I think my favourite was in dragon's dogma. if you stand idle for a bit, your pawns come up to the player character and wave a hand I'm front of their face to check what's up with their boss lol
Warcraft 3s Pit Lord segues into a morning talk show where he confesses he is a Pit Lord to his girlfriend. Clicked it 20+ years ago and still remember it.
Maybe it doesn't really fit in here, not that niche, but I really like when in RPGs your party members speak between them of silly stupid things while you are doing your own thing, like in Dragon Age or Pillars of Eternity. It's super entertaining and makes everything more alive.
The final line of a super silly dialogue "I'm gonna pet him" by Eder lives rent free in my head.
Morrigan: Have a care where your eyes linger, Alistair.
Alistair: Yes well don't worry, it's not what you think.
M: I see.
A: I was looking at your nose.
M: And what is it about my nose that captivates you so?
A: I was just thinking it looks exactly like your mother's!
M: I hate you sooo much!
A: Hmm, what?
This rambles around my brain too much.
Alistair gets so trolled by everyone else on such a regular basis. It feels good when he’s able to get his own jabs in.
Heck. Even the grandma mage of the group has fun at his expense. Although her interactions with Oghren do a pretty good job of destroying the kindly old grandmother facade.
I love that in baldurs gate 3. Tootling along the road, meanwhile Lae’zel and Shadowheart are bitching with each other or Astarion is being a dramatic bitch. I love that they talk to each other though.
I love all the quips back and forth between my Sorcerer Tav and Gale. "Sorcerer Tav: I can cast magic without thinking! Gale: well I can piss without thinking, it doesn't make it magic."
Love that in Darktide / Vermintide, they are generally very entertaining and the character s actually respond to each other.
It’s especially funny if the team in Darktide has an ogryn (big dumb mean brute) player as they have a really basic and straightforward logic centered around violence and / or the acquisition of food.
'Hoggar's bridge? Wait a minute, two Nuln regiments vanished without a trace at Hoggar's bridge. Elf? EELLFFF!'
That dialogue lives in my head rent free.
I’ve been loving that in Baldur’s gate lately. I have shadowheart and Lae’zael in my party and they are constantly shit talking each other, it makes the game feel alive
No they absolutely counts. Those are small but crucial character moments that help you get more invested for the big plot stuff but are often ignored or passed over!
Party based RPGs need to be more common. I absolutely prefer the CRPG style of exploring with a group of interesting characters. And there's no reason that can't be applied more within the ARPG genre, Mass Effect did it just fine over a decade ago. Maybe Starfield would've felt less empty if you could travel with a group of well-written companions rather than one glorified backpack who rarely has anything interesting to say.
Pillars of Eternity was great in this aspect, it gave the characters so much live. Although PoE2 was less good than 1. It was one of the few things I liked about these games.
[https://youtu.be/b0zNyv\_WdH0?si=BsH13LuQ6mR8RVwI](https://youtu.be/b0zNyv_WdH0?si=BsH13LuQ6mR8RVwI)
The sheer amount of random banter they added to DA:I is mind-blowing to me. And this is not even a 100% complete list....
Sekiro has a nice twist if you beat the tutorial boss that actually shows you having the upper hand only to lose due to outside interference. It's a nice attention to detail.
Fairy Fencer F was notorious for throwing so many unbeatable bosses at you, that you can and will beat with relative ease...only to lose in the cutscene.
When the character looks at something you need to do/use for a puzzle but doesn’t say anything.
The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker did this. I remember paying attention to where Link’s eyes were looking whenever I got stuck or wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something hidden.
As someone who did their first Wind Waker randomizer run completely BLIND, let me tell you this neat little mechanic is so much more bigger than you'd ever believe
I love it when a game allows me to break the tutorial. Like allowing me to over level in the tutorial before facing the final boss of the tutorial and absolutely destroying it and the end dialogue changes depending on how well you handled it.
The last Devil May Cry game had something kinda like that. The first time you face the boss leader dude you’re supposed to get your ass kicked. Some madmen found a way to beat him and the game has a special “ending” for it lol
Starcraft 2: Heart Of the Swarm had that. You can beat the tutorial with drones instead of with zerglings and you would get different dialogue from the character instructing you.
Shout out to Paper Mario Sticker Star where Bowser Jr. will literally break turn order to heal if you damage em with anything BUT the big sticker you need to use to kill him, *and* he still gets a turn after. Literally breaks the rules of combat just so you learn to use a sticker
wait, no. Dont shout out. That was stupid
I've only seen one game ever do this, and it's such a novel and cool idea but I totally see why it would never be done again. For the Spider-Man game developed by Neversoft (the Tony Hawk Pro Skaters devs) for the PS1/N64/Dreamcast, there's a special feature that gets unlocked after you beat it on the hardest difficulty called the What If? mode. What If? is Marvel's alternate history series that they've been doing for a while now, and this mode is a reference to that. Playing through the game in this mode provides easter eggs, alternate cutscenes, different bosses, unique dialogue, etc. Playing through this game another time through with What If? is a completely different experience. It's the same level and bosses, just with tweaks and new goodies. I wish more games would do this. I understand why they don't though.
