What little things caught your attention in games and other media?

[papel]

Just saw Star Ocean the Second Story on Steam and my mind went back to my teenage years, playing the game on the PS1. For whatever reason, one of the most remarkable things that I liked about the game was that several inventory items had a 3D model. It was just a visual representation that you couldn't interact with in any way, but my teenage mind found that an incredible detail, possibly because it showed that the devs cared about the world they were building. A "little nothing" that, to me, made the game more special.

You guys have a similar experience you'd like to share?

 

[♍VoidTraveler]

Hm~ Hmm~
Details huh, how about some of my screenshots from Tera made way back, i liked going on random explorations in that game.
And considering how big it was, there was never a shortage of places to explore.

 

[Shikanami]

I totally agree with you both, the attention to detail in a game is something very compelling and, in my opinion, shows respect to the players.

Of course, not all games can have the same level of detail due to their construction or the size of the teams that make them. But for me personally, games that are about detail, like RDR2 for example, where collectibles like newspapers and books are actually modelled in the game, that's something that really immerses me in a game.

I don't know about you, but I'd really like to see the big video game studios go back to much smaller open worlds that are packed with detail and places to visit, rather than this trend of big "empty" open worlds.

 

[OsamiWorks]

I learned how to make that mechanic not long ago lol. There are a few games that stand out but I think if I wanted to pick one I'd pick the first valkyria chronicles game. It was the first time i'd seen a good anime like game, it was legitimately fun and the cleanest in that weird real time turn based strategy genre that a few japanese games at the time had, and the way it wanted to tell a story is such a good blend between in game cinematics and gameplay. The first one had so much potential storywise and fell flat after such a strong start. It just sticks out to me since its such a good title that just falls short, its really under appreciated from that time period

 

[woody554]

yeah smaller worlds with deliberate and denser detailed modeling all the way for me too. the thing that most games have lost since the big devving platforms took over is that everything is rng-spawned with 'realistic assets' that make the forest look just as unimaginative as the forest you see from your window. and it's of course because it's so easy to just paint in the procedural nature on vast spaces.

where as before everything was hand-crafted, every tree and rock was modeled and positioned with purpose. and because it was a fantasy game there were tons of things like purple trees and crystal rocks, the path and its surroundings to a witch's house was modeled with assets that told some specific story about the world that belonged to that exact spot only, instead of having an rng-spawned generic pile of crap you could see anywhere else as well. the old way was simply 100x more immersive even if the models were low-poly and mats low-res.

while the fidelity of assets have gone vastly up the artistic quality and design has gone straight into toilet and everything looks grey, mundane and rng. and there's very few exceptions to that, like elden ring. that's what I want back, deliberate design instead of rng spamming and realistic models. (and by opposite of realistic I don't mean stylized, but magical and abnormal.)