Accidental Hard Mode

I finally remembered something! I didn't realise you could save your game mid-mission in Valkyria Chronicles until at least two-thirds into the game. Before I was trying to do all levels in one attempt, which was very difficult when a lot of missions last at least thirty minutes and there are no checkpoints.

Finding out I was able to create lots of different saves and reload from them ended up being underwhelming, though, as the game suddenly became a lot easier and there wasn't much weight to my actions. I think Code Name STEAM gets it right in having single-use save points which also give the player a non-reversible choice of healing in exchange for medals.: Saving becomes a valid strategy!

I don't think I knew that until now! Mind you I'm terrible at manually saving in most games, so that's not a surprise.

So, Code Name S.T.E.A.M., then. I've reached a two-level chapter and, after much hardship, made it through the first level. Selecting the recommended team for the second level, though, was a big mistake: it totally didn't reflect how I play the game. After forty-odd minutes of discovering this, I selected to go back to the ship and assemble different avengers. I did so and re-entered the fray... only to find myself on the first level of the world. Horrified, I reset the game.

It's only gone and saved at that point, so my having beaten the first level has disappeared forever. / /

My brother and I have been playing Assassin's Creed Black Flag recently (thanks to Games with Gold), watched him play some to notice he was never using swords during fights but sticking to unarmed combat. I thought it was odd, he then complained about how he's able to buy swords but not able to use them. I had to explain he can switch to swords using the d-pad. He'd been playing for quite sometime by this point.

That's a brilliant one DL!

I swear, they should just not let me near games. Yesterday I discovered that you can look at the bait you need to catch missing fish in the various locations of StreetPass Fishing before you confirm where you want to go.

That's gotta be a winner. I can't imagine getting anywhere in that game but showing up at a random hole and hoping

I'm back. Played The Binding Of Isaac: Rebirth for the first time yesterday - without looking at the manual, natch. For about five minutes I was playing thinking that I could only fire to the right. Thank goodness that didn't last long!

Ouch! That game is already hard enough without doing that.

ZeroJones wrote:

I'm back. Played The Binding Of Isaac: Rebirth for the first time yesterday - without looking at the manual, natch. For about five minutes I was playing thinking that I could only fire to the right. Thank goodness that didn't last long!

Oh wow, Zero.

This past month reminded me hard of this thread, so I'm pulling it out of the archive.

In Deus Ex: Human Revolution, I didn't discover I could shoot out cameras until the last couple of levels. Worse, I bought a weapon upgrade and had it languishing in my inventory for hours before realising that it had to be applied to a weapon for it to work. Sonic Mania's Blue Sphere bonus levels have given me particular trouble: I didn't realise collecting the spheres on the perimeter of a grouping would turn them into rings. Much later I found out that you can jump, too!

Celeste level 3 normal level progression:

Not the only strawberry I approached wrong, incidentally.

It took me about 50% of the campaign in Horizon: Zero Dawn to realise that you could expand your carry capacity/Ammo Capacity by crafting.