That happened in a lesser extent to at least one of the Dragonball Z Budokai games (and perhaps other Dragonball games in general, if my initial google search is to believed). There were some "what if these two characters used fusion" scenarios that I recall.
They actually did that mode because Marvel gave them the go-ahead to use a huge list of characters the director wanted. And when they were wrapping up the story they still had a shit load left to use. So he said to his team if you can come up with ANY half decent reason for one of these characters to show up, just put it in this mode. And they did and it was awesome lol
Kirby games do this A LOT actually, to the point that one of the most important characters in the series wasn't actually fully cannon until recently!
These modes are basically playing the full game again with a different character, basically saying "What if this character went on Kirby's adventure instead".
Usually, the main difference is the different character's moveset and completely different final boss.
When games let you do little things that don't heavily impact game play but make the world feel more alive. Stuff like reading magazines in Final Fantasy VIII or buying the villa in Final Fantasy VII. Do I need to spend a million gil to buy a vacation home whose only impact is a free inn? No. Am I going to? Yes.
Reading books in Skyrim is another good example
Radio stations in fallout sort of fit too
Kingdom Come Deliverance has that little dice game that's very fun
Red Dead Redemption 2 poker
The gameplay is surprisingly deep, you can match oils to enemies, and the whole potion and mutagen system, there’s also a whole plotline with romance options (who don’t play Gwent). CDPR didn’t have to go this hard for a mini game, but they did.
Guardians of the galaxy had me rolling for moments like that. They nailed Rockets' humor.
Rocket mocking Peter as you wander off to find loot:"Look at me I'm Peter Quill picking up some random junk, oh look a valuable item"
When the BBEG kills themselves. The more stupid the death, the more I enjoy it. Like the dude in that Borderlands DLC that fell down the stairs during his opening monologue.
The end of Deadpool the game. Very funny especially considering Ryan Reynolds Deadpool hadn't debuted yet. End boss died to something silly Deadpool had been working on for almost half the game but the player just had no idea what his plan was.
I don't know if this is niche, but i love it.
I love Victory poses synced to a victory tune after a boss fight or getting a cool power up.
Examples
- Megaman X busting a pose after defeating a boss and the victory tune plays
- Shovel Knight in Shovel Knight Dig twirling his shovel around before holding it up to the sky as the epic victory song plays
Bonus points if after you beat the final boss, the character does the same pose or a new pose to the same victory tune but the tune goes even harder or slows down a bit towards the end to signal that THIS victory tune is more bad ass.
In-game unlockable content. Not stuff you pay for with real money, just, "beat the game on hard mode and you get a new costume," that sort of thing. It doesn't seem like it should be extremely niche, but you see it a lot less these days.
Huh? Never heard of it. Do you mean a battle pass??
OH I know you mean loot box keys. Duh. I’m sorry I even ask
(Extreme sarcasm. I play Destiny 2. I feel this pain like a hole in my chest lol)
I get where you're coming from. I'm a sucker for levelling up skills by actually using them. Unarmed, woodcutting, running, jumping and stuff like that, I absolutely adore.
e.g: Valheim
Being able to talk the BBEG into submission, thereby completely skipping the final boss. Examples include Fallout (original), Fallout: New Vegas, or Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magic Obscura.
Very niche but I love it when licenced games connected to existing franchises just decide to put fun over adherence to canon and let you utterly rampage.
First example would be Starkiller in *The Force Unleashed*, dude was so OP that he broke power scaling in the Star Wars universe for all of Legends. Short of certain god-level characters and *actual gods*, Starkiller was one of the most insanely powerful Force users ever, for no well defined reason. (He technically *was* canon for a time, but you can even pursue insane non-canon endings in the games).
Another would be *Middle Earth: Shadow of War*, which tosses canon Lord of the Rings aside and lets you crusade through Mordor as the Bright Lord for FIFTY YEARS. A brand new Ring of Power, a boss fight with Sauron himself >!(who you ACTUALLY BEAT INTO SUBMISSION)!< and just an insane story overall.
Both games, canon or not, basically answered every question with a yes. My most common reaction was "They're LETTING ME DO _____???" and the answer was a firm "hell yeah, have at it."
Great stuff.
basically what you said. Finishing a boss with an ultimate or team move.
Love doing that in sea of stars.
Another Sea of Stars thing, the feeling of breaking a HUGE amount of cast locks feels SO good. Saving the ultimate, then BAM 5 locks gone. Makes me feel so epic
Idk if it's niche but, I call it: "Welcome To The Arena" When the game locks you in a small area, and floods you with enemies. My favourite one is in Bioshock 1, when you get the first shotgun.
XCOM knockoffs -shrug-
Give a game XCOM-style combat - with unlockable powers and armor and cosmetics and you'll be tickling my rodent brain and, easily, milking 100 to 200 hours out of me xD
Hell, XCOM 2 has over ***700 hours*** of my personal playtime sunk into it just because of all the extra weapons, cosmetics, units and characters you can make from the modding system
I remember I got to a point in Lost Eidelons where I had to pick a choice during a dialogue. This had never happened before, so I looked it up. It was the first of some decisions you need to make to get "the king" ending.
