Tiny, insignificant details in games that really bother you

[BrawlMan]

2. Hopeless boss fights. Fights typically early in the game that you can't win no matter what. I don't mind it if you could win and still end up logically going down so the plot could continue, but if you're going to make me play through a battle I just simply can't win no matter how hard I try or how strong I am at that point it would be better if you just squashed us in a cutscene instead.

Ninja Gaiden Black/Σ and Metal Gear Rising are the only ones I know that gets this right.

Unavoidable Downer endings. There's nothing I hate more than getting invested in a game world and then all the efforts I spent getting the protagonists to the end just ends up coming to nothing or worse, it would've been better if they did nothing at all. It's one thing if a Downer ending is just 1 among of slew of endings but an unavoidable Downer ending just leaves me thinking back on the game like: "Why did I bother?" And the game no matter how good isn't going to picked up again.

I'm of a similar mindset, but I don't mind it if the game hints at it, or does a neat enough twist. IE, The Ninja Warriors series, Killer Is Dead, and Killer 7. That's said, I can never get in to Killer 7 for its gameplay.

To add to downer ending: Getting a downer ending, because you failed to save one random hostage/civilian or you did not get the final weapon.

This means you: Lollipop Chainsaw and No More Heroes 1!

 

[happyninja42]

When a game has you repeatedly fight an antagonist (either the BBEG or a recurring Lancer), and you solidly kick their ass over and over, but they keep just laughing about how pathetic you are. I find it especially annoying if they have the audacity to have them say things like "You think you can beat ME!?" And I'm like "....BIT*H! I've kicked your ass FIVE TIMES NOW!! Stop with the smug elitist shit!"

I mean I can appreciate the "smug, arrogant asshole" trope for a villain, but come on, don't have me constantly use that same smug asshole as a regular punching bag in your game, and expect me to take any of his smug boastings seriously.

 

[CriticalGaming]

When a game has you repeatedly fight an antagonist (either the BBEG or a recurring Lancer), and you solidly kick their ass over and over, but they keep just laughing about how pathetic you are. I find it especially annoying if they have the audacity to have them say things like "You think you can beat ME!?" And I'm like "....BIT*H! I've kicked your ass FIVE TIMES NOW!! Stop with the smug elitist shit!"

I mean I can appreciate the "smug, arrogant asshole" trope for a villain, but come on, don't have me constantly use that same smug asshole as a regular punching bag in your game, and expect me to take any of his smug boastings seriously.

This sounds familiar for some reason

 

[Xprimentyl]

When a game has you repeatedly fight an antagonist (either the BBEG or a recurring Lancer), and you solidly kick their ass over and over, but they keep just laughing about how pathetic you are. I find it especially annoying if they have the audacity to have them say things like "You think you can beat ME!?" And I'm like "....BIT*H! I've kicked your ass FIVE TIMES NOW!! Stop with the smug elitist shit!"

I mean I can appreciate the "smug, arrogant asshole" trope for a villain, but come on, don't have me constantly use that same smug asshole as a regular punching bag in your game, and expect me to take any of his smug boastings seriously.

Slightly tangential, but similar enough in sentiment, when games copy/paste the same bosses to pad their runtime with minimal effort. How many "Wardens" did I fight in Halo 5? Like 30? (<--hyperbole.) Up to that point, while the Halo franchise had had a few boss encounters, they more focused on set-piece encounters with standard mobs that challenged the player's abilities, but come Halo 5, the Warden popped up everywhere as "the boss" in the latter part of the game. I get he's the "head honcho," but fighting something you can't even tell you're damaging multiple times becomes an exercise in patience, less an exercise in skill, and certainly isn't fun.

 

[laggyteabag]

I thought about trying Mass Effect Andromeda, so I booted it up.

You know when you get to a game's main menu, and it says something like "Press any key to continue", or something like that? Well, im most games even if it says something specific like "press space to continue", pressing anything usually works, unless the game is very old.

Not Mass Effect Andromeda, though. Press space, or no dice.

 

[happyninja42]

I thought about trying Mass Effect Andromeda, so I booted it up.

