Tiny, insignificant details in games that really bother you

hanselthecaretaker

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So as many of you know, I am a Souls and Elden Ring Enjoyer type person, therefore I've been spending a lot of time playing Elden Ring and occasionally rambling on about said things. And one of high points of these games for me is the level and world design. ER, for the most part, is no exception. I do appreciate the Lands Between feel compelling to explore and make me care about trying to find out what's over the next hill, even if it's often just something awful and/or terrifying. I also appreciate how the World, overall, feels like a place where people can live and get around(or could if the bridges were intact and such), which is always a plus for me. For example, there are roads that run across the world, there are bridges that link the roads(granted most of the bridges are collapsed but they're laid out correctly), forts and castles that command certain points of the map, chokepoints where you'd expect them and so on. Carriages are shown traveling the roads in certain places. You also have the grand lift that allows access between the Plateau and the lower parts of the world.

BUT.....that being said, there's one thing that bugs me. So while it's unclear just how the lands between relate to the rest of the world, it's implied some communication and transport is possible between the game world and elsewhere(The Tarnished are implied to be exiles, just now being summoned back to the Lands Between and there's a "Seafarer" race, who spent their life sailing). You see ships on the map, you see ships wrecked off the coast, Stormveil castle has big ass holes on the seaward side that could only have been fired from the sea(somehow), etc. And yet......as far as I can tell, there is not a single PORT or shipbuilding facility anywhere in the game world and it just bugs me, especially because this is the first FROM game that I can think of where this can't be handwaved somehow(Hell, Dark Souls 2 had a Port even if it makes no sense geographically). There's not even evidence of such a place and it's kind of a shame because a ruined port with half sunken ships would be an interesting place to explore.

Admittedly I haven't explored the whole map yet but I've explored almost all of the early game areas and the Altus Plateau, and from what I can tell, most of the game world I haven't visited at this point is higher up and thus would be ill-suited for a port, so If there wasn't one in Caelid, Luneria or Limgrave, there's likely not one at Mt Gelmir or the Mountains either.
Apparently there’s an interview somewhere that Miyazaki gives more detail on the reasoning for the title of Lands Between as hinted here, but it’s probably still left shrouded in mystery. Apparently there are references to surrounding lands in (what else) item descriptions, but I get the impression that things operate differently in the Lands Between due to the Erd Tree’s power, and it’s meant to be one of those “lost kingdom” kind of settings intentionally isolated from the outside world.
In that link is also an interesting theory that the “Lands Between” is actually referring to an ethereal plane of sorts, between the underground world and a sky temple, which much of the debris found on the ground would be from.
 
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Apparently there’s an interview somewhere that Miyazaki gives more detail on the reasoning for the title of Lands Between as hinted here, but it’s probably still left shrouded in mystery. Apparently there are references to surrounding lands in (what else) item descriptions, but I get the impression that things operate differently in the Lands Between due to the Erd Tree’s power, and it’s meant to be one of those “lost kingdom” kind of settings intentionally isolated from the outside world.
In that link is also an interesting theory that the “Lands Between” is actually referring to an ethereal plane of sorts, between the underground world and a sky temple, which much of the debris found on the ground would be from.
Yeah, I'm really curious what's going on with the Lands Between. The fact it's referred to as "The Lands Beyond the Fog" make me suspect it's isolated or maybe like a wierd composite/amalgamation of some sort. It's implied at least the primary tarnished(from the intro movie) had to die before they arrived there, so I suspected it's like an afterlife but then again people are buried there and their souls go to the earth tree for recycling(or not, since there are a lot of undead roaming around).

So maybe its like "Paradise" or "Eden" as in the Tarnished were expelled and then called back, except now the gods have all lost their shit, death doesn't work right and shit has gone wonky?

Even more interesting is the references to other Souls games in this regard. We have locations named for Gael and Morne from DS3 and Seethe from DS1. The Underground cities look like something out of BB(and the hip lamp feels like a straight shout out to BB). The "Land of Reeds" feels like an obvious reference to Sekiro "Japan".

Maybe the Lands Between are a Nexus or Spiritual World Axis of all the FROM Souls games?
 
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hanselthecaretaker

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Yeah, I'm really curious what's going on with the Lands Between. The fact it's referred to as "The Lands Beyond the Fog" make me suspect it's isolated or maybe like a wierd composite/amalgamation of some sort. It's implied at least the primary tarnished(from the intro movie) had to die before they arrived there, so I suspected it's like an afterlife but then again people are buried there and their souls go to the earth tree for recycling(or not, since there are a lot of undead roaming around).

