Tiny, insignificant details in games that really bother you

hanselthecaretaker

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Sound propagation interacting with AI in video games needs serious work. I'm prowling through a high-rise apartment building in 7 Days to Die, and fire a suppressed MP5 in a bedroom. The sleeping zombie across the room doesn't hear it- but the active zombie four floors down and outside gets aggroed by it.
But did you ever stop think that maybe he was just dead tired?

I know, I know…that was terrible.
 

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After beating Dawn Of The Monsters, this extends to a lot of the new wave of retro brawlers coming out. Can you all stop with the ReUse bosses or a boss roast in either the next to last age or the last stage when fighting a boss? I know a lot of you are throwbacks the Streets of Rage and other brothers that did this, but that was designed choice due to limitations on hardware. Stop doing it for "traditional" reasons. It's beyond annoying and old gameplay trope. Even Streets of Rage 4 suffers from this, but it was a case of budgeting and time constraints. Though even they put it to good use at least in the survival mode where the alternate color looks, bosses and mini bosses have different perks and speeds.
 

Specter Von Baren

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The Japanese way of addressing people gets annoying sometimes when a story takes place in Japan. Having different characters refer to someone by their first or last name is hard to keep up with when you're just starting a story. It's not something you really think about but having Mr. or Mrs. before saying someone's last name makes a HUGE difference for being able to tell who's being talked about for us in English speaking countries.
 
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Meximagician

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Speaking of Japanese to English translations, the way some productions insist on having English voice actors directed by Japanese voice directors.

Yakuza 3 was probably the first time I've heard how bad that can end up, but I'm sure there's plenty of other examples. I've even heard people mention it about Final Fantasy Remake, especially with side quest characters.

Also, while I'm here: I love the fantasy trope of a village/city/kingdom/etc built on the back of a gigantic creature, but so few game versions of this do anything interesting with it. You'd think living on a giant would mean dealing with regular tremors as the foundations of your city merrily stomps about foraging for food, or the bob and sway that accompanies each step (even turtle shells bob up and down as they crawl).

Come to think of it, the same thing happens on seafaring ships in games, the waters are perfectly still unless in a storm. But at least then there's someone who is seasick.

I get that doing something like this would be hard:

But just adding a little motion to long hair and other physics-driven objects shouldn't be.
 

Specter Von Baren

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Speaking of Japanese to English translations, the way some productions insist on having English voice actors directed by Japanese voice directors.

Yakuza 3 was probably the first time I've heard how bad that can end up, but I'm sure there's plenty of other examples. I've even heard people mention it about Final Fantasy Remake, especially with side quest characters.

Also, while I'm here: I love the fantasy trope of a village/city/kingdom/etc built on the back of a gigantic creature, but so few game versions of this do anything interesting with it. You'd think living on a giant would mean dealing with regular tremors as the foundations of your city merrily stomps about foraging for food, or the bob and sway that accompanies each step (even turtle shells bob up and down as they crawl).

Come to think of it, the same thing happens on seafaring ships in games, the waters are perfectly still unless in a storm. But at least then there's someone who is seasick.

I get that doing something like this would be hard:

But just adding a little motion to long hair and other physics-driven objects shouldn't be.
Little Nightmares did a really good job of this. It takes a long time before you get visual confirmation that you are on a ship but before that most people figure it out because of the swaying of ship and objects on board. A very good detail.
 
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The Double Dragon & Kuni-Kun Collection has achievements, but they don't stack. DDII has achievements for beating easy, normal, and hard mode. I played and beat the game on Supreme Master (Hard), and it does not give me the achievement for Practice and Warrior. So I have to play them individually to unlock the achievements. Not worth the effort.

I am a little sad they did not use the original concept for the Marionettes in DMC1. They were going to be more zombie like and not made of wood. They still have a zombie gait to them in the final version, but the original concept works so much better and makes them creepier. I know they did not want to ape too much from Resident Evil and Onimusha, but I highly doubt anyone was gonna complain.

ZombieMarionettes.jpg
 
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Meatpuppets are always a better choice than another round of zombies again.
Marionettes bleeding while entirely made of wood does not make any sense. The original idea had them made out of flesh. In fact with a lot of early concept art, the drawings (you can find them in the vault for the HD collection) implied the zombie marionettes were humans killed and became possessed by demons. Further implication being that it was the humans who lived on Mallet Island or anyone unfortunate enough to visit the damn place. There is even one piece of artwork that shows the "Marionettes" are human corpses hanging from nooses around their neck. All of that alone is way more interesting than demon spirits possessing man sized wooden puppets. Too mundane and boring by comparison.
 