You know when you get to a game's main menu, and it says something like "Press any key to continue", or something like that? Well, im most games even if it says something specific like "press space to continue", pressing anything usually works, unless the game is very old.

Not Mass Effect Andromeda, though. Press space, or no dice.

Huh...I can't recall a game offhand, that specified a key to continue, but then let you press any key. If that's the case, they pretty much always say ANY key.

 

[BrawlMan]

When a game has you repeatedly fight an antagonist (either the BBEG or a recurring Lancer), and you solidly kick their ass over and over, but they keep just laughing about how pathetic you are. I find it especially annoying if they have the audacity to have them say things like "You think you can beat ME!?" And I'm like "....BIT*H! I've kicked your ass FIVE TIMES NOW!! Stop with the smug elitist shit!"

I mean I can appreciate the "smug, arrogant asshole" trope for a villain, but come on, don't have me constantly use that same smug asshole as a regular punching bag in your game, and expect me to take any of his smug boastings seriously.

This can actually work, but it has to be done carefully, and if we're supposed to see them as joke, or jokey, but still threatening at the same time.

Transformers Devastation got this right with Starscream. You only fight him twice in the main campaign, but he's not that much of threat on Normal or Hard (as long as you are properly leveled up). You see this in the character dialogue the first time you fight as none of the Autobots take him seriously and continuously mock him. This works even better if you are wrecking are Starscream's metal shit, and did the fight without getting hit. That said, on Magnus and Prime Difficulty, he can one or two shot you at max level.

Another example is two groups from God Hand. The Three Stooges (Madam Conchita, Bruce, and Felix) [not to be confused with the actual Three Stooges] and the Mad Midget Five. Both groups you only fight twice in the single-player (not counting the challenge missions) and both are joke groups. Now the Stooges are jokes, but still a credible threat. They are the reason Gene has the God Hand in the first place. Bruce and Felix chopped off Gene's arm. The MMF on the other hand are complete jokes....until you're on Lv. Die due to the dynamic difficulty, or you're on Hard mode. Which means you're stuck on Lv. Die entirely. The Stooges are still harder, because the 2nd time, you have to fight all three at once.

​

 

[BrawlMan]

The lack of a score attack mode or boss rush in Ninja Saviors. The original game on SNES/SF had scoring, but the remake has a time attack in place of scoring. Why they removed this beyond me. Keeping scoring and adding a boss rush mode would have added extra replay value. Otherwise, the game does not have much bonuses aside from the co-op (where both players share the same life bar), two new characters, and unlocking the original soundtracks from the SNES and Arcade game.

 

[thebobmaster]

In shooting games that have the bullet impacts visibly show up on a wall, having them vanish too fast for me to spell my three-letter name.

 

[Drathnoxis]

In shooting games that have the bullet impacts visibly show up on a wall, having them vanish too fast for me to spell my three-letter name.

If just the first letter was good enough for Zorro it should be good enough for you.

 

[happyninja42]

When games don't have the dialogue make sense with the context of what's going on. Like a character says "I have a request to ask of you." *Proceeds to tell a long story that boils down to X person took Y thing, but never actually states the request* .....ok? And....what is the request? Do you want me to get revenge on the person who took Y because of what it caused? Do you want me to take Y back? I mean I can infer reasonably well from context, but is it really that difficult to actually ASK the thing you said you wanted to ask me? Because it's a different framing of the objective. If you just want the item back, I might be able to steal it, or negotiate for it back. If you want me to kill the guy, well that changes the landscape quite a bit doesn't it?


Games that have a crafting/gathering system that is so imbalanced based on how long you will likely be playing the game. I've noticed this with the Farcry games most recently, but a lot of gathering/crafting games have this issue. If there is no durability, or some form of resource sink, you just get bloated, as everything is net positive no matter what. But you will quickly find yourself without any need to harvest the hides from these animals you are killing, because you've crafted everything there is to craft with their bits. Selling them is useless, because there isn't anything to actually BUY, except maybe ammo refills, and body armor, but depending on your playstyle, you might not even do that. Harvesting ammo from the dead can easily keep you topped up on all weapons. And if the premise of the game is some kind of collective survival, like Farcry Primal, where it's established I'm not just protecting them from outside threats, I'm also providing them with resources to live, it get's frustrating when I'm sitting on a giant pile of resources, and nothing to do with them.

