series for this one...

Mario & Luigi Series (DS/3DS)

I absolutely LOVE this series, as it fully represents what I love about the Mario world. Colorful cast of characters? Check! Lots of zany locations? Check! Hilarious script attached to an absolutely insane adventure with all manner of twists, turns, and just plain baffling moments? Triple check! No other game or series in the Mario franchise gets me as drawn into the world as this one and I just can't help talking to every random NPC, looking for treasures in every nook and cranny, and taking on every enemy that I can. It really feels like I'm taking a vacation in the actual Mario universe that we love from the platforming games. I've played these games multiple times (Partners in Time and Bowser's Inside Story, especially) and when I'm bored, I just can't help thinking of some of their most brilliant parts to amuse myself. (Bowser's characterization in particular makes me smile so hard that it gets stuck on my face.) Heck, just right now as I'm writing this, I'm getting the itch to give PiT, BiS, or DT another play! It's like some kind of Mario addiction! XD And that's not even getting to the music. MY GOD are these tracks amazing! Their epicness will enter your head and never leave. Just LISTEN to some of this:

Yoko Shimomura is a GODSEND.

[Zaysho]

Day 10: Most Immersive Game

 

Well, crap, I wanted to keep with this challenge, and missed a bunch of days due to other things, but oh well.

 

Some games immediately sprang to mind as I scrolled through the topic and checked the question of the day:

 

1) Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)

 

Wow, just wow. I'd heard the praises sung for Xenoblade before it even hit the US time and time again, and I was always itching to play it. When I got the game a few months after release, I would usually plug a few hours into it before I just dropped it for some inexplicable reason. When news of "X" hit, I felt obligated to give this game a second chance, and it really blew me away. The world itself is fascinating and unique to anything I've seen, the cast of characters are sympathetic and interesting, even the ones you don't expect, and I just felt involved every step of the way. I wasn't just guiding Shulk and crew around, nah, this was my journey, too. Each new twist and turn in this journey hit me just as it did the characters (though I had a rough guess as to the true nature of the Face Mechon very early on, there were just a lot of things I didn't think to expect). What I enjoyed most about Xenoblade was that it really rewarded the player for exploring and learning about the world, every new area added to your experience, and made leveling up less of a chore (though Xenoblade is still pretty grind-y), and there were bits and pieces of lore tucked away in every nook and cranny. Though we don't get to see much of it, we get so many hints as to the past before the Homs (with some hints about the Giants and their culture that preceded them on Bionis) and it made me want to know more. And then there are the people in various towns and cities along the way; while not as deeply interesting as the residents of Clock Town in Majora's Mask, they all have lives, dreams, struggles, and we get to see hints when taking on sidequests and listening to the people pour their hearts out to us of it all.

 

While there are a few things about the game, mostly in the mechanics, that sorta bug me, Xenoblade, when you really stick it out and put the time in, is truly a joyful experience because of the love and care that when into crafting the world you're dropped into.

 

2) Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)

 

I loved Skyward Sword, in spite of its obvious flaws, it was a game that really drew me into its world. While not vast and expansive, a combination of each areas' unique gimmicks and hints of lore revolving around the Goddess and her Hero made me feel even more like an explorer, trying to piece together this mystery while running all the monsters out of the territory. There's one thing that really stood out to me, and maybe it only happened to me, but you know how

Zelda was sealed in amber at some point in the past after she did her prayers at the temples? Well, here's what happened to me: Early on in the game, I used the first person camera to peak behind the door that's behind the old woman (Impa) and saw the amber tucked away back there. I had no idea what it was, but figured it was important and when the time comes, the game will reveal all. Well, it revealed it alright. For a moment I found myself slashing at the door; I couldn't believe that Zelda was there the whole time as I'd been running around searching for her! Everything that was going on started to make more sense to me.

That says a lot for how invested I was in the characters and this story, and even with some of the odd backtracking, fetch questing, I always felt personally involved with this particular incarnation of Link.

 

3) Okami (PS2)

 

Okami is a wonderful game that cracked my Top 10 the moment I popped it into my PS2. The beautiful Ukiyo-e inspired presentation, the extensive use of Japanese folklore, the colorful cast of characters, the unique abilities (I wanted to write about the Celestial Brush for the last question, but missed it!)--Okami was truly the whole package for me. I felt involved throughout the progression of the story, first taking in the journey to stop Orochi, and then being surprised and delighted that the journey was only beginning from there, and discovering ever more of Nippon as I went through the game. Issun in particular was a very relatable character for several reasons (I'm not going to get into that here, but let's just say I share more than a few characteristics with him and I'm not particularly proud of one of them), but what I loved most were his struggles. His struggles weren't necessarily just about saving the world or anything, but with finding his path as an artist, something that naturally appealed to me since I had just started college and wasn't sure of what the hell I wanted to do. His confusion was my own. I got it. And I'll never forget the penultimate moment in the game,

as Amaterasu goes to face Yami alone, and she's actually losing... before Issun's voice is heard throughout the Ark of Yamato, cheering her on and then seeing that he's been using his art to encourage the people of Nippon to give back to Ammy, who had done so much for them (even when they didn't know it!). I was tearing up, and I never thought I'd say a video game made me cry the way Okami did. But it didn't make me sad, it made me want to fight, and it was incredibly satisfying getting to the end after everything that had gone down throughout the adventure.

