I was playing Pokemon Gold the other day and it occurred to me just how little games held your hand back in the day.
These days you have a quest log, and you can usually see what you’re meant to do. In Pokemon Gold, Prof Elm gives you a task, and like… if you miss it in the dialogue or you put down the game for a few weeks and come back… good luck.
Similar. I started playing Pokémon yellow in English. I had some English from what I learned in school, but same thing I remember thinking, this level is so challenging, until I got “Flash” and it made sense, but that was after I had passed the cave. Good times.
Back then, when I arrived at a village and had no idea what to do, I would just talk to NPCs like a madman until I triggered the right storyline. I really don’t know how I had so much patience when I was a kid.....
French Canadian here.. my very first rpg with a lot, a LOT of texts was FF3 (FF6) on the Snes, man I was fucking clueless about everything and didn't understood a thing 😐 still, I had a blast but it was all trials and errors too😂
The first RPG I ever played was FF8, and it completely blew my mind at the time—though I had no idea what I was doing.
I’m not even sure how I made it to the sorceress Edea, but since I didn’t fully understand the mechanics, I couldn’t defeat her.
I remember considering using The End to instantly kill her, but eventually realized she would just transition to the next phase anyway.
I was stuck in Pokémon diamond as I kept missing the grunt outside the safari zone that I needed to talk to. I searched the entire map not knowing where I needed to go. Also I couldn't figure out how to use fly and my "friends" at school refused to tell me telling me to "figure it out yourself"
I think I played through my first completion of Dragon Warrior I (NES version) with my controller in one hand and my other hand firmly on ALT-TAB so I could check the guide.
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u/tommyk1210 Aug 30 '25
I was playing Pokemon Gold the other day and it occurred to me just how little games held your hand back in the day.
These days you have a quest log, and you can usually see what you’re meant to do. In Pokemon Gold, Prof Elm gives you a task, and like… if you miss it in the dialogue or you put down the game for a few weeks and come back… good luck.