Games you cant complete without a guide Final Fantasy 9

Final Fantasy 9

-Excalibur 2



There is only 1 thing in the whole game that ever mentioning anything about the Excalibur 2.
First of there is never anything that would make us think that it would exist.
The strongest character in the game Steiner(The Disney character of the game), uses Excalibur as his best weapon. The Excalibur has been in several of the former games where it always have been the best sword weapon, so why would it be a better version? And as I mentioned he really does to much damage already. Why would it be a second one.

The only clue you can find, is to beat the hardest optional boss in the game, many think this is the hardest FF boss ever, its at least by far the strangest. Its a living Beach boll.

The actual battle is also complete random. And that's why its hard, it requires luck not skill to defeat. Its a pure test of masochism, trust me I know, I done it.

And to even get to ozma the player have to first beat the whole mini game  Chocobo Hot and Cold
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Chocobo_Hot_and_Cold

This mini game is split into 2 parts.

One where the player digs around on time in a contained place. After this there is another mini game.

Well the music is awesome

Where we use map parts we found at the first one to try and find items in the whole game world.
 This mini game is huge, basically its a game in its own right.

And I still remember how hard is it to find the best weapon to Zidane, the ultimate weapon, which is also the only way he becomes useful.  The image is literally just blue, its shows only water. I sat for an hour or so, going trough water of water areas in the game world. Spamming the dig command.

After this,  most likely farmed the "limit glove" the best magic for Quina or Ozma is basically impossible.

Quina is the Final Fantasy' s version of Jar jar binks. Some Star wars characters have made an appearance for example Biggs and Wegde. http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Biggs_and_Wedge.
 And Quina is famous for being Jar Jar binks, he/she is only good if used from the start of the game because he/she needs to learn the enemy spells. And the only good reason limit gloves works is because Ozma's attack(doomsday) reduces everyone to low health points, but don't kill anyone, is perfect for Quina's limit glove(deals more damage based on his/her lack of hp). So we either have to pick willingly to play the whole game with Quina(which we did not do, for obvious reason), or know how to farm the spells(which we don't know about without outside help)

OK, so if we ever beat this boss, it will drop a part of the best summon in the game(which is worthless we just beat the hardest boss). It also drops a game card. For the game's in game Tetra Master. This card is the Excalibur 2.
Yes it don't actually say anything how to get it, just that it exist.

So everything we did, the whole chobaco mini game, and power grinding up at least 4 characters. Getting their best weapons in game.

 Did not actually help us get the weapon, it just let us know we have missed the best weapon in the game.

Or one might think, wait what if we get all the cards.
Remember the part about item X leads to item Y.

The only reasonable logic from beating Ozma, is to go and beat the games other full game in game, Tetra Master. Their is 100 unique cards and we can only have 100 cards in a total. So getting every card, will unlock  the sword right.
 No actually getting every card in the game, don't give us anything at all, if the game was released today we would at least get an achievement. We don't even get the information how to get the sword.

To get it its not so hard actually, it just goes against everything the whole role playing genre is about.
Beat the game in 10 hours and you get the sword.

This is a Final fantasy game. Just reading the text of the game can take up to 10 hours. And then you have all those random encounters. You cant do any site seeing, you cant do any extra game content. Chobaco game, card game etc.

The biggest problem with this is that it goes against any basic game designer recipe for a fun game. Their is something called fun factors, http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf.
For example World of Warcraft is big on the Fellowship fun factor. Is what Blizzard would claim but its really the Submissive part that make people play it.

Final fantasy fun factors are, “Fantasy.Narrative.Expression.Discovery.Challenge.Submission”.

So by ignoring everything in the game that is supposed to be fun in the game. Narrative is a big part this has to be ignored, all other extra content is Discovery. Which we cant do either. And as I mentioned there is no logic way to ever find out how to understand where the weapon is. The weapon can only be found with out side help, as a guide.


To get this weapon is to basically not play the game. And if you get unlucky with the random encounters you have to reload, so it wont take to much time.

Games you cant complete without a guide Zelda Majora's Mask

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

Majora’s mask is the follow up to one of histories most acclaimed game, Zelda ocarina of time.
So they didn't change anything. Its the exact game, exact same game mechanics. Link got nothing new except masks. Yes a lot of, masks.

