[General Discussion] Game breaking - Do you?

Despite the mammouth amount of testing that goes into game development these days, there's always a risk that the is something in the game that can be exploited to remove all the challenge. Be that a glitch to be exploited, an item that worked out a lot more powerful than was intended or even a built in cheat, these game breakers can provide a very quick route to the end of a single player game or completely unbalance the multiplayer mode, at least until a patch is released to negate them.

So are you someone who uses game-breaking exploits? Do you seek them out actively? If not, when you come across one will you exploit it or do you steadfastly ignore it so as to retain the experience of a game? In multi-player games have you ever been put off and stopped playing because of all the glitching or unbalance or are you the first in line to set your modem to standby and get a total team kill?

The reason I ask is that I've been playing through Oblivion recently and once you pick up the Ring of Khajit (It turns you partially invisible, Predator style) the thieves guild quests become really, really easy. Having picked up Sacred 2, I had planned to just rock through the story quests and finish the game quickly. I've got the wizard's tower add on though which allows you to craft your own magic items and it occured to me that you could use this to create more items to turn you invisible, going from 35% invisibilty up to 100%. I gave it a go and it worked, my character is now completely invisible, the upshot of which is that even when you hit someone, they can't see you and just stand there looking confused. You can kill anything in the game with no risk and nobody ever sees you stealing or stops you in dungeons.

As such, it took me about 3 hours to complete the Arena and Mages guild quest lines. I no longer need potions as I never get hurt and don't need magic items or weapons as I can kill anything eventually. The game has lost any challenge it might once have had and is well and truly broken. Of course I could just not use that stuff and play it properly but to be honest, it's getting a bit repetitive now and I just want to know what happens in the story and move on. I can't even be arsed to play through the Fighter's guild for the achievements so for me, this exploit has provided a quick way to finish the game which I would otherwise have just abandoned and never picked up again.

Other game breakers I've come across in the past are the Chissagrim (Sp?) sword in Castlevania SotN, which makes killing anything in the game insanely easy which I used a lot the first time I played it but have avoided on subsequent play throughs. The automatic sentry guns in Frontlines were rather unbalanced when the game first came out as there was no invulnerability on re-spawn and they had a ton of ammo, meaning if you and a couple of other people all dropped one next to a spawn point, you'd rack up hundreds of kills, especially if it was the last spawn the opponents had. Whilst this was unbalanced to some extent, it wasn't an insurmountable difference as if you were sensible you'd join a squad and respawn on a squad member rather than a spawn point and the sentry guns were rather fragile. I didn't really consider this game breaking but a lot of people did spam them annoyingly to the extent they were nerfed in a patch soon after release. The level of cheating in Halo 2 and 3 is just ridiculous and I know it put a lot of people off playing.

So yeah, what are some examples of game breakers you've found and how do you feel about them?

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The use of the term "break" to describe something as mundane as difficulty reduction is such a waste when so many games are full of things which are truly breakable.

If we're using Oblivion as an example:

Step 1: Kill somebody. Any NPC humanoid will do.




Step 2: Grab-key their corpse, and toss them a couple feet into the air. This is easier if you've modded the physics but you can drag them over a steep ledge in a pinch.



Step 3: While they're still in midair, pop open up the console, select them, and toggle off their AI. Inexplicably, Oblivion's ragdoll physics are under the jurisdiction of the AI, and as such the corpse will freeze in midair when you exit the console.

Step 4: Close the console, pop it back open, and resurrect the victim. For reasons I can't begin to imagine, this results in the ex-corpse being converted into a quantity of saltwater taffy.



That's how you break a game; nuts to you and your convoluted godmode.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Anyone who says they never used Vanish+Doom or Genji Glove & the Offering are liars.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

When I play a game that has easy exploits that I know about. I like to give the game a fair go through before I try them. I find it more fun to beat the game and then go back and find the exploits and laugh at how much easier the game could have been etc. I find exploits as more of a fun joke to try but I don't like to abuse them because I think it gives a false experience in the game that will ruin your subsequent experiences playing it 'normal. My case in point is Diablo II and using trainers/hero editors. After doing that I really didn't want to play it normally anymore.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Bath House Pang House

The use of the term "break" to describe something as mundane as difficulty reduction is such a waste when so many games are full of things which are truly breakable.

