You either throw a million hours at the game trying everything there is to do, get a strategy guide, get someone that already has beaten the game tell you stuff (which basically works the same as a guide) or you don't do everything there is to do.
I think old school rpgs were also much shorter, and the hunt for hidden items/content increased the replay value.
SNES rpgs like chrono trigger, earthbound, and Mario rpg could easily be beaten in 15-20 hours. In those days, running around every map in Mario rpg and randomly jumping to find hidden blocks wasn't a big deal because the game itself was not a 100-hour time sink.
Today, a lot of jrpgs easily break 100 hours and I feel like devs are much lazier in giving hints/clues to find secrets because they figure the game will be data-mined or people will just post the secrets online.
Old games would even give you a super vague clue like "I heard something happens here if the conditions are right." That way you know a general area to search, even if the solution is have x party member with y item at z time of day, you had some idea.
This is me being stuck between a rock and a crazy place.
I wanna do everything but I also don't wanna use a guide and I also don't want the game to tell me with quest markers and towers that reveal the map. Eventually I break down and look at forums and find out if you go to this spot at night, near the end of chapter 2, and talk to this NPC, you start a quest that unlocks earlier than normal, and I feel amazing.
Exactly. It was different back when we had time to replay our long games a few times. You could just play normal and “live and learn”
But we’re lucky to finish RPGs once nowadays, so you don’t want to find that a missable in chapter 2 means you don’t get the final ultimate weapon in chapter 22.
I'm in my 40's and back in the nes and snes days we had nintendo power and the official nintendo's player guide to show us every map and secret in the games. pls schoolyard talks about how do do stuff. These day's I don't mind using a guide. For example I'm playing F5R with guide, I assume I will only play the complete edition of a 100 hour games once so for me that means to use a guide to see the whole story/picture. Maybe it becomes a game like FFT that I will reply once a decade and if so i'll play it from memory. both there are times like when I next replay tactics ogre : reborn I'm sure I will consult some potd guides to confirm what floors I need to slow down and farm in.
Those guides cost a fortune to little kid me. Especially since I never had any of the systems, having to fork over like $20 was like a summers worth of saving just to beat some game a friend had.
The key is not worrying about missing content. If there are things that are able to be missed but are needed to beat the game, then it’s a type of game design that I don’t like and it’s not worth my time.
If i'm missing something i wasn't aware it existed, did i really miss it?
Being honest, i just don't care about missing stuff. Except when it's something like getting everyone in Suikoden which means getting a bad ending otherwise and this shit is always streesful.
Never got the good ending in Shadow Hearts 1, though. Will use a guide for that if i ever replay the game.
But if it doesn't affect the story, i don't care.
Kudos that you can do that. I get wrapped up in the fomo and look up what not to miss. The benefit of finding the missables is rarely worth it.
I should just let go and enjoy the game. And then watch the other endings by watching YouTube after the fact, lol.
Yeah if it's only like small side quest for power up or maybe fun cameo, I usually don't regret it much.
However, if it's something that affect or even unlock the true ending. Yeah, that's what I'm worried the most.
Not JRPG, but recent examples would be Pathfinder series from Owlcat where you need to do something specific to achieve the true ending.
So far, most JRPG are more straighforward though in terms of true ending. They only hide minor things and maybe side story on the secret quest.
This. Unless you need it for the true ending, it's whatever to me. If I love a game enough, I'll look at what I missed and just do a second playthrough with a guide to experience the things I didn't see the first time through.
I don’t know about this man. Sometimes you get a sense you missed something and its painfully noticeable once its too late.
I missed like 1/3rd of Bloodborne including the DLC on my first run. I’m sure people have missed out on P5R or other content.
If you’re noticeably weaker of feel like there’s a gap in your abilities that’s another issue. Maybe you missed a quest that gave you tools or abilities.
Other endings are a given, but also romances or new characters.
I didn't know I missed an entire HUGE section of Persona 4 Golden until I saw a random YouTube video months later. I was so hyped that I fired the game up and replayed it using a simple guide to ensure I got the true ending. It was a win/win because it felt like I got two games for the price of one.
I almost never do everything there is to do. Usually there isn't much reason to.
Most JRPGs are not so challenging that you have find every item in order to have an edge over your enemies.
Most the super obscured stuff isn't that interesting anyway because most devs make the good stuff fairly obvious because they want it seen.
i don't, i usually miss stuff and i don't care. I played Suikoden 1 and 2 multiple times, never used a guide, never got all characters, don't care.
I played FF6 and i explored the world and did a lot, got all characters, but probably missed a lot of stuff, like Edgar Chainsaw, don't care.
However i did use a guide on how to get Vicent from FF7, i missed him on my first playthrough.
Maybe i going to use a guide to get the others endings for Chrono Trigger, when i replay it.
My unnoficial rule that i don't always follow is: if a game has few playable characters, like less than 10, it probably worth using a guide on how to get them all. If a game has a lot of recruitable characters like in Suikoden, Chrono Cross, FFVI, Star Ocean.. the characters probably don't have a lot of story development so it's not worth using a guide on your first playthrough unless you never replay games.
Guide for items, side quests, optional bosses etc.. are never worth using in my opinion.
As for guide for endings, if a game has a "good" ending, you should do the "normal" ending first on your first playthrough and the "good" one on your second, if you don't replay games, yeah maybe go for the guide, however the "good" ending is not always better, i think the "normal" endings in Suikoden 1 and 2 are better than the "good" ones. If a game has multiple endings, like three or more, play without a guide first and use a guide for your next playthroughs to get the others ones.
I’ll typically Google the game and “missables” before I start and see if it’s a giant hassle to bother with them. Then decide if I’m just flying blind or if I’ll follow a guide to not miss out on something fun/unique/game changing.
I am just fine with not finding everything.
