Game Tutorials That Teach You The Wrong Way To Play

21 July 2025

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game-tutorials-that-teach-you-the-wrong-way-to-play — Game Tutorials That Teach You The Wrong Way To Play

Tutorials are supposed to help you, right? They ease you into a game’s systems and give you a fighting chance before things get tough. But sometimes, they do the opposite. Whether they’re too rigid or just plain misleading, some tutorials set you up to fail the moment you step into the real game.

Red Dead Redemption 2, Grand Theft Auto 5 and Skyrim.

Sometimes it’s better if you just go off on your own and make your own adventures.

I’ve fallen into these traps more times than I’d like to admit, spending hours mastering mechanics that barely matter or ignoring strategies that turn out to be essential. Here are a few tutorials that teach you all the wrong lessons right from the start.

10 The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild

Overpreparing In The Plateau

ESRB: E for Everyone: Fantasy Violence, Use of Alcohol, Mild Suggestive Themes
Developer(s): Nintendo EPD
Publisher(s): Nintendo
Engine: Havok
Platform(s): Nintendo Wii U, Switch
OpenCritic Rating: Mighty
How Long To Beat: 50 Hours

The Great Plateau teaches you to gather everything, cook obsessively, and stockpile weapons like they’re sacred relics. I spent hours stacking meals and saving swords for a “real fight” that never came. Outside the Plateau, you realize the game is all about improvisation.

Weapons break constantly, and resources are everywhere. The tutorial made me overly cautious. The actual game wanted me to throw a soup ladle at a Moblin and run. You should play BotW this way.

Trusting Stealth Over Chaos

Metal Gear Solid 5 The Phantom Pain

Released: September 1, 2015

The opening hospital escape is a slow, cinematic crawl that suggests stealth is the only way forward. I tiptoed through Afghanistan for hours before realizing this game actually loves chaos. Once you unlock tools like the Fulton or airstrikes, everything changes. Stealth is still useful, but it’s hardly required.

The Phantom Pain’s tutorial sets a serious tone that doesn’t match the wild sandbox the game becomes. I learned to let go, start launching sheep into the sky, and get into trouble more frequently.

8 Final Fantasy 13

Press Auto-Battle and Win

For the first ten hours, the game teaches you to press Auto-Battle and coast through flashy fights. I kept wondering if I was missing something. Turns out I was. The real depth kicks in much later, but by then, most players have checked out.

The Duchess, a Balatro Joker, and Father Nier in a three part split image.

7 Monster Hunter: World

Mashing Buttons Works (It Doesn’t)

I went in Monster Hunter: World swinging wildly, thanks to the early missions that let you mash your way through weaker monsters. The tutorial never explained things like hit zones or stamina management in a way that stuck.

I thought I was doing fine until I hit Anjanath and got absolutely wrecked. The game opens up once you learn the rhythm of the weapons, but that first impression teaches bad habits that take real effort to unlearn.

Fun fact: a lot of players leave the game after failing to beat Anjanath.

6 Elden Ring

Just Keep Walking

Technically, there is a tutorial in Elden Ring. It’s down a pit that many players, myself included, miss entirely. The game never forces you into it, and the entrance looks like a death trap.

I walked right past it and fumbled through the first five hours blind. Even if you find it, the tutorial covers only the bare minimum — how to attack, defend, parry, and not much else. For a game that demands so much of the player, it starts by telling you almost nothing.

5 Skyrim

Follow The Main Quest

Skyrim

Released: November 11, 2011

ESRB: M for Mature: Use of Alcohol, Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes
Developer(s): Bethesda
Publisher(s): Bethesda
Engine: Creation
Franchise: The Elder Scrolls
Platform(s): PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox One X, Xbox Series S, PS4, PS5, Switch
OpenCritic Rating: Strong
How Long To Beat: 26 Hours

Helgen teaches you to stick close to your guide and head straight to Riverwood. I did that, then went to Whiterun, and then got bored. Skyrim actually shines when you ignore the main quest entirely.