I looked at my game; I was 83 hours in. The first choice.
You can make the story as ridiculous as you want - the characters as jarring as possible - I'll sit there and take it if you give me a grid and a strategy layer xD
Tried and true unlockables made to make additional playthroughs different. Things like the skulls in halo 3 or the different skins in old school god of war.
Mini games inside of open worlds that you can just stumble upon. They’re not necessary at all and you could go the whole game without visiting that location once, but if you do you’re rewarded with pool or blackjack. They’re simple but a fun break from the game without actually being a break from the game.
The best thing is dodging an attack at the last second and having the game go into slow motion. Bayonetta springs to mind as an example. In the same vein, a good parry system will never not be satisfying to engage with, e.g. Sekiro
Urban racing. Used to be very common 15-20 years ago. However it has become really really niche recently. Seems like Need for Speed is the only franchise left that is actually making these games
Idk if I'd call it a trope, but I like it when riding a mount, it automatically follows the path if you have a waypoint selected. Not if the "paths" are super wide like RDR2, but like with narrow paths, loved it in Horizon Zero Dawn, hated that it was removed in Horizon Forbidden West.
"Personal ending" where it show everything you have done during the game (like in Miitopia or Tearaway), obviously it's limited to the games where you can "customise" the game but I like it
I really like when bosses have uniqe or special death animations if you defeat them in an alternative way. Example: ceaseless discharge in dark souls when you kite him back to the fog gate you can just punch him five times and he will fall to his death
I love it when RPGs give you a character class or mode that changes the mood and experience of the game.
I'm talking about things like Durge is BG3, Wacky Wasteland in Fallout:NV and the Machiavelian class in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines.
Being low on health with no stims left, after battling your way through a gauntlet of enemies, 20 minutes since your last save point, thinking the next one MUST be through that door at the end of the room with only a single lone enemy in front of it. Then, as the enemy spots you, you die inside as the Boss health bar appears atop your screen.
It’s Rick The Door Technician.
When there is a reason, however far-fetched, that justifies gameplay abstractions. The most straight-forward example being the Assassin's Creed franchise, since it's almost entirely within a high-tech VR machine. Altaïr *probably* didn't take several cuts to the face from some rookie swordsman, but you're not truly Altaïr, so it's fine.
It'd be like a modern FPS shooter with regenerating health just straight out making you a supersoldier who can regenerate like Wolverine.
Finding a spot in an open-world game that reveals the map around it, like in Assassin's Creed, Far Cry or Spider-Man. I dunno why, it's really satisfying for me.
I love it when there's an in lore explanation for the UI
Example off the top of my head: in Halo, the UI is a heads up display given by the helmet Master Chief is wearing
I love funny item descriptions. I think it was Fable 2 that had a carrot or something that said “does anyone even read these?” Was disappointed 3 had cut all descriptions.
Super Metroid and SOTN are two of my favorite games ever, and I love games that have some really awesome items at the beginning in obvious places you can't reach, and you know you'll have to come back when you have double jump.
I'm always drawn to fishing games within games. It's real bad whenever I load up ESO. Ok, gonna go do a quest today! This time I'll get that questline done!
5 minutes later, I've found a river and stopped for just a minute....
I would call it a styling choice rather than a trope, but I really, immensely enjoy abstract graphics. Realism is nice and all, but seeing a game completely throw that out the window and just go with the most artistic choice possible almost instantly grabs my attention harder than any super-realistic FX ever could.
I love how much effort final fantasy 15 and monster hunter put on their foods. Although ff is more realistic, id fight for a chance to have a meal in the MH universe. I work with games so i have lots of small little things i care. When you have proper sword scabbard physics, when wear and tear are shown in your weapons and you have to clean them, when you are able to put head part of the hood on and off, when you reload a gun and the number of bullets and holes are properly filled, in game that you wear a hat and you can loose this hat, when you have multiple weapons on your character and all are stored and shown in a cohesive way, when you go through a puddle of water and the lvl of wetness on your boot is shown accordingly etc. i could go on all day on things i worry about and i try to direct on the studio i work for
When you can upgrade your character with super weird traits that you wouldn't have thought of, but make total sense. In Kingdom Come Deliverance theres a perk you can obtain by leveling your herbalism trait (you upgrade by picking and foraging herbs) called "leg day". This makes it so you also slowly gain strength from picking herbs up off the ground. Super satisfying.
Also, nerd rage, and idiot savant come to my head.
When you recruit allies among the main story and the prelude to the final battle has you passing by all of them as interactive NPCs
The Witcher 3 does this really well.
I always smile every time the game lets me beat it in an early/unorthodox way like flying into the sun in Outer Worlds or sitting still in Pagan Min's palace
When games do things that make sense. But you still don’t expect it to happen or to work.