So maybe its like "Paradise" or "Eden" as in the Tarnished were expelled and then called back, except now the gods have all lost their shit, death doesn't work right and shit has gone wonky?

Even more interesting is the references to other Souls games in this regard. We have locations named for Gael and Morne from DS3 and Seethe from DS1. The Underground cities look like something out of BB(and the hip lamp feels like a straight shout out to BB). The "Land of Reeds" feels like an obvious reference to Sekiro "Japan".

Maybe the Lands Between are a Nexus or Spiritual World Axis of all the FROM Souls games?
Yeah it could at least partially be fan service lore, in-line with Miyazaki considering the game a culmination of past half dozen games. By now it’s also possible he thinks it’s past the point of considering a lot of things to still be cannon. Like, “Hey it’s all in the realm of fantasy; make of it what you will!”
 
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For all the improvements Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 does, it still has issues from the vanilla version. Cheap enemies attacks or spawns that happen off-screen you're not gonna know on your first playthrough. Bad camera when fighting in tight places, and those filler chapters where you play a different female character in truncated chapters you already cleared as different character. Why they kept the cheap enemy spawns from the vanilla version is a lazy move, and Team Ninja knows that. Also, the platforming in the beginning of chapter 7 suuuucckkkksssss!

I already appreciated before, but all of the combined flaws from most of the DMC games, makes me appreciate them even more for what each sequel got right, improved upon, and not be a total dick to the player.
 

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Seriously, why do sequels to most well-known stylish action games keep doing this? Why do they keep getting rid of moves that were default moves in the previous game(s), and making you have to unlock them (again)? Especially when even a medium skilled player can unlock them quickly? Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge makes you have to buy basic moves like the guillotine throw, flying swallow, an enemy step again. When in the last game and its updated re-release, they were default moves from the start. Why? It adds no extra challenge; it's just useless padding. No More Heroes 3 did the same thing with its charge attack. DMC 5 made enemy step an upgrade, when an almost every other game, other than the DmC (2013) & 4, it was a default maneuver in the player's tool kit.
 
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Specter Von Baren

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Truly is tiny, but in RF3 and 4 when you examined something in the world and someone relevant to that thing was nearby then they'd chime in on what your character said. So if you looked at a plant someone was growing in their room then you'd have the basic commentary on it but you'd also get a small conversation with them if they were nearby. Rune Factory 5 doesn't seem to have this which is rather disappointing for me.
 

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Been trying so hard to not accidentally kill civilians in The Ascent. But this game does not give a fuck. It'll spawn a gang in a crowded market street who just aggressively beeline to me, leaving innocents at the mercy of my inability to tame the fiddly aiming. Though luckily it seems the game isn't too judgy about it. Until the corporation who decided to "hire" me without my consent made a comment during a mission once stating their disappointment. Hopefully that's as far as it goes, I refuse to give up my army of explosive robot spiders either way.
 
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thebobmaster

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Prequels that have your character be stronger than they were in previous games. One example I can think of is Batman: Arkham Origins. Gameplay wise, you have more gadgets to play around with than in Arkham Asylum and Arkham Origins, but that means on a story basis, Batman apparently forgot to pack his gloves that can short-circuit electronics and block electrical attacks when he visited Arkham Asylum. Would have been really useful against those stun batons, just sayin'...
 

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Prequels that have your character be stronger than they were in previous games. One example I can think of is Batman: Arkham Origins. Gameplay wise, you have more gadgets to play around with than in Arkham Asylum and Arkham Origins, but that means on a story basis, Batman apparently forgot to pack his gloves that can short-circuit electronics and block electrical attacks when he visited Arkham Asylum. Would have been really useful against those stun batons, just sayin'...
I'd say the opposite is as bad if not worse.

God of War 2 and 3 give you a pretty swell counter mechanic tied to an item you find in GoW2, and it becomes a staple of the combat. Then GoW: Ascension comes along, and because it's a prequel and Kratos wouldn't have had that item yet it takes away your counter and replaces it with an extremely shitty version of it. And in that case, I'm sorry, but I'd rather have the fun mechanic than narrative consistency.

Though there's also Resident Evil 0, which completely poops all over narrative consistency but also isn't fun.
 

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Prequels that have your character be stronger than they were in previous games. One example I can think of is Batman: Arkham Origins. Gameplay wise, you have more gadgets to play around with than in Arkham Asylum and Arkham Origins, but that means on a story basis, Batman apparently forgot to pack his gloves that can short-circuit electronics and block electrical attacks when he visited Arkham Asylum. Would have been really useful against those stun batons, just sayin'...
I'd say the opposite is as bad if not worse.

