7 Games That Rewarded You for Failure

[@thegamingbadger5940]

In Stardew Valley, at the Autumn Fair, you can participate in a game of strength, by pressing a button at the right time while a gauge fills up. You get gold by pressing when the gauge is the fullest, but also when it is completely empty, because the game-owner is “impressed by how weak you are”.

[@avereynakama9854]

I never knew that! Course, I also rarely do that strength game, but that's still a cool little thing.

[@chrayez]

That’s an interesting one, because it’s technically failing in-universe, but in reality it’s just giving an alternate win condition that’s exactly as difficult as the original

[@kevintrang6447]

One fair point lol

[@Mewkityy]

​@@chrayezaren't all outcomes equally as difficult to achieve?

[@PristianoPenaldoSUIIII]

Disco Elysium! One of the early rolls you can attempt is to try and slip away from the cafe manager when he brings up your bill. If you fail, you run away, do a 180 mid-air double middle finger at him, and catastrophically crash into an old lady in a wheelchair. The cafe manager feels bad and reduces the bill

[@Shiestey]

Lmfaooo that is great

[@medusathedecepticon]

Poor old lady. Funny event though

[@TheRealBFKelleher]

you can actually get a much lower bill if you hang around and act like you don't owe squat, passing an authority roll. The bill can go down to 30 real.

[@ka-mai]

Almost every failure in DE is beneficial in some way (or at least very funny).

[@JohnQ5]

My favorite failure early in DE is turning on the light and causing your own end because the light causes your legendary hangover to finish you off.

[@DigidesteinedSayian]

In Shin Megami Tensei IV, you unlock easy mode by dying twice. You come back to life because you're bribing Charon the riverman; since so many people died at once in the backstory, he's still processing them, so he'll let your death slide if it means less paperwork. The second time you die, his assistants let you use easy mode so you'll make less work for them.

[@seeleyboothfan2]

That's awesome. I love when they take things like that and make the explanation part of the game canon

[@Roadburner4]

That’s hilarious you get to dodge death because it means less paperwork for the ferryman!

[@jaredcrabb]

Ninja Gaiden Black you unlock Ninja Dog mode by dying 3 times in the first level.

[@karlthorkildson4650]

Though it takes a lot of ingame money, when items, equipment and resummoning demons also takes a lot. Or a lot of 3DS Play Coins (the maximum daily amount one can collect by walking around with it).

[@TheGarfield0]

​@@karlthorkildson4650 You can also just save regularly and reload, as 4 doesn't use Save Points

[@zulubunsen9067]

The Temmie Armor in Undertale. While it's not rewarded as such, its initial eyewatering price of 9999 gold gets reduced if you die a lot, down to a minimum of 750 gold after 25 deaths. It does trivialize combat quite a lot though.

[@elstarnor4628]

I took it off a couple of times because it made it a bit "too easy"

[@solarcookie3073]

This was the first thing I thought of when I saw this video

[@Anonymousrando-uz9sn]

I did the exact opposite of that to get the armor. I grinded money from sparing enemies. I did really well against Flowey and Asriel that playthrough. 99% sure it was 50% the grinding, 50% luck with panicked dodging.

[@aliceg3184]

Kiryu absolutely no-selling getting smashed across the back of the head with a bottle is one of my favorite moments in the entire Yakuza series, so I'm beyond pleased that you chose to highlight it in this video. Thank you for that. :D

[@finnover9781]

Wait, if I successfully watch this video, does that mean I *don't* get a reward?

[@Cudddlefish]

Yeah. I only liked the video without watching it, and I got a free car.

[@sawion]

That's an example of unrewarded failure

[@arctic9725]

If you fail to finish the video... GOOD NEWS you get rewarded with more video to watch 😁

[@DrownInLysergic]

No soup for you

[@therealfriday13th]

That's why you quit out at the "thanks for watching" part. You won't get that "skip to the top three" option that all the speed watching routes use otherwise.

[@wolftuxedo4301]

In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky, after you join Wigglytuff's Guild and you fail the first mission you get afterwards multiple times, Wigglytuff will give you a bunch of helpful items and tell you to keep trying your best.

[@dweebicusmaximus]

Omg really? I’ve played this game so many times and I had no idea

[@joanaguayoplanell4912]

​@@dweebicusmaximus it doesn't even show up on official guides. Mainly because the first mission is so easy, you have to go out of your way to actually loose on it.

[@deGoomyan5538]

!! I’ve played this game to the point i play it modded, i never knew this!

[@Gryphonzwing]

I love Pokémon Mystery Dungeon.

[@Smartie234]

That's awesome! I didn't know that. I search for it online and Bulbapedia confirmed that you get a reviver seed, oran berry and max elixer if you fail the Drenched Bluff mission twice

[@averyjoffe5460]

I'm really surprised Disco Elysium isn't on here -- the game where failing to run away gets you a hotel bill discount and failing to listen to the city gets you an entire bonus task complete with radio DJs and free blinky sneakers.

