Things that took you a million years to realize

[Chemical Alia]

You're not the only one in that boat. Me and several others I know got stuck at the exact same part for years. That mechanic is never explained or used before then... how's a little kid supposed to figure it out!?!

Also, fuck the volcano level in Lion King. I could never get past that thing.

*Raises hand*

The worst bit of level design in any of the 16-bit Sonics, I daresay. Introduce a new gameplay element without explaining it and expect the player to psychically guess how it works. I spent like a day trying to hammer it down with Bubble Shield spam, and ended up glitching into the wall... and speaking to other former Megadrive owners, I know of at least two people who just stopped playing the game at that point.

Right? Exactly. I just kept assuming I wasn't jumping fast enough, or with the right amount of emotion.

Also, for the Lion King thing, what part of the level do you get stuck on? It's definitely the hardest level in the game, but I actually just played through it last month so it's still pretty fresh in my mind.

Yeah, it's stupid because they don't teach you or require you to use that mechanic ANYWHERE ELSE in the game! And yeah, here's what I think it says.

Spoiler

"KANT", like Immanuel Kant. Cause he's an 8-year-old genius, and that's so what he would read.

To be fair, probably the reason you didn't understand what it said when you were younger is you probably weren't very exposed to him at that time, so the reference wouldn't make sense.

That doesn't excuse thaluikhain or Sherokain, though. XD

Why, are they super old and had taken philosophy courses by then, or perhaps boy geniuses? And yeah, I think I was just trying too hard to read it as some word I already knew, like "want" or something. But that didn't look right either.

I did, however, catch the ultra clever and mature misspelled "FUCL" they wrote out in yellow blocks in one level in Commander Keen 2 in the standard galactic alphabet. And I got to the forbidden pyramid in Keen 4 BEFORE THE INTERNET. That one should go on my resume.

Spoiler

 

[Olas]

What do you see? Do you see a D? I never did. I always saw a weird backwards G thing until embarrassingly recently. As a little kid I didn't know how to read anyway, and as I got older I didn't think about it much, then a few years ago I looked at the Disney logo and "Holy crap it's a D"

To be honest it still looks weird though.

 

[Fappy]

Also, for the Lion King thing, what part of the level do you get stuck on? It's definitely the hardest level in the game, but I actually just played through it last month so it's still pretty fresh in my mind.

Last time I played was a long time ago, but if I recall I got stuck at the part right after a flaming boulder sequence. I remember finding a dead-end and not knowing where to go from there.

 

[Fappy]

What do you see? Do you see a D? I never did. I always saw a weird backwards G thing until embarrassingly recently. As a little kid I didn't know how to read anyway, and as I got older I didn't think about it much, then a few years ago I looked at the Disney logo and "Holy crap it's a D"

To be honest it still looks weird though.

I thought it looked like a weird backwards G for so long that I have to look at it for a few seconds to see the D every time now.

 

[Chemical Alia]

Also, for the Lion King thing, what part of the level do you get stuck on? It's definitely the hardest level in the game, but I actually just played through it last month so it's still pretty fresh in my mind.

Last time I played was a long time ago, but if I recall I got stuck at the part right after a flaming boulder sequence. I remember finding a dead-end and not knowing where to go from there.

HMMMM. There's two parts that I'm thinking it might be. If it's literally right after the boulder chases you and you keep falling into the lava, then you have to swing around and do a crazy diagonal drop to land on the platform that's directly under you. If you got past that part, then the very end of the level is also technically a dead end, with a bunch of geysers and falling rocks. You have to stay there for a few minutes, and eventually rocks will cover up each the geysers in a row. When it covers up the far left one, you just have to jump on it, and it'll shoot you to the next terrible level with a thousand hyenas in a maze!

I found this video that might help you, if nothing I said made sense v:

 

[Lovely Mixture]

Well, there was one thing that I never could be sure when I realized it, whether it was long after I played or if I had figured it out or just forgotten about it.