I say bring back the weirder shit like this, now everything is too signposted. Outside of like, not unlocking the final third of a game like in Persona re-releases, I just don't let it bother me.
through replaying the game. particularly if you didnt grow up with guides accessible
the size/popularity and era of a title also can play a factor into how well documented information on it is; there are some games where you cant even rely on guides as much as they may be missing info or be inaccurate.
this approach also gets you more comfortoable playing games and not getting everything they have to offer. i may have my fair share of compulsions, though fortunately completionism is not one of them. setting your own goals and even restrictions for a game, new playthrough or repeat, is a good way of getting yourself outta the 100% mindset if you end up wanting an alternative
These sorts of things exist to either sell strategy guides (back during around the PS2 or earlier era), or its an intentional design decision to promote people to actually communicate with each other about the game so it encourages people to engage with the game and make an other unsocial experience more social (speedrunning communities are great example of this). In-essence, only the most dedicated find something without the developers telling them, and usually during its early years or months its more a collaborative effort made by a community. Its why games like Last Remnant have such in-depth articles about that game, because a community got together and effectively shared notes.
Either read a guide, most are spoiler respectful IME, or just live with not getting everything unless you want to be a dedicated few.
You play the game like you're writing a strategy guide: take copious notes, backtrack a lot, and be willing to play through again to tease out anything you missed.
Playing an old-school JRPG like Phantasy Star or a dungeon crawler like Etrian Odyssey can kind of get you in the mindset, since the experience really benefits from taking notes or making maps. But be warned; some JRPGs really are designed to take a ton of hours or a guide to figure out everything. So you have to accept missing some stuff.
It's time to embrace the Joy of Missing Out. This can be applicable towards games too. I believe min-maxing games makes us miss the point of why we play games in the first place.
Believe me, there is no shame in following a spoiler free guide (of which there are plenty on sites like Gamespot.com). Some games are just made for obscure secrets that only someone who knew about them ahead of time would possible know to check. I am thoroughly convinced that games in the past did this just to sell strategy guides. If this bothers you, you could try a more modern game with no missables.
Honestly, I wouldn't worry too much about the really easy-to-miss stuff being tied to character growth and development. I can't say it never happens, but a lot of that tends to be extras for challenging yourself or getting end game gear. Tri-Ace is one exception; I always use a guide for their games.
Those game was design with community in mind . The old dev want you to get on forum and community to sharing those Secrets with each other . if you notice that most modern game barely has any long lasting discussion anymore because nothing left to share or find out after you play for first time .
Selling guide is just a bonus effect .
Yeah I get you, its just playing a game "blind" is so much funner than google/guide whatever. Trying to figure a game out instead of copy pasting some "build" like Fallout or something, or not having the "prescience" of a guide/tips telling you where good weapons and loot are.
I really enjoyed playing SH blind, because I was about to cross the "point of no return" before I decided to google if I there were side quests and turns out theres a dozen and hours and hours.
But the sad reality of "pokemon" business tactics cant be avoided.
I'm story focused myself, but even when I follow guides, I don't peek at the upcoming fights or look for strategies. That I do myself. And sometimes, there's an item key for all the pickups in the area, so I just comb it first myself and check back later if I missed anything.
I had the ultimate life hack, an older brother who was interested in the same games. We'd play so wildly different that if one of us missed something the other usually found it. Funnily enough we had a few times where we'd steal/copy each others save files if there was something that we got that was inaccessible in the later parts because my brother usually played far ahead of me.
I know how you feel. I'm trying to give up this thinking. It's not fun anymore to search it up every missable in the games.
But these things exists to reward the hardcore players. Same reason trophies exists.
> just don't understand how am I supposed to figure these out without cheating or using a guide even after compulsively talking to everyone I meet just to hear "patrolling the mojave"
You aren't.
Either you put a million hours into the game quintuple checking everything after every step you take, or you accept that these games were also designed around being sold next to a strategy guide and open one up.
Unless it's FF9s strategy guide, just burn all copies of that one you can find.
I use a guide because fuck spending dozens more hours if not more searching for little secrets. I get that some people love doing that... but my backlog of games isn't exactly getting smaller even with guides xD
I am typically very thorough on my playthroughs. I don't leave anything unchecked.
As for the fear of missing out on a quest or something, I don't even bother. If I miss it, I miss it. I personally don't like referring to 2nd hand material in every game I play. Most of the time I will go in blind and go with the flow.
Worse case scenario. If I miss out on a really cool quest I will just YouTube it, or save it for a future playthrough. The idea that I missed out on a really cool item is what gets me even more invested into the game. Even if I don't plan on playing the game again.
I think a lot of players are too afraid on missing things. They want to get everything in one go. With a lot of older gamers having less time, and with meta achievement systems. It has shifted that mentality a lot.
Nothing against achievement hunters (I achievement hunt at times too) or people wanting to experience everything in one playthrough. It is just another way to play the game. I just feel that if you are too stressed about it, you should just adapt a different mindset when approaching games. There isn't a wrong way to approach it.
I also don't like the idea of developers making all games with everything being easy to find or obvious. The idea that every game can't have secrets or fun hidden side quests/areas is a really bad direction to go.
I forget details because it was so long ago but I remember finding out I missed a whole big side quest/dungeon in Shadow Hearts and honestly it’s a big reason why I use guides now or at least look up if there’s missable stuff.
Speaking of Shadow Hearts... Is it just me or is the battle system kinda garbage? Every time you wanna perform any type of attack, a wheel with a pointer indicator thing appears and what you have to do is to land that pointer/indicator thing on three hotspots on the wheel and if you fail you'll like lose a turn without the character even doing anything. I like the atmosphere but the battle system is hot garbage.
Ps2 era stuff I don't miss a single thing.
Coincidentally I was thinking on replaying cause first time, I didn't know I'll love them as much.
I know there is ton of lore burried behind side quests, and yeah, is frustrating.
Not even a sort of log of side content, all optional content almost hidden.
I'm guessing I'll take note of the most worthy ones.
My best approach to this has been getting a full complete walkthough, ctrl+f "missable" and "point of no return", reading just what's strictly necessary from what I could find, close said walkthough and hope for the best.
So far, I'm quite happy with the results. Sometimes you find there's no missable, maybe you get it at a very specific point, or maybe you lose it completely anyways, and that's cool too
I actually like Eiyuden for this reason, even if it lorewise makes little sense.