If that isn't immersive, I don't know what is.

 

4) Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (N64)

 

Two Zeldas in one post? Yeah, aight. Majora's Mask is great simply because of how well crafted the otherwise tiny world of Termina is. Perhaps not as sprawling as other installments in the franchise, but it's much more thoughtfully put together with a cast of characters that all very unique and interesting. I mentioned the residents of towns in Xenoblade all had lives, dreams, struggles and we saw hints of that during sidequests and whatnot? Well, Majora's Mask cranks it up to eleven with fully formed and realized people populating the various corners of Termina, and they ALL have something to say or something they're striving for, and you can't help but feel interested (mostly because they drag you into their problems, but still). While I don't think I felt as personally involved with this particular incarnation of Link, I felt very attached to many of the residents of Clock Town and beyond (Cremia and Romani, especially).

 

There are probably others, but I'll end up being here all night as I try to wrack my brain, so I think I'll leave this here for now...

 

EDIT: CC14 reminds me I really want to get back and finish Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga and Bowser's Inside Story first chance I get... Those are some great games from what I played, with some very fun writing and stories (why the hell can't a mainline Mario game get some of that?), but I never got around to truly completing them for one reason or the other.

[Kaabiitorori]

Day 10: Most Immersive Game

Being a relatively young form of entertainment with a few decades old in the whole industry, video games have been always striving for innovation and to push the boundaries of what games can possibly do. From the form of storytelling, the artistic style, to the gameplay mechanics, games have tried to pursuit the best way to impress the player with the best experience possible, something only the best designed games can possibly achieve whether it's from the biggest developers in the world to the most modest indie ones.

 

Being a video gamer for more than 23 years I have had the chance to experience a good amount of games from different genres that had a degree of immersion. Metroid Prime remains to me as a extremely close second for taking the first person shooter genre an incredible twist as well as the entire Metroid series; The Wind Waker is also a pretty damn big contender on this question for giving The Legend of Zelda a sweet taste of open-world goodness as well as a fantastic artistic style, giving altogether a complete fresh of air to the series. However, the game I'll mention next is so damn incredible that even to this day remains to me as the best one in this category. The game is...

 

 

Mirror's Edge

 

As much as I dislike the current Electronic Arts for their way of doing business in the video game industry, I cannot disregard their past output of really original IPs during the first half of the 7th Gen of video games. Mirror's Edge is, beyond any doubt, not only one of the most innovative games of that generation but possibly the most immersive I have experienced yet.

Being a die-hard fan of platforming games I was really impressed with the take DICE took in the genre by giving it a first person perspective. Under the role of the game's protagonist Faith, Mirror's Edge gave you the chance to run, jump, climb, wall run, slide, combat and do many impressive moves around the city all in glorious parkour style. The level of immersion in that game was simply incredible as the first person perspective gave platforming a sense of realism aside from giving you a city as the perfect playground to run and jump freely. While the story mode gave you a certain lack of freedom to run and jump around in the city, the time trial mode was the real deal since you had endless possibilities to complete the levels and you had many routes to play and explore in order to achieve the best time possible; with the story campaign being a little bit too short, time trials added up a tremendous chunk of replayability to the point of being a game mode to consider very seriously if you want to enjoy this game in every sense.

Best way to summarise my thoughts in this post? I want Mirror's Edge 2 sooo bad. XD As I have mentioned before I may dislike EA so much for their current trend of anti-consmer friendly business but on the other hand it's the only game I am looking forward from them (although I am cautiously optimistic for their final output!). From the looks of it, the sequel will grant a free roam parkour experience which will guarantee to push the sense of immersion even further in the series: a whole city just for you, all ready to be explored in glorious parkour style. =)

 

EDIT: Forgot to add just a few of my other all-time favourites at the introduction as I try to do throughout this 30 Days challenge! It's all there now. X3

Edited May 11, 2014 by Kaabiitorori

[Shane]

Once again I'm trying to refrain from Donkey Kong Country, once again I'm going with Zelda.

 

It's definitely Majora's Mask. Other Zelda games are very immersive too, with Wind Waker probably being just as immersive as Majora's Mask (just in a different way), but Majora's Mask was very special and very unique.

 

The game itself had an amazing atmosphere and a fantastic sense of immersion, and to top that, the ability to travel through time allowed you to immerse yourself in the stories of every single character in the game. Almost everybody had something different going on that could be affected by the player's actions. Never before had I felt so in tune with a game's world, and it's one of my favourite games on all time for these reasons and more.

