Tiny insignificant details in games that really impressed you

happyninja42

Elite Member
Legacy
May 13, 2010
8,577
2,981
118
If you hold down the Fire Missile button in most Ace Combat games (including 7, the most commonly owned on this forum), the camera will follow the missile until it hits its target or you let go of the button. This also works for special weapons like air-to-ground bombs. You won't be able to get away with this all the time, since you still have to avoid enemy attacks and crashing into the terrain, but it's really cool to watch when you're in a stable enough position to.
Curious, but can you still independently control your fighter while in the missle cam? I'm guessing it doesn't disable all the other inputs, it's just moving the POV to a different location yes?
 

happyninja42

Elite Member
Legacy
May 13, 2010
8,577
2,981
118
Something that I liked in an old game from...I think PS2 days. Vagrant Story.

It's a huge spoiler for...well the entire plot of the game, so I'll blur it.

The fact that the badguy at the end, is actually not a "Bad Guy", but is basically the vessel for a very dark power, and he's trying to get rid of it, as he's grown weary of wielding it. So the entire game, his cliche supervillain "Join me! and you will know power unimaginable!!" was a ruse, a test, because he didn't want to give it to someone who would be a monster with it. So the fact that you were constantly defying him, resisting his temptations, and staying virtuous, made you the PERFECT person he was looking for. So in the end, you defeat him, and take on the mantle of the dark power, confident that you will show restraint in using it. It's very much like that Heath Ledger film The Order, as far as motivation of the antagonist.

I just really enjoyed it.
 

NerfedFalcon

Level i Flare!
Mar 23, 2011
7,065
779
118
Gender
Male
Curious, but can you still independently control your fighter while in the missle cam? I'm guessing it doesn't disable all the other inputs, it's just moving the POV to a different location yes?
You can still control your plane as normal, I believe, but it's difficult to do well when you can't see your plane or where it's going, so normally it's only safe to use the weapon tracking cam when you're able to fly straight and level, which isn't very often.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dalisclock

Dalisclock

Making lemons combustible again
Legacy
Escapist +
Feb 9, 2008
11,229
7,007
118
A Barrel In the Marketplace
Country
Eagleland
Gender
Male
Dark Souls 3.

It's a Dark Souls, so there's a lot of details implicitly put into the game. One thing I kinda dug in the first real area of the game, the High Wall of Lothric. In some areas, you can find dead dudes(Lothric Knights?) in armor lying on the ground or propped up against a wall. Not particularly interesting until you(or something else) hits the armor and it promptly falls apart like it's empty.

For me, that was cool because while it's clear Lothric is a post-collapse shitshow, the fact the corpses have been there so long as to have decayed enough to have either reduced to dust or completely fallen apart. This is doubly impressive because Lothric is a land where the dead walk and presumably few die permanently, so they've presumably died or it's been that long so much that they stayed dead and then turned to dust/ash. So yeah, Lothric has apparently been collapsing/collapsed for a LONG, LONG time by the time you show up.
 
Last edited:

NerfedFalcon

Level i Flare!
Mar 23, 2011
7,065
779
118
Gender
Male
In the fifth case of Danganronpa 2, for the first time in the series, you have to vote for the killer yourself once the trial is concluded, just to make it hurt even more. Rather than simply watching them get convicted like usual, you have to convict them yourself - and the game won't move on until you do.

Also the music from their execution is used in a minigame in Danganronpa V3, so that's kinda cool too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BrawlMan

hanselthecaretaker

My flask is half full
Legacy
Nov 18, 2010
8,738
5,905
118
Dark Souls 3.

It's a Dark Souls, so there's a lot of details implicitly put into the game. One thing I kinda dug in the first real area of the game, the High Wall of Lothric. In some areas, you can find dead dudes(Lothric Knights?) in armor lying on the ground or propped up against a wall. Not particularly interesting until you(or something else) hits the armor and it promptly falls apart like it's empty.

For me, that was cool because while it's clear Lothric is a post-collapse shitshow, the fact the corpses have been there so long as to have decayed enough to have either reduced to dust or completely fallen apart. This is doubtly impressive because Lotrhic is a land where the dead walk and presumably few die permenatly, so they've presumably died or it's been that long so much that they stayed dead and then turned to dust/ash. So yeah, Lotrhic has apparently been collapsing/collapsed for a LONG, LONG time by the time you show up.
Yeah the light is barely lit in Soulsland by the third game, to the point it’s a wonder anyone’s still around. As one might expect, this death and decay theme really sinks in with the culmination of the Ringed City leading up to the final boss, and it does so beautifully.
This video has a ton of details I totally missed, but there is spoilery stuff so perhaps bookmark it for when you’re done.

In other news, it’s been years since I played it but apparently Undead Nightmare has some historical flare -

Seeing as how you’ve more recently finished the game, maybe it’s still fresh enough to recall some of these details better.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dalisclock

Dalisclock

Making lemons combustible again
Legacy
Escapist +
Feb 9, 2008
11,229
7,007
118
A Barrel In the Marketplace
Country
Eagleland
Gender
Male
Yeah the light is barely lit in Soulsland by the third game, to the point it’s a wonder anyone’s still around. As one might expect, this death and decay theme really sinks in with the culmination of the Ringed City leading up to the final boss, and it does so beautifully.
This video has a ton of details I totally missed, but there is spoilery stuff so perhaps bookmark it for when you’re done.

In other news, it’s been years since I played it but apparently Undead Nightmare has some historical flare -

Seeing as how you’ve more recently finished the game, maybe it’s still fresh enough to recall some of these details better.
The red dead video is pretty spot on. I didn't bother so much with the horses but I did enjoy the Bigfoot mission.