Oh I quite agree, trying to jump out of the levels in Halo is often more fun than staying in them for example and Ultima VII is the perfect example of a game where you can really upset the AI using resurrect spells and doing things earlier than you're supposed to. In terms of console gaming though, you're generally a bit more limited in the destruction you can cause to a game's physics and I think game breakers is the widely accepted term for anything that destroys the challenge, as much as destroying the engine itself.

That said, there was never much more annoying than people exploiting some dodgy building work in Battlefield 2 on the Xbox and glitching themselves inside the scenery, allowing them to shoot out whilst remaining entirely impervious to incoming fire.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Yeah, battlefield had some horrible glitches. People blowing themselves up onto buildings etc. But...battlefield was a very glitchy game anyway, would crash a lot and had other horrible things wrong with it. But we'll look past that...

In terms of the overall thing, I think I try to ignore it. I know it doesn't make me as much of a contender in multiplayer games especially, but I like playing the game how the developers intended (assuming the developers didn't want people to reload glitch etc). I'm kind of disappointed when I stumble upon an accidental "god mode" as it were which removes the challenge of a game. At least, the first time I'm playing through.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I thought this was going to be about games being so insanely frustrating that you actually break the disc. As I have a friend who has done that... a lot.

As for that actual question. Well, I did use Knights of the Round the first time I went through Final Fantasy VII and as we all know, the game is absolutely no challenge with that. I did a playthrough later to see what it was like to go through without knights and I must say it felt weird struggling against enemies who previously didn't have the opportunity to attack.

Aside from that? Not usually, although I did cheat to get a few Team Fortress 2 achievements. I played a LAN game by myself and got achievements for winning even though there were no opponents.

FELIPE NO

Well, this is like, very very LIGHT in terms of game breaking (comparing to glitches like Pang mentioned or Shin on Ultima VII). But I did found a nice physical exploit that doesn't hurt the game at all. I say physical, due to level design and their dumb A.I. Sword of Mana has these Cyclops that are insane in item drops as well as if you use your weapons on them, they go up in insane levels as well. But despite of meeting them early on, you can get killed in one shot upon trying to fight them.

But, thanks to this one particular area that has 3 squares in height from the floor, from there, you could potshot the Cyclops for hours before he finally dies. He was just too dumb enough to go around and go up the platform you were on despite of it being somewhat 6 or 5 squares across from south.

These kind of exploits are not uncommon, you'd just have to see the opportunity to abuse the game through level design or dumb A.I. These personally, makes me glad to be able to spot it and use it to my advantage. After all, these Cyclops have a 5% chance of appearing and they only appear on a specific mana day!

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I consider breaking a game and exploiting a game to be different, the former being one that will eventually crash a game if you keep doing it too much and the latter being one that's a "safe glitch."

For the sake of example, the original Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow had a really good example.

Breaking the game would be something like catching Missingno or some of the more unstable versions of Missingno. Exploiting the game would be something along the lines of duplicating your items with the Missingno Glitch or using the Mew Glitch or something.

As for my opinion on each one, breaking a game is always fun to do in your own time, though it's usually after I beat a game that I would try to break the game, since you'd know more about the game after you finished, so that you'd know how to break it. This is a bit of a dying habit though because newer games are significantly harder to break than older ones, which you could commonly break due to limitations in hardware and the coder's compensation for them.

Exploiting a game, on the other hand, I have no qualms about doing. I assume if they're in the game, then either they don't give a damn about using it, or they genuinely didn't consider all possible scenarios. Stuff like Genji Glove + Offering or Vanish + Doom would be an example of a legitimate exploit found by creativity. Most games are easy enough that you wouldn't need to really use these exploits anyway, but using them just for the amusement factor is, well, amusing.

It's also important to note that some are probably unintended. Like in Final Fantasy 1, there was like a 3 space wide area where you could fight Ice Wolves early in the game and grind your ass to oblivion, all before the Marsh Cave, and subsequently kick the shit out of everything else for the rest of the game. I still have no issues using this because I really have no sympathy for developer's oversights on issues, because these should have been tested thoroughly. Granted, it's probably hard to find such an issue, but these issues shouldn't come up either, assuming the developers took their time and didn't just kick a quick money port out the door.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

In the case of some games, the breaking of the game is what actually maintains its repeatability and enjoyment. In the case of a few, like in the Metroid games, this has turned into something of an online competition with people competing to see who can break the game the worst and use it to achieve the craziest effects.

