Tiny insignificant details in games that really impressed you

[laggyteabag]

Having played Uncharted 4 again, I was really impressed by one tiny, really insignificant detail.

The winch.

See, in any other game, the winch would just be a button prompt. Walk up to a specified object, press a button, and then BAM! all attached, and ready to go.

In Uncharted 4, though, they put some effort in. Some really pointless effort. You have to actually walk around the tree, and attach the hook. The cable acts like a full physical object, instead of obviously clipping through scenery.

And then when you detach it, and wind it back to the jeep, it actually goes back around the object you tied it around - instead of just teleporting back or something similar.

Its such a pointless detail, but for some reason, I really love it.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Having played Uncharted 4 again, I was really impressed by one tiny, really insignificant detail.

The winch.

See, in any other game, the winch would just be a button prompt. Walk up to a specified object, press a button, and then BAM! all attached, and ready to go.

In Uncharted 4, though, they put some effort in. Some really pointless effort. You have to actually walk around the tree, and attach the hook. The cable acts like a full physical object, instead of obviously clipping through scenery.

And then when you detach it, and wind it back to the jeep, it actually goes back around the object you tied it around - instead of just teleporting back or something similar.

Its such a pointless detail, but for some reason, I really love it.

To me that’s a significant detail. Insignificant would be how Nathan Drake’s chest hair is affected by wind.

The game is actually loaded with details like this, but the fact that they’re included with all the major ones is what makes it so exceptional.

 

[Yoshi]

How even the title screen of Super Mario Maker 2 is a playable Mario Level.

very easy level and completely pointless. but it made me smile.

 

[Worgen]

They did a remake of an old game called Kings Bounty and the remake was really fun but there was this one animation while you were on the field were you would see a squirrel running around one of the trees then it would run across the path to another tree on the other side. It was just this simple cute animation but I really liked it.

 

[BrawlMan]

Resident Evil 3 Remake has tiny details when interacting certain environments with Jill or Carlos. In the very beginning you can "talk" to Dario while he traps himself in the shipping container at the warehouse. He basically tells Jill to fuck off in several ways. Somewhat pointless, but funny. You do get rewarded for it in an unlockable gallery, character model, and reward points so it's not completely pointless. Also, Jill's dialogue will change depending what key items she pick ups first or what notes she read before picking up the items.

Devil May Cry 5's EX Taunts and Bloody Palace taunts. The BP taunts aren't exactly pointless (V's is the most useful) but they were made to show you've beaten BP. The EX taunts give you extra orbs, but they are taunts that have all of the characters do a long winded dance. Funny, but pointless and usually not worth the red orb count. I still love them though. You are also rated how well you do in the credit sequence based on character dialogue for Nero and Dante. Taunting Vergil at S or higher (usually SSS is when it happens) and he will respond upset or embarrassed while retorting something back at you.

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God of War 4 has dialogue changes for certain things. You get additional dialogue from Mimir if you did not open the wooden murals and he can add more insight to certain tales and events. The story he tells while on the boat can be interrupted while docking. When getting back on the boat, he will continue where he left off. I think that explains why GoW4 took 5 years to make. There is even dialogue that changes, if you can figure out a puzzle by yourself without any help in Tier's vault.

 

[Thaluikhain]

SWAT 4, after every time you do anything, you have to radio it in, though sometimes this happens automatically. Found a dead civilian, radio it in, police officer gets killed, radio it in, l shoot a suspect, radio it in. Every time the person you are talking to says "Copy that, sending ambulance" or something, all very cool and professional.

Except for one time when you are dealing with evil cultists. You either just express surprise at what you find at the basement, or you radio it in (this time it happens automatically, and which you do seems random). If you radio it in, the person on the other end starts off with "Errr...copy that", tiny moment of surprise and hesitation, but literally the only time where that person hesitates in the whole game. Brings home that this is not a normal thing going on.

 

[Saelune]

Bethesda is a master at environmental story telling and I always love it when I come across it, though I think it shows more in Fallout than TES. But a weird little thing I liked in Morrowind was a random farmhouse which has gold coins stuck in a wax candle. It means nothing and yet, for me it invokes the idea that perhaps this simple farmer was just bored one night and would take some spare coins and press them into the heated wax in mild amusement.

Also Red Dead Redemption, especially when it rains. The ground turns to mud, and if you look up your screen gets covered in water drops, look down and it goes away. And for a bit after it rains it stays all damp and muddy.

