How do you feel about "lost woods" type areas in games?

[StriderShinryu]

I love the concept but they need to be fair to the player. There has to be some sort of clue system or solution given at some point to make it actually solvable without hours of random banging your head agsinst the wall. Games that give you any sort of "puzzle" that just requires random BS to solve, quite frankly, suck and it's the sort of thing that makes me stop playing altogether. That was pretty much the reason I quit playing point and click style adventure titles.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Depends on their difficulty, some involve rather complex patters that are merely trail and error which I think is just poor design because it adds nothing but frustration, I seen others where you had hints or were only sent back to the previous screen if you choose the wrong path those I find far more acceptable if not a decent way to break up more normal sections of gameplay.

Case in point, I'm pretty sure the answer to the Lost Woods puzzle in the original Legend of Zelda was buried in one of the little tips in the manual. It didn't directly state where the part of the game that the tip applied to was found, but it was pretty darned obvious when you found it.

Edit: On the other hand, the palm tree puzzle in Final Fantasy Adventure (also known as Seiken Densetsu, as in the game that Secret of Mana was the sequel to), is an example of how to do it wrong, although it only applies to the English version. In the original Japanese, there was some sort of word play that made it obvious that you had to do a figure 8 around two palm trees. It didn't translate well into English, being rendered as something to the effect of "the secret is in the palms." Problem being that the area was /full/ of palm trees, and even if you found the two you needed, there was no clue for what you should do once you found them.

 

[Zakarath]

I don't really mind them that much. But then, I enjoyed Myst, which has WAY more convoluted puzzles than any silly lost in the woods thing.

 

[dark-mortality]

It depends. If there simply is 'Har har, we will not tell you how to proceed *Smug game*' then I will get annoyed. If it is a puzzle on the other hand *Zelda OOT'follow the music', Paper Mario'look at background'* Then I think it is okay :3

 

[Netrigan]

Leather Goddesses Of Phobis. It's not a maze as such as a really irritating bit of copy protection. First, you need the map, then you have to read the comic to discover that you have to jump every fifth step, clap every sixth step, or whatever.

 

[Ryu-Kage]

Edit: On the other hand, the palm tree puzzle in Final Fantasy Adventure (also known as Seiken Densetsu, as in the game that Secret of Mana was the sequel to), is an example of how to do it wrong, although it only applies to the English version. In the original Japanese, there was some sort of word play that made it obvious that you had to do a figure 8 around two palm trees. It didn't translate well into English, being rendered as something to the effect of "the secret is in the palms." Problem being that the area was /full/ of palm trees, and even if you found the two you needed, there was no clue for what you should do once you found them.

Thank you so much for reminding me how much I hate Secret of Mana. Because I just remembered that game had another segment like this, and it was dumb. You have to run through a desert to the north, east, west or south until you reach the end. I don't recall being given any in-game explanation of where to go (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong); you just have to go in directions. Some rooms do look different, to be fair, but they loop after a while; I think there are like five or six different rooms you can be in. But you're still not given a sense of where to go, just that you have to go somewhere. What's worse is that once you go on the right path, YOU DON'T EVEN GET TO YOUR DESTINATION! Your party passes out on the sand, and then you get abducted by a group of desert pirates. Then you have one of two segments where the party is separated where you don't even get to fight or do anything but wander around the ship looking for the sprite and the girl. There aren't any enemies until the whole party is back together, and THEN you get to fight some hoverbike-riding robot. And after that...

I have to stop here before I spend the rest of the night remembering how awful Secret of Mana is.

 

[Fleetfiend]

I'm kind of neutral about them. I think them in theory, but in execution, not so great.

Makes me think of some of the puzzles in the game Orphen: Scion of Sorcery. I kind of like the game, but some of the puzzles were frustrating.

 

[Jaeke]

Well I don't know if you can place it in the "lost woods" category but damn... The Fade section of Dragon Age: Origins is one of the most irritating experiences you will ever have in your gaming experience the first time around...

EDIT:

The Fade in Dragon Age: Origins.

At first: interesting. After that: annoying. Then also frustrating.

Dammit... everytime...

*sigh* What else...