I wish more games with resource management/economies, had things like taxes/replacement/repairs, to justify the gathering mechanics. Especially if they are set up as a large portion of the game loop. It doesn't even have to be anything huge, but, just something so I'm not actively ignoring valuable resources, because I have no need of them. Perhaps I can continue to contribute skins and meat to the village in Primal, for a buff of some kind. The Blessing of the Wenja. It gives me some stat boosts, equivalent to the various foods/plants I can eat, but it's got a longer duration. Or maybe a unique buff that only comes from donating those resources in large quantities. So giving them up has a benefit, but also might cause me problems if I am not diligent with harvesting more going forward.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Games with backtracking that don't give me a way to mitigate the tedium. I gave up playing La-Mulana 2 because I got completely fed up with how it handles backtracking and power ups. No matter how deep into the game I got, the amount of time and the difficulty dealing with enemies never got any lower. Even getting the whip upgrades with more damage only slightly made things easier, but none of the gear you picked up made traversing the labyrinth that is La-Mulana any easier. And this is a game that has a bigger emphasis on backtracking than any other game I've ever played and it makes you pay for every inch of ground you cover in it just so you can read what's on a tablet.

Compare this to the Metroid franchise where going back for extra stuff is more about figuring out where it's hidden and the upgrades you've gained throughout the game make taking on the enemies in the earlier areas a joke and you get a lot of movement related abilities that make going back easier like a higher jump, speed booster, or ice beam. It's not about time or anything, it's about it just being an unpleasant experience.

 

[happyninja42]

Just went through a recent install purge of old games I clearly wasn't playing, and realized that I hate it when you uninstall games, and they don't auto-remove the desktop icon associated with it.

I have a lot of icons on my desktop, which is one reason this annoys me, as I try and suss out which ones I should manually delete from an uninstall a few months ago. I found one game icon that I had uninstalled from like a year ago, that I just always overlooked. It was tucked down in the corner of my desktop, kind of hidden behind the background textures.

Most tedious, most annoy.

 

[BrawlMan]

Who's the idea was it to make a version of Koobo that can't be hit stunned (outside of a star move & a specific perk), has super armor, and wield Gut's sword? Because that is something that is not needed in nightmare mode for Streets of Rage 4. Also, whoever's idea was it to make it perk where you get all these damage buffs, but can't jump need to be thrown to the river, pronto!

 

[Drathnoxis]

Who's the idea was it to make a version of Koobo that can't be hit stunned (outside of a star move & a specific perk), has super armor, and wield Gut's sword? Because that is something that is not needed in nightmare mode for Streets of Rage 4. Also, whoever's idea was it to make it perk where you get all these damage buffs, but can't jump need to be talking to the river, pronto!

If you are talking about unfair enemies, you need to play Noita first. There is an enemy that has a projectile that makes you almost completely blind for TWENTY SECONDS! In a game where you can go from full health to dead in a second if you aren't careful. There is also an enemy that gives you a status effect that makes you randomly attack and also your attacks can now hurt you. That will usually kill you before you realize what you've been hit with. Then there are the enemies that can polymorph you into a sheep for like 10 seconds so you are slow, can't attack, and can be killed in one hit. Or the enemy with a shield that constantly teleports in other enemies from around the level at a very fast rate so you may not even be able to kill them before they get teleported around if you don't have the dps. And all the enemies that bleed lava, and acid, and toxic sludge, and freezing vapour, and all sorts of really dangerous unpleasant things when you hit them. Or the ones with electric attacks that stunlock you and do a huge amount of damage so you will usually die if they hit you once.

