7 Times You Failed By Being Too Good at the Game

Skilled players need to watch out they don't screw themselves over by excelling at these seven games. Enjoy, and subscribe for a video like this on the regular from Outside Xbox.
Did you know you can watch all 700+ list videos ever made by Outside Xbox in one handy playlist? Here it is: • 7 Most Embarrassing St...
---
Official Merch Store! store.outsidexbox.com/
If you like what we do, you can support us by joining the OX Supporters Club. It's totally optional but it helps us make more of the stuff you love: / oxclub
Outside Xbox brings you daily videos about videogames, especially Xbox games. Join us for new gameplay, original list videos, previews and other things (ask us about the other things).
Thanks for watching and be excellent to each other in the comments.
Find us at www.outsidexbox.com
Follow us on Twitter: / outsidexbox
Follow us on Instagram: / outsidexboxofficial

[@jonahfalcon1970]

Of course, The Stanley Parable "punishes" you for doing everything before it tells you to if you're playing for a second+ time.

[@skiller5034]

Which then turns into a reward after 3 or 4 times, because by that point the narrator is so done with you the door becomes set to open as soon as you walk into the room, which is a requirement for the speedrun achievement.

[@GioBorsel]

Man this bit is one of the funniest in videogame history.

[@NewExile]

My favourite was probably the door-clicking achievement. The Narrator gets so pissy about it XD

[@____thecommenter1569]

Something something broom closet...

[@NewExile]

@@____thecommenter1569 That broom closet gag was tops.

[@chrisjames8979]

I'll never forget how they did this to us in both KOTOR games with the swoop racing. Whenever you set a new record in any swoop race, a different competitor was scripted to immediately break your time. If you were too good at the beginning, you'd get some random character setting a time that you'd have no chance of beating.

[@randomcuttlefish6778]

Was surprised that this didn’t make the list tbh.

[@snorpenbass4196]

Which led to every player deliberately driving really slow, so beating the race at the end of it would be super easy.

[@Peter_The_Great]

I do that every time I played through the Swoop Race on Taris

[@staticradio724]

Literally came down here to comment that, although I couldn't remember the name of the game, so thanks.

[@LeviathanRX]

I'm now years old and never knew this, good lord I ended up becoming some kind of swoop god I guess but did I ever bit ch about it now knowing it was my own fault

[@tanandalynch9441]

Okay but Napstablook giving you 3x the entry fee to spare the snail's feelings is too pure

[@jimwormmaster]

Yep. Makes me glad that he runs off during a genocide run. He'd definitely be on the list of characters I'd feel bad about killing.

[@FurryWhoGames]

@@jimwormmasteri mean, its not like he ran because you could kill him anyways

[@jimwormmaster]

@@FurryWhoGames Regardless of why, still wouldn't want to fight him

[@KopperNeoman]

@weaponized_goattt1345 I'm pretty sure Chara would find a way.

[@azuredragoon2054]

@@KopperNeoman Even in a Genocide run, killing him results in you losing 1 XP. And he drops his HP anyway out of politeness even though you're clearly expressing all sorts of murderous intent.

[@Gollvieg]

My friend is one of the QA testers for the Saw 2 game and he and the other testers attempted to warn the devs that invalidating hours worth of effort with a decision made at the very beginning of the game is an asshole move. Considering that nearly none of the bugs were fixed despite the Testers repeated warnings shows how much the devs give a fuck

[@kingol4801]

It is a necessary move

[@MaxWeb2599]

Fun fact, Sholmes existed even before the copyright had expired. In the Arsene Lupin books, Lupins counterpart was a Detective named Herlock Sholmes. Maurice Leblanc(the Autor) wasn't allowed to use the original name so after the first appearance he changed the Name to Herlock sholmes.

[@happily_blue]

Yes! And the reason Capcom was allowed to use Sholmes is because Lupin's copyright had expired first

[@P3x310]

Ah, the good old legally distinct "I can't believe it's not [insert trademark here]" naming.

[@gathorall9136]

Leblanc in turn inspired the massive Lupin the Third franchise in Japan, which was muddy waters even in Japan and blatant copyright violation in most of the world for decades after his first appearance. So comes around I guess.

[@Moocow2003]

yup, Lupin III was known as Wolf in english dubs for a while until that copyright expired.

[@49ersfanMatt]

So it's a rip off of sherlock holmes or there making fun of by reversing his name lol lol

[@StealthMarmot_]

Fallout New Vegas Dead Money DLC has an instance of this. One of the NPCs, Dean Domino, will have several skill checks while in dialogue with him. Most of them are actually fairly easy given the level you're going to want to be at. Thing is, if you make too many of the skill checks while doing so, at the end of the DLC you won't get the option to talk him down from trying to kill you because his ego was too bruised by you being so obviously skillful.

[@exploertm8738]

Where the fuck people get that info, its one, ONE singular skill check that matters, the one where you insist that you are in charge (barter or speech 50 or something), thats all, every other skill check is safe. Christ, I want to find guy who started this shit and punch him.

[@lemmingrad]

One of the few example where the answer is treating him as a character, than just assume every skill test success means you are a persuasion god among npcs.

[@goldenpig6453]

i'd consider *_not_* fighting him to be a punishment. guy is legitimately one of the biggest, most egotistical twats in the entire series, and killing him to end that grind of a DLC is one of the few times i've felt genuine morbid satisfaction from blowing someone's head off and stripping their body of all their belongings and dignity.

[@tomleary508]

Actually this is tied to one specific check, the barter check, all the others are fine.

[@defiantnight2668]

Wait THATS why I couldn't talk him down at the end?? That's so stupid.

[@EncouragedEntity]

I'm so sorry you guys had to play through a Saw game to get this footage. I salute you 🫡

[@levimunyon7114]

I'd love to see a behind the scenes list of the 7 worst game captures they had to get for a list video.

[@EncouragedEntity]

@@levimunyon7114 That's actually a fantastic idea. Unscripted as well, so we get all the natural feelings of the whole crew when recording, the emotions would be through the roof, that's entertainment

[@fuzzyotterpaws4395]

What's wrong with that?

[@EncouragedEntity]

@@fuzzyotterpaws4395 Did you play the Saw games?

[@midnights2631]

I didn't know they made a saw game until now.

[@Eddiember]

Love that part of Metal Gear Solid where it tells you "Do not use a Turbo Controller." But if you button mash too fast, it still registers as you using a Turbo Controller, killing you instantly.

[@KasumiRINA]

Related but not intended was QTE scenes in Silent Hill Homecoming. The button mashing was tied to frame rate so if you had a slower computer your fast clicks did not register making some boss fights unwinnable for certain players... However if you nailed the rhythm and mashed just right it would work sometimes.

[@asherandai2633]

Turbo controllers baffled me in an amusing way. They gave you a controller that could bypass all those annoying button mashing sections games loved to do... and then immediately all games decided to either remove it's usefullness completely or punish you for using it. Making the entire purpose for which the controller was created utterly meaningless.

[@blaacksugar7714]

I guess it's not a good idea to play the game fresh after facing the Wesker in RE5.

[@remyrichardson8614]

I was gonna suggest this. “Don’t even think about using auto fire, or I’ll know.”

[@mr.battle20]

Thankfully someone informed Kojima that this was an incredibly shit idea and he left it out of future MGS games.

[@AshenVictor]

God Hand gives you that Grovel move to reset the difficulty without having to be hit.

