Hello friends! I would like to thank you for reading this article. I really appreciate it, as I have a lot of fun coming up with new ideas and just… talking about them, with a slight chance that I give someone a good way to spend their time!
Today’s post is one of these more “meta” ones. We’re not merely looking at what’s happening inside a game, but outside. Related to gaming, of course, but you know what I mean.
What’s of interest to us today then? In short, the idea of going online and looking for information related to a video game you’re currently playing. Some might call it being lazy, some making your life too easy.
Let’s see how this outside help thing works, shall we?
What to search for?
A very obvious question to ask here is: what exactly do I mean in today’s context? If you’ve read my previous concept posts you know I prefer to specifically state what I am exactly trying to analyse.
When I talk about “look something up” I mean something like opening your internet browser, and searching for a specific piece of information. In our case, related to a video game. There are various ways to get this information. Be it by reading a guide or fansite, watching a Youtube video, even just asking someone on a forum or social media platform. That is not even an exhaustive list.
As it is tradition, I like to divide things into categories. Today’s no different. I think my explanations are more understandable that way, and also neatly ordered so you’re not just reading a chaotic wave of thoughts.
I am going to divide the concept of searching into three parts, depending on what your aim is:
- Answer to being stuck,
- Speeding things up,
- Making elaborate plans.
Let’s take a look at each of them and see what are the advantages and disadvantages, as well as my recommendation on how to approach them.
I’ve fallen, and can’t get up!
We’ve all been here. You are playing a fun game, and suddenly get stuck at something for hours. Not necessarily because it’s difficult. You just have no idea what to do next.
This is the most basic reason to look anything up for a video game, really. You want to enjoy your game, and being stuck without any clue what to do can be frustrating. The question is: should you actually do it?
Short answer: it’s really up to you.
Yep, it’s that simple. Personally, if I ever do that it’s as last resort, if I’m absolutely stumped. This is because I really want to save it for something I would not be able to do myself. There’s nothing worse than getting stuck, looking up the solution, and then realising the answer was so simple, yet you didn’t figure it out.
Game too smart for kid
One category of games I am likely to have to look up for this reason are Metroidvanias. You know, these games you traverse a large map consisting of different rooms, where need more and more upgrades to be able to reach new areas. That can be a problem, as especially early on you don’t have that many options, and a lot of rooms you won’t access just yet.
This was especially the case when I was younger. I remember Metroid Prime 3: Corruption fondly. It was fun, puzzles engaging, battles cool. And that’s despite it kind of just being a shooting game. Whoops, I forgot about it in that one post about shooters before. Though in reality I don’t really treat it as that much of a shooter due to puzzles and tons of navigation.
I was not as patient or smart as a kid, so I was more likely to get stuck and end up looking for a solution online. I did it a lot for Metroid Prime 3. I do think it helped me enjoy the game without getting excessively frustrated. That is a big advantage of looking up answers when you’re stuck. You can be done with an annoying section and get to the good part.
With that said, this way of solving your problems can backfire in two different ways, which is why I prefer to use it as last resort. The first is something I’ve already mentioned, namely this bitter feeling that you could’ve done it yourself. The answer was obvious and you should’ve managed it on your own.
The second risk is even worse. The possibility of spoilers. If you search something up, there’s always a chance you’ll accidentally learn what happens later on in the game, ruining the surprise factor. Personally, I despise getting spoiled.
A quick example I can give here is Sea of Stars, where I kind of couldn’t resist checking how to solve a certain quest, which ended up with me learning about a major plot twist prematurely. Whoops.
Quests sometimes suck
Something else besides Metroidvanias that might cause me to check online more often are numerous sidequests in RPGs. You know, these often simple errands that are not necessary to beat the game, but add a lot of worldbuilding and personality to the game if done right.
If I do look for help with these quests, it’s usually for the second reason: getting through them faster. I particularly like just having a list of where they are and when I can clear them to be more efficient. However, sometimes it’s not just for convenience, but genuinely not knowing what to do. It definitely happened with both main games in Octopath Traveler series.
One gripe I have with Octopath is how their side stories work. Most of them involve having to use certain actions on specific people. By that I mean each playable character has different options, such as inquiring for information, stealing, guiding around the map, and so on.
Doesn’t sound like much of a problem, however it often involves talking to and checking every. Single. Character. In the world to figure out whom you’re looking for. Octopath 2 made it even more complicated by adding a day/night cycle, leading to some characters only appearing during one or the other.
Sometimes you might simply have no idea you don’t have access to an area where a certain NPC is, or the quest is so vague it’s really hard to figure out who you’re looking for. And no, you are not notified when you do find the right person and interact with them. And that’s a good time to find a quest list online and make your life easier.
It’s important that you know what you’re looking for and focus only on that. Sometimes websites can be arranged in such confusing ways that you might accidentally spoil yourself a plot point or a spoiler area by accident.
With that said, looking for help is not all that bad, you just need to approach it carefully and decide when it really is time to consult outside sources. It is good that you have an option when an obstacle stumps you. Saves you some frustration if used right.
Speed, speed, speed!
Let’s now move on to more interesting ways you can affect your game with outside information.
Not always do you need to look something up because you can’t beat the game. Sometimes you do it to speed up the process. In this situation you don’t need help to beat a section, more so want to find a guide or piece of info to speed up what you could’ve done yourself no problem but would take way too long.
One common instance is when you’re replaying a game you’ve solved before. You could do it yourself, sure, but you might want to focus you attention somewhere else in your playthrough. Say, you’re trying a challenge.
A good example of this would be that one time in Hollow Knight when I wanted to play in Steel Soul mode. Basically, it’s a standard playthrough, with one difference being if you die, it’s over. Your save file is irreversibly blocked and the only thing you can do is delete it.
