The feeling of being lost in a Video Game (The bad one)

[Rakoniomm]

I don't know about you guys, but for me I hate nothing in this world more than a busy car traffic while feeling lost in a game comes in a close second (￢_￢;)

so uhh... I noticed recently that most of the games that I didn't finish were mostly because I felt very directionless and didn't know where/what to do to progress the game and no I don't mean in a "I don't know how to solve this puzzle or defeat this enemy" kind of way but more like "uhhh hello? what am I supposed to do progress the story/game" kind of way

which is a shame this always happen in games that I really really like for example Tales Of The Abyss I was having a blast in the 1st half or quarter of the game, but somewhere after that the game opened up even more and I genuinely didn't know what to do continue the story it felt like the game was a bit vague with their direction descriptions you see- this is an old game so you don't have a fancy arrow pointing you to your next objective all you have to rely on is some npcs dialogues pointing you somewhere like "to reach to Tartaturs you head south from Akezuirth" or something like that and that worked for the most part, but the problem is there is no clear indication of what is the area name even on the map before you enter it most of the time when you reach a new area at first it's name will be "???" until you enter it then you discover the name after that

the problem? I VISTIED 4 TO 6 RANDOM ASS cities and I still didn't find the one I'm supposed to go to

but some of you will suggest just using a guide or a playthrough, and I don't know man to me it feels like every time I pause the game momentarily to find where to go it feels like I got sucked out of the experience and 8/10 times I will end surfing the internet for 30 minutes and even forget I was playing a game or the desire to continue just disappeared



this was a bit of a rant about my experience with Tales Of The Abyss even tho I LOVE the game and the characters I gotta say that roaming around in a boat aimlessly for 40 minutes was not a pleasant experience and it kinda killed my interest in seeing the game through to the end I hope that I comeback and finish it soon tho

maybe this is why I love linear games more because the chances of you getting lost is way more slimmer. Do you get this feeling very often and if so, what are your tactics to deal with it?

 

[Ikagura]

Like in Myst?

 

[-------]

I usually feel exactly the same way and it often annoys me, but somehow I always manage to move forward.

 

[bruno123]

My tactic is to use a walkthrough only for the part where I got stuck, so as not to diminish the fun of the discovery process.

 

[PSVitaForever]

My first real game ever (apart Tomb Raider 2) has been FF8 on pc, one of my classmates lent me the official guide when they heard I bought the game, so I've been "spoiled": I loved the experience of not going in blind, being able to discover everything in one playthrough, so I usually read a guide before or while playing, especially rpgs with lots of secrets and side quests and missables AND true ending (if there's a missable good/true ending I want that in my first and probably only playthrough).
I don't feel like my fun is ruined at all, example at the moment I'm reading a guide for "FE awakening" because before starting a mission I want to know if there characters that join you, and I want to know if you need someone specific to talk to them, so I wont' send Chrom on the other side of the map!
So I understand your feeling, it's frustrating when especially in old games it's not clear where you have to go (I remember Tales of the Abyss on 3ds, late in the game it wasn't clear where to go with your ship and I think I watched some video/read some guide), but for me it's no problem using a guide.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

I actually consider that to be a sign of bad game design: if you can't find your way in a world that's made for you to move around in, then it wasn't properly made — you may get lost an awful lot in real life, but that feeling shouldn't translate to any virtual world.

Besides, even games that should theoretically have this problem (like Minecraft, which auto-generates terrain on-the-fly) don't have this problem.

But I guess 'exploring vs wandering' is a debate as old as gaming itself for a reason.

 

[Dai]

I also think that if you have to wander aimlessly without clues you feel like you are accomplishing nothing, and may be frustrating. This is more irritating in modern games because you can have an npc or story related character tell you some directions, there is no real shortage of storage in modern mediums. I remember the older games like dragon warrior were about exploring, but although you didn't have a solid linear path, you explored the world and learnt more about the lore, and the big picture if you took the time to visit more places. I feel "modern" games focus more in graphics than in gameplay or story, and that shows in the replayability, or sometimes even in the desire to see it all the way through.

 

[Isegrim]

For me, Magic Candle 3, was the worst offender when it came to the RPG's I played. You needed to go back to certain people for the vital clue assuming you were actually directed by them. If you managed to figure out certain portions of the game by yourself, you won't even know who to go to for additional directions and will probably be wandering aimlessly after that.

Graphic Text Adventures/Illustrated Text Adventure types on the Apple 2 was a genre we spent hours just wandering around typing N,E,W,S (North East West South) trying to figure out the right word combinations in addition to figuring out how to solve the next puzzle. If we were lucky, we might actually solve the game after a matter of months visiting and re-visiting it between that and other games. We were a lot more persistent in our gaming in an Internet deprived era and didn't have much in the way of alternatives compared to present day.

 

[Retro Doomer]

You what is worse recording your gameplay and getting lost Especially since it drives the video and upload time up and lets you look like a morron.

Happened in Doom to often also in other Games where I am lost not sure what to do.

 

[Ikagura]

Like in Myst?

I forgot to post this

 

[Rakoniomm]

I actually consider that to be a sign of bad game design: if you can't find your way in a world that's made for you to move around in, then it wasn't properly made — you may get lost an awful lot in real life, but that feeling shouldn't translate to any virtual world.

Besides, even games that should theoretically have this problem (like Minecraft, which auto-generates terrain on-the-fly) don't have this problem.

But I guess 'exploring vs wandering' is a debate as old as gaming itself for a reason.

