How Was I Supposed to Know THAT!? ~ Obtuse Things in Games - Volume Four

Today is National Puzzle Day, and it's a day for celebration of all things that twist, melt, bust, or otherwise perplex your brain puzzle-wise. It seems like a fantastic day to bring back an old favorite article series that hasn't seen much action recently. It's "How Was I Supposed to Know THAT!?", where we take a look at those frustratingly obtuse parts of games, whether for progression purposes or just plain ol' devious puzzles that one would have to be an absolute genius of a specialized field to solve. These following five games each have a particularly perplexing part or puzzle in them that possess some kind of masterful amount of outside information or knowledge to get past or solve them.

Before you delve into these newest five dubious entries, feel free to take a look at SuperPhillip Central's past volumes with these convenient links:

Volume One
Volume Two
Volume Three

My Kingdom (and Sanity) for a Sword - Final Fantasy IX (PS1)

We begin this volume of obtuse game secrets and hidden knowledge with Final Fantasy IX. Some secrets are such because they're hidden well. Sometimes they're secrets because they're hidden in such a ridiculously silly way that it's any wonder anyone came across them. Final Fantasy IX's ultimate sword, the Excalibur II, is one of the latter secrets.

In order to wield this omnipotent blade, players must reach a particular room in the final dungeon of the game within 12 hours. If you make it to the room and 12 hours have passed, the weapon will not be made available ever again in that save data. Considering we're talking about a three-disc game, that's no small feat. In fact, discs one and two are no short romps whatsoever. There's a lot of ground to cover within a dozen of hours.

Now, Excalibur II isn't mentioned or hinted at in the entirety of Final Fantasy IX's enormous adventure, and even with the knowledge of this legendary sword existing, actually completing the prerequisites necessary of the player is challenging enough. The original PlayStation version at least allowed skipping cutscenes through a clever trick, but no such trick exists in the recent re-releases of Final Fantasy IX, making this obtuse challenge even more, well, challenging.

"A" for A LOT of Effort - Valkyrie Profile (PS1, PSP)

We move from one Square Enix RPG from the PS1 era to another with Valkyrie Profile from Tri-Ace. While Final Fantasy IX's obtuse challenge required some outside knowledge and a mix of luck and skill to acquire an ultimate weapon, Valkyrie Profile ups the ante with an absurd level of knowledge and luck needed to reach the best ending in the game.

"Ending A" in Valkyrie Profile, also know as "the Golden Ending", has a heap of tasks required to achieve it. This ending requires specific information in order to get it, such as watching specific cutscenes in a specific order at specific times during the story, and the removal of a character of utmost importance to Valkyrie Profile's overall plot. The latter seems counter-intuitive in order to get a "golden" ending, but yes, it must be done.

How someone would know ahead of time that 1) there's a "better" ending to Valkyrie Profile than the one generally provided in the game, and 2) much less how to reach that ending considering the ridiculous set of rules and variables involved, makes this task of obtaining the best ending to Valkyrie Profile one that I'm amazed some players managed to figure out on their own.

An Obtuse Secret? Ah, Cork It! - Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom (Multi)

Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom was one of my favorite games of 2018, and it was a classic take on the Metroid-style formula with some modern sensibilities thrown in to make for a less aggravating game without diluting the experience too much.

Though, if you want aggravating, then I have it for you. There's a well that's plugged up by a giant cork within the central hub village of the game, and there's no hints whatsoever within the world how to unplug the well. The solution is to find five switches located within the village, some completely invisible to the player, and then solving a bit of a puzzle that can only be completed with some outside knowledge of Morse code. There's also a section that results in a fabricated error message that seems unsightly at first, but it's actually part of the sequence as well. So, what you have is a cork and subsequent puzzle that require outside knowledge from somewhere and are the definition of obtuse puzzles.

The saving grace of this "How Was I Supposed to Know THAT!?" moment is that it's purely optional and doesn't need to be completed for 100%. It's an added bonus to the game, but one that's so mired and mucked up in mysterious moves in order to solve it that it's no wonder that most turned to the Internet and written or video guides to solve it.

The Chocolate Code - Professor Layton and the Curious Village (DS)

Moving on from an optional puzzle to a necessary one, we have The Chocolate Code, Puzzle 067 from Professor Layton and the Curious Village. The Professor Layton series features a general mystery for Professor Layton and his supporting cast to solve as they explore areas and talk with various NPCs. Usually, NPCs have puzzles for Professor Layton to solve through the player in order to get much needed information and a means to continue the story.

