Current Events > Game breaking bugs and glitches that cause you to restart the entire game

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm playing an RPG. Clear the entire room of enemies. I'm near the endgame, so it enemies are stronger. Short cutscene plays and a chest spawns. I accidentally leave the area before collecting. Upon returning to the area, I painstakingly defeat all enemies again. Except this time the chest doesn't spawn. I try again the next day. Still no chest. Chests are needed to 100% the game.

To make things worse, I look online and learn the chest contained an item that unlocks a secret area. Since the chest won't spawn, I'm unable unlock the secret area and explore an entire section of the game.

Wat game is that?
Skyrim release was hot trash
Go find an item that u already have

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I hit a game breaking bug near A Boy and His Blob near the end of the game. I can't remember what it was exactly but the blog wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing. Total shame.

It was on Vita so I was probably only one of dozens to play the game.

I didn't replay it.

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I think there is a place FF7 inside the final dungeon where you can use that Save crystal and get Cloud stuck, unable to move. Like too close to a rock or something

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Darksiders had a bug where if you save and quit at a certain puzzle room that when resuming the file, the puzzle will be inoperable meaning restart the game is the only option unless you have a earlier back of save.

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Bad_Mojo posted...

I think there is a place FF7 inside the final dungeon where you can use that Save crystal and get Cloud stuck, unable to move. Like too close to a rock or something

You don't get Cloud stuck, it's to duplicate the Save Crystal, and it was at the edge of one of the screens. Only works on the English release I assume, since I couldn't get it to work on the Japanese version.

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Kisai posted...

You don't get Cloud stuck, it's to duplicate the Save Crystal, and it was at the edge of one of the screens. Only works on the English release I assume, since I couldn't get it to work on the Japanese version.

My friend Saved there while Cloud was stuck on a rock and couldn't move. They didn't have to go back that far, but it did happen to him.

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KFHEWUI posted...

Darksiders had a bug where if you save and quit at a certain puzzle room that when resuming the file, the puzzle will be inoperable meaning restart the game is the only option unless you have a earlier back of save.

Similar to Twilight Princess where if you save and quit at the wrong time in the wrong room you get permanently stuck (fixed in later versions though).

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In Lufia 2 the room where dual sword was was just a mess of sprites and made it impossible to figure out the path

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Thanks for telling us which game youre talking about TC.

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As I recall, Other M had a glitch where if you beat a certain boss (one of the lava ones) and went back to save and quit instead of proceeding, when you reloaded the save the door you needed to advance would be permanently locked and you'd have to start the entire shitty game over.

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The portal to the last boss of Warrior Within just had a chance of not spawning and locking your game

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Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has the Glitch of Doom: every playthough is a ticking time bomb in which an engine bug will eventually cause all of the game's non-NPC animations slow down to the point of effectively freezing - torches and fire effects will be frozen, spells effects will freeze upon contact, doors will take months of in-game waiting to fully open. This glitch is unavoidable, and trying to simply deal with it and play onward will simply result in your game constantly crashing / saves becoming un-loadable a short time after.

Fortunately, most gamers won't encounter this bug, as it usually hits around the 300-500 hour mark on your playthrough (and for the record, this is a bug unique to Oblivion; you can, for instance, put over 1,000 hours into a Skyrim playthrough without this happening). There were rumors awhile back that completing the Main Quest could accelerate the Glitch by 100 hours or so, but I don't know if that was ever substantiated.

If you ever notice that certain animations start running much faster than normal, this is an early warning sign of of the Glitch of Doom, and means that you're about halfway to two-thirds of the way towards it taking effect (the easiest way to tell if animations are running too fast is to take a Sigil Stone from an Oblivion Gate - the explosion animation will run so fast that it will end prematurely, and your character will be left standing there in the empty tower for a few seconds before the loading screen kicks in).

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Xcom Enemy Within on PS3. The base invasion event had a chance to not only lock your game, but corrupt your save files. Suggested workaround was to not update your game until after the mission was over.

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The oblivion thing was due to a memory leak and the game running out of unique IDs for new items being generated.

My version anything I put into a chest or storage would disappear. I could carry things and take stuff out of storage but could never store and retrieve something again.

After around 800 hrs.

Good times. Last time I tried to 100% an elder scrolls save file. Never made it.

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Steam PC port version of Final Fantasy III released several years ago has a story checkpoint reset bug. It can happen at any random point. You end up stranded on the world map without vehicles because of it and have to restart the entire game.

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Twilight Princess had the one bridge that would spawn you on the wrong side if you saved after the bridge vanishes but before entering the next cloud of twilight. Similarly, the cannon room under Kakariko village right before city in the sky if you save and reload after sending the NPC away but before teleporting the cannon. Since City in the sky is so far into the game, its a very costly mistake to make.

Meanwhile SKyward Sword had the glitched Goron that if you talk to, some story flags will not trigger.
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Missing quest in Lego the Hobbit. Gold bricks achievement not unlocking in Lego Harry Potter collection, first game.

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FONV locked me out of the NCR questline when one of the characters would break the whole thing.

That was annoying. But I expect it from Beth games.
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I hit the late game one in Secret of Evermore. Fuck that.

Slayer_22 posted...

FONV locked me out of the NCR questline when one of the characters would break the whole thing.

That was annoying. But I expect it from Beth games.