The game didn't feature much of a new world either, instead the made a small world loop. over and over again. If you have thought it would be fun to experience Groundhog day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_Day_%28film%29 or that episode of Supernatural, where what ever Sam does, Dean still dies over and over again.

But instead of your brother dieing over and over again the world is destroyed over and over again.

If there is any game that ever was repetitive this is the that game. Its the definition of doing everything over and over again.
To get this different mask, and lets be fair we don't even need the masks. Very few of them actually does anything to help save the world. 3 Mask that changes form are what matters the rest is their to provoke us to find them.
The games Interface clearly points it out that its more mask to be found. The only way is to relive the same 3 days in a city, with the exact thing happens at the exact times. And then to figure out a lot of information that happens.
The game is filled with things that are more or less impossible to figure out. And its 20 mask, and then a extra hidden mask that only is gained trough finding every mask and then beat the game to get a clear game +.

Even if you where to try and beat this game without help, the share magnitude of repetitive play would get anyone to falter.

Games you cant complete without a guide Castlevania Symphony of the night

Castlevania Symphony of the night

While I know there is a map and everything showing where we haven't been in Castlevania, its also kinda the problem. The map is is tricking the user what to expect. Still I will say this  game does it in a good way the megaman x3 was just,,,,and some games to come on this list is just bad.

The Game that kinda screws with the  users mental model.

http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/web-design-and-development/9780470084113/understanding-goal-directed-design/ch02#X2ludGVybmFsX0ZsYXNoUmVhZGVyP3htbGlkPTk3ODA0NzAwODQxMTMvMjg=

Mental model is the way, we normal people understanding things. For example  we can start a car by knowing that we can use the key to turn it on, even if we don't understand how combustion engine works.  We know that when the ending credit roles after a tv-serie, that episode is over.
Game on the other hand can trick the user with this bad and good and some times true endings.

A standard mental model of how  game works, most users have is that is ends if you have 100%(Donkey kong country did a 103%  but this game...). Many games tell the player how much of the game is left. And in game like Castlevania franchise(the newer ones) the game is focused a lot on discover hidden room = hidden items. Feeling of accomplishment in this kind of games can be to get the whole castle mapped out(Discovery fun factor).

But the game does actually end at 200%.

The user have to find everything in the game(100%) to get another game.
Of course I wouldn't just write about that, the game also have bad endings that looks like real endings, to trick the user that the game is over.
First there is  one ending that you get if you don't have anything. This ending involves killing Richter Belmont. The ending looks real and all, the games narrative have presented that Richter is the villain and everything so its not that we dident expect to kill him.

This can be avoided(which will start the second part of the game). And to get this item the player needs to complete the game to 98%.
We have to equip the Holy Glasses to free him, but just go the the holy glasses is not enough if we acquire them but not use them we get a new ending. Making some people think that's the right ending.
 Yes, just to further confuse the player the item actually creates a new ending even when not using them. Finally if all this is done(basically get each and every item in the whole game) the game world will be flipped up side down, and yes that was half the game.


Then after beating the second castle of the game. The game will end at the battle with Death.
We will get a good ending and beat the game.

 Actually no if we would have percentage greater than or equal to 196% there is another last part of the game(final last boss) and of course the true ending.
So beating the game at 195% and less is a third fake ending, but its show cased as being a good true ending. 

Have fun trying to get this ending without any help.

Games you cant complete without a guide

I started this list way back, but never had time make it as epic as I wanted, but currently I am sitting and working on design pattern for roleplaying games(my master thesis), so I decided to write some here now, who knows maybe I will get lucky and get some awesome feedback.

Premise: This is a list of games that cant be beaten without outside sources. Its not about games for example Battle Toads or F-Zero GX that are just hard, its about game content that the game never point out is there but without finding it, you wont get the full game experience

First on the entry

 Mega man x 3

-Z Saber

-The Golden Armor




To get the Z saber we have to kill Vile a secret boss with the worst weapon in game. Vile is more or less the hardest boss expect the last boss.
 Every megman game use a game mechanic where the defeated boss drops a weapon. This weapon is then good against some other boss. This is not true for the S.Blade is basically the shittiest weapon ever at any Megman game.

 Its not even good at the intended boss, the weapon shoots 2 projectile that flies less then half screen and then turn around.

Vile have to be killed by this weapon or he escapes.

