10 Video Games That Punish You For Exploring
2. Shadow Of The Colossus
Exploring Shadow of the Colossus' rich, mysterious world is an absolute joy, though players who endeavour to reach the game's Secret Garden will find a nasty surprise wanting for them.
To even consider reaching the garden you first need to have your stamina effectively maxed out, which requires beating the game once and then twice more on New Game+.
On your fourth playthrough, you'll now have enough stamina to climb a wall of moss outside the central shrine which will let you reach the Secret Garden.
In the garden you'll see trees bearing bountiful-looking fruit, and though shooting one down and eating it will pop you the "Fruit of the Garden" trophy, it'll also poison you.
While fruit eaten in any other area of the game will slightly boost Wander's maximum health, all the fruit in the Secret Garden is poisonous and will decrease both your health and stamina considerably.
That's... quite the way to de-incentivise exploration in a game with such a lush, expansive world, right?