Tiny, insignificant details in games that really bother you

Worgen

Follower of the Glorious Sun Butt.
Legacy
Apr 1, 2009
14,518
3,467
118
Gender
Whatever, just wash your hands.
Tifa is one of those character designs that fails on most practical senses but in terms of a striking design with memorable features and an iconic silhouette is an utter triumph. And the obvious reference you're making aside, for a close up brawler she's got pretty long hair too.
Oh yeah, that is another one of my pet peeves and it pretty much just shows up with female characters. Where a character is supposed to be pretty damn strong but they still look waifish. That bugs me endlessly, we are starting to get better about it, but its still really common to just not give women any muscle mass or definition at all.
 

XsjadoBlayde

~it ends here~
Apr 29, 2020
3,224
3,362
118
I know he's a famous name and voice, but really? I know there are only 12 British actors but at least one of them had to be available. Robin Atkin Downes, for example, who is both British, did the British voice in Saints Row and is good at doing American Accents as well(He was Kaz Miller in MGS: Peace Walker and MGSV).
Been wondering the same thing too. Surely it can't be that rare? Maybe Nolan has a long and cosy/reliable relationship with a lot of big publishers so they consider him a safe bet. But playing Divinity 2 recently has shown various convincing examples of the accent. Then again, i'm sure the Irish probably have to deal with similar annoyances on a far more regular basis in the world of popular impersonation.
 

happyninja42

Elite Member
Legacy
May 13, 2010
8,577
2,982
118
When a game has things like magical healing and instant healing items that are so common you can buy them at the local convenience store, but in a cutscene an ally is mortally wounded and we have to just watch them die. And I'm standing there like

"Motha F***er I've got 999 Healing Potions sloshing around in my inventory RIGHT NOW!! I'm literally built as a CLERIC with REVIVE DEAD!! My buddy over there was squished by a freaking KAIJU that is 30 stories tall, and I revived him and he's FINE! But this little gunshot is too much for us to handle?!?! I have to watch this supporting character die and feel sad?! NO!! I don't feel sad! I feel MAD! At you!! For such a glaring plothole in your story/game design!"

Seriously hate that. Like it totally takes me out of any emotional investment in the scene, and I find myself just seething, sniping at the screen in annoyance.

Or in something like AC: Odyssey, where you can choose how you regard the "gods" of the greek world, or your opinion on things like Sparta, but then in other scenes you seem to respond in a fashion 180 degrees different.

Like, when given the option, I generally always pick the most non-religious answer in AC:O in my current playthrough, as well as the most anti-Spartan answers. And after choosing them, Alexios is VERY biting in his commentary about those things. But, then I just randomly walk up to some location and I'm like "Oh wow! Such wonderful example of Spartan culture!! Truly their culture is wonderful and not at all barbaric and tragically scarred me and my family in my backstory!" And I'm just like -_- "I'm sorry wut? I JUST made you choose a dialogue option where you basically said you wanted to see the Spartan society burn to the ground for what they did to you, and you are happy to KILL SPARTANS as a mercenary, bouncing back and forth allegiance-wise as the quests require....where is this Yay Sparta! mindset coming from!? Because I sure as hell didn't choose it!"

Basically inconsistency in narrative and mechanics that contradict each other glaringly. Hate that crap. Maybe those aren't "tiny and insiginificant", but they annoy the shit out of me.
 

happyninja42

Elite Member
Legacy
May 13, 2010
8,577
2,982
118
Dovetailing on my above post:

Dialogue options that are unclear what you are choosing. Like FO:4, and AC:O. You are given 2 options, but the actual wording on screen to choose from, are vague as hell, potentially sounding almost the same, but are also not representative of what you actually say.

Like your choices on screen are.

"The importance of history can't be overstated" or "I value the past." ......ok wut? How are those different? What am I choosing between?! Because they sound like the same basic concept. And then, when you actually choose one, what you say is completely out of sync with what you picked. This usually comes across in the form of tone. Like the phrase you picked seems reasonable and polite, but then your character suddenly becomes angry and aggressive.

