I& #39;m replaying Final Fantasy X and whilst I have a lot of nostalgic love for this game, I& #39;d forgotten how utterly *dogshit* the puzzle design is in this game. I seriously don& #39;t think I& #39;ve seen a game with more badly-designed puzzles, considering the wider context they exist in.

By that I mean, all the Cloister of Trials puzzles have hidden elements that you can miss, which is fine in a vacuum, EXCEPT if you miss them you can& #39;t go back for them until the end of the game, and they& #39;re largely gated behind the Dark Aeons which you& #39;re way underleveled for.

So if you& #39;re aware of this, you resolve to finish them as you come across them. Which is made as awkward as possible by each Cloister seemingly following *its own set of rules*.

Didn& #39;t do something in a particular order? You may have locked yourself out of completion. Didn& #39;t think to set a pedestal on what the game teaches you before that is a PEDESTAL RESET SPOT? Can& #39;t finish the puzzle.

Didn& #39;t think to backtrack after hearing the jingle that the game teaches you before that signifies that you& #39;ve reached the end of the puzzle? Can& #39;t finish the puzzle. Didn& #39;t know that you were supposed to wait until hearing that jingle before being able to do a hidden step? etc

It& #39;s just endemic inconsistency in how each is designed, which is crappy design by any measure, but when such a steep cost is attached to fucking it up at any step, that& #39;s just inexcusably shit design.