 

[BrawlMan]

If you are talking about unfair enemies, you need to play Noita first. There is an enemy that has a projectile that makes you almost completely blind for TWENTY SECONDS! In a game where you can go from full health to dead in a second if you aren't careful. There is also an enemy that gives you a status effect that makes you randomly attack and also your attacks can now hurt you. That will usually kill you before you realize what you've been hit with. Then there are the enemies that can polymorph you into a sheep for like 10 seconds so you are slow, can't attack, and can be killed in one hit. Or the enemy with a shield that constantly teleports in other enemies from around the level at a very fast rate so you may not even be able to kill them before they get teleported around if you don't have the dps. And all the enemies that bleed lava, and acid, and toxic sludge, and freezing vapour, and all sorts of really dangerous unpleasant things when you hit them. Or the ones with electric attacks that stunlock you and do a huge amount of damage so you will usually die if they hit you once.

I'm already dealing with a brawler rougelite, and I don't need to deal with another. I believe you, but Nightmare mode is already frustrating enough as it is.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Some racing games, such as WRC rally, give you full control of your car before the starter countdown finishes, just so it can gift you a 10 second penalty for crossing the start too early every time you forget to uncondition your brain from the last 3 million racing games you played before. I hate it. But I refuse to turn it off. It will not win.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Some racing games, such as WRC rally, give you full control of your car before the starter countdown finishes, just so it can gift you a 10 second penalty for crossing the start too early every time you forget to uncondition your brain from the last 3 million racing games you played before. I hate it. But I refuse to turn it off. It will not win.

If it's toggle-able, I kinda like the idea, y'know, that you're culpable for your performance from before the race even begins. Adds another layer of realism that you have to watch the countdown and not just lay on the accelerator until released by the greenlight gods holding you in place like I'd deign to say most racing games do.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

If it's toggle-able, I kinda like the idea, y'know, that you're culpable for your performance from before the race even begins. Adds another layer of realism that you have to watch the countdown and not just lay on the accelerator until released by the greenlight gods holding you in place like I'd deign to say most racing games do.

The problem is that a lot of racing games not only allow but actively encourage you to do this by giving you an acceleration boost at the start of the race if you're holding the accelerator within a certain RPM range when the light goes green. And if you've been playing a lot of games like that, switching over to one that penalizes you for the exact same thing that all the other games you played reward you for is made significantly harder.

 

[happyninja42]

Just ran into this with ME: Andromeda. I know it's not the only game guilty of this, but this is the most recent culprit and it felt so wrong I just had to comment.

When a game gets scientific, specifically astronomical stuff wrong. Now, I don't expect much from this department. I'm not going to really give too much of a shit if they mostly handwave away sciencey stuff, because it's science FICTION, and that's fine. But when the game specifically sites an aspect of astronomical phenomenon, to explain a detail of the game.....but they get it completely fucking WRONG....THAT, that irks me.

Specifically, on the planet of Eledeean, it's a desert world (Arrakis...Dune....desert planet....is there a relationship?...yes, it's clearly an homage), but the planet hazard is heat. Why you ask? Because the planet is tidally locked, so the side the colony is on, is always facing the sun. Ok, fine, that IS a thing that eventually happens to planetary bodies that are gravitationally linked. It's exactly what has happened to our moon, which is why we always see the same side of it. But, here's the thing, and, this is literally Astronomy 101 stuff, and I know this because we discussed it IN my Astronomy 101 class. The tidally locked thing, happens between 2 bodies that are directly linked. Our moon is locked to EARTH...not the sun. And eventually, Earth will become tidally locked to the sun, because it's the larger object we are paired with. But what ISN'T going to happen is our moon becoming tidally locked with the sun. Which is what is happening with Eledeean! It's no space station!! It's a MOON! And we know this because you clearly fly toward it's parent planet, before stopping in orbit around it. It's literally in the skybox when you are running around on the map!!

Just...gah! If you are going to actually cite some scientific thing, to explain why you didn't include a day night cycle, GET IT RIGHT!! I find this extra annoying because, there is no day/night cycle on ANY map, so it didn't even really need to be something explained. It's always daytime on Eos, it's always frozen daytime on Voeld, etc.

Blargh, annoying.