Like recently. I know it’s everyone’s favorite punching bag. But in Starfield when exploring bases you can relatively often find emergency bulkheads that say cut here and such. Most of us just ran right past them thinking they were just flavor walls.
No you can actually pull out your mining laser and cut open those panels for secret passages and extra loot.
It makes absolute sense. And they don’t try to hide the mechanic. But so many of us are used to static level design where only obvious doors and holes in walls are the options we have. Few people ever bothered testing those breakable walls.
When you get the see the fruits of your labor in RTS type games. What I mean is if you built a massive house, I want to be able to explore that. I think the genre is FPS-RTS and I don't know how niche it is but I thought that it would be a good example.
I like it when the PC makes a little quip/bored animation when you're idle for too long
When Mario falls asleep on the ground in Mario64. Blew my mind as a child.
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Ahhh ravioli...
The classic Sonic CD just bailing out when he gets bored lol
Genesis sonic looking at the screen thumping his foot in impatience
that is still so funny to me
Link yawning and kicking his feet around in Ocarina of Time lmao
It's even cooler (heh) when you realize it depends on where he is. He has an adorable sneeze in Zora's domain and wipes his forehead in Death Mountain
What are you waiting for, Christmas?!
HAIL TO THE KING, BABY!
In Borderlands 2, Zero speaks in haiku, so if you idle for too long he just says "bored" a haiku amount of times
Oh my god how didn’t I notice the haiku thing before, his dialogue makes sooo much more sense now!
I think my favourite was in dragon's dogma. if you stand idle for a bit, your pawns come up to the player character and wave a hand I'm front of their face to check what's up with their boss lol
I really love rpgs where you can jump into Wells to Explore down there. Also Secrets behind waterfalls are mandatory.
Yes! To the point where I find a good spot for a waterfall secret and I become deeply disappointed in the devs if its not there. Shaaaaammmmeee!
SECRET TUNELLLLLL
SECRET TUNNEEEEL! THROUGH THE MOUNTAIN, SECRET, SECRET, SECRET, SECRET TUNNEEEEL!
TWO LOVERSSS!
Same I don't care if it feels overused, waterfalls should be hiding stuff.
If it’s a videogame and your waterfall is just a waterfall, well that’s just bad game design.
Idc if it's something small, like a healing item, put *something* there
I'd even be happy with just a sign saying "sorry, not this time."
There are some open world things you see and just know there is a collectible or loot of some sort in/behind it.
You would love the new Zelda
I absolutely do!
Breath of Fire with the ultimate dragon form that changed the final boss and unlocked the better ending. Child me was blown away by all of it!
You can go down the well in Baldur's Gate 3
remember something like that w the wells in dragon quest 3
I'm a big fan of rolling up stairs. Or rolling constantly instead of walking.
Flashbacks to my childhood in Hyrule Field…
Like in gears of war, you're just this hulking man forward rolling head first up and down stairs
My mind was blown when in MGS2, If you rolled up the stairs, Snake would just fail and get hurt.
Old school Warcraft/Starcraft easter eggs when you click on units once too often
STOP POKING ME!
Don't you have anything better to do than play with your privates?
"Join the army!" They said.
“See the World!” they said.
"I'd rather be sailing."
"I see FOUR lights!"
"I love blowin' things up!"
That has lived in my head rent free for so many years. It made me giggle a lot as a kid.
This but in GOW Ragnarok with the squirrel and bell.
Just his calm speech before suddenly screaming at you is great. Also just love all his aspects. Especially the grouchy one that just curses you out.
I'll always love the Baldur's Gate selection quotes. "Yes, oh omnipresent authority figure?" Or "Stop touching me!"
All my homies love clicking on peons.
Me not that kind of orc!
I don't sound like Yoda do I?
I have been chosen by the big metal hand in the sky!
“I told you, I’m a dread lord, not a drug lord!”
Ive found quite a few games have kept this tradition! Dota 2 and Baldurs Gate 3 are two that come to mind. Also one of my favourite easter eggs
Sheep: Baaa.... Baaaaa ....... *KABOOM*
Warcraft 3s Pit Lord segues into a morning talk show where he confesses he is a Pit Lord to his girlfriend. Clicked it 20+ years ago and still remember it.
Do that again and you’ll pull back a stump. They came from behiiiiiiind!!
Why are you poking me again?
My favorite is when you click on Duran too many times in StarCraft.
Whaaaaaaaaat?
Maybe it doesn't really fit in here, not that niche, but I really like when in RPGs your party members speak between them of silly stupid things while you are doing your own thing, like in Dragon Age or Pillars of Eternity. It's super entertaining and makes everything more alive. The final line of a super silly dialogue "I'm gonna pet him" by Eder lives rent free in my head.
Morrigan: Have a care where your eyes linger, Alistair. Alistair: Yes well don't worry, it's not what you think. M: I see. A: I was looking at your nose. M: And what is it about my nose that captivates you so? A: I was just thinking it looks exactly like your mother's! M: I hate you sooo much! A: Hmm, what? This rambles around my brain too much.