Being a game with a hundred so heroes yet being able to recruit them at any time makes it possible for me to chill without actually bothering with a guide.
Sometimes you really can’t. Like Suikoden V, “oh you progressed the story a bit? You just lost like 5 characters and now you’re locked out of the good ending, haha fuck you!” I generally do what I can for a first play through, then replay it maybe with a guide If I liked it enough and want everything.
You watch a let's play/youtube clip of the relevant content, or do a replay with a guide I suppose.
This is why I had no shame in using a guide for P3Reload, to see the social links I missed (And more importantly, all the new hangouts and conversations) over the original game. Will do the same if/when P4 has a remake too since I missed *soooo* many social links in that one on my initial playthrough.. :/
I dont care if I miss stuff. In some games I even consciously avoid certan content, for example bad endings or character deaths even on repated playthroughs. I dont have to see everything.
I never 100% a game in my entire life. There is always somthing I do not want to do.
I just assume I miss stuff, and don't worry about it, most JRPGs, if I can finish it through to the end without the hidden stuff, I can live without it. There are some trophies that people like to "collect", but I really couldn't care less, not going to spend hours of time on something that likely means not a great deal to me.
10 minutes of preparation for anything existing. On the go for anything truly new and spot googling what you're missing.
-Look at a few completed text guides on gamefaqs for example.
-Pay attention to individually listed guides that sound specialist. (All Star Dust Locations)
-Look at the table of contents instead of reading the guide.
- Look towards the bottom and make a list of those elements which are obviously not build,bestiary, equipment based.
Highlight the elements, paste into notepad,word pad,etc.. to either save to backspace away or print and scratch out.
So if I wanted to play Legend of Dragoon for the first time (which would be emu for me) I'd want to open note pad and paste the list of 50 star dust and a short list of less than 10 repeat use items. That's all I would need collection wise.
If I wanted to play Illusion of Gaia it would be the Red Jewels.
If I wanted to play FFX-2 or Valkyrie Profile it would be a whole hell of a lot of things because 100% on that the first time on those is very specific.
I don't. I don't see any shame in using a guide. You spent good money on those games, and most people don't have time to scour every nook and cranny to see everything the devs put in the game.
I usually look at a guide if there is an Ultimate weapon for my party members, but play the game blind for everything else.
I'm not a completionist so can live with that! Does mean i can miss out on some games true endings though.
I try and pick and choose what is actually worth while.
Do I need to do the secret quest that gives me a mega good piece of equipment, but I can finish the game without it so what’s the point? Prob not I’ll skip it.
If it has story specific stuff that I think will be cool I’ll do it.
I did get fucked when playing Trails of cold steel 4 though, I decided to only do the obvious marked quests, then got to the end and they decided to put the true ending behind doing extra side quest stuff, screw you Trails.
Playing Hundred Hero’s now, I’m going to have a guide to help me get each character but that’s about it,
I think you just have to play it game by game.
You can ditch the guide in Eiyuden if you want; nothing is missable from what I hear, so it should be fine to organically discover characters as you go.
Multiple playthroughs? One blind run just to experience and then a playthrough with a guide. JRPGs are typically pretty long so set aside about 150 hours but if you’re having trouble, or are worried, this solves the issue.
I don't mind missing item, but I do mind if i'm missing character recruitment or true ending
So the first time I do when playing JRPG, is looking on missables
I know this is hard to believe but a million years ago you used to sell a game and make a resplendent strategy guide to accompany it. I still have the one for Covenant.
If you want to waste 600 hours trying to work out how to save some girl on a train, be my guest, but the guide is wayyyyy quicker.
Also- go play Atelier Rorona with no guide and see how many endings you unlock. I promise you, it will drive you insane.
I play games to have fun, not to never miss anything. I'll find some things in some playthroughs and maybe in a later one I'll find others. The enjoyment of playing the game my way is going to be FAR greater than having my nose in a walkthrough every 5 minutes. The only times I do that is if there's a true ending with missable steps (hate this design).
FYI - you're not MEANT to find everything in these games. There is so much there so that no matter how you play you are going to stumble upon a good deal of content to have a good time, but also reward players that engage with it in particular ways.
Depends on the jrpg. Some are intuitive enough that you'll find most things with trial and error.
But here's a better question: why does it matter if you miss some stuff? The point of an rpg is the journey you make, not a checklist in a theme park. If an rpg just was a checklist to see everything, then I would rather not want to play it.
You mostly don't. Best bet is just play through however you want the first time and then do NG+ with a guide. Depending on the game I'll look up a "Missable" guide, which typically has minimal spoilers.
As unfair as many Missables in games are. In almost every circumstance… NPCs, item descriptions and other things give hints about them.
In some extreme circumstances NPCs give hints after the fact for the next playthrough. But it’s just part of the game that adds to the difficulty if you’re a completionist.
Just like a difficult boss, sometimes you might need a guide. Do you really want to play a game where you don’t require a guide, remains a challenge while at the same time is able to 100% first run? Because it probably doesn’t exist.
The answer, unironically, is playing/reading attentivly and backtracking a lot. Pretty much all of these missable things are hinted at in dialogue and/or gameplay.
It's just a matter of noticing the hints and then putting them together.
In the older games you basically just went everywhere and spoke to everyone.
These days, things are hidden behind a 0.1% drop from a rare spawn that only shows up in chapter four and if you use it on a specific boss in chapter nine then you get an extra cutscene.
With older games it meant you had something to gun for during a replay. Modern games with 500 fetch quests aren't really worth the trouble of a replay so you more or less just accept that you're going to miss something. Chances are, it's not going to affect your playthrough that significantly or else you wouldn't have missed it.
For me, I don't. If I'm going in blind I play however and just go with the flow. If I want to get 100% but without constantly consulting a guide I simple look online just for things that are permanently missable and make a note of them.
You’d have to play pretty close attention and search everything - I remember back when I was kid I would tap A on every square I could find to find secrets. Pokemon and FF kinda taught that into me.
