Games which actually let you f*ck up

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I also have the urge to do these things. I guess that´s why I like the hitman series. In the predecessor of Fire Emblem 10, i.e. Path or Radiance, I just let almost everyone die (using most units as human shields without weapons) and it the playthrough on hard pretty easy. I just had a 4-men (or so) superhuman army. But this does not work in FE10 anymore. It is designed differently.

You sound like my brother. He always lets all the characters except for MC die, just because the game decides to divide the total exp earned to all members of the party. (Some games handle exp distribution differently. I prefer all members get all exp undivided)

 

[_abysswalker_]

I'm pretty sure I messed up Baldur's Gate 2 more than once - drop a quest item cause inventory is full, save and then you never find it (this was before EE came out which probably fixed all this).

On the other hand something like Dead Cells lets you f*ck up by design

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I also want to add, that I think there is soft lock potential in breath of fire 2. The game has various parts where your party members are divided for "plot" reasons. (I'll just say that since it's mostly for their character arc) but the problem comes from the aforementioned exp issue I mentioned already. Very early in the game, you party gets large enough that requires managing and swapping characters. If you don't use certain characters enough to make them strong, it possible to end up being stuck with them in unwinnable fight. Can I just say I don't like this kind of design? EXP systems should be handled better.

I just want RPGs that have
Good pacing
Short "grinding" Sessions (if you must do it at all)
cohesive story that doesn't have too many things going on at the same time, forcing multitude of cut-a-ways for each of the segments.

I hope I'm not asking for too much.

 

[JuanMena]

Probably SNK vs CAPCOM 2

I can easily get 1000 points before fighting Bison... and when I get to Shin Akuma the fucker beats both of my characters with less than 10 attacks.

Of course, you have the option to continue the fight... but what's the point when I know that's going to be the same?

I hadn't fought Omega Rugal though... I guess that'd be harder than Akuma.

 

[HelpTheWretched]

Sierra adventure games were my jam as a kid, but they all had numerous cases where if you missed something near the beginning, you'd be screwed much later, usually after several points-of-no-return.

King's Quest 5 and 6 were fantastic though, well worth playing even after all these years.

 

[godreborn]

Congratulations on beating fire emblem. I never really gave it a honest try since I found it more intimidating to play through. I'm more of the guy who prefer not having a 15 minute battle on the same map with large groups of enemies in a tactical manner. So I guess people could say I'm just not good at these games. (Even though I think shining force is a bit easier to play) For the record, there is more reasons than it's gameplay that doesn't excite me enough to play it. But that's for another time I guess.

Honestly, i feel like this problem happens often when I Play rpg games (And if you think I'm bad at that too, not all of them, but some) Perhaps is more of a me problem than a developer problem. But i prefer to think of it as "I played it such a unique way that only I had this problem with the game, that developers didn't account for when creating" If it sounds like a bad excuse for me being bad at the game, well It can be, but it's more like "Devs didn't count on me doing this did they"

Though the only time I really encountered such a problem was final fantasy tactics, for reasons I didn't understand when playing it. Similar things happen in Final Fantasy 8 as well. Part of the reason why I don't like Most RPG games is because it doesn't feel like it was designed for the way I play them or "want to play" them. It's meant for people to play it the way it was designed to play which if that's the only way to play it, and it's not a fun way to play it then it not a good game cause I can't do anything about that. (Does that make sense?)

For a real example that no one mentioned yet, Phantasy star's CLASSIC series has problems. (These existed before the online one)

If you're ever going to experience the very first one, you're best bet is to do it with the "SEGA AGES" edition of the game. Not only does it make the pacing faster than the original (which is mostly why I dislike RPG) this version of the game includes a manual that flatout says "original game issues"

Instead of fixing them, they just tell you what they are, and oh boy....

View attachment 205118

THREE SOFT LOCKS! This game had some oversights or just was rushed. Not good. Though it doesn't stop there since the other games in the series do have some softlocks even if it's not the same situations as this one.

I bought the sega ages phantasy star. thanks for the heads up.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I bought the sega ages phantasy star. thanks for the heads up.

Don't thank me, thank M2 for finally making this game more "Playable" enjoyable for a much streamline audience. Even if they didn't right out fix the problems, least they tell you about them and how to avoid it. Something that people may not have done when re-releasing the same thing.

(Seriously, sega ages is the best way to play these games for cheap.)

 

[godreborn]

Don't thank me, thank M2 for finally making this game more "Playable" enjoyable for a much streamline audience. Even if they didn't right out fix the problems, least they tell you about them and how to avoid it. Something that people may not have done when re-releasing the same thing.

(Seriously, sega ages is the best way to play these games for cheap.)

this may be a stupid question, but how do you access the digital manual with switch games?