 

[Dalisclock]

Bethesda is a master at environmental story telling and I always love it when I come across it, though I think it shows more in Fallout than TES. But a weird little thing I liked in Morrowind was a random farmhouse which has gold coins stuck in a wax candle. It means nothing and yet, for me it invokes the idea that perhaps this simple farmer was just bored one night and would take some spare coins and press them into the heated wax in mild amusement.

I imagine it was done as a form of safekeeping or emergency fund. Robbers would take any money they could find but it's unlikely they'd bother with your candles nor would they be likely to look there.

 

[Dalisclock]

Sekiro had a bunch of really cool nods to Japan and Japanese culture. The big rope golem thing is a Shimenawa, which is used to ward off evil, and you can see mundane versions on gateways as you approach shrines(but probably didn't notice).

Also, in the Hirata estates and in some other places, you can see stones on the roofs of houses. Those were used to keep the roof tiles from blowing off in storms. It has literally nothing to do with the game at all but it was really cool they included that detail.

There was also a real life Ashina clan that was wiped out by the Tokugawa shogunate(who the Interior Ministry is implied to be in the game) and some of the characters are based off real people.

The fountainhead palace is from a much earlier Heian architectural style, which puts it as significantly older then the rest of the area(like 800-1000 AD as opposed to the 16th century the game takes place in). There's also some evidence the Palace is atop ancient meteor impact crater (Adamantine Scraps hints at this) that later flooded from the Divine Waters flowing down from the Dragon.

 

[Elfgore]

I imagine it was done as a form of safekeeping or emergency fund. Robbers would take any money they could find but it's unlikely they'd bother with your candles nor would they be likely to look there.

Guess that shows kinda how neat it is that such a minor thing can have conflicting ideas on why it happened. Cool stuff! Wish they'd go back to that and not just use skeletons for it.

 

[Pyrian]

In F.E.A.R., if a grenade lands near an AI with a place to run to, it yells "shit!" and runs. But if a grenade lands near an AI and it's backed into a corner with nowhere to run, it mutters "shiiiiiit" and backs as far away as it can.

 

[Chimpzy]

Recent example from Black Mesa. Before you teleport to Xen, the scientists will tell you they'll use the trackers in your hazard suit to keep an eye on you and help you in any way they can. Later, while trekking through Xen, you'll regularly come across pods with health and ammo being teleported in by the science team, lid popping off and flares flying out.

The fun detail is that many of these pods will have notes from the scientists with motivational quotes, usually from famous scientists. These notes are stuck on the outside of the lid that pops off, and because of its shape and the physics in the game, it 9 out of 10 lands with the note facing down toward the ground. So most people will never notice they're there unless they go out of their way to pick up the lid and fiddle with it to turn it around.

 

[BrawlMan]

In F.E.A.R., if a grenade lands near an AI with a place to run to, it yells "shit!" and runs. But if a grenade lands near an AI and it's backed into a corner with nowhere to run, it mutters "shiiiiiit" and backs as far away as it can.

FEAR and Max Payne had some of the best dialouge intereaction for AI that puts many modern games to shame. I love hearing the Replica guys talk.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

In Arkane Studios' Prey, the mimics won't reveal themselves if there is a turret in sight. I used the strategy of placing a turret at the doorway and running around the room proc-ing all the mimics and then lead them to the turret. One room I did that in, I picked up the turret after a job well done, and a mimic jumped me as I walked past the big table in the middle of the room, scared the shit out of me.

 

[Ghostrick Dorklord]

You can be gay in Persona 2 [Innocent Sin]

I thought about it for a while and I realized this doesn't really mean much in the grand scheme of things. You do get another way of talking to demons via flirting in front of them but it doesn't affect the story in any way other than getting a girl jealous. Its really a flavor more than anything.

But there's a few interesting things about this like the fact you can do this in a game from 1999 when Social Links weren't a thing in the series yet. To this day there hasn't been a gay Social Link at all. Also I think it might had been the producer but I know there's a few people who worked on Persona 2 actually consider Tatsuya and Jun to be THE canon couple due to how close they are. Its still one of my favorite details in the series.

 

[Dalisclock]

Guess that shows kinda how neat it is that such a minor thing can have conflicting ideas on why it happened. Cool stuff! Wish they'd go back to that and not just use skeletons for it.

I'm guessing, since I haven't played the game. I also remembered a certain puzzle from the first Broken Sword game which involved finding a key hidden a candle which was meant to be burned in emergencies. Which is cool until you realize it creates a plot hole.