NV was developed by Obsidian not Bethesda @Slayer_22

Thankfully I didnt hit any problems on my last playthrough.


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spikethedevil posted...

NV was developed by Obsidian not Bethesda @Slayer_22

Thankfully I didnt hit any problems on my last playthrough.

Yeah, but it was running on Beth's garbage engine, so I just default to blaming them. Especially when you consider how rushed the game was, how bad it was at release, and how shitty Beth was to the team.

Best to just say 'lol, bethesda'
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put 60+ hours into Pillars of Eternity II for the PS4, and I'm really enjoying the game.

I end up doing a pretty easy mission, and as I try to leave the building, the game crashes.

no matter how many times I reload the game and try to leave the building, it crashes.

had to start a new game, smh.

and the sucky thing is that I don't believe the PS4 version has many players, so it's unlikely it'll get any new patches in the future.

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Cinnabar Island. I was duping rare candies and catching glitchy mons. Even giving them cute little nicknames too, smh.

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Any game where you wander off the map

One glitch may lead to another, worser one

KOTOR 2 had at least two or three places where the game could corrupt your saves, on PC at least. Made me so damn mad.

Got stuck in a deathloop recently in Walking Dead 400 Days

https://youtube.com/shorts/hbuFL5Ku93A?feature=share

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Assassin's Creed Unity. I was playing well towards the end when a mission would not start. The marker wasn't even showing on the screen. Looked up online and it was a common enough bug where if players did not have the mission start/activate, they pretty much had to start all over. Also read that the bug was never patched, and this was about four years after Unity had been released. I ended up just watching someone else do a playthrough for the rest of the game and never bothered picking it back up again.

There are a handful of save points in Chronic Trigger where, if you dont take your hand off the d-pad while saving, it'll add your momentum to Crono's map position when writing the save file. Doing this, it's possible to get Crono stuck in a wall and require a new save. I think the End of Time is one of the places this can happen, lol

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EmbraceOfDeath posted...

Similar to Twilight Princess where if you save and quit at the wrong time in the wrong room you get permanently stuck (fixed in later versions though).

Came to say this.

Also, in the Ocarina of Time there is a section in the Water Temple that if you use one of your small keys on the wrong door you won't be able to progress.

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Great game tc

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SergeantGander posted...

Came to say this.

Also, in the Ocarina of Time there is a section in the Water Temple that if you use one of your small keys on the wrong door you won't be able to progress.

This isnt true as iirc this came about because a small key people kept missing.


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DeathVelvien posted...

As I recall, Other M had a glitch where if you beat a certain boss (one of the lava ones) and went back to save and quit instead of proceeding, when you reloaded the save the door you needed to advance would be permanently locked and you'd have to start the entire shitty game over.

This happened to me twice. I forgot where it happened the first time. Gave up after that. I destroyed the disc after that.

Alteres posted...

The oblivion thing was due to a memory leak and the game running out of unique IDs for new items being generated.

My version anything I put into a chest or storage would disappear. I could carry things and take stuff out of storage but could never store and retrieve something again.

After around 800 hrs.

Good times. Last time I tried to 100% an elder scrolls save file. Never made it.

Been awhile since I've thought about it, but that sounds more like Oblivion's other Glitch of Doom (Oblivion actually had two distinct Glitches of Doom, if you can believe it). I think the item-disappearing version was somehow caused by Shivering Isles. Thankfully I never got the item-related GoD, but I got the freezing-related GoD at least half a dozen times.

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SergeantGander posted...

Also, in the Ocarina of Time there is a section in the Water Temple that if you use one of your small keys on the wrong door you won't be able to progress.

this one is actually a long-standing myth caused by people being so bad at navigating the temple they can't find the keys. it's plain not true

all the forced restart glitches I know in games are kinda the player's own fault. like using some glitched movement tech to get to a save point they aren't supposed to be in, and then saving there with no way to get back out

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Wolfenstein The New Order

Had a save just before entering a hallway with a big ass dog. Its impossible to kill, so I couldnt progress any further. Still pisses me off.

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modena posted...

Wolfenstein The New Order

Had a save just before entering a hallway with a big ass dog. Its impossible to kill, so I couldnt progress any further. Still pisses me off.

Lol no its not.

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In the LOTR GBA game there was a game breaking glitch in the Mines of Moria that made you get stuck somewhere and your only option was to restart the game.

Didnt learn that it was a common glitch till well over a decade later. Not even sure what caused it or how to avoid it

spikethedevil posted...

Lol no its not.

To kill it? Maybe I missed a better weapon/ammo because I tried everything. Ah well

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sLaCkEr408___RJ posted...

I'm playing an RPG. Clear the entire room of enemies. I'm near the endgame, so it enemies are stronger. Short cutscene plays and a chest spawns. I accidentally leave the area before collecting. Upon returning to the area, I painstakingly defeat all enemies again. Except this time the chest doesn't spawn. I try again the next day. Still no chest. Chests are needed to 100% the game.

To make things worse, I look online and learn the chest contained an item that unlocks a secret area. Since the chest won't spawn, I'm unable unlock the secret area and explore an entire section of the game.

maybe its already in your inventory and the game wont give it to you 2 times

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Skyward Sword for the Wii had a dialog glitch where if you talk to a certain Goron NPC at the wrong place at the wrong time, the game soft locks and you can never progress with the Thunder Dragon Song of the Hero portion of the game.