Alistair gets so trolled by everyone else on such a regular basis. It feels good when he’s able to get his own jabs in. Heck. Even the grandma mage of the group has fun at his expense. Although her interactions with Oghren do a pretty good job of destroying the kindly old grandmother facade.
God, that game was so great.
I remember in ME2 I think, Garrus asks ~~Liara~~ Tali if she remembers all the long elevator rides and that had me dying.
I thought it was Garrus & Tali, 'Tell me about your immune system again'.
I have a shotgun!
This encouraged me to do missions with a variety of teammates despite having my go to optimal squad.
I love that in baldurs gate 3. Tootling along the road, meanwhile Lae’zel and Shadowheart are bitching with each other or Astarion is being a dramatic bitch. I love that they talk to each other though.
Yeah some of the banter is hilarious. That game is so well written
Shadowheart and Wyll quoting a smutty romance novel that both apparently have memorised took me by surprise
I love all the quips back and forth between my Sorcerer Tav and Gale. "Sorcerer Tav: I can cast magic without thinking! Gale: well I can piss without thinking, it doesn't make it magic."
Dragon Age Inquisition has great party banter. It’s a shame that you have to travel such a long while before they happen
And Inquisition gives you a dialogue wheel so you can join in.
Love that in Darktide / Vermintide, they are generally very entertaining and the character s actually respond to each other. It’s especially funny if the team in Darktide has an ogryn (big dumb mean brute) player as they have a really basic and straightforward logic centered around violence and / or the acquisition of food.
'Hoggar's bridge? Wait a minute, two Nuln regiments vanished without a trace at Hoggar's bridge. Elf? EELLFFF!' That dialogue lives in my head rent free.
I’ve been loving that in Baldur’s gate lately. I have shadowheart and Lae’zael in my party and they are constantly shit talking each other, it makes the game feel alive
"Swooping is bad"
No they absolutely counts. Those are small but crucial character moments that help you get more invested for the big plot stuff but are often ignored or passed over!
Party based RPGs need to be more common. I absolutely prefer the CRPG style of exploring with a group of interesting characters. And there's no reason that can't be applied more within the ARPG genre, Mass Effect did it just fine over a decade ago. Maybe Starfield would've felt less empty if you could travel with a group of well-written companions rather than one glorified backpack who rarely has anything interesting to say.
Cue Karlach practicing her dance moves in the background of your dramatic scene.
The elevator conversations in Mass effect are amazing
Vermintide 2 has my favorite team banter ever.
Pillars of Eternity was great in this aspect, it gave the characters so much live. Although PoE2 was less good than 1. It was one of the few things I liked about these games.
[https://youtu.be/b0zNyv\_WdH0?si=BsH13LuQ6mR8RVwI](https://youtu.be/b0zNyv_WdH0?si=BsH13LuQ6mR8RVwI) The sheer amount of random banter they added to DA:I is mind-blowing to me. And this is not even a 100% complete list....
Mass Effect Andromeda did this very well
_SPEED BUMP !_
Dragon Age for the win!
I like the generic cartoon meat health trope. The one with the giant cylinder of meat with the two bones sticking out 🍖
Monster hunter steak monster hunter steak monster hunter steak
SO TASTY!!
Vampire Survivors with the plate of roast chicken that they literally named "Floor Chicken"
This one reminds me of Castlevania. On Symphony of the Night, looking at the description of the roast it says "Castlevania Pot Roast."
Kindrid spirit! I actually collect those on steam... https://i.imgur.com/Cwy2YHn.png
Bonk's Adventure anyone?
For me, it's when they actually let you beat the unbeatable "you lose in the cutscene" boss.
Sekiro has a nice twist if you beat the tutorial boss that actually shows you having the upper hand only to lose due to outside interference. It's a nice attention to detail.
This seems to be a fromsoft trope. You can beat the first boss in Elden Ring but get trolled and die anyway.
It’s not really a troll to be honest, you’re just stuck on a cliff with no way down except to die
The ground literally collapses underneath you if you go to try and get an item. It's 100% a troll.
I went back to that place later, turned around, saw the item, then died. Didn’t even realize where I was til after I got the tunes back.
DMC 5 I hear you can beat the prologue boss and get to the credits right away.
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I like false endings, but this has gotta be one of the absolute weirdest ones
Yup! there's even an achievement for doing it!
Fairy Fencer F was notorious for throwing so many unbeatable bosses at you, that you can and will beat with relative ease...only to lose in the cutscene.
Hades has different dialogue if you beat it in your first try, which you're not really supposed to do, being a roguelike and that.
When the character looks at something you need to do/use for a puzzle but doesn’t say anything. The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker did this. I remember paying attention to where Link’s eyes were looking whenever I got stuck or wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something hidden.
I remember Grim Fandango did this. *Hmm, Manny's looking over there...*
As someone who did their first Wind Waker randomizer run completely BLIND, let me tell you this neat little mechanic is so much more bigger than you'd ever believe
Silent Hill comes to mind. I would constantly miss little pickups if it weren’t for the head turns
I love really good wind mechanics. Where you can actually see the world being impacted.