I also consider this a sign of bad game design, but I try to take the era of time the game was made in into mind

it's truly such a fine line between the awesome feeling of wandering and exploring a game and between being frustrated beyond believe not knowing what to do to continue the game

I honestly don't really like playing open-worlds because they all feel same-y with a bunch of chores disguised as objectives buuuut I quite vividly remember my first time playing breath of the wild thinking it's going to be yet another open-world game, but nintendo-flavored this time

the surprise is I was completely shocked at how the game and the world encourages exploration and it literally made me feel genuine curiosity to go anywhere my eye can see in the distance just because I want to see what's there. Playing the game made me feel like a kid going on an adventure and "truly" exploring a world

Post automatically merged: Apr 27, 2026

I forgot to post this
View attachment 178690

I don't know what is this but I want it

 

[toothflick]

I actually consider that to be a sign of bad game design: if you can't find your way in a world that's made for you to move around in, then it wasn't properly made — you may get lost an awful lot in real life, but that feeling shouldn't translate to any virtual world.

Besides, even games that should theoretically have this problem (like Minecraft, which auto-generates terrain on-the-fly) don't have this problem.

But I guess 'exploring vs wandering' is a debate as old as gaming itself for a reason.

idk, no matter how "well-designed" a game is, I almost always encounter at least point in almost every single game I play where I have absolutely no idea what to do and where to go and I eventually just give up and look at a walkthrough

it's not like I consider it flaws with the game itself, but when a game is trying to naturally lead a player through its world without being overbearing, at some point you're gonna fall off the wagon and lose track of the world/puzzle design flow. Sometimes you just miss the bus, and I generally don't hold it against games unless it happens more than 2-3 times.

 

[shaggi]

My tactic is to use a walkthrough only for the part where I got stuck, so as not to diminish the fun of the discovery process.

Clever tactic. I often do the same. It seems to be only option other than wandering aimlessly until you find something.

 

[Badseed Badseed]

PoPoLoCrois Monogatari - PSX​

I was lost in that game for months. F****N monkeys. Goodluck finding
a good English walkthrough for an oddball Japan only RPG. Thank god this
is and INCREDIBLE rpg. and it is translated. The pixel art is extraordinary.
Play this.

 

[rugal]

know the feeling i get lost some times in old games and it can be annoying
but some old games i find it fun to get lost because one often finds other things or a town with better shops

if its a big world map i often use a walkthrough to see where to go or i just google search the games world map on my mobile and take a screen shot of the map and look at the map to see where to go

if its a small map like in
fintal fantasy 1.2 and 3 i just walk around until i get to the right place
funny enough when i did play final fantasy 1 and 2 i did not know the games did have a world map

 

[Appiplyer]

I remember when i played golden sun and i don't know how to pass the bandit headquarters i was sooo frustated that i literally searched every area on overworld to get more djinn since i theorized that i would need some special psychic abilities to pass through. There's so much more times i got lost in this games but i kinda forgot them all.

But basically i onlye beaten golden sun because i see some walkthrough

 

[prostheticleg]

i hate this a lot too. especially as a neurodivergent person i find it very much frustrating and anxiety inducing when games are not linear. i cant tell if its a me problem or a game design problem. i get this a lot with dark souls vs elden ring - id love to get into elden ring but the huge, open world confuses and scares me so much i instantly drop the game. dark souls games are incredibly linear to me, you get to explore every nook and cranny slowly and thoroughly, and open world games just dont allow for that, you definitely dont feel a sense of completion when you finish a game like that because theres definitely some stuff you missed.
id love to get into tales series, looks very beautiful. ive noticed that it has been receiving some mixed reviews so ive been quite unsure about getting into it but i definitely want to give it a try.

 

[ThatOneLum]

I actually consider that to be a sign of bad game design: if you can't find your way in a world that's made for you to move around in, then it wasn't properly made — you may get lost an awful lot in real life, but that feeling shouldn't translate to any virtual world.

Besides, even games that should theoretically have this problem (like Minecraft, which auto-generates terrain on-the-fly) don't have this problem.

But I guess 'exploring vs wandering' is a debate as old as gaming itself for a reason.

I 100% think that games were it is easy to get lost are poorly designed, or at least, the levels/map is poorly designed.

It shouldn't really be that hard to have a world that feels mostly natural to explore without getting lost.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

What's interesting to me is that games that should get a pass (like Daggerfall and Diablo) don't even have this problem to begin with — an awful lot of thought went into their level design, and I appreciate it as a player.

 

[JoeZoneLayer]

I remember when i played golden sun and i don't know how to pass the bandit headquarters i was sooo frustated that i literally searched every area on overworld to get more djinn since i theorized that i would need some special psychic abilities to pass through. There's so much more times i got lost in this games but i kinda forgot them all.

But basically i onlye beaten golden sun because i see some walkthrough

Golden Sun is one of the first games I printed out a guide for. It taught me that a lot of games just need a companion walkthrough for certain parts otherwise you'll just stop playing

 

[Xdqwerty Xdqwerty]

This is why I used to hate kirby and the amazing mirror

 

[Rakoniomm]

This is why I used to hate kirby and the amazing mirror

man even tho I played that game for thousands of times when I was a kid not even my kid-self and adult-self managed to finish it till this moment

 

[Ikagura]

This is why I used to hate Kirby and the Amazing Mirror.

While I understood the intent of wanting to give something that wasn't just "Nightmare in Dreamland 2" I still firmly believe that they should've made it a proper Metroidvania with permanent upgrades (like Milky Way Wishes) as well as making the worlds seemingly more interconnected rather than having dead ends bringing you back to Square One.

This is also why I am not that fan of Wario Land 3 which is more about separate levels than actually interconnected areas.

It's ironic when Nintendo has literally created the Metroidvania genre with the eponymous game...