[@Mulbert]

I just started playing it last night and I love it! The weird humour reminds me of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy text game

[@franck3279]

I get it. There’s a huge risk of unbalancing the game, but in a single player context, keeping the game entertaining for both good and bad players can be better than fairness.

[@yeshua7238]

I was amazed when I failed a check in Disco Elysium to come up with a startup pitch that was doomed to fail and the game told me “Congratulations, you have failed at failing, which means you’ve succeeded?” and I instantly became a high net worth individual

[@dallydaydream]

I absolutely refuse to shut up about the reward for being bad at Undertale: the Temmie Armour. Its initial price is 9999g, but the price goes down every time you get killed. I died so much in that game that I got it for its lowest price, 750g, and I take an absurd sort of pride in that. -The amazing discount fills me with determination-

[@normalhuman9878]

I remember purposefully dying as I trudged back and forth from the Turtle shop to sell cloudy glasses. Getting more money as I lowered the price

[@zulubunsen9067]

My target was to buy it when I hit the 25 deaths. I think I got up to 23 when I finally managed to beat it. I still think combat is a bit too b.s. in that game, but everything else is just so good it more than compensates for it.

[@Wildfire9002]

I knew I wasn’t the only one probably a good thing it’s not in the genoside route

[@drawingdragon]

I love how almost every single OutsideXtra "7 games" video prompt can somehow be applied to Undertale. It's actually fun reading the title before watching and guessing if Undertale will be mentioned. "7 games that reward you for failing" Temmie Armor price drop "7 games that threatened to delete your save file" Flowey crashing your game and giving you a false "reset" as if he's taken over your save file "7 bosses immediately killed by a much scarier boss" Technically Asgore and Flowey, albeit with some specific conditions and delay. "7 genius ways video games kept you from escaping." I guess not technically genius, but the death forcefields put up around Mettaton's puzzles are addressed in game as if they belong there - also character literally can't leave the Underground because of the Barrier, hence the game happening Some are a bit of a stretch but no joke, almost every single one fits somehow

[@dallydaydream]

@@drawingdragon I suppose when a game sets out to deconstruct video game tropes, it's bound to invoke a few of them!

[@frodobaggins7710]

I actually managed to get the H ending for Nier: Automata by accident because I thought going back through the amusement park was the correct way to go

[@butwhataboutdragons7768]

Also in the beginning while playing as 9S in that factory area it's very easy to run the wrong way and get abruptly thrown into the credits! That's at least a fourth failure ending.

[@katier9725]

It gets better. You can get an ending for being a coward yet again once you try to enter the massive tower. Being overwhelmed by robots, you suddenly get unexpected help from two androids and... then you can bugger off and leave them to die. Yeah, Taro is a weird man.

[@KassandraOdessa-i5z]

You forgot eating a fish

[@natecunha2795]

The most frustrating thing about the Infinite Ammo bandana as a "reward" is that it doesn't even eliminate the need to reload, so in the few scenes in the game where it's actually useful to be shooting a lot you still have to pause every few seconds...

[@EclipsisTenebris]

It's still nice... Infinite rocket launcher is pretty neat against the Hind D... and Wolf.

[@veeng5619]

Skill issue

[@Thelisreal-sh3tz]

I remember in mgs2 you can quickly unequip a weapon and re equip it to insta reload

[@natecunha2795]

@Thelisreal2401 Works in MSG3 too, very useful with rockets.

[@natecunha2795]

@@veeng5619 How so?

[@AmeenaWordweaver]

I never got it myself, but I understand that in the first Oddworld game, Abe's Oddysee, if you kill/fail to rescue pretty much all of your 99 fellow mudokons, you get the bad ending (of course) but in your next playthrough are rewarded by starting with infinite grenades.

[@kamo7293]

oh wow. you'd have to go out of your way to fail to rescue ALL of them.

[@herbsandlemons]

@@kamo7293 I'm pretty sure, if I remember right, its a percentage like less than 30 percent/or a specific # of them and you get the bad ending.

[@AmeenaWordweaver]

@@kamo7293 I don't think it's possible to lose all 99, since there are at least two occasions I can think of where you have to save a couple, both times to get your Shrykull powerup - once after getting both hand-scars from Paramonia/Scrabania in order to get past the screenful of stuff blocking your way, and again right at the end of the game. Outside of that, though, I think it's possible to get most of the others killed, or at least just not bother saving them.

[@ChristyTina22]

There's a section in Okami, where you have to race Tobi, or Scrap as Issun calls him, a demon possessed sealing talisman. One section of the race has Ammy jumping from platform to platform over a pit of spikes. If you fail, more platforms appear. Fail enough times and a full path appears.

