Have you ever gotten a game into an unwinnable/unfinishable state?

[LookingGlass]

What I mean is, have you ever played a game for a while and ended up doing something like:
- In an RPG, built a character that could not progress past a certain point (e.g. too weak in combat and you found yourself up against a powerful enemy you couldn't avoid)
- Lost an item that was required to pass a certain point
- Killed an NPC you shouldn't have, without realising fast enough to load a saved game

etc


The following happened to me, with the end part being tonight:
1. I was on the home stretch of an RPG called Arx Fatalis that I'd been thoroughly enjoying for the past week or so. About halfway through the 20ish hour game, I came across a few "Akbaa rocks". They took up a few slots in my inventory and when I went to a store, they weren't worth enough to even both selling.

2. After I'd kept them for a couple of hours and found no use for them in the temple in which I found them, I dropped one of them to make room for more items. Didn't even sell it, just dropped it on the ground. Nothing is marked as a "quest item" or anything in this game.

3. 10 hours later, I get to the door leading to the final boss. I have 4 of these rocks (picked up some more in the final ara). I need 5 to open the door. There are only 5 in the game. FML. I desperately tried to figure out where the hell I might have left this thing.

4. I ended up backtracking over a couple of areas for about an hour and a half before I finally saw rock #5 sitting on top of a rock in a crypt, in what was an amazing piece of luck. I was just getting to the point of "fuck it, I have to just watch the end on youtube".

So thanks to object persistence in the world, I didn't get quite find myself with an unfinishable playthrough. But I'm sure some of you have had such a thing. Older games are probably the likely culprits. Share your stories.

 

[MurderousToaster]

Resident Evil 5 would just kick my checkpoint back a level whenever I completed the game.

I also found I couldn't complete Dragon Age: Origins on anything other than a combat-oriented character, which is one of the reasons I dislike that game. I found this out in that goddamn Mage Tower segment or whatever it was called (the part where you're separated from your entire party).

At the same part in DA:O, on a combat-oriented character, I got to the final boss after getting all of the things that should teleport my party to me back. Then it glitches out and none of them appear, rendering the encounter impossible (I was playing a dwarf, so I couldn't use those magical healing rocks).

 

[Antari]

Well I've had that happen in a few old games where I was using console codes that let me get ahead of the storyline without finishing trigger points. But outside of that, Gauntlet is the only game that has ever done that to me in normal form. All doors open with the same keys, not all doors need to be opened, if you run out your boned.

 

[Paget]

Dragon Age 2.

During the first year theres a plot mission you have to complete before advancing the game. Basically a bunch of rogue wizards are hiding in a cave. I chose to try and let them escape, it ended up me having to fight off a small group of Templars sent to kill them. The NPC that gives you the mission died during the fight so I was unable to complete the mission, the mages just stand outsaide the cave cowering like frigging puppies for eternity. I hope they all eventually starved to death because I had to start the game again.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Blue Dragon final boss. Couldnt leave area and didnt have another save before the boss encounter to level up more. That boss kicked my ass continuously.

 

[Sgt. Dante]

Yeah, autosave in a deathtrap... No hard saves... Nuff said.

 

[DasDestroyer]

Persona 3 Portable, I simply ended up being too weak to beat the boss, and in Persona you only have a set amount of time before a boss fight.

 

[Toriver]

I swear Outland has glitched out on me. I have covered every goddamn inch of the Underworld level and there is no guardian key, so I can't fight the boss. If anyone can tell me where the stupid thing is, I would be much obliged.

 

[bsmart01]

Resident Evil Code Veronica

When you are Claire you need to use the fire extinguisher a few times well i had pretty much no ammo or herbs so i had no reason to put the thing away in a chest once i was done with it .....well once you switch over to playing Chris he needs it to put out a fire thats in the way.......your supposed to just pull it out of the chest BUT NO Claire still has it stuffed down her tight ass jeans pocket. that's about 3/4 or more into the game (which is crazy long to begin with) and i save over my previous saves so no going back part way to do it right...i had to start all over.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

-snip-

How is Arx Fatalis? I'm very curious about that game! I was thinking of getting it real soon.

OT: Many Final Fantasy games. When I was younger, I'd usually derp my way through the game dragging my heels and refusing to understand the mechanics.

This was especially horrible in FF8, when got to like the 2nd disc and still didn't understand what the hell junctioning did. So I sent my weakest party members to the Galbadia rocket base, didn't junction anything to their stats, and raged for hours while I watched that tank murder my party repeatedly.