The Chocolate Code is one of the more infamous puzzles in Professor Layton series history, and it requires a little outside knowledge to ascertain its solution. It also certainly puts those Hint Coins that players were hoarding to good use as well. The puzzle clue is as follows:

On Valentine's Day, your gadget-loving, technophile girlfriend gave you a most unusual slab of chocolate. While the jumble of letters looks like nonsense, if you manage to decode the letters written on the chocolate, a message from your sweetheart will appear.
What is she trying to tell you?

Starting out, looking at the letters on the bar of chocolate does indeed look like nonsense, but if you pay attention to the bite marks by each letter... well, the answer may still elude you. That's because without a token of outside knowledge (and perhaps a computer keyboard in front of you), you might remain clueless on what the puzzle wants from you.

What is needed is to look at the letters and their adjacent bite marks and designate each letter to a key on a computer keyboard. The direction of the bite mark in relation to a given letter designates the key on a traditional "QWERTY" keyboard that is next to that letter in that specific direction. Thus, this is the solution "TEXT ME".

Personally, I can't stand chocolate to begin with, so this puzzle not only made me feel stupid in not possessing enough smarts to solve it without outside help, but it also continued my distaste for the cocoa bean-based confectionery.

Dumb Lum Location - Rayman 2: The Great Escape (PS1, N64)

We conclude volume four of "How Was I Supposed to Know THAT!?" with a quick but dirty secret for players trying to aim for 100% completion in Rayman 2's PlayStation 1 and Nintendo 64 versions. The main collectible in Rayman 2 is that of Lums. Lots of these Lums are located in difficult areas to access, requiring some hardcore exploration of levels and adequate platforming ability. There's one in particular, however, that is just downright unfair to find.

The Lum in question is found within the level called "Tomb of the Ancients." Every other Lum in the game can be discovered through ample checking of the environment, some clever movement of the camera to gauge your surroundings, and a keen eye. This Lum from the "Tomb of the Ancients" level throws all of that out of the proverbial window. In order to get this particular Lum in the PS1 and N64 versions, one must jump through an otherwise unassuming wall to discover and collect it. This is the only Lum in the game that requires such a trick.

Perhaps understanding how silly it was to place this Lum in its initial location, future versions of Rayman 2 completely altered the area where you find this Lum, placing it in a treasure chest at the end of the level instead. From everyone who has ever played a Rayman 2 port since, I say "Thank you!"

How Was I Supposed to Know THAT!? ~ Obtuse Things in Games - Volume Three

Welcome to the third edition of SuperPhillip Central's ongoing look at moments in games both past and present which left many players dumbfounded on how to progress, what to do, where to go, and other less than intuitive means to move forward. Why, the solutions to these problematic points in games are practically obtuse! We're going fully retro with the theme this time on volume three with five more games that brought most players' progress to a brick wall.

Check out past volumes of SuperPhillip Central's look at obtuse things in games with these two links:

Volume One
Volume Two

Leaving Someone to Die (a.k.a The Hero's Way!) - Cave Story (Multi)

This first game's seen a seemingly infinite amount of ports and remakes across a wide range of platforms, with the most recent being the Nintendo Switch. While the game is now on another new platform, Cave Story still retains the same method required to obtain the good ending after all of these years. However, as we've seen on previous volumes of "How Was I Supposed to Know THAT!?", some games just don't make things fair on its players.

During his adventure, our hero comes across a Professor Booster who falls out of a portal and into a chasm below. The logical thing, after all, with you being a hero, would be to dive down that pit and check on the unfortunate fellow. However, that's actually not what you're supposed to do. Instead, you're meant to ignore what just happened with the Professor as well as his probable pain and suffering, and move along like nothing happened. This requires a well executed bit of decidedly challenging platforming to otherwise not fall into the chasm alongside the Professor. Because if you enter the pit, requiring you to speak to Professor Booster, the event where the character heals from his fall and finishes a special item for you doesn't happen, thus blocking your ability to get the good ending of Cave Story.

It's something as simple as following an otherwise innocent, little event to its conclusion (i.e. not ignoring a fallen, friendly NPC suffer from his injuries) that can instantly jeopardize a Good Ending run in Cave Story into something worse. If you know that doing this event will affect you earning the good ending going in (which most players starting out will not), you can avoid falling into the pit or just reset the game. If not, you won't be any the wiser as to why you haven't seen the best ending Cave Story has to offer.