AC:O had a really glaring example of this early on, that kind of freaked me out. You are talking to the NPC that is giving you the Baby's First Bow quest, to introduce that combat type. And she keeps shit talking Markos to you. And you get an option to say something like "I am my own person." or something like that. The phrasing seemed perfectly reasonable, as if I'm saying "Hey, don't compare me to Markos, I know he's kind of a lowlife conman, but I'm not him." But instead Alexios literally snarls, leans forward flexing his arms in a clearly hostile posture, and basically threatens this old lady to shut up and make the bow for him. So much so that she is shown to cower in fear of you, and apologize profusely.....and then Alexios ends it with the standard "Ok I'll take care of that for you! Take care!" in a bright and cheerful tone, ignoring how he just spoke to that lady.

And I'm just like "Ok where the hell did that come from!? How was all of that conveyed in the 4 word dialogue description I clicked on!?"
 

Dalisclock

Making lemons combustible again
Legacy
Escapist +
Feb 9, 2008
11,261
7,049
118
A Barrel In the Marketplace
Country
Eagleland
Gender
Male
When a game has things like magical healing and instant healing items that are so common you can buy them at the local convenience store, but in a cutscene an ally is mortally wounded and we have to just watch them die. And I'm standing there like

"Motha F***er I've got 999 Healing Potions sloshing around in my inventory RIGHT NOW!! I'm literally built as a CLERIC with REVIVE DEAD!! My buddy over there was squished by a freaking KAIJU that is 30 stories tall, and I revived him and he's FINE! But this little gunshot is too much for us to handle?!?! I have to watch this supporting character die and feel sad?! NO!! I don't feel sad! I feel MAD! At you!! For such a glaring plothole in your story/game design!"

Seriously hate that. Like it totally takes me out of any emotional investment in the scene, and I find myself just seething, sniping at the screen in annoyance.

Or in something like AC: Odyssey, where you can choose how you regard the "gods" of the greek world, or your opinion on things like Sparta, but then in other scenes you seem to respond in a fashion 180 degrees different.

Like, when given the option, I generally always pick the most non-religious answer in AC:O in my current playthrough, as well as the most anti-Spartan answers. And after choosing them, Alexios is VERY biting in his commentary about those things. But, then I just randomly walk up to some location and I'm like "Oh wow! Such wonderful example of Spartan culture!! Truly their culture is wonderful and not at all barbaric and tragically scarred me and my family in my backstory!" And I'm just like -_- "I'm sorry wut? I JUST made you choose a dialogue option where you basically said you wanted to see the Spartan society burn to the ground for what they did to you, and you are happy to KILL SPARTANS as a mercenary, bouncing back and forth allegiance-wise as the quests require....where is this Yay Sparta! mindset coming from!? Because I sure as hell didn't choose it!"

Basically inconsistency in narrative and mechanics that contradict each other glaringly. Hate that crap. Maybe those aren't "tiny and insiginificant", but they annoy the shit out of me.
Yeah, the gameplay and story segregation can get really obnoxious. Especially the "You beat this difficult boss but then he runs away so you have to fight him again later", partially because your character is often too stupid to just fucking end him right there. FFX irked the fuck out of me on this, considering you have the fight the same boss like 4 different times because he just won't stay dead(and Yuna fucks up a couple valuable chances to just get rid of him early). AC2 has a couple blantent ones, mostly when you trap Rodrigo in Venice and then just let him waddle off when you clearly had him dead to rights. The only reason you can't kill them there is because he's meant to be pope and you're supposed to face him later.

Other examples:

-Saints Row 2. I love this game, but the final Ronin mission drives me up the wall every time. You have to take the plot mandated route to the marina, which involves a jetski trip avoiding attack helicopters trying to bomb you(which don't show up if you try to drive there, but then the checkpoints don't trigger so you can't finish the mission) and when you reach the end, you have to fight the boss with a Kantana, despite the fact the sword fighting is poorly implemented in that battle, you have a small armory in your pocket and there's literally no reason for you to play fair at all(and this is the game where the boss is basically a villian protagonist, so again, why fight fair at all)?

-Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. The fucking duels. They're not bad to start but near the end of the game the timing becomes extremely tight on them and they become the most difficult part of the game by far. And there's no reason for them storywise because the main characters are 1.) Clearly headed down the villian path and don't care about fighting fair and 2.) most of them take place in isolated areas with nobody around to enforce it or call anyone out for cheating, so why am I being forced to duel? Why can't I just shoot the fucker?
 
Last edited:

happyninja42

Elite Member
Legacy
May 13, 2010
8,577
2,982
118
Yeah, the gameplay and story segregation can get really obnoxious. Especially the "You beat this difficult boss but then he runs away so you have to fight him again later", partially because your character is often too stupid to just fucking end him right there. FFX irked the fuck out of me on this, considering you have the fight the same boss like 4 different times because he just won't stay dead(and Yuna fucks up a couple valuable chances to just get rid of him early). AC2 has a couple blantent ones, mostly when you trap Rodrigo in Venice and then just let him waddle off when you clearly had him dead to rights. The only reason you can't kill them there is because he's meant to be pope and you're supposed to face him later.

Other examples:

-Saints Row 2. I love this game, but the final Ronin mission drives me up the wall every time. You have to take the plot mandated route to the marina, which involves a jetski trip avoiding attack helicopters trying to bomb you(which don't show up if you try to drive there, but then the checkpoints don't trigger so you can't finish the mission) and when you reach the end, you have to fight the boss with a Kantana, despite the fact the sword fighting is poorly implemented in that battle, you have a small armory in your pocket and there's literally no reason for you to play fair at all(and this is the game where the boss is basically a villian protagonist, so again, why fight fair at all)?

-Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. The fucking duels. They're not bad to start but near the end of the game the timing becomes extremely tight on them and they become the most difficult part of the game by far. And there's no reason for them storywise because the main characters are 1.) Clearly headed down the villian path and don't care about fighting fair and 2.) most of them take place in isolated areas with nobody around to enforce it or call anyone out for cheating, so why am I being forced to duel? Why can't I just shoot the fucker?
Never played SR 2, but I did play 3, and there was a moment that I felt was odd and disjointed near the end. At one point, you are given a choice of 2 badguys to deal with, and one of them is the Luchadorian wrestler dude. He's escaping and your motivation for going after him is to "break him, make him suffer." Which...makes no sense...because not 30 minutes prior, you do a fight where you literally wrestle him in the ring, with the goal of unmasking him, which is the Ultimate Disgrace to a Luchadorian wrestler. And I did that....he was broken, humiliated, brought low by my wrestling/fighting prowess....why should I care if he goes slinking away, when the other option has someone FAR more important to the main character. His empire in the city was crushed, his resources and assets were mine, he was finished.

It just...felt like a non-choice really, because it didn't fit anything in the game at all.

Plus it was WAY more emotionally satisfying to go racing through the city on my motorcycle, to rescue a close friend, while the song "I Need A Hero!" was playing. Doing that sequence while just going after a disgraced meat jock would be very anti-climactic.
 

Dalisclock

Making lemons combustible again
Legacy
Escapist +
Feb 9, 2008
11,261
7,049
118
A Barrel In the Marketplace
Country
Eagleland
Gender
Male
Never played SR 2, but I did play 3, and there was a moment that I felt was odd and disjointed near the end. At one point, you are given a choice of 2 badguys to deal with, and one of them is the Luchadorian wrestler dude. He's escaping and your motivation for going after him is to "break him, make him suffer." Which...makes no sense...because not 30 minutes prior, you do a fight where you literally wrestle him in the ring, with the goal of unmasking him, which is the Ultimate Disgrace to a Luchadorian wrestler. And I did that....he was broken, humiliated, brought low by my wrestling/fighting prowess....why should I care if he goes slinking away, when the other option has someone FAR more important to the main character. His empire in the city was crushed, his resources and assets were mine, he was finished.