[@marhawkman303]

I feel they should add the game Freedom Force vs the Third Reich. first game I ever played where I noticed dynamic difficulty. I got to the final area and was like wow, this level is a real challenge... then looked and noticed I was not at the top difficulty, that game has a dozen or so, but well above the half-way point. Of course using custom min-maxed heroes in that game is borderline cheating, but hey... it's only borderline, and you kinda need it on high difficulty.

[@obananagato]

i love the fact that you basically ask for forgivines doing this move

[@jimwormmaster]

@@stephen-ng It was so lame that they capped exp in the second game. The guy that clones himself was a great way to boost your lower level heroes.

[@alexmccaleb2152]

I BEG FO MERCY WHEN I FEEL DA HEEEEEEET 🎵🎶 🤣

[@CompletelyNormal]

The first Knights of the Old Republic game has a sequence on the first planet where you have to take part in a swoop race. It's a time trial. The catch is, that, no matter how well you do the first time through, an NPC will beat your time and you'll have to do even better. This means that, if your first run is perfect, the game becomes unwinnable.

[@someaccount5200]

So the game becomes soft locked?

[@justinlast2lastharder749]

​@@someaccount5200Yup. Because you HAVE to win the race to save Bastilla.

[@lightinferno4490]

Glad my first try was shite 😅

[@thaLikeButton]

Whenever there's a time trial with no limit, I race slow as hell because that's actually somewhat common

[@lonewanderer1328]

Hope you’ve got back up saves

[@khaoz6913]

No mention of Inscryption? I was terrified at first when I beat the prospector too fast and Leshy summoned a board full of bears on his side. I think this happens when you are supposed to fail the boss battle to continue with the tutorial, but are just too good at the game.

[@RasmusVJS]

Thing is, it is still possible to win.

[@MrShukaku1991]

And the game doesn't let you continue if you win and keep winning.

[@marhawkman303]

@@MrShukaku1991 so it becomes bear murder simulator? Hmm... seems playable. :D

[@erakfishfishfish]

It happened to me anytime I won the first phase too quickly.

[@l0sts0ul89]

2 Fast 2 Soon

[@vc180191]

While it's massively unrealistic that you could win without having completed the game once already, a lot of the Disgaea games have a forced loss fight, but if you somehow win them, the game gives you a unique game over scene instead (the one I remember off the top of my head is D2, where you run into the first game protagonist Laharl. Beat him, and he gets super mad at losing and literally blows up the planet).

[@carlosrod100]

Good old Laharl, being the demon king he always was.

[@etherraichu]

Sometimes it'll just give you a title instead and make you play as like, Prism Mao or something.

[@NewExile]

Conversely Chrono Trigger gives you the best ending and a secret victory if you win the rigged Lavos fight.

[@sinteleon]

@@NewExile Yes, but don't you also get that if you use new game plus to win the rigged lavos fight anyway?

[@NewExile]

@@sinteleon Oh yeah, but good luck winning that fight on the first playthrough. It’s hard enough on NG+.

[@toratio8547]

"Indigo Prophecy if you're nasty" caught me completely off-guard and gave me a good chuckle 🤣

[@lukahprimo]

So just if you are wandering, the knife can be hidden either in the bathroom's trash can, a drain by the toilet, or in the upper tank of a toilet.

[@marcuscassin27]

I'm not going to lie, it's not clear to me how being good at the game makes it harder to find the knife. Does the game automatically hide it in a trickier spot if you did a better job mopping up the blood or something?

[@Slain087]

​@@marcuscassin27If you don't hide the murder weapon, it's lying on the ground next to the victim when you get there as the detectives. If I recall, you only get so long on the scene before you're forced to move on, and whiffing the weapon location hurts the detectives more than it does the suspect whiffing hiding it.

[@cass6082]

Excuse me, that is clearly Herlock Sholmes, beloved character from the original Arsene Lupin series…completely unaffiliated with Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes

[@dansmillie4878]

There was a similar mechanic in Star Fox Adventures. The trial of Strength in the lightfoot village was a button mashing tug of war but if you go all out from the start, the AI will automatically overpower you once its about to lose. You need to let the AI almost beat you and then you can actually start button mashing to win. That was so frustrating to figure out as a kid lol

[@1337m4n]

I beat that part by using an electric toy jackhammer from a children's play tool set to mash the button.

[@EchoTheExstasy]

OMFG SO THATS HOW YOU BEAT IT I STRUGGLED SO HARD WITH THAT WHAT THE FU

[@Memrlord]

@@1337m4n meet the engineer

[@blackghostcat]

That just sounds like bad design

[@Peachrocks5]

Oddly enough I was able to beat it through... Dexerity. I won't call what I do strength because I am extremely hopeless in that regard. However for whatever reason I was a god level button masher compared to my friends. There was a mini game in Mario party 4 that proved that. In any case I had zero problems with this and just mashed and overpowered them from the start.

[@WadeTheWilsonTV]

In the _YuYu Hakusho Dark Tournament_ game for PS2, there's a fight that according to the story, you're meant to lose. But the fight was using a character I was WAY too good with apparently cuz I won, and the game immediately crashed cuz it wasn't programmed to know what to do if you ACTUALLY won...

[@RoundShades]

That's crazy even if the least intended punishment

[@varalys]

In Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts you meet The Lord of Games who was the guy behind the two prior games and now wants you karting instead. You can talk to him and he'll make various meta jokes like "Did you enjoy racing Canary Mary? I still laugh about that one." Not cool Rare!

[@Peachrocks5]

Really? I can beat her by mashing normally the whole distance. Did it 2 years ago so even in my 'older' age, I've still got it. In Mario Party 4 there was a mini game for this purpose. Utterly dominant at that. I have no idea what this talent is, it's not strength I promise you that

[@1Thunderfire]

​@@Peachrocks5Slime Time? Domination?

[@SimuLord]

"No game illustrates (dynamic difficulty) better than God Hand..." RimWorld: "Am I a joke to you?"

[@timboerger2240]

Rimworld does deserve more love on this channel.

[@staticradio724]

The 100% speedrun for that Sherlock Holmes game must be an exercise in torture. "So now we have to faff around with this one puzzle for ten minutes..."

[@Kleyguerth]

Low% Twilight Princess speedrun involves staring at a Rupee for 10+ hours...

[@staticradio724]

@@Kleyguerth I saw that video, that was hilarious

[@kingol4801]

Which is good. Every self-respecting game worth a dime should have such anti-speedrun measures. Because there is a difference between being FAST/skillful in the game and speed-running due to exploits. Example: Resident Evil. People win bosses in ridiculous time because the knife item in the game has weird damage scaling, where having faster GPU results in more “ticks of collision” == more damage. So, in such game, you can calculate the “intended minimum” time of beating the boss with the given items and put it as a limit. So, if by some miracle a player gets values that are theoretically impossible/too fast…. You just punish them into oblivion. Example: If the boss takes 10 grenade shells to go down (best weapon at the time), and it takes 2 seconds to reload after every shot, then you need 20+ seconds at minimum (not even accounting for the time necessary to run around and collect the grenade launcher ammo whilst dodging the boss). So, if a player somehow killed the boss (via knife exploit, for instance) in under 20 seconds…. You SLAM that **** down. Absolute destruction of the player from then on. Which is very fair. There is a difference between being skillful and using game design flaws and exploits to win. Reminds me of those Minecraft map speedrun videos that just…. Clip through the map and win 2+ hour long complain in 120 seconds…..

[@riksweeney]

Playing God Hand on Hard difficulty permanently sets the level to Die, meaning more enemies that attack faster and, most notably, can attack you off screen, something that level 1 difficulty doesn't allow them to do. Also, God Hand probably has one the best ending credits of all time.