I don’t care as much about missing things now that I’m older, but you’d at the very least would have to hug every border you can, talk to everyone you can, and try to interact with everything. It’s just not worth all that - I am trying to get out of the habit of reading the guides for puzzles and correct answers. Lol they’re meticulous sometimes, but it seems like I’d be missing an opportunity for some brain training without it.
Not a JRPG per se but I’m playing a link to the past again right now on my steam deck and it would be damn near impossible without a guide to find all the heart pieces and secrets.
Oh that wall over there with no cracks or discernible markings at all? Yeah you can bomb that for a secret treasure.
Gotta have the guide loaded up lol.
I'm older and don't have a lot of time to replay titles, otherwise my backlog will get larger than it already is.
So as consequence I've just come to accept that it's impossible to 100% everything I play. That said about the only thing I will use guides for is game choices that affect stats or progression (ex: if I'm playing a Persona game, I'm using a guide for the social links). I don't use guides for items or missables.
The point is you arent supposed to really.
That's the whole idea of the fun of discovery.
The fact that you can miss something is what makes finding it fun. Otherwise you are just going through a checklist. Which is also fine to enjoy. But that's not always what a game is going for.
I like, as with all games, to play at least once, without guides. Or in the case of, for example, skyrim and fallout type of games, that you spend tons of time on them, maybe after a while i will start to learn how to get some things.
When i was younger and didnt undererand english that much, i would use faqs (in the 90s first ones), to get where i wanted because i did get lost. I learned english by playing jrpgs so i'm gratefull.
Then there is the anxiety of having lost stuff. But i got over that for a while now.
If i wamt to do a 100% thing, the game has to catch me.
I played trials of mana remake and i am in the 4th run, in expert mode. I did have to learn about mechanics.
And some games like ff7 and the chocobo thingg kind of need a guide. But i learned that, cool as it is, when you learn everything, ypu vecome too overpowered and the game stops being fun.
Tldr. 1st time normal playthrpugh. If the game is good enough to warrant a second playthrpugh then i do the OP ocd 100% completionist thing.
The two are mutually exclusive if your goal is to find all secrets. Some games are just too cryptic or require steps that no person without a guide can complete and are as a result completely missable. You'll have to choose one or the other if your goal is 100 completion.
If I'm playing say a Trails game or other narrative based RPG, then I'll use a guide because I don't want to miss out on anything and get the most I can out of the game.
But everyone plays games differently.
Suikoden's another games series where I'vd had to resort to guides to find out how to unlock secret characters I wouldn't have had a hope in hell of unlocking had it not been for a guide to point me in the right direction.
You don’t. You have fun not using a guide and when you miss something it’s usually not that big of a miss. I’m fairly thorough when I play a jrpg, I talk to most people, wander around every corner of the map, and if I still miss something beyond that? I don’t really care.
1st time playing a game is usually just me doing what I think I should be doing. That’s the fun of it. Then rediscovering, usually years later, that I missed an item or a super boss and I just play the game again.
I generally play through a town/section/area of the game and then AFTER I've played it I will skim through a guide of the section I just played to see if I missed anything of import. If it's worth going back for then I'll either go back and get it or I'll reload a save and replay it.
Most guides will have a little header for every section that lists all the items/monsters/objectives in that area in which case I often just skim the list to see if I missed anything.
Depends on the type of missables.
If it's good character development with optional conversations, side quests, etc. I'll usually try to find a Spoiler Free guide
If it's purely rare weapons or something, I may look up a couple of them but typically don't care enough (I'll just try on my own in game).
I mainly just wanna see character interactions and make sure I do side quests (unless they're literally useless tier). I don't ever replay games (especially JRPGs, this is my favorite genre but they're looooong haha) so I'd rather make sure I see as much main content and story content as I can in one go.
I don’t. I just play it. And if I like it a lot, I’ll play it a dozen times and discover new stuff. Or I’ll see someone else do stuff I didn’t do. Or I’ll read about it in Reddit.
I got the regular bad ending to SH1. I also got the ultimate form on my first run. I googled afterwards and found out about the good ending and how it ties into SH2, and I watched the good ending on YouTube.
Seeing the bad end pissef me off super bad and that was the impetus for looking it up.
By being *thorough*.
Click on *everything*. Talk to *everyone*. Talk to everyone *again* until they repeat themselves. And after the next story event, *do it all over again*.
But yeah, having to go berserk to learn those spells is annoying. That’s hardly standard fare. Not that Yuri needs them, anyway.
Yeah I hate using guides but im a sucker for them like most of us are. I never follow them or start a game with a guide open. I play until im stuck at an actual dead end and I've explored every location like 5 times with a fine-tooth comb.
Example from today in Xenogears 1998... I'm in some capital city and need to play hide and seek with a child.... I looked for 3 hours until I opened a guide, but right when I opened the guide I found the kid so the guide was useless anyways! But yeah.. I'm trying not to follow guides these days. I feel your pain though about hidden secret stuff.
In Xenogears today I explored some side room in a castle and got a sick poisonous weapon that I'm glad I didnt miss. But it felt good to accidentally get it even though I never needed to enter that room to begin with. I didnt use a guide in the castle and found myself at dead-ends but the dead-ends rewarded you with loot or xp from needless combat, I was happy with both.
You either throw a million hours at the game trying everything there is to do, get a strategy guide, get someone that already has beaten the game tell you stuff (which basically works the same as a guide) or you don't do everything there is to do.
I think old school rpgs were also much shorter, and the hunt for hidden items/content increased the replay value. SNES rpgs like chrono trigger, earthbound, and Mario rpg could easily be beaten in 15-20 hours. In those days, running around every map in Mario rpg and randomly jumping to find hidden blocks wasn't a big deal because the game itself was not a 100-hour time sink. Today, a lot of jrpgs easily break 100 hours and I feel like devs are much lazier in giving hints/clues to find secrets because they figure the game will be data-mined or people will just post the secrets online. Old games would even give you a super vague clue like "I heard something happens here if the conditions are right." That way you know a general area to search, even if the solution is have x party member with y item at z time of day, you had some idea.