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Asita

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Ok, so in all fairness this comes from a fan-made mod that is evidently still in development, so it's only fair to give it some leeway. Regardless, this just popped into my feed, and just give it a watch, it's less than a minute long:


Did you see it? Look again, starting around 0:14. Still nothing? Maybe this will help:


Where's the ocean spray? That monster should be displacing a LOT of water when it lands, but the ocean is positively placid! No waves, no spray, no mist! It draws attention to the artificiality of the world, looking very much like the thing is coming from and returning to an empty space beyond the horizon line rather than from the depths of the ocean. Consequentially, it messes with the sense of perspective and makes the thing feel several orders of magnitude larger than it actually should. Doing some digging, the thing is basically supposed to be on scale with the skeleton in the lost river (accounting for the fact that that in-game estimates put that skeleton at 1/3 of the creature's length). Which is enormous, don't get me wrong. It's a size that could literally fit the Cyclops in its mouth. But with our sense of perspective thrown off like that, it looks less like it's the size of the gargantuan skeleton and more like "Literally Jormangandr. Is the planet even big enough to fit that thing???"
 
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Specter Von Baren

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Marionettes bleeding while entirely made of wood does not make any sense. The original idea had them made out of flesh. In fact with a lot of early concept art, the drawings (you can find them in the vault for the HD collection) implied the zombie marionettes were humans killed and became possessed by demons. Further implication being that it was the humans who lived on Mallet Island or anyone unfortunate enough to visit the damn place. There is even one piece of artwork that shows the "Marionettes" are human corpses hanging from nooses are their neck. All of that alone is way more interesting than demon spirits possessing man sized wooden puppets. Too mundane and boring by comparison.
I always assumed that because they're demonic that them bleeding is perfectly logical. I thought it was creepier to have something entirely made of wood inexplicably bleed when it was attacked.
 

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I always assumed that because they're demonic that them bleeding is perfectly logical. I thought it was creepier to have something entirely made of wood inexplicably bleed when it was attacked.
I assumed the same, but when I played the game for the first time back in 2001 when I was 12, I laughed. My brother and our friends all laughed. We didn't see it as creepy, but completely goofy. Don't get me wrong, there were other creatures that actually freaked us out, but the marionettes were not one of them. Hence, why I prefer the original concept for the marionettes.
 
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Specter Von Baren

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I assumed the same, but when I played the the game for the first time back in 2001 when I was 12, I laughed. My brother and our friends all laughed. We didn't see it creepy, but completely goofy. Don't get me wrong, there were others creatures that actually freaked us out, but the marionettes was not one of them. Hence, why I prefer the original concept for the marionettes.
Demon physics seem to work on different principles from that of the human world. Like how Dante doesn't seem to have vital points on his body but is instead more like a walking slab of meat, which is why he can survive being impaled by giant swords and even pull himself through them and not lose anything important. (Yes I know most of that is down to hardware and budget restrictions but I like my headcanon better) I always found the demons in DMC some of the most fun and interesting in how they straddle the line between being actual living beings but also having clear supernatural aspects to them.
 

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(Yes I know most of that is down to hardware and budget restrictions but I like my headcanon better
The hardware definitely could have handled walking corpses. I do know Capcom was short on development, and Sony was not helping. The PS2 was hard to program for; especially early on. Capcom asked several times, and Sony arrogantly said no. Douchebags.

I always found the demons in DMC some of the most fun and interesting in how they straddle the line between being actual living beings but also having clear supernatural aspects to them.
Indeed.
 
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Specter Von Baren

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(Mini-rant) It's like, so many stories over the last decade or so have been trending towards having demons that are just a "race" of people, like they're elves or dwarves or something and that's so freaking boring. I think the most insulting one was from 'So I'm a Spider, So What?', just before I dropped the series we got to find out what the demon people are like and they were just humans with much longer lifespans and lower reproduction rate, didn't even have freaking horns. Lame.
 

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(Mini-rant) It's like, so many stories over the last decade or so have been trending towards having demons that are just a "race" of people, like they're elves or dwarves or something and that's so freaking boring. I think the most insulting one was from 'So I'm a Spider, So What?', just before I dropped the series we got to find out what the demon people are like and they were just humans with much longer lifespans and lower reproduction rate, didn't even have freaking horns. Lame.
If you're gonna make them a race, they should at least get some development as to their culture or something and not just "funny looking people".
 