Do the following, quickly reveal this image and then close the tab, making sure that you've only seen the image for about two milliseconds. Then come back.

Spoiler: This

[http://s194.photobucket.com/user/mravix9000/media/still-1.gif.html]

Now what did you see? Can you tell me?

Spoiler: For clarification

In Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, there are enemies called Succubus and Liliths, they are palette swaps of the same sprite. That one there is a succubus.

Now when I first played through the game, I must have been around like 14, and most of the enemies are pretty identifiable via their names and appearances (werewolves, zombies).

But for the Lilith and Succubi, I didn't exactly acknowledge what they were. You fight them in the Inner Quarters were all but a few of the enemies are female (Valkyries, Maids, Invisible Women called Nemesis, Four-Armed Amazon Women with swords). With a game like Castlevania you are running around and killing things fast, so you identify the enemy via the name (that appears when you damage them) or appearance.

So I killed and read the name Succubus/Lilith, but didn't pay attention to their appearance, and I didn't know what a succubus was or who Lilith was.

I only realized exactly what they they were when I looked at their enemy description and could look at them closely.

And then I realized I was cutting down sexy nude batwinged women.

 

[ultrabiome]

i took me a year to realize that you had to jump onto Birdo's eggs to throw them back at her (yes, Birdo is female) in Super Mario Bros. 2. could never get past the first level without that knowledge.

 

[IllumInaTIma]

Similarly in Fallout, that same friend had to tell me that I could hold the Use key and continuously drink from fountains/lakes - I had been doing sip by sip with single button presses.

WHAT?! YOU COULD DO THAT?!
Also, Fallout 3. I stepped into that chamber and died like an idiot because I didn't know the pass code. About a month after that friend told me that code is the set of numbers that your dad kept telling you throughout the game. I felt like an idiot.

Front Mission 3. I've decided to replay my all time favorite about 2, or 3 years ago, but now with help of the Internet! And boy, was I shocked when I've found out that skills in that game are bound to the specific robot body parts. So, basically, being a child a managed to complete the game using only shitty starter skills.

But, the most shocking realization came to me with the ending of Persona 3. It took me about a week after I completed the game to understand what actually happened in the end of Persona 3
Protagonist died
That was the most shocking moment in my entire gaming experience! I was seriously depressed, for god's sake!

 

[Fappy]

Also, for the Lion King thing, what part of the level do you get stuck on? It's definitely the hardest level in the game, but I actually just played through it last month so it's still pretty fresh in my mind.

Last time I played was a long time ago, but if I recall I got stuck at the part right after a flaming boulder sequence. I remember finding a dead-end and not knowing where to go from there.

HMMMM. There's two parts that I'm thinking it might be. If it's literally right after the boulder chases you and you keep falling into the lava, then you have to swing around and do a crazy diagonal drop to land on the platform that's directly under you. If you got past that part, then the very end of the level is also technically a dead end, with a bunch of geysers and falling rocks. You have to stay there for a few minutes, and eventually rocks will cover up each the geysers in a row. When it covers up the far left one, you just have to jump on it, and it'll shoot you to the next terrible level with a thousand hyenas in a maze!

I found this video that might help you, if nothing I said made sense v:

Thanks for the assistance. Mayhaps I should give it another shot tonight... my Genesis is set up at the moment.

 

[AgentLampshade]

It took me 4 playthroughs of MGS3 to realise Ocelot is

Spoiler

The Boss's son

Apparently it's heavily hinted at but I never saw any of it. I was told by a friend.

 

[teqrevisited]

I played Okami for about 10 hours before I realized that you could rotate the screen whilst using the celestial brush.

Seeing people mention the Carnival Night barrel in Sonic 3 made me laugh. My friend had trouble with that until he brought the game over for me to try and I did it within seconds. There are barrels before that one that you can practise on, it just isn't necessary to progress until that point.

 

[FFP2]

It took me 4 playthroughs of MGS3 to realise Ocelot is

Spoiler

The Boss's son

Apparently it's heavily hinted at but I never saw any of it. I was told by a friend.

