Anti-Frustration Features: Difference between revisions

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Anti-Frustration Features are instances in a game where the established rules of the game are suspended/modified under certain circumstances, or a particular effect that happens when the game deliberately helps you out during a specific situation.

Usually an example of an [[Obvious Rule Patch]] to prevent [[Unwinnable]] situations from developing, such as if a given [[Boss Battle]] mandates the use of one specific weapon with limited uses (be it [[Breakable Weapons]], [[Cast ~~From~~ Hit Points]], or a simple lack of [[Bottomless Magazines]]).

Usually an example of an [[Obvious Rule Patch]] to prevent [[Unwinnable]] situations from developing, such as if a given [[Boss Battle]] mandates the use of one specific weapon with limited uses (be it [[Breakable Weapons]], [[Cast from Hit Points]], or a simple lack of [[Bottomless Magazines]]).

It can also occur in other situations, but those are fairly rare.

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* In ''[[Grand Chase]]'', even if you lose all of your lives and don't continue, you still get to keep your GP, EXP, and quest items (and complete quests).

* An extension of the Me and My Nemesis Quest in ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' has a fiendishly difficult volcano puzzle that requires a lot of patience and careful mapping to work out. Fortunately, there's an option to skip it for a loss of 10 adventures if you don't want to go through all that trouble, though you miss out on two of the quest rewards if you do that.

* Especially in the newer quests, ''[[~~Runescape~~]]'' has a tendency to have quest givers give you small items that you need to complete the quest. This is especially nice when you've trekked out ten minutes to the dungeon and only then realized that you forgot to grab a hammer or a chisel. Also, if they ask you to go to a location some distance away, they'll frequently offer to teleport you there, saving some teleport runes or the need to walk that whole distance.

* Especially in the newer quests, ''[[RuneScape]]'' has a tendency to have quest givers give you small items that you need to complete the quest. This is especially nice when you've trekked out ten minutes to the dungeon and only then realized that you forgot to grab a hammer or a chisel. Also, if they ask you to go to a location some distance away, they'll frequently offer to teleport you there, saving some teleport runes or the need to walk that whole distance.

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has several of these:

** In the ''Burning Crusade'' expansion, Blizzard introduced a "dynamic respawns" system which scales respawn rates to the rate that mobs/items are killed or collected. This backfired somewhat as it often caused mobs to instantly respawn on top of players, especially in the first weeks of the expansion, preventing them from resting or looting and making crowded areas an exercise in [[Attack! Attack! Retreat! Retreat!]]. Still, it beats the old days when crowding made certain quests a matter of racing other players for infrequent spawns.

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** Averted HARD in ''[[Metroid: Other M]]''. There are no [[Random Drops]] at all and the only way to restore health and ammo outside of the Concentration mechanic is to find a [[Save Point]].

* Realizing that "[[Nintendo Hard]] [[Platformer]]" is a frustrating enough formula, the developers of ''[[Mirror's Edge|Mirrors Edge]]'' added completely unnecessary and impractical (for the enemy) visible-to-naked-eye laser sights to all enemy-wielded sniper rifles, giving the player at least a vague idea where they should run without being one-hit-killed by an enemy they could neither reach, nor even see.

* In ''[[New Super Mario Bros Wii]]'', failing a level at least eight times activates the "Super Guide"; selecting it will let you watch a CPU Luigi play through the level. The player can resume control at any time, or let Luigi finish the level and then choose to either try it themselves or advance to the next stage. A similar feature was included in ''[[Super Mario Galaxy 2]]'' and ''[[Donkey Kong Country Returns]]''. It does come at the cost of [[One Hundred Percent Completion]], as even causing the block to appear (after losing eight times) the stars you get on your save file won't twinkle.

* In ''[[New Super Mario Bros. Wii]]'', failing a level at least eight times activates the "Super Guide"; selecting it will let you watch a CPU Luigi play through the level. The player can resume control at any time, or let Luigi finish the level and then choose to either try it themselves or advance to the next stage. A similar feature was included in ''[[Super Mario Galaxy 2]]'' and ''[[Donkey Kong Country Returns]]''. It does come at the cost of [[One Hundred Percent Completion]], as even causing the block to appear (after losing eight times) the stars you get on your save file won't twinkle.

** It happens again in [[Super Mario 3D Land]] with the gold Super Leaf, only this time, it's if you lose five times.

* Mega Man starts with three items and Rush Search in [[Rock Man 4 Minus Infinity]]. In addition, dying three times on {{spoiler|1=the final EscapeSequence}} causes {{spoiler|1=the spikes to turn green and only do one damage, in addition to giving you more time}}.

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== Tabletop RPG ==

* In any such game, especially games like [[Dungeons ~~and~~ Dragons]], resurrection. At lower levels, if your character dies, he's dead and you probably aren't all that attached so you roll up a new character. Once you've worked up to mid levels, you probably don't want your character to stay dead but fortunately by this point you usually have some means to get your character raised.

* In any such game, especially games like [[Dungeons & Dragons]], resurrection. At lower levels, if your character dies, he's dead and you probably aren't all that attached so you roll up a new character. Once you've worked up to mid levels, you probably don't want your character to stay dead but fortunately by this point you usually have some means to get your character raised.