Loitering in Dracula's Castle - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Multi)

The Mirror Cuirass and the Knuckle Duster are two items that you can retrieve in Dracula's Castle in Castlevania: Symphony of the Knight by using the Mist ability, earned a good amount of time in the game. They're helpful items to acquire by that point in the game, but they're even better to nab earlier on. However, they're locked behind a gated door, impervious to anything passing it except Alucard's aforementioned Mist ability, so this is but a pipe dream, right? Not so, dear reader! And so long after playing Symphony of the Night for the first time, I was stunned to learn that I could acquire these two prized items ahead of time, or how anyone could have found this to begin with.

A room directly above the one containing the items is a dead end with a wall showing clear cracks. Breaking this portion of the wall will reveal a Pot Roast recovery item. That's that, right? Well, actually, no. There's more to this room than meets the eye, but it requires some patience. Literally.
The space left by the broken wall requires Alucard to plant firm feet on it and stay still for 20 seconds or so. Suddenly, an elevator will slowly lower down, revealing entrance into the room possessing the Mirror Cuirass and the Knuckle Duster, proudly resting on adjoining pedestals, awaiting to be plucked and plundered by Dracula's son.

Call Someone Up from the Tech Department, Please - X-Men (GEN)

"Ah, dammit! The 'reset the computer' warning is blaring away again, Ted." 
"Can't you just do what you did last time, Paul, and kick it a few times to shut it up?"

Imagine, if you will, a roadblock in a Sega Genesis game that was even larger than that seen in Sonic the Hedgehog 3's Barrel of Doom, covered previously on the first volume of this article series. It involves an infamous place where plenty of X-Men players got stuck. What's worse, it's near the end of the game. (Which begs the question, "Why did these Sega Genesis developers keep their most fiendish tricks near the end of their games?")

There is a point in the second-to-last level in X-Men where players are told to "reset the computer." The first thing that comes to one's mind might be to just punch and kick at the computer screen, only to feel confused when each extremity thrown does nothing to help at all. Then, it must be something within the level itself that one has to go back, find, and destroy? After all, there were plenty of henchmen to take out, so one might have easily missed something in the process.

Unfortunately, these possible solutions turned out to not be solutions at all. The actual solution is for the player to quickly press the Reset button of their actual Sega Genesis. (Quickly press, not hold, as that would actually start the game over again.) In doing this fourth wall-breaking action, the computer in the facility would do as players intended. Of course, those that managed to think that far outside of the box, much more actually convince their young selves that tapping the Reset button wouldn't eliminate all of their progress up to this point in the game, probably weren't too confident if they came up with the correct solution. In a pre-Internet world, this one was worth calling a video game tips and tricks hotline for... or lucking out and having a friend from school find out for themselves so they could tell everyone on the playground during lunch.

A Jump is But A Jump, Except When It's Not - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)

From one team of mutants to another, we look at the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles now. Their NES outing was a part-platforming, part-swimming, part over-the-head roamer that was and is still well known for its brutal difficulty. It also contrasts greatly with the majority of TMNT games that followed such as the more popular side-scrolling beat-em-up games. The brutal difficulty was as much part of the game actually being hard in challenge and being hard because many points in TMNT were counter-intuitive.

One of the most famous initial struggling points outside of the dam level, which occurs in the very first level of the game. The level is set at the docks where multiple side-scrolling sections of sewers connect the overhead perspective where the Turtles control the van to get from place to place (sewer to sewer, warehouse to warehouse) within the relatively confined quarters.

A particularly notable sewer has a point where you have to make a one-square-wide jump over a chasm, or go falling to the bottom level where you must make your way back up to the spot to try the jump again. Time and time again players will find themselves just missing the opposite side of the gap that looks like it should a breeze to make. Well, it actually is a breeze to make... because it's not a jump. Instead, a Turtle can just walk across it like the chasm isn't even there -- the same chasm that seemed to far across to do anything but jump over is the one you can just across. I share your exact sentiments, Angry Video Game Nerd, and thanks for the reminder about this one.

Riddle Me This - King's Quest (PC)

We save the worst (obtuse thing of this volume) for last! Now, the King's Quest series of point-and-click adventure games is known for usually having at least one completely *cue the article series name* "How Was I Supposed to Know THAT!?" puzzle in them. These are puzzles that require you to have some outside knowledge that isn't bestowed upon you from the actual game. Well, this riddle from a mysterious gnome in the original King's Quest was the one that started them all!

This old gnome gives players three opportunities to guess his name. While you do receive one hint in the form of a nearby house's letter cryptically reading "Sometimes it is wise to think backwards", that's all you really get. To go beyond that assumed clue, you need to do some thinking of the big picture, which is that King's Quest is a series tied to fairy tale lore, so it makes sense for the series to use some names from those tales for its own characters. Who is a well known gnome in fairy tales? Rumplestiltskin.

