Making Use of Guides/Walkthroughs/Other Help for Finishing Games

[Dufniall]

More and more often I find myself reaching out to the good ol' internet to look up info about the game I'm playing. Whether it is for understanding a mechanism, where to go next, find a particular item or how to tackle a hard boss. Younger me would have detested this, but currently I'm noticing that I'm fairly okay with me doing this.

Mostly it is an issue of time versus effort. I have quite a backlog of games I want to play, and limited gaming time available. If a game is interesting enough and has me in its grip, I don't mind putting in some extra time figuring things out, although even in that situation I now have limits as to how long I want to be stuck. For example, I'm currently playing Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and I knew I had to find a certain room. It would have meant going through the whole map again taking up maybe half an hour to an hour, but my urge to finish the game made me just look up the location of said room, saving me precious time.

In that case I didn't really miss anything story-wise and it just saved me time. But sometimes it feels like it takes away a bit of the experience. It's a great feeling when you figure something out yourself, that AHA! moment. As opposed to looking it up and thinking, oh yeah, why didn't I think of this? There was this moment in Dark Souls Remastered where I was feeling pretty mixed. On the one hand I wish I figured it out myself, but on the other hand I know it would have led to quite some time loss and frustration.

Another risk is, as you are googling stuff, you come across the occasional spoiler which you did not want to know. Someone mentioning the next boss or something similar.

But all in all I take these things for granted, as being able to finish off more games in a shorter timespan outweighs these feelings of cheating or not getting everything out of your game. It also gives me a better closure, reading for example that I've found every optional boss in a game for me gives me the feeling I finished a game as far as I want so I don't have to replay it again (this can be a completely different discussion; are there games you would love to replay but don't because you don't have the time for it due to other games?). Again Dark Souls Remastered, some optional stuff in the game I would have missed completely on my play-through if I hadn't used a guide here and there, and now I feel like I got everything from the game.

So, how do you feel about the use of internet help when playing games?

[Glen-i]

RPG's are the only time I ever consider doing this. And it's normally only to make sure I don't miss some items that might not be available if I progress too far.

I'm playing through Final Fantasy XIII-2 at the moment, and it turns out that the way you level up can be used to exponentially increase the power of the two main characters (I'm talking 25% stronger if done right). This turns out to be very necessary if you're aiming for 100% completion. The best weapons in the game are also sometimes dropped from a random boss. (Lots of RPG's do that)

[Ashley]

Yeah I do if I'm stuck or short on time or just feel like it. 

Curious if people consider looking at a Pokédex using a guide? Because I do that all the time to ensure those little critters don't evolve until they get their better moves.

[Glen-i]

2 minutes ago, Ashley said:

Curious if people consider looking at a Pokédex using a guide? Because I do that all the time to ensure those little critters don't evolve until they get their better moves.

Any Pokémon fan worth their salt has gone to Serebii for info at some point, the games have a lot of hidden complexities to them.

I see it as similar to that example I mentioned above about underlying mechanics.

Edited January 17, 2022 by Glen-i

[BowserBasher]

I think I remember doing this a lot more than I do now. I think the most I ever used a guide on was Links Awakening on the GB (and this was in magazine form, no mainstream internet back then) I actually remember getting to the start of one dungeon and that was as far as the magazine did the guide that month, so it was figure it out myself or wait a month. 

Nowadays I try not to use them, as I really do enjoy that moment of figuring out the puzzle or how to beat the boss that it brings. The last time I had to look something up was when I recently played through Bowser's Fury. Usually when the Giga Bowser appears you can just avoid him and he will go away. At a certain point he won't and I had been running around avoiding him for about 10 minutes and needed to see if I had done something wrong. Other than that I can't think of when I have had to resort to one mid game. I'll look things up later to see if there are other ways to do something or an easier means, but I try not to. The only time I may do it is if I'm stuck on a part and have been for a few hours and see no solution or where to go. there comes a cut off point in it being a test to find out what to do, and it becoming unenjoyable. 

[Jonnas]

I'll usually try to remain blind on my first playthrough. If I hit a dead end (tricky puzzle, inscrutable boss, etc.), that's a sign I might need to take a break from playing, and later re-approach the issue with a fresher mind. If it persists for a while, that's when I'll try to look it up.

For RPG tricks, builds, and secrets, I leave it to the end of the game before searching for such stuff (and even then, I usually try to explore the game on my own before looking up the rest). I might ask about missables mid-playthrough, if the game is giving me the vibe that I might want to collect all the stuff.

If I'm getting particularly impatient with the game, I'll end up looking up a guide frequently. This is a dead ringer that I'm not actually enjoying the game, and that I'm only looking to clear it only to say I gave it a chance.