I've always hated it when, in a horror game, you play as some timid little girl (OR boy) who can't attack without getting herself hurt. Rule of Rose is so bad about this. I don't usually play horror games (I have some friends who are obsessed with them), because they tend to all have the same flaws.

It's irritating when a character starts limping when their health gets low, but it's so hard to heal yourself that you end up limping from one part of the game world to the other. I really do not mind when a character limps at low health, it adds a bit of realism, I guess, and it's got a bit of strategic challenge to it, but it's just unfair to put me in a difficult boss battle that is only difficult because one, my character's attacks are so timid and her range so pathetic, two, the boss's attacks are so strong and his range so incredible, and three, the collision detection is wonky so I get hit by a knife that's on the other side of the screen, and then PUNISH me for being at low health and not allow me to heal. If you want me to go gimpy when I'm really hurt, then let the character regenerate health, or at the very least give me some healing spell I can toss out. (This ended up being one big Rule of Rose bashing.)

I also dislike jumping puzzles. They're always difficult for idiotic reasons, they're always longer than they should be, and they almost never make sense. Oh, and they're always, ALWAYS suspended over bottomless pits or insta-kill falls. Wh...Why would you do that? Why not just let me fall, take a bit of damage, and climb back up and try again? I have to do the whole thing again either way, so why take a life from me if I screw up? I always did IceMan's stage LAST because of the stupid jumping garbage in his stage.

And then there are time limits. I don't mind time limits if they're so long as to not be intrusive (Impossible Mission's eight hours), or if they make sense to some situation (escaping an island or castle because it's going to blow up), but every other time they're just irritating. And it's because of this - time limits foster sloppy gameplay. Temple of the Ocean King (from Phantom Hourglass) can go die in a fire.

Underwater levels, because they're just glorified time limits. I don't want to spend all my time swimming through this wondrous unknown world staring at an oxygen meter. Let me put on scuba gear or let me breathe forever. Or just don't send me through a freaking underwater level. And please don't design any dungeon-wide water level puzzles.

That's probably enough for now. I'll be back later with some more, I'm sure.