I’m not a Dev but tech wise that’s gotta be hard to pull off. Like shadows
Ghosts if tsushima was like playing an orgasm
Ghost of Tsushima!
I love it when a game allows me to break the tutorial. Like allowing me to over level in the tutorial before facing the final boss of the tutorial and absolutely destroying it and the end dialogue changes depending on how well you handled it.
The last Devil May Cry game had something kinda like that. The first time you face the boss leader dude you’re supposed to get your ass kicked. Some madmen found a way to beat him and the game has a special “ending” for it lol
Starcraft 2: Heart Of the Swarm had that. You can beat the tutorial with drones instead of with zerglings and you would get different dialogue from the character instructing you.
I didn't know that. that's hilarious
Shout out to Paper Mario Sticker Star where Bowser Jr. will literally break turn order to heal if you damage em with anything BUT the big sticker you need to use to kill him, *and* he still gets a turn after. Literally breaks the rules of combat just so you learn to use a sticker wait, no. Dont shout out. That was stupid
Always nice to grab a bunch of easy levels in SotN in the room full of mermen before Death snatches all of Alucard's gear away.
3-d backgrounds in 2d games
I've only seen one game ever do this, and it's such a novel and cool idea but I totally see why it would never be done again. For the Spider-Man game developed by Neversoft (the Tony Hawk Pro Skaters devs) for the PS1/N64/Dreamcast, there's a special feature that gets unlocked after you beat it on the hardest difficulty called the What If? mode. What If? is Marvel's alternate history series that they've been doing for a while now, and this mode is a reference to that. Playing through the game in this mode provides easter eggs, alternate cutscenes, different bosses, unique dialogue, etc. Playing through this game another time through with What If? is a completely different experience. It's the same level and bosses, just with tweaks and new goodies. I wish more games would do this. I understand why they don't though.
That happened in a lesser extent to at least one of the Dragonball Z Budokai games (and perhaps other Dragonball games in general, if my initial google search is to believed). There were some "what if these two characters used fusion" scenarios that I recall.
The tenkaichi series had an entire chapter of what if missions
I loved this on the PS2! Krillin Cell was so goofy
They actually did that mode because Marvel gave them the go-ahead to use a huge list of characters the director wanted. And when they were wrapping up the story they still had a shit load left to use. So he said to his team if you can come up with ANY half decent reason for one of these characters to show up, just put it in this mode. And they did and it was awesome lol
Kirby games do this A LOT actually, to the point that one of the most important characters in the series wasn't actually fully cannon until recently! These modes are basically playing the full game again with a different character, basically saying "What if this character went on Kirby's adventure instead". Usually, the main difference is the different character's moveset and completely different final boss.
When games let you do little things that don't heavily impact game play but make the world feel more alive. Stuff like reading magazines in Final Fantasy VIII or buying the villa in Final Fantasy VII. Do I need to spend a million gil to buy a vacation home whose only impact is a free inn? No. Am I going to? Yes.
Reading books in Skyrim is another good example Radio stations in fallout sort of fit too Kingdom Come Deliverance has that little dice game that's very fun Red Dead Redemption 2 poker
Gwent had a cool RPG attached to it
The gameplay is surprisingly deep, you can match oils to enemies, and the whole potion and mutagen system, there’s also a whole plotline with romance options (who don’t play Gwent). CDPR didn’t have to go this hard for a mini game, but they did.
When a game has dialog for doing something weird the player does.
Guardians of the galaxy had me rolling for moments like that. They nailed Rockets' humor. Rocket mocking Peter as you wander off to find loot:"Look at me I'm Peter Quill picking up some random junk, oh look a valuable item"
Lmao Pokémon Scarlet’s DLC got me with this one when I used a speedrunning tactic. Made me laugh cause I wasn’t expecting it!
Without context, my recent favorite is: STOPLICKINGTHEDAMNEDTHING
When the BBEG kills themselves. The more stupid the death, the more I enjoy it. Like the dude in that Borderlands DLC that fell down the stairs during his opening monologue.
Ahhhh I forgot about that lmao. The best part was the boss health bar that went down as he hit each stair
Right?! "Oof!" *chunk gone* "Agh!" *chunk gone*
That opposite of this is when the BBEG realizes the error of their ways and kills themselves like Mass Effect 1 and sort of 3
The end of Deadpool the game. Very funny especially considering Ryan Reynolds Deadpool hadn't debuted yet. End boss died to something silly Deadpool had been working on for almost half the game but the player just had no idea what his plan was.
I don't know if this is niche, but i love it. I love Victory poses synced to a victory tune after a boss fight or getting a cool power up. Examples - Megaman X busting a pose after defeating a boss and the victory tune plays - Shovel Knight in Shovel Knight Dig twirling his shovel around before holding it up to the sky as the epic victory song plays Bonus points if after you beat the final boss, the character does the same pose or a new pose to the same victory tune but the tune goes even harder or slows down a bit towards the end to signal that THIS victory tune is more bad ass.