It just...felt like a non-choice really, because it didn't fit anything in the game at all.

Plus it was WAY more emotionally satisfying to go racing through the city on my motorcycle, to rescue a close friend, while the song "I Need A Hero!" was playing. Doing that sequence while just going after a disgraced meat jock would be very anti-climactic.
SR2 is in some ways the best game but it's buggy as hell in places and it does show it's age a bit at times. It does have some of the best mini-games and the arc from "Come out a coma and immediately bust out of prison" to "I own the city. Kneel before me, bitches" along with the Bosses completely unapologetic villian arc(the Boss doesn't even pretend to be doing it for a good cause) is kinda awesome though makes for some very dark comedy when it isn't jiust being dark. Unlike the other games, it also allows you to tackle the 3 gang mission arcs in any order you want(as in, you can pick and choose which gang you're going after for any given mission or you can finish off each arc in turn before going to the next).

Yeah, I get the feeling SR3 got seriously cut up/rushed at some point. Angel's Entire Arc feels kinda useless and the fact first he tells you to beat Killbane in the ring, and then immediately changes his mind and decides "No, you have to go kill him because....uh, I feel bad or something", despite the fact it's the worst possible time to ask this of you, because the mayor and a couple of the saints are in danger of being killed in a massive explosion.

There's also the weirdness of how they make a big deal of you making buying time to abandon your skyscraper HQ when STAG shows up, but you can still use it like nothing happened afterwards, the zombie island thing which just stops matters after the one mission you do there(but the island will still be zombie infested for the rest of the game), and you know that big choice of blowing up vs capturing the Syndicate HQ in Act 1? Turns out it doesn't matter either way. Not blowing it up doesn't allow you to use the HQ or use the bomb on something else and blowing up the HQ doesn't ever get mentioned again, even though it would be the perfect justification to brand the Saints as Terrorists(and instead, the fake bridge attack is the big thing that gets latched onto).

Don't get me wrong, I play SR3 ever year or so when I need some open world comfort food but it's hard not to see the duct tape holding the plot together everywhere.
 
Last edited:

lil devils x

🐐More Lego Goats Please!🐐
Legacy
May 1, 2020
3,330
1,045
118
Country
🐐USA🐐
Gender
♀
I kicked Facebook years ago and haven't gone back since.
Where do you sell all the crap around your house you don't need if not on Facebook? Everywhere else charges fees and craigslist is full of serial killers.
 

lil devils x

🐐More Lego Goats Please!🐐
Legacy
May 1, 2020
3,330
1,045
118
Country
🐐USA🐐
Gender
♀
To my real life friends, mainly.
You pawn your junk you don't want off on your friends? HAHAHA! I don't think I would be that mean to them to give that possessed popcorn maker.. or the entire closet full of * thoughtful* past unopened Christmas gifts given to me by family members like that lovely sweater that breaks me out in rashes or that bra dryer or chocolate fountain or the snowman knickknacks.. Yea I just couldn't bring myself to be that cruel. XD

Just either sell the stuff on facebook or give it away on facebook and donate the money to something useful. THAT is the only thing I think Facebook is useful for.
 

Asita

Answer Hazy, Ask Again Later
Legacy
Jun 15, 2011
3,198
1,038
118
Country
USA
Gender
Male
KoTOR II: I utterly detest the explanation for the player's increasing strength as literally being empowered by death around them. It reeks of someone trying to come up with a clever explanation for a mechanical system they don't actually understand.

Specifically, it's a tryhard edgelord way of explaining away levels, without regards for the fact that levels are already just a shorthand for how the characters improve and refine their abilities as they learn from continued application and little tweaks to their technique. That's why the progression used to track character growth is called experience. You know, learning by doing. Each level is a mechanical shortcut, clumping the character's growth into short [mechanically] manageable bursts. You don't need to justify it, much less try to paint it as dark magic.
 