[@djlamar2]

I know of one game. "Henry Stickman collection". That game is all about references but the main thing about it is the failures. Seriously there are so many and they reward you for finding them by in game achievements and besides what happens to Henry is so funny that just seeing them is reward enough XD

[@dakzibbon6589]

The real challenge is to know the game so well, to get every fail exactly once

[@azuredragoon2054]

There's one more abandonment ending in Nier: Automata where you start as 9S and are supposed to get into the fancy jet pack to save 2B. Instead, if you walk away, you'll get an ending about studying the machines being more interesting.

[@katier9725]

It's also possible to try to enter the giant tower, then cowardly run away once help shows off and leaving them to die. Or killing an entire village's worth of friendly robots. Or... failing to realise that eating overly oily fish, ripping out your own OS chip, or causing an explosion on a space station are all really, really dumb things to do.

[@cameronspeed6358]

I'm surprised that you forgot about the Crash Bandicoot method of failing. If you die so many times in one level or the same portion of the level, you will be given a "Pity Mask"

[@sfsin3380]

and if you still keep dying two pity masks and if still still you keep dying a pity check point

[@MrZer093]

In some of the early Yugioh games, you could unlock Mokuba as an opponent by losing a bunch of duels in a row. He’s supposed to be a pity reward as he is by far the worst AI in the game so you could farm rewards from him to do better against better duelists. Also, in the Disgaea series, in most games there’s a boss where if you lose against them, it counts as an ending. It’s usually the recurring and goofy boss they have you fight a bunch in any given game

[@0PercentImagination]

I remember at least one Yugioh game, namely Worldwide Edition on the GBA, would do the opposite where Mokuba and Yugi Muto would already be playable but winning too much against them there'd be a good chance that Seto Kaiba or Yami Yugi would hi-jack the next time you challenge them to kick your ass.

[@faylinnmystiquerose2224]

Then there's the first fight with Etna in Disgaea 2...you're supposed to lose to continue the story, but if you manage to defeat her, you get the Demon lord ending.

[@Trixbeat]

Disgaea is particularly rewarding, unlocking a powerful playable character by failing an early presumably easy level.

[@Airlord3670]

@@0PercentImagination Yeah, I was super bad at that game to start (it used the actual rules of the game instead of season 1 of the anime, mindblowing!) and at least once I remember losing to Mokuba and the game seeming genuinely surprised. Didn’t realise that was the reason behind the random switch outs though!

[@iateitguy903]

@@0PercentImagination YES! I remember this one and was about to comment on it before I saw yours! I think you had to beat poor Mokuba something like 30 times before Kaiba comes to kick your ass. Found out because I'd use him to get basically free packs.

[@tomtitherington]

Andy says it's OK to give up. My childhood feels validated

[@azuredragoon2054]

I have to add Blasphemous here, if only because it gives you a chance to unlock the true ending of the game. One of the requirements of this true ending involves transforming a bead so you can unlock special arenas. In order to transform the bead, though, it must be equipped while you die. Die three times with the bead equipped, and then you're free to take part in the arenas that lead to your final penitence.

[@Finzombie]

7 games that reward you for failures *Every rogue-like ever*

[@jjtomecek1623]

That's a rogue-lite technically

[@Finzombie]

Except for the ones that reward you with information and learning from your mistakes, which is why I said rogue-likes.

[@Orange_Swirl]

Come on guys...you're both right.

[@Elementroar]

Disco Elysium allows you to fail into new solutions. One standout for me was when I tried to run away from paying my room tab. I failed the dice roll so spectacularly that the bartender took pity on me cos my detective managed to run into a wall and possibly started crying while collapsed on the ground.

[@blockeontheleafeon]

I find these kinds of achievements cool. Especially if it's one of those "Die at the VERY end of a level" achievements that most people would miss because they're somewhat competent at the game. Great stuff.

[@MrMBinder]

6:54 - I've gotten a lot of the endings in Nier:Automata by pure accident. Like just stacking it off an edge somewhere right at the beginning while playing as 9S 😂

[@butwhataboutdragons7768]

Yeah, if I'm thinking of the same ending, that's at least a fourth one. Maybe more, it's a difficult game to 100% complete! I too got that one by accident, just going the wrong way is enough, and it's easy to get turned around in that section.

[@user-wj6eq1cx7x]

Yeah there's an ending you can get by self destructing in your headquarters. I thought it would be funny but didn't know it was an ending lol

[@dr.bright6272]

In the first Titanfall there were certain badges for your suit you could only get if you failed to bait out of your suit a certain amount of times.