[Sonictrainer]

 

Day 10 - Most Immersive Game

 

Any Pokémon Game

 

As soon as I start a new game, I'm already in the mind of a Pokémon Trainer. From collecting Badges, to finishing the Pokédex, and trying the game's extra challenges, the Pokémon series can bring me into its world. Even though I've finally completed the National Pokédex, I'm curious to see what will be done with Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.

[DemonShad716]

Day 10: Most Immersive Game

 

I'm going for Fable III as the most immersive game. I would spent just as many hours in this game just going around exploring caves, fighting goblins, bandits, hollowmen and to shoot the faces off those annoying Gargoyles to shut them up. I would spend a lot of time afterward running around in search of some rare treasure such as keys to hidden doors full of money, weapons and experience to level up. You can even manage real estate by buying every building in the game and make a profit, as well as keeping them all maintained. It gives you a better feel of ruling your own kingdom. The storyline to become the greatest ruler of Albion comes with many decisions that you must make throughout the game that will determine your overall outcome of the game as well as how your citizens will react around you. You can even have you own doggy to keep you company along your journey as the great ruler of Albion.

[Goldenlink64]

Day 10: Most immersive game

 

Resident Evil/Biohazard (anything from 4 and below, but if I had to choose, RE2 is sheer perfection)

 

I know this kinda feels like cheating, but I'm gonna have to bank on a previous post this time. There's a reason why Resident Evil is my favorite franchise.

I love the characters, I love the atmosphere, I love the design of the Spencer Mansion and Raccoon Police Department and how replayable they are. Hell, screw what the haters say, I LIKE Tank Controls and the "awkward camera angles". These games that use them make me feel like I'm at home.

What more can I say? Once a game makes you feel like you're at home, you've reached the peak of immersion and I can honestly say every single old school Resident Evil game does this for me (and hey, even 4 has its moments too). 

 

I've used Tank Controls for so long now that almost anything else feels boring/plain in comparison. There's a certain type of feeling of unconventional game-feel to conquer I get from playing games like RE1-3 and MGS 1-2 and now that I've become used to them, I find these games more interesting and enjoyable than games that don't use them (at least when done right that is).

 

Not just that though, but just how these games handle themselves too. You really have to think to yourself what you're going to do, where you're going to go. There's no insulting "Go Here" indication in REmake and RE2. Instead, you have to look at your map, inventory and figure that out through Diary hints and I find that a lot more interesting and immersive than modern day games these days that attempt "survival horror".

 

Previously on Day 9:

Next time on Day 11:

[Kamicciolo]

Day 10 - Most Immersive "Completely Ninjashark free wonderland" Game

 

 

For me, I find Pikmin to be the most immersive game I've ever played. And I've played games like World of Warcraft VVVVVV:.

 

Pikmin is on a whole different level than most other game though. I think I'd best describe it as an experience really. You start the game crash landing on the strange and hostile alien world, your only escape completely wrecked, leaving you stranded, when you come across a native being of the world. The tiny plant native joins with you immediately as you form a sort of make shift commando unit and both sides fight to survive. Simple stuff on paper but it runs a whole lot deeper.

 

Since there's a time limit imposed on the entire adventure from the word go, it becomes imperative that you study the beasts that inhabit this strange world and learn the ins and outs of the various areas so that you can properly utilize your precious time, while also maintaining your 'unit' as best you can. The constant dawning of the timelimit present in the day cycle might suggest trying to speed though your tasks of collecting your ship parts, but get too hasty and you'll soon learn that a single mistake can cost you oh so very dearly as your Pikmin army is cut down to size in a flash by the larger predators. Because of the pressure, you find yourself really learning the stages well, figuring out the best routes to lead your platoons through, so that you can make the best use of the time available.

 

What's gets you though, is the Pikmin themselves. a small plant creature sprouted from a seed (gained from defeated enemies or other such items) that you personally plucked yourself and added to your team. You can't name the little guys or otherwise individualise them so they might seem a bit "faceless" when amongst a crowd, but you make one slight misstep and say a Red or Yellow lands in the water? Damn you'll feel at least a little bad as you hear its agonizing cries as it struggles. And nothing feels more crushing that losing to any of the bosses in the game, as your entire Pikmin crew it wiped out, all screaming in pain before their little spirit rises away. They manage to make you care about an otherwise generic minion.

[Sami]

Day 11 - Most Frustrating Moment

Corrupted Save File - EVERY FUCKING TIME IT HAPPENS

Corrupted save files. ... Ugh. I sincerely hope I'm one of the very few if not the only one here who's had to experience this bullshit multiple times on multiple games. Drives me fucking insane.

Let's recall the first time this happened - I was about eight or nine years old, playing the PS2 Spider-Man movie game in my room. My mom was getting upset at me because I was late for dinner or some shit, I dunno, and so she'd been yelling at me to turn the game off for a few minutes. I was in the middle of a level and really wanted to finish, and promised I'd turn it off as soon as I finish the level. I was true to my word, and was saving the game after the level so I could go do whatever she wanted me to do.