Ex: metroid2002.com: metroid prime: sequence breaking

I generally go for that type of broken when I've got some time, as it has the same challenge draw that competitive fighting games do, or special achievements. On the more straightforward broken stuff, like Knights of the Round, Vanish/Doom, ect..., I'll use that when given the opportunity in RPGs, as I honestly find the fighting in most RPGs to be incredibly dreary. There's not many that actually require a consistent amount of planning or strat, and after a while I'd rather just be done with them (much like you and Oblivion) than continue the grind.

A classic example of this was taping the buttons down in Final Fantasy VI during the raft ride, and then going to work/school. Come home, level 99. Game is subsequently a breeze. There was also the Sketch Gau trick which I exploited the hell out of to get 1000's of Economizers, Offerings, and Excaliburs.

In multiplayer, I try to avoid it, as I've never been much for what I think of as cheap wins. It bugs me when people use it on me, so I tend to just avoid games that are rife with issues. The main exception to that I can think of was MvC2, but that almost falls under the competitive breaking category as well, since the high level game was all about crazy exploits.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I think the earliest game I "broke" was with Star Wars NES. It doesn't seem to be the version you guys play, but some kind of alternate version.

The trick was to pop open the port that connects with the NES light gun, poke a coin in, and push. SOMEHOW it warps you from the title screen to the last stage.

I try not to 'break' games on the first playthrough. More fun that way. With subsequent playthroughs, vanish+doom and offering+genji glove combos are fair game =)

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I don't really consider early levelling opportunities to be game breakers as you still have to spend hours of your life doing the actual fights and if your boredom threshold is that high then fair play to you. I did after all near-max all my character's stats in Last Remnant by building a 6,000 chain of bugs in the Robelia Ruins which itself requires a bit of glitch abuse (Moving to the next area, saving, quitting, reloading which respawns all the monsters, allowing you to carry on your chain) but it did take literally a month of doing the same fight over and over again and even then some of the optional bosses were tough fights.

I remember saving and reloading while doing the betting game in San Andreas to win several billion dollars but then giving it all away again shortly afterwards as it made the game kinda pointless. I mean, the whole point of doing the missions is to get money and if you have a limitless supply there's effectively no reward and as such, no point. Also most of the missions are piss-easy when you can afford thousands of guided missiles.

I'm certainly in the camp of not doing these things until a second playthrough. If nothing else, over-powering your character just tends to make a game boring and if it's a lengthy process to achieve that brokenness then it's doubly boring. FFVIII if you really want you can draw enough magic and use GFF abilities to give everyone 100 firaga spells straight after the first dungeon which when you junction them to strength make every fight until about disk 4 very, very short. It takes hours to collect all the spells though and makes the rest of the game even more boring than it normally is.

I'll also admit to having won the Gran Turismo test circuit endurance race using teh Escudo Pike's Peak and a couple of rubber bands but only because I really, really couldn't be arsed to sit and drive in a circle for a couple of hours. It's not even driving in a circle as you barely need to turn for the corners. There's no chance you're going to lose because you have the fastest car but still they make the race like 1,000 km or some shit like that. Far better to just let it play itself and bounce off the walls all the way round. I suppose that's why the introduced having an AI team mate in GT4, nobody in their right minds would actually drive the entire 24 hour Le Mans race (Woudl they?).

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I don't consider myself one for breaking games or breaking game mechanics because honestly I don't think I'm smart enough to find out ways to break a certain game or exploit a certain glitch. My best friend on the other hand lives for this kind of stuff. He has a unique way of taking any game and finding ways of exploiting its game-play.

Its not to say that I haven't used ways of breaking a game because I have but the games I do it are few and far between and the only times I find myself doing it is of I'm finding a certain area too hard or on the other hand I'm stuck in a certain part of the game. I only come across these glitches or ways of breaking the game through online forums and such. Here are some of the games I have used glitches or game-breaking exploits to make the game easier.