[@PippaPasses]

The pride of every pilot, Flame Skull

[@JevinJohnson-CloudShift]

My first thought is Tony Hawk: American Wasteland. If you crashed real hard, you could button mash Y to get angry, and you were treated with a cool cutscene of your character throwing/smashing their boards in various ways. I remember bailing repeatedly in order to see all of the different cutscenes.

[@DerpityDerpz1]

Oh I remember that in another Tony Hawk game I played. Was it called the Freak Out?

[@sufficientframe]

The Otacon ending (failing the torture) is also much more rewarding in itself, as I have always been a fan of OtaSnake as a couple dynamic.

[@kingspilly4381]

In Undertale, the price of Temmie Armor, the best armor in the game, goes down every time you die.

[@Brasc]

Shenmue 2, where you go to Zhangyu Barber Shop to learn about the wude, the proprieter offers Ryo a trim and proceeds to wield a straight razor in a semi-threatening manner. Then, in this game filled with QTEs, he holds the razor to Ryo's throat and another QTE activates. But what you have to do is actually... nothing. Don't rise to the QTE and deliberately fail it (with the additional clue in that Zhangyu warns you not to do anything just before he places the razor at your throat) and you succeed in impressing Zhangyu enough to get the information you came there for and proceed onward. Rise to it, he kicks you out of the shop and you have to try again the next game day.

[@kyuubinaruto17]

This is the thumbnail for another of their videos "7 Coolest QTEs that Justified the Existence of Quick Time Events" This wouldn't count because it's not a "reward" for failure. It's the intended solution. You're not getting anything for "failing" except making progress in the story.

[@waterinmyotter6245]

1:35 I don’t know why, but that hard cut from Meryl to Otacon had me in stitches 😂

[@randomstuff-qu7sh]

I can't remember which Super Mario game it was, but being as I really suck at platforming games, I discovered that if you die a lot, the game gives you a golden Tanuki suit. Its a fun power up to play around with, but not enough to keep me from dying since invincibility doesn't actually protect against falling and certain stage hazards.

[@mm3shadowman982]

Super Mario 3D Land might have been the one you are thinking about, but there are a few variants, like in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, you can get a Super Luigi guide by failing enough times.

[@lugismansion2400]

@@mm3shadowman982 it also appears in New Super Mario Bros 2, and Super Mario 3d World and I think New Super Mario Bros 2 was where this special leaf first appeared in

[@druman890]

The armored core one got me into a fight with a friend when I was a kid. We would share our mech builds that we liked and when I tried to use his setup he swore by I kept getting the overweight capacity so I was convinced he was a liar. Turns out that since I would restart the game from my last save any time I didn't do well on a mission I missed out on easy mode.

[@mistermann4163]

I did that as well over the fact that I hated seeing how many missions I lost. Half because of the controls(I only found about this series in 2016 so I never grew up with it and nearly have the whole collection) and half because of how vague the mission descriptions are whit what you will be encountering. But knowing this, I recall that one part of the games narrative talks about this and that pilots are plugged into there mechs permanently. So yeah you've lost your humanity for losing so much as a result.

[@LairdDeimos]

I thought the game saved at the beginning of missions, so it would detect restarts.

[@druman890]

@@LairdDeimos Maybe later games but ps1 didn't and I'm pretty sure most ps2 games did not as well since they both used memory cards with limited space. After checking the wiki page I'm pretty sure it is Armored Core 2 I am thinking of.

[@LairdDeimos]

@@druman890 Could have sworn one of them was one save file per campaign, saves over itself.

[@EatWave]

In Chrono Cross, the only way to unlock all of the playable characters is to experience every story path hence one needs to occasionally fail certain encounters or allow a person who could have been saved to be doomed or even just refuse to recruit the party member who keeps insisting upon joining the party every time that she does so, granting the ability to swap out characters from contradictory story paths at the same time in future playthroughs.

[@HylianFox3]

Here's a classic: if you fail to locate the X Buster upgrade Zero will give you his far superior Z Buster near the end of the game.

[@jimwormmaster]

In Shadows Over Loathing, if you lose a fight, you get a buff to make subsequent fights easier. And said buffs stack. So it's quite possible to beat a hard boss by simply beating your head up against it until you get enough buffs that you beat it (though said fight loss buffs are limited).

[@Aereto]

West of Loathing also has that via Anger buff caused by losses, which will be lost if stacked too high and counts as a sleep, losing other buffs in the process.

[@Michael_Lindell]

Rewards for failure? Who do you think we are, corporate CEOs?

[@HylianFox3]

"Let's give ourselves huge bonuses while laying off 80% of the staff!"

[@hyrulianguardlyfe3952]

I feel the chicken hat from Metal Gear:Phantom Pain for failing a misson multiple times definitely fits in this catagory

[@kennysalty6019]

Metal Gear Solid V's Chicken Hat. It's like the stealth camo from the original game, except it also makes you look extremely silly by being a big mean military operative wearing a chicken hat. So win win, and all for dying to the same enemy a few times in a row. Or you can turn it on in the options menu, but the game prompts you to put it on after dying a few times to the same guy.