Evidently, though, she had gotten tired of waiting. She storms into the room, really frustrated about it for some reason, and before I can stop her briskly walks over to the PS2 and shuts it off. I had no idea what would happen at the time, but I told her about how the game says you're not supposed to turn it off while saving. She didn't care and said it didn't matter, and I brushed it off and went about my day.

Later that night, I sat back down to play again, only to find out that every time I tried to load the game, it'd fail and say my file was corrupt. I had no idea what was happening and started panicking and loading in over and over, with no idea what could have possibly gone wrong.

... And then it hit me.



Wow, so that was pretty devastating. Was doing a New Game Plus run of it as well, so I had already unlocked just about everything and was replaying for fun. At the time though, I was a kid, so losing progress on a game even if you'd beaten sucked really bad, because there was practically nothing else to play for months at a time. Wasn't even my fault, either. Sucks.

And then it happened again.

Not the exact same scenario, of course. This was a few years later. I was playing Kingdom Hearts II while my cousin was over - a NG+ completion run, grinded up to lvl 100 and with somewhere around 80 - 100 hours clocked in. He wanted to play DBZ, so I told him I'd save the game and then we can switch to DBZ. He huddles around the console as I hit the save button. He sees it, says "okay finally", and ejects the disk. I jump up and tell him to put that shit back in immediately, but by the time he did it was too late. The game froze. I reset, tried to access my file just to check, and sure enough... gone.



Yep. Twice I've had this shit happen because of my family being dumb.

Oh sorry did I say twice?

I meant three times.

Several years later. I think I was fifteen or so at the time. I was playing The World Ends With You over Spring Break, first playthrough. Was thoroughly enjoying it at about 12-15 hours in, which was pretty much exactly the halfway point in the story. Another of my cousins, a bit older than the one I mentioned before (I think at this point he was 11 or 12), asked to play the game. I saw no harm in it, and so I started a new save file for him and let him play on my DS while I went to do other stuff. After all, I made sure to give him a new file to play on, and he's old enough not to fuck things up.

Haha. Ha. Ha. Mm. Well. Somehow, I don't know how, he managed to do exactly that. He gives me back my DS and said he finished playing, and I just pocketed it and kept watching TV or whatever. After leaving his house though, I opened up the game to play on the long car trip home. His file was there in perfect shape (didn't even bother getting through the opening cinematics...), but mine was, of course, corrupt as shit.



At that point, I just thought to myself I should have expected it. I don't know how my family even manages to use electronics without burning their houses down. I really don't.

You can, of course, feel free to write about any moment involving a game in any way. Could be something in the game that pissed you off like an annoying enemy or boss, or something that happened in real life. Go wild with this one.

[The Tenth Doctor]

Day 11: Most Frustrating moment.

 

 

 

Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands. I was climbing the Kings Tower, I think it was called. It's essentially the last climb.I was getting quite far, dashing at enemies and of course, rewinding time when necessary. Then I jumped for a new ledge and the game began to autosave. During this, I fell off the platform and couldn't save myself. I'd died during the autosave. This lead to a big glitch. It respawned me in a large corridor, which my brother recognised from his playthrough. Yet the door behind me was sealed. I leapt across the deathtraps to discover the door on the other side of the corridor missing too. The game had monumentally glitched, meaning I couldn't continue with the game.Needless to say, I was furious. I don't think I even tried again.

[Spin Attaxx]

Oh, easily whenever I'm playing a Mega Man game, and I die as a result of one of those bullshit "jump too high you die jump too low you die" sections.

 

Or whenever I get to the final boss of a game, and something pops up that forces me to wait a long-ass time to actually finish it. Happened to me at least thrice.

 

Or whenever I play Minecraft, have an idea for a building, and then forget all about it.

[Solly]

Day 11: Most Frustrating Goddamn Moment

Yeah it's corrupted saves. I wish I had something more intelligent to say about this, but Discoid stole my answer right out of the gate.

 

A lot of people know about how saves can get corrupted in the Walking Dead, Season One. Even if you've played it and haven't personally experienced it, you are most likely aware of the glitch. It can happen whenever, but is most likely to happen somewhere around Chapter 3. You can still continue playing, even if you DO experience the glitch, because you can continue from any chapter, but the game won't remember the important choices you've made in the past, and you will therefore be playing a scenario separate from the one you were working on until that point. 

 

I lost several hours to this and have tried all sorts of fixes but can't seem to make them work. I even tried reloading from halfway through the previous chapter and got the same problem again. My file is just completely dead. What makes this example even more frustrating is that, despite everyone knowing about it, Telltale hasn't done jack shit to fix it. On top of that, people are still having problems transferring saves to Season 2. But you know what? I'm not even PLAYING Season 2. Because I can't continue! YAAAAAAAAY.

 

Dishonorable Mention

 

Good old Mario Party. 

"What a fun game. I've been doing well on the mini-games and have earned myself more stars than my opponents! And with only 5 turns to go, it looks like I'm gonna win. That almost never happens."