 

[Catfood220]

While playing Persona 5 Royal I noticed that during Hey Fever season you could see the pollen floating around, especially at night when it shows up under the street lights. The game could of just told you that it was Hey Fever season and be done with it, but I did enjoy that little effect.

I also remember playing Dishonoured and talking to the resistance leader bloke (I forget his name) and he smoked a pipe. I remember just watching as the smoke from his pipe wafted around and eventually disappeared over time and really enjoying that little effect too.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Playing the Skaven weapon teams in Total War: Warhammer II they all have neat animations.

Jezzails - given the limits of the engine to animate that many entities, glitching is expected, but the full reload cycle is pretty cool to watch (even though it means nothing) as the shield bearer pops a warpstone shard in, then the ramrod, gives it a few pokes, adjusts the shield and readies for firing while the jezzailer is ranting all the while behind him. It's a lot better than the Empire/Napoleon: Total War default reload animation which is just interminable tamping down with the ramrod (the loose formation Rifles/Jagers' reload animation is even dumber).

Poison Wind Mortars - their idle is pretty funny as the loader accidentally drops the warpstone globe, panics, picks it up then looks around as if to say 'you saw nothing!'

All of this would be rendered utterly hilarious and lore-friendly if there were misfire mechanics in the game.

For the Tomb Kings, I love the charge animations for the Scorpion and Sphinxes. When fighting in the desert (paradoxically, they can do this in all terrain types, so I mention 'desert' as simply being the setting where it makes most sense and looks best), the Tomb Scorpion's attack is so drool-worthy to watch and if you can micromanage them well, they destroy any and all infantry. First, they chitter along, then dive into the ground, burst out of the ground in the middle of the unit then take a swipe with stinger/claw at anything within distance while a lot of the rest of the unit is knocked down. Extricate, rinse and repeat for much manic fun and free damage. The Sphinxes, I like not because they're awesome, but because they're oddly cute/endearing during their charge, especially the Khemrian Warsphinx. They're nicknamed Murder Kitties very aptly and the Warsphinx bounds along like an overenthusiastic kitten playing with a ball of cotton. The Necrosphinx just behaves like a very angry cat with permanent RBFS.

Elsewhere, it's showing its age but replaying Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and it's something I remember from my second playthrough (IIRC) as well as current playthrough, where in the Sixth Day (Lair of Romulus) the final platforming section has Ezio release a huge suspended pendulum (dunno what it's called, it resembles a huge-ass censer, but it's basically a contrived pendulum). After it smashes the cross down to allow access to the objective scroll, the pendulum continues to swing back and forth. The wooshing sound (which is proximity based) and the swing of the pendulum are kind of satisfying. As best as I could tell, the swing degrades as well (didn't stick around long enough to actually check if it does, but it feels like it). The path itself is not quite per real life physics, but can't have everything. Also, anything the heralds announce in general is quite amusing to listen to (especially regarding the defaced statue).

 

[Chupathingy]

In Dynasty Warriors 4 one of the earliest battles in the game is the Yellow Turban Rebellion, a battle so easy that you can sit back and watch your allies practically win it for you. So one day I decided to see what could possibly happen if the player were somehow able to fail. I put the game on the highest difficulty, sat back, and watched my allies proceed to dominate their way through the battlefield. So I decided to help even the odds directly.

I picked Huang Gai as my character, a character with the ability to throw bombs which damage both enemies and allies, and brought all of my allies' health down to 1 hp (you can damage but not kill them). Then I sat back and watched as my allies eventually died one by one. Once they were all dead, save the allied commander, i was quite surprised and satisfied to see that the allied commander actually has a unique line of dialogue for this incredibly unlikely event and will then proceed to freak out and retreat from the battlefield, ending the battle and giving you a game over.

I've never been so satisfied to have lost a battle.

 

[CriticalGaming]

There are a lot of moments in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake that are so incredibly small, but act as huge shout outs to the original game it made me laugh every time I encountered one. Even in just the bombing mission the amount of details they kept pure to the original game is crazy perfect if you look for them.

For example the security doors just inside the reactor, Biggs opens the first one, Jesse opens the second one, and then the reverse happens on the way out. This happens exactly in the remake as well.Items are even in the same locations a lot of the time. Right before the elevator there is a chest with a phoenix down, in both games. The shops in Sector 7 sell the exact same items.

Just things like that, most of which don't really matter over the course of the game, but all act like little nods that I thought were really great.