Agema

You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver
Legacy
Mar 3, 2009
8,598
5,963
118
Oh yeah, that is another one of my pet peeves and it pretty much just shows up with female characters. Where a character is supposed to be pretty damn strong but they still look waifish. That bugs me endlessly, we are starting to get better about it, but its still really common to just not give women any muscle mass or definition at all.
That's because female characters in computer games (and before them, comics) have always been envisaged in substantial part as wank fantasies for adolescent males. Let's not pretend there's any other reason. Sure, the creators let female characters be fighters so they could be useful, but they were damned if they were going to let that get in the way of them being hot.
 

Trunkage

Nascent Orca
Legacy
Jun 21, 2012
8,728
2,892
118
Brisbane
Gender
Cyborg
Dovetailing on my above post:

Dialogue options that are unclear what you are choosing. Like FO:4, and AC:O. You are given 2 options, but the actual wording on screen to choose from, are vague as hell, potentially sounding almost the same, but are also not representative of what you actually say.
Witcher 3 was full of this nonsense. It doesn't really matter that much because it usually ends in the same snarky response.

But a worse one, that's present in F4, W3, Pillars of Eternity and Baulder's Gate, is where the selected option doesn't really match the dialogue it produces. I remember turning on the option for types of dialogue in PoE (eg. honest, compassionate, angry) just to give me a clue what might happen. I remember, 20 years ago, angering a quest giver in BG2 and realising the developers couldn't even copy and paste dialogue, leading the dialogue the my Avatar responded with not matching the choice I made (unless you squint sideways underwater.) I put it away for a few months. Just go F4 and state the feeling instead of words, as it would be more accurate.
 

happyninja42

Elite Member
Legacy
May 13, 2010
8,577
2,982
118
Witcher 3 was full of this nonsense. It doesn't really matter that much because it usually ends in the same snarky response.

But a worse one, that's present in F4, W3, Pillars of Eternity and Baulder's Gate, is where the selected option doesn't really match the dialogue it produces. I remember turning on the option for types of dialogue in PoE (eg. honest, compassionate, angry) just to give me a clue what might happen. I remember, 20 years ago, angering a quest giver in BG2 and realising the developers couldn't even copy and paste dialogue, leading the dialogue the my Avatar responded with not matching the choice I made (unless you squint sideways underwater.) I put it away for a few months. Just go F4 and state the feeling instead of words, as it would be more accurate.
Yeah I wish they did what Deus Ex: HR/MD did and have it ACTUALLY be what you say. No ambiguity. It's the words you speak.
 

Worgen

Follower of the Glorious Sun Butt.
Legacy
Apr 1, 2009
14,518
3,467
118
Gender
Whatever, just wash your hands.
That's because female characters in computer games (and before them, comics) have always been envisaged in substantial part as wank fantasies for adolescent males. Let's not pretend there's any other reason. Sure, the creators let female characters be fighters so they could be useful, but they were damned if they were going to let that get in the way of them being hot.
I think its actually a combination of that and also just being lazy. Like I feel like doing female characters for things like moba's pretty much lets the devs just use the same body/rig and just change outfits, hair and boob size. Really if you want to see something that I'm sure is all about wank fantasy then look at how anime tends to do beast guys and girls, generally the guys will be full werewolf looking while the girls will just have tails and weird ears, sometimes big paws and feet too.
1589721587574.png
 

