Strat guides vs. Exploration

Me, personally, I play everything I play with no strategy guides, walkthroughs, tips, tricks, codes, or cheats. Like Hidden packages in GTA3 or Photos, tags,horseshoes and oysters in GTA: San Andreas or the Artifacts in Uncharted 2. I look for them myself, I explore those hard to get at places, looking and am happy if I find something. I know others will use tools to tell them where it all is. I think there is a true difference between a completion with aid, and a pure self obtained completion. I eventually look for cheats, but not until I have completed game, to me cheats were something to bring more interest to a game after beating it, more modern games tend not to even have cheats anymore anyway or so the trend seems to be. I've only broken down a few times and gotten strategy guides to help me through a game, one being Assassins Creed, I think it is almost a necessity to have a guide for it, and even with the guide there are areas I can't do everything required, my sync is usually off.

So my question is what are your thoughts on playing using your own abilities without and aide, or playing with Strategy guides, walkthroughs, tips, tricks, cheats and codes?

I usually play and let things unfold as they do, and afterwards if I feel I missedout I look up what were the possible scenarios. As for collectables I never use guides in my first playthrough, and if I was close to getting them all (like 90%) I don't use them at all because of the fun of finding that last piece. But if I'm nowhere near getting them all I'll use a guide on my second playthrough. I used guides for San Andreas collectables on my third try. Later i beaten the game 100% three more times over the years. As for cheats I can't remember when I used them last time to beat a game, I usually use them for fun like spawning ammo and guns and then I go ballistic but I don't save when I use them.

On the first playthrough, it's all me since there's little to no point in spoiling the gameplay by referring to a guide. I make minor exceptions in some cases, cases such as in Bioshock Infinite. The game does a terrible job of letting you know when you will completely locked off from backwards navigation meaning that you can completely screw yourself over in regards to exploration and secret finding by walking too far down the expected path as it were. The first time you find a chest in that game you are told to look for the key, I looked everywhere for it in the immediate vicinity and having not found it I didn't know what to do....if I progressed where the arrow was telling me to go would I even be able to come back to the chest? So I'd google that to make sure I wasn't going to end up missing out on something I clearly knew was there.

I prefer it in games that keep track of various things like that, the secrets, hidden objects found or whatever. In a games like GTA with the hidden packages or pigeons, since their locations aren't tracked or easy to find without a guide I just can't be bothered to constantly bounce back and forth between guide and game just to find them, since it's not even fun. I started doing this in GTA IV with the pigeons and just gave up..."why am I wasting my time running all over this city to shoot a few birds" is what I thought. I really like how they do it in say Just Cause 2 or Far Cry 2 with the flashing indicator when there is something valuable nearby.

After the first playthrough though it's usually different. On Bioshock Infinite again, I missed like 5 voxophones and I hate it when I miss such a small number of items like that since I explored the game to a pretty high degree. In a future playthrough, probably in 1999 mode, I'd explore again but use a reference guide to make sure I leave every area with the correct amount of items for example, instead of a pure point to point guide leaving it so that I am still in general control of the gameplay

I enjoy finding things out on my own, unless of course the game has a tenancy of punishing you for doing so. Still, I like to keep the experience the most organic as possible before I resort to any guidebook. For an open world game? That's practically taboo, that and survival horror.

I never use strategy guides until I've beaten the game. The only reason I look them up sometimes is to see how many chapters there are to judge how far from the end I am. The only time I would really consider it otherwise is if I'm really just stuck on something and don't know what I'm supposed to do for over an hour, but I find simply exiting the game and coming back later usually gives me enough fresh perspective to figure it out.

After I beat the game I usually look in a strategy guide to see what I missed. I try not to use it during the first play through. What makes many games so enjoyable is discovering every item or boss or secret for yourself. But sometimes, if I decide to go through a game a second time I would use a guide to make sure I found everything.

Final Fantasy games are something I almost use a strategy guide for on a second play through. There is usually a lot of secrets and hidden items that have no in game clues. It's probably the most frustrating part of FF games, in my opinion. From I recall of Final Fantasy X, to get Lulu's ultimate weapon you had to dodge lightning bolts 200 consecutive times in a mini game. There was no hints in game saying this was the reward for 200 dodges.

I will do all I can not to touch a strategy guide or walkthrough for a game when I'm playing it for the first time. To rely on one to beat a game feels to me like a personal failing. The game is then beating me, instead of the other way around. This may be an irrational thought process but it's the way I feel about it. That said, sometimes due to inscrutably bad game design, one has little choice but to consult a guide. Actually there are certain adventure and RPG games that were designed to require the purchasing of a guide, in order to bolster additional revenue (the publisher published the game and the guide as well). Luckily GameFAQs has put an end to that sort of thing. Overall I will try my best not to touch a walkthrough unless I absolutely have to, I like to beat a game with no external help.

