7 More Genius Ways Games Justified Videogame Mechanics

Invisible walls! Respawning enemies! Being shot all the time and not dying! Some games go the extra mile to give you an in-universe explanation for in-game necessities, and we love them for it. Consider these seven genius ways games further justified their gamiest mechanics and subscribe for a video like this every week!
Previously on Outside Xbox:
7 Genius Ways Games Justified Videogame Mechanics
• 7 Genius Ways Games Ju...
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[@sergiojuanmembiela6223]

Prince of Persia: The sands of Time. The prince is not living his adventures, he is telling them to the princess. So, when he dies, it is just that he misremembered how the things actually happened, and he has to backtrack a little bit to recover the point at which he got the story wrong.

[@PanicRolling]

So if you're terrible at the game, he's just constantly starting and restarting the same part of his story? It must be infuriating listening to that dude tell a story lol.

[@Technotoadnotafrog]

Assassin's Creed is like this, too. You're reliving the history of your ancestors through genetic memories, so the game goes back to the last checkpoint if you do anything that your ancestor never would've done, like kill a civilian, die before their recorded date of death, or try to go somewhere they'd never been to.

[@intergalactic92]

That’s like in TellTale's Tales from the Borderlands. The framing device is that you are retelling the events to someone, and both narrators (there are two playable characters) occasionally embellish events, which results in the perspective switching so that the other narrator can correct them and allow you to play as the other character for a bit. It’s a clever story telling device. On top of this, if you fail a QTE and die, the game over screen includes a voice over of the narrator admitting that this part didn’t happen. Words to the effect of "no, obviously I didn’t die…. But I could have done!"

[@Gurakaaa]

I *LOVE* when games do that!...but unfortunately, to my knowledge, there aren't too many games that these days. >

[@maliciositygames]

I can still hear the quotes he often said when you died, such as "no, no, no, that's not right," or "let me tell that again."

[@ZephyrTheWyvernKing]

I love Yakuza: Like a Dragon's justification for why the series went from a brawler to an RPG. Ichiban loves Dragon Quest so much it has affected his world view. IIRC he let's his opponent attack because"that's what a hero would do"

[@Droidsbane]

I think they covered that in a previous video

[@ZephyrTheWyvernKing]

@@Droidsbane You're probably right. But I just love the idea so much.

[@Viper-py4pg]

Omg such a *fantastic game* so many cheeky jokes around every single corner. The Japanese and English lines flow together well between the party and say npc store clerk. The game is so big and layered, truly deserves more attention. We played it on the game pass :)

[@Gatorade69]

Still need to play Like a Dragon... actually still need to play a lot of Yakuza games. I've only played the original and the remake kiwami.

[@JachAnen]

True and people they fight change into a type of enemy, also just in his mind and everyone on his team is cool with it, as his psychological issue(s) doesn't get in the way

[@GeekoVO]

I love how Dead Space makes it so that literally every single HUD element is in some way justifiable as an in-game holographic projection or display on your RIG. Isaac's health is on his back for others (i.e. the player) to see, his ammo count is a holographic display on his weapons, the crosshairs are laser beams projected from the weapons' barrels, it goes on and on.

[@hiunaut2833]

Was just gonna mention that, love that series to death.

[@timothyoswald8618]

Playing the original for the first time... what an experience. For the remake, they're going to do what the first attempted, a long, unbroken over-the-shoulder cut, like GoW did a decade later.

[@EGRJ]

The in-universe laser sights also explain the enemies that dodge. Same as in Resi 4, which was an inspiration for DS.

[@Stryfe52]

@@timothyoswald8618 theres going to be a remake?

[@timothyoswald8618]

@@Stryfe52 oh yes. It's apparently fairly well into development, they've released some dev-diary stuff, concept art, etc.

[@rangerecho]

The Borderlands franchise has justified a lot of things this way as well, everything from bazillions of guns being digitized to respawning after dying through a corporate machine

[@toast1167]

along with how in bioshock you have vita chambers

[@rangerecho]

@@shen-long9082 I'm not gonna list every single thing the games do, why would I?

[@rangerecho]

@@toast1167 exactly, New-U stations and Vita chambers are the same

[@theokay1]

@@rangerecho because some random guy on KZbin asked you to of course

[@Spacebugg]

@@theokay1 fair enough

[@johannvongenerico9487]

The portal 2 turret ad gets me every time, I adore the "60% more bullet per bullet" line

[@ids1024]

A clear example of how a comedic tone can help with game design. If it were a very serious game, the unrealistic way this works might seem "immersion-breaking", or at best you can just ignore it. Here, it can be an opportunity for some humor that perfectly fits the game world.

[@RokuHanmar]

It's such a Portal thing to say

[@phantomeyebrow]

They would be re-usable too. So a great boon to the environment.

[@gamesandglory1648]

@@ids1024 also just look at the other small details in the ad. There is an empathy chip and an "empathy chip suppression chip" that is why they speak the way the do.

[@donovanulrich348]

Haha Just try to get near that baby Your funeral Alright, Cave Johnson. We're done here

[@gimmeaminett2859]

I don’t know if it’s official but I have always loved the idea that, in the Uncharted series, Nate doesn’t have health. He is simply very lucky until you run out of luck and he gets struck by the killing bullet.

[@323kiki323]

That is official lore. I think they made a video about it

[@jokairou489]

Yeah, that's actually canon.

[@Droidsbane]

Yes they did bring that up in the previous video... I mean this is called 7 MORE genius ways games justified video game mechanics

[@dshw]

I also liked how in the first Assassin's Creed Altair would actually block (practically) all hits the player missed till he ran out of stamina or concentration or something and got actually wounded.

