Ever beat a game w/o using a major gameplay mechanic?

[Omerta]

I am the type of guy that'll jump into a game and try to run through it the first time without reading any sort of strategy guide. Much to my detriment, this course of action has made my first run through Dark Souls a lot longer than it should be because it doesn't hold your hand and explain everything. I'm sure I'll have a few stroke of genius moments when I do tap into internet resources.

This has happened to me in the past, too. The first time I beat Fallout 3, I completely ignored the game's instruction on the VATS system and just free-hand FPSed. I was more interested in the game's literature on building stats so I died... a lot. 75% of the way through, I accidentally hit the shoulder button and my jaw dropped when I understood the weight of what I just did. Reading up afterward on this game made the next trip exponentially more fulfilling.

So what about you guys?

Did you ever jump into a game and dump a bunch of hours into it only to find that you were missing a huge chunk of it due to an essential gameplay mechanic unbeknownst to you?

[Cronozilla]

I know I've done this before. I've gone through an entire game, beaten it, then look at the manual and find out you could do some special move and I'm like "what the hell!". But, I can't actually place those games right now.

One I do remember is Super Mario 64: no Wall jumps, punches and kicks, or somersaults. Never even knew about them the first time I played it. Went through a large portion of the game.

[Damm64]

Kingdom hearts 2 you get moves like glide and super jump by leveling up your special transformations... news flash i never freaking used them so i got a few boss battles really hard because i didn't have the glide ability. I find it out after reading online how to beat a mini game the fastest way.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I was about 50 hours into Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World before I accidentally figured out how to use the most powerful magic attacks (mystic artes). Triggering this type of magic isn't exactly intuitive, and this problem was doubled by the fact that I literally can't read the game's instructions (I'm colorblind and the font and page colors just blend into each other).

I also just finished Symphony of the Night a few weeks ago. I didn't use magic at all because I found it a pain in the ass (you have to enter button combos like a fighting game).

There are likely several more examples that will come to me later.

[Xeogred]

I think most of the Metroidvania Castlevania's are kind of like that, they give you a lot of stuff to use but you can get by without using a lot. Never liked using the magic in SoTN myself either.

In JRPG's I'm usually a bit of a hoarder. I'm a bit more lax on this, but still like to hold those really rare items... Elixers, X-Potions, or whatever, "just in case" and suddenly, I'm at the end of the game and never used half the items I have. I even caught myself doing this with the Demon's/Dark Souls games. In the Dark games, I guess I just toughed it out by sticking with the flasks, and didn't use much else here and there.

Super Metroid I've done speedruns of and minimal runs. In Link to the Past, I remember one time back on one of my SNES carts, I had beaten the game with three files, and had a different tunic each. So I limited myself to the blue tunic, and then the green bare one on two of those files. That was pretty fun.

I beat DKCR and Tropical Freeze without ever buying anything at the shops.

Never really used the items in New Super Mario Bros U.

So yeah, I'm an item hoarder.

[Forlorn Drifter]

When I first got a Gamecube, when I was younger, I didn't know you needed a memory card to save, I was really young and assumed it just saved to the game like a cart game.

I ended up playing through Windwaker in two sittings with it paused overnight, wondering why they made such a long game you couldn't save. I figured it out AFTER I beat it.

[Damm64]

When I first got a Gamecube, when I was younger, I didn't know you needed a memory card to save, I was really young and assumed it just saved to the game like a cart game.

I ended up playing through Windwaker in two sittings with it paused overnight, wondering why they made such a long game you couldn't save. I figured it out AFTER I beat it.

There's no way someone there's a better history than this one.

On a side note; survival horror games i tend just to use the regular guns the whole game and keeping the most powerful guns "for the right time" i end up using them at the final boss and making the last boss super easy.

[Hobie-wan]

I was going to try, but a corrupted file stopped me. When you beat Dragon Wars, you could start a game+ where you lost your items, but kept levels, stats, and spells for mages. After 2 loops of the game, I think my characters had all of their stats around 100 and of course my mages were crazy. I was going to try and make it through with no weapons, as fist damage from strength was decent at this point, and maybe no armor too. But as I said, my save got corrupted. It would load, but a few steps in any direction and it would freeze.

[KalessinDB]

Years ago when I worked a mall job I could use a gameboy at in the down time, I tried to play the NES LoZ without getting any heart containers (except the first one that you literally must get to finish the first dungeon).

Was able to get to the 5th or 6th dungeon, but the room full of both color wizzrobes just ate my soul, could never get past it. Even with the blue ring, the Blues take away a full heart from hitting you, 2 if you manage to get hit with the beam. You can't hide in the doorway and pick them off carefully, because the blue wizzrobes will just phase into the doorway and beat you. And because you only have 4 hearts, you're stuck with the wooden sword so it takes 9 swings to kill. *NINE*.

[MrPopo]

Years ago when I worked a mall job I could use a gameboy at in the down time, I tried to play the NES LoZ without getting any heart containers (except the first one that you literally must get to finish the first dungeon).

You can actually avoid getting it if you prepare beforehand; get him down to one hit, then when he paths away from his blocks you can sneak behind him and deliver the death blow.