Have you ever completed a game and realised you’d completely missed a key game mechanic?

[PotrikBerger]

Ive asked this question as I’m interested to know of others who’ve felt as illy as I have in the last few hours.

 

I’ve recently been playing Cris Tales and it’s only after the end credits have rolled and messing about with the characters in the end game world that I realised there was a ‘scan’ the enemy option for the player. I’ve played the whole game without ever seeing an enemy health bar and only knowing what enemies are weak to through trial and error. The no enemy health bar thing I actually thought was a choice by developers and I was cursing them at various stages of the game.

 

needless to say I felt pretty stupid. Anyone else had this feeling? If so what wa the game mechanic that managed to pass you by?

[LastMinuteSavior]

Yup.

 

If it wasn't for trophies taking me off of the beaten path, I think I'd miss half of every game's mechanics, especially on open world games.

 

[farradono]

X4 speed up time from Final Fantasy 12 for me.

[Any_Trophies]

I remember the first twelve times I played FFVIII as a kid on psx, I never realized you can press the trigger when attacking with squall to increase the damage.

[Squirlruler]

Yes.

 

"Using Items."

Every time. Damn hording.

[Clavietka]

A friend of mine who doesn't read English played thru Parasite Eve withou knowing about weapon customization. For those of you who have never played it, the system is basically how you become stronger. More than leveling up.

 

It's no surprise that he found the game extremely hard.

[xh117]

Being able to shoot while jumping and spinning in jak 2. It's really useful and I only found out towards the end.

[saiyanbloodstyle]

Well this might not be a key game mechanic but on Horizon Forbidden West all throughout the games story i only used the regular bow attacks which weren't very strong, even after for most of the platinum clean up i used only that until later i found some much better bows and arrows i could craft which killed enemies much quicker.......

 

I just rushed through it (mainly because the story didn't interest me).

[DrBloodmoney]

I played all of Oblivion, and a good portion of Fallout 3, without realising there was fast-travel ?

 

 

[Copanele]

There were 2 key game mechanics that I missed in Bloodborne...

One, the rally mechanic that allows you to recover HP if you attack the monster back. Only at the end of the playthrough I realized that that's a thing.

And second, the Blood Bullet mechanic where you replenish 5 bullets with your own health. Had no idea that was a thing until I watched a random playthrough way later after I finished the game and saw a player do that

[AJ_Radio]

21 minutes ago, xh117 said:

Being able to shoot while jumping and spinning in jak 2. It's really useful and I only found out towards the end.

 

It's usually just the one gun too. Jak 2 is probably the 'black sheep' of Naughty Dog's long history of making games. The entire game felt like it catered to your typical emo, goth kid of the 2000s, who was into death metal. Having the dark color palette in contrast to the first Jak & Daxter game was one of many departures the sequel took.

[LastMinuteSavior]

21 minutes ago, Squirlruler said:

Yes.

"Using Items."
Every time. Damn hording.

 

"I might need these later"

 

*credits roll*

 

...and you realize what you have regressed into...

 

 

[PotrikBerger]

Lol! I’m so glad I’m not alone in this. Some of these are great!

 

@Copanele not using the mechanic to claw some of your health back in bloodborne is a painful one!

 

@DrBloodmoney I’ve never played either but can imagine the size of oblivion map

 

@saiyanbloodstyle I too rushed that game...mainly because Elden Ring was staring me in the face. Pretty much skipped every cut scene including the ending! 

 

@LastMinuteSavior a good point....probably the reason why this hasn’t happened to me too much in the past!

[Kefka1986]

I don't remember which Final Fantasy, but you could change your party from front row to back row (you are stronger in the front row but also take more damage, and the other way around in the back row), I finished it without knowing you could do that!

 

I don't remember which game, but it was a RPG with a huge map, and I remember finishing it but complaining about all that time spent walking from city to city and back again. Few years later, I replayed it and discovered they had this magic in the shop which let you teleport to already visited towns...?

[Dreakon13]

I think step one for me would be actually completing games... ?

[DragonCrossGamer]

"Tales of" games. Sometimes they don't tell you about Mystic Artes in the game tutorials. In Berseria, you can even chain Mystic Artes together, which I didn't know about until my 3rd playthrough.

[xIRockyRock]

Played Horizon Forbidden West 3 times (one time Ultra Nightmare) and never ever used a weapon except the hunters bow. 
Also never used the item box, always gathered new resources. 

 

Out of my 500 games I played, I am sure there are a lot of games where I just used the bare minimum to get through.
 

[MvComedy]

In Bionic Commando, I missed the fact that you can kick-launch grappled objects at enemies. I knew I could grapple and dive-kick stationary objects but I did not realize you could kick off of an object in the air while grappling and launch it at an enemy. Knowing that would have made defeating some if the mechs a lot easier since it leaves you less vulnerable than just standing and throwing things at them.  I did two playthroughs and plat'd the game without ever doing it.

[OFFICER_OILDAB]

In the arcade game "Stretch", most have played it due to it being an easy platinum, but I did not know there were bombs that cleared the whole screen.

 

In 2 different games I discovered exploits that made the games 1/10s to platinum.. After completing everything else first...

 

Cult of The Lamb, there is a fast forward option to help alleviate night cycles. I had no idea!

 

Medievil there are upgrades obtained from statues brought back to life, well I thought each statue gave you one gift, and was pretty confused on why no other statues worked later on near the end of the game (that i started to heavily struggle with). Turns on, the first statue offers multiple gifts, to which only one can be received before the next gift is given.

[Baranov_925]

God of War - I completely forgot about those "revive stones" until the very last Valkyria.
Unknown racing game with rewind - I crashed more times than (joke about traffic deaths of young drivers here)

[TrophyChief]

Yup! You can run in this game? ?

[Evil_Joker88]

I played Cat Quest until the final boss before i realized that i didn't unlock any spells to attack or heal besides the 1st spell. I was having a hard time to complete some areas without healing much. Only possibility i knew is find a tavern to save (save game = heal completely) ?

[VigilantCrow]

Parrying in Dark Souls. 

Never knew about it until after the plat. Always assumed it was just a spin in circles and stick the pointy end into the enemies stink. 

[TheToasterWaffle]

Combining plug-in chips in NieR:Automata. I saw the pop-up showing how to do it and ADHD brain stopped caring halfway through reading and I never looked back.

Edited September 12, 2022 by TheToasterWaffle

[GoonerLukeThe]

I beat Spiderman without knowing you could swing