Tiny insignificant details in games that really impressed you

Johnny Novgorod

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Red Dead Redemption 2 is the master of insignificant little details, at least as far as gameplay is concerned.
I guess if your point is to be as realistic as possible then those details are significant.
 
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hanselthecaretaker

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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.
There’s also different dialogs for if you take the stairs or elevator. Of course I don’t remember what happened in the original seeing as it’s been over two decades for me.
 

hanselthecaretaker

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Red Dead Redemption 2 is the master of insignificant little details, at least as far as gameplay is concerned.
I guess if your point is to be as realistic as possible then those details are significant.
It’s not just limited to gameplay stuff either. For starters-

People will still be finding stuff in this game until the next one is released, if ever.
 

NerfedFalcon

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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.
Honestly, my favorite thing so far in FF7R is the ability to turn the camera. It sounds like a really minor thing, but for someone who's played the original game a lot, being able to see things that were originally outside the frame adds a lot to the experience. For instance, being able to look up at the sky tells you more clearly whether you're above or below the Plate, which was always a little confusing in the original game to me.
 

TheMysteriousGX

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When you turn into a squid in Splatoon and fall into some ink, there's a little ring where you spooked that you can see if you angle the light correctly.
Super insignificant, but it makes me smile
 

Xprimentyl

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Not necessarily a "tiny" detail, but a helluva 'out of left field' uncommon gamble on Starbreeze's part to focus so much of the early gameplay on Jackie and Jenny's relationship in "The Darkness." To date, I've never been more invested in a character's motivation because that moment with Jenny on the couch just watching a movie is one of the most memorable gaming moments of my life. It wasn't one of those on-the-nose THIS IS THE LOVE INTEREST moments; with lines like "I have to pee, but I don't want to get up," you just FELT this woman was real, their love was real, and their comfort with one another was genuine. It never felt like the right moment to "get up and leave" per the prompt, and the inevitable tragedy was heart-wrenchingly catastrophic.
 

Dreiko

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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.
One thing I really love about minor details is how each char has their own clothes and apparel when turned into a frog. They found a way to make one of the most annoying status effects in the game both fun and hilarious. Hell, they even gave you a frog-specific ability.

The game was very well made in all aspects and going in blind I didn't know what to expect but it has vastly surpassed my modest expectations.
 

BrawlMan

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A console example. I like how with the Switch, if you bought a game digitally and then bought a physical version later on. You can still have both versions on the console. Compared to the PS4, where if you did that, it would get rid of the digital version app, but you don't have reinstall or re-download anything, because it's already on the system.
 

Dalisclock

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Assassin Creed games generally tend to have really good map design, and while not totally accurate(there are notable exceptions such as scaling in some of the newer games), are generally good at depicting the locations they're meant to depict. The games will sometimes acknowledge when anachronisms are in the map(Black Flag had a footnote in the codex about how the Queens Staircase in Nassau shouldn't exist yet in the time period the game takes place in, which the Templars threw in because it was iconic). Having visited a number of the locations in the games, I was shocked how well the maps could match the actual locations(passage of time obviously taken into account). In AC: Origins, I liked how they modeled what looked like actual ancient farms/farm equipment and dock equipment(to the point I'd stop and just look at it because of how well done it looked and I don't particularly care about farrm equipment normally).

Also, I appreciated in Black Flag how Edward Kenway could have up to 4 single shot pistols strapped to his person, which he would fire and discard in combat. Which is apparently how actual pirates would do it.

That being said, the devs will normally admit when they did stuff for artistic reasons, such as having red paint on the Sphinx at a point in history it should have long since worn off, or the massive Statues in Odyssey, which were a purely artistic choice because they wanted to depict how the Gods and Mythology loomed over the greek world and that's what they came up with to portray it(which to me seems like an admission they really wanted to make a game set in mythological Greece or maybe Greece as Homer depicted it, but also wanted to include all the really iconic people and architecture, and those two things are separated in time by close to 1000 years).
 
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I love the little details and Streets of Rage 4. the use of dynamic music, the visual effects that I don't care for much, but I'm happy that included them. For some reason, all the visual and retro CRT filters on missing in the Xbox one and Windows 10 versions. Good thing I got PS4 and switch. There are hidden rooms you can find that will take you to a boss from Streets of Rage 2 and you get a bonus star for beating them. the hand drawn animations are insane in the background details are just gorgeous. They really put all the stops in a lot of effort into this. and then you got all the unlockable characters with their own unique gimmicks and they play exactly as they did in the originals.
 

happyninja42

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I enjoy when the devs make a point to have in game characters react accurately based on orientation. For example, I was in a cut scene in AC: O, picking up a quest from an NPC, and my character asked him where I could find the objective. The NPC said the word west, and then pointed in a direction. When I came out of the cutscene and had control again, the direction he pointed was actually west, and was in the general direction of the landmark he told me to look for.