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
Legacy
Mar 10, 2016
27,145
11,383
118
Detroit, Michigan
Country
United States of America
Gender
Male
I think its actually a combination of that and also just being lazy. Like I feel like doing female characters for things like moba's pretty much lets the devs just use the same body/rig and just change outfits, hair and boob size. Really if you want to see something that I'm sure is all about wank fantasy then look at how anime tends to do beast guys and girls, generally the guys will be full werewolf looking while the girls will just have tails and weird ears, sometimes big paws and feet too.
View attachment 143
And Leone is a rip-off of a Yang from RWBY. At least Yang had some muscle on her and more personality. Akame ga Kill is one of the most boring, generic, dark edgelord anime/manga to come out in the 2010s. This is I why I appreciate games like Street Fighter and King of Fighters/Fatal Fury. Most of the women have the appropriate muscle on them. Or have the appropriate athletic build, like Ibuki for example. They have muscle without going over board. This is especially true with III, IV, & V. There is still some exaggeration, but it is more realistic, than say something you would get in DOA or Tekken ironically enough. The latter was praised for having martial moves more realistic than SF or most 2D fighting games at that time.
 

Worgen

Follower of the Glorious Sun Butt.
Legacy
Apr 1, 2009
14,518
3,467
118
Gender
Whatever, just wash your hands.
And Leone is a rip-off of a Yang from RWBY. At least Yang had some muscle on her and more personality. Akame ga Kill is one of the most boring, generic, dark edgelord anime/manga to come out in the 2010s. This is I why I appreciate games like Street Fighter and King of Fighters/Fatal Fury. Most of the women have the appropriate muscle on them. Or have the appropriate athletic build, like Ibuki for example. They have muscle without going over board. This is especially true with III, IV, & V. There is still some exaggeration, but it is more realistic, than say something you would get in DOA or Tekken ironically enough. The latter was praised for having martial moves more realistic than SF or most 2D fighting games at that time.
I actually thought it was ok, not the best but not bad and not really edgelord at all. The death game animes tend to be much more edgelord.

One of the best examples for a woman in anime that looks like she could hang in physicality is Maki from Fireforce.

Although her physic really varies based on scene.

 

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
Legacy
Mar 10, 2016
27,145
11,383
118
Detroit, Michigan
Country
United States of America
Gender
Male
I actually thought it was ok, not the best but not bad and not really edgelord at all. The death game animes tend to be much more edgelord.
There is a scene only in the manga where one of the villain's daughter (who is a child and not a teenager or young adult) and wife get raped after he dies. At his grave site. It's scene literally played for shock value and nothing more. Even fans of the anime or manga hate this scene. They never get punished for it either. Luckily, they don't do this scene in the anime. If that is not edgelord material, I don't know what is. Also, the anime version had a habit of killing off character you just meet, or aren't on the team long to looks suspenseful or shocking, Here I am thinking: "Is that all you can do? I've seen everything you done much better in other anime".

I've seen Fire Force, but I don't find it interesting. But I'll give them credit for at least having a woman with muscle, even if certain scenes vary. In fact:


 

Worgen

Follower of the Glorious Sun Butt.
Legacy
Apr 1, 2009
14,518
3,467
118
Gender
Whatever, just wash your hands.
There is a scene only in the manga where one of the villain's daughter (who is a child and not a teenager or young adult) and wife get raped after he dies. At his grave site. It's scene literally played for shock value and nothing more. Even fans of the anime or manga hate this scene. They never get punished for it either. Luckily, they don't do this scene in the anime. If that is not edgelord material, I don't know what is. Also, the anime version had a habit of killing off character you just meet, or aren't on the team long to looks suspenseful or shocking, Here I am thinking: "Is that all you can do? I've seen everything you done much better in other anime".

I've seen Fire Force, but I don't find it interesting. But I'll give them credit for at least having a woman with muscle, even if certain scenes vary. In fact:
The story of Fireforce is pretty meh, but the characters are decent and I really like the aesthetic they have going on. But, at best I would just call it an ok anime.
 

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
Legacy
Mar 10, 2016
27,145
11,383
118
Detroit, Michigan
Country
United States of America
Gender
Male
The story of Fireforce is pretty meh, but the characters are decent and I really like the aesthetic they have going on. But, at best I would just call it an ok anime.
Knew it. I'll just stick with Promare when it comes in the mail this week. It has a similar premise like Fireforce, but does its own thing.