[@marhawkman303]

so, what I'm getting from this is that git gud is the best way to play God-hand?

[@xFlareLeon]

Setting it it Easy disable Level Die and I think Level 3 as well.

[@kamo7293]

@@marhawkman303 people from clover studios later went on to make devil may cry. so git gud is baked into the game

[@BadMarriageKawagoe]

Don't act like you don't like the Ball Buster (Ball Buster)🎶

[@alexmccaleb2152]

​@@BadMarriageKawagoeLost a limb... In a fight, but dont worry babe I'll be coOoOol~ 🎶

[@xstarsystemsx]

Andy saying "if ya nasty" with an (almost) straight face broke me. 😂

[@sergiojuanmembiela6223]

I remember some combat flight simulator in the early 90s about WW III in Europe. If you did bad you would end with a scene of the Liberty Statue being destroyed by bombs, if you did too good you would end with a scene of the Kremlin being destroyed by bombs. If you were reasonably incompetent, you would end with a scene about a negotiated settlement to the war.

[@sabretoo]

That's pretty hilarious

[@KasumiRINA]

In what world Kremlin being bombed is a bad thing? Negotiated settlement would mean millions of people subjected to genocide on russian hands. Like we were during Holodomor or Crimean Tatars deportations. Or what they did in Caucasus. Or Siberia.

[@Zapiki]

@@KasumiRINA Thing is i guess its as sore loser ending. Where the losing side just lanuches every nuke they have resulting in your loss.

[@mattparkin7224]

@@KasumiRINA you could apply the same type of logic to the "good" ending, too. The point is that nuclear destruction is never a good thing.

[@Alsebra]

​@@KasumiRINA, in what world is the destruction of a UNESCO World Heritage Site *not* a bad thing?

[@AndrewTheZ]

Final Fantasy X-2, where, among other things, failing to stop a genocide lets you get the best item in the game (The ironically named Key To Success)

[@silverwyhrecat5]

Man, I forgot about that. I'm currently doing a playthrough where I'm making the wrong choices and I forgot that not keeping the Ronso at bay was even an option.

[@marhawkman303]

@@silverwyhrecat5 to get the 100% complete ending you needed to do soooo much stuff it needed NG+ to get all of it.

[@TheBlackSeraph]

That definitely deserves its own list "7 times games punished you for selecting the obviously moral choice". I came across a similar thing in Tactics Ogre Reborn where by [spoiler] refusing to kill a village of civilians at the end of Act One locks you out of the Lawful path(?) and one of the special characters normally unlocked in a later act is mortally wounded.

[@Veladus]

To be fair, who gives a fuck about the guado? They're like diet batarians.

[@Ds117]

X 2 drive me freaking crazy getting that last cut Sean

[@TheTwilighthawke]

My mouth was full when Andy delivered the "if ya nasty" line and nearly choked to death. Andy, you owe me a new hot pocket

[@KrazyKain]

Resident Evil Revelations 2 has a moment where Claire drops her gun and you get a button mash QTE. If you succeed she grabs the gun and shoots the boss, game carries on, but you are locked in to the bad ending because Moira doesn't get over her fear of guns and will die. What you are supposed to do is switch to Moira and make her pick up the gun instead, when, as mentioned before, she has had a fear of and complete refusal to use guns up to this point.

[@tba113]

Homeworld 2 had a rather infamous degree of dynamic difficulty, scaling the enemy fleet you'd face in the next mission up or down based on how well you did in the mission you just completed. That made a couple missions effectively unwinnable. The script was that your fleet would warp in, and find that they'd walked in on the bad guys beating the snot out of some friendly ships who were just barely hanging on. You'd ride in to the rescue, chase off the bad guys, and the grateful friendlies would give you a bit of plot info that led to the next mission. Unfortunately, if you'd gone all Grand Admiral Thrawn on the computer in the previous mission or two, the dynamic difficulty algorithm might award the computer enough ships that the guys you were supposed to rescue could potentially get wiped out at about the point the opening cutscene finished.

[@orsolyafekete7485]

I think it's not even only that the enemy has more ships if you do, but they get the types of ships they need to counter your fleet composition

[@marhawkman303]

@@orsolyafekete7485 this is a game where you'd warp in in straight line formations right? IIRC it had the issue of if you had a bunch of a single ship type the warp in line would be attacked during warp in due to aggroing enemies.... DURING warp-in.

[@PrototypeSpaceMonkey]

I didn't realize Homeworld: Remastered used HW2-style difficulty scaling in HW1 until the AI threw a fleet at me so massive that it didn't even fit on the map anymore.

[@frumsmcnoodles323]

HW1 Remastered is unbeatable if you are to good as well... because it uses HW2 damage types, if your fleet is to large in the last mission you can lose the mothership the instant you hyperspace in due to 2 heavy cruisers spawning in attack range.

[@Fregler]

@@frumsmcnoodles323 I'd recommend the fan 2.3 patch, it, among other things, let's you chose if you want dynamic difficulty or not along with fixing the bug that almost no ships would fire in certain formations. It is an absolutly stellar patch in general too and allows for online play with others who has the patch.

[@0PercentImagination]

I remember being able to softlock a mobile (mmo)rpg simply because I equipped some stuff I found before the tutorial tells you too and since I couldn't unequip it or find other equipment when it finally told me to equip it I couldn't leaving that character stuck forever, knowing basic game mechanics certainly isn't being too good but this video did remind me of it.

[@phuzz00]

I had a sort-of similar problem in The Witcher 3 recently. I started a New Game+ playthrough, and when I started I was wearing a fully upgraded set of witcher gear. The problem was, after the openeing, you have to go to Nilfgard and talk to the emperor, and to do that you have to change into formal clothes. After that, I was too under-leveled to *re-equip* my armour, so I was left trying to fight through the next section with whatever trash gear I could pick up.

[@ricebrain]

Honestly happens in quite a few of tutorials in games so I have to behave like a clueless moron just so the game slowly tells me what to do

[@VioletAeonSnowfield]

The infuriating thing about FTL's final boss having the AI is that the game supposedly encourages lots of different playstyles and builds - you can entirely build your ship for a boarding strategy and then just get screwed over by the final boss.

[@jamesohearn2364]

Boarding strategy still works great! You just have to leave one of the guys in one of the weapons rooms alive. The four front rooms at the front of the ship are completely disconnected from the rest of it, so if you leave one of them alive, you'll end up with him alone and unable to repair any of the systems your boarding party destroys.

[@Auhrii]

@@jamesohearn2364 Note that this isn't the case on Hard difficulty - the ship has doors to those systems as well, in that case.

[@LuizAlexPhoenix]

​@@jamesohearn2364 The issue is that you need to literally lose, restart your playthrough and keep dying until you realize which part of the ship remains intact until the last phase. You also need to pay a lot of attention to not kill that last crew. Sorry, but it's just masochistic and I think no sane person would play tha... **Hides 100% completion on Steam**

[@denebkaitos7511]

yeah, not only do you need to keep one of the front gunners alive, if i remember correctly it also has to be one of the inner two, otherwise when you progress phases and the wings break off, it kills anyone in those rooms and triggers the AI anyways. this is only the case for normal and lower though- as Auhrii said, on hard the front gunner rooms are now directly connected to the rest of the flagship

[@zubadub6700]

In Othercide during the Maid boss fight the game gives you an additional character when the boss gets down to a certain amount of health, this is great until you consider the fact that you could accidentally kill the boss before their turn completely removing an entire class from the game as you won’t unlock it until you get it from this fight!