"What is this space? Chance...Time? Whatever could that mean? I doubt it's any of my concern. Peach landed on it and she's got nothing to do with me. She's in 3rd place so whatever happens is probably no threat to me. Right?"

 

[Alex2Beta]

DAY 10: Most Immersive Game

 

Silent Hill 3

Image spoiled just in case.

 

When the question hit me, I instantly thought of this game, and for good reason.

 

You begin the game right  at a nightmare of a bloodied, rusted, monster filled Amusement Park.

It all starts out quiet, but you see caged bodies placed around the entrance, and dead bodies in cartoon mascot suits all under a pitch black sky, with the only thing on your mind is too progress forward.

 

When you take the next step into a different part of the park, you are then met with monsters of strange and grotesque bodies, filling your ears with their awful cries and roars that accompany the ambiance well - already putting a shiver down you.

 

And once you climb up a roller-coaster at the end (with said monsters constantly chasing you), what happens?

 

Your character wakes up in a caffe at a mall, with sounds of crowds around, which fills you with relief as if you were the one dreaming a horrible nightmare just now.

 

See where I'm going? The game definitely took me into it's world, and it was terrifying and thrilling as all hell. There is just so much that the Silent Hill games give out, what with the creepy ambiance and "soundtrack" , and can easily give you a sense of panic, disgust, fear, uneasiness and after all that - relief.

 

--Wait-- Day 11!? Screw my internet , man.. D:

[Celestia]

Day 11: Most Frustrating Moment

 

This one's easy, and it's something that thankfully happens in only a few games. But when it does, oh boy...

 

What Am I Even Supposed To Do

multiple games

 

 

(Just one example, from Earthbound. You need to talk to one specific NPC that some players might miss, then...do nothing in this spot for about three minutes. Yeah.)

 

You know what I find rather annoying, ever single time? Having to look up how to do something in a game online. Or, arguably worse, knowing how to do something as I play the game...but only because it's such an infamous moment of a game not really making clear what you're supposed to do that EVERYBODY TALKS ABOUT IT.

 

It's not even that it's that much of a big deal, technically. Google the solution, bam, you can keep going. But, it feels like cheating, and while video game cheat codes can be fun, that kind of cheating--doing it solely to progress--doesn't feel right to me. I shouldn't have to do that sort of thing in the first place; design the game in such a way that I can either figure it out, or hell, spell it out for all I care. If you want to make something that un-obvious to try and slow down players, at east have some kind of system that gives you hints only when you really need it.

 

And then there's the times where they do give you a hint but it isn't useful and aldkafjeaklrjeaklrjalk;k

 

This sort of thing frustrates me to no end.

 

 

 

 

...

 

 

It needs to be given a nod:

 

 

Pictured:

[Brad]

This shell is truly the bane of many people's existence, including my own. Imagine these scenarios - these I have all experienced myself, might I add. You've raced dominantly in first place through the entire course, and you approach the end of your final lap when one of THESE hit you, followed by a plethora of different items and you end up... fifth. Despite racing the best through the entire course. Or you're fighting neck and neck for the finish line, and you've finally managed to pull into first when somebody way back in fifth or sixth hits you with one of these and your opponents completely leave you in the dust. OR, in fact, you're just casually in third place in Mario Kart 7 and one of THESE comes along and demolishes you because these just barrel through anything in their way now, and you end up near last. 

 

The cause of tears, sweat and frustration for many years. Thank goodness for the Super Horn.

[Jin.]

Day 11

 

*insert woman screaming in background*

While I did beat him, Order Sol was nothing to laugh at. It doesn't help that, as a reckless Ky player, I'm pretty shit against Sol's. This guy is known as one of the most difficult bosses in Guilty Gear. And it shows. I spent hours trying to beat this guy, and if you've been beaten, you'll need to redo the entire arcade + the requirements to get to this fight.

 

Yes. I play these types of games to be competitive. And I was still not prepared for... for... THIS. (Note how the guy playing is using Gold Order-Sol in this, Gold mode is the strongest optional mode in the game.)

[Captain Fun]

Day 11: Most Frustrating Moment

 

Managing the inventory in Resident Evil 0;

So inventory management is a pretty important thing in Resident Evil games. You can only carry so much with you, since you only have 6 slots. Now in most RE games you can put away excess items in the item box, and you can retrieve them when needed from any safe area. Sounds useful right? Well, this feature is gone from Resident Evil 0. There are no item boxes. In RE Zero you switch between two characters (Billy and Rebecca) and trade items between them. They both have 6 slots, so that's twelve in total. Twelve is actually decent for a Resident Evil game- or it would be if important items like your shotgun and the hookshot didn't take up 2 slots each. Excess items, instead of being put in an item box have to be dumped on the floor since Billy and Rebecca are slobs. This limitation is incredibly frustrating when you have a character who is forcibly separated, so it becomes very difficult to actually prepare for anything. This leads to the frustrating moments.