I couldn't do it now matter how hard I tried. So I restarted the game.

 

[Furioso]

Every Pokemon game, kind of, whenever I get to the elite 4 my strategy is to blow all my cash and then throw myself at them until I win, using items only on the try where I know I can win. Why you might ask? I hate training in the victory road, its that stupid and simple

 

[Koroviev]

I swear Outland has glitched out on me. I have covered every goddamn inch of the Underworld level and there is no guardian key, so I can't fight the boss. If anyone can tell me where the stupid thing is, I would be much obliged.

Have you looked at the map? The map should tell you where it is.

 

[Mr Thin]

Yes, but it was more due to a lack of skill on my part than any broken game feature.

I was playing Dawn of War, an RTS if you don't know, and it was a 1v1 bot match, me as Space Marines, the bots as Chaos. We'd been playing for a while, and had gotten to the point where we were producing resources faster than we could spend it.

It basically got to the point where we both spammed units from multiple unit production facilities, and smashed them together in the middle of the map, in a constant, unending melee (that also included rockets and plasma).

This battle went on for over an hour, non-stop, neither of us gaining any ground, before I finally called it quits and exited the game. It simply would not end.

 

[Velorien]

Final Fantasy IX. A random encounter. Garnet, being the party healer, has a very powerful weapon that heals instead of damaging.

"Aha, these monsters aren't very powerful, I think I'll try out Freya's new skill to see what it does..."

The skill turns out to inflict the Berserk status effect on the entire party. Berserk doubles the subject's attack power, makes them more vulnerable to damage, and makes them uncontrollable.

Now in theory this would turn the battle into a curb stomp. But here's how it played out:

1) First three party members attack. Monster is heavily damaged.
2) Garnet attacks with her healing weapon. Monster is healed to full health.
3) Monster attacks. A party member takes damage.
4) The Auto-Regen skill heals said party member to full health.
5) GOTO 1.

Repeat until player finishes beating head against wall and switches off console.

 

[Toriver]

I swear Outland has glitched out on me. I have covered every goddamn inch of the Underworld level and there is no guardian key, so I can't fight the boss. If anyone can tell me where the stupid thing is, I would be much obliged.

Have you looked at the map? The map should tell you where it is.

I have looked at the map many times. It's not there at all. I'm guessing, then, that the game truly has glitched out on me, and if it doesn't work on another playthrough I may actually have to re-download it.

 

[Koroviev]

I swear Outland has glitched out on me. I have covered every goddamn inch of the Underworld level and there is no guardian key, so I can't fight the boss. If anyone can tell me where the stupid thing is, I would be much obliged.

Have you looked at the map? The map should tell you where it is.

I have looked at the map many times. It's not there at all. I'm guessing, then, that the game truly has glitched out on me, and if it doesn't work on another playthrough I may actually have to re-download it.

I would take one last look at the map first. The key sort of blends in at times. Failing that, do what you have to do...and then angrily detail your travail to Housemarque.

 

[imnot]

I also found I couldn't complete Dragon Age: Origins on anything other than a combat-oriented character, which is one of the reasons I dislike that game. I found this out in that goddamn Mage Tower segment or whatever it was called (the part where you're separated from your entire party).

Uh same, I gave up on that game about 10 hous in, its just stupidly padded and difficult, I might go revisit it somewhen though.

 

[Smokej]

well if you have played classic point&click and textbased adventures this state wasn't something unusual

 

[LookingGlass]

-snip-

How is Arx Fatalis? I'm very curious about that game! I was thinking of getting it real soon.

I really thought it was great. A few problems -- including the lack of quest item marking that caused the problem mentioned in this thread -- that led me to online FAQs/walkthroughs, but they were far outweighed by what the game does well. I wrote more here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.314925-Who-else-really-liked-Arx-Fatalis] just before I started this thread.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

My first ever playthrough of Oblivion had to be aborted because I'd maxed out the stealth skills of my Khajiit thief without increasing my marksman or light armour skills. So there I was fighting creatures levelled up to level 17-18, with my level 1 combat skills. I was also ultra frustrated to discover that even with a sneak of 100, enemies always know exactly where you are the instant the first arrow hits them. So, unable to attack from stealth and with no combat skills, I sacked my first character and generated an Orc Battlemage instead.