Or when games like Horizon: Zero Dawn, have a stage in a quest, that is a crime scene analysis, and they set up the clues and orientation well enough that it actually made sense as you uncovered the stuff. Sure you could use the focus to home in on the points, but in one scene in particular, it was very easy to just deduce from looking around, what happened next. And then, when Aloy explained the sequence of events, it all lined up accurately with the locations discovered, and did make sense.

I like stuff like that.
 

happyninja42

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That being said, the devs will normally admit when they did stuff for artistic reasons, such as having red paint on the Sphinx at a point in history it should have long since worn off, or the massive Statues in Odyssey, which were a purely artistic choice because they wanted to depict how the Gods and Mythology loomed over the greek world and that's what they came up with to portray it(which to me seems like an admission they really wanted to make a game set in mythological Greece or maybe Greece as Homer depicted it, but also wanted to include all the really iconic people and architecture, and those two things are separated in time by close to 1000 years).
Given some of the events and creatures you run into in that game, yes I would say a mythological Greece is very much what they were aiming for.

But yeah I do like the little details they have in there. If you're inclined there is a youtube channel ManyATrueNerd, and Jon, the guy who runs it, is a huge history buff, particularly ancient Greek/Roman history. And he did a video about the stuff they got right/wrong while running around in the Discovery mode. He's also done several livestreams that run several hours of actually playing it, and he frequently stops to just give history lessons.

They are quite enjoyable, so if you are inclined, check him out, as he's a pretty funny dude, and it is interesting to hear him go into detail about the stuff they put in the game.
 

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Given some of the events and creatures you run into in that game, yes I would say a mythological Greece is very much what they were aiming for.

But yeah I do like the little details they have in there. If you're inclined there is a youtube channel ManyATrueNerd, and Jon, the guy who runs it, is a huge history buff, particularly ancient Greek/Roman history. And he did a video about the stuff they got right/wrong while running around in the Discovery mode. He's also done several livestreams that run several hours of actually playing it, and he frequently stops to just give history lessons.

They are quite enjoyable, so if you are inclined, check him out, as he's a pretty funny dude, and it is interesting to hear him go into detail about the stuff they put in the game.
I will. I normally follow Overly Sarcastic Productions, which did something similar with the AC games but I'm always up for seeing more of that kind of thing. My favorite being talking about Odyssey and using a Spartan Trireme as shorthand for a History flub.
 

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DmC's use of dynamic music and how certain dialogues of Dante's changes depending on what you did or didn't do. There is dynamic music for when your style gets to an A or higher, and lyrics will kick in or the song will crescendo. Dante's speed will increase when maintaining style ratings at S or higher, but demons are more likely to attack him at the highest style combo.
 

hanselthecaretaker

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It started with just looking up friendships for MK11, but then I clicked another clip about character intro’s and I can only imagine the flowchart needed to for some of these. For example



There’s over a dozen of these videos detailing the intertwining of characters, like little mini lore dumps. I’ve played close to a thousand matches and have watched a good chunk of character intro’s but still haven’t seen most of them. They’re often cheesy but some as a fan just make me grin, and sometimes reveal things I was never aware of.

Also, the wildlife in RDR2, which goes the distance towards the illusion this world is going to exist with or without you in it -


Another one, how varied you can get Arthur Morgan to look -


Wasn't even sure that was him at first. Kinda looks like he stepped out of some mobster flick.
 
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Another one, how varied you can get Arthur Morgan to look -


Wasn't even sure that was him at first. Kinda looks like he stepped out of some mobster flick.
What Dutch never realized is that the reason the camp was always low on money is because Arthur was spending all the camp funds on Jellybeans. Dutch was gonna waste it on something stupid like Mangos anway.
 

hanselthecaretaker

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What Dutch never realized is that the reason the camp was always low on money is because Arthur was spending all the camp funds on Jellybeans. Dutch was gonna waste it on something stupid like Mangos anway.

Considering Arthur's contributions vs anyone else's, I'd say the boah earned them extra pounds.
 
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Dreiko

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So I'm playing 13 Sentinels right now and that game is full of stuff like this. I gotta try hard not to spoil something when I write this.


So, the game has 3 modes of walking, there's a slow walk, a run, and a dash. And the game doesn't always let you use your slow walk or the dash. Basically, if you tilt the analogue in a safe or calm story point at most you get the slow walk, and if you hold O then you get the run, but if the story bit is tense or risky you can get the run by tilting all the way, and if you hit O you get the fast dash.

This doesn't do anything important (at least so far) because these segments are adventure game segments where all you're doing in them is talking to people or interacting with objects, but they serve to communicate the tension of the scene because the character is emoting even in the way they walk. Also all sprites have various facial expressions that they maintain based on the same criteria, so you can have them scowling or giddily laughing or blushing during all of those.

Just an insane level of attention to detail all around as well as a lot of work spent animating all the different expressions on the different walk cycles.


This game so far is a narrative masterpiece.