[@edmardisla8492]

A certain flash game called Bomber At War 2: Battle For Resources literally has an achievement (divided into bronze, silver and gold) for crashing against the enemy targets to finish the missions. This can be exploited by dying over and over a total of six times in the first level to get 20k total cash, which at the beginning of the game is OP, considering the best non-tracking weapon in the game is worth 19800 cash.

[@shadedergu9921]

Have not watched yet But Disco Elysium should be here, or in the commenter edition if not. The game creates questlines around failure and was intended for failing, like, as in a core pillar of its design was that the player will fail and to reward failure with whacky sidequests and fun moments

[@lordnul1708]

Funny part about that last joke with Kiryu, the other guy got hit with a full bottle while the one that Kiryu was shown being hit with was clearly empty. Just an interesting detail...

[@SingingSpock]

I kinda like the pity Final Smash concept. It isn’t going to make a bad player win, but it’ll make them into a more interesting obstacle for the actual competition

[@Gonnluv]

If you've ever played any of the King of Fighters games (or any SNK fighting game for that matter), you should be accostumed with the Continue Service system that those games have. Whenever you lose a game in arcade mode, your points are reset to 0, but if you choose to continue, you are given 4 options: The opponent starts only at 25% health; Start with your whole meter gauge full; Have your meter charge passively (even during intros and special animations); or No Service. Besides bragging rights, there is no penalty for choosing anything other than No Service, and while these buffs are all ludicrously powerful, if you've ever played against an SNK boss before, you'll be thankful that they give you the option.

[@biohazard724]

I want to set fire to Igniz's cloak.

[@tazy97]

Mario kart. If your death last you got all the best power ups and if your in first place you’ll just keep getting nothing but bananas.

[@HylianFox3]

It's like the Pity Smashes. You're so far behind all the mushrooms and stars in world likely won't help. And the blue shell only serves to help those in 2nd and 3rd place, not you.

[@dakzibbon6589]

@@HylianFox3 Also, Stars don't grant invulnerability from falling off the road

[@therockhova21]

Definitely have to include kingdom hearts. When you die, you get to clean up the rest of the villains as mickey, whose moveset is way better than sora

[@Nolascana]

Which KH was that by the way. 2? I just remember having to continue and wanting to throw my controller through the TV as there was usually an unskippable cutscene in KH1

[@therockhova21]

@Nolascana yea i believe it started in KH2. When you died and selected I won't give up, mickey would pop in as a playable character.

[@Nolascana]

@@therockhova21 ah, neat! I vaguely remember something about that. I think I used to over grind in KH2 or something, losses in the colluseums wouldn't count I imagine xD

[@pockylovingranger]

The dance numbers at the end of the Bayonetta trilogy are a god damn masterpiece IMO xD

[@michaelandreipalon359]

Duology, in my opinion.

[@pockylovingranger]

@@michaelandreipalon359 It’s a trilogy >_>

[@michaelandreipalon359]

@@pockylovingranger The third game is a bit too... rough for me and others to like it as much as the previous two installments, sorry.

[@carefreedude1431]

In punch out for the wii, if the player reaches 100 losses, Little Mac is awarded with an optional headgear to reduce damage taken, making the fights easier. This is probably in reference to Glass Joe's title defense match where Little Mac gives him his 100th loss and his doctor makes him where headgear to continue to compete.

[@Ezrumas]

What about F-Zero X? The slot machine mini game in multi-player let you reduce your opponents energy, at the small cost of you dying.

[@amara889]

What about the Temmie Armor from Undertale? This incredible armor starts out prohibitively expensive, but the price gets reduced each time you die :)

[@frozenover_exe]

The Tem Armour in Undertale comes to mind. You have to pay a joke shopkeeper’s entire college tuition just for the ability to buy it, but it’s sarcastically expensive until you die a couple times. I spent a good couple hours grinding for it in a deathless run for the lolz. Never again

[@dakzibbon6589]

And yet, I made a full deathless pacifist without it (excluding final battle, where it doesn't close the line, but instead rerolls 2 waves back)

[@frozenover_exe]

@@dakzibbon6589 Lmao that’s better than me at least. I had an actual chance to do that fight without running out of hp but I entered phase 2 with 1hp because of… that attack

[@dakzibbon6589]

@@frozenover_exe I remember that I dodged that attack fully few times Granted, no matter how hard you get hit in that, you end up with 1 HP, so if you dodge it all, you are left with whatever HP you put in

[@darkfalcon7856]

In order to get all of the Human Plus bonuses in Armored Core 1-3 (which, effectively, went away in 4), you needed to hit -50k credits 6-7 times.