If done correctly this scene will trigger.
 Their is really no reason what so ever a player would use the worst weapon against the hardest boss. Really I mean it, this weapon makes the boss near impossible. Of course you can be smart and only use it for the last hit. But why would we ever consider that?

After this Zero have to die at a bug boss at the second Doppler stage

 First problem is that Zero never gets to fight any bosses.

At the early stage of the game this seems fine as he is much more power full then Megaman, but at the Doppler stage we would potentiality have everything and the Golden armor(which I am coming to soon) and just before this boss their, is a mecha platform which only Megaman can use. So there is no reason to play Zero at this point. And having learned from earlier tries of taking him to bosses. We as the player would not waste our time to go and switch character to have him removed after 5 secs.

The only door Zero can open in the game( if Vile was killed with the S.Blade)


Golden armor:

As in any other Megaman game, their is tons of hidden stuff, extra hearths(increase life meter), Fuel tanks and armor upgrade.

We have to find each of this secret items. While some are easy some are not so easy.

An easy hearth to get.

 Others are much harder, one touch on the spikes and megaman dies regardless of health.

We also have to defeat each boss with only having 1 health point each battle.

 OK this not necessary just how I roll


The Golden armor could only be found by having every other secret in the game found, excluding the 4 extra strong bonus enchantment.

That's right the biggest problem with this one, is that to find it you cant actually take the other secrets. Which is extremely counter productive, if you spend time trying to find all the extra stuff. Why would you not pick up the best enchantment in the game.
Also the head enchantment actual bonus is that it reveals other secret items. Making it impossible to not find the other ones. Basically the only reason the helmet is in the game is to make sure you wont get golden armor.

"the exact locations of items"


It don't even end there, you can also only have 1 extra strong enchantment. So when we replay the game we of course pick up one of the other 4. Why would we just ignore them.

The head enchant, show the 4 extra enchants as ???, and other item that we have not yet found.

We even get this map for each stage. Thank you Capcom now we know we will never miss anything.

This goes against something  called, Cognitive science(many of the entries have trouble with this) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_science
In this their something called Cognitive process. http://library.thinkquest.org/26618/en-5_INTRODUCTIE.htm

The problem the game faces is that basically a human that plays Megman learns that by finding more items such as the air dash. They can now reach other places. The mind then picture:
X item leads to Y item.

 For example this heart is acquired by having the secret weapon upgrade and the thunder weapon.

But in this game the player have to find item A-S but not T-W

This pink capsule, if used will remove the golden armor. Thing is that this capsule can only be reached by using the "submarinemecha" and the submarinemecha only usage in the game is to get this capsule.
 Also the upgrade is leg enchant which gives us the double air dash. This is like going from driving an old Volvo to a brand new Ferrari.
 Not only does the double air dash makes every boss really easy, its especially good for finding more items and flying trough the stages.

 So our mind will be set on that this item is:
 1 Hard to find we need item A-B-G to get it, G's only meaning is to get this item. So item most be good.
 2. This item H, is so good it let us find almost every other item in the game now really easy.
 Conclusion - Always get Item H fast as possible.
 Similar to when playing Megaman x1, people always start at the ice stage because that stage had the dash enchant.

Also at the end, Once you've got everything, enter Doppler's Fortress.

And find this hidden space.

Then go in here, to find nothing. We also need to be at full energy for the capsule to appear. Meaning if you take any damage(this could be healed) you wont see it.
So even if the other requirements of  finding the right items would be fulfilled.
 You would still  miss it.

Pseudo Interaction part 2

The newly released ff13-2(I been playing it non stop for 3 days now). Features a new non linear exploration. Or does it.

Probably from all the anti hype of ff13, that it was too linear(it was less linear then ff10). Squre enix decide to make the second really not linear, having the user jump trough time itno different places picking their on path.

Problem is,,, its a psuedo interaction, not every time. But for example this images, show when ther user has his/her first path choice after clearing bresha ruins the user can go to eitehr Yaschas massif(10 af) or Sunleth Waterscape, the Sunleth place simply features a to hard of a boss, a boss taht cant be beat if the use dont do otehr stuff first(or level like insane).
 While this is nothing new, that a user has to go to point A before point B, I am merely pointing so far for me the game feel as linear as ff13 as I cant really decide if  I want to start with A or B. I have to go to A first.
My point is the first choice of direction the user can take is not actually existing, Pseudo interaction.