* Also, the presence of a [[Game Master]] is meant to be a built in [[Anti Frustration Feature]] as they can rule differently on anything that unduly kills the fun, if they're doing their job correctly.

== Real Time Strategy ==

* ''[[~~Starcraft~~ II]]'' has a few cases of this kicking in. Forgot to evacuate your SCVs on Redstone during a lava surge? Raynor lets 5 new ones airdrop to get things running again. On a more general note, the defeat menu lets you easily restart a mission on a lower difficulty, and the game saves progress automatically quite often.

* ''[[StarCraft II]]'' has a few cases of this kicking in. Forgot to evacuate your SCVs on Redstone during a lava surge? Raynor lets 5 new ones airdrop to get things running again. On a more general note, the defeat menu lets you easily restart a mission on a lower difficulty, and the game saves progress automatically quite often.

* In ''[[RHDE]]'', the generator that pseudorandomly selects wall pieces in the build phase is tuned to make the game more practical. A piece seen recently is less likely to be seen in the next few pieces, smaller pieces appear more often than they would in a uniform mix, and the larger and twistier pieces with 5 blocks aren't generated at all in the first building round.

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* In the ''[[DJMAX]]'' series, beginning with ''DJMAX Portable Black Square'', if you hit the wrong key for a note, you will still get the full percentage for it, but only get 80% of the points. The inclusion of this has proven very controversial among fans, because now you can full-combo or get 100% on a song without even hitting the right buttons at all.

* A new feature added in the sequel to ''[[Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan]]'' was the ability to continue a song once after failing, rather than having to start over from the beginning. However, this can only be done on the easiest difficulty, and not on the [[Final Boss|final song]].

* Newer releases of ''[[Pop ~~N Music~~]]'' and ''[[Pump It Up]]'' will always give you a second stage even if you fail your first one.<ref>unless, in ''Pop'n'', you're playing in Cho-Challenge mode</ref> This allows you to utilize the first stage to practice more difficult songs or songs that you are not confident that you will clear.

* Newer releases of ''[[Pop'n music]]'' and ''[[Pump It Up]]'' will always give you a second stage even if you fail your first one.<ref>unless, in ''Pop'n'', you're playing in Cho-Challenge mode</ref> This allows you to utilize the first stage to practice more difficult songs or songs that you are not confident that you will clear.

** This is also true for ''Drummania'', ''Guitar Freaks'' (as of V6, at least, but probably earlier) and IIDX (at least as of Sirius, and again, probably earlier).

** In ''[[DJMAX]] Technika'', you can run out of [[Life Meter]] on the first stage of Pop Mixing and still get a second stage. On the second stage, running out of life won't end the game immediately, but you won't get a third stage. On stage 3, running out of life is an automatic [[Game Over]]. The same, however, cannot be said of ''Technika 2''.

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** Also, he may be the only body the player doesn't have to worry about hiding.

* In ''[[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine|Warhammer 40000 Space Marine]]'', when your game autosaves it doesn't save your health. If you die with a sliver of health left after the autosave, you revive with full health.

* Whenever a situation arises in [[~~Sniper Elite V 2|~~Sniper Elite V2]] that requires a lot of bullets to solve, you will always have nearby a box with a full refill for your sniper rifle, just in case you've managed to run out to get to that point.

* Whenever a situation arises in [[Sniper Elite V2]] that requires a lot of bullets to solve, you will always have nearby a box with a full refill for your sniper rifle, just in case you've managed to run out to get to that point.

== Wide Open Sandboxes ==

* ''[[LA Noire]]'' has an option to let you skip an action sequence if you fail it three times in a row, along with letting your partner drive to a destination you set to avoid bad driver penalties, or as a form of fast travel.

* ''[[L.A. Noire]]'' has an option to let you skip an action sequence if you fail it three times in a row, along with letting your partner drive to a destination you set to avoid bad driver penalties, or as a form of fast travel.

* In ''[[The Simpsons Hit ~~and~~ Run]]'' and ''[[The Simpsons Road Rage]]'', if you fail a mission five times, it lets you skip it. However, ''Hit and Run'' doesn't allow it for the final missions, though. [[That One Level|Preventing many from finishing the game]]. Unfortunately, doing so also skips ''the cutscenes'' you see after completing the mission, resulting in some confusion (for instance skipping the last mission of the first stage will make you have no clue why everyone stopped suspecting Mr. Burns or the black vans).

* In ''[[The Simpsons Hit & Run]]'' and ''[[The Simpsons Road Rage]]'', if you fail a mission five times, it lets you skip it. However, ''Hit and Run'' doesn't allow it for the final missions, though. [[That One Level|Preventing many from finishing the game]]. Unfortunately, doing so also skips ''the cutscenes'' you see after completing the mission, resulting in some confusion (for instance skipping the last mission of the first stage will make you have no clue why everyone stopped suspecting Mr. Burns or the black vans).

* In The "Destiny's Child" mission in [[Saints Row 2]] You have to use flash bangs to separate the title boss from his human shield {{spoiler|Shaundi}}. Don't have enough? Well DC was kind enough to leave some lying around.

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[[Category:Video Game Rewards]]

[[Category:~~Anti-Frustration Features~~]]

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