Game art from Baldur's Gate, Metal Gear Solid, Destiny and Borderlands.

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The tutorial pushes a linear structure, but the game thrives on exploration, chaos, and strange side stories. I had way more fun stumbling into vampire dens and Daedric cults than I ever did chasing dragons for the Greybeards.

4 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Parry Everything

ESRB: M for Mature: Use of Alcohol, Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content
Developer(s): CD Projekt Red
Publisher(s): CD Projekt Red
Engine: REDengine 3
Cross-Platform Play: yes
Cross Save: yes
Expansions: The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone, The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine
Franchise: The Witcher
Steam Deck Compatibility: verified
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
OpenCritic Rating: Mighty
How Long To Beat: 52 Hours
X|S Optimized: yes
PS Plus Availability: Extra & Premium
Metascore: 94

The tutorial duels at Kaer Morhen practically force you to parry and roll like you are playing a fencing simulator. That works against slow trainees, but out in the wild, enemies play dirty. You need bombs, oils, and well-timed dodges.

I spent hours trying to perfect my parries, only to get wiped out by a Nekker swarm. Eventually, I realized Geralt is more of a dirty fighter than a knight. The tutorial just forgot to mention it.

3 Hollow Knight

Just Keep Moving

Hollow Knight

Released: February 24, 2017

ESRB: E10+ for Everyone 10+: Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood
Developer(s): Team Cherry
Publisher(s): Team Cherry
Engine: Unity
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, macOS, Linux
OpenCritic Rating: Mighty
How Long To Beat: 27 Hours

The early part of Hollow Knight gives you a basic sword and sends you right. I thought it was a standard action platformer. What I got was a sprawling labyrinth full of secrets, story fragments, and optional upgrades that change everything.

The tutorial never hinted at the scope of the world or how much backtracking would matter. I missed entire areas for hours just because I thought I was supposed to keep going forward, not explore.

2 Assassin’s Creed 3

Play By The Rules

Assassin’s Creed III

Released: October 30, 2012

ESRB: M for Mature: Blood, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Strong Language
Developer(s): Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher(s): Ubisoft
Engine: anvilnext, havok
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Wii U, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Stadia
How Long To Beat: 17 Hours
How Long To Beat (Completionist Runs): 55 Hours

Assassin’s Creed 3 spends several hours teaching you how to play as Haytham, setting up rules and systems that vanish the second Connor takes over. All that time spent mastering stealth and social blending? Mostly optional after the intro.

I kept trying to play like an assassin, but the game clearly wanted me to brawl through British soldiers with an axe. The tutorial makes promises the rest of the game doesn’t keep, and it shows. Not that there wasn’t anything wrong with cutting people with the axe, but why the misleading tutorial?

1 Dark Souls

Shield Up, Walk Slowly

Dark Souls

Released: September 22, 2011

ESRB: M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Violence
Developer(s): From Software
Publisher(s): Namco Bandai
Engine: Havok
Multiplayer: Online Multiplayer
Cross-Platform Play: No, Dark Souls 3 is not cross-platform between PS4 and PC
Cross Save: Dark Souls always save your game data using steam cloud
Franchise: Dark Souls
Steam Deck Compatibility: yes
PC Release Date: August 24, 2012
Platform(s): Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch
OpenCritic Rating: Mighty
How Long To Beat: 100 hours
X|S Optimized: no

Dark Souls’ Undead Asylum teaches you to keep your shield up and react slowly. That helped against the first hollow with a sword, but not much else. The real game rewards aggression and learning enemy patterns through trial and error. I spent hours turtling through fights before realizing that rolling and dodging worked better than hiding.

It felt like the game was saying “be careful” while privately laughing and waiting to punish me anyway. This is the type of macabre welcoming that Dark Souls gives to you.

4:42

Ash Williams (Evil Dead: The Game) standing alongside Akuma (Street Fighter). A poster depicting characters from Crypt of The NecroDancer is overlaid behind them.

Don’t say you have any of these. We won’t believe you.