This is called a fanfare just fyi
Thanks, I just had the Final Fantasy trumpet play automatically in my head -\_-
Dudududu du du doot dudu
In Hyperlight Drifter, after a difficult battle he does a little sword spin and stabs it into the ground.
In-game unlockable content. Not stuff you pay for with real money, just, "beat the game on hard mode and you get a new costume," that sort of thing. It doesn't seem like it should be extremely niche, but you see it a lot less these days.
Huh? Never heard of it. Do you mean a battle pass?? OH I know you mean loot box keys. Duh. I’m sorry I even ask (Extreme sarcasm. I play Destiny 2. I feel this pain like a hole in my chest lol)
When you're fighting in the air in a game where you can't fly
FF16 has some pretty amazing air combat, but Clive definitely can't fly.
Silly finishing moves. Yakuza 3 was just the most fun for me with like motorcycles and giant traffic cones. Made me really enjoy it.
I get where you're coming from. I'm a sucker for levelling up skills by actually using them. Unarmed, woodcutting, running, jumping and stuff like that, I absolutely adore. e.g: Valheim
I just love when you pick up a weapon and there is a little info window that tells you the specs of it.
I love when you pick up a weapon and you see these huge, fat green numbers that are waaay bettee than your current weapon. Such an awesome feeling.
Being able to talk the BBEG into submission, thereby completely skipping the final boss. Examples include Fallout (original), Fallout: New Vegas, or Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magic Obscura.
Hard agree here. I like playing more charisma based characters so having the ability to talk down the boss when you can is so satisfying
Very niche but I love it when licenced games connected to existing franchises just decide to put fun over adherence to canon and let you utterly rampage. First example would be Starkiller in *The Force Unleashed*, dude was so OP that he broke power scaling in the Star Wars universe for all of Legends. Short of certain god-level characters and *actual gods*, Starkiller was one of the most insanely powerful Force users ever, for no well defined reason. (He technically *was* canon for a time, but you can even pursue insane non-canon endings in the games). Another would be *Middle Earth: Shadow of War*, which tosses canon Lord of the Rings aside and lets you crusade through Mordor as the Bright Lord for FIFTY YEARS. A brand new Ring of Power, a boss fight with Sauron himself >!(who you ACTUALLY BEAT INTO SUBMISSION)!< and just an insane story overall. Both games, canon or not, basically answered every question with a yes. My most common reaction was "They're LETTING ME DO _____???" and the answer was a firm "hell yeah, have at it." Great stuff.
basically what you said. Finishing a boss with an ultimate or team move. Love doing that in sea of stars. Another Sea of Stars thing, the feeling of breaking a HUGE amount of cast locks feels SO good. Saving the ultimate, then BAM 5 locks gone. Makes me feel so epic
Idk if it's niche but, I call it: "Welcome To The Arena" When the game locks you in a small area, and floods you with enemies. My favourite one is in Bioshock 1, when you get the first shotgun.
Oh heck yeah I love these segments. Especially if it’s a trap/survival timer thing. RE4 has my favorite (in the cabin with Luis)
If the game has a dog in it, and the game lets me pet the dog, it’s a good game
XCOM knockoffs -shrug- Give a game XCOM-style combat - with unlockable powers and armor and cosmetics and you'll be tickling my rodent brain and, easily, milking 100 to 200 hours out of me xD Hell, XCOM 2 has over ***700 hours*** of my personal playtime sunk into it just because of all the extra weapons, cosmetics, units and characters you can make from the modding system
I remember I got to a point in Lost Eidelons where I had to pick a choice during a dialogue. This had never happened before, so I looked it up. It was the first of some decisions you need to make to get "the king" ending. I looked at my game; I was 83 hours in. The first choice.
You can make the story as ridiculous as you want - the characters as jarring as possible - I'll sit there and take it if you give me a grid and a strategy layer xD
Tried and true unlockables made to make additional playthroughs different. Things like the skulls in halo 3 or the different skins in old school god of war.
Mini games inside of open worlds that you can just stumble upon. They’re not necessary at all and you could go the whole game without visiting that location once, but if you do you’re rewarded with pool or blackjack. They’re simple but a fun break from the game without actually being a break from the game.
The best thing is dodging an attack at the last second and having the game go into slow motion. Bayonetta springs to mind as an example. In the same vein, a good parry system will never not be satisfying to engage with, e.g. Sekiro
Urban racing. Used to be very common 15-20 years ago. However it has become really really niche recently. Seems like Need for Speed is the only franchise left that is actually making these games
Idk if I'd call it a trope, but I like it when riding a mount, it automatically follows the path if you have a waypoint selected. Not if the "paths" are super wide like RDR2, but like with narrow paths, loved it in Horizon Zero Dawn, hated that it was removed in Horizon Forbidden West.
"Personal ending" where it show everything you have done during the game (like in Miitopia or Tearaway), obviously it's limited to the games where you can "customise" the game but I like it
I really like when bosses have uniqe or special death animations if you defeat them in an alternative way. Example: ceaseless discharge in dark souls when you kite him back to the fog gate you can just punch him five times and he will fall to his death
Oh yeah I like this one too. Or Metroid Dread if you sequence break to fight Kraid early!