[@gryphose1849]

Only 1 and 2 had Human Plus. 3 gave us OP-Intensify, which did the same, but takes up all your option slots and in order to unlock it's functions you have to do certain missions in certain ways. Also: Only the first game in the 1st and 2nd gen AC's could you even get human plus naturally. In order to have it in other games in the same gen, you'd have to import your save with said boosts to said games. (3rd gen had a way with...I think it was just the 2nd game, could be wrong, to obtain a fully upgraded OP-Intensify.) Also to add: Afaik, Remove Weight Limit was only in AC2: Another Age, and you had to defeat Seraph 9-Ball to enable it. Which is funny, since in AA he can be cheesed pretty badly by boosting up and down at a wall and shooting at him with large rockets whenever he boosts under you, since his AI is always trying to get behind you as well as blade you.

[@chimericalical]

There’s the Golden raccoon suit in Mario 3D World and Land. And if you’re going to include pity final smashes there’s also every comeback mechanic ever in fighting games Ultra Combos in SF4, X factor level 2 and 3 in UMvC3, Burst level 2 and 3 in DBFZ, Fatal Blow in MK11, etc where you don’t have access to these powerful attacks and enhancements until you’ve taken enough damage or enough characters on your team have died (not to mention the various attacks in DBFZ that are more damaging the more people on your team are dead).

[@eviljef]

Thank you. I knew someone had to mention the golden tanuki suit from 3D World! I was expecting it to be on the list.

[@mattball8622]

Alundra is one of those games that's mentioned so infrequently I have to keep reminding myself it wasn't a fever dream. Alundra also slaps. Please play Alundra so I'm not over here in a lonely corner.

[@Dusty_B]

Alundra is fantastic. I dunno where they got that it plays like Chrono Trigger because that couldn’t be further from the truth.

[@cadenpozzy2456]

Hades is another fun example. After a few deaths you unlock 'God Mode', where after each death you get a few percent more damage resistance. You can become pretty much unkillable

[@shadexvii3975]

How many times do you have to die? Also, do you have to have beaten the game at least once for it?

[@repentantsky4290]

For those that did not know, because they never said it, getting endings F H And W really don't do anything but help you collect endings, so it's kind of hard to actually call them beneficial. In fact, with ending Wm which you can easily get up to an hour into your playthrough depending on your difficulty, all you get is that time lost.

[@Kinosho_Kawakami]

omg, i never thought i'd ever see Alundra 1 on a list. the game was hard on certain parts and i couldn't figure out what to do at one point (yes that was before internet was the norm and guides were readily available). that one part drove me nuts. i put my controller down to recollect my thoughts and continued few minutes later refreshed and with sound mind and managed to find where i was supposed to go next. ah, memories. i don't remember if i got the sword though. i say that meaning A i don't know if i died THAT much and B i don't know if i knew of the legendary sword then lol ah, forgetting.

[@sfsin3380]

That answered a question that bugged me for years. I got the sword on my first play threw and could never figure out how to get it again. Like you said it was before guides were readily available and I hadn't a clue what I did the first time.

[@tarnim80]

If you would have asked me 10 minutes ago what game a character namned Revolver Ocelot was from I would for sure have guessed that it must be one of the mavericks from the Mega Man X series

[@DaraelDraconis]

Minor correction: in _NieR: Automata_ ending W is obtained by dying not merely in the aerial combat section but at _any_ time before your first trip to the Bunker. Also, you can get an additional ending as soon as you get there, by self-destructing.

[@Churi_Venatriss]

I’ve got an old one. In The Lost Vikings 2, if you die in the first level, all the characters will get a bonus attack/ability. It’s not as easy as it sounds, though, as it’s only about a ten second walk across the screen. So you kinda have to cheese it by going to a specific spot, put up Olaf’s shield, and have Erik jump off it into a low point and take fall damage.

[@ShiKageMaru]

Back in the day I figured out that you could get a huge advantage in Armored Core (2 or 3 I think) if you sold your mech at the very beginning of the game. Your parts sold for the same price you bought them for so you could combine that money with your starting funds to actually buy some higher performing parts from the start. It was super worth it instead of doing it the regular way.

[@Nintendocat]

Undertale's ultimate armor is sold by Temmie for an insanely expensive price because they say that it'll make the game too easy but that they'll discount it if you die enough.

[@CurlyHooligan]

No Disco Elysium? Where you can sometimes be confidently wrong and accidentally right?

[@Flash33c]

In The Henry Stickmin Collection (updated versions of the old Henry Stickmin flash games on Newgrounds+new content found only in the collection), there is a secret ending that unlocks only after seeing all the fails in Completing the Mission (this is in addition to the achievement gotten from seeing all of them). Doing this shows who delivered the package Henry got in Escaping the Prison as well as a thank you from creator PuffballsUnited for enjoying the Henry Stickmin games all these years.