[@cericat]

@@323kiki323 it was mentioned in the first video.

[@Ceece20]

In Nier Automata, the save point mechanics are disguised as android respawn points. Whenever you go up to the vendor, you save your memories and stuff to the android waiting in the vending machine, so whenever you die, that android will now take over and continue from the last point you saved at. It makes sense in this case because why not just download your brain to a new android body when the other one gets destroyed.

[@TheOmegaXicor]

the issue with that is the same for Dungeons and Dragons, if I went and fought a boss over there for the first time, why does my new android body know that it is there are buy the exact ammo it is weak to in order to kill it easier? it is good but ends up creating more questions...

[@Storyman09]

@@TheOmegaXicor but their android brains have all their info and memories downloaded into the new body, so the new android body has all the memories of the boss’ weaknesses copied over from the first android brain? Like, I don’t get the issue there.

[@jjtomecek1623]

It's also how they "teleport" between waypoints, too

[@TheOmegaXicor]

@@Storyman09 ok, I might not have been clear, you go to a save point, upload your memories, go exploring, find an area you have never been before and fight a boss monster and die, respawn from your save point with the memories you had downloaded...but have all of the memories you didn't download because you died right after

[@marcsidanparker2373]

@@Storyman09 but it should only have the memories up to the point you saved. So if after saving you find a new boss and fight it and die when you respawn you shouldn't know about that boss, since you didn't know when you saved. Or, your brain is connected to the internet and sending the new memories to the store up until the point you die

[@jonathanlowe8755]

For Psychonaut 2: After you(Raz) realize that the hand is a manifestation of your fear, it has to continue removing you from the water because Raz hasn't had the time to learn how to swim yet. At least that's my headcanon; not sure if it's actually stated directly.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

Actually, this might even be confirmed, just that it hasn't been said so by the devs.

[@bookworm3696]

My theory was it was a psychic imprint of nonna subconsciously protecting them from the water. Even if she has better control of her psyche, she still protects them by bringing them to the shore.

[@UnreasonableOpinions]

After you learn there is no curse, the hand animation changes - instead of pulling you under, the screen flashes to it putting you back on-shore and patting you on the head because he still can't swim.

[@Monkeyzforever]

Post game I was running around and I can't remember the exact context but Raz did say something about how he's started learning to swim, so yeah you're right. Also it's just adorable anyway :D

[@psyc8407]

It could also be that the change just doesn’t happen immediately. It takes time to get over a phobia, y’know?

[@coaltowking]

I like how Mass Effect explains why bullets always fly perfectly where you're aiming, even on other planets. They aren't bullets. Your guns are so advanced that they use a solid metal block as ammo. The gun perfectly calculates how big of a piece of metal to shear off and how fast to fire it to counteract different weather, gravity, atmospheric conditions, etc. It also explains why ammo is unlimited in the first game (because it's being shot at extremely high speeds, you only need a small bit of metal), and why ammo is universal in later games (it's just a solid piece of metal and the gun shears off what it needs.)

[@Alex-xt1rr]

In Mass Effect 2 you don't reload ammo but exchange the cooling unit of the gun to prevent overheating.

[@AWZool]

In Supreme Commander, all the units have infinite ammo because you can basically teleport "mass" to virtually everywhere, and actual munition is fabricated in situ in the unit.

[@arroncunningham9866]

Mass Effect 2's heat sink was a massive step backwards in weapon design. They have weapons with (effectively) infinite ammo; no need to carry additional equipment into the field. Instead of solving the heating problem, they make heat-absorbing units that can't dissipate that heat; effectively giving weapons an ammo count again. Now personnel have to carry multiple "ammo clips" into combat again, or the weapon's useless. That's so stupid.

[@AWZool]

@@arroncunningham9866 If you take into account that kinetic barriers are everywhere and need to be overwhelmed by firepower or you do no damage to a target, prioritizing firing rate over infinite ammo kinda make sense. Weapons could have had a fallback mode to the traditional cooldown system (or the other way around, if head exceeds a certain threshold, it is dumped into a heat clip), but that could be too complex to be practical in small arms.

[@arroncunningham9866]

@@AWZool the redesign was part of the redoubling of the "shooter" aspects over the "RPG" aspects. That's the only real reason. The fact that no one in-universe complained about it is troubling. Off the top of my head, better ideas include: modular heat sinks that actually dissipate heat and can be reused; not adding the tech to low power/speed weapons (example: pistols) so they have a backup; putting more research into those energy rounds from the first game to render the shields obsolete.

[@rashkavar]

I'm surprised you went into all that detail about Jenson's HUD in Mankind Divided without reaching back to Human Revolution to mention the intro/tutorial sequence in that game that has no HUD because it takes place immediately before Jenson is horrifically injured and thus requires an extensive cybernetic overhaul to stay alive. It's a really weird but interesting way to handle an intro - it teaches you to not rely solely on your HUD to hold your hand.

[@nubreed13]

I always liked how your hud glitches out when you die in that game.

[@bohrddude]

I was surprised that they weren't going into how an incident early in the game caused his implants to glitch out badly enough that they needed to be fully reset, there by justifying the fact that you have to rebuild all the abilities he had at the end of the previous game (and beginning of Mankind Divided).

[@PiePierrot]

@@bohrddude I think they did cover that in another video, actually, though I can't quite recall which one now. Yeah Deus Ex is cool in how they handle that stuff lol.

[@Ryvaken]

It goes all the way back to the original DX. JC Denton's starting augmentations explicitly included his HUD and datavault. HR and MD just built gimmicky moments onto the excellent worldbuilding of their ancestor.

[@bhull242]

Speaking of Portal, you know they explain why you don’t receive fall damage, right? Admittedly, the first game’s was a bit dubious, but the second game’s Long-Fall Boots are both functional and stylish! They also make sure you always land on your feet!

