Thursday, April 15, 2010

Video Game Walkthroughs

I'm not exactly sure what I think about walkthrough guides. I wonder if anyone growing up playing games today has had the experience of having had to put aside a game that they simply cannot conquer. When I think back to my NES games there are so many games I never completed- Zelda II, Metal Gear, Wizard and Warriors II. There weren't any walkthroughs around at the time as far as I can recall.

I think nowadays the internet is saturated with walkthrough guides for games. I wonder whether games would be more enjoyable if there was a 6 month lag time before any guides could be produced. Sure it would get on our nerves, but I think that completing a difficult game solo has its own special reward. I am pretty sure I finished FFVII without any guides the first time round and how long it took and how much more of an achievement it was at the end.

It has been one of my resolutions for a while now to complete games first without looking up anything online and it really seems to add to the enjoyment- in the long run. It is also a healthy discipline against curiosity and a kind of soft sacrifice- because we all can get very impatient when we are stuck in a game. In modern seminary language, I think the approach is good "human formation" ;)

Afterwards it can then be fun finding out the millions of side-quests you missed and bosses that could have been defeated in 10 seconds with the right tactic. One of my younger brothers has started a YouTube channel with his boss fights of old Squaresoft games, if you have completed the games already ;), you might enjoy checking out some of the sneaky ways of beating various bosses.

No comments: