29th March 2014, 9:04 PM
I have a few games I go back to again and again, games I think I know inside and out. Sometimes I find out something. I'm not talking about deleted content or some absurdly hidden content that requires me to translate languages or something. I'm talking stuff that is more or less "right there", but I somehow missed it in the 20 times I've played it. I dedicate this thread to a few examples.
Link's Awakening: Let's start this off right, with one of my favorite games of all time. I've bought this game 3 times, and that was the SAME VERSION. I also bought the DX version. I played through each cart many times, because I love this game. So one would think I'd already uncovered everything that could be found, but I found wrong. I recently found out I can sprinkle some magic powder on random skeletons in the game to get dialog from them. Neat, but wow I really didn't think this game had anything left to give.
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Final Fantasy 6: FF6 sets a standard for hidden "scenarios", little bits of story exposition that need to be "found" with the right combination of characters going to the right places at just the right time in the story. There's Shadow's hidden dreams, the hidden scene with Setzer talking about Darryl in the world of balance, a hidden scene involving a two sided coin if Sabin and Edgar are with you, things like that. Well, this one is especially out of the way. As it turns out, at the point where you need to travel from South Figaro to the Returner's Hideout early on in the game, there's another hidden gem that was hiding from me this whole time. After the fight with Vargas, normally you feel the need to go straight on to the next destination. Turns out, if you decide to turn around head BACK through that long mountain trail and head BACK to South Figaro, you can talk to a certain old woman (the only person in town who's dialog has actually changed) with Sabin in the party and she'll talk to Sabin about the death of Vargas. Wow, talk about out of the way. Just to be clear here, this story scene can't be accessed if you go on to the Returner's hideout and come back to this town later. Her dialog now talks about the Empire's occupation.
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Chrono Trigger: How did I go so long without finding out about this? Another game I've played many times, partly because the game rewards it through it's invention of "New Game +". Recently, on a playthrough of the DS version of the game, I ran into something involving the court room scene early in the game. Now, I've read guides and data on this before, and was basically convinced that one of the jury members was basically "locked" into always voting against you, and you could only ever get all but that ONE jury member to side with you. As it turns out, one of them is linked to finding that little girl's cat. "Wait!" you're typing, those of you who ALSO obsess over this game "But we all know that, you need to get that girl's cat to sway a jury member, and she even get brought up to the witness stand to testify to Chrono's good character!". Sure enough! In fact, I ALWAYS made sure to rescue that kitty cat, and ALWAYS saw her testify to how kind I was to do so. However, it turns out TWO jury members are affected by rescuing the cat, but one has slightly different criteria, "glitched" criteria if you ask me.
So here's the deal, that cat rescue? Any sane person would expect this order of events:
1. Talk to little girl who mentions she lost her cat.
2. Find lost cat and bring cat back to the brat.
Nope, that's WRONG. Turns out this is the right order of events:
1. NEVER EVER talk to the little girl to find out she wants her cat.
2. Somehow instinctively know (maybe Chrono is psychic or some sort of cat whisperer?) that this one random cat belongs to that child and drag it on over, talking to her ONCE to confirm the cat was returned.
3. Never talk to that little kid again, she is now dead to you.
Seriously, that's how it works! That ONE jury member determines if you "helped" the little girl by seeing if you EVER talked to her when she was crying for her cat, but NEVER bothers to check and confirm that you did in fact bring the cat, so that old codger always determines you are a terrible person. So, at long last, after all these playthroughs, I finally figure it out. I have to act in an illogical manner in order to get a "perfect" rating in court. ... Well, "worth it", but what really gets me is this glitch has NEVER been fixed. It's there in the SNES version, the PS1 version, even the DS version. (Yes, also in the iOS version, but considering how sloppy SE's work has been on the iOS ports, that's basically a given).
Link's Awakening: Let's start this off right, with one of my favorite games of all time. I've bought this game 3 times, and that was the SAME VERSION. I also bought the DX version. I played through each cart many times, because I love this game. So one would think I'd already uncovered everything that could be found, but I found wrong. I recently found out I can sprinkle some magic powder on random skeletons in the game to get dialog from them. Neat, but wow I really didn't think this game had anything left to give.
------------
Final Fantasy 6: FF6 sets a standard for hidden "scenarios", little bits of story exposition that need to be "found" with the right combination of characters going to the right places at just the right time in the story. There's Shadow's hidden dreams, the hidden scene with Setzer talking about Darryl in the world of balance, a hidden scene involving a two sided coin if Sabin and Edgar are with you, things like that. Well, this one is especially out of the way. As it turns out, at the point where you need to travel from South Figaro to the Returner's Hideout early on in the game, there's another hidden gem that was hiding from me this whole time. After the fight with Vargas, normally you feel the need to go straight on to the next destination. Turns out, if you decide to turn around head BACK through that long mountain trail and head BACK to South Figaro, you can talk to a certain old woman (the only person in town who's dialog has actually changed) with Sabin in the party and she'll talk to Sabin about the death of Vargas. Wow, talk about out of the way. Just to be clear here, this story scene can't be accessed if you go on to the Returner's hideout and come back to this town later. Her dialog now talks about the Empire's occupation.
------------
Chrono Trigger: How did I go so long without finding out about this? Another game I've played many times, partly because the game rewards it through it's invention of "New Game +". Recently, on a playthrough of the DS version of the game, I ran into something involving the court room scene early in the game. Now, I've read guides and data on this before, and was basically convinced that one of the jury members was basically "locked" into always voting against you, and you could only ever get all but that ONE jury member to side with you. As it turns out, one of them is linked to finding that little girl's cat. "Wait!" you're typing, those of you who ALSO obsess over this game "But we all know that, you need to get that girl's cat to sway a jury member, and she even get brought up to the witness stand to testify to Chrono's good character!". Sure enough! In fact, I ALWAYS made sure to rescue that kitty cat, and ALWAYS saw her testify to how kind I was to do so. However, it turns out TWO jury members are affected by rescuing the cat, but one has slightly different criteria, "glitched" criteria if you ask me.
So here's the deal, that cat rescue? Any sane person would expect this order of events:
1. Talk to little girl who mentions she lost her cat.
2. Find lost cat and bring cat back to the brat.
Nope, that's WRONG. Turns out this is the right order of events:
1. NEVER EVER talk to the little girl to find out she wants her cat.
2. Somehow instinctively know (maybe Chrono is psychic or some sort of cat whisperer?) that this one random cat belongs to that child and drag it on over, talking to her ONCE to confirm the cat was returned.
3. Never talk to that little kid again, she is now dead to you.
Seriously, that's how it works! That ONE jury member determines if you "helped" the little girl by seeing if you EVER talked to her when she was crying for her cat, but NEVER bothers to check and confirm that you did in fact bring the cat, so that old codger always determines you are a terrible person. So, at long last, after all these playthroughs, I finally figure it out. I have to act in an illogical manner in order to get a "perfect" rating in court. ... Well, "worth it", but what really gets me is this glitch has NEVER been fixed. It's there in the SNES version, the PS1 version, even the DS version. (Yes, also in the iOS version, but considering how sloppy SE's work has been on the iOS ports, that's basically a given).