[@isaacgleeth3609]

The Long-Fall Boots... Just don't want to be in the control group for their testing.

[@bhull242]

@@isaacgleeth3609 Thanks for the correction! And no, you definitely don’t.

[@rissaarei5336]

You got them in the first game too, just without anyone making a point to mention them. Also, this explains why you can't properly jump or run - the shock absorbing part of them means you can't get any proper heel support to jump (as it absorbs any force you put into it) and they get in the way when trying to run (it is very much possible to run on your tiptoe, but a large thing scraping the ground on your heel would be just asking to take a nosedive).

[@nerd_nato564]

@@rissaarei5336 Actually, in the first game, you get Aperture Science Knee Replacements, not Long-Fall Boots.

[@FelipeKana1]

That explanation is much better and more believable than the turret bullet thing they chose for the video

[@shieldphaser]

For the portal thing, yes, it's partially the spring mechanism, but what we mustn't forget is that GLaDOS also mentions that the air is literally pumped full of adrenaline. That no doubt helps a lot against the pain of being shot.

[@insaincaldo]

It is also just the same roomful of recycled air.. freshened up a bit.

[@nemou4985]

@@insaincaldo glados is unrealiable and says things just because she wants you to fail

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

@@nemou4985 She's even worse when she deals poker cards.

[@00blaat00]

The already excellent Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force has an even more brilliant personal equipment transporter - all your dozens of guns are stored in a 'pattern buffer' and materialize in your hands upon demand. Genius!

[@outsidexbox]

that was in our last video on this topic!

[@00blaat00]

@@outsidexbox Shucks, didn't notice the 'more' in the title...

[@TheOmegaXicor]

@@00blaat00 and they never mentioned the "more" or "again" in the video, a rare script goof?

[@richardsavings6690]

A dream invention for sure, but I would happily trade it for that tetryon minigun.

[@Cuiasodo]

Undertale has a a couple fun and interesting justifications for game elements. Monster food heals you instantaneously because it's made of magic and gets instantly absorbed into someone's digestive system with no waste products to worry about. Monsters blow away into dust at the end of a fight less because it's an RPG staple and more because when their injured to the point of death, they can no longer sustain their form (because they are ALSO made of magic). And being able to respawn from a checkpoint is actually a power that humans in that world have, or at least ones with particularly high Determination, which is an in-universe property that more or less means the more stubborn someone is, the more power they have to defy death.

[@aishashaikh5699]

love this

[@conspiracypanda1200]

Even the items you equip to change your stats are justified: the ribbon, for one, makes the monsters not want to damage you as much because they think you look too cute wearing it! There's also the increased stats you get while levelling up, particularly the Attack and Defence stats, being justified by saying that your character is becoming wore willing to harm others/take hits due to their experience and expectation of more violence. Basically, lore-wise your damage is based on how willing your character is to harm others and therefore, because monsters are implied to be emotion based as well as magical, an unrepentant attack with even the weakest weapon can overkill them instantly.

[@DarthZ01]

determination is the stubborness to change fate, die? screw that im going back and changing it. one character even comments how they vaguely know youre trying over and over until you win and theyre just stalling hoping you get mad enough to give up. also the first 2 boss battles refuse to kill you. first one just wants to see if youre good (or evil) enough to overcome the challenges. second one want to capture you so at one hp he stops and does so, locking you in his shed jail, except the bars are too far apart and you can walk out. do it 3 times and he says youve gotten so close after all this fight he will let you pass by for free if you want.

[@caav56]

@@DarthZ01 >first one just wants to see if youre good (or evil) enough to overcome the challenges. And if you manage to die (need to actually run into projectiles, as they drift away from the player), her sprite changes to a majorly shocked, before restart.

[@frankwest5388]

Hades: It explains the game mechanic of you and your enemies respawning after death, by canonically killing your character. Which isn’t a big deal, since you are in the realm of the Underworld already, where death leads to reforming in the blood pool. This makes dying in the universe a painful inconvenience. Not like they could send you to the realm of the Superdead or anything.

[@johnyshadow]

Maybe. Not sure about the details/lore/mythology, but I´m fairly certain someone powerful, like Nyx or Chaos itself could just erase you from existence completely. (No soul, no afterlife?)

[@jokairou489]

@@johnyshadow That's true, but also liable make things way more complicated than necessary.

[@devinspencer1678]

@@johnyshadow But why would they? They both like you.

[@CodaBlairLucarioEmperor]

Also, none of the enemies there are actually trying to perma kill you (from my understanding). They're all just trying to keep you in the Underworld or the Gods sending enemies after you because you angered them.

[@gamedifficulty_4230]

Nothing can beat Satisfactory’s somewhat duct-tape approach of referring to your inventory as “the pocket dimension” and giving no further explanation

[@00blaat00]

ADA: "Ficsit has inflated your pocket dimension" Do you think this will have a proper justification with the story, in 1.0?

[@_underscore_9271]

So you're calling it Satisfactory's "satisfactory" approach?

[@nickmurphy2936]

"Nice inventory!" "Thanks! It has pocket dimensions!"

[@damsen978]

Terraria also does that with the Void portal functioning as a second inventory. I think it beats Satisfactory simply because of it's SFX when you open it.

[@gamedifficulty_4230]

@@damsen978 You are missing the fundamental point of this list. An additional storage space is not your inventory, the void bag/piggy bank/defender’s forge are just extra places to put stuff, comparable to a Minecraft ender chest. Terraria does not give you an explanation for how your character can carry 2 million bars of lead in their default pocket. Satisfactory does, and the explanation is “pocket dimensions”. And it’s a dumb explanation, but it’s still an explanation

[@samwill7259]

A little touch of realism can do a game's world wonders. Don't go super overboard, a hyperfixation on realism can also drag down a game's pacing and kill its grandiosity but a sprinkle here and there makes the fantasy hit harder because it keep us in the headspace of our own world in contrast to the one we're watching.

