I'm replaying Final Fantasy X and whilst I have a lot of nostalgic love for this game, I'd forgotten how utterly *dogshit* the puzzle design is in this game. I seriously don't think I'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't go back for them until the end of the game, and they're largely gated behind the Dark Aeons which you're way underleveled for.

So if you'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't do something in a particular order? You may have locked yourself out of completion. Didn't think to set a pedestal on what the game teaches you before that is a PEDESTAL RESET SPOT? Can't finish the puzzle.

Didn't think to backtrack after hearing the jingle that the game teaches you before that signifies that you've reached the end of the puzzle? Can't finish the puzzle. Didn't know that you were supposed to wait until hearing that jingle before being able to do a hidden step? etc

It'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's just inexcusably shit design.