[@zubadub6700]

Not only that but there is an achievement you can only gain from getting the class

[@frodobaggins7710]

Finally, a scenario where my terrible game "skills" come in useful

[@luiginumber1549]

Mother 3, from the series that inspired Undertale, also had a segment near the end where you had to intentionally lose a set of minigames (by a thin margin) in order to proceed.

[@iantaakalla8180]

The context is that you are basically forced to stroke Porky’s ego by being a challenging competitor that almost beats a Porkybot for three games to proceed in meeting Porky. It is a very weird reason.

[@aquaintsound]

As Toby Fox talked about Earthbound being an inspiration, I'd bet that's why it's in Undertale

[@doc_eyebrow]

I'm sure there's loads of sequences in Fahrenheit/Indigo prophecy where if you ace them you can't progress, like the game wants to torture the characters or something 😅

[@artbk]

...and, if you finish it, the torture will be onto your sanity with all the crazy rambling it goes into.

[@roguebanshee]

There are a couple of gotcha sequences in that game. At one point you have to reconstruct the face of the murderer and if you do a too good job of matching it, the character will take a lot of stress damage. This can cause trouble in other sequences where if you match the QTEs (as the game has been telling you to do the entire time) you will fail because succeeding causes too much stress damage. So if you're in that position you may actually have to deliberately fail at the QTE to progress the game.

[@doc_eyebrow]

@@roguebanshee really agree with that, it's like the game is saying that you shouldn't be doing that well with everything that's going on without consequences. There's also a hiding from the detectives in an apartment bit that I kept failing, until I made the character hide under a table but you could still see them and passed, such a weird game

[@abstractlime101]

@@roguebanshee I was CERTAIN that the video was going to be talking about the QTE that fails you, because the QTEs are relatively simple and it doesn't communicate that the stress (or it might have been suspicion in that scene) is coming from you succeeding, and you've been expected to avoid similar things earlier in the game.

[@kalythai]

In the Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, there is a weird quirk/bug with the arena betting system. With a luck stat over 50, whoever you bet on will have a health buff increasing their chances to win the battle. But if you have 99 or over 100 luck, you get no bonus. Luck is the hardest stat to boost since there are no skills associated with it so at each level up you can only raise it by 1 point at most. With all that luck that is suppose to make you lucky, you get an even footing at the arena's betting box

[@roguishpaladin]

Oblivion also has that core mechanical issue where you can overlevel - invest your points too heavily in suboptimal skills or just naturally raise them through use and you'll start having to fight monsters who are way too tough for you and don't care how high your Run and Jump are.

[@kalythai]

@@roguishpaladin I suddenly want to make an Argonian in ESO and name him "Jumps-Under-Low-Ceilings"

[@gameboy3433]

In Twlight Princess you can make bank on rupees by meeting the guy with double hookshots in Hyrule castle for a minigame. Set a new record in his thing and you would have to beat that record if you want to keep earning money. The strat would be to just wait it out till the last milisecond (it gives you plenty of time) and you can just make money forever.

[@jamesbrice3267]

It's too easy to make money in that game in the first place.

[@ericb3157]

reminds me of a minigame in "super mario RPG": in the sewer area that leads to Yoshi's Island, there is a minigame where you jump on things that pop out of pipes. to get all the rewards, you need to beat your own high score...FOUR TIMES. yes, i goofed the first time.

[@BaddeJimme]

@@jamesbrice3267 A better example of the same thing would be GTA Vice City. There is a minigame called Cone Crazy where beating your time gives you double the amount you were previously awarded. You can get silly money if you milk it right, and it's pretty handy because money does matter.

[@iateitguy903]

I don't know if this counts, but Final Fantasy 6. About halfway through you're trying to escape a floating island that's crashing down, and there's a timer. One of the characters is slowing down the villain at this point, but says you can hold out for him. If you're too fast about escaping, so you don't see him make it, he dies, meaning you permanently lose the character.

[@xxomega702buzzalini8]

Getting Shadow is about if your willing to test the timer. It's been a moment but I even think it prompts you to "Wait for Shadow" when you reach the jump point

[@iateitguy903]

@@xxomega702buzzalini8 Oh yeah, it does! It's been a while since I beat it, so I forgot it reminds you. Probably doesn't count for this one then, but maybe something to remember for another topic?

[@abigails4088]

I remember that, me and my older brother played it kinda "together" when it came out (back on the SNES as "3" lol) he got to the edge of the floating continent, and there was so much time left "hey bro... that's off... wait at the edge and see if anything happens in the last 15 or 30 seconds."

[@michaellatner975]

One other thing to mention about the AI for FTL is that unlike humans who have to walk to a location to repair the ship, the AI can repair the entire ship, at all times, at the same time. The only way the AI can't repair a section is if you make a hole in the ship, cause for some reason AI can't weld, so it can't repair

[@RoundShades]

I love how they mentioned FTL, and yeah, smart money is keeping someone alive in the ion weapon only, though if you're really fast you can just keep your own guys inside to constantly sabotage the systems you need to die, then focus damage on a soft part of the ship, but you're sacrificing them when you deal the final blow

[@BrisingrFan55]

I actually do think the fight becomes easier against the AI for a few reasons 1. The lack of enemy crew means that you can just stay on board their vessel until it is about to be destroyed 2. The automatic repairs are *much* slower than the hostile crew repairs, making systems are disabled longer 3. There are a few things the AI cannot handle that crew can, particularly hull breaches (which prevent a room from being repaired) and fires (which won't go out until all O2 is depleted). Honestly the only thing that is harder is that the weapons can be repaired without a crew on board. That's not ideal, but if you know what to expect (and you will have dealt with many AI-controlled ships by now) is not too hard to fire at it when they are repaired, or have 1 crew member there to break it again. It is harder than all the previous ships with crew you've fought, but it is the final boss for a reason

[@faithlesszealot5032]

FTL shouldn't really be in this video crew killing the flagship isn't being too good at the game it's just using one method out of many. Besides, come back to me if you beat Sylvan Prime or HER in multiverse

[@Prinygod]

​@@faithlesszealot5032 it is just one method but in most encounters you get better rewards. Getting crew kills usually harder to do, so its inclusion is appropriate.

[@faithlesszealot5032]

@@Prinygod Lol the topic is failed by being too good at the game you haven't demonstrated how crew killing is a failure state The only failure state it has which is highly debatable is the end boss which again depends on playstyle and is super subjective

[@percythemouse9073]

I feel like one moment in Tsubaki Yayoi’s story in Blazblue Continuum Shift would count, basically, if you use her Drive too much in her story, especially if quite a lot of her combos rely on it. Because if you use her Drive too often, usually by doing combos that rely on it, you’ll be locked into her bad ending.

[@KainYusanagi]

One that the name of this list immediately brought to mind was Star Ocean 2: The Second Story. There's a battle fairly deep into the game where you're meant to lose... but you're not guarenteed to. You CAN win... and doing so nets you a nonstandard game over as you doom yourself and the world because you didn't do the thing that you would have had to do otherwise, lol.

[@AshenVictor]

Ah Star Ocean 2, the game where you can have two random conversations during the game and make the last boss three times harder... Remake soon.

[@MarkDeSade100]

@@AshenVictor Even though I'm sick of remakes, I would support a remake of SO2. It's an underrated gem.