An unexpected Tyrant fight. Oh, okay. That thing that was the final boss from the last game. NO PROBLEM. Oh, and I don't have full health. Oh and Billy currently has most of the ammo. And I'm Rebecca, whose flesh is as soft as cake frosting to this monster. Oh and my only other save is an hour and twenty minutes back. And I have no room to fight him, and easily get trapped on level geometry. And I suck at fighting Tyr-FUCK THIS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This shit happens with the Leech Zombies too. The only thing that kills them reliably is fire, so you either need the Molotovs which are slow as hell, rare and require two components to mix them, OR you can use the Flame Rounds for the grenade launcher, which ALSO takes up two inventory slots and is best saved for bosses. Goddamn. 

 

Honorable Mention:

ALL SNK BOSSES

[Dr. Homem]

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion's obtuse leveling mechanics coupled with the level scaling fluff. Unless you strictly follow a guide like the one from UESP, you could quickly fuck up your game completely. For anyone not familiar with this, here's a basic rundown:

• You have 21 skills that govern various aspects of combat, crafting, social interaction and other actions. Blade for fighting with swords and daggers, Restoration for healing magic, Mercantile for buying and selling items, etc
• Using a skill causes you to gain experience in the skill, gaining points at milestones. The more points you have in Blade, the more damage you do with bladed weapons, as is usual with RPGs.
• Each of these skills is associated, in groups of three, with one of 7 core attributes, which buff your base stats and/or those same skills. Blade, and a couple similar skills, would be associated with Strength, which also governs general damage and the like.
• At character creation, you pick seven of those 21 skills which will be "Major Skills," leaving the rest as "Minor" skills.
• Whenever you gain a total of 10 points across your major skills, you level up. At your level up, you can increase three of your core attributes dependent on how many levels you have gained in the associated skills. To get the fullest possible level bonus in an attribute, you had to gain 10 points in it. So, to get the maximum bonus for all three attributes, you had to gain 10 points in major skills, and 20 points in minor skills. And of course, enemies would level alongside you, whether you got the maximum bonus or not.

Now you can see the cause of the problem. If you played the game like a normal person, and chose as major skills the ones you used most often, you'd get shitty stat gains and fall behind as the world leveled around you. To get the most out of each level, you had to choose as majors the skills you would use least. Want to play a stealthy archer thief? Better major in Blunt Weapons, Conjuration Magic, and Heavy Armor. Yes, it was really that stupid.

Oh and of course, if you figured this part out yourself, and decided to make sure all your majors would be unwanted, you'd later realize that minor skills accrued points more slowly. Because you never used your major skills in the course of normal gameplay, it would take ages to gain any levels at all, and you'd have to send your mage enchanter to bareknuckle boxing camp just so he could gain those last couple points in Block and Hand to Hand. It was all about striking just the right balance of real majors and fake majors, to level slowly when you needed bonus credits, and quickly when you didn't.
 
Oblivion is an otherwise stellar game, but how the hell did this mechanic get past playtesting? It works terribly, to the point the very first mods released for this game were attempts to fix it. Leveling enemies alongside you is a good concept, but when my level 30 warrior is getting completely creamed in fight with trash mobs when he's got end game equipment and top points in every combat stat he uses, something is wrong. The way it worked in the base game, it meant that every leveling choice from the beginning of the game had to be perfect, otherwise the enemies level up faster than you and leveling up actually makes you weaker. If it sounds like a goddamn Goldilocks nightmare, that's because it was.

[Covskin]

Oh man, overly long loading times are a killer. Apart from one particular game we're all aware of, my example is WWF Smackdown 2.

 

 

Ok, the original Smackdown's Season mode was pretty quick. If you wanted to simulate a match, the result was determined instantly. Smackdown 2 decided this wasn't on at all, so you had to waste ten seconds watching two health bars slowly deplete. That was bad enough, but the sequel also added storyline cutscenes into career mode.

 

This in itself wasn't a bad thing - hell, it was a logical step. But, a lot of the scenes sucked and even worse, committed cardinal sin number 2 - unskippable cutscenes. Sometimes you were treated to a "Beuaty Pageant" of PS1 graphics' skimpy female models that made no sense whatsover. Even more annoying though, was the storyline that eventually unlocked more options for the Create A Wrestler Mode.

 

 

I should say, that video has shortened the loading times a little bit. That also doesn't include the time wasted simulating the other matches on the card.

 

This is when I say there were about THIRTY of these to unlock, and the story was identical EVERY DAMN TIME. Dear god what a chore.

[BakingBluePotatoe]

Makin it in EARLY for once.

 

Day 11: Most Frustrating Moment

 

I've got THREE things to mention here, all of which, DEAD SERIOUS, have actually happened to me somehow.