However, simply typing in "Rumplestiltskin" as your guess isn't good enough. That letter from the house with the cryptic clue comes into play now. Unfortunately, if your thought was to spell "Rumplestiltskin" backwards, it wasn't correct, and it wouldn't be good enough for the old gnome in the original version of King's Quest. Instead, you had to not only come up with a base name to work off with using outside information, but know to spell that name using a backwards version of the alphabet (e.g. A = Z, I = R). This finally will lead you to the solution of "Ifnkovhgroghprm." I'll just say if that gnome ever asks me another riddle like that nowadays, I'll just steal the damn magic beans from him.

How Was I Supposed to Know THAT!? ~ Obtuse Things in Games - Volume Two

It was quite the busy day here at SuperPhillip Central, digesting all of the new trailers put out by both Nintendo and other publishers today. Now that we have a breather, let's see the return of a segment that I've wanted to continue for a very long time now. Finally, we've reached Volume Two of the weirdly titled "How Was I Supposed to Know THAT!?" This series talks about things in video games that are so hard to find, figure out, or solve that they're almost obtuse, if not counterintuitive. Volume Two starts with The Legend of Zelda before going a bit more modern with its picks. Do you agree with SuperPhillip Central's selections?

And here's Volume One for your convenience!

Whistle While You Work to Find Level 7 - The Legend of Zelda (NES)

The Legend of Zelda for the NES can be credited as one of the earliest examples of the open world sub-genre of game. It's no secret to everyone that NES games were quite obtuse for the most part, and that was a great deal of the mystique and made you feel like you were on your own adventure. Right away, you begin in a hostile land with enemies ready to send you, as the player, to the Game Over screen. There are few clues in the world, and what is on offer in Hyrule is all cryptic -- though in some part due to the funky translation of the game.

Players were left on their own to find where to go and even what to do to begin with. The main quest was to venture to Hyrule's eight main dungeons before tackling Ganon's domicile in Death Mountain. Of course, that meant meticulously exploring the overworld for helpful items to get through the game and reach different dungeons to earn pieces of the broken Triforce.

Some dungeon entrances were as simple as happening upon them through pure exploration. You'd just happen upon them, enter them, and if your luck was good, you'd be ready to take that specific dungeon on. Others required some examination of the world and just trying things out, One example is burning a lone bush in a forest to reveal the entrance to Level 8.

However, as a player of The Legend of Zelda in the early '90s when I was old enough to have a fighting chance at the game, one particular dungeon that stifled my progress considerably was attempting to discover the location of Level 7. The secret to finding it is in finding a woman who gives a cryptic clue when you give her one of three Rupee amounts, specifically the middle amount. The clue says something about a lake without a fairy, but that's the limit of assistance you get. Not only did the idea of not just spending the maximum amount of Rupees for the best clue not come in my mind (and most players' minds), but there is no hint at all that you have to use the Whistle found in Level 5 to reveal the entrance to Level 7. When you play the Whistle, the lake where there is no healing fairy dries up, showing the steps leading downward into this difficult-to-discover dungeon.

Secret Within A Secret = Secret-ception - New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS)

Let's go from one classic Nintendo franchise to another, though with an entry far more recent than Link's first outing. After all, this was Nintendo's day to shine at E3, and I think the publisher did a wonderful enough job to earn two places on Volume Two of these obtuse things in games. We turn our attention to New Super Mario Bros. 2, which didn't have a lot to separate itself from other 2D Mario games, especially of the New Super Mario Bros. series, but it was enjoyable all the same with some neat level design.

One of the fun things about the New Super Mario Bros. series was its inclusion of optional Star Coins to collect, three in each main level. This both encouraged and rewarded exploration that players might not have otherwise done. After all, is a 1-up really that big of a reward when they're so easy to get? Maybe if this were the original Super Mario Bros. NES trilogy it would be, where they're such a rare commodity, but this is the New Super Mario Bros. series we're talking about here. Other than Star Coins, many levels includes secret exits just like Super Mario World introduced to the series.

Most of the time the secrets in New Super Mario Bros. 2 are pretty intuitive. They're logical in the sense that if there is something off with a platform or something, most likely there's something there. However, this isn't exactly a rule to the game. One of the most challenging secret exits in New Super Mario Bros. 2 appears in World 5-1. In the level itself, you need to reach a rope Mario can bounce off of to hit a block that reveals a beanstalk to a bonus area. Inside this bonus area is a circle of revolving Parakoopas that guard an aforementioned Star Coin.

