LogFAQs > #986057605

-I love the way OoT sets up the Temple of Time. The entrance exit to it is laid out in such a way that you will likely notice it and go exploring that way long before it becomes plot significant. When you head into the courtyard, the music of the Market dies away, emphasizing the solemnity of the place. When Link actually goes to the screen directly in front of it, the camera doesn't follow him, instead staying distant so that the focus remains on the building itself. The mystical chanting inside and the grand-yet-austere architecture gives a strong sense of mystery. This all does an absolutely fantastic job of making this place seem noteworthy and important in a player's mind, and it does it all without a single letter of dialogue. It's amazing foreshadowing for what is to come.

-Similarly, I love the way Chrono Trigger allows you access to the final boss really early in the game. Curiosity will almost certainly make you try it at least once, and you'll get your ass kicked and see the bad end. This not only makes Lavos seem terrifying and imposing, but really drives home what's at stake.

-I love the way that Trails games will flash up a warning that says something along the lines of, "Warning, going any further will advance the story. Proceed?". One of my biggest frustration in games is when you're busy exploring an area looking for treasure/sidequests/whatever miscellaneous collectable the game has tasked you with finding, only to unintentionally trigger a story advancement by going in a random building and now you can't go back and explore the rest of the area. Trails straight up flagging its areas/NPCs with a "If you go here/talk to this guy, you're moving forward. You good with that, champ?" warning is such a huge-yet-simple QoL improvement, I'm amazed no one else thought of it before and that it hasn't spread.

-I love Super Metroid's organic storytelling. In particular, I love when you defeat Ridley, go into the next room, and see the shattered remains of the Baby Metroid's container. It's such a little thing, yet so insanely ominous.

-I love a really clever thing they do at the very end of Baten Kaitos Origins. In the Baten Kaitos games, you - the player - are a part of the story, as you are a spirit that speaks to the main character through their heart. They will sometimes ask you for advice or an opinion on something. In the last dungeon, the main character that you're controlling, Sagi, gets trapped in a device that is meant to seal away a person's heart. He shouts out to you and you're given the standard dialogue box for a reply... but when you try to trick a response, you just get an error sound-effect as though you picked an invalid option. You literally can't respond, because you're being separated from him. It's an incredible use of game UI to further the story.

-I love PSO's aesthetic in general, but I love that it actually has an in-game alphabet and you can read a bunch of the advertisements and other scripts in the game.