 

Corrupted/Deleted Saves

 

Thankfully, I only had the corrupted save shit happen ONCE. and it was my fault. I didn't press the Gamecube's power button on all the way, and to my horror when it DID boot up, I got that dreaded message asking if I wanted to format my card. I didn't. nope. BUT, I had cards in BOTH slots. and SOMEHOW, I have no idea why, most of my files somehow cloned themselves onto the card in slot B. And later, somehow, my card from Slot A revived itself. LUCKY ME.

 

HOWEVER, I have SEVERAL times when I had my save files deleted. Almost every time was because of my stupid little brother. See, most of this was when he was a kid, so it's kind of forgivable but still, I DON'T forgive him. somehow he got his hands on my GBA and almost all my games. Guess what the little brat did? he killed ALL my save files, even on games that had multiple saves. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF. I was halfway through Yoshi's Island, and made a SHITTON of progress on the Banjo-Kazooie game for the GBA. 

 

And there was this ONE time recently, where I had a friend over and we where testing the Steam Family thing while on MY computer, and we had Sonic Generations up... we where curious, since she was logged into her account and not mine, what would happen if she where to hit "New Game"

Aaaaaaand it killed my old save. Oops.

Good news is, I wasn't THAT upset, as I like the game enough that I'd be willing to redo it aaaaaaall over again. and she did most of the main story so I didn't have to. AND we now know that hitting "New Game" on the same computer is probably a very bad idea.

 

And while not EXACTLY the same thing, when I switched computers, I THOUGHT I had all my important files, but I somehow overlooked all my data for Stepmania. FAAAAAWWK. So I lost all my scores, and I would have lost all my songs if I hadn't saved the downloaded ones in a folder in My Documents. but DAMNIT, I was NOT looking forward to reinstalling EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM AGAIN. Uhg. 

 

Oh, and there was this one time, while this didn't happen to me, I still feel bad. I was in like, 3rd grade, and I had this cheat device for the GBA, and a buddy had a game and wanted me to help him out and use the device on his game. Did that, then OOPS, corrupted save. Though, I think it was his fault for turning it off too soon, probably because he was in a rush, but I still feel awful about it ;_;

 

 

Ruined Consoles/Games

 

Like with the Great GBA Save Wipeout, I blame my little brother for this. So, when he had my GBA, he somehow managed to bite into my GBA enough times that my screen was RUINED. Yeah it worked, but I couldn't use it for shit because I couldn't see half the damn screen. Bonus points as he killed my first ever game console. >.>

 

But that's not where it ended oh nooooooo. Sure, my GBA games where all in one piece save for the lost files, but... that didn't mean my Gamecube stuff was safe, OH NO. About the only things he didn't kill where my MMemory cards and the system itself. I lost track of just HOW many games and controllers we had to replace because he thought it was funny to chew up my shit. Eventually I resorted to taking it all to my room and keeping the brat OUT. 

 

Oh, but of course, he killed something valuble. the bonus disc that came out with early copies of Mario Kart Double Dash. Damnit, I miss that Bonus Disc, it was fun playing the demos and watching trailers and shit. OH, and my favorite controller, the Spice Orange one...

 

But that's not all. Nope. I've had at least 2 or 3 DSes commit suicide somehow... Nintendnium my right ass cheek, the hinges kept breaking. And my current Lite is on it's way out too... damnit. This is why I Do NOT take my 3ds out of the house and I am OCD levels of careful with it. It's limited edition after all, and I would hate to loose/kill it.

 

 

Stolen/Lost Games

 

Oh god, this has got to be one of the worst. It's happened SEVERAL times over my lifetime. 

 

First time was in 3rd grade I think. I went to a Christain private school, so you'd THINK this wouldn't be an issue. Now, just to be clear, we wheren't usually allowed to bring them, but we could bring them on certain occasions, like during the few days we had exams or whatever. Yeah, you'd think that'd be a time when we weren't allowed but... whatever, I guess the point was "amuse the kiddies" and on that level, I guess they where with the times. *shrug*

 

Anyways, so lalala, I brought my GBA and several games. Guess what happened? over the course of a few days quite a few of them got stolen. Sonic Advance, Sonic Advance 2, my Gameshark/AR/whatever I had, and probably some others. Well, Shit. YET ANOTHER BATCH OF GAMES TO REPLACE AKSJDLKSAJLDFKJLKJ

 

Years later, I was in... I think 7th grade? I had a buddy who mentioned that her Pokemon Diamond game got wrecked cuz it got washed. I decided to be nice and lend her my copy of Diamond till the year was over, so she could have her fix of Pokemon for a bit till she got a new copy. No loss to me, I barely did anything with Diamond, as I only got it to have extra storage. Now, I never did get it back, but that was NOT her fault. Shit happenned, and I somehow got suspended till the end of the year, and I never saw her again, and I didn't have my number, so I had no chance of getting it back. Not even the following year, as I was homeschooled then. Yeah. Oh well, at least I didn't loose anything, and I did eventually replace it... years later but whatever.

 

then, senior year, I lend out my copy of SA2b, a memory card -one that was blank of course- and a controller to someone who was my friend at the time. This time I at least had his number, so I could bug him if I wans't able to see him. Guess what though, SURPRISE SUPRISE, he never returned it, and by the year was over, I had given another friend my other copy of it. Well shit, now I have to replace that game for the third fucking time.

