text-parser adventure game where every single puzzle is solved exclusively via conversation and at the end of the game if you've ever picked up an item you die
(this post inspired by the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy infocom adventure game, where when you get to the very end of the game, it asks you for 3 random items to solve the final puzzle, and if you've ever failed to pick up any item across the duration of the entire game, it automatically picks that item as a requirement, softlocking you)
The Good Old Times where Some Designers actively loathed you.
There were a lot more of these kinds of games than you might expect, Young Reader
