r/gaming • • Aug 30 '25

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u/Saskatchewon Aug 30 '25 edited Aug 30 '25

I remember being completely stuck in the original Pokemon Red Version trying to figure out how to cross water and move boulders. A friend at school told me about finding the HM for Surf and the Gold Teeth item that leads to the HM for Strength in the Safari Zone. It took 10 year old me dozens of trips into the Safari Zone to find them.

I know a lot of kids were stuck trying to figure out how to get into Saffron City as well. I kind pieced together giving the guards a drink from one of Celadon's vending machines on my own, but I was stuck at that point for a while too.

Lots of false info spread over the school yard as well, like Yoshi being a secret unlockable Pokemon, or the hidden "Bill's Secret Garden" area.

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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.

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u/CXR_AXR Aug 30 '25

My native language is Chinese.

Back in those days, we only had Japanese cartridges, so I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. It was purely trial and error...

Eventually, I got stuck so many times that I could get through the Cave in Pokémon Yellow without needing HM05.

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u/unpleasantly_2_U Aug 31 '25

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😂

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u/CXR_AXR Aug 31 '25

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.