[@derumasforlos4285]

Freaking preach. It’s why I can’t stand Kingdom Come: Deliverance. The game gives you a few lessons in swordplay, then BAM! Instant difficulty curve that makes swordplay completely unbearable.

[@magnusm4]

It's quite hard to reason with realism in a game where you tank bullets and survive 8 story tall falls. If you were to talk realistic then explain how fun Valorant would be realistically if their fancy magic was countered by a single bullet to the chest with an instant kill.

[@thelittlesagg2]

@@derumasforlos4285 KCD isn't fantasy, it was made with the intention to be realistic. If you want to not suck at fighting with a sword, then you have to train. The learning curve is steep, but it's not like the game doesn't offer you plenty of other activities to do until your character can actually fight.

[@derumasforlos4285]

@@thelittlesagg2 dude. It’s not a matter of the sword play, it’s the the fact that the game treats practically every blow you take from an opponent as a death blow. Hell, the only way I’ve been able to get past quest related fights was to cheese it from the top of a rock with archery.

[@thelittlesagg2]

@@derumasforlos4285 I really don't remember that being the case, I never had to cheese fights with fewer than 3-4 opponents. You can't even increase your health in this game, I doubt anyone would get very far if every hit killed you.

[@leadpaintchips9461]

The Psychonauts not letting you into the water after finding out that it was all a lie makes sense too. He doesn't know how to swim, so having a cool hand just toss him back to shore is a lot better for him than drowning.

[@poppythedogofwonders]

Plus after fearing water all his life I'd imagine he wouldn't want to go in the stuff just yet no matter if the hand is cool now, phobias are difficult to get over after all.

[@raggedcritical]

Probably the biggest "whoa" moment for me was midway through KOTOR 2, when the Jedi masters you'd just spent the game up to that point rescuing or otherwise retrieving tried to kill you because, due to your renewed connection to the Force, you (and your companions through you) were growing stronger with each kill. "Hadn't you noticed?..." no, nobody noticed because they just thought that was the game.

[@LinkoofHyrule]

Also your ability to influence others (relationship system)... what a game!

[@homerman76]

I'm reminded of "The World Ends With You," where invisible walls are justified in universe through literal invisible walls generated by the reapers during the Reaper's Game.

[@Biklingchan85]

One of my favorite explanations was save points in Soul Reaver 2, because the explanation for it was delivered by the main character himself via a voiceover monologue. He explains it as, and I quote: "These ancient obelisks were mysteriously attuned to my spiritual essence. By simply touching the symbol, I could safely preserve an imprint of my soul -- and thus create a milestone to which I could return when weary, and from which I could resume my journey." Basically a real fancy way of saying "go here to save your game" XD

[@insaincaldo]

And at the same time. You don't really die, you just black out while crawling back to one of these, rest and wake up ready to carry on.

[@Biklingchan85]

@@insaincaldo Ah yes, those would be the checkpoints. He explains them as follows: "As I passed this arcane landmark, a wisp of the Reaver’s energy was drawn into the ring, illuminating it. This created a beacon of sorts in the spirit world - if ever I found myself depleted in the spectral realm, and my soul tossed on the ethereal winds, these beacons would draw me back to safety and restore me." Soooo yeah, he had a fancy explanation for that one too XD

[@Er404ChannelNotFound]

Dark Souls has an intersting one that ISN'T what people might expect. Sure we all know respawning is justified in the game by the fact that you are undead, but where it goes the extra mile is in giving an in-universe explanation for QUITTING THE GAME. If you quit playing your character goes hollow, becoming one of the myriad of undead who lost their sanity and no longer had mind to move forward.

[@Stratelier]

So what random item did they attach that lore to this time?

[@chrismanuel9768]

@@Stratelier I don't think it's found in game. Probably in a developer interview. I'm still not sure if they canonically confirm the multiverse existing, despite that being the reason why multiplayer exists in-universe

[@solabis]

@@chrismanuel9768 pretty sure there’s in game description of hollowing through dialogues and as exhibit a the crestfallen at firelink giving up and going hollow. And iirc Solaire explicitly confimed a multiverse or at least different worlds existing

[@jokairou489]

@@solabis Now I'm picturing an outer-dimensional Solaire praising every sun in every universe. "How many suns does outer-Solaire praise?" "YES"

[@HelterSeltzer_the_one]

Wow that is insane. They new LOL

[@calebhawk6868]

One of my favorite examples of this is Dark Souls, and how they make your character undead as a way to justify respawning after you die and resetting the world at bonfires. On top of that, they went a step beyond and used that implication of immortality to introduce hollowing into the world lore for undead who go crazy after being alive for too long, and kinda imply that your character’s version of going hollow is you quitting the game because it’s too hard. It’s just a simple but super effective way of taking a pretty common game mechanic and inserting it completely into the game lore.

[@JoachimPacheo]

KOTOR 2 does this as well with an explanation for levelling up, the Exile is a wound in the force who gains power from killing, as per the teachings of the new Sith. As Zez-Kai Ell says, "You must have noticed as you fought across all these planets, killing hundreds, only to become more and more powerful, why do you think that was?" And the fact that your Force Bond with your companions gives them power from it too.

[@fendelphi]

Partially anyway. It does not really explain why you get xp from completing missions. Or how Droids level up.

[@AdderTude]

Thing is Meetra Surik was a Jedi the whole time. She makes a final appearance in The Old Republic when you (playing a Jedi Knight character) rescue Revan from Sith Emperor Vitiate on the Imperial capital of Dromund Kaas. You learn from Sith companion Scourge that Meetra Surik died by his hand during a mission to kill Emperor Vitiate. He saw a vision in the Force that saw you as the one to kill the Emperor and thus turned on Meetra and Revan to ensure his own survival. He killed the former Jedi Exile by stabbing her from behind and Revan ended up imprisoned for many years, leading to the Flashpoint mission where you rescue him.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

Reminds me a lot of Planescape: Torment, that. Ugh, Meetra Surik IS NOT how we interpret the Exile of KotOR II. That MMO sure ruined a lot of things in the original duology.

[@Droidsbane]

@@AdderTude actually her final appearance (and Revan's as well) is where you actually face off against Tenebrae and his two reincarnations, Vitiate and Valkorian, in Satale Shan's mindscape and kill 'em for good during the sixth expansion Onslaught

[@indianajo3557]

Assassin's Creed explains invisible walls through the fact that you are reliving someone's memories - if they didn't go there and have no memory of it, the animus can't create an environment and so simply blocks you out

[@Jaaxfo]

Destiny 2 introduced its first Darkness based subclasses with the launch of the Beyond Light expansion. The story campaign itself is an explanation as to how you get these powers, but more interesting than that was the eventual nerf to the Stasis powers, as the community found Stasis to be way over-powered. There is a lore-tab on an item that released later on that noted that the Stasis abilities seemed to have gotten less potent, and it seemed that this happened because Stasis itself was afraid that it was going to be rejected by the Guardians

[@yol_n]

Was there ever an explanation for darkness zones?

[@Jaaxfo]

@@yol_n I think so, some lore tabs that talked about places where ghosts couldn't revive their guardians, which of I'm remembering correctly also held a bit about how ghosts could revive us before we hit the ground when jumping off the tower

[@BigManDaichi]

@@yol_n Darkness Zones are areas in the multi-verse where the danger is too high to resurrect a Guardian. Ghosts revive Guardians by grabbing a "copy" of them from a neighboring timeline, and "pasting" them into the current one. A Darkness Zone is an area where, in the majority of timelines (if not all of them) there is simply no healthy/safe variant to copy. Lore Card: "No Rez For The Weary" But certain members of a cult I shall not directly name have their own specific interpretation of this process. "When you bring him back," they told me, "you must have a template… an image to provide you with the information you need. Where do you find that template? "Simply in a neighboring timeline. A place where he is still alive and intact. And wherever there is great danger, wherever the probability of death is too high, then those timelines become scarce and hard to reach. And so you find the zones where Guardians cannot easily be remade."

[@derekallard4599]

One of my favorites is Disgaea spinoff Prinny, Can I Really be the Hero? Its a short but difficult platformer that gives you 1000 lives to get through the game. The game amazingly explains this as that there are actually 1000 individual Prinnies tasked with completing the mission of the game and when you die, that Prinny is canonically dead and they just pass the one and only scarf they have that helps them take more hits off to the next Prinny.

[@Gatorade69]

Yo dood.

[@IvyScrawls]

Prinny, Can I Be the Hero Dood is a great game too, dying nearly 999 times gives you a special move too.

[@mewmew8932]

Isn't it every Prinny is a soul that died? Imagining almost 1000 souls dying again because Hell cheaped out on the scarves makes me laugh.

[@thebudderblock2149]

I got another one for you in breath of the wild. Eating tons of food at once. In universe, it is stated that Link is a bit of a glutinous lad, which is why you can eat even the bad food to recover health...hey he made them.

[@jokairou489]

That reminds me of all the partially burnt meats and pastries I wanted to eat before people threw them out.

[@liamnehren1054]

the games always starting with him waking up late is also explained in game: he's lazy. weapon skills: he's always either a knight in training, a blacksmith's apprentice or just really into weapons the only thing that series never explained was the hearts XD and since they took those away in BOTW I guess we don't have to worry about how every bush seems to have a cache of stolen organs in it!

[@BogeyTheBear]

'Gluttonous' is the condition of being the fellow who eats tons and tons of bread. Amusingly, 'glutinous' is what that same fellow becomes if he gets baked into a ton of bread.

[@artemis1993]

@@liamnehren1054 Actually, the hearts are semi-explained in Skyward Sword. They are actually fruits who look like heart-shaped strawberries (probably similar taste too). In Skyward Sword you can find the usual tiny hearts that floats around, but you can also find bigger versions of them where they are planted on the ground :)

[@kingspilly4381]

How about Bioshock? The game has explanations for its linearity, the protagonist's apparent lack of backstory and personality, as well his strength (you're a disposable, genetically engineered pawn who is under mind control). They also have an explanation for your ability to continue after dying (vita-chambers require DNA identification, and you're the son of the city's founder).

[@cericat]

First video.

[@HariGtt]

The Fallen Order explanation of your lack of powers/rapid recovery is a mainstay in Star Wars games. KotOR 1y2 had basically the same idea, memory loss/disconnect from the Force, sudenly your powers tart coming back. At least one of the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight games was the same IIRC

[@michaelandreipalon359]

And with this in mind, mayhaps the sequel will make you play as a new character to compensate... well, will see how Celebration 2022 is going along.

[@faylinnmystiquerose2224]

Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast, Kyle had turned his back on the Jedi order or something, but when Desann totally schools him due to you know, having a lightsaber and force powers while Kyle only has blasters, he's kinda forced to reawaken his force powers and make himself a new lightsaber to have the chance of fighting back.

[@liamnehren1054]

honestly they don't need such an excuse, some people are naturally gifted at picking up skill rapidly and in universe Luke learned a few skills including force healing really quickly. So you could explain it away as skill points being the experience gained through fights and the meditation that is saving your game. something about using the force in battle is the fastest way to learn due to the force actively helping you to keep you alive or some such. They really have a lot of options.

[@HariGtt]

@@faylinnmystiquerose2224 that one was! it's been a while since i played them XD

[@HariGtt]

@@liamnehren1054 I choose to believe that the force is like bad public wifi and you get disconnected from time to time and loose your downloads progress

[@gaminginhdmax3854]

I would love to point out that I think ghost of tsushima needs mention as i love how they point out interesting locations with the wind and smoke from fires each with their own color so you know what they represent just so you dont have to waste time going through menus I love that and I wish more games did it

[@sonjahodges7539]

Yeah! The wind is the spirit of his father. Brilliant

[@cericat]

​@@sonjahodges7539 The golden birds are related to your mother as well.

[@ojaskalra4863]

The Arkham games also present a good reason for the X-ray vision, in that it's actually due to Batman's cowl, there's enemies that can disable or detect your "detective mode" in the cowl throughout the second game

[@LordHammer33]

The Arkham games does a great job of tying most if not all of your abilities to different gadgets to explain how you can do things and why you can't do everything from the start

[@ojaskalra4863]

@@LordHammer33 Arkham series is pretty awesome. It's one of those where I wish they had a sequel so there was more to play but am also happy there isn't one cause that would be cash-grabbing and the series is perfect at this stage

[@shinyagumon7015]

My favourite instant of this is the Assassin's Creed series, because they don't just use it to explain videogame logic but also to explain plot points and historical inaccuracies.

[@Droidsbane]

Brought that up in the previous video

[@liamnehren1054]

which is kind of hilarious considering that they took out the forced having one child scene in one of the games because people bitched about wanting to make a homosexual character! XD realism out the window, how can you be the descendant of the ancient character replaying their ancestors memories if they didn't have children!? XD

[@MeliesCinemagician]

I don't think it's ever stated outright, but my personal headcanon as to why Altair in the first game dies if he falls into water is that, as someone who lives in the deserts of the Levant, he just never learned how to swim.

[@insaincaldo]

@@MeliesCinemagician Lucy Stillman once mentioned an error with the Animus 1.28 software which caused ancestors to drown, explaining Altaïr's inability to swim.

[@conalllynch7840]

The Horizon series is another good example. Aloy's "protagonist vision" that lets her see important object, highlight machines and find important clues is just her using the focus she found when she was young. Always felt like I was cheating when NPCs called me a genius for just going to the highlighted clues and footprints the focus found for me.

[@jokairou489]

To be fair, Aloy gained access to an internet-sized database that only she's intelligent and experienced enough to thoroughly utilize. She certainly could learn to track everything manually and quickly, but why FOCUS on that if she doesn't need to?

[@jokairou489]

Pun intended.

[@cericat]

Yep and the few times you're without it in HZD make you realise how much you depend on HUDs in games.

[@Darthwill44]

Kinda like how in Mass Effect, the reapers allowing multiple species to build off the same technology means Omni-Gel works everywhere including ancient temples of extinct races.

[@elliesteele2027]

One of my favourites is respawning in Outer Wilds being explained by the timeloop (which is also the game's main mechanic).

[@Gag1800]

In Halo 2, apparently the explanation for the absence of a health bar is that Biofoam is injected into injuries by the suit to replenish health when the shields recharge.

[@kidreside1987]

The map is also pretty justifiable for Jedi: Fallen Order. It can only be accessed when BD-1 is with Cal, since it’s established from the first time the map is used that BD scans everything it comes across, including environmental layouts, entrances, and blocked paths.

[@rolfstalker2986]

I would like to make you aware of Second Sight, which in-universe explained how you could respawn after death/failure by making it the major plot twist that you were simply using precognition to "scout" potential outcomes.

[@someperson904]

I played that game ages ago loved it then love it now. I'm still fairly surprised about the ending plot reveals too. Very fun game and fairly good good story too I highly recommend anyone that can does play it.

[@endplanets]

Also Bioshock Infinite.

[@alexkaen1701]

Monsterhunter scoutflies are amazing, they even have a color change system to show when you're about to fight something scary. The flies are literally so scared they start glowing different colors!

[@bradleyadams5252]

I enjoy the respawn mechanic justification for Journey to the Savage Planet, where the ship makes a clone of the main character with all of their memories up until the point they died. Aerospace is SO unethical and morally questionable that it's funny!

[@Leongon]

The recalling skills from repressed memory idea from that Starwars game is something I saw first back in Vagrant Story, year 2000 I think, where Ashley Riot gains weapon arts with the excuse of unlocking fragments of his repressed memory... Which is a plot thing that ties the whole game together until the end as you try to make sense of what really happened to him.

[@insaincaldo]

It also already happened in a Star Wars story, your jedi level in both KotOR games is your memories of your jedi past returning.

[@GabrielusPrime]

And in Star Wars Jedi Knight II, though that was less of a leveling up system and more the game adding them as you reach new stages...

[@xXDeadlyPixelXx]

One of my favorite explanations didn’t happen in game, but through tweets by the developers. In Uncharted, the red hud that appears when “taking damage” is actually a visual representation that Nathan is running out of luck. He never actually takes damage and it’s all dumb luck, until it runs out and he takes a single fatal shot.

[@CodaBlairLucarioEmperor]

Thet mentioned that in the last version of this video.

[@lilisionnach]

Cyberpunk did something similar with the HUD. You don't see the HUD/ammo counter until you get the augments at the beginning of the game.