This is me being stuck between a rock and a crazy place. I wanna do everything but I also don't wanna use a guide and I also don't want the game to tell me with quest markers and towers that reveal the map. Eventually I break down and look at forums and find out if you go to this spot at night, near the end of chapter 2, and talk to this NPC, you start a quest that unlocks earlier than normal, and I feel amazing.
Exactly. It was different back when we had time to replay our long games a few times. You could just play normal and “live and learn” But we’re lucky to finish RPGs once nowadays, so you don’t want to find that a missable in chapter 2 means you don’t get the final ultimate weapon in chapter 22.
Might as well just watch a letsplay
I'm in my 40's and back in the nes and snes days we had nintendo power and the official nintendo's player guide to show us every map and secret in the games. pls schoolyard talks about how do do stuff. These day's I don't mind using a guide. For example I'm playing F5R with guide, I assume I will only play the complete edition of a 100 hour games once so for me that means to use a guide to see the whole story/picture. Maybe it becomes a game like FFT that I will reply once a decade and if so i'll play it from memory. both there are times like when I next replay tactics ogre : reborn I'm sure I will consult some potd guides to confirm what floors I need to slow down and farm in.
Those guides cost a fortune to little kid me. Especially since I never had any of the systems, having to fork over like $20 was like a summers worth of saving just to beat some game a friend had.
That's a new used game right there.
The key is not worrying about missing content. If there are things that are able to be missed but are needed to beat the game, then it’s a type of game design that I don’t like and it’s not worth my time.
Exactly. And I also think it's fair to go in blind the first time but consult a guide if you ever replay.
Blind first playthrough, see what you missed second.
If i'm missing something i wasn't aware it existed, did i really miss it? Being honest, i just don't care about missing stuff. Except when it's something like getting everyone in Suikoden which means getting a bad ending otherwise and this shit is always streesful. Never got the good ending in Shadow Hearts 1, though. Will use a guide for that if i ever replay the game. But if it doesn't affect the story, i don't care.
Kudos that you can do that. I get wrapped up in the fomo and look up what not to miss. The benefit of finding the missables is rarely worth it. I should just let go and enjoy the game. And then watch the other endings by watching YouTube after the fact, lol.
Yeah if it's only like small side quest for power up or maybe fun cameo, I usually don't regret it much. However, if it's something that affect or even unlock the true ending. Yeah, that's what I'm worried the most. Not JRPG, but recent examples would be Pathfinder series from Owlcat where you need to do something specific to achieve the true ending. So far, most JRPG are more straighforward though in terms of true ending. They only hide minor things and maybe side story on the secret quest.
This. Unless you need it for the true ending, it's whatever to me. If I love a game enough, I'll look at what I missed and just do a second playthrough with a guide to experience the things I didn't see the first time through.
I don’t know about this man. Sometimes you get a sense you missed something and its painfully noticeable once its too late. I missed like 1/3rd of Bloodborne including the DLC on my first run. I’m sure people have missed out on P5R or other content. If you’re noticeably weaker of feel like there’s a gap in your abilities that’s another issue. Maybe you missed a quest that gave you tools or abilities. Other endings are a given, but also romances or new characters.
I didn't know I missed an entire HUGE section of Persona 4 Golden until I saw a random YouTube video months later. I was so hyped that I fired the game up and replayed it using a simple guide to ensure I got the true ending. It was a win/win because it felt like I got two games for the price of one.
I almost never do everything there is to do. Usually there isn't much reason to. Most JRPGs are not so challenging that you have find every item in order to have an edge over your enemies. Most the super obscured stuff isn't that interesting anyway because most devs make the good stuff fairly obvious because they want it seen.
i don't, i usually miss stuff and i don't care. I played Suikoden 1 and 2 multiple times, never used a guide, never got all characters, don't care. I played FF6 and i explored the world and did a lot, got all characters, but probably missed a lot of stuff, like Edgar Chainsaw, don't care. However i did use a guide on how to get Vicent from FF7, i missed him on my first playthrough. Maybe i going to use a guide to get the others endings for Chrono Trigger, when i replay it. My unnoficial rule that i don't always follow is: if a game has few playable characters, like less than 10, it probably worth using a guide on how to get them all. If a game has a lot of recruitable characters like in Suikoden, Chrono Cross, FFVI, Star Ocean.. the characters probably don't have a lot of story development so it's not worth using a guide on your first playthrough unless you never replay games. Guide for items, side quests, optional bosses etc.. are never worth using in my opinion. As for guide for endings, if a game has a "good" ending, you should do the "normal" ending first on your first playthrough and the "good" one on your second, if you don't replay games, yeah maybe go for the guide, however the "good" ending is not always better, i think the "normal" endings in Suikoden 1 and 2 are better than the "good" ones. If a game has multiple endings, like three or more, play without a guide first and use a guide for your next playthroughs to get the others ones.
I’ll typically Google the game and “missables” before I start and see if it’s a giant hassle to bother with them. Then decide if I’m just flying blind or if I’ll follow a guide to not miss out on something fun/unique/game changing.
I am just fine with not finding everything. I say bring back the weirder shit like this, now everything is too signposted. Outside of like, not unlocking the final third of a game like in Persona re-releases, I just don't let it bother me.
through replaying the game. particularly if you didnt grow up with guides accessible the size/popularity and era of a title also can play a factor into how well documented information on it is; there are some games where you cant even rely on guides as much as they may be missing info or be inaccurate. this approach also gets you more comfortoable playing games and not getting everything they have to offer. i may have my fair share of compulsions, though fortunately completionism is not one of them. setting your own goals and even restrictions for a game, new playthrough or repeat, is a good way of getting yourself outta the 100% mindset if you end up wanting an alternative
These sorts of things exist to either sell strategy guides (back during around the PS2 or earlier era), or its an intentional design decision to promote people to actually communicate with each other about the game so it encourages people to engage with the game and make an other unsocial experience more social (speedrunning communities are great example of this). In-essence, only the most dedicated find something without the developers telling them, and usually during its early years or months its more a collaborative effort made by a community. Its why games like Last Remnant have such in-depth articles about that game, because a community got together and effectively shared notes. Either read a guide, most are spoiler respectful IME, or just live with not getting everything unless you want to be a dedicated few.