Blast Corps

My favorite N64 game of all time. When I had first rented this, I thought it was a really awesome game and was actually progressing through it with relative ease. Then during the last set of missions, I found two missions incredibly hard. Those missions were Diamond Sands and Oyster Harbor. After a lot of practice, I managed to pass Diamond Sands, but Oyster Harbor was a real pain in the ass. I can easily pass the level now, but when I first played a game I could never beat that level. I always got hung up at the part with the transport boats, and the fact you had a short amount of time to transfer a bomb to the last building because that was the only way to destroy that final building. I found out that there is a trick, if you put your vehicle right against the front of building and press the Z button to try to escape, the character will yell No, because he can't escape. Hold down the Z button and hear him yell No in succession and if your next to a building then the building will explode.

Link's Awakening

I was getting into the Zelda series, and I decided to get a loan of this game from a friend. I actually found it to be a pretty good game. After I had passed a few of the dungeons, I didn't know where else to go. I had searched all over, and I had no idea what to do next. I discovered that there is a glitch or something along those lines in this game. It is when your ready to head over to the next screen if you select the map menu just as your moving to the next screen, you'll actually find yourself at the opposite end of the next screen instead of just where you would normally be. I used that technique a lot but the problem is I ended up getting stuck, by going into a cave that had an underwater pit before I got the flippers, and eventually I died and when the game asked me to start over it started me at that same location so therefore I had no way out. So that definitely backfired on me.

I've even used the X-Zone/Vanish trick on Final Fantasy VI, but I only found myself using that trick against bosses or enemies I found really hard the first time I played it. Overall, I don't really like to use glitches or game breaking techniques because it softens the gaming experience for me. I don't mind using them the second time I'm playing the game, but overall I'm just not a big fan of them.

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I try to not use exploits at all in games as it wastes the fun of a game a little bit for me even though it's hard to ignore the exploit once you found it :P.

When there are alot of bugs/exploits people can use to their advantage I won't play online at all untill it is fixed. I play online to compete with others and not to see people abuse exploits to get the top ranks.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Here are a few for the SNES game, WWF: RAW.

1.) Go into the Royal Rumble match with a friend. One of you is the 1-2-3 kid. Get four people in it. Have one of the CPU's down on the mat with the Kid on the top rope. Have the other stuck in the opposing corner. Have the person then mount the person stuck in the corner and begin punching him./ While doing that, have the 1-2-3 Kid do his special move (not his finisher). The kid will suddenly get 'punched' and break his special. he can now move through the ropes and can't be eliminated. You can also run off the screen, getting some crazy camera angles as it goes to the left, than the right trying to 'follow' the Kid.

2.) Doink and Bam Bam Bigelow can also use 1-2-3 Kid's special. They will change color while doing it but nonetheless do the Kid's special.

3.) THis one I am a bit fuzzy on. Go into a survivor series match. Beat someone up and pin them. At teh last moment before pinning them, change control so the CPU is pinning them and get in the ring. The ref will count three and as he does so, switch back. You may not move (normally, you'd automatically take a few steps back to get ready for the next part of the match). RUn and drop kick your opponent. You can keep attacking him / her BUT do not grapple as your opponent will always win. You also won't be able to pin your opponent but CAN make them submit using Bret's or Owen's sharpshooter. The CPU will be 'defenseless' presuming you never grapple.

4.) Go into at least a tag team match with Diesel / Bam Bam Bigelow and Yokozuna. Have Diesel use his special pin on your opponent. While doing this, have Yokozuna do his special. Your opponent can no longer get up, and you may no longer pin your opponent. You have to restart the match.

5.) Go into a tag team match. Get outside. Have one of you grapple an opponent. then, have the other one pick up a chair and jab your opponent. The opponent will be fre from the grapple, but the other person will not. He / She may continue the grapple and win it at any time, even if the opponent is in mid-grapple with the other person. If this happens, it breaks the grapple and does the move on your opponent (I think, been a while). If the other person wins the grapple and does a move, then you do a move, your opponent will stop the animation of the previous move and instead get hit with the other hold. If the opponent is on the mat and you do the move, then the opponent will go through the animation of getting hit by the move. If you do the move while Bret or owen has a sharpshooter on the opponent, the game will crash.

--Ultima VIII--
1.) Grab a slew of flasks. Go to the part of town where there is a fountain or whatever. Light the flasks, and then jump. The game will crash after trying to have you drown / get blown up.