As far as cheats go, that's totally verboten in my playing. If I actually care about a game, I won't cheat to beat it. The victory just feels artificial.

When I was younger, I'd use guides for EVERYTHING. RPGs, platformers... well, mainly only those two because that's all I really played. I don't know why, really... I guess I didn't like figuring things out myself.

Nowadays, for the most part I don't use a guide. However, if I get stuck and it annoys me (mainly the case in odd puzzles), I'll look up what to do in a guide real quick, so I can continue enjoying the game. I don't really look up strategies in beating bosses or anything, just I need to get past whatever I'm stuck in and move on.

I also use guides to 100% games, if I want to. Basically, I never would have 100%'ed Dragon Quest IV and VIII without looking at a guide to grab the obscure items and find the final monsters for my bestiaries.

I generally only use guides as points of reference to tell me how far along I am in a game. I will also break them out if I get hung up somewhere. I don't get to play as many hours as I would like so I don't want to sit there for days trying to figure something out. Luckily I hardly ever buy anything when it comes out so there is always a guide available if needed.

Originally Posted by: gaiages

When I was younger, I'd use guides for EVERYTHING. RPGs, platformers... well, mainly only those two because that's all I really played. I don't know why, really... I guess I didn't like figuring things out myself.

Nowadays, for the most part I don't use a guide. However, if I get stuck and it annoys me (mainly the case in odd puzzles), I'll look up what to do in a guide real quick, so I can continue enjoying the game. I don't really look up strategies in beating bosses or anything, just I need to get past whatever I'm stuck in and move on.

I also use guides to 100% games, if I want to. Basically, I never would have 100%'ed Dragon Quest IV and VIII without looking at a guide to grab the obscure items and find the final monsters for my bestiaries.

All time favorite game is probably DQ4. Granted I played it on the NES so I guess it is really Dragon Warrior 4. It was difficult even back in the day to 100% it without a guide. I honestly think that I have played it enough today that i could finish it 100% without a guide in a regular style of playthrough though. I may have to test this theory in a few weeks. AAAGGHH DQ4 is AMAZING!!! Sorry I couldn't help myself. Probably the nostalgia kicking in.

Recently had one of those rare moments playing a game where I had to look up a hint. While playing Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia I was fighting a boss and the fight could have gone on for ever, it was healing itself faster than I could damage it, and I was able to heal faster than it could damage me, a stalemate, it seemed no matter what I did nothing helped, and it could absorb the magic of my Reyvateil so I just couldn't seem to do anything. Looking it up gave the solution and it was something I would never have tried and didn't make a lot of sense either. Sometimes guides, walkthroughs and hints can come in handy or perhaps that would have been the end of playing the game which is absolutely awesome for an RPG, and I would have hated to bury it because of one boss battle with a stupid means to a win. It might have been nice if in game I would have had some clue as to what to do for that boss.

That is a valid question. I tend to check guides to ensure I don't miss the "missables". With that said, I am such a completionist that I will at times, save two copies of a game, advance with one, check a guide to see if I missed something and if I did, I'll use my backup copy to redo that part and repeat the same process over. It's long, but it's worth it.

I like to beat a game without using a guide.

On second play throughs I might use one just to make sure I don't miss any missable story stuff. But I'm not a collect everything fill ever monster info screen person anyway. I just want the story.

I mostly just use guides to get an idea of how much I have left in a game. Other than that, I try to refrain from using them--but if I'm stuck or going for 100% I usually dip in.

The problem for me is that once I open a guide to help me through one part, I may rely on it for the rest of the playthrough. Normally, this only happens for games I'm not entirely invested in and just want to get them over with. However, recently I finished a playthrough of Fur Fighters, and I used the guide a lot for that... Maybe I'll make a "one-third-through-the-New-Year" resolution to stop using them so much.

I will pull up walkthroughs sometimes just to see where I am in the current chapter progression.

I only actually use a walkthrough if I have been stuck and going back with a fresh set of eyes the next day doesn't get my past it. (Can't tell you how often its 2am and I am stuck on a puzzle or boss and I shut off the game, then go back the next day when I wake up first thing and I win with one try.) Or if I am going for 100% completion on a second or third play through. I like to explore a lot and get annoyed with myself for having missed something, I like to try to find little hidding passage ways or other secrets.

The other reason I don't use a guide is I will flip ahead and ruin the upcoming story for myself.

Originally Posted by: burningsoup

I mostly just use guides to get an idea of how much I have left in a game. Other than that, I try to refrain from using them--but if I'm stuck or going for 100% I usually dip in.

I do that. I like to just get a random guide from gamefaqs and delete what I've done at the end of the day just too see how much I have completed and how much farther I have to go.