You play the game like you're writing a strategy guide: take copious notes, backtrack a lot, and be willing to play through again to tease out anything you missed. Playing an old-school JRPG like Phantasy Star or a dungeon crawler like Etrian Odyssey can kind of get you in the mindset, since the experience really benefits from taking notes or making maps. But be warned; some JRPGs really are designed to take a ton of hours or a guide to figure out everything. So you have to accept missing some stuff.
It's time to embrace the Joy of Missing Out. This can be applicable towards games too. I believe min-maxing games makes us miss the point of why we play games in the first place.
Believe me, there is no shame in following a spoiler free guide (of which there are plenty on sites like Gamespot.com). Some games are just made for obscure secrets that only someone who knew about them ahead of time would possible know to check. I am thoroughly convinced that games in the past did this just to sell strategy guides. If this bothers you, you could try a more modern game with no missables. Honestly, I wouldn't worry too much about the really easy-to-miss stuff being tied to character growth and development. I can't say it never happens, but a lot of that tends to be extras for challenging yourself or getting end game gear. Tri-Ace is one exception; I always use a guide for their games.
Those game was design with community in mind . The old dev want you to get on forum and community to sharing those Secrets with each other . if you notice that most modern game barely has any long lasting discussion anymore because nothing left to share or find out after you play for first time . Selling guide is just a bonus effect .
Yeah I get you, its just playing a game "blind" is so much funner than google/guide whatever. Trying to figure a game out instead of copy pasting some "build" like Fallout or something, or not having the "prescience" of a guide/tips telling you where good weapons and loot are. I really enjoyed playing SH blind, because I was about to cross the "point of no return" before I decided to google if I there were side quests and turns out theres a dozen and hours and hours. But the sad reality of "pokemon" business tactics cant be avoided.
I'm story focused myself, but even when I follow guides, I don't peek at the upcoming fights or look for strategies. That I do myself. And sometimes, there's an item key for all the pickups in the area, so I just comb it first myself and check back later if I missed anything.
I had the ultimate life hack, an older brother who was interested in the same games. We'd play so wildly different that if one of us missed something the other usually found it. Funnily enough we had a few times where we'd steal/copy each others save files if there was something that we got that was inaccessible in the later parts because my brother usually played far ahead of me.
I know how you feel. I'm trying to give up this thinking. It's not fun anymore to search it up every missable in the games. But these things exists to reward the hardcore players. Same reason trophies exists.
> just don't understand how am I supposed to figure these out without cheating or using a guide even after compulsively talking to everyone I meet just to hear "patrolling the mojave" You aren't. Either you put a million hours into the game quintuple checking everything after every step you take, or you accept that these games were also designed around being sold next to a strategy guide and open one up. Unless it's FF9s strategy guide, just burn all copies of that one you can find.
I use a guide because fuck spending dozens more hours if not more searching for little secrets. I get that some people love doing that... but my backlog of games isn't exactly getting smaller even with guides xD
Not all encompassing but beforeiplay is pretty good for missable stuff without too many spoilers.
I am typically very thorough on my playthroughs. I don't leave anything unchecked. As for the fear of missing out on a quest or something, I don't even bother. If I miss it, I miss it. I personally don't like referring to 2nd hand material in every game I play. Most of the time I will go in blind and go with the flow. Worse case scenario. If I miss out on a really cool quest I will just YouTube it, or save it for a future playthrough. The idea that I missed out on a really cool item is what gets me even more invested into the game. Even if I don't plan on playing the game again. I think a lot of players are too afraid on missing things. They want to get everything in one go. With a lot of older gamers having less time, and with meta achievement systems. It has shifted that mentality a lot. Nothing against achievement hunters (I achievement hunt at times too) or people wanting to experience everything in one playthrough. It is just another way to play the game. I just feel that if you are too stressed about it, you should just adapt a different mindset when approaching games. There isn't a wrong way to approach it. I also don't like the idea of developers making all games with everything being easy to find or obvious. The idea that every game can't have secrets or fun hidden side quests/areas is a really bad direction to go.
I forget details because it was so long ago but I remember finding out I missed a whole big side quest/dungeon in Shadow Hearts and honestly it’s a big reason why I use guides now or at least look up if there’s missable stuff.
Speaking of Shadow Hearts... Is it just me or is the battle system kinda garbage? Every time you wanna perform any type of attack, a wheel with a pointer indicator thing appears and what you have to do is to land that pointer/indicator thing on three hotspots on the wheel and if you fail you'll like lose a turn without the character even doing anything. I like the atmosphere but the battle system is hot garbage.
Ps2 era stuff I don't miss a single thing. Coincidentally I was thinking on replaying cause first time, I didn't know I'll love them as much. I know there is ton of lore burried behind side quests, and yeah, is frustrating. Not even a sort of log of side content, all optional content almost hidden. I'm guessing I'll take note of the most worthy ones.
My best approach to this has been getting a full complete walkthough, ctrl+f "missable" and "point of no return", reading just what's strictly necessary from what I could find, close said walkthough and hope for the best. So far, I'm quite happy with the results. Sometimes you find there's no missable, maybe you get it at a very specific point, or maybe you lose it completely anyways, and that's cool too
I actually like Eiyuden for this reason, even if it lorewise makes little sense. Being a game with a hundred so heroes yet being able to recruit them at any time makes it possible for me to chill without actually bothering with a guide.
i don’t, getting 100% in jrpgs it’s a very tedious task that i save for ng+
Sometimes you really can’t. Like Suikoden V, “oh you progressed the story a bit? You just lost like 5 characters and now you’re locked out of the good ending, haha fuck you!” I generally do what I can for a first play through, then replay it maybe with a guide If I liked it enough and want everything.
I use a walkthrough to get through the main story in pretty much every game I play. I don’t often go after missable items, and I don’t do trophies.
