StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Have you had games that you went so far in and then for one reason or another you cannot progress any further? Then you leave the unfinished game by for many years to gather dust. And one day you take the game out again and you finally finish it. Here are three examples I can think of:

Illusion of Time I was caught at the final boss battle on that big comet thing when you change into this T-1000 type anime character. The final boss was "Dark Gaia" or something and she seemed very intimidating. I found it too difficult, so I didn't touch the game for Lord knows how long. Then roughly a decade later I put Illusion of Time back into the SNES and I finally beat that Mangfa/Lovecraftian nightmare on the comet. After an awesome story throughout the game, I found the ending to be thoughrely disappointing and anti-climatic.

Broken Sword II - The Smoking Mirror I was stuck on this game for ages as well and after over half a decade I decided to "cheat" and find out how to get past the guarded Mayan temple in the walkthrough. The solution was deliciously easy and I went through the last couple of puzzles before the climatic cinematic ending to the game.

Donkey Kong 64 I'm not sure whether I completed this game many years before and merely forget the ending sequence five years ago or that I left this game by. Whatever the case, I beat King K.Rool pretty late in the game so to speak and watched Donkey Kong 64's ending credits again (probably).

Does Mega Man count? I remember it being retardedly hard when I was a kid and never being able to beat more than a few bosses... now I can finish the game in like two hours. Crazy world.

Link's Adventure always bugged the piss out of me as a kid, and I only beat it about a year or so ago. Asides from that, most of my procrastination is just a wandering sense of interest as opposed to difficulty.

Well, the game that fits that category for me is D/Generation.

Action adventure crossed with puzzles (often spanning multiple rooms) that my uncle introduced me to back in 1991. Played it on and off over the next 3 years, never getting further than about a third of the way thru.

Dug it up again 9 years later (2003) and played it obsessively over a weekend, finding out ALL the hidden bits, nooks, crannies, the alternate path from level 85 to 86, the various ways to end the game (you jetpacking out of the building with more than a minute until the fighter the company sends to trash the place, you jetpacking out with less than a minute, D/Generation escaping via said only jetpack other than the one you arrived with on the floor 80 setback and the fighter blows the building to hellangone, you stalling long enogh to get both yourself and D/Generation killed in the fighter attack, and D/Generation squishing you after it touches you).

First time through on that weekend, took me nearly 16 hours to play it through, but now, can rip through the game in 20 min or so.

For some reason, for several years, I had this weird inability to figure out how to get past a specific room in the second dungeon on LoZ: Links Awakening for Gameboy. All you have to do is kill three monsters in a certain sequence, and the game even gives you a hint, but I never figured it out until one day I just had an epiphany.

Needless to say, i was chagrined at how easy the solution was.

I gave up on Bomberman for GBA after I was unable to beat the first boss on the first day I had it. When I uncovered it a year or two later, the boss was still pretty difficult, but after I managed to beat him, the rest of the game was remarkably easy.

does actually beating nethack once!, five years ago count?

I played FF6 last fall. That's pretty behind the curve, there .

The original Legend of Zelda game.

Had it as a kid, loved it, never managed to get past the third or fourth dungeon...then I ran across it again and beat the hell out of it.

Final Fantasy VII. I never owned it, but I would always borrow the disks from my cousin and start a file, then leave it for dead before I even reached the Shinra building. Then, last summer I just went all out and finished it in like three weeks, and I fucking owned the whole game. I then went on to crush FF8.

Star Fox, Chrono Trigger, and X-Wing come to mind. X-Wing specifically - when I bought it, I couldn't get past the second mission of the first campaign, but I played those two missions over and over again, and all the 'combat simulator' missions too.

I beat starcraft about 3 years after I first got it...

and in a more recent game, I *still* can't beat the last boss in Mechassault 2. I've given up already

Holy shit D/generation! I have to play that again - maybe I'll be able to finish it now!

The key, as my uncle found out in 1993 and I found out a decade later, is to not lose a life (ie, get greased) until floor 87 or 88 - you'll be losing lives quickly enough after that.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening was a game I simply could not beat. Came back a year later and finished it. Great game. (I was like 13 or 14 when I couldn't beat it).

For some reason, for several years, I had this weird inability to figure out how to get past a specific room in the second dungeon on LoZ: Links Awakening for Gameboy. All you have to do is kill three monsters in a certain sequence, and the game even gives you a hint, but I never figured it out until one day I just had an epiphany.

Needless to say, i was chagrined at how easy the solution was.

Actually, I think it was that same room. I couldn't figure out what a "Pols Voice" was. A year or two later when I figured it out I felt rather stupid.


Rogue Squadron was another one, I couldn't get past the Thyferia mission for the longest time.

Mario 64. I 'finished' it in 1996/7 (whenever it was released), but only got all 120 stars a few months back. That one felt pretty good - it was possibly the most long lived and enjoyable game ever.

UFO: Enemy Unknown - I would have finished it back on the Amiga 500 but the last mission was just too damn slow for me to take. And then I would have finished on the PC a few years later but I ran into a bug that reset all my soldiers' stats to single-digit numbers. I eventually finished it a couple weeks back, roughly ten years after I started playing the game.

I have NEVER finished any XCOM game. The later ones because they suck... but the double mission at the end was just too boring. Jesus, Terror from the Deep base attacks and stuff were bad as well: chase one paniked, unarmed Sectoid Medic through four levels of busted-up alien base... not fun

I have to say, I've rarely finshed a game, not in TBSs, not in RTSs and definetly not in many FPSs, it just gets unrewarding in the end, too easy or too hard.

Can't really think of any off hand.

Usually, I get a game, and I tear it apart within a few days.

However, it took me a long time to beat the old Commodore 64 game Aztec, and I stil can't beat that damn Conan Halls of Voltra Game. 8 friging 1 screen levels, and I can't make it past Screen 3! Stupid scorpions

Oh god, Castlevania 3. I had major problems finishing it. Fortunately it's so great I could enjoy it without having to finish it...

It went like this. I bought, played it, probably never made it any further than Frankenstein for six or seven years. Then I made it to Dracula, which turned out to be a whole new level of fucking hard. For another year or so, Dracula was a major whore, but then I finally beat him too (but it took several hours, and many a foul word was uttered). Felt good

There are several more such places for Castlevania64 on Hard. Though I still haven't finished it, it's because I haven't played any further, not because I'm stuck. Though I bet Uber Dragon Dracula is going to be a bitch when I get there... Anyway, the first place was the motherfucking Garden Maze. It took me a year or something to survive it on Hard, and then Frankenstein's Gardener turns out to be a boss too! Fortunately I survived that too. Then there's that Behemoth when you've activated the crystal in the Castle Center. He wasn't as bad as the maze though.

Final Fantasy. I got it originally just months after the original was released for the Nintendo, and didn't beat it til about 6 years later.

Wolfenstein. not on a hard level
Gauntlet on the PS2 and Dreamcast, multiplayer.
I know ther have been others but I don't remember.

Full Throttle. I got the game when I was 6 or 7. I got to Melonweed, but couldn't find the Forks. I tried it again when I was 12, and beat the rest of the game in about a day.

When I first got morrowind I went around stealing things, becoming powerful and generally enjoying the world. I think I got as far as the dwarven cube mission before I become disinterested with the primary quest. So I went out and joined the mages guild, and one of the houses and had a great time. Eventually I stopped playing, not even close to finishing the main mission.

A month or so before Oblivion came out I opened the game back up and tried it again; the missions were pretty good, but I think I had more fun with House Telvanni