Poll of the Day > Do you guys ever use guides on games?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm kinda debating on whether or not to use one on Links Awakening (Only for the Seashells, because I'm sick of looking for them). I have used one once when playing Mother 1/Earthbound Beginnings trying to find a cactus.
I try my hardest not to though.
Do you guys ever?

I would say never, but I have occasionally looked something up. Usually if something is explained unwell or in Engrish.

As for finding collectable styled stuff. Nope.
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I have before. Though it has been a while.
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Most of the time I won't, until I beat the game. Then I'll look up whatever I want. Collectibles/meaningless busy work like that I will look up but I always have the game beaten by the time I bother looking for those anyway. Otherwise, I will use a guide if I'm stuck on a game, and I've given it enough time to figure it out myself. Usually about 2-3 hours. But that rarely happens. Often I will find that there was never meant to be a solution in the first place, and I was meant to die or some shit like that.
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Only if I get seriously stuck at some point and need help with a particular section.
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Not in any current games but things like Culex in Mario Rpg or the Excalibur 2 in FF IX are examples of stuff I would look up. Chocobo breeding in VII as well
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Most of what TheGreatNoodles and SilverClock said is true for me too.

For collectibles, I wait until I've finished the game once.

If I get to a point in a game where I've felt like I've tried everything but still can't figure out a puzzle or situation then I may look at a guide. Depends on the game and what I'm looking to get out of the experience. It may also just depend on my mood at the time. If I'm playing a certain type of game for the escapism, then I'm quicker to look at a guide than I am other games. Some times, I just wanna "blow stuff up" and take a break from thinking, ya know?

It may also depend on the story or whatever. For instance, these are 2 similar games that I've had different experiences with: in The Last of Us, on my first playthrough I just wanted to enjoy the story and experience that and the setting and all that. So I didn't look anything up on my first game. However, with Uncharted 4, I'm probably in the few that really just got a bit tired of it. I honestly can't recall specifically if or what I looked up. But that would've been a situation in which I would have looked something up. The poll reminded me of them because I spend much more time on them than most it seems. I really try to take my time with them and get as much as possible from them on my 1st play.

I realize those aren't exactly difficult games in which a person might use a guide but today's poll regarding time spent on a game reminded me of them both. Uncharted had been one of my all-time favorite series, especially in that genre. But the 4th kinda just burned me out. I wish they had somehow kept it a trilogy. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that they ended it properly. I just wish it had been done in 3 games. And I do think the 4th is amazing in a lot of ways, especially graphically. But maybe halfway through, I realized I was just kinda tired of the formula. Honestly had to force myself to finish it.

As far as games that I'm more apt to check a guide more quickly, I would say stuff like the Dark Souls/Bloodborne games and something like Warframe fall into that category. I wish I wouldn't do that for the Souls games because it seems like it would be a lot more rewarding to figure it out on my own. But for something like Warframe, I think a person almost has to look certain things up. With that game and for me personally, it's more of looking at a wiki though as opposed to a straight up guide. That's assuming there's a difference between a wiki and a guide. I think there is. IMO, a wiki is just pure information. They don't necessarily tell you what to do. They give you info and it's up to you to decide what to do with that info. Guides usually spell out exactly what to do and what order to do stuff. But that's just my opinion regarding all that.

Also, and this is completely a personal experience but I've been having issues with being able to focus on certain things for the past couple of years. I have a chronic illness and pain and I think that has been the major cause. But when that's at it's worst, I'm definitely more likely and more quickly to look stuff up as opposed to figuring it out myself. I also almost have become completely burned out with video games in general the past couple years. I don't know if that's related to the health stuff though or not. But for example, I don't think I played a single game last year. Some times it feels like I've played every type of game now and I just feel like any game I try is just pure repetition. Like the vast majority of games are just copies of each other. I guess that's a different discussion though. Sorry for rambling.
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"Ever"? Yeah. I don't buy a game and then immediately look up a guide for it though.

But there has been cases where I just wanted breeze through the game solely for the story.
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Yes, mostly for explanation on mechanics and math.
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Not as much anymore as most games are more easy now I guess. I still have the odd moment where I need tips for a boss though so I voted yes.
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Pretty much only after I already beat the game. An example would be the soulsborne games. They have you do some crazy specific stuff to complete some no side quest

It depends. For something I only expect to run through once, or that I know is notorious for extremely useful but permanently missable content (Golden Sun Dark Dawn for example), I may reference a collectible guide.
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I had to look up one hidden memory location in Breath of the Wild.

I also use guides for literally every quest in Runescape.
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Yes, mostly for character builds.
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sometimes when i'm stuck i do, ok?
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In Link's Awakening, if you want to find all of the seashells, you should use a guide. Even if you are perfect at finding seashells, there are some you will probably miss. How does that make any sense...

Vague spoiler
There are bonus shells. I do not believe that there is any hint to the bonus shells in-game.

Specific spoiler
If you have a multiple of five seashells and you turn them in, you will get a bonus shell. If you do not know to visit the house when you have a multiple of five, you will miss those bonuses.

Absolutely yes for mechanics. The interaction between crit and status procs on armored enemies when you get a headshot can get a bit hard to guess at, and some games expect you to know that stuff to perform at end-game. (Warframe in this example.)

For normal puzzles/challenges, if the game is super linear and there's only one way to bypass something and I'm just not getting it and there's nothing else to do, I'll look it up in defeat. Not worth missing the entire rest of the game if that's the alternative.
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If I didn't use guides for games, I wouldn't even be here.

Isn't that the whole point of this website?

Yes. Pretty much just use them for collectibles, missable items, and look up requirements to make/unlock certain things.
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Yup, full games sometimes too.
It's a game, I play them for fun, sometimes I just want to have a story.

rarely. when I do its almost always elder scrolls or fallout games. with those its usually one of a few things, my map marker isn't really helping me, trying to figure out how to start a sidequest I heard about from someone else. or figuring out which path in a quest will lead to what, reward or story wise. only other recent time i've looked something up, it was for one thing in samus returns. and it was one of those things where I ended up kicking myself when I found out as I somehow simply overlooked a particular section of the map and missed an item I needed to progress.
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I never use the guide to play the entire game. I use them to help me when I need help with something specific.


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