Today I found out something very disturbing...

[ASlimeDrawsNear]

LOCK does nothing. Any other blind gaming mistakes you made and didn't learn about until much later? I swear, I cast this and the other broken spells so many times. I hope I'm not only the one to do anything this idiotic for an extended period of time.

[Bifrost]

For the longest time, i thought Ghosts were weak to Psychic-type moves.

Misdreavus confused the hell out of me, as you could imagine (note that I thought this until i actually encountered a Misdreavus, if not later, so I was quite far into Silver before being disillusioned).

Also in Pokemon, in Yellow I tried for the longest time to get the Missingno. trick to work, not realizing until much, much, much later that it had been removed for that version. I just thought that i was doing it wrong and decided to play around in Glitch City until I got bored. :B

And in Ocarina of Time I messed up the room order in the Water Temple*. I had NO IDEA what I did and ran around in circles for days on end until I gave up and made a new file (and promptly gave up again because UP YOURS GANON'S CASTLE).

*For those who have never had the misfortune of encountering this, the Water Temple is terribly designed and you have to take a certain path through it, because otherwise you will not have enough keys to proceed. Way to playtest, Nintendo. :|

[Pip Boy]

How do you "promptly give up" on the last dungeon?

[bluestarultor]

LOCK does nothing. Any other blind gaming mistakes you made and didn't learn about until much later? I swear, I cast this and the other broken spells so many times. I hope I'm not only the one to do anything this idiotic for an extended period of time.

Are you playing the NES version? Because, yeah, LOCK does nothing, and LOK2 actually RAISES enemy evasion. Also, weapon elements are broken, AMUT is a useless spell because no enemy casts MUTE on you, and running isn't implemented correctly.

FF1NES was buggy as all fuck.

[Bifrost]

How do you "promptly give up" on the last dungeon?

In the magic way only a very determined teenager with ADHD can.

Also I thought it sounded funnier, and I DID give up at... pretty much the first puzzle I encountered there, because I had no clue where the fire arrows were at the time. /derp So it was prompt as far as the dungeon itself went.

[Loyal]

For the longest time, i thought Ghosts were weak to Psychic-type moves.To be fair, due to a bug (or at least due to the only Ghost types being also being part Poison), they WERE weak to psychics in RGB. Similarly, what few Ghost attacks they had available did nothing to Psychics.

So this isn't your fault, really.

[bluestarultor]

To be fair, due to a bug (or at least due to the only Ghost types being also being part Poison), they WERE weak to psychics in RGB. Similarly, what few Ghost attacks they had available did nothing to Psychics.

So this isn't your fault, really.

Yeah, they were given the Poison sub-type specifically to give them a weakness. Ghost type was otherwise only weak to itself. That's basically why Dark type was created.

[Aerozord]

in yellow they made psychics weak to ghost attacks, but ghosts, and dragons, at the time all their attacks did set damage so it was pointless.

As for me, and speaking of final fantasy. I used to never understand why my status inducing effects always failed against bosses, until I used scan on a few and learned they were immune to them all.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

in yellow they made psychics weak to ghost attacks, but ghosts, and dragons, at the time all their attacks did set damage so it was pointless.

As for me, and speaking of final fantasy. I used to never understand why my status inducing effects always failed against bosses, until I used scan on a few and learned they were immune to them all.

Bosses usually tend to be immune to most/all stat damage. It's so common in JRPGs it's almost a standard.

[Bells]

Yes, because we all know that Status magic (or "Green Magic" if you want to get nerdy) is useless and in most games it's there just for show as you waste one turn making the enemy weaker so you can cause more damage while you could've used that turn to heal yourself or cause -more damage-

[Aerozord]

thats why it confused me, only enemies you'd want to use it on would be bosses since the fight would last long enough for it to matter. So of course I assumed thats what it was there for since there was no other use

[bluestarultor]

Yes, because we all know that Status magic (or "Green Magic" if you want to get nerdy) is useless and in most games it's there just for show as you waste one turn making the enemy weaker so you can cause more damage while you could've used that turn to heal yourself or cause -more damage-

Green Magic is an abomination upon man and should never be recognized.

Status spells in Black, White, Time, Sword, Summon, and Blue magic are hunky-dory.



For my own part, Icicle Inn in FF7. That area is nothing short of terrible and the map making you rely on vague landmarks instead of an explicit marker led to a lot of running in circles. The fact that Alexander was impossible to find didn't help much. In fact I think the path getting to the cave where you get it is one-way out in the sensible portion of the area, forcing you to go to the empty field and run to the right from the "top" of it. The only way I managed to get Alexander was to run around on the ice until Cloud slipped/passed out/whatever (I never could quite figure it out and it only ever seemed to happen on a specific patch of black ice dominating one screen), then make my way to the cave by using the cabin as a starting point. Then to get back to the cabin I just ran around until I found the ice screen again to save myself the hassle of the snow field.