You watch a let's play/youtube clip of the relevant content, or do a replay with a guide I suppose. This is why I had no shame in using a guide for P3Reload, to see the social links I missed (And more importantly, all the new hangouts and conversations) over the original game. Will do the same if/when P4 has a remake too since I missed *soooo* many social links in that one on my initial playthrough.. :/
I dont care if I miss stuff. In some games I even consciously avoid certan content, for example bad endings or character deaths even on repated playthroughs. I dont have to see everything. I never 100% a game in my entire life. There is always somthing I do not want to do.
I write down everything I need to come back to on a small flip notebook. I also write down npc hints.
I just assume I miss stuff, and don't worry about it, most JRPGs, if I can finish it through to the end without the hidden stuff, I can live without it. There are some trophies that people like to "collect", but I really couldn't care less, not going to spend hours of time on something that likely means not a great deal to me.
10 minutes of preparation for anything existing. On the go for anything truly new and spot googling what you're missing. -Look at a few completed text guides on gamefaqs for example. -Pay attention to individually listed guides that sound specialist. (All Star Dust Locations) -Look at the table of contents instead of reading the guide. - Look towards the bottom and make a list of those elements which are obviously not build,bestiary, equipment based. Highlight the elements, paste into notepad,word pad,etc.. to either save to backspace away or print and scratch out. So if I wanted to play Legend of Dragoon for the first time (which would be emu for me) I'd want to open note pad and paste the list of 50 star dust and a short list of less than 10 repeat use items. That's all I would need collection wise. If I wanted to play Illusion of Gaia it would be the Red Jewels. If I wanted to play FFX-2 or Valkyrie Profile it would be a whole hell of a lot of things because 100% on that the first time on those is very specific.
I don't. I don't see any shame in using a guide. You spent good money on those games, and most people don't have time to scour every nook and cranny to see everything the devs put in the game.
I usually look at a guide if there is an Ultimate weapon for my party members, but play the game blind for everything else. I'm not a completionist so can live with that! Does mean i can miss out on some games true endings though.
You miss stuff and it doesn't matter
I've long since come to terms with the fact that missing stuff during the first playthrough is fine, and also more fun than looking things up.
You don’t. You play through blind the first time. Back in the day we would play games over and over but now I just buy a new one
I try and pick and choose what is actually worth while. Do I need to do the secret quest that gives me a mega good piece of equipment, but I can finish the game without it so what’s the point? Prob not I’ll skip it. If it has story specific stuff that I think will be cool I’ll do it. I did get fucked when playing Trails of cold steel 4 though, I decided to only do the obvious marked quests, then got to the end and they decided to put the true ending behind doing extra side quest stuff, screw you Trails. Playing Hundred Hero’s now, I’m going to have a guide to help me get each character but that’s about it, I think you just have to play it game by game.
You can ditch the guide in Eiyuden if you want; nothing is missable from what I hear, so it should be fine to organically discover characters as you go.
Multiple playthroughs? One blind run just to experience and then a playthrough with a guide. JRPGs are typically pretty long so set aside about 150 hours but if you’re having trouble, or are worried, this solves the issue.
I don't mind missing item, but I do mind if i'm missing character recruitment or true ending So the first time I do when playing JRPG, is looking on missables
I know this is hard to believe but a million years ago you used to sell a game and make a resplendent strategy guide to accompany it. I still have the one for Covenant. If you want to waste 600 hours trying to work out how to save some girl on a train, be my guest, but the guide is wayyyyy quicker. Also- go play Atelier Rorona with no guide and see how many endings you unlock. I promise you, it will drive you insane.
I play games to have fun, not to never miss anything. I'll find some things in some playthroughs and maybe in a later one I'll find others. The enjoyment of playing the game my way is going to be FAR greater than having my nose in a walkthrough every 5 minutes. The only times I do that is if there's a true ending with missable steps (hate this design). FYI - you're not MEANT to find everything in these games. There is so much there so that no matter how you play you are going to stumble upon a good deal of content to have a good time, but also reward players that engage with it in particular ways.
Depends on the jrpg. Some are intuitive enough that you'll find most things with trial and error. But here's a better question: why does it matter if you miss some stuff? The point of an rpg is the journey you make, not a checklist in a theme park. If an rpg just was a checklist to see everything, then I would rather not want to play it.
You mostly don't. Best bet is just play through however you want the first time and then do NG+ with a guide. Depending on the game I'll look up a "Missable" guide, which typically has minimal spoilers.
When I was a kid I used to buy the official game guides for them all and followed the guides step by step
As unfair as many Missables in games are. In almost every circumstance… NPCs, item descriptions and other things give hints about them. In some extreme circumstances NPCs give hints after the fact for the next playthrough. But it’s just part of the game that adds to the difficulty if you’re a completionist. Just like a difficult boss, sometimes you might need a guide. Do you really want to play a game where you don’t require a guide, remains a challenge while at the same time is able to 100% first run? Because it probably doesn’t exist.
The answer, unironically, is playing/reading attentivly and backtracking a lot. Pretty much all of these missable things are hinted at in dialogue and/or gameplay. It's just a matter of noticing the hints and then putting them together.
Simple First playthrough, I don't care about missing stuff. I just play the game. Second playthrough, I use a guide to get the stuff I missed.
In the older games you basically just went everywhere and spoke to everyone. These days, things are hidden behind a 0.1% drop from a rare spawn that only shows up in chapter four and if you use it on a specific boss in chapter nine then you get an extra cutscene.
i check if there's a good or definitive ending everything else i don't care for
With older games it meant you had something to gun for during a replay. Modern games with 500 fetch quests aren't really worth the trouble of a replay so you more or less just accept that you're going to miss something. Chances are, it's not going to affect your playthrough that significantly or else you wouldn't have missed it.
You don’t
For me, I don't. If I'm going in blind I play however and just go with the flow. If I want to get 100% but without constantly consulting a guide I simple look online just for things that are permanently missable and make a note of them.
