Does anybody else suck at games or is it just me?

[Agent 57]

<div style='font: 9pt Modern; text-align: left; '>I was flipping through a couple FAQs for Chrono Cross (not to help me beat it, I've done that already, albeit I got the shitty ending) and I was feeling overwhelmed at the amount of stuff I flat-out missed. A bunch of characters, items, combos, doppelgangs, for crikey's sake, I even missed the Chrono Cross. Didn't even know the Divine Waterfall existed. Ditto the Bend of Time, until a friend showed me that.

Same thing happened with Mega Man X5 just last week. Sure, I beat it, but I missed getting a majority of the power-up parts (didn't even get Zero's saber power-up, and considering I played as Zero, it was a bit of a bitch,) most of X's armor parts (however, I played as Zero in the opening, so I lost the Force Armor in exchange for the totally useless Z-Buster,) and Zero was only rank A and X rank B, meaning I probably got a crappy ending too.

And the exact same thing happened with Xenogears, too. Can you believe I didn't even know that the Lighthouse was an accessible place? That I didn't even find Big Joe's shop?

And then there's Jet Grind Radio. I played through and beat that one, too, and then get online with my DC to look at the scores - and dear goodness, how did these people do so good? I mean, I managed to figure out how to do 180's off rails on my own, which none of the FAQs even mentioned and just happens to double your trick and grinding points for a couple seconds, but I still can barely break 100K and the top score for one stage is 200K+.

What the hell is going on? I mean, I've been playing video games since I was four years old - you'd think I'd be halfway decent at them by now. Does anyone think that it's a time constraints issue? I don't get that much time to play any more, being an engaged senior engineering major, so I can only usually get one play-through of a specific game before I really have to move on to the next game on my list. Is that the problem?

I guess why I'm posting this is to ask all of you, my fellow game lovers: Do you ever feel this way? Is it a matter of gaming skill? Is it the time constraits that are the problem, such that true mastery of these games only comes with many play-throughs?

I'd like to hear some opinions on this, if I may. And, although they are inevitable, I'd just like to ask for as few replies as possible that are simply a no text message with the subject "It's just you. You suck."

:)</div>

[Judgment 1999]

<div style='font: 14pt Modern; text-align: left; '>I too miss quite a few things going through most games. For example in Breath of Fire 4 I'm missing a LOT of the dragon transformation crystals. In Final Fantasy 9 I didn't do too bad, but am missing a few good skills. The main reason I miss stuff in most games is that I'm a tad impatient when playing them. The time constraint issue you brought up applies to me as well. I've got to work and do other stuff that eats up time. So it's not just you 57 :) Later-J 1999</div>

[El Kabong]

<div style='font: 10pt Arial, Modern; text-align: left; '>It's all about time... if you played games more than once, you'd probably find all that stuff, but who has time to play something like Xenogears more than once?</div>

[Ishamael]

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>Yep, like Kabong said, it's aYep, it's all about time and repitition...I used to be that way about games when I was younger since it would be a while before I got another game...Now, only a truely, TRUELY, good game can get me to be that way...</div>

[El Kabong]

<div style='font: 10pt Arial, Modern; text-align: left; '>And once Anarchy Online ships... I won't be doing anything, I think I'm going to quit my job too... I can live on unemployment for a few months... right?</div>

[Don]

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>That's why there's so many impossible to find things, because that way if you don't have everything you'd be more compelled to go out and buy a guide. Most of the stuff in X5, you won't find them the first time. As for Z-Saber powerups and stuff those are purely dependent whether you choose energy or life upgrade at beating boss and there's no way for you to know which options leads to what the first time.</div>

[Little Washu]

<div style='font: 11pt Modern; text-align: left; '>It's "supposed" to ship on a Friday, if true I'm taking the next week off and becoming an AO junky.</div>

[Little Washu]

<div style='font: 11pt Modern; text-align: left; '>You're just getting old and absent minded and slow and useless. Just quit. ;)</div>

[Gentz]

<div style='font: 9pt arial, Modern; text-align: left; '>Welcome to the club, my friend. I suck at every video game ever made except the Wipeout series</div>

[Gentz]

<div style='font: 9pt arial, Modern; text-align: left; '>The Chrono Cross combination was pretty much impossible to figure out</div>

[El Kabong]

<div style='font: 10pt Arial, Modern; text-align: left; '>You'll probably want to wait... the first week of an MMORPG is usually a lot of waiting around and server crashes... which you'll see in the open beta...</div>

[Crono]

<div style='font: 12pt Arial, Modern; text-align: left; '>Exactly. This is the main problem for RPG's. Stuff is well-hidden much of the time, and none of us can always find time to constantly replay the same game (being that there are more of them, too).</div>

[Crono]

<div style='font: 12pt Arial, Modern; text-align: left; '>He's right about MMX5. The tougher armor parts require extensive searching anyhow, while the powerups are reliant on level-end choices... not proficiency.</div>

[Crono]

<div style='font: 12pt Arial, Modern; text-align: left; '>When it comes to games like Crazy Taxi or Jet Set, getting those ultra-high scores comes from obsessive playing. You need to play like a monster, at any and all times of day, to get the highest galactic scores that you see out there. Even if you're a natural at it, like I was with Crazy Taxi, it's still gonna take lots of playing and memorization to get those kinda scores (or anything near them).