2.) Go into a shop. Sleep until night. You may now grab all the items. I don't believe you can sell them back but you can take as much as you can carry (and throw the rest into a nearby river / pond / fountain / whatever it is).

3.) Not a bug but kinda neat. You can do 'chain explosions'. that is, put an exploding gem at one place, then put another one nearby that when it explodes, one of it's fragments (that will explode as well) will ignite the first gem, etc. You can then say, place them strategically all over the library, set off the one from the entrance and blow everything away. even neater is the CPU is SMART enough to know that you were the one to do that IF you are still near the scene (if you light it and run off, then nothing happens to you but everythign else is still b\low away).

4.) Go for the guardian or whatever he / it is called. Attack him. He'll get pissed and continually start up the animation as if to use a spell (but won't go through with it).

-- Zelda: Link's Awakening--

1.) This has already been told but the moment you are about to go from one screen to another, you can press select to warp to the end of the next screen. This means you can skip over areas, or see other areas. Furthermore, you CAN get the four (at least I think there were four) 'mis-instruments' as certain dungeons have a glitched boss buried in the dungeon. Also, you CAN get more than twenty hearts but by doing so, your game will continually beep AND you can't use the shooting part of the master sword.

--Avatar: Wake of the Ravager--

This game is so messed up that I can't possibly remember all the bugs and breaking points. You could find people and talk to them and get to apoint where they have no dialogue (meaning you can't continue) or get to the mines and get out only to click the 'exit part' to get some sort of error stopping you from continuing (something I just LOVED after going 3/4ths of the way into the game TWICE). there was also other things like making insanely powerful pre-generated characters with tons of expensive armor to sell, continually flattering a princess to gain experience, or continually blackmailing someone for gold to get millions of gold because they forgot to actually end the dialogue.


--Final Fantasy VI--
These were already mentioned but...

1.) One of the most well known glitches. Go with Relm to the overworld near the opera house in the World of Ruin. When you get in a battle, keep trying to sketch. The game may glitch with you getting weird things like a.) having General Leo in your party and perhaps Kefka and b.) your inventory will get all messed up with you having things like tons of Excalibers. Be forewarned this COULD cause your game to crash and/or your saves to be lost.

2.) When your group is on a raft with Baron and company, put a rubber band on the A button and leave your system on overnight. Your party will be suped up because they will keep going in a circle and keep on fighting (with Baron continually healing each turn).


--Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest--
This game is just too easy to need exploits but...

1.) Go to a town and open it's chests. Leave. Go back. You can get them again.

2.) Cast heal or cure or whatever it is on the final boss. After casting it twice, you will beat the game.

--Fire Pro Wrestling Returns--
1.) Select a match where you can go outside (and not get hurt). Also select a ring that has a ramp. You may go outside onto the ramp but as long as you are rightup against the ropes, you can not be counted out.

--Final Fantasy Tactics--
1.) Get two handed skilled. Put a powerful weapon in the left hand and something weak (like a weak shield) in the right. Do Best Fit and say yes, You just duped the item in the left hand.

2.) Not sure if this is a exploit or strategy,. Build your character up to level 99. Jump on a level down trap. Do it and get back to level 1. Rebuild your character. The stats will be significantly better.


--Final Fantasy IV--
1.) Been a while since doing this. Equip the item you want to dupe into your left or right hand. Go into battle. Go to the item menu, select an empty slot, hold up until it shows the items you have equipped, unequip the item, then get out of the menu by pushing L and R. Go back to the item menu, reequip your item, then unequip it. It has now been duped.

FELIPE NO

When I was younger I did this often. But I think the only actual game glitch I ever exploited was with Pokemon Red Version, in which you could fight a glitch monster, talk to a man, and receive 99 master balls. Oh boy did I exploit it. Of course, being young that just meant more fun I could have.

But other than that, at least what I can remember, the only other method I used was either gamesharks or codegenies. My brother would often chastise me for using them even though he used them when he was younger. I guess it doesn't sink in as an experience altering effect until you age a little.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by mortis

One of the most well known glitches. Go with Relm to the overworld near the opera house in the World of Ruin. When you get in a battle, keep trying to sketch. The game may glitch with you getting weird things like a.) having General Leo in your party and perhaps Kefka and b.) your inventory will get all messed up with you having things like tons of Excalibers. Be forewarned this COULD cause your game to crash and/or your saves to be lost.