[@AllTheEevees]

Reminds me of the Disgaea series. A couple of battles that you'd normally have no chance at winning, but if you've either managed to grind like a madman, or restarted the game on New Game +, you can beat them, and they often result in a game over. I think for one, the boss gets angry that you actually managed to beat him, and thus destroys your entire world.

[@Bluebedo]

@@AllTheEevees Yeeeep. Or even just abusing unconventional tactics to pull out a win you're not expected to be able to. At least the endings are usually pretty funny though.

[@Gambit17]

@@MarkDeSade100 They actually are working on one. It was announced at the last Nintendo Direct.

[@TheShut1]

I'd say Wildfrost may be a good example of this. It is card roguelike similar to Slay the Spire or Monster Train. In the end, after you beat the boss, your character and cards in your deck become a new final boss battle, so if you create a too good deck you'll have a lot of trouble beating the final encounter again.

[@AlekMax64]

Hahaha, I just beat great ace attorney 2 the day before I watched this. That herlock sholmes (yes, that’s his name in that game) joke was perfectly timed!

[@taylor3950]

That scene sent me. I really gotta play through an ace attorney one of these days

[@AlekMax64]

Definitely one of my favorite franchises.

[@TheSlurpeeMan]

The bright side is that there's a workaround for the FTL difficulty spike: just keep the lonely peep in the laser room (room on the left) alive. They won't be able to move from this room, you can deactivate a lot of the pesky systems (missiles, drones, mind control), and no AI kick-in!

[@macdjord]

Only on normal difficulty. On hard, the weapon rooms are connected to the rest of the ship.

[@mutedknght]

​@@macdjordstill though, the strat of keeping 1 guy alive tends to work wonders if your weapons are a bit bad. Just have to manage the shots better.

[@twilightmoon96]

Funnily enough, I had a game idea where the boss is available immediately, except they are extremely difficult to fight. To make it easier, you have to complete side missions to weaken or disable certain aspects of the fight. If you skip the missions altogether and exclusively fight all the bosses, you won't get a bad end necessarily, but it will certainly be unsatisfying. I don’t know how to program worth of shit and know that my art/animation skills are limited, so obviously, this idea has been on the back burner for a good long while.

[@1Thunderfire]

Breath of the Wild does this with Calamity Ganon. Go straight to him and he'll have a massive health pool, you have to fight the Blights and you won't have much health at all. Free the Champions and the Divine Beasts by beating the Blights there and Ganon becomes easier.

[@twilightmoon96]

@@1Thunderfire It's actually a series of bosses I have in mind, but plenty of JRPGs do have the final boss available at the get-go.

[@fromthelostdays]

The one that really got me with it's dynamic difficulty was Snatcher. The difficulty of the game's shooting segments were set by how well you did in the training room back at your headquarters. I did not know this. I decided I was going to redo the training game until I got a perfect score. The early game fights remain easy enough that it didn't tip me off I might have done anything wrong. Then in the last few fight sequences of the game the enemies are suddenly zipping around so fast that I honestly don't know how I managed to beat the game.

[@andybrown4284]

The solution to the FTL flagships AI takeover was to leave one of the gunners alive, ideally in the beam room since that does bugger all damage unless your shields are gone

[@amagicalduck155]

The beam weapon room is destroyed at the end of the 2nd stage so the ai will activate for the 3rd if you only leave them. The laser room is better if you have max shields

[@Stratelier]

In the _Monster Hunter_ games, you hunt monsters to get materials for better gear, in turn making you better at hunting monsters, right? BUT when a quest objective is to capture a monster _alive,_ using gear that's too good (especially in multiplayer) can lead to the monster dying before you can set any traps, and your team failing the quest.

[@RenShinomiya121]

"oooh! A Kut-Ku! I want to capture it for the rare mats!" *One fully charged GS Strike later* *[Quest Complete! Returning to town in 1 minute]*

[@greenhydra10]

I've failed a total of three capture quests. Each time I just completely forgot they were capture quests.

[@alexanderhamilton4258]

Maybe switch off of LS to a Hammer or GL.

[@Stratelier]

@@alexanderhamilton4258 Technically it's weapon-agnostic. In MH4U I went so long without crafting Grinder decos I was legitimately starting to ask if my game glitched and lost the ability to craft them ... I eventually found their entry in the menu (key ingredient: low-rank Great Jaggi Claws) and set out to hunt a super low Great Jaggi. Three or four bops with the axe of my (admittedly G-rank) CB and the monster was limping. Two more would have probably killed it.

[@Leith_Crowther]

Were your weapons too good, or were you going ham without paying attention?

[@patrickdunphy822]

I remember a boss fight in Tales of Symphonia ( I think) where, due to plot reasons, you end up fighting your teammate, but if you totally own them ( as you might, it's late in the game), you get either a game over, or a bad ending, I forget which.

[@SnoodDogg]

I don't think that's Symphonia. The only party member boss fights I can think of don't give you a game over if you win, and I'm very sure there's only one ending. The party member dies, so that's a bad end for them, I guess.

[@patrickdunphy822]

@@SnoodDogg Oh, you're right. I looked it up, it's the sequel I'm thinking of, Dawn of the New World.

[@KasumiRINA]

Related to it, happens in a lot of RPGs: party member that you fight has levels, skills and equipment that you gave them. The better you are at building and gearing them the harder the fight is. Don't have examples, but remember giving crap skills to some party members and stripping them before the turncoat/hypnosis moment.

[@RenShinomiya121]

@@KasumiRINA Does P3FES: The Answer also do this or they have predetermined stats? Because i remember doing that fight and they don't use the equips i prepared them with.

[@Dru_Stephan]

@@RenShinomiya121 It's all predetermined. Some even have skills they would never have normally.

[@JesseNapalm]

The enemies in Final Fantasy Tactics level with you. There is a story mission with chocobos that, when you are sufficiently high level, can fully heal themselves and their allies every turn. There are also red chocobos in that fight who can summon meteors and decimate your party.

[@abigails4088]

also fighting Gafgarion while Ramza is leveling as a White Mage... kind of a big mistake XD

[@voidwalkerz2459]

Story missions never scaled. Only random encounters did. Personally the like 10 monks that I encountered one time absolutely wrecked me.

[@abigails4088]

@@voidwalkerz2459 for me randoms would either be easy as pie...or difficulty CRANKED TO ELEVEN XD never in between

[@JadeMathMan]

Surprised I didn't see the Jackbox murder trivia party games where if all players get all questions right multiple times every one gets sent to the killing room.

[@joserevelez8772]

Wow I didn’t know that, I guess we just suck at trivia lol

[@CrushedParagon]

In Bravely Default 2 there's a fight very early on you're very clearly supposed to lose. However, using very specific strats (or just NG+) you can win, get a non-standard ending, then a message that basically tells you to try again but lose this time

[@Borgdrohne13]

There are actually 3 Boss Fights, you have to "loose". You get a nice cutscene, if you win.

[@aquaintsound]

The Great Ace Attorney is one of my favorite Sherlock Holmes interpretations. I dont usually like those "find the hidden object" games but Hound of the Baskervilles kept my attention.

[@redriver2507]

Shenmue 2 always stuck with me. There was a scene where a barber wanted to test your resolve by holding a blade to your throat. A prompt comes up you have to ignore because if you react you fail. Then you need to wait a whole in game day to try again and continue the story.

[@EdyAlbertoMSGT3]

I had a classmate in real life that was like this, he'd laugh at you if you reacted to him almost hitting your face.

[@okram2k]

Super Off Road racing was notorious for making it harder the better you played. It would determine how much better the AI should compete the next race based on how far ahead you were the race before. So often it's suggested to sit at the finish line and wait until just before the silver truck comes across before you finish.