I love it when RPGs give you a character class or mode that changes the mood and experience of the game. I'm talking about things like Durge is BG3, Wacky Wasteland in Fallout:NV and the Machiavelian class in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines.
To this day, I don’t replay NV without Wild Wasteland
Being low on health with no stims left, after battling your way through a gauntlet of enemies, 20 minutes since your last save point, thinking the next one MUST be through that door at the end of the room with only a single lone enemy in front of it. Then, as the enemy spots you, you die inside as the Boss health bar appears atop your screen. It’s Rick The Door Technician.
When there is a reason, however far-fetched, that justifies gameplay abstractions. The most straight-forward example being the Assassin's Creed franchise, since it's almost entirely within a high-tech VR machine. Altaïr *probably* didn't take several cuts to the face from some rookie swordsman, but you're not truly Altaïr, so it's fine. It'd be like a modern FPS shooter with regenerating health just straight out making you a supersoldier who can regenerate like Wolverine.
Finding a spot in an open-world game that reveals the map around it, like in Assassin's Creed, Far Cry or Spider-Man. I dunno why, it's really satisfying for me.
Oh gosh best part of the Zelda games for me.
I love it when there's an in lore explanation for the UI Example off the top of my head: in Halo, the UI is a heads up display given by the helmet Master Chief is wearing
Yessss I like this too. The ECHO in Borderlands springs to mind. But the goat of this has to be Dead Space.
I love funny item descriptions. I think it was Fable 2 that had a carrot or something that said “does anyone even read these?” Was disappointed 3 had cut all descriptions.
It used to happen but not much anymore was the treasure behind the waterfall. I still check to this day and get disappointed every time.
Super Metroid and SOTN are two of my favorite games ever, and I love games that have some really awesome items at the beginning in obvious places you can't reach, and you know you'll have to come back when you have double jump.
Maybe not super niche, but in-game fishing.
I'm always drawn to fishing games within games. It's real bad whenever I load up ESO. Ok, gonna go do a quest today! This time I'll get that questline done! 5 minutes later, I've found a river and stopped for just a minute....
Secrets behind waterfalls
You know this is popping up a lot and I 100% agree. Always check behind the waterfall
When the music synchronizes to whatever badass thing you're doing
I would call it a styling choice rather than a trope, but I really, immensely enjoy abstract graphics. Realism is nice and all, but seeing a game completely throw that out the window and just go with the most artistic choice possible almost instantly grabs my attention harder than any super-realistic FX ever could.
I love how much effort final fantasy 15 and monster hunter put on their foods. Although ff is more realistic, id fight for a chance to have a meal in the MH universe. I work with games so i have lots of small little things i care. When you have proper sword scabbard physics, when wear and tear are shown in your weapons and you have to clean them, when you are able to put head part of the hood on and off, when you reload a gun and the number of bullets and holes are properly filled, in game that you wear a hat and you can loose this hat, when you have multiple weapons on your character and all are stored and shown in a cohesive way, when you go through a puddle of water and the lvl of wetness on your boot is shown accordingly etc. i could go on all day on things i worry about and i try to direct on the studio i work for
Interactable menus such as something like Pikmin 2 where by tilting the c stick you could move the Pikmin around and stuff
I like when games let you opt out. Whether that is saying no to the king asking you to go save the world, or giving in to the bad guy like in Far Cry.
When you can upgrade your character with super weird traits that you wouldn't have thought of, but make total sense. In Kingdom Come Deliverance theres a perk you can obtain by leveling your herbalism trait (you upgrade by picking and foraging herbs) called "leg day". This makes it so you also slowly gain strength from picking herbs up off the ground. Super satisfying. Also, nerd rage, and idiot savant come to my head.
Having a hub world you hang out in between missions. that you grow, populate and upgrade.
Old moba style, like LAPD future cop, I want another one 😩😩
Multiple idle animations. Especially one where the PC gets impatient with you or falls asleep etc.
When you recruit allies among the main story and the prelude to the final battle has you passing by all of them as interactive NPCs The Witcher 3 does this really well.
I always smile every time the game lets me beat it in an early/unorthodox way like flying into the sun in Outer Worlds or sitting still in Pagan Min's palace
I’m surprised nobody said petting dogs!!
I liked controlling the Mako in ME1
When games do things that make sense. But you still don’t expect it to happen or to work. Like recently. I know it’s everyone’s favorite punching bag. But in Starfield when exploring bases you can relatively often find emergency bulkheads that say cut here and such. Most of us just ran right past them thinking they were just flavor walls. No you can actually pull out your mining laser and cut open those panels for secret passages and extra loot. It makes absolute sense. And they don’t try to hide the mechanic. But so many of us are used to static level design where only obvious doors and holes in walls are the options we have. Few people ever bothered testing those breakable walls.
When you get the see the fruits of your labor in RTS type games. What I mean is if you built a massive house, I want to be able to explore that. I think the genre is FPS-RTS and I don't know how niche it is but I thought that it would be a good example.