Edit:

thats why it confused me, only enemies you'd want to use it on would be bosses since the fight would last long enough for it to matter. So of course I assumed thats what it was there for since there was no other use

To be fair, FF7 made Bio actually do okay enough damage to justify using it once you had the MP to prop up its higher cost. Also, the Contain Materia is pretty awesome.

[Tev]

Bosses usually tend to be immune to most/all stat damage. It's so common in JRPGs it's almost a standard.Except for the Doom Train. We all know Phoenix Downs work on that boss.

[bluestarultor]

Except for the Doom Train. We all know Phoenix Downs work on that boss.

I thought you meant the GF at first.

Speaking of, FF8's Doomtrain GF is easily the most useful in the game. The damage isn't great, but it attempts to slap every negative status in the game on the enemy, which includes Vit 0 (http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Vit_0), which every enemy in the game is susceptible to. Even bosses! So casting Meltdown or Doomtrain on a boss completely wipes out said boss' physical and magic defenses.

[Flarecobra]

And statuses seem to become incredably useful in FF4DS... Slow was quite wonderful to use agenst the Demon Wall.

[Amake]

It's more of a rule than an exception that undead bosses can be revived to death. Even with the cheaper items that cure zombie status.

Mistakes I have made: In Warcraft 2, continue building Grunts/Footmen after the upgraded versions become available, "because they're cheaper". Also using Death Knight mana for skeletons.

In Diablo 2, put two skill points in Blessed Aim once.

In Sonic 1, 2 and 3, keep exploring levels until time runs out. I still do that.

And trying to beat Street Fighter 2 TWW with Zangief. Actually it worked, but it took about 120 rematches. 90+ of which against Vega.

[greed]

My big error I can remember is not knowing how to use Ellie's water powers in DKC3. This made several levels ridiculously hard and the boss where they're necessary a impassable wall until I called the Nintendo Hotline(remember that? this was before GameFAQs) and found out I should actually read the boring part of the manual instead of just skipping to the funny parts with Cranky and the character/enemy descriptions.

And statuses seem to become incredably useful in FF4DS... Slow was quite wonderful to use agenst the Demon Wall.

And stat effecting things (though not status) are so important in the SMT games that getting anywhere in the games without mastering them pretty much requires absurd overleveling. Something I learned the hard way the first time I played SMT: Nocturne. They're decently useful, though not necessary in the Shadow Hearts games too.

Status effect and stat buffs/debuffs are also really critical in Pokemon. They're the only three RPGs I can think of where they're actually useful though.

[Ryong]

Wasn't there a boss in FFX that was undead and had 19998 HP? As in, use two phoenix downs in a row to kill it?

[Melfice]

Wasn't there a boss in FFX that was undead and had 19998 HP? As in, use two phoenix downs in a row to kill it?

Yup.
The dragon you killed on your way to crashing the wedding showed up in the Via Purifico (I think?) and is quite a bitch (if I remember correctly). Unless you use those healing items.

[CelesJessa]

Wasn't there a boss in FFX that was undead and had 19998 HP? As in, use two phoenix downs in a row to kill it?

Also you could cast Zombie on Braska's Final Aeon and (if I remember right) Yu Yevon too.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

And trying to beat Street Fighter 2 TWW with Zangief. Actually it worked, but it took about 120 rematches. 90+ of which against Vega.

I remember Zangief being an absolute beast against the computer... Spinning Lariat made him pretty much invincible, if they get close you drop a low kick, if they block you drop the spinning piledriver or they get hit.

[Kerensky287]

Yes, because we all know that Status magic (or "Green Magic" if you want to get nerdy) is useless

Not in FF13! Sab/Sab/Syn to victory.


On-topic, some of my favorite self-quotations from various games:

"You can FLY in Kirby's Dreamland?!"

"You can crouch in Call of Duty?!"

"Reavers have to build scarabs to attack in Starcraft?!"

(These were all a while ago, but they were still some time after I started playing them.)

[Menarker]

Also you could cast Zombie on Braska's Final Aeon and (if I remember right) Yu Yevon too.

I don't recall Yu Yevon being vulnerable to Zombie, but I know he was weak to the Doom spell or rather the candle item that cast doom. So you cast that on him and live for 3 turns, and he's dead.

[Amake]

I remember Zangief being an absolute beast against the computer... Spinning Lariat made him pretty much invincible, if they get close you drop a low kick, if they block you drop the spinning piledriver or they get hit. Guess I should have practiced the spinning piledriver. But try a lariat against Vega and he'll have time to kick you in the head AND the legs before you can move.