[@imaginarycorgi7312]

Classic Galaga: If you let an abductor ship steal your ship you will lose 1 life but… if you manage to kill the abductor quickly you will have 2 ships on a single run (my Dad taught me this trick).

[@iateitguy903]

My dad showed me when I was a kid too! It's basically the first thing I do when I play Galaga anymore.

[@kiskillilla223]

It's neat to see Alundra getting some appreciation. Such a great game!

[@Xadov]

The art reminds me of Landstalker-also an underappreciated game

[@rshaw1able]

@@Xadov I had to double-check, but yes, Alundra is considered a "spiritual sequel" to Landstalker; several of the same people worked on it. Alundra 2 has just about nothing to do with Alundra, but is also pretty great.

[@kwintenkoeter7274]

In one of the Yu-Gi-Oh! games on the GBA, if you lose several times you unlock Mokuba as an opponent, a pitifully weak duelist you can easily grind for more cards. The best way to play the game is start the game, immediately lose several times so you don't lose points (can't go under 0) and unlock Mokuba, then grind him several times to get a better deck before moving on to actually challenging opponents.

[@weneedaladder8384]

The Disgaea games have a feature called the Hospital you can go to after missions. You'd think that you just go there to pay and heal your characters, but you also get rewards based on how much hp or sp you've healed throughout you playthrough as well as how many times you've revived characters. I think healing is also totally free in some games so it's always worth getting hurt.

[@alexandercolburn317]

Undertale. Not only will Toriel purposely miss if you’re low health, but Papyrus will refrain from landing the last blow. He’ll also let you go if you fail to beat him three times in a row. Even after that, you can then buy a special piece of armor in Tem village that increases your defense every time you die, so that for the rest of the game the more you struggle, the easier it gets.

[@dakzibbon6589]

It's also worth mentioning, that Papyrus is the only boss in that game you can't die to

[@trapsaltnburn]

First thing I thought of was Skate 2 and the Hall of Meat. First time I'd ever seen a game actively reward you (including showing off which bones you'd broken and whether or not your landing was terminal) when you ate the pavement in an impressively bad way.

[@ThatWarlockBoi]

Crash bandicoot games and their dynamic difficulty adjustment feature that’s been in all of them since the original crash bandicoot 2. If you die too many times on one checkpoint, it would reward you by first giving you a mask, then replace a crate with a checkpoint, then later a stronger mask

[@TheROOTminus1]

W and H are the only 2 endings I got in Nier 😅 ADD brain is responsible for both; leaving the controller unattended, and wanting to see "what's down this path" respectively

[@sheolcodemonkey4027]

Guitar Hero 3 had an achievement called "Blowin' It" for failing a battle numerous (I think 10) times in a row Honourable mention for its other achievement "Tail Between Your Legs", which you get for being challenged to a boss fight and deciding that actually you'd rather not face the devil himself in a guitar battle for your very soul if that's alright

[@hudsonball4702]

There's that ending you get in "The Stanley Parable" where if you fail to play the game for 5 years, you get a trophy.

[@jdb2002]

Though let's face it, everyone just set their date ahead for that one.

[@hudsonball4702]

@@jdb2002 My point still stands.

[@zachmowat8994]

Another one that gives you multiple endings for failing is Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen. You can get 3 different endings based on either failing the final battle or refusing to fight.

[@AntiGravKnight]

I remember dying in Crash 3, and then being transported to a super secret level. Thanks random dinosaur pal!

[@biohazard724]

Speaking of Metal Gear Solid in 5 if you fail a mission repeatedly you're "rewarded" with the chicken hat an accessory which allows you to pass an enemy's FOV 3 times without being spotted

[@LordBloodySoul]

Otakon has the best reward for a stealth mission game :D Love that man, too. He's so damn funny xD

[@bentoth9555]

The bandana in MGS can be useful in the Comm Tower section where you have a stream of alerted guards running down the stairs at you.

[@VictorStave]

In the small, but worthwhile text based game “Don’t S-t Your Pants”, among the multiple endings available is one where, rather than typing “Start” on the first screen to begin the game, you simply type “S-t” and are rewarded for giving up before even leaving the starting gate

[@jdb2002]

In the Splatoon series, there are a few abilities that activate when you get splatted (Comeback, Quick Respawn, Haunt), or your team has less players than the opponent (Tenacity). And in the Crash seties, die enough times, and you get a Tiki mask (exrta hit). Die even more after that, and there will be more checkpoint boxes.