Sketch bug only works with selected ROMS.

Originally Posted by mortis

When your group is on a raft with Baron and company, put a rubber band on the A button and leave your system on overnight. Your party will be suped up because they will keep going in a circle and keep on fighting (with Baron continually healing each turn).

This may give you a short-term boost, but your characters will be much weaker than a party that levels up using good stat-boost Espers

I wonder if anyone who played Secret of Mana has NOT tried chain-casting spells on bosses

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I remember using bugs in games when I was young, specifically using stuff in mario kart. The ones I remember the most(cause I used them just recently) are the ones in Mario Kart 64. Specifically the jumping through the map on Donkey Kong's stage, and finishing the stage in less than a minute(which would be a glitch/bug) and just plain being mean and cutting half the rainbow road off.

Though, these days since my job is to actually look for these problems, if I find them while I'm playing games at home and I have a means to deliver a bug report to the developers I usually send one off incase they can make an update.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Zergrinch

Sketch bug only works with selected ROMS.

This may give you a short-term boost, but your characters will be much weaker than a party that levels up using good stat-boost Espers

I wonder if anyone who played Secret of Mana has NOT tried chain-casting spells on bosses

You mean certain game versions (it worked on my game just fine but I have heard others don't work. Same with Zelda:LA).

Mario Kart had a nice glitch.

*On the 5th race of Mushroom cup, when you are approaching the thing that lets you jump in the air over part of the race track, place a banana peel between the fourth and fifth 'rungs'. The computer will not only slip and miss the jump but miss all over jumps afterwards. Hence, in theory, you could all computer opponents to miss the jump indefinitely if you have enough banana peels.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Different ROMS are different game versions.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

A ROM image, or simply ROM, is a computer file which contains a copy of the data from a read-only memory chip, often from a video game cartridge

Originally Posted by Final Fantasy Wiki

This bug only occurs on ROMS and in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System version 1.0 of the game (A later version, 1.1, was released without the bug). It does not appear at all in the Anthology re-release or the Advance port.

Certain ROM images available for download were made from the version with the bug, and thus, both hard copies and web images have it.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

True. I'm not sure why I went into the 'different game versions'. I guess I was trying to say that it's actually the games themselves (which are then dumped or whatever) but it's the same thing I guess.

Another

WWF Raw
* In the Royal Rumble match, have two human players. Have each on opposing sides of the ring. When a computer person gets in, grapple adn throw him to your partner who can immediately throw him / her out. Repeat until only you two are left.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Although bug exploits are a lot of fun. It does eat up a lot of time, and I get tired or bored looking for them. So if I encounter one, I try it out, but don't really use it throughout the game. It's cheating. And cheating is a big no-no in my gamer bible. (well, unless I finished the game on the first playthrough).

I remember the FFVII glitch where you need to pop open the disc cover after casting Regen and you can just wait until your HP is full without being attacked.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Vemp

Although bug exploits are a lot of fun. It does eat up a lot of time, and I get tired or bored looking for them. So if I encounter one, I try it out, but don't really use it throughout the game. It's cheating. And cheating is a big no-no in my gamer bible. (well, unless I finished the game on the first playthrough).

I remember the FFVII glitch where you need to pop open the disc cover after casting Regen and you can just wait until your HP is full without being attacked.

The glitch where you can duplicate items using the two items materia thingy and thereby give yourself 99 megaelixers was much more effective...

FELIPE NO

The most challenge sapping feature I can think of has to be the Shield Rod + Alucard Shield combo from Symphony of the Night. For a negligible amount of magic, you're free to cast a spell over yourself that turns your shield into a battering ram, doing extra high damage that rapidly repeats just by putting up your shield and running over any enemy, and any time you hit anything while active, you regain small portions of hp back making you virtually invincible. It makes the inverted castle and Dracula a complete joke.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I never really used that combo as with the Crissaegrim (However the fuck you spell it) you could keep a wall of attacks in front of you whilst moving just by tapping the attack button. It doesn't heal you but you don't have to get quite so close to things to kill them and your other hand is still free for a shield if you want. It also made every boss fight laughably easy.

Jam it back in, in the dark.