I'm from '98, and missed out on most of retro classics.

>>3917274
Don't use a guide in the first place.

Practice.

It's how we all got good.

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Be patient, bro. If you can learn to indulge rather than think you're better than everything you'll be able to become a better person.

By the way, what game's giving you trouble?

>>3917280
I'll use Deus ex as an example, idk if it's really considered retro or not, but
>couldn't finish first quest for 5 hours of gameplay because either got lost or fucked over by the weird game mechanics
I just gave up past that point.

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Restraint. Maybe have a friend only read you answers to your questions over the phone while you pay 90 cents a minute.

>>3917284
I was trying LoZ: Oracle of seasons, First FF(I prefer playing games in order) and M&M series, each one ending with a total failure and me running around trying to figure anything out.

>>3917286
>I'll use Deus ex as an example

Ohh yeah and when a game is that much garbage don't waste your time.

>>3917294
If it's any consolation to you, Might & Magic still confuses the shit out of me too. Meanwhile the other two categories are ass easy to me and it's because I'm so familiar with the genres that even if I lose track of what I'm doing I just methodically do everything, focusing on the most likely candidates (using new items with/or new areas/characters). Retro games are necessarily limited in scope so that method works and probably the only reason I suck at doing it in M&M is because I'm not familiar enough with the environment. So get familiar enough with the environments and sharpen up your logic skills if they're not great. Then, after you've had to waste time trying & erring you'll learn to pay closer attention to clues.

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Not all retro games are built to be needlessly impossible. Just be patient and find one that fits your game genre preferences and hooks you in. If it turns out you really like a game you'll be way more likely to see it through and getting past difficulty spikes will feel way more rewarding.

Just play shit you enjoy. Yes some games have dated and are sometimes difficult to enjoy but you can always skip past these and stick to the ones you have less trouble with.

Also some games are genuinely rigged to artificially lengthen the game and require tedious repetition to win. Pic related.

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>>3917294
How the hell did you get lost in FF1? Even if you don't talk to anyone just go to the next place you couldn't go before and keep hitting attack. If you get lost and fail in FF1 it's really time to pick a new hobby. Stamp collecting or watching paint dry or something.

>>3917312
>some games are genuinely rigged to artificially lengthen the game
All games are artificially lengthened otherwise they would just be novels or films. The only real sin in this area is imbalance - if a game has a certain part that is much more challenging than the rest of the game like your example. Even a game with completely random mechanics should gradually build to the very-unlikely scenarios

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>>3917321
Is that bit hard with Grant? I've played JP and Rampage Edition countless times but only ever once each not as the raptor.

'98 here too
i wanted to test the first Metroid to catch up on this series and boy was i surprised when i foud it was super hard, energy was fucking rarer ans so was the missiles and the level design was fucking hardcore, then someone on /v/ adviced me to test super metroid and it 's 1000x times better

>>3917286
>Deus ex
If you're going to use reddit as your source of classics, you may as well go and stay there.

>>3917294
M&M3 is the first to have a user-friendly UI and if you don't mind skipping, just jump to this one.

FF can feel unfair at times, I'm looking at you, Ice Cave. You may have an easier time with IV V and VII that are very linear.

As >>3917326 pointed out. If you're new to this stuff, start with newer installments.

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You know I thought this thread would be complete fucking cancer but gosh /vr/'s so mature and cool it turned out pretty interesting.

>>3917323
IIRC Rampage Edition is a bit nerfed/rebalanced kind of like the Greatest Hits version of the Playstation game

>>3917274
Learn to observe. Moat games (notably adventure games / RPGs) from the early 2000's have hinged on a minimap, and most gamers have gotten used to relying on them. Learn to pay attention to your environment and memorize what you see.

This may seem obvious, but it will change your thinking.

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>>3917274
>most of retro games feel impossible to me without some sort of walkthrough

A lot of retro games were pretty short, so their length was padded out by requiring the player to use a lot of rote memorization to survive. What might otherwise be a 20-minute game may take weeks to master.

RPGs were usually padded out by extensive grinding.

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>>3917274
>How do i get better at old games so that i don't need guides anymore?

Don't use them, son.
We didn't have the power of the internets back then and only a few morons wasted their parents' money on hotlines, you either got gud or simple did something else than play vidya.
It's not like the vast majority of old games need guides anyway, luckily not everything is as arcane and ruthless as Wizardry IV

>>3917274
just realize that the game is a finite amount of data inside a program, and figure out that it actually isn't going to take all that long to just try everything.

>>3917289
>tfw I called the help line and got a cute grill, and I started crying and had to hang up because she wasn't an alcoholic and listened to the words I was saying

Protip: 10 year old me didn't finish a single game.

As a matter of fact, I got Lylat Wars 64 the christmas after it came out. Rumble Pak and all that new shit. I was 9 at that time.
I think the farthest I got was the tank level on that industry planet. This was for a long, long time.
It was but a few years later, when I was something around 18 when I first managed to beat it. Didn't really have problems ever since.
I also had Castlevania 64 and only beat it on Easy - which means the game is over after the castle level, which infuriated me back then so much that I didn't even try again on normal, especially since I still dread the fucking hedge maze.
To be completely honest, I used guides whenever I could. If I spent my money on anything, it was usually walkthrough and cheat books. I can't think of anything I beat without guide when I was a kid. It was only with 15-16 when I started appreciating a challenge and found using guides to take away from the fun.
Today I might use them when I am completely stuck or need to collect stuff. I hate collecting stuff.

>>3917375
The original and RE are just different games.