Game stopping mistakes

[Arcobalen]

I'm not sure if the name of the thread is accurate.

Anyhow, I want to know if you have been playing a game, make a mistake, and can't continue with the game from there.

I started playing Fallout 1 a few days ago and got to the Brotherhood of Steel. They told me to go the Glow, which gives out radiation like modern shooters give out bullets. Then I decided to explore the entire area(without rad-x or rad away). Now I can't leave without dying instantly when leaving the area. Without cheating or restarting, I can't do anything now.

 

[Pink Gregory]

I'm not sure if the name of the thread is accurate.

Anyhow, I want to know if you have been playing a game, make a mistake, and can't continue with the game from there.

I started playing Fallout 1 a few days ago and got to the Brotherhood of Steel. They told me to go the Glow, which gives out radiation like modern shooters give out bullets. Then I decided to explore the entire area(without rad-x or rad away). Now I can't leave without dying instantly when leaving the area. Without cheating or restarting, I can't do anything now.

Ah, that exact same thing happened to me.

I can't remember if I did a complete restart after that...

 

[distortedreality]

Got stuck in Monkey Island 2 once, can't remember how but I couldn't progress any further, completely fucked it up.

The upside was that I was stuck on the island where the spitting contest was, so at least Guybrush could spit away and defend his title to the death.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I feel like I might have screwed myself in Wild Arms. I have to use 2 Duplicators to get from the Elw Temple south-west Port Temny and out of the Elw Temple nearby Sand River. The problem though is, I only had one Duplicator to use and I don't know where to go to find any more or indeed if I am even able to backtrack far enough to find any. The last major town I was in before Port Temny was on another continent from what I remember and I went from there to Temny's island via celestial teleportation that I can't really control. I'll have to check again before I color myself screwed of course but I'm feeling kind of boned.

 

[Starik20X6]

I can't remember any times this has happened to me, but I have nightmares about doing this in a Zelda dungeon. Not sure if it's actually possible to do in any of them, but I'm always nervous that the last key in my inventory I just used was supposed to be used in another door...

 

[Ghonesis]

I played a JRPG once, and when I got to the last boss fight (at least I thought it was), I just couldn't beat him.
I was underleveled and should have grinded more, but I couldn't go back. The door was just closed. >_<
So I quit: wasn't about to replay about 50 hours of gameplay just to beat the final boss, it wasn't the best game I played anyway.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

I can't remember any times this has happened to me, but I have nightmares about doing this in a Zelda dungeon. Not sure if it's actually possible to do in any of them, but I'm always nervous that the last key in my inventory I just used was supposed to be used in another door...

They've always been very careful about that in Zelda games. It's almost impossible to get yourself permanently stuck in them without finding a glitch/bug that accidentally traps you. Other than that, if it seems like you're stuck, it's pretty much always just because you've overlooked something.

There were always a lot of ways to get yourself trapped like that in old adventure games, which in hindsight was terrible game design. I don't know why we ever put up with that kind of crap. Missed picking up some random item in the first 20 minutes of the game or used/dropped it somewhere you weren't supposed to? Good job! Now you're stuck five hours later and can't finish the game! Your options are to either start over or set it on fire and never play it again because that's a bunch of bullshit. Heh.

 

[Mnixos]

No really the same thing but I'll always remember when my ps2 bugged while erasing my end-game save at GTAIII: new save not done and old save deleted.

Since that day I always make sur to have 2 saves and erasing them one after another

 

[KissmahArceus]

Had this issue in FF3, got to last boss and get my ass smashed everytime, turns out my party should be higher levels, I just can't be arsed grinding so I traded it in. No biggie

 

[WoW Killer]

I seem to remember Baldur's Gate had a few of those. Like if you did the wrong quests in the wrong order and stuff. Also, Ragnarok. It had perma-death by default, but even if you patched that out there were plenty of ways to wreck a playthrough. I remember there were these mobs that replicated themselves, and you could use them to level up early on. But I got myself stuck once where they were spawning faster than I could kill them. There was also stupid stuff like if you didn't level up the right classes then you wouldn't learn to swim, so you couldn't get past certain water sections.

 

[Jinjer]

Ever played an RPG, found some seemingly useless item, dropped it somewhere, only to later realize it was needed to open some kind of door? And then you can't remember where you left it? Arx Fatalis, I'm looking at you.

 

[sextus the crazy]

I remember a friend of mine ran out of cash in the original pokemon games and couldn't afford to go to the safari zone to get the HMs necessary for plot advancement.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

There have been a few times (mainly thinking of Bethesda RPGs) where I have Quicksaved where i'm about to die and haven't realised it. If it weren't for the ability to use console commands on the PC i'd probably of had to go back anywhere from an 1-6 hours... Curse my over-reliance on quick saving.