[@Droidsbane]

Yeah didn't see til Vic pointed that out

[@luucyharris]

Fast Travel? Respawning after death? Stamina upgrades? Ho! Death Stranding has about 1000 pages of lore to cover everything!

[@MudriaV]

Assassin's Creed (Literally any one of them), low performance, stuttering, phasing through walls etc. Is Ubisoft to be blamed? Nope, that's just an ol' "Glitch in the Animus"

[@chadflanaganCFC]

Mankind Divided actually had another video game mechanic I'm actually surprised wasn't what was included and that's explaining why Jenson can't use all his human revolution augments and abilities immediately outside the prologue,with the bomb and his surgeon effectively resetting his body,just so the game doesn't feature you being obscenely overpowered at the start

[@DistinctionDave]

I'm pretty sure they covered that in a previous video about games that justify removing your powers in sequels.

[@chadflanaganCFC]

You may actually be right but I still think it's a fairly neat way to narratively/organically reign in Jensen's abilities that doesn't take away from those who like myself also played HR and was expecting some kind of early game advantage for doing so

[@corwintrigg3002]

Death and rebirth in all of the fromsoft games was always a beautiful explanation for such a standard mechanic.

[@FerinHite]

Talking of Deus Ex, the Praxis system is a pretty clever way of implementing an XP system in-universe, since it's a measurement of how Adam's brain has adapted to his many augs and thus how many he is capable of using.

[@endplanets]

Originally they were going to have you earn XP which .... something ... and you go to those big cyborg shops everywhere to get the stuff literally implanted in you. Then the devs realized that was annoying as sin and scrapped it entirely for this weird firmware update stuff.

[@goingblargh]

What about _Dead Space?_ The entire HUD is integrated seamlessly onto the player. Health? Big blue bar on the spine. Way finder? Little blue line that leads you around. Inventory? Holographic display that the player reacts to and interacts with. Mutated zombie trying to behead you? Mutated zombie is ravenously gnawing on your fleshy throat.

[@General_Kenobi_212]

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2 also did an amazing job justifying you getting stronger with the more enemies you defeat on your journey not just because of exp which is what you'd expect because it's a game but towards the end it's revealed it's because your really a "Wound in the Force" forming bonds and leeching the life out of the enemies you defeat making yourself more powerful

[@ThiagoJaqueta]

I think my favorite one is how Katana ZERO explains why the main character can Slow Down time and avoid death using Chronos, while also being a major plot point of the game as well.

[@greycommander420]

One of my favourites instances of this topic is a rather subtle one. In Kingdoms of Amalur, your character has no fate and is thus unbound by the restrictions of fate. This would imply of course that everyone else is restrained by fate. Which, if you think about it, means that all their side quests and whatnot they ask you to help with are things they are literally unable to do themselves as they are not fated to do so. It's a bit of a stretch I'll admit, and it's not explicitly confirmed in the game itself, but I like that it is a real possibility. It's not mere laziness or ineptitude, these people are destined to ever be unsuccessful in their endeavours until you come along and help them.

[@velzekt4598]

Speaking of HUDs, the Xbox game Breakdown had an incredibly rationalized reason for it; you were in a simulation of your past self for the first half of the game and the HUD was a projected computer interface of your physical status as it scanned your memories (and when you take damage, you can even see computer code running across your health meter). When you reach the second half of the game after you wake up from the simulation, you no longer have a HUD.

[@andybrown4284]

Why do I get the feeling that deep down mike really really wants a padawan tail braid to call his own but is scared knowing that jane would use it as a leash.

[@zach11241]

Kinky

[@madelainedigweed5255]

I think how Aloy's ability to see the machines from far off is as well as others is down to her focus device in Horizon zero dawn

[@SantoAtheos]

Yes! The Focus does so much with its processing power and augmented reality to cover for so many game mechanics. I would even argue that the paths generated from patrolling enemies it shows are due to either it detecting light treading and/or doing Bayesian projections.

[@sopianwahyudi]

And yet no explanation on why she could not (for the sake of all mother!) shut her mouth up!

[@YasEmisDaBus]

​@@sopianwahyudi she was functionally isolated for her entire childhood, you'd go a little crazy

[@triton5336]

@@sopianwahyudi there is its called not having anybody ti talk to, rost is not a talkative person to begin with and Aloy had no friends her curiosity feeds into her desire to conversate, whether it be with herself, machines or whatever. Its harder for her with people but less so as time passes. When it comes to characters that don't have these traits or similar ones chalk it up to getting as much lines of dialogue for the money spent on the actor.

[@DeerBonesBaby]

Splatoon has a couple! From the inklings being canonically made of ink so they dissolve in water (ya know cuz why else couldn't a a squid swim?) to something simple like having the ammo displayed in a tank on your back

[@Technotoadnotafrog]

The respawn points also exist in-universe, as machines that reassemble your ink when you die. There's a section in Octo Expansion that lacks these, and dying during it makes characters call out to you in alarm.

[@MrGhostTheBigRoast]

Wait wasnt Uncharted's Nathan Drake in a list video like this once? Because him getting shot is actually his luck running out until the final bullet that kills him, because apparently Nathan Drake is a normal human man. I swear its a thing and i feel like i heard in an OX list feature.

[@outsidexbox]

yeah, that was in our last video on this topic!

[@kilikus822]

It took some getting used to but I liked how "The Getaway" led you to where you needed to go. No map, no markers. You car would automatically use your turn signals on to lead you in the right direction.

