31-Day Mage Challenge: Day Eleven – “Favorite Video Game Secret!”
3 min read
Shhhh. We’re talking in whispers today, dear NPCs. “If you have it, you want to share it. But if you share it, you can’t keep it.” What am I?
“What is your Favorite Video Game Secret?“
The Timely Mage
I’m not sure if this is my favorite but it’s certainly one of the wildest ones I’ve come across and that would be the alternative method to killing The End in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. If you’re not already familiar with it, The End is an “ancient sniper” who is very patient and well-hidden and to defeat him you must track him down in the forest and attack him before he ultimately escapes and repositions himself. With The End being over 100 years old, one of the alternative ways to kill him is to not play the game for a week (or move the system’s clock ahead if you don’t want to wait) and when you return he will have died of old age. Alright Kojima, you win.
The Black Humor Mage
The Stealth Camo item from the Metal Gear Solid series is my favorite video game secret. It’s always the hardest thing to unlock in the games, but it’s well worth the reward. Stealth has never been as easy as running by enemies.
The Rage Mage
I guess people liked Final Fantasy VII. Not sure why. But did you know you can save Aeris from her well-deserved death at the hands of Hot Topic employee #2? All you have to do is catch the Silver Chocobo, get Zack in your party, and collect the White Materia. Think that’s just a rumor? Well that’s just what Square wants you to think. It’s possible. Catching Mew under the truck pales in comparison.
The Green Screen Mage
My favorite video game secret would be at the end of one of my favorite Steam games, Undertale. If you beat the game on the Pacifist run and return all the way to the beginning point of the game where you first control your character before going through the final door and seeing the end credits, you can find (Spoilers: highlight to reveal) Asriel Dreemurr telling you a very interesting version of the events you see unfold throughout the game regarding the First Human. Just make sure you keep talking to him until he keeps repeating himself.
The White Out Mage
In Super Mario 64, there is a wall that you can actually go through where there’s a secret shortcut to the end of the Penguin race.
The Well-Red Mage
The Dr. Light hadouken capsule in Mega Man X? Cloud as a playable character in Final Fantasy Tactics? Chun Li’s cameo in Breath of Fire? Finding out the Joker is still alive (maybe) in Arkham Knight? Warp whistle abuse in Super Mario Bros. 3? Catching “Glitch” in Pokémon Red/Blue? The Koopa shell-stairway 1up trick from Super Mario Bros.? Gah! Too many! I’ll go with the delightful secret boss fight in Monstro Town in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. It’s one insane collision when Super Mario and Final Fantasy meet. Inside a sealed door, Mario and his party come face to face with Culex, Dark Knight of Vanda. The boss represents the conventions of the Final Fantasy franchise, having crossed into the Mario universe from another dimension. He’s aided by four elemental crystals in battle, represented by a 2D 16-bit sprite, and accompanied by the boss battle music from FFIV. He’s tougher than the final boss and one of the best surprises of the surprisingly great Super Mario RPG.
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Not really a secrets guy for obvs reasons (never finishin stuff, general laziness etc *Grins*) but I gotta say the Chun-Li in Breath of Fire 1 was fun, also what hidden passageway in penguin race cos Gahhhh!!!!!
I suggest the costumes in Mystical Ninja: Starring Goemon 2. Completing the game and obtaining all the entry passes allows the player to buy costumes for the characters, which range from interesting to strange to inappropriate. I also enjoyed finding all the hidden discos in Lego Batman. I was interested to read the Metal Gear Solid secrets (particularly about The End dying of old age), but I liked the secret animated sequence when Snake does not remove the tracking device. The only drawback is an increase in enemies and a poignant moment potentially ruined by a comedy sequence.
Warp whistles in Mario 3 and the Konami code for Contra.
Both iconic. Thanks for commenting!
I might get flamed on this one! Call of Duty – Black Ops interrogation room computer hack secret was awesome!
You could look into background information on the game and even play an arcade shooter different from COD style FPS play.
Prepare the flames!!!!!!1 jk
Fatality!
I’d say Green Hill Zone in Adventure 2 Battle. It was an awesome reward for those of us who went back and decided to get all of the emblems. It was definitely a tricky feat back in the day.
I’m not familiar with any Sonic game, so it’s all a secret to me. Technically. Thanks for sharing!
Samus being a chick, Never saw it coming,
THAT is definitely a worthy secret to make a list of top 10!
It was secret heard around the world! Wasn’t the code “Justin Bailey”?
Been so long, I can’t remember
MissingNo. in Pokemon was my favorite glitch in the original game. I wasn’t a fan of how it could glitch your save, but I was just pleasantly surprised that a playground rumor about Pokemon was true. Also, infinite rare candies was fun. After replaying through Pokemon on the 3DS Virtual Console, I’d probably change my answer to getting Mew without need for an official event or a Gameshark. I know both of these are technically glitches, but they were still a secret to everybody.
Those were some bread and butter secrets in early high school days!
Driver: San Francisco
If you buy a DMC DeLorean, and drive at 88mph for long enough, you’re transported into a secret side mission called Blast From the Past, which is a recreation of The Interview, the first mission from the original Driver: You are the Wheelman:
Original (1999):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1On2vTE3NQM
Recreation (2011):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLWU3Diynd4
Gotta say, that’s pretty awesome!
I LOVED the secret boss on the Matio RPG. Sheer genius. Ah the drama!
Um, I’m not sure if this is a secret or a sidequest plus even though it’s definitely the latter and certainly the former to a particular character, it’s kind of an integral plot point to the game. Gah, I’ll just get to the point. Spoilers for FFVII just in case
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Lucrecia’s Cave in FFVII would have to be my pick for so many reasons: sentimental, sad, tragic, heartbreaking in addition to arguably the most pivotal important information in the story. It would’ve been a literal game changer had a particular manipulated manipulator known.
Hopefully, I didn’t go beyond the scope of the question! It’s kind of not a “secret” anymore at least from the players since the advent of Dirge *runs away*
When I fought Culex for the first time, I hadn’t played FFIV yet. I remember doing so later and fighting the Mist Dragon and being like “Oh HEY!”
Ah I love when you see te origin of s reference after the fact! That’s how I was with “The cake is a lie” 😊