Also in recent games i've been playing with permadeath (Day Z, FTL, XCOM) one mistake could result in you having to start over again but that's all part of the fun.

 

[Dogstile]

I remember a friend of mine ran out of cash in the original pokemon games and couldn't afford to go to the safari zone to get the HMs necessary for plot advancement.

I... I didn't think that was possible...

I need to go re-evaluate my life.

 

[RJ 17]

That's why you always...always....ALWAYS make multiple saves in RPGs. It's Rule #2, right behind "Search EVERYWHERE/THING". It's a lesson I learned back in Final Fantasy Tactics for the original PlayStation.

At the end of Chapter 3, here's a series of battles that you have to fight one after another, and they're all pretty damn tough, anyone that's played the game knows what I'm talking about. It's when you have to face the 2nd Zodiac Monster that Wiegraf becomes. Between each battle it gives you the chance to save...if you do so, there truly is no going back unless you've got another save. And it's very easy for those fights to be impossible.

First you get a 1v1 match between Wiegraf as a human. He has super sword attacks that can REALLY ruin your day, and a shield with a good block rating. Pretty much if you fail to kill him on your first turn then you're boned.

Then he transforms into his monster form and summons up some demons, at which point the rest of your group joins in. All of the spells he casts are massive and high-damaging, and the demons aren't any fun either.

After defeating him, though, comes the most bullshit of the fights that you must once again win on your first turn (and have someone both strong and fast enough to move first and deal enough damage). Up on the rooftop, you get into a fight where if the enemies kill a friendly NPC you lose. Unless you have someone with Teleport or Ignore Height, you'll never get to them in time.

Anyways, the point being that the end of Chapter 3 in FFT is very easy to get stuck on if you're unprepared, and if you saved between the battles, you might as well restart. To answer the question of the thread, though, I've never completely walked away from a game when something like this happens. I might get pissed off and not pay it for a week. But sooner or later I'll bite the bullet and just start up a new game if it's absolutely clear that there's no way I'll be advancing.

 

[Kekkonen1]

When I accidently shot my fully levelled psychic sniper in Xcom Ironman-mode Classic Difficulty instead of shooting the alien that mind-controlled him. I forgot that you could target mind-control victims as well so when I quickly pushed shoot my other sniper shot my super-sniper, he died and since he was my only psychic soldier at that point I just felt so demoralized that I never finished that particular session.

 

[Harker067]

Lets see I think i messed up the Zelda OoT water temple so i was missing a key or something?

Also Eternal darkness I missed one rune that wasn't needed in the temple level and then couldn't summon a zombie to sit on a pressure plate later on. Those are the 2 that come to mind.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

I can only think of 2 examples.

In a game called The Summoning, you pretty much need to pick up and KEEP absolutely EVERYTHING because chances are its required at some point. Well its perhaps not quite so bad as that, but if you aren't careful you can easily screw yourself over and it will be days or weeks before you realize it. Generally you can go back and find stuff, but once you enter The Citadel, you're pretty much stuck there.

And if you don't have enough white and black pearls for the arbitrary insert THIS doodad HERE puzzles you are boned. Of course you could always enter the sewers to make your way back outside The Citadel, but that's like setting foot into the Labyrinth from the center and trying to find your way to an unknown point on the perimiter. If there is a map of the god damned sewers in The Summoning, or if its even possible to get through them from the Citadel Side, I can tell you that there wasn't back in 1997ish.

Luckily I was used to having to start that game over again by then. Seriously that game consumed my friend and I's summer that year. All the endings are pretty cool too. But there are so many teleporter mazes and pressure plate/switch puzzles. But it did feature one particular item that was especially awesome.

The Odin Rune. It can become just about ANY other item in the game, or it can randomly change your sex. Always save before using one. ALWAYS.

The other example of a game stopping mistake is actually one made by Nintendo. I was playing Metroid: Other M and got to a point where a door that was supposed to always be open, was locked.

I spent hours looking for what I had missed, to no avail. I finally saw online that there was a major bug that happened if you should decide to backtrack out of the sector to look for upgrades instead of continuing past that door. If you do, that door NEVER UNLOCKS.

Now, why that door should even have the state of LOCKED as a valid state if there is no flag to unlock it is beyond me. Could you imagine if the door to the wrecked ship in Metroid Prime just didn't open if you happened to run through the Chozo Ruins looking for crap at the wrong time? Its not like I went out of my way to mess my game up, I went back a few rooms to grab a missile tank.

Sadly I started my game over, and in the end I didn't like the game much.