Worst tutorial you have ever seen?

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I have always been fascinated by game tutorials because there's a certain wild naivety to them... I mean, most come after character creation or keep being included (and are arguably dumbed down) several entries into their series, so the developers KNOW the players aren't just hopeless, yet a lot of those tutorials are built with that idea in mind, which is just hilarious in tandem -- "oh, sure, you just spent ten minutes trying to optimize your build by carefully going through menues and submenues and moving sliders around; anyway, here's how you turn the camera" XD

I'm not saying that this is always the case, but the vast majority of the ones I have played certainly were. Very few of them tried to be integrated into the story, too, which hurt my engagement and overall care even when I could have used some hints here and there.

What's the tutorial you hate the most and which one do you think was actually done well?

I love the one in Dragon Quest IX because of how naturally integrated into the plot it is (despite being a drag) and absolutely hate the one in Pokemon Black and White 2, which not only takes your hand throughout, but essentially handcuffs you for five minutes.

What about you?

 

[sijaab]

cars 2 the video game​

15min unskipable tutorial

 

[RustySK]

I've always been a fan of those oldschool PC tutorials where you'd start the game, walk a step forward and it'd freeze and an unskippable low-res video of the game would pop up and some slow as hell nonprofessional voiceover - usually from a dev - would explain what things like "the interaction button" do.
Glorious trash.

Tutorials were a real plague for a couple years there and I really appreciate how we've slowly returned to the more subtle, intuitive approach of gently guiding the player into experimenting with their toolset on their own.
We have unified, streamlined control schemes these days, no need to preserve the stilted process of reading an instruction manual in order to even begin to understand how the game works.

 

[Turbo Kid]

Tutorials are a symptom of phasing out instruction manuals along with the fact that many gamers don't even want to read them in the first place

Anyway, best tutorial? Maybe this one

Worst? Apparently this is the hardest tutorial of all time LOL

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Now that I think about it... it's been ages, but I don't remember stuff like System Shock, Ultima Underworld and Daggerfall having tutorials.

Those were pretty complicated to just pick up and play, and I learned a few things about them the hard way XD

 

[qw90700]

I guess Jet Set Radio's forced tutorials are the most infamous one that takes hours to beat. Scientists recently announced 89% of players couldn't pass the tutorials lolol.

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

Deus Ex had a tutorial disguised as a new employee training session. That was a good way of disguising the tutorial experience.

 

[Cardboardtubeknight Cardboardtubeknight]

Megaman X5 is the worst one because it continues on and on and on

 

[Segadude113]

Oni but that was the dang controls. lol

 

[moonbits]

Oni but that was the dang controls. lol

skill issue

 

[Mork]

Konquest Mode in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. I love all beat-em-ups but i hate it when it takes 2 whole levels to get to the fun stuff. 30 minutes wasted.
Also TES IV: Oblivion. takes too long and boring. Same goes for Skyrim. At least the dragon parts were fun.

 

[Elwiwi]

As much I like xenoblade and monster hunter I have to say that their tutorials suck ass

 

[El Pollo Loco]

For me, the worst are:
Far Cry Blood Dragon (The entire first mission is a tutorial, and you can't save your progress during its duration)
Driver (I'm convinced the tutorial was the real game. The rest is filler)
Gunvein (a shoot 'em up by NG.Dev)

 

[thecrow2313]

I hope you like pain

 

[moonbits]

I'm drawing a blank here. Probably played a lot of horrible tutorials but my mind has blocked them.

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

Final Fantasy XIII sticks out in my mind for some reason. Officially, the tutorial is only 5-10 hours of the early game, but the game continues to gate features right up until the 30 hour mark. It feels like half of the game is one big tutorial.

 

[pr0xy]

I guess Jet Set Radio's forced tutorials are the most infamous one that takes hours to beat. Scientists recently announced 89% of players couldn't pass the tutorials lolol.

You’re absolutely right. Over the years, I’ve played the game enough to beat the tutorial without too much trouble, but even so, I have to admit that it just fucking sucks. I love the game, though.
But I do hate its tutorial.

 

[thecrow2313]

No tutorial needed

Holy shit

Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing on Steam

Get ready for some brake jamm'in, CB talk'in, convoy roll'in action across America! From Portland Oregon to Miami Florida, you'll be hauling loads and trying to stay one step ahead of the law as you climb into your Big Rig for non-stop driving action.

store.steampowered.com

 

[Grumpy_Old_Man]

The already mentioned Driver (strict time limits, confined space, for a rather bad racing player is hell).
I tend to not like tutorials in general, I prefer the game to teach via trial and error and good game design.
Except probably in more complex ones like grand strategy ones.

 

[cloudsets]

The worst tutorial is in every Commodore 64 game that has a bespoke control scheme and leaves it to the player to figure out whatever the developer considered to be the best key for a given verb.

 

[Bakuma1997]

Since Thecrow already beat me to the Driver one, i can only comment the OG Final Fantasy VII's infamous
"Attack while it's[sic] tail's up!" "It's going to counterattack with its laser!"
It's meant to imply that if you attack with its tail up you will be hit back, but they mangled the line along many others and the result was me refunding the game because i could never beat the damn boss

 

[qw90700]

I hope you like pain

It actually took me like 1 year or something to figure out what the hell "slalom" means which I couldn't understand English much back then and honestly couldn't find it on English dictionary I had too. I even went to the public library and checked dictionaries there but no dice. I also asked a guy who was the local street racer but he had no idea what it is too. I actually invited the guy to my house to pass the damn game but he couldn't too ayy lmao. Then I did something randomly and it was ticked lolol.

 

[OppenheimerBro]

game:press R3
10yr me:

 

[qw90700]

game:press R3
10yr me: View attachment 100018

*presses R1 thrice* lol

 

[OppenheimerBro]

i personally can't forget KCD2
When the enmy on the other side u go on the other in a split Sec put it up so he wouldn't Know it and move it the core till gold press LT to move the pic and move the core
like wtf are u even saying