[@Cyber-Riot]

Way back in the first Neverwinter Nights game, I figured out who the werewolf was and killed them too early (before the quest objective advanced to that point). I broke the game because when I did get the objective to kill them, I couldn't (because he was already dead). I could not advance the story past that point.

[@NewExile]

Done that once or twice, but buggered if I can remember in which games. Except maybe Fallout. There's a really obvious murder mystery and the moment you figure it out the bad guy starts a fight by killing the guy who gave you the quest. So I killed him early and what happened? The whole town turned against me. Ah well, I guess killing him wasn't bringing the guy's son back anyway...

[@azuredragoon2054]

Throwing out Sword of the Vagrant here. In the very first boss battle, against Soulreaper, you are intended to lose that fight and continue the game. However, it can be won. Doing so, however, results in a "bad end" game over.

[@XoRandomGuyoX]

Which you end up winning handily if you did grinding for the hidden boss rush mode in your first playthrough.

[@azuredragoon2054]

@@XoRandomGuyoX I remember doing that Boss Rush to acquire the best weapons and armor in the game. Actually wasn't too bad if you had a fully upgraded Destroyer to get yourself through it the first couple times. Then upgrade the true weapon and it's... pretty easy. This, of course, assumes you know what to abuse.

[@NightChime]

Similar to #2, Return of the Obra Dinn has an achievement for leaving the ship without solving all fates. Significantly fewer players have gotten that achievement than solving all fates.

[@semajniomet981]

In FTL autoships (I.E. the Auto-Scouts and crewless Flagship) didn't have the capability to repair breaches, put out fires, or repel invaders. While one of those three conditions are active, a system can't be repaired if it's damaged.

[@Hopalongtom]

That clockwork mouse race in Tooie was the only Jiggy I needed my older brother to do for me.

[@robertvasquez4564]

Along this line I'd love a video about times you weren't supposed to fail...yet. Jedi Survivor comes to mind. Without spoilers there's a fight I kept losing at only for me to finally win and in the cutscene the character loses the fight the scripted way. If I was supposed to lose the fight then why couldn't my loss just be the canon loss?!

[@tba113]

The old PS1 JRPG Xenogears had the courtesy to let you just lose scripted-loss fights. Unfortunately, they tended to come out of nowhere, and there were a lot of them through the course of the game. Unless you'd played it before or consulted a guide, you'd never really know whether a fight was supposed to be a designated loss until after your party got pounded flat and you either got a cutscene or a game over.

[@orsolyafekete7485]

The Witcher 2, first fight against Letho. Possibly the hardest fight in the game all things considered (definitely was for me), but you have to win so you can lose in the cutscene

[@SnoodDogg]

I'm always annoyed when JRPGs put you up against a mega boss that you do 0 (or possibly 1) damage to. But at least they're telling you to just lose instead of letting you think you'll win. Can't decide if that's better than the ones that run the scripted loss after a turn or two (because interrupting combat is also annoying 😅).

[@GrimmShadowsII]

I've played some games like that...I hate games like that. I drive myself crazy trying to win the fight only to finally do it and have a cutscene tell me I lost anyway.

[@gokublack8342]

Budokai Tenkaichi games had this issue. You had to fight Frieza as Vegeta (Who in the show gets demolished and killed) and its a hard fight but the game makes you win only to show the cutscene of Frieza killing him after anyway 😂

[@brentwerner6103]

Wow, i loved playing Godhand when it was out. It was hilariously bizzare. Kind of a rare gem of a game and suprised to see it here. Definitely recommend it to play

[@michaelandreipalon359]

Still waiting for a multiplatform rerelease, especially that promised PC port. After all, its similar contemporary killer7 has already done well nowadays.

[@reijek990]

@@michaelandreipalon359 You'll be waiting for a long time. The company that made it (Clover Studios) is now gone. It was their last game. Viewtiful Joe, Okami and God Hand were all very unique games is a good legacy I guess.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

@@reijek990 I still have hope, especially with Ōkami having good modern releases nowadays. Not sure about Viewtiful Joe, though, what with them never finishing that series.

[@KokNoker]

Well that, and it's not PC enough to be released without stripping a lot of the game away. The Twins tend to make a number of assholes itchy (pun very much intended)

[@kingspilly4381]

Lisa the Painful has two bosses that you're meant to lose to, but will give you a game over if you beat them.

[@PrinceSilvermane]

Speaking of dynamic Difficulties punishing you for being too good at the game, Arcade SHMUP Battle Garegga has a deep ranking system that steadily increases the difficulty and lowers it depending on how well you're doing. Being TOO good actually makes it fairly close to being impossible with the amount of bullets and health enemies end up with. People aiming for high scores regularly suicide to reduce their rank and keep things reasonable for a human to do.

[@kingol4801]

Which is kinda the work-around. Suicide should not drop the difficulty. The game should detect the intended suicides and punish that as well. It can use something more annoying and time wasteful like aim/shot accuracy (except outside of combat it does not count shots as well). So, if you want to purposefully to lower difficulty, you HAVE to go out of your way and shoot rounds during combat, all whilst risking dying and setting back ten game progress (restating half an hour back at a forced checkpoint). Essentially make the speed-running so frustrating and inefficient that it is not worth doing.

[@sublimingmule6356]

Has anyone ever told you all, we love the subtext you give to each entry? Such a fun detail, and how they're all basically puns, really makes my day sometimes. Just wanted to make sure you know I love that.

[@ChrisOsberg]

Speaking of insane dynamic difficulty, Epistory. My fingers burst into flames and my mind melted when it reached it's final difficulty level.

[@NewExile]

Does it dial it back down when you lose? I may be starting that myself soon.

[@ChrisOsberg]

@@NewExile Heheh, I never found out. After a couple of tries, I realized something was up, and turned off dynamic difficulty in the settings.

[@NewExile]

@@ChrisOsberg Sometimes it's just best to bite the bullet and get on with it. I say this as someone who is *terrible* at lowering difficulty levels...

[@glassphoenix9095]

i didnt think it was possible for a david cage game to have a stupider plot beat than "the murderer was you all along, we just refused to show you that time you literally murdered a guy mid-chapter" but i have to say "if you remember to hide the murder weapon we'll put it in a random spot and refuse to tell you" has got to be up there

[@jamesbuc6116]

If you ever do another one of these, I'd look at the arcade game "In the Hunt" which is brutally difficult and if you somehow manage to clear the game in one continue, you are thrown into the worst ending. Possibly as a punishment for the game presuming you're cheating.

[@jorvach9874]

In Dissidia Duodecim Final Fantasy, in the tutorial, if you say you're a master at the game and don't need a tutorial, you get immediately dumped into a fight against a level 100 Feral Chaos (the hardest boss in the game) as a level 1 Warrior of Light!

[@roguishpaladin]

The original Homeworld can be infamous for this. It's possible to take over enemy ships, so a careful player can seize a bunch of ion frigates in one of the first few missions. Sounds great, right? The problem is that the game balances the enemy fleets based on your fleet size, so those ion frigates will result in very difficult subsequent battles.

[@jamesphillips2285]

There is an old DOS game designed for BBS use called "cannons and catapults" that had and automatic difficulty adjustment. If users started to with against the Computer opponent too many times it would start to cheat. As an example your assassins would get killed by the first 1 or 2 guards; while King Computer's assassins would get past 20 guards.

[@darkzen134]

the outside team is so adorable to watch, they are like the blue clues of video game media.