[@katier9725]

There is an old RTS trilogy called Earth 2150 where, at least in 'Escape from the Blue Planet', your campaigns can take unexpected turns several times depending which missions you win, or fail, down to sometimes individual objectives providing or locking your next batch of missions. There is for example a mission in New York if you play as the ED snd fail the mission in Japan (which IS kind of a punishment because it's an extremely hard scenario). Another time, if you play as the LC, your hacker friend from an opposing faction tells you to betray your ally by shooting their units to death. In most games this would simply be bait and cause a fail, but here this betrayal actually yields you a set of alternative missions that are also more fun because Neo is absolutely hilarious.

[@devlinmclean]

The entire balancing system of most Mario Kart games, where the ppl at the back get the best items

[@herusolares5320]

on the very first stage in Mario Bros, when you want to jump one of the first pits, if you miss the trajectory you bump up against a hidden coin block that prevents you from jumping straight into the pit.

[@Zaash1]

Criminally underrated spy game Alpha Protocol rewarded you both for failing and for succeeding, but with different things. Do well at stealth? Get rewarded with being better at stealth. Be bad at stealth? Be awarded with increased toughness. Impress your handler? Bonus. Piss off your handler? DIFFERENT bonus.

[@cearnicus]

Rubberbanding in many arcade racing games. If you're behind, you're topspeed is simply higher than the people on front. IIRC, I lost a game of Outrun in the arcades because of that: 2nd place just sprinted past me and there was nothing I could do. (No I'm not bitter, why'd you ask?) Also, getting better items in Mario Kart. A well-placed thunderbolt in the last round can really make a difference.

[@Mini_Squatch]

In undertale, if you send Temmie to college, it unlocks an increddibly powerful armor - this armor gets progressively cheaper the more you lose.

[@Leafresh]

I think my most memorable game where they rewarded you for failing is in Virtua Quest where you needed to pass the hunter license tests in order to progress through the game. They were basically platforming levels that tested all the different movement techniques in the game. If you failed enough times trying to beat them, though, they just straight up pass you eventually.

[@WERicana]

I know this is an easy one but what about Mario 3d land and side scrolled Marios that came after. With their white power ups that made it easier to get through the level or game is you die too often?

[@LoganWH8]

In Punch-Out for Wii, after giving Glass Joe his 100th defeat, he gets protective headgear to fight in because the WVBA doctor thinks he’ll die without it. If Little Mac loses 100 fights, he’ll also be given protective headgear. While it may mark Little Mac as a Glass Joe level loser, he’ll be glad to have it when Mr. Sandman decks him with a right hook known to level buildings.

[@Killerelephant02]

Risk of rain 2 actually has two, one for dying thirty times and another for dying five times while burning, both will unlock new items for future runs

[@Enryu57]

In Pokemon Yellow version, if you won the first 2 matches against your rival, he would evolve his eevee into a jolteon. However, if you lost both these fights, he would evolve his eevee into a vaporeon, which is weak against your starter pikachu.

[@generalcatkaa5864]

RE4's dynamic difficulty. If you're bad at the game, enemies will attack less often, and there will be fewer of them.

[@dandanni1010]

Thundersnail from Undertale. The game encourages you to aim for second place by giving you a greater cash reward for it. (Though I find that it’s a little more challenging to get second place).

[@deandelvin9924]

Also the leaf maze. If you fall through too many times, the game will just let you pass without falling again.

[@DeadlyPL]

Pokemon Yellow your rival gets an Eevee, and what evolution it gets is dependent on whether or not you lose the first 2 encounters with them (which you ARE allowed to lose and progress) if you lose both, the rival's Eeveelution is weak against electric (and your starter is a Pikachu)

[@0ceanicify]

If you fail to start Duke Nukem Forever, you succeed in never having to play this awful game.

[@danifitti]

In Super Mario Party, the Switch version for Mario Party, the game spices up in the final rounds. When this happens, there is an short "cutscene" where they interview a specialist about who is going to win. The specialist picks up the person who is in last and gives her an special item. Usually nothing too powerful and not good enough to change the odds, however.

[@PiliciousTV]

My first theught is actually an old mobile game called Infinity Blade 2. Typically in a playthrough yeu have to go through and level up equipment slowly, but if you manage to die in the tutorial, when you respawn you'll be in a negative timeline. You have an insanely strong weapon and armor.

[@jzpowell2108]

Yo! Glad to see AC here… Human Plus mode had a load of benefits… to list a couple more -A blade throw for your energy blade initiated by press X+O (boost and slash) -Enhanced missile interception (Only available on some Cores) -Enhanced Cooling (Doubled cooling efficiency of your Radiator part) -Ability to run and gun with shoulder weapons (Some of the bigger shoulder mounted weapons would force your AC to kneel to fire, this let you fire while mobile) Here’s hoping Human Plus makes a return in AC6

[@thomassylvester9484]

In Pokémon Yellow when your rival’s Eevee evolves into Vaporeon, the eeveelution with the worst matchup against Pikachu, if you didn’t win the first two rival battles.