[@mikelopez5214]

I had that game as a kid but never was able to get past the first level. I remember the main character always yelling “where tf are they!” when trying to chase the bad guys

[@DigidesteinedSayian]

It might not quite be justification, but Shin Megami Tensei 1 uses a game mechanic as a plot point. Demon fusion is how you get stronger demons; go to a creepy cathedral and fuse together two or three weaker demons to create a stronger one. Nobody acknowledges where these rooms came from or how it works. About a quarter of the way into the game, you run into a boss who's much stronger than you, and your party has to retreat. The next time you go to the cathedral, one of your human party members demands to be fused with one of your demons. He turns into a demon, gains ten levels, and with his help you thrash the boss.

[@liamnehren1054]

The series is pretty good with this kind of thing: In the persona sub-series as a mind space, person 3 only the MC can see the doors and the rest of the characters just see him blank out for a moment, the demons in that series are Jungian archetype mixtures representing the character's true personality, their levels are explained in part by Jungian psychology's connection to emotions. (real world explanations of Jungian Psychology were even included in the bonus content of persona 4 golden, it's the basis of the briggs myer test and honestly makes more sense than Freud's work) The character starts off as a bit blank and his personality starts to emerge as you progress through the game and shifts towards which persona he is using (in the dating sim portion during the scenes) with him being everything for a glutton, hanging out in a club, exercising all afternoon to long study sessions and student counsel work. As for the facilitators in the mind space, essentially the long nosed man is a demon that facilitates the growth of the power of special individuals for shits and giggles (or maybe siphoning off the over flow) the secondary one is usually either his apprentice, companion or possibly also and aspect of the player character's desires (persona 3 portable allows you to pick the companion's gender suggesting mental control over their existence but the long nosed man stays the same in each game) Other shin Megami games use other systems where they directly tell you that a cult set up the rooms for performing the merger ceremony devil survivor where they tell you demons are summoned with the power of emotions and fusing is much the same, with fusing being performed with the desires for strength of the demons and the merger's "Macca" which is crystalized desire siphoned from online shit posts. Digital devil saga doesn't have merging but instead has the main character learn Mantras and since they are half demon the Mantras aren't just fancy chants for them but instead affect their transformations. Strange Journey has the main character using an adaptive super suit that absorbs certain features of the demons using mods made using demon materials. like I said they are very good at the explanations.

[@phantomnite]

A lot of games use in game explanations for battle mechanics. Though smt is very good. I like how smt 5 protagonist and the demi-feind dont use comps

[@K4rm4ttack]

I'm not sure if this was in the last video, but in Final Fantasy 14 the player's 'Echo' power is the reason they can see AOE attacks, it's actually a canonical power they have.

[@inalamire]

Bugsnax has a good one. SPOILER ALERT The limbs changing designs is "a side effect of eating Bugsnax", which is acknowledged canonically on multiple occasions, most notably Floofty's quests, when the game treats it less like a game mechanic and more like a canon property of Bugsnax. Still, it's mostly there to justify why characters change appearance. However, snakification DOES make a return as a very major plot point, turning from "funni creature dress up" to "NO! DON'T EAT THEM! PLEASE!" in a flash. What used to be your friendly game mechanic (which you propably used a lot) is now the one thing you're trying to avoid. If you're still here, play Bugsnax now, it's amazing.

[@beanface7408]

I feel like there is an obvious one you didn't cover. Dark Souls, which has you play as one of the undead, who just come back at a bonfire everytime they die, but they also go hollow.

[@eli_rook]

Watchdogs 2 had the weapons 3D printed The Focus being the sole reason of the HUD existing in Horizon: Zero Dawn and Forbidden West

[@AnonEMus-cp2mn]

In Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, the prologue explosion also is an in-universe justification for why the player's abilities are reset to zero. The sequel was set to use your save data to continue abilities/inventory without a reset; but until we actually get that sequel it is merely an anecdote.

[@anhondacivic6541]

the soul mechanic in hollow knight also has one where only higher beings can manipulate soul unless someone has trained themselves to manipulate it hence why only you and a handful of enemies can use spells

[@pacifistminigun3987]

oh yea, that message at the beginning i honestly forgot about it

[@meisa3379]

Tak: The Great Juju Challenge. 2-player co-op puzzle platformer. Tak can swim, but Lok can't touch any large water areas. They have a whole cutscene in the first level where Lok explains, and hilariously demonstrates, that "Fish hate me...they all have it in for The Lok." He then goes on to foreshadow another mechanic for the future by mentioning "Gorillas, on the other hand, they like me a lot. Maybe too much...".

[@Nebula.Dragon]

I've always loved that TF2's Mann vs. Machine (a PvE horde mode) justified the standard 'collect credits from the enemies you defeat to level yourself up' mechanic by having the robots you fight canonically be powered by money. Their creator Gray Mann was just that rich, and despite being a self-made genius who and designed and built a giant robot army, decided that was a good design decision. He also didn't give them the ability to detect enemy spies because he wanted a 'hailing' circuit where all the robots hailed him as their maker.

[@Droidsbane]

Wait that's actually true? I thought that was a little joke made by the winglet when they made... ok I forgot the name of of the video but it's one with the crystallized Australium

[@Nebula.Dragon]

@@Droidsbane You mean The Red, The Blu, and The Ugly? Brilliant animation but no, they didn't make it up, it's canon. They covered it in the comics. I would send you links to them but KZbin keeps auto-deleting my replies whenever I do that.

[@Droidsbane]

@@Nebula.Dragon huh... alright, goid to know though I don't really tend to dive too deep into the lore of games... or at least I don't actively dive into it

[@pacifistminigun3987]

Tf2 is probably the last game i'd expect to have an in-game explanation lol

[@Jironobou]

The Injustice series has a kinda silly one; There were pills developed to give everyone Superman levels of strength and durability, to explain why all the characters can fight each other directly.

[@brodriguez11000]

Distilled Superman testