Games

Head Over Heels. Somehow I eventually managed to complete it, after much trial and error.

Try Platoon on the NES, you get bombarded by ennemies while you have to find your way through this abomination of a maze!

Just started playing a simple isometric game called Tunic. It's cute, and you play as a little button mashing fox creature with a sword in a language that's gibberish as you find hidden paths in the isometric style. It's frustrating for being so simplistic, because the hidden paths are hidden. I kinda like it so far tho. Just simple, relaxing, chill music, and cute AF artwork.

Beavis & Butthead (SNES/Genesis)

Chrono Trigger had me looking up guides as several points just to find a way to progress.

Control had me wandering around.

Most recently it's Clair Obscur Expedition 33. There's an actual overworld map but you need to get your bearings in area maps and dungeons because there are none. You'll have to use local landmarks to get around, find clues for hidden areas, and the direction you actually need to go. I've spent hours in single areas just getting lost admiring the design and artwork.

Metroid and Legend of Zelda I and II for NES.

This is an extremely specific situation in a game, but...

In World of Warcraft, back in the day, there was a dungeon in Outland, I believe it was Helfire Citadel. It wasn't particularly hard, but if you died, you were screwed. The way dungeon deaths worked was your spirit would spawn in a graveyard out in the regular world, and you would have to run your spirit ass back to the dungeon entrance to respawn. But finding the entrance to Helfire Citadel was so difficult I told the group if they don't rez me, they'd have to just kick me, because I'd never make it back in. It was awful.

I would say many games with procedural generated worlds, like Minecraft, No Man's Sky, etc. Where the main task is deciding where do I go next, where do I settle down, maybe there is some better place over the next hill, next planet, etc.

There are other games, where it is also sometimes not quite clear what to do next. Like games have a lot of progression and rebuilding of stuff that was done before because of it. Like Satisfactory, Factorio, etc.

And on a more literal sense, where you actually redo the game over and over to progress, like The Stanley Parable or Outer Wilds.

Some games have a very labyrinthine level design, where it also isn't really clear what to do next, like Dark Souls, Subnautica, etc.

Or environment puzzles, where you have to figure out how to progress, like the Myst series, Riven, etc.

Abiotic Factor, survival in a facility like Half-Life with crafting, survival and exploration. Really great game and it's pretty hard understanding where to go

Space Quest

For me it's always been Zelda games.

The old text adventures where being able to solve a puzzle required hitting the right words. "Oh, twist, not pull."

Any FF if you set it down for a month or two.

The Outer Worlds is a perfect example of this in the best way possible.

I remember the newes jedi game feeling like this a lot, but it was also effectively immersive that you don't instantly know exactly where to go.

SNES Jurassic Park. NES Fester's Quest

It feels like such a silly example now that I know the game, but tales of symphonia made me give up for about three years before coming back and beating it. There's a section where you're supposed to go to a specific city to progress, but there's a semi-secret long way around that lets you experience a different character's story early. Well, I somehow sucked at following directions and went the semi-secret way, and then couldn't figure out how to get ANYWHERE that let you do anything. I wandered around the same continent for several months (playing a few hours a week) before moving on.

Atari's ET. Game was bugged. Every 80's kid that bought this was disappointed. It is the worst video game in history and all unsold copies were buried in a landfill only to be rediscovered decades later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial_(video_game)

The High Score is a great documentary that actually has the guy that developed it. I think he was high when he developed it which explains a lot.