Current Events > What are some small details or features in games that you just love?

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's something you don't see a lot anymore because they leave your character's look partly or entirely up to you instead, but there was an era where your character would change appearance between levels or at major points in the story and even though it was a simple little thing that had nothing to do with anything, I loved the hell out of it.

Like in Ass Creed II, for example, you change into the assassin outfit after a chapter or two, or in The Last of Us and Yakuza 0, you get different clothes a couple of times in the story.

Unique merchants to find.

ReturnOfDevsman posted...

It's something you don't see a lot anymore because they leave your character's look partly or entirely up to you instead, but there was an era where your character would change appearance between levels or at major points in the story and even though it was a simple little thing that had nothing to do with anything, I loved the hell out of it.

Like in Ass Creed II, for example, you change into the assassin outfit after a chapter or two, or in The Last of Us and Yakuza 0, you get different clothes a couple of times in the story.

Kain does this in Blood Omen 2

New game+

IDK if it's small but I love the extent that developers will go to create a slew of unique assets to bring depth to the background of games.

GTA is a good example, it's rare to encounter a business that doesn't at least have a unique fun name, and usually there are other realistic details to the storefronts. I remember in 4 they had something like over a dozen different dumpster models which sounds dumb but just the idea that they went to that length instead of copying and pasting everything says a lot imo.

It's a small feature but frankly I love it and think all games should do it. I'm not saying they are the first to do it either but they have been consistently doing it for awhile now. In Assassin's Creed games you have your outfit/sword/dagger that you have equipped for perks but you can set your "costume" on any of those so the appearance you see is any outfit/weapon you want.

I wanted this feature so bad on Ghost of Tsushima. All the best perks were on ugly looking outfits and the outfit I wanted most had perks for an archer build I didn't give a shit about. All games should do this. Visually I get exactly what I want, but gameplay wise I get to keep whatever perk on anything I have earned. This is a great thing.

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I remember how Twilight Princess asks if you want to save after every dungeon you complete

Situation-specific dialogue during combat in RPGs

Transmog

God of War stay winning

Addendum: weapons with flavor text.

And I don't mean some mishmashy anime special move crap like "whirling cosmic oppression" or some vaguejerky Soulsborney crap like "silvered severance bribes the boatman 'ere these stygian shores, the currentswept memories dance at the last."

I want a damn paragraph.

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That Soulsborney bit is choice, I agree.

Give me a ridiculous tagline like "Apostate of the Aureate Glaive" and I will be 100% down.

Like when you find Guardian areas in Borderlands games, the atmosphere and architecture gets all weird, and it's named something pretentious as shit like "Dolorous Hegemon's Librarium."

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The first two I found of the style I mean without trying very hard were The Shattered Tribunal and Desolation's Edge.

"That's not what it's cal-"

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ReturnOfDevsman posted...

It's something you don't see a lot anymore because they leave your character's look partly or entirely up to you instead, but there was an era where your character would change appearance between levels or at major points in the story and even though it was a simple little thing that had nothing to do with anything, I loved the hell out of it.

The Force Unleashed did that a few times I think. It was pretty neat.

I am aware that I have zero chill.

MJOLNRVII posted...

The Force Unleashed did that a few times I think. It was pretty neat.

It was a new costume for every level, I believe.

Games that use their mechanics or gui as a meta bit. Like it uses the standard procedure just to pull the wool over your eyes for a joke. First ten seconds here as an example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCk4GFtQX_8

I really like when characters animate to stairs. It's getting better with characters actually stepping on each step now but I like when it actually feels like they're using the stairs. Like the character changes their gait. I know Red Dead Redemption 2 does it pretty great.

Zelda: A Link To The Past, if you get the Pendant from the Eastern Palace before visiting Sahasrahla, he will have slightly different text when you talk to him. Same with Zelda if you beat Turtle Rock before rescuing all six of the other Maidens.

Hexenherz posted...

IDK if it's small but I love the extent that developers will go to create a slew of unique assets to bring depth to the background of games.

GTA is a good example, it's rare to encounter a business that doesn't at least have a unique fun name, and usually there are other realistic details to the storefronts. I remember in 4 they had something like over a dozen different dumpster models which sounds dumb but just the idea that they went to that length instead of copying and pasting everything says a lot imo.

GTA is great with stuff like that. My favorite tiny pointless detail in GTAV is if you go to the college campus and walk on certain paths, you enter a goofy "power walker" walking animation that serves no purpose.

Cutting grass/small trees with swords or axes. If I have a sharp sword and I chop at a small tree or long grass, and it does not cut it I feel so disappointed.

-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.

The spinning nightmare face by the ammo counter in Cruelty Squad.

It's weird at first, but it's actually pretty genius HUD design. It organically draws your eye when ever the ammo count changes.

In addition to that, the gun shots becoming higher pitch the closer you are to an empty magazine.

Getting some kind of upgrade that permanently alters your appearance, so you look more stylish in cutscenes. The first game I knew of to do this was Sonic Adventure 1. Admittedly, it looked ridiculous in SA2 whenever Knuckles was around, since he gets sunglasses on his head, a metal necklace, and big bulky glove attachments. A more subdued example would be the Ezio Assassins Creed games. You could buy leather armor pieces to put on your robes, and II had a gauntlet that added a metal glove to one hand.

When you make some immediate, unambiguously positive change to the environment. Destroying some corrupting thingamabob and seeing the area around it immediately turning back to normal.

Moments where you temporarily become much stronger, but then you hit the endgame and you find some way of keeping that power boost up for pretty much the rest of the game, absolutely steamrolling what would have been a tedious gauntlet.

The classic Kojima trick where you lose all your equipment right before the end and have to fight the final boss/escape with your life with the absolute barest abilities. Ass Creed II is another iconic example.

I want gear that looks fucking awesome, and I want easy ways to swap out that gear by set. I want gear to look the part, but if it's so essential to my build while not fitting my build aesthetically then I want transmog or just vanity gear.

Ghost of Tshushima nailed this.

Oh, and this is a big one for me and I've actually seen few games do it well -

Weapon upgrades should actually look visually different. I want to see new parts on that gun, or rust disappearing from a sword, or new elegant patterns or whatever as I enchant it.

I like it when games numberize collectibles and tracks them for me, so I know which ones I don't have yet.