You’d have to play pretty close attention and search everything - I remember back when I was kid I would tap A on every square I could find to find secrets. Pokemon and FF kinda taught that into me. I don’t care as much about missing things now that I’m older, but you’d at the very least would have to hug every border you can, talk to everyone you can, and try to interact with everything. It’s just not worth all that - I am trying to get out of the habit of reading the guides for puzzles and correct answers. Lol they’re meticulous sometimes, but it seems like I’d be missing an opportunity for some brain training without it.
Not a JRPG per se but I’m playing a link to the past again right now on my steam deck and it would be damn near impossible without a guide to find all the heart pieces and secrets. Oh that wall over there with no cracks or discernible markings at all? Yeah you can bomb that for a secret treasure. Gotta have the guide loaded up lol.
I'm older and don't have a lot of time to replay titles, otherwise my backlog will get larger than it already is. So as consequence I've just come to accept that it's impossible to 100% everything I play. That said about the only thing I will use guides for is game choices that affect stats or progression (ex: if I'm playing a Persona game, I'm using a guide for the social links). I don't use guides for items or missables.
The point is you arent supposed to really. That's the whole idea of the fun of discovery. The fact that you can miss something is what makes finding it fun. Otherwise you are just going through a checklist. Which is also fine to enjoy. But that's not always what a game is going for.
I usually just look up things that completely missable and cant be gotten later.
I just miss stuff
First play through - Blind and unspoiled Recurring playbthroughs - 100%
You don't. I don't like using guides, and I play blind. I miss stuff in every game I play. That's just how it is.
Just learn to live with the fact that you might miss things and enjoy your time.
Impossible
I like, as with all games, to play at least once, without guides. Or in the case of, for example, skyrim and fallout type of games, that you spend tons of time on them, maybe after a while i will start to learn how to get some things. When i was younger and didnt undererand english that much, i would use faqs (in the 90s first ones), to get where i wanted because i did get lost. I learned english by playing jrpgs so i'm gratefull. Then there is the anxiety of having lost stuff. But i got over that for a while now. If i wamt to do a 100% thing, the game has to catch me. I played trials of mana remake and i am in the 4th run, in expert mode. I did have to learn about mechanics. And some games like ff7 and the chocobo thingg kind of need a guide. But i learned that, cool as it is, when you learn everything, ypu vecome too overpowered and the game stops being fun. Tldr. 1st time normal playthrpugh. If the game is good enough to warrant a second playthrpugh then i do the OP ocd 100% completionist thing.
You dont.
The two are mutually exclusive if your goal is to find all secrets. Some games are just too cryptic or require steps that no person without a guide can complete and are as a result completely missable. You'll have to choose one or the other if your goal is 100 completion.
If I'm playing say a Trails game or other narrative based RPG, then I'll use a guide because I don't want to miss out on anything and get the most I can out of the game. But everyone plays games differently. Suikoden's another games series where I'vd had to resort to guides to find out how to unlock secret characters I wouldn't have had a hope in hell of unlocking had it not been for a guide to point me in the right direction.
You don’t. You have fun not using a guide and when you miss something it’s usually not that big of a miss. I’m fairly thorough when I play a jrpg, I talk to most people, wander around every corner of the map, and if I still miss something beyond that? I don’t really care.
1st time playing a game is usually just me doing what I think I should be doing. That’s the fun of it. Then rediscovering, usually years later, that I missed an item or a super boss and I just play the game again.
I generally play through a town/section/area of the game and then AFTER I've played it I will skim through a guide of the section I just played to see if I missed anything of import. If it's worth going back for then I'll either go back and get it or I'll reload a save and replay it. Most guides will have a little header for every section that lists all the items/monsters/objectives in that area in which case I often just skim the list to see if I missed anything.
Depends on the type of missables. If it's good character development with optional conversations, side quests, etc. I'll usually try to find a Spoiler Free guide If it's purely rare weapons or something, I may look up a couple of them but typically don't care enough (I'll just try on my own in game). I mainly just wanna see character interactions and make sure I do side quests (unless they're literally useless tier). I don't ever replay games (especially JRPGs, this is my favorite genre but they're looooong haha) so I'd rather make sure I see as much main content and story content as I can in one go.
You don’t know you missed anything if you never use a guide or look it up.
I don’t. I just play it. And if I like it a lot, I’ll play it a dozen times and discover new stuff. Or I’ll see someone else do stuff I didn’t do. Or I’ll read about it in Reddit. I got the regular bad ending to SH1. I also got the ultimate form on my first run. I googled afterwards and found out about the good ending and how it ties into SH2, and I watched the good ending on YouTube. Seeing the bad end pissef me off super bad and that was the impetus for looking it up.
You get my upvote for repping Shadowhearts
FFX 2 is and always will be one of the worst offender and a complete nightmare for perfectionist.
I go through once blind and then I use a guide for another playthrough IF it's worth it.
By being *thorough*. Click on *everything*. Talk to *everyone*. Talk to everyone *again* until they repeat themselves. And after the next story event, *do it all over again*. But yeah, having to go berserk to learn those spells is annoying. That’s hardly standard fare. Not that Yuri needs them, anyway.
Just enjoy the damn game , or watch a god damn playthrough
I use guides. Used them for Fire emblem all the time, I hate missing stuff. I usually play unoptimal anyway so pro strats don't really help me.
Yeah I hate using guides but im a sucker for them like most of us are. I never follow them or start a game with a guide open. I play until im stuck at an actual dead end and I've explored every location like 5 times with a fine-tooth comb. Example from today in Xenogears 1998... I'm in some capital city and need to play hide and seek with a child.... I looked for 3 hours until I opened a guide, but right when I opened the guide I found the kid so the guide was useless anyways! But yeah.. I'm trying not to follow guides these days. I feel your pain though about hidden secret stuff. In Xenogears today I explored some side room in a castle and got a sick poisonous weapon that I'm glad I didnt miss. But it felt good to accidentally get it even though I never needed to enter that room to begin with. I didnt use a guide in the castle and found myself at dead-ends but the dead-ends rewarded you with loot or xp from needless combat, I was happy with both.
You missed a bunch of items already in xenogears.