Topic: What Video Gaming Moment Made You Stop Playing?

I asked this in the Chit-Chat thread but I feel it’s interesting enough to make a thread out of. I hope.

What moment in any video game was either so hard or frustrating you either stopped playing entirely, or never went back to for a while? I’d love to here about it.

I gave up on Dragon Quest IX because the final boss was so hard (or at least I found it hard at 13 or however old I was at the time). Although the boss being difficult wasn't actually the frustrating part, it was the fact that it was at the top of a mountain covered in enemies that you had to climb up all over again every time you lost. It's a shame because I really loved that game, I need to play it again some day.

I just mentioned this in the Megten thread, but Persona 5 Royal has an extra semester at the end of the game. Thing is, you have to meet specific requirements to get it and i didnt find this out until it was too late on my current playthrough. Luckily I had a backup save from an in-game month earlier, but I just don't have it in me (yet) to go through all the stuff I already did (on top of it being my second playthrough anyway).

@Apportal
I don't remember the need to have every heart container to beat Super Metroid's final boss. 🤔

Personally I gave up on the final boss of Octopath Traveler. The amount of grinding required to beat it can only be described as poor game design. The rest of the game is quite good though.

I haven't played Resident Evil 3 Remake ever since I started a file in Inferno mode and instead of running away from the first zombie, I got distracted and walked right up to him by accident. It then proceeded to 1HKO me.

Also - any moment when you're playing your SNES and it freezes, forcing a reset. Sometimes i'd have carts erase data when this would happen.

I have 2

1: mecha-drago in Mother 3

2: when my game of Stardew valley froze at the very end of day 2 and reset my progress

Couple years ago, I played Persona 3 for the first time. Although I enjoyed it, it's a slog in the middle of the story, especially with Tartarus and the slow story pacing. I pushed through to the end, only to find out how obnoxious and cheap the final boss is.

First attempt, kept taking too much damage so I restarted and leveled my party up more. Second attempt, I spent over an hour fighting til I got the last phases, only for the boss to pull out that horribly designed attack that damages you heavily and inflicts random status effects. I was unlucky to get Charm on 3 allies in one turn, making me kill myself. I was too irritated to try again, so I gave up and watched the ending on Youtube.

Left a bad taste in my mouth. I skipped Persona 4 because I was afraid of the having the same experience in 3. Went straight to Persona 5, and I don't regret it.

A couple of the later stages in Battletoads on the NES that were gimmicky and required tons of precision really annoyed me. I was fine with the Turbo Tunnel, but the stuff that came later, a descending foot race, and some stage with a hand bike were too much and the game just wasn't any fun for me. I never played the game again after that.

Also, the secret final boss of Demon's Crest for SNES. Too tough for me. But I was satisfied with the game overall and would go back to it, but I don't expect to ever seriously try beating that last boss. Still, it's a great game.

One of the secret levels in Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker had this long coin maze that required getting an obnoxiously high amount of coins. (I think it was 5,000 coins?) I tried getting that much quite a few times, but I kept failing. So I was like "screw it" and stopped my journey here. I have my limits, you know...

That was the worst part of the game for me, but at least it was a post-game level and not part of the main story. Everything else in Captain Toad was great...just not that dang coin maze.

Captain Toad(switch) - The first person view on the mine cart level. Loath it. Control is so wonky, such a drastic change, it just irks me. The game sat for a year+, I played more... until there was another one of those first person view mine cart levels. So, the game has been sitting unused since.

Well the most recent example is that the C-side for Level 7 is what made me finally stop trying to do everything in Celeste. Too much failure too often, I couldn't bother anymore.

The stupid bird thing in the final secret level of Mario Odyssey also killed my interest in beating it and ended my game there (which to be fair, if I had done that correctly, might've only lead to me playing for minutes more!)

Losing once to that long final boss battle in Paper Mario: Sticker Star. Never went back to it, doubt I missed a ton. :V

A lot of harder NES games (especially ones I played on Wii) also often had points where I just gave up for a while before trying again like a year or so later. But I think the only one I eventually beat that specifically fits that whole description would be Castlevania 1.

When my Save Data on Ochaken no Heya 4 NDS got deleted by accidentally when i touch the screen.

When i still couldn't the Final Boss on Kurikin: Nano Island Story NDS, it made me upset and stop continuing the game. If i have to train my other bacteria in Acid medium, it will take forever.

When i have no idea what should i do at Traverse Town on Kingdom Hearts 3D 3DS, I simply neglected the game until today since 7 years ago.

When i oftenly got killed easily due to weak armor and very fragile weapons on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, i stopped playing the game since then.

Scooby Doo Mysteries on SNES. There was a bug that let you progress without grabbing an item. The next area required said item, but you couldn't go back to get it. I destroyed the cartridge.

When it’s 3 in the morning and I have work at 9am

Have never been playing of this game. Is for TG-16, yes?

One of mine was Spirit Tracks. At a close-to-the-end of the game boss and I have to quickly switch between stylus controls and holding the 3DS directly to my face to blow exact tunes on that instrument. It's one of the worst game design decisions I've ever had the misfortune of playing and after many infuriating attempts, gave up, and have never touched it again.

@Apportal I can see why you thought you needed all the energy tanks, but you don't need even close to all of them as that part of the battle is scripted and the result is (almost) always the same. I say almost, because the absolute minimum is 3 energy tanks, but no one would ever have that few at the end boss unless doing a speed or challenge run.

@Cotillion Really? I saw multiple walkthroughs on the game and at that moment they never beat the boss quick enough and ended up losing almost all their lives and then the Baby Brain came and gave you your lives back, henceforth giving the iconic sacrifice. I guess I just thought that was what you needed to do.

I can't believe I wasted all that time grinding for the energy tanks! Thank you for your help!

@Apportal It doesn't matter how much damage you deal to the Brain or how quick, you can't beat her at that point. Once she starts the beam attack, the battle is scripted from there. You will always fail and end up next to death, so the baby Metroid can come and rescue you. So, yes it is what you're supposed to do as you have no choice in the matter
Even having all tanks, she will cease the beam attack after a couple times, you will be unable to move as she just pummels you to get your health low enough to trigger the next sequence when the baby Metroid comes in.

@Cotillion wow! I totally remember dying at that point! Guess I was wrong. You have no idea how much you’ve helped me out. Thank you 🙏