You had to call The Boss like 50 times in order to trigger the stuff that gets hinted.

OT: I recently got an Xbox controller for Windows. Previously I was playing Dark Souls for a while using the awful KB+M scheme.

You can run by holding B... and if you press B while running you can jump

I know that the tutorial explained this but I swear that you can't do it on KB+M.

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

In Metal Gear Solid 4 I had no idea you could sprint. I always thought Snake just moved slow because of the aging. Got to Act 5 without even realizing I could. XD

 

[Blitsie]

pressing the z button in star wars episode 1 pod racers makes you drift and makes it infinitely easier to get around corners. had the game since i was born, only found that out a few months ago.

HOW COULD I HAVE NOT KNOWN THIS?!?!?! I swear the worst part of the game for me was getting around corners, gah.

Anyway, I just recently found out that you can actually hold the use button when it comes to drinking from a water source in Fallout instead of just repeatedly tapping it until your health bar is fully refilled. Doh!

 

[Splitzi]

ME3:

Spoiler

fighting the Reaper on Rannock. I did not realize that if you stood still your laser designater homed in faster.

I died so many times.

Also, some Batman game on the Sega Genesis from when I was a kid. My little brain could not figure out how to drop down a level in a 2D game, something need within 30 minutes of starting it... I got really good at that first half hour.

 

[njrk97]

pressing the z button in star wars episode 1 pod racers makes you drift and makes it infinitely easier to get around corners. had the game since i was born, only found that out a few months ago.

HOW COULD I HAVE NOT KNOWN THIS?!?!?! I swear the worst part of the game for me was getting around corners, gah.

Its kinda temperamental cause sometimes you hold z and turn and you straight away go in that direction, other times you drift more smoothly. Also it kinda a double edged sword as drifting to much caused your engines to scrape the ground and over time the damage really stacks.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

The Pipboy light in Fallout, but the light didn't have much use unless you used mods.

Ironsights in Bioshock 1, but the ironsights are just so awful. Wouldn't be surprised if they fit them in on the last few days of developement.

Kirby Air Riders, if you do the City Trial mode, you can set which event is going to happen after the time limit instead of it being random every time.

In Star Wars Battlefront 2, if you earn a bonus gun enough you start to spawn with it.

Team Fortress 2, if you hold down M1 after blowing a Buff Banner/Concheror/Battalion's Backup, you don't deploy the banner until you release M1 - before I just thought you had to time the five-second deploying perfectly.

Team Fortress 2, sharing an Uber (known as "Flashing") drains the Uber a lot faster than if you were only Ubering one person.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution: You can pick up turrets.

Just Cause 2: Standing on top of a vehicle and using the Triggered Explosives plants one on the roof of the vehicle.

Metro 2033, if you hold down right click for the Combat Shotgun it charges the melee attack, here I thought you just had a low damage little jab or whack. Similarly, you can change Mask Filters before it's necessary, the knife does a triple-slash if you press the attack button fast enough, and you can stab with Throwing Knives by hitting right-click (and do the triple-slash).

I played Okami for about 10 hours before I realized that you could rotate the screen whilst using the celestial brush.

Wait. Seriously? ...Well, that doesn't help much anyway if you're using an analog stick.

 

[SSJBlastoise]

snip

snip

Another neat connection for names is Bibidi, Babidi and Buu were apparently named after the song from Cinderella Bibbidi, bobbidi boo. I was wondering why those names sounded somewhat familiar and after being bored one day I was looking at different characters on the Dragon Ball wiki I found that out.

 

[Jamieson 90]

I went through an entire play through of Assassins Creed 3 not knowing you could shoot the rifles. I think unfortunately the one time I tried one it must have needed reloading and I must have dropped it before the reload animation started, hence I didn't think they were useable.

 

[karma9308]

I have over 6 playthroughs of Fallout 3, almost like 10 for Fallout NV...I just found out two playthroughs ago into NV that there's a "take all" button/key.