 

Thankfully the only friends I have IRL can be tracked down right to thier damn house, so if they pull nay funny business, I can just reclaim my shit.

 

 

=======

 

and now for some random in-game moments:

 

Having your shit get wrecked by another player in Minecraft. Thankfully, I only played with my friend, and the damage was minor, but it was still frustrating. At least she didn't destroy the shit I spent AGES making, but It did annoy me when she wrecked villages that where actually nice. >.<

 

MOTHER FUCKING NORMAN:

Good. Fucking. CHRIST. Maybe it was because I was a newbie at the time, but I am NOT looking forward to him in the Remakes.

 

For whatever reason, as I mentioned in another post, Agrabah in Kingdom Hearts Re:coded. Even worse, I don't specifically remember why.

 

Kinda in-game, kinda not:

2 shiny-related Pokemon things.

I FOUND A SHINY WURMPLE NEAR THE START OF A SAPPHIRE RUN. I was playing on an emulator. No chance of transferring it.

I CAUGHT A SHINY CUBONE AFTER 7 IN A CHAIN. I stupidly traded it for a hacked Darkrai. I still beat myself up for that stupid move.

 

IRL: I thought getting a backwards-compatible PS3 would be a good Idea, as I could play PS2 games, PS3 games, and I will definatly have the right console for Kingdom Hearts 3. Right? Kingdom Hearts 3 is PS4 only. Well shit. Thankfully I found this out before I could actually GET the system. I later got a PS2 for about 40 bucks, so I took the cheaper way out and now I can still play the PS2 games I wanted... sure, I missed out on a small handfull of Ps3 titles, but meh, I have enough games to last me for a while.

 

STEAM SALES The best and worst things ever. Good that you can get games cheap, but... NOT so good when a game you want goes on sale and you don't have enough money in the account and can't get more until sometime AFTER the sale. Then you have to wait a few months. >.>

[Celestia]

Stolen/Lost Games

Ohh, I already made my post for today but this reminded me of something I had very happily repressed. I traded my Pokemon Ruby cartridge with a classmate (I think for an older Pokemon game?) and, surprise surprise seriously he was an ass in general, never got it back! I even returned the game he traded with me...

 

Ugh. It's probably sad this is one of the clearest memories I have of middle school, but I was just so frustrated with the whole situation and at that jerk. Oh well.

[Debug Ring]

Day 11:

Bosses, hard bosses, bosses that take you time and time again to conquer... And you finally have them on low health, and they kill you just as you're about to hit them...

This has happened loads to me, most recently on my second play through of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Carnage fight, he was on very low health, and on fire, which was also depleting his health rapidly, and he grasp me and kills me straight off.. And as the screen dimmed, his health was completely gone. Of he had grabbed me a second later I'd have beaten him first go.)

When I was younger, playing bosses that used to really challenge me and killed me over and over again, when I finally got them down to little health, my heart would race as I could taste the victory... Only to be hit by a plain attack to kill me... That would seriously piss me off. There were some games I put away for months because of these situations. It's seriously terrible when a boss could have been beaten after a single hit, only for it to happen the other way around...

[JezMM]

Data corruption and not knowing what to do are definitely the absolute worst but to talk about something unique - and again for the sake of interestingness, on a favourite game of mine:

 

 

GET

 

OFF

 

OF

 

ME

 

 

When you need to get somewhere and a gaggle of common infected - or even just ONE zombie gangs up behind you and swishes their way round to your front in Left 4 Dead.  L4D2's improved AI meant they were even better at this than ever (I say improved sarcastically only in the sense that it -was- improved, which meant a harder time for survivors).  L4D1 felt like a very relaxed, stress free way to play in comparison, where the zombies are significantly less "sticky" like this.

 

But the only thing even worse than a single zombie you didn't see slowing you down out of sight, is when it's happening in an intense situation where these zombies spell the difference between life and death for you or your teammates - usually because they keep knocking your aim off something you're desperately trying to shoot - see illustrated.

 

 

 

Another more recent example for me would be on Phantasy Star Online 2.  To unlock story quests you have to do a combination of finding mini cut-scene triggers that expand the story little by little, building up to whatever goes down in the next story quest, and tracking down specific enemies to obtain an item drop from them.  Since enemy spawns are random, some can be tricky to find.  Sod's law always has it that the enemy you want just seems to never show up when you have that item drop search active.  I was looking ahead on my quest board to see what I would need to get further down the line, and remembered specifically seeing a certain enemy on a quest that I'd need later on.  When the time came, I recalled what quest it was and played it through six times and never had this enemy appear.  In the end I had to resort to asking my friend to help me do a time attack quest just for this one specific enemy, since Time Attack quests have fixed spawns.  Unfortunately the time attack also had a few bosses as fixed spawns which I just couldn't handle alone.