Guide Dang It/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: To do something or get something in the game, you have to solve a puzzle that has no in-game hints.

  • Played Straight: To get the Best Ending, the Five-Man Band has to follow twelve steps - two of them are "talk to certain NPCs", three are "go to a certain area", one is "check things before they're actually useful", one is "listen to rumours", and one is "make the right decisions". After that, turn down all the Optional Party Members, let one of your party members have a fight with someone, talk to someone who is featured in the best ending exactly once, and then just continue until the event happens. None of this is hinted at anywhere and no-one could figure it out without a guide.
  • Exaggerated: The whole game is Trial and Error Gameplay, and nothing is hinted.
  • Justified:
    • The ending is a secret ending.
    • The makers knew that cheats would get out over the Internet, so tried to delay this phenomenon and stop anyone from knowing about the existence of it without checking said cheats.
  • Inverted:
    • The game bashes you over the head with so many hints that the answer to the puzzle becomes obvious instantly.
    • The game is something like the Vampire Saga series and hints come back instantly, with no time limit or penalties to the puzzles.
  • Subverted: There aren't any hints to the password, but the answers are obvious anyway.
  • Double Subverted: ...but when you use the obvious answer, you have to enter it in a certain way that's not hinted at.
  • Parodied: The game tells you to phone somebody. They're very rude on the in-game phone and you need to call them in real life.
  • Deconstructed: It is this feature that makes the game disliked and mocked by critics everywhere.
  • Reconstructed: Some players enjoy the challenge and like that they're being treated with respect rather than scorn by the creators. The game finds its niche.
  • Averted:
    • The ending is easy to get - it's all about choices at the beginning of the game.
    • Alternatively, the game doesn't have any parts which leave players wondering on how to proceed.
  • Lampshaded: The main character, being asked about the password, asks, "How the Hell where we supposed to know that?"
  • Defied: Hint System
  • Enforced "Make it harder so people will pay $29.99 for the strategy guide."
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