The thing of this is is that you wouldn't think there would be anything else in this room. After all, you got the Star Coin, and that was obviously all the room was good for. Time to fall down the hole and continue the level, right? Of course not, but that's not the rub here. The rub comes from the secret exit only being reachable by hitting an invisible block that reveals yet another beanstalk, and then taking that across two rings of circling Parakoopas to the secret exit. The invisible block in this bonus room is over an innocuous rope in the area, and completely unassuming. You dastardly level designers! This was the only thing in New Super Mario Bros. 2 that I needed to look at a guide for, as not finding that secret exit until then made me miss out on two bonus levels in the game.

Sometimes the Journey is the Reward - Mega Man 7 (SNES)

Despite being heckled by some in the Mega Man fan base, I quite enjoyed Mega Man 7, the only classic game in the series to hit the Super Nintendo. (But I would take Mega Man X1 - X3 over any classic Mega Man game any day. Truth.) Anyway, you can play through the game normally, going through all eight Robot Masters and then taking on the Wily Stages if you want, but Mega Man 7 offered the most longevity for one single play-through than almost any other classic series Mega Man game on offer.

One of the most time-consuming tasks in Mega Man 7 is done by finding Proto Man who can initially be discovered in a room Cloud Man's stage. This is performed by using Mega Man's trusty canine companion's Rush Coil to reach the area. Here, Proto Man gives the Blue Bomber a hint on what to do next, albeit however obvious it would be to use a flame weapon to burn down a forest's leaves. Regardless, continuing from here is something I didn't even know was possible. It's something that had eluded me for over 15 years since originally playing Mega Man 7 via Blockbuster rental in my childhood. Proto Man can once again be found, but his location is in such a "how was I supposed to find THAT!?" spot that it's no wonder I never found him as a kid.

Proto Man is next located in Turbo Man's stage, where he's hidden inside a false wall. Ah, the false wall, how I hate you. With no hint at all of a false wall being there, Proto Man was waiting for me to finally find him for a looong time. With another tip that goes in one eye and out the other (get it, since players are reading the dialogue instead of hearing it?), you finally can go to Shade Man's stage. With the mid-boss in that level, you have to destroy it a particular way to be able to go downward in the level to continue. A Sniper Joe, another enemy of my childhood alongside the false wall, stands before another false wall which leads to the grand culmination of all of this exploring -- the battle with Proto Man.

After all of this moving from one level to another and defeating Proto Man, he gives Mega Man his Proto Shield as a prize. In a cruel twist of fate, the shield actually is worthless if you like to use any type of substantial offense (like in, y'know, any Mega Man game for it to be fun), but alas, at least the journey was a fun one. It's just a shame that over 15 years of wondering about Proto Man didn't end with a more satisfying conclusion for me.

Nothing to Spear But Spear Itself - Final Fantasy XII (PS2)

Just in time for the PlayStation 4 remastering of Final Fantasy XII with Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is this obtuse item in the game. Your mother should have taught you not to be greedy. Well, certain people in power in my country didn't get that lesson taught to them, but that's a post for another site. Back on subject, in Final Fantasy XII, if you're too greedy, then you might just give up a chance for one of the rarest weapons in the game, and you might not even ever have known it existed because of it!

It's Final Fantasy XII's Zodiac Spear. Usually you have to do something to get a really valuable weapon, but with the Zodiac Spear's case, you have to not do something. In this case, it's not opening four of the game's treasure chests out of countless ones throughout the game. These specific chests don't look any differently than any other in the game, so even if you know about this dilemma about opening chests, you don't know which ones not to open. If you don't even know that, then unless you're insanely lucky (opening a certain chest that ridiculously rarely gives you the spear right then and there), you won't even know the Zodiac Spear even exists.

What a Lloyd of Crap! - Tales of Symphonia (GCN)

For me, Tales of Symphonia fills me a nice sense of nostalgia. It was my first Tales game, and it was lovely game to play during one of my summers off from high school. However, until reading a Brady Games strategy guide on Symphonia much later after having beaten the game, I was absolutely shocked to learn about a piece of the game I never considered.

As Lloyd Irving, the main character of Tales of Symphonia, you occasionally get the opportunity to choose between two lines of dialogue for him to say to various characters. Seems harmless enough, and it did to me while playing the game originally at the time. However, what is completely left out by the actual game is a relationship system where these choices of dialogue affect how the numerous party members tagging along with Lloyd think about him, as well as affecting their affinity with him. Since I generally make the most rational of choices the first time around as main characters in games that give me this opportunity, I ended up with a default ending. That said, Lloyd can end up with any number of characters, and it can even affect the makeup of Lloyd's party in the long-term as one character can die with another taking their place.