So, what did I do? I looked up a pretty nice and detailed guide recommending a good route to efficiently get through the game, and even 100% it if you’re willing to, which I was.
I could definitely beat the game without it, but this guide let me get through Steel Soul mode without having to worry about going back and forth, remembering what to do myself. Most importantly though, it let me focus on not dying and having to start over. And mind you, Hollow Knight is not a short game if you’re 100%’ing it.
No shame in streamlining
That doesn’t mean the “speed up” is only limited to games you’ve already finished before. Maybe you just want to be a completionist and do everything the game has to offer, and what you’re presented with is a very tedious segment. You could do it yourself, but at the cost of a lot of time spent.
To make it more clear, let me recall the two instances I did that. The pair of Switch Zelda games: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. If you’ve played either of them before, you already know this insanely time consuming and annoying task I am talking about.
Korok Seeds are collectibles you’re supposed to find all around the world. How many, you ask?
900. Yes, 900.
Well, in TotK technically 1000, but in practice it’s also 900 because some cases give you 2 from the get go. Thing is, it’s not obvious where they are. You do get clues as to where thanks to Korok Mask reacting to their close proximity though. What’s more, after getting some of the seeds you will start to notice patterns and have a decent idea of what to look for. Still, they’re usually pretty well hidden.
Could I just find them myself? Yes, but it would probably take an eternity. Even with a guide, this takes like 40 hours to complete and doesn’t feel like much of a cheat. I just sped up the process.
I could definitely find even more examples of searching for the sake of speeding up the inevitable, but let’s move on to the final category, shall we?
Planning for success
The third category might be the most interesting. We’ve already talked about searching for solutions for problems or ways to speed up mundane tasks. But what if we go a step further?
You know that I’m an RPG nerd. You are probably aware that I’ve talked about replaying them before. Of course I did it. And a lot of the time I’ve done some searching before even starting second playthroughs. All for the sake of preparation.
I’m not talking about speeding up the process. In fact, these plans might make playthroughs longer. What I am talking about here is going on a fan site with a lot of info on a particular game. Now, I’m sure that that be applied to a lot of games, in fact anywhere you have a choice of equipment, abilities and so on. I will be talking mainly from RPG perspective because that’s what I know best.
Learning can be fun!
Now, without being vague, we’re talking about sitting down and figuring out what we want to do with our character(s). That includes stuff such as skills, equipment if applicable, perhaps how to get them if needed.
I’ve done plenty of those, with things like Dragon Quest 11, Octopath games, Fire Emblem etc. It’s surprisingly fun, coming up with plans then slowly making your way there. Not only that, it can make some annoying parts more bearable as you view them as part of the process.
I’ve mentioned Three Houses before. You know, the Fire Emblem with that very annoying Garreg Mach Monastery which takes way too much time off actual action. Well, when I planned my characters for Maddening playthroughs I kept in mind there are 4 routes. I sure had a lot of free time back then so I could afford even trying to do that.
Anyway, the fact I noted down every class and skill I wanted each character to get through definitely helped Monastery elements feel less tedious, as I could see my preparations slowly bear fruit in the direction I planned. I’ve done such plans in other Fire Emblems too, but here it really did help make the experience more enjoyable.
And what did I do to make these plans? Obviously visit two different Fire Emblem wikis and look up each character’s possible skills and what each class gives, as well as the requirements to get them, among other things. You know, whatever makes things convenient.
Taking 2 hours per fight…
A very good way to show another facet of when planning can go a long way is with really hard games.
Here I want to bring up a certain semi-recent fan game. It’s called Pokémon Run & Bun, and is essentially a very hard version of Pokémon Emerald. It has a lot of new generations’ mechanics and Pokémon, but most importantly trainers with very challenging and well-built teams. This change makes this game hard even if you’re playing casually.
But some people don’t. They try Nuzlocke challenges. These “Pokemon die if they faint” things, with limited amount of them available as well. So what happens if you try this in Run & Bun? Pain and need for information to make sure you’re not getting destroyed. Nuzlockes turn hard games into nightmares. I haven’t actually touched this romhack yet, but I did watch some people play it.
Run & Bun has quite an extensive documentation to help Nuzlockers keep their sanity. This includes Pokémon available on each route, location of important items, and each trainer’s team with all the moves they have. Not just that, there’s even a site where you can find out how much each of their moves will do to all Pokémon available to you wand vice versa.
This allows the challenger to plan their every move before and during the battle. This is possible because the AI is relatively predictable, being based off vanilla Emerald’s. You can very realistically prepare for each and every fight. It’s not an instant win, because sometimes they might not find a totally foolproof strategy with available resources, but it definitely makes them possible.
Would I want to try playing a Nuzlocke in Run & Bun? No. One youtuber I watch play it has to spend around 20 minutes planning for an average trainer and over an hour or two (!) for bosses. It is however a perfect example for how seriously planning can affect your gameplay.
Not everyone likes planning like that, maybe they think it’s too much work to be able to enjoy a game. It is merely another way to play, and getting some outside lets you play in a different way. More variety is good.
When in doubt, Google can help
Internet is a big part of today’s society. Gaming is no different. And so, we gamers will continue to use Google or whatever other browser to help our experience.
I went over three different kinds of outside help we might look for. These include: looking up a solution for something you can’t solve ourselves, a guide to help speed up an otherwise long grind, and making plans before or during your playthrough.
All three of those aim to make sure we can enjoy our favourite games the way we want. In the end, you decide how much outside help you want and need. No one can tell you not to look up a guide if you’re stuck or want a better experience.