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BrawlMan

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(Mini-rant) It's like, so many stories over the last decade or so have been trending towards having demons that are just a "race" of people, like they're elves or dwarves or something and that's so freaking boring. I think the most insulting one was from 'So I'm a Spider, So What?', just before I dropped the series we got to find out what the demon people are like and they were just humans with much longer lifespans and lower reproduction rate, didn't even have freaking horns. Lame.
I assume you're referring to anime and anime inspired games. I can't speak for all of this, but I can only assume that demons have been seen so much in different media that they become normalized in certain ways. Of course, you know the trope of our demons are different. There have been so many interpretations, that anything goes at this point. You got to keep in mind that when DMC1 came out, most demons are still seen as otherworldly, "evil", or just a plain bad guys most of the time. With little gray areas in between. Time changes of course. Even Western media is getting on in this. Though at least they bother to keep their demons distinct looking, though they too run into the trap of getting boring or generic designs. No different from what happens on the far East side.

Some my favorite depictions of demons are in Yu Yu Hakusho and Shadows of the Damned. The former reveals demons from all walks of life the further you get into the series, and points out that not all are bad nor human hating. Though of course, most demons actually look like demons. Even the humanoid ones had pointy type ears or certain types of eyes that made them distinct. Of course, you have ones that could pass off as humans, or disguise themselves a human, so it fits. The latter title treated demons more as a job title than a race. Johnson identified as an ex-demon, despite still being one.
 
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Specter Von Baren

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I assume you're referring to anime and anime inspired games. I can't speak for this, but I can only assume that demons have been seen so much in different media that they become normalized in certain ways. Of course, you know the trope of our demons are different. There have been so many interpretations, that anything goes at this point. You got to keep in mind that when DMC one came out, most demons are still seen as otherworldly, "evil", or just a plain bad guys most of the time. With little gray areas in between. Time changes of course. Even Western media is getting on in this. Though at least they bother to keep their demons distinct looking, though they too run into the trap of getting boring or generic designs. No different from what happens on the far East side.

Some my favorite depictions of demons are in Yu Yu Hakusho and Shadows of the Damned. The former reveals demons from all walks of life of her do you get into the series, and points out that not all are bad nor human hating. Though of course, most demons actually look like demons. Even the humanoid ones had pointy type ears or certain types of eyes that made them distinct. Of course, you have ones that could pass off as humans, or disguise themselves a human, so it fit. The latter treated demons more as a job title than a race. Johnson identified as an ex-demon, the site still being one.
Yeah. But my gripe is more with how far its gone and not just demons, but other fantastical beings. I understand why it's done in most cases, people are trying to humanize things, make sentient people's more relatable but this goes too far when the way one makes a people more relatable is to make them almost indistinguishable from you.

It is my belief that truly admirable empathy comes not from seeing someone as just like yourself but seeing that just because they are different doesn't mean they are bad or wrong. It's far more powerful to see people overcome large differences than it is to see petty squabbling over trivial things, I see enough of that in real life.
 

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Been playing Jedi: Fallen Order lately, and for the most part I rather like it. But there's one thing that is really bugging me. When you first arrive in Kashyyyk, you help the local insurgents overrun an Imperial base. And the result is a hellish nightmare. The trees are burning, there's wreckage and bodies everywhere, the surviving insurgents are licking their wounds, the FPS drops off because of all the particle effects from the smoke...you get the idea. Circumstances later require that you leave the planet and come back some time later. Per usual for Star Wars, it's difficult to say how much time passed between visits, but contextual clues (such as certain parties becoming demoralized and packing up) suggest it was probably in the weeks to months range.

Here's what bugs me. Second visit, I run around the landing area, happy to see that they had stopped the fires, as that kind of thing is a corner I'm a little too used to seeing devs cut. I turn a corner, and what do I find? While the fires had been quenched and wrecked flier moved/scrapped, the scrap that used to be the imperial troop transport was still untouched and the dozen or so stormtrooper bodies that had been littering the area were still on the ground where they fell. And it's the bodies that bug me. I don't care whether it was the Imps or the Insurgents, it strains credulity to think that disposing of those corpses would be a reasonably high priority after the fires for reasons of sanitation, health, and smell. So to leave them out in the sun for what appears to be weeks? Ugh...it's entirely fridge logic, but it's so frustrating.
 
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