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

this may be a stupid question, but how do you access the digital manual with switch games?

In sega ages, you should be able to get the manual at the main menu of the game. But you need internet connection to do so because is online. So if you want to view it on a browser like pc or mobile. https://manuals.sega.com/sega-ages/ the games themself link to this page in the browser on switch.

 

[WarioWaffles]

MMORPGs are pretty big on this I remember maplestory would charge exorbitant amounts of real money to re-spec stats one point at a time.

 

[UltraDolphinRevolution]

Probably SNK vs CAPCOM 2

I can easily get 1000 points before fighting Bison... and when I get to Shin Akuma the fucker beats both of my characters with less than 10 attacks.

Of course, you have the option to continue the fight... but what's the point when I know that's going to be the same?

I hadn't fought Omega Rugal though... I guess that'd be harder than Akuma.

It´s just a matter of difficulty. I don´t remember how I beat him but the CPU in Street Fighter games usually has something that can be exploited. Maybe it was the role (C-Cauge) and/or down-kicks. Heck, the only way I could progress at all in the very first Street Fighter (C64 for me) was just spamming downkicks. XD

 

[JuanMena]

It´s just a matter of difficulty. I don´t remember how I beat him but the CPU in Street Fighter games usually has something that can be exploited. Maybe it was the role (C-Cauge) and/or down-kicks. Heck, the only way I could progress at all in the very first Street Fighter (C64 for me) was just spamming downkicks. XD

Nah, there's something strange with this game...
Shin Akuma with certain gauges is impossible.
The only time I sort of got his life way down was when he used the N Groove.
But most of the times is C Groove.

 

[RichardTheKing]

Well, Super Paper Mario has a couple fun "Game Over"s, caused by the player refusing someone's demands; that's my personal favourite.

I don't think this is what you were really looking for, but still.

 

[GBADWB]

Baten Kaitos Origins on the gamecube.

At the end of disc 1, it will ask you if you want to save. Immediately after starting disc 2, is a cutscene followed by a very difficult boss. If your party/deck was not strong enough, and you saved at the end of disc one for the disk swap, you had to start the game over, because you can't grind between discs.

 

[HelpTheWretched]

You probably want games that let you mess up by design, rather than due to bugs, but I just remembered that Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword both had progress-halting bugs fairly late into the games. In TP you'd get permanently stuck in a small room if you save and quit while inside it, and I forget the details about SS but it involves talking to a goron at a certain point during a quest, at which point I think the proper dialog to continue never appears.

 

[E1ite007]

What about Pokémon Ruby? There're some ways to get trapped, like in this video:



Or a Pikasprey video where he "softlock" his game with Electrode:



And I also think Pikasprey has other videos for other Pokémon games like Red and Blue.

 

[Taleweaver]

On the other hand something like Dead Cells lets you f*ck up by design

Erm... How is that, exactly? It's a rogue lite. The worst fuck up I can think of is to grind for perks that don't do much, but since you're constantly restarting anyway I don't see how it is a fuck up (as intended in op) to begin with. Or am I missing something?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Well, Super Paper Mario has a couple fun "Game Over"s, caused by the player refusing someone's demands; that's my personal favourite.

I can think of only one, but that one isn't a fuck up, indeed. I mean... If you repeat three times that you don't want to do the (clear and obvious) main quest, then you literally ASK for a game over.

 

[RichardTheKing]

I can think of only one, but that one isn't a fuck up, indeed. I mean... If you repeat three times that you don't want to do the (clear and obvious) main quest, then you literally ASK for a game over.

The beginning of the game, where you can refuse to even start the quest; entering space and refusing to put on a (fish bowl!) helmet; agreeing to become brainwashed slaves at the end of the game.
Those are the three I remember right now.

 

[666nyan666]

Final Fantasy VI is the only time I ever got stuck with no hope in sight. My issue arose during the last dungeon when the party is split in half. I put my main party in one group and everyone else in the other. Made some progress, saved, switch to the other party and that was it. Everyone still had low level gear, barely any of their skills and were severely outmatched by the enemies. This was my only save too so it wasn't like i could go back before the point of no return and prepare my other characters properly. I was stuck and annoyed, so I bailed. Shame too. I wanted to see the ending.

 

[Wii_Shaker]

Poke'mon will always be the classic example for me.

I once started a new game on a friend's cart at a birthday party sleepover. I didn't know that there was only the one save slot. I essentially saved over hours of progress, including old-school link cable trading. I felt like a jackass. To make things worse, I picked Charmander so my friend had to play through my save, with my guy and grind through the toughest part of the game with a difficult starter poke'mon.

Really any game that allows you to delete or save over another file on accident is begging for this to happen. I've done this with Oblivion/ Skyrim/ Fallout too many times to even be bothered coming up with examples.