Accidental Hard Mode

What is this madness, I've actually thought of a thread idea?

This morning I was on the train playing Streetpass Mansion and I discovered that I could rotate the room pieces. It turns out for the past 20 or so floors I've been making the game much harder for myself. Has anyone else had anything like this, or am I just a moron?

That's superb Andy.

Will need to have a think, but the first thing that comes to my mind is going the wrong way for the first half hour of Dark Souls into the graveyard. I genuinely believed it was that ludicrously difficult - I mean, it's still difficult, but not to the point where you're dealing 10 damage on enemies with hundreds of hitpoints.

andyman949 wrote:

This morning I was on the train playing Streetpass Mansion and I discovered that I could rotate the room pieces. It turns out for the past 20 or so floors I've been making the game much harder for myself. Has anyone else had anything like this, or am I just a moron?

You can? Holy crap, I am in my 4th time through and I didn't know that - that is 190+ floors and I didn't know that. I feel like a right idiot. :homer:

I had no idea you could buy energy-replenishing potions in Shovel Knight until I'd finished it. In my youth I didn't realise the purpose of the P-Wing in Super Mario Bros. 3 for months, either (but I finished the game after finding what they were for - some of World 8 is far too hard otherwise!).

Mine is also a Dark Souls one, though slightly less extreme than Jay's: I rang the bells the other way around from almost everyone else in the world, meaning I fought through some of the hardest sections under levelled and untrained.

JayMoyles wrote:

That's superb Andy.

Will need to have a think, but the first thing that comes to my mind is going the wrong way for the first half hour of Dark Souls into the graveyard. I genuinely believed it was that ludicrously difficult - I mean, it's still difficult, but not to the point where you're dealing 10 damage on enemies with hundreds of hitpoints.

This. Still haven't actually returned to the game since I found out I was doing it wrong.

So many times I'll play through a game and never realise that stats/weapons can be upgraded. Recent example would be Last of Us. Realised you could upgrade weapons early on but was about midway through before I realised other player stats could be upgraded - stuff like health bar and the super hearing thing.

Do that kind of stuff all the time in games, if it doesn't upgrade automatically I'm bound to miss it.

I think I've picked the hardest (read as: weakest) starting weapon in Bloodborne.

Apparently they're all pretty good, so I wouldn't worry too much!

Just thought of the most insane one I ever did. I played through the entirety of Portal on a laptop with a keyboard and trackpad.

Jesus.

The first half of the game is alright, considering you don't need to co-ordinate a lot of movements, but I have no idea how you managed the whole thing.

JayMoyles wrote:

Apparently they're all pretty good, so I wouldn't worry too much!

Aye I think I was being a bit silly there looking back, it is the weakest in attack power of the starting weapons though but since I've levelled it and myself up a bit it's a lot better.

I do love the combos for it and it makes me feel like I'm playing a great 3d Castlevania game.

Ah, the cane whip! Looks great, that.

I had a think about my accidental hard mode experiences, and I can think of a few:

1) Picking Engineer for my first Mass Effect playthrough. As a beginner to the series, bad move - light armour, pistols only, pretty crappy skill tree... big mistake! The biotic classes were much more fun, and easier to play too.

2) Quite a recent one - forgetting about the spin attack in Link's Awakening for half of the game. It's ridiculously powerful, and it would have made the early game a lot simpler.

3) Relying on Sothe so heavily in the first part of Radiant Dawn, meaning I was left a stupidly underlevelled Dawn Brigade for most of the game. Oops.

JayMoyles wrote:

The first half of the game is alright, considering you don't need to co-ordinate a lot of movements, but I have no idea how you managed the whole thing.

I know, right? I was doing ludicrous finger gymnastics by the end.

Glad it's not just me OS!

I'm with you there Jay on the Fire Emblem front. I found it so easy to destroy everyone with Titania that I had a very under-leveled bunch of Mercs

Another occurrence of this from me recently would be Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires. I didn't realise I could change weapons so was still trying to kill everyone with a level one weapon whilst they had ridiculously huge health bars. Even the little dudes who normally die in one hit became a challenge...

Great topic, this, similar things have happened to me in the past, and there's nothing better than breathing that sigh of relief when you realise you were doing it wrong. Transforms the game!

More recently, I was trying to play Castlevania: Circle of the Moon without a map, making a mental map as I went along. Didn't think about using the select button for some reason...

Dead Lemon wrote:

So many times I'll play through a game and never realise that stats/weapons can be upgraded. Recent example would be Last of Us. Realised you could upgrade weapons early on but was about midway through before I realised other player stats could be upgraded - stuff like health bar and the super hearing thing.

Do that kind of stuff all the time in games, if it doesn't upgrade automatically I'm bound to miss it.

Yes, I'll do this. Especially when the functionality is hidden in dozens of menus, and doesn't generally add much. Never used the crystal-crafting nonsense in Xenoblade. Never.

This is why we need paper manuals, people! I've never accessed the built-in versions of any 3DS/WiiU ones.

Mine's also Soulsy. I went

Bastille, Black Gulch, Tseldora, Iron Keep:

and still have nightmares about the Gutter.

Majora's Mask - I didn't realise that you could just talk to the bomb shop Goron to get a Powder Keg after the first time. So, every time I wanted to go to the ranch, I took on Goht again and again.

Not hard, but "Accidental realistic mode" - in Oblivion, I forgot about the Wait button. So, when I had to meet someone at 6PM, and it was 8AM, I hung around for virtual hours.

Wow, I suck

...Spoiler fail?

Balladeer wrote:

...Spoiler fail?

Jimbob wrote:

Wow, I suck

Wow, I suck


(not even gonna edit that - that's staying there now, as a lesson to future generations)

Had a think and I really can't think of anything in till now as I'm playing Final Fantasy Type-0 HD in which you can control 1 of 14 (depending on where you are in the game) characters and have can 3 of those active at a time & when dies you can replace with one of the others.

Well up in till about Chapter 4 or 12hrs, I've mainly been using the one character to do missions & unlock trophies which are rather easy which I was surprised about as I thought they would be rather hard in a FF.

Anyway now on Chapter 6 the enemies are about level 30 with the avg of all 14 being about lvl20 and the character I used most of the time I can't use because of story reasons.

Jimbob wrote:

Not hard, but "Accidental realistic mode" - in Oblivion, I forgot about the Wait button. So, when I had to meet someone at 6PM, and it was 8AM, I hung around for virtual hours.

You were just roleplaying to the extreme, natch.

Only realised you could upgrade your kit in Splatoon's single-player campaign just before the final boss. That might have alleviated some of the frustration.

ZeroJones wrote:

Only realised you could upgrade your kit in Splatoon's single-player campaign just before the final boss. That might have alleviated some of the frustration.

I was the same, but it didn't really bother me. I think the final boss was the only level I ever died on anyway.

Drunkalilly wrote:

ZeroJones wrote:

Only realised you could upgrade your kit in Splatoon's single-player campaign just before the final boss. That might have alleviated some of the frustration.

I was the same, but it didn't really bother me. I think the final boss was the only level I ever died on anyway.

Wow! I must have had about five game over's by the time I got to the final boss. You've clearly never nudged yourself over the end of a platform into the inky depths, seven times in a row. /

ZeroJones wrote:

Wow! I must have had about five game over's by the time I got to the final boss. You've clearly never nudged yourself over the end of a platform into the inky depths, seven times in a row. /

Even in the boss fight, that is what was killing me for the most part. One or two of his attacks either knocked me back or I jumped off trying to dodge.