[@Dandamayn]

Fallout New Vegas. The blood money dlc introduces Dean Domino, a charismatic ghoul with grand heist ambitions. If you are too competent (you pass to many skill checks) he sees you as a threat and you will be forced to kill him.

[@ArkaneStephanie]

Sometime Jigsaw does these extreme and deadly puzzles, sometimes he just needs you to fix his wiring. These traps don't build themselves you know. It's a team effort.

[@DavidRBrown7]

At last, 7 games that are true to life.

[@Stephen-Fox]

Adjacent to this topic, there are a couple of RPGs where the world levels faster than you do meaning the game is easier the lower level you are. Final Fantasy VIII is the biggest example of that (and also has a secondary system that doesn't count towards your level but does make you stronger, and if you turn your enemies into playing cards you gain the XP that goes towards that but not towards you level), but also Roguelike ADOM (Ancient Domains of Mystery) has a specific enemy - at least prior to the 2012 steam release of the game, I'm not sure if this was patched in that - that levelled up faster than you did, meaning if you encountered them early in the game they were pushovers - well, as pushover as any enemy gets in traditional roguelikes - while if you encountered them late game they were absolute nightmares.

[@flaminyawn]

The SNES game 7th Saga is a good example of that. The US version, at least, because the localization team wanted to extend the play time of the game, so whichever of the seven playable characters you choose as your main, their stat growth is nerfed a bit whenever you level up. The problem was that the other six characters you could have chosen are on the same quest you are, and some of them will fight you at various points in the story. And not only does the difficulty of these fights scale because they level up to match yours, but they scale HIGHER because they didn't get the same nerfing that the playable character gets. So you need to thread a needle of grinding just enough to be able to tackle the normal encounters and bosses without making it impossible to survive your encounters with the other characters.

[@MarkDeSade100]

@@flaminyawn I played that game a long time ago and I quit because I found it too difficult and grindy. Now I know why.

[@KasumiRINA]

Another game that does the FFVIII thing withevel scaling AND a separate system that affects your power more is the Last Remnant.

[@theydonothing1]

Cough, Oblivion, cough.

[@NewExile]

Ultima 8 was like that - by the time I got new cool spells the enemies had learned to shrug them off.

[@knowbuddynose]

In Dragon Age Origins, if you fight your way through the massive ambush at the end of Howe’s mansion instead of surrendering or being defeated, you end up skipping a whole portion of the story, the prison escape. You lose out on all the hijinks!

[@ianmitchell5979]

Something I HATE about Indigo Prophecy is that you can do everything possible to elude the cops, so that you hide the evidence good as Lucas, and fail to uncover as much as possible as the cops, but they will still figure out it's you later in the game.

[@StraightOuttaJarhois]

You could make a list of 7 times there were weird peeing scenes, but they'd all be David Cage games.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

That Deadpool game has one.

[@1337m4n]

Kojima games have some as well.

[@badtimesallaround]

Inscryption's got a mean one where if you get to phase 2 angler on the first run, he populates his entire board with bears, meaning it's pretty much gg.

[@wbfaulk]

Max Payne had the same mechanic of becoming more difficult if you were good at it, but, IIRC, it didn't really tell you about it. And you got some sort of bonus for doing well, and save points were easy. So, if you were like me, and you continually replayed scenes until you did them perfectly, you thought it was an incredibly hard game. Turns out if I'd just been satisfied with my first attempts, it would have stopped kicking my ass, which I didn't find out until after I'd beaten the game.

[@MsStLiz]

They very much did mention the dynamic difficulty right on the first page of the instruction manual. I remember reading it in the car on the way home and thinking that was So Cool.

[@wbfaulk]

@@MsStLiz It's possible I'm an idiot.

[@aidanmillow566]

One "fun" instance of this (although it's not actually so much about skill) is in Final Fantasy XIV in the dungeon Haukke Manor (Hard): The boss summons enemies at various breakpoints and then you have some time to damage them before the boss will kill them and damage the party based on their remaining health. If the boss' health is too low when it summons the third add then it will instantly kill it from full health which will wipe the party. There is no indicator that this will happen and most groups that do it now days will have gear good enough that if you do the fight without keeping this in mind then you probably will damage the boss too much and force a wipe.

[@mattrichardson5339]

I've had this happen so often, it's kinda amusing to tell the party to stop being good and dps slower. Alternatively if the tank is a Paladin, they can cover the healer before she nukes the party

[@kingol4801]

Which is a great mechanic.

[@ZoeBateman]

How about in Metal Gear Solid, where you have to mash a button while Snake is being electrocuted, but the game supposedly detects if you're using some kind of turbo/autofire mode? I pride myself on being pretty good at speedy button mashing and have been failed at that point even though I've never even owned a controller with a turbo function.

[@KasumiRINA]

Ocelot threatens that but am not sure if it's implemented. What game DOES punish you for is that surviving torture and getting the best ending will make it harder than getting the bad one... Why? The good ending item is bandana that gives you infinite ammo. But it's a stealth game. Bad ending gives you stealth device and you are COMPLETELY invisible while wearing it. You can kill every guard without alarms by just choking them anyway. Another example is MGS3 where the Sorrow boss fight is just a slog through the river dodging ghosts... Of enemies you killed so of you got the lowest kill count it's easier. That is more punishing for being aggressive and rewarding being good at stealth so it's not inverted.

[@gokublack8342]

@KasumiR I'll give you another one for MGS3. The End Boss fight. If you save your game before you go fight him and dont play a week or 2 and come back when you find him he's already dead(He died of old age waiting on you) he was on the verge of death and wanted to die in a battle with you but you denied him that

[@abigails4088]

@@gokublack8342 or just change the console's date in settings.

[@drewidlifestyle7883]

Would love a list of “x times games don’t let you do what they want” I’m sure there’s a better title But an example In GTAV when Trevor digs up Brad the game makes you fight back to the car where you are caught and forced to surrender however knowing that you are not allowed to surrender and skip the firefight

[@azuredragoon2054]

Digimon World: next 0rder does this quite a bit as well. Several side quests ask for rather generic criteria. Like "a digivolution material for a Dark Digimon". But instead, it has a very arbitrary list of what actually qualifies for each of these quests.

[@ScoopedKiwis]

That one quest in Skyrim “Blood on the ice” (I think that’s it’s name) is notorious for having a chance to just… not allow you to talk to a guy, who you _need_ to talk to to progress the quest. If it does break, nothing you can do either. It’s forever broken (at least on that save). Luckily it’s not an important quest, but it’s quite annoying

[@KasumiRINA]

Tons of games where a fight ends with you knocked out and captured, but only after you beat the level. Losing earlier doesn't count and forces you to restart until you "win" and lose in a cutscene. Only game that did it right was Mass Effect 2, Object Rho fight in Arrival DLC: you are supposed to be overwhelmed but the fight is winnable (but very hard). Winning it still knocks you out with a shockwave but nets an achievement (in-game too, literally a medal on stand) making it an optional challenge. Bosses you spare after killing tons to get to them are just as grating... also, impassable waist-high fences. Any time you are clearly able to do what you need but cannot due to game mechanics.