God of War 2 and 3 give you a pretty swell counter mechanic tied to an item you find in GoW2, and it becomes a staple of the combat. Then GoW: Ascension comes along, and because it's a prequel and Kratos wouldn't have had that item yet it takes away your counter and replaces it with an extremely shitty version of it. And in that case, I'm sorry, but I'd rather have the fun mechanic than narrative consistency.

Though there's also Resident Evil 0, which completely poops all over narrative consistency but also isn't fun.
Devil May Cry 3 makes 1 and 2 suffer from this. Due to the advanced movement Dante has and all of the styles, the Dante in DMC1&2 feel arthritic by comparison. It also makes you wonder why he did not take any of his weapons with him. Certain side stories that came out after 3, said he sold most of them to pay the bills. One case was because Enzo's (not the same one from Bayonetta) arm got possessed by a Devil Arm and Dante had to chop it off. Dante gives the rest of his acquired weapons to Enzo out of guilt for what happened.

Additionally: Don't get me started on the Ninja Gaiden Timeline and how Reboot trilogy is a prequel to the NES trilogy.
 
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Specter Von Baren

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Devil May Cry 3 makes 1 and 2 suffer from this. Due to the advanced movement Dante has and all of the styles, the Dante in DMC1&2 feel arthritic by comparison. It also makes you wonder why he did not take any of his weapons with them. Certain side stories that came out after 3, said he sold most of them to pay the bills. One case was becauseEnzo's (not the same one from Bayonetta) arm got possessed by a Devil Arm and Dante had to chop it off. Dante gives the rest of his acquired weapons to Enzo out of guilt for what happened.
I always figured Dante just leaves it all at home because of bravado. Like, I can imagine a scene of him looking at his hoard of demonic weapons, picking up Rebellion, and saying, "Welp, this is all I need. I'm off."
 
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Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Been trying so hard to not accidentally kill civilians in The Ascent. But this game does not give a fuck. It'll spawn a gang in a crowded market street who just aggressively beeline to me, leaving innocents at the mercy of my inability to tame the fiddly aiming. Though luckily it seems the game isn't too judgy about it. Until the corporation who decided to "hire" me without my consent made a comment during a mission once stating their disappointment. Hopefully that's as far as it goes, I refuse to give up my army of explosive robot spiders either way.
It really does feel like till about midway in development they had more of an RPG focus then decided to just go straight action. Like that it was supposed to have roleplaying and NPCs mattering more, cause the ai they use for NPCs to just run away is pretty decent, feels like a lot of work to put into just window dressing on what is essentially a dungeon crawler.
 
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Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
I always figured Dante just leaves it all at home because of bravado. Like, I can imagine a scene of him looking at his hoard of demonic weapons, picking up Rebellion, and saying, "Welp, this is all I need. I'm off."
I think it was more petty, he was probably told to wash his hands then was like "Screw you mom, your not my mom, I'mma go fight demons." Then he flipped the table and ran out.
 

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But she was supposed to fill his dark heart with liiiiiiiiiiiight!
Wrong way around.

OT: Super Robot Wars 30, like most of the Super Robot Wars games, has a mechanic called 'Support' that allows adjacent units with a specific skill to follow up an ally's attacks or cover them from enemy attacks. Unlike the previous games, these are now two separate abilities rather than one combined one. That's fine, I can work with that. But your protagonist starts out with the Support Attack ability, but doesn't appear to be able to use it in the early missions on the Earth route.

There's an in-game tutorial that explains in a single line that Support can only be done for a mech moving the same way as the supporter; flying units can only support flying units, ground units can only support ground units, and so on. Your protagonist's mech, the Huckebein 30, can't fly - and every single other mech you're given on that route for several chapters does. So unless you bother to carefully read every single tutorial page between missions, it'll just look like Support Attack is bugged. This doesn't apply to the Space route because on missions that take place in space, every unit regardless of its usual movement type is considered to have 'Space' movement, which furthers the impression that it's just a bug when it works on one route but not the other.

What's worse is that at the start of each mission, you're offered a specific tutorial page, the same ones from the menus, but it takes a really long time to cover Support unless you go out of your way to look for the tutorial menu - which, given that you're being given tutorials anyway, might not occur to players.
 
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I’ve only just realised this, but after Mass Effect 1 you don’t see any Salarians in C-Sec for the rest of the trilogy and that bugs me somehow.
 
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Ezekiel

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I dislike only being able to swap shoulders while aiming. It makes corners worse. L3 doesn't do anything important. Just lets you look at points of interest, which could have been done with Triangle when those moments occur. What they could have done is move the flashlight to L3 and then let you swap shoulders at all times with R3, fittingly the camera stick. Also wouldn't then have to leave the camera stick to press Cross to control THE CAMERA.