As for RPG's, the stuff we'd all said below is quite true. Modern ones can hide away items and quest segments very well, to the extent that you won't casually notice them. Some can even be sickeningly hard to find, and will require multiple retrials of the game. But with the shitloads of RPG's nowadays, and the reduced available gaming time that comes with age, we'll find it harder to perfectly complete any one RPG.

And hell, when someone has gamed for a while, their priorities and limits will greatly change. Nowadays, most of my gaming times goes to Fighters and Music games. There's no continuity... just reflexes, reactions, and quick fulfillment of specific goals (like unlocking secret stuff). And you'd think that, with age, I'd lean more towards the RPG's. But it's simply not true, nor is it that simple. RPG's had always been my favorite genre when I was younger, and I'm still a fan of the storylines and immersion that they provide. However....

There's just something about those other genres that grabs me. While one might say that RPG's appeal to the introverted side of a person, fighters and music stuff appeal to the extroverted side. They didn't even HAVE any kind of quality fighting or music games to play until the middle or even late 1990's... so it's still a new deal. But in finding the right place to put them, and the quality of gaming hardware for home systems, they've created a heaven for expression and for the "party" style gaming that never existed in the olden days. And nowadays, you'll find plenty more people who'll admit that "I'd rather buy a game that I can enjoy with friends, cause they don't lose their appeal." Same reason for the love of online games. They combine the world of classic RPG's with the world of interaction.... helping plenty of the loners go out and kick some ass (and to converse, strategize, and interact with real people.... of course, which makes any RPG fantasy world more fun).</div>

[Insane Cultist Edge]

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>My opinion, the reviewers tend to like extra's</div>

[Agent 57]

<div style='font: 9pt Modern; text-align: left; '>I must disagree, my good man. I mean, what about the fantastic four-player action of NES Play Action Football, Kings of the Beach, Spot, or Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Off-Road? Are you totally dissing the capabilities that were given to us gamers by such peripherals as the NES Four Score and NES Satellite, which was just a cordless version of the Four Score? What about Gauntlet II? And Bomberman? WHAT ABOUT BOMBERMAN, PAL?

Heh...I do admit that you have a point there, as does our venerable Don Wang about that whole hintbook thing. You're right about fighters and music games being easier to find everything in - the "quick fulfillment of specific goals" part, I mean. I'm actually having the same kind of experience in an RPG right now - my last couple of Skies of Arcadia sessions have been me just flying around in the Delphinus looking for Discoveries and new crew members, even though I'm supposed to be going to Esperanza.

But, you know, now that I think about it, it does, in the end, come down to time. I barely have the time to get through any RPG's at all, let alone a whole bunch of them many times over...and now that I really, truly think about it, there are only two RPGs that I've fully completed more than once - Final Fantasy I and Chrono Trigger. I can't believe that CT and Chrono Cross are the only games that have had that whole New Game+ idea, since it actually allows you to go through the game multiple times to find all the secret stuff without making you have to deal with leveling up or worry about stupid monster encounters, and Chrono Cross even lets you fast forward the game, for pete's sake! I think if more RPGs had included that sort of option, that would have made playing through them again a lot more appealing - because it's not as if I haven't tried, believe you me. I'm pretty sure I've got second playthrough save files for at least five or six games - Wild ARMs, FFVII, Xenogears, C: SotN, CC, and such - that are mired way the hell back in the first couple hours of each game (well, I think I've at least become Lynx in my CC game) simply because I tried starting again, and then lost interest and went off to play something else.

I guess the upshot of this whole damn thing is that I should stop feeling bad about this stuff when I go to GameFAQS after beating RPGs and read about all the stuff I missed (out of curiosity,) and just accept that I don't have the time or the inclination for countless hours of repetitive playthroughs.

Oh well. C'est la gaming! ;)

<b>Spoiler Message:<b>
<span style="background: black; color: black;">Hey Crono or DW - can you do me a quick favor and be very vague in answering this MMX5 question, namely - is it possible to end up completing either of X's special armors if you start the game as Zero and X's Force Armor gets destroyed? Second, do you think that the Z-Buster is completely stupid and pointless, too? Third, isn't Zero the man?</span></div>

[SineSwiper]

<div style='font: 11pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", Modern; text-align: left; '>In the end game? Yeah.</div>

[Crono]

<div style='font: 12pt Arial, Modern; text-align: left; '>You can complete both of X's alternate armor sets, regardless of who you start the game with (and yeah, the Z-buster is pretty useless).</div>