[@mar_speedman]

@@KasumiRINA I was really surprised when the game continued after I died. I was playing on Insanity and of course, you're on your own in that quest, so it's a very difficult fight. It really felt doable though and I was almost sure I could win despite the challenge. Did see the battle through to the end once, though. Not the first time, though. Got thoroughly destroyed

[@demon-x3250]

In Midnight Club LA, There are time trial races which as the name suggests, you are tasked to beat a target time but here's the catch. The mission is actually required to beat 3 times, beating it a 3rd time wins you a car. The first time, the timer seems super easy. But dont think for a second that the 2nd time around will be a cake walk if you did the first round too well, because the game is programmed in that the target time for the 2nd is about 1 or so seconds faster than your best time in the 1st round and will also be faster again in the 3rd round. So you are actively making a challenge harder for yourself if you do well the first time, and it will be even harder the third time around since you have to make an even faster time than what you did the 2nd time. The best strategy for this is to purposely slow down so that the time you post in the first round is near the target time, doing the same the 2nd round and be free to go all out the 3rd.

[@DaZebraffe]

One could argue that the first Disgaea game does this. Early on, there's a boss fight that you're *supposed* to lose, but if you get strong enough beforehand, it's actually possible to win, and you even get a special secret ending! ....the trouble is, it's considered one of the game's bad endings.

[@ProfNekko]

a lot of disgaea games do that. In the first game the unwinnable fight you can win without punishment and continue, but in the second game on any time you beat the "unwinnable" fights you get a special bad ending ranging from the characters whining about how you derailed the plot or throwing a tantrum and blowing up the planet in response.

[@bayardkyyako7427]

Other way around, you're intended to win and losing is just a way of accessing NG+ or SRS, longinus, etc. early

[@ProfNekko]

@bayardkyyako7427 oh I was talking about the alternate overlord fight from the first game which you could win without penalty. You're talking about the Mid Boss ending

[@bayardkyyako7427]

@@ProfNekko I was responding to OP but I know very well the fight you're talking about because its one of few times D1 doesn't have some snappy or sassy response for the player for something that should have been impossible.

[@trustyourforce4041]

Something similar happens in Banjo-Kazooie. The sled race in Freezy-Eezy Peak also has rubberband AI. I beat it by accidental messing up.

[@JaneXemylixa]

About the "game is harder if you're good" thing: in Civ6, it's easier to achieve Golden Age if you're in a Normal or Dark Age in the previous era, since otherwise the game goes "cool! now let's see you do _better!"_

[@legacytag]

4:15 "Ratiocination" That is my new word for the day! Thanks Mike!

[@potatolord7284]

9:59 I was litterally playing this game today like a couple hours ago and managed to beat the final boss with the A variant of the cloaking ship

[@Andrew.J.Markle]

The FTL one is actually surprisingly easy to bypass. Just leave one of the gunners alive in the front, and have yourself a merry old time. I typically accomplish this by sending mantises to the door security on the other ship and targeted their medbays so they cant heal. Bonus points if you have a laser to damage their o2 and engines. After cycling mantises or trained fighters all you have is one gunner in an area they cant leave. This way the AI doesnt take over and you can spend the next two rounds without a worry

[@ryadinstormblessed8308]

Haven't played Undertale yet, but I've learned enough from your list videos to know that any time there's a topic of "7 Times Games Punished You For..." this game will always be on the list, or deserve to be.

[@elstarnor4628]

Undertale is only ten dollars on Steam. Better late than never!

[@ryadinstormblessed8308]

@@elstarnor4628 ah, so I'll get to experience all that punishment I've heard so much about? 😂😂 Maybe 😁

[@Kleyguerth]

@@ryadinstormblessed8308 It's worth it, every bit of punishment that game dishes out is deserved and worth it!

[@SimuLord]

Undertale is a very polarizing game...you'll either embrace what it's offering or you'll bounce hard off it when the heavy-handed way it delivers its message crosses the line into "this isn't fun anymore, screw this."

[@ryadinstormblessed8308]

@@SimuLord thanks for the heads up. I have a feeling I'd be in that second category. It's fun to watch videos about the interesting parts of it, and I'd probably enjoy some of it, but I imagine I'd get fed up too.

[@st.haborym]

I remember being too good at x-com 1 one time, and the game sent a fucking battleship to wipe out my one base within the first couple of months. I'd heard rumors that this was the case, but to actually experience it first hand was really something else.

[@Cylioss]

I loved Indigo Prophecy. It was years later I found out it was actually called Frequency everywhere else, though. I haven't gotten a chance to try the remaster... But that game is really the only reason I became a fan of Theory of a Deadman.

[@santakiller2gt489]

oop i randomly stumbled onto theory of a deadman's music due to enjoying rock music and yeah they're pretty good :D

[@cambur3]

I did this to myself in the RE7 Blackjack DLC. I figured out my opponent had 21 and used 'the opponent draws the best card for them' to win the round before the round it's mandatory to continue the game. 😹

[@aazelion5189]

In Demon’s Souls if you kill the tutorial boss and continue exploring the area you get one shot by the Darvon God

[@andrewsanders17]

7:12 I remember this game took like 200 attempts to beat the game on maximum die difficulty. Had many resets simply because the difficulty drops due to getting hit by a combo.

[@skyinferno44]

I came here just to comment that you forgot Indigo Prophecy, just to be surprised that someone else played that game. One of my classic favorites! I was gonna say the part later where (spoilers) if you get the timing sequence correct while talking to the detective at your office, you fail because you're supposed to ignore your powers to progress. I failed over and over because I kept doing it "correctly".

[@TheMaddgodd81]

I've played FTL many times, and I never knew that an AI could take over the ship. Mostly because I never beam over to other ships.

[@iateitguy903]

I think I managed it with just the guns exactly once. I think it had something to do with fire or oxygen. Saw what was happening and knew my run was over.

[@meisa3379]

I remember hearing that part of the reason the Blue Shell item was introduced in Mario Kart 64 was because the N64 couldn't actually process racer positions for the whole 3D track area at once. So, if a player got too far ahead of the CPU racers, a Blue Shell would automatically be released to reduce the player's lead distance as a precaution to keep the game from crashing. But, it kind of ended up adding an extra "something" that it turned out the game needed to keep races tense, so despite some of its controversy among the Mario Kart fanbase it has stayed in ever since. Long after the original memory-limit safeguard was no longer needed.

[@nathankurtz8045]

Don't the CPU racers rubberband regardless?

[@BaddeJimme]

I find that hard to believe: 1) The game seems to work just fine when the player gets a large lead, for example in speed runs. 2) The blue shell does not solve the problem effectively, for instance it does not prevent the CPU racers getting a large lead over a slow player. 3) Large shortcuts such as at Rainbow Road would not be left in the game if taking them could crash it. I think the blue shell was invented to make the game more chaotic and less skill based, which is a design philosophy you see in other multi player Nintendo games like Smash Bros and Mario Party.

[@MarkLiddell]

I've possibly commented this before but in Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings on the DS, achieving 100% story completion before the final boss raises said boss and all of his support enemies to level 99. I discovered this after finishing 100% of the story (and at nowhere near level 99 myself).

[@RaceBandit]

Metroid Fusion similarly power-creeps the SA-X fight at the end if you found everything.

[@PiePierrot]

4:27 The funny thing is, even before Sherlock Holmes was out of copyright another famous writer, Maurice Leblanc, wrote the Arsene Lupin stories and in one he pits his gentleman thief against the great detective. Maurice Leblanc and Sir Arthur Conan O'Doyle were contemporaries, and Leblanc admired O'Doyle's stories. Sadly O'Doyle was not pleased and I think sued or threatened to sue Leblanc, so Leblanc was forced to change the name of the famous detective that tries to catch Arsene Lupin from Sherlock Holmes to, I kid you not, Herlock Sholmes. 😂So yeah... "Sholmes" as an alias for Holmes has been around awhile lolol.