"You eat babies!"
"WE EAT BERRIES AND MUSHROOMS!"
 

hanselthecaretaker

My flask is half full
Legacy
Nov 18, 2010
8,738
5,905
118
Dear ol’ Arthur wouldn’t stand a chance playing Mileena in a game of Five Finger Fillet -



Also, in a somewhat morbid jab at Sis Kitana’s throne intro -

 

hanselthecaretaker

My flask is half full
Legacy
Nov 18, 2010
8,738
5,905
118

Who would’ve thought the mask one would end up being so relevant.

Also, if you’ve ever run into the preacher and dismissed him as yet another tropey lunatic -

 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Dalisclock

Dreiko

Elite Member
Legacy
May 1, 2020
2,694
896
118
CT
Country
usa
Gender
male, pronouns: your majesty/my lord/daddy
So I'm playing trails of cold steel 4 and like with every classic turn based Jrpg there's a winpose fanfare after each fight.

Well, in this game you have certain team moves you can do, and if you score the winning hit with such a move the participating duo of characters will have a unique winpose dialogue snippet during the winpose fanfare screen.

Now, it might be a minor thing, but when the game spans 9 Jrpgs worth of characters (we're at around 30 characters give or take a couple that each has had tens of hours of character development, some were old enemies, some were kids who grew up and joined the fight later, one of em is a cat, tons of stuff!), and brings them all together in an epic conclusion for the tetralogy that is Cold Steel, and EACH combination of two people has an individualized winpose fanfare dialoge....and when those dialogues CHANGE over time as the chars' bonds and relationships change based on the plot...what starts unwinding from a minor system that you pay no attention to initially, it is a pretty hefty storytelling device. I find myself using varied party member combinations to just explore all those winpose dialogues. It even affects my strategy because I end up planning out my fights to have specific teams score the killing hit.

And at the same time, compared to every other thing in the game and how very fleshed out everything in the game is, it still is only but a minor thing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: NerfedFalcon

Mister Mumbler

Pronounced "Throat-wobbler Mangrove"
Legacy
Jun 17, 2020
1,844
1,692
118
Nowhere
Country
United States
When games where you sit inside things with glass remember that glass is actually an object that can get dirty and you can see it.
20201128182021_1.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dalisclock

Xprimentyl

Made you look...
Legacy
Aug 13, 2011
6,210
4,482
118
Plano, TX
Country
United States
Gender
Male
Playing Dark Souls 3, and I was equal parts impressed and frustrated when I encountered the first Lothric Knight who's move set includes a back-handed shield bash as a counter-circle-strafing measure for cheap bastards like me that've been exploiting circle-strafing for the past two DS games. Far more elegant and fluid than what they tried with the turtle knights in DS2 who just fall backwards on you for cheap damage or enemies who spun around like they're on a turntable denying you access to their backs. Well played, FromSoft; took you a while, but you caught on to us.
 

NerfedFalcon

Level i Flare!
Mar 23, 2011
7,065
779
118
Gender
Male
In Devil May Cry 3's 11th mission, the boss, who only has one eye, can be interrupted by attacking him in that eye. It isn't totally safe, though, since his blind flailing in that state can still damage you if you aren't careful, and you have to be pretty precise to make it work. I think it's also on a cooldown, but it's still a neat touch, and a useful way to handle the battle if you're good enough to activate it, and not get hit by it.

Also, in the first game's 8th mission, the boss is fought in a courtyard with a window in the middle leading into another room. Since the boss jumps around a lot, if you can make it jump on the window enough times, it'll fall through and instantly die.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BrawlMan

happyninja42

Elite Member
Legacy
May 13, 2010
8,577
2,981
118
When they actually get the sky and angle of the sun and other factors correct, based on where they are supposedly based. So like, I could look up at the sky, and actually see accurate constellations, and they are oriented correctly based on rotation and other factors. You almost never see this, but it's something I always look for in open world games.
 

Dalisclock

Making lemons combustible again
Legacy
Escapist +
Feb 9, 2008
11,229
7,007
118
A Barrel In the Marketplace
Country
Eagleland
Gender
Male

It's an hour long video but it's quite an interesting watch seeing how FROM synced up the playable maps and the views from distant vistas of the same locations. A few notable flubs but all in all they did a pretty good job of making things look good despite a bit of visual trickery involved. A lot of the flubs I didn't even notice(such as the dropoff beyond the crystal sage arena from one of the vistas) or how they added an extra bit to Lothric Castle to block the view from Firelink Shrine. Then again, Firelink Shrine is in a really wierd place time/space wise because the sky is always the same there despite the rest of the world during the game.

And a hell of a lot better showing then the same attempts in DS2.
 

hanselthecaretaker

My flask is half full
Legacy
Nov 18, 2010
8,738
5,905
118
When they actually get the sky and angle of the sun and other factors correct, based on where they are supposedly based. So like, I could look up at the sky, and actually see accurate constellations, and they are oriented correctly based on rotation and other factors. You almost never see this, but it's something I always look for in open world games.
Is there a game that does do this besides, like, maybe Space Engine?
 

happyninja42

Elite Member
Legacy
May 13, 2010
8,577
2,981
118
Is there a game that does do this besides, like, maybe Space Engine?
Not that comes to mind no, which is why I said you rarely see it. There is probably a game or two that did it, but if so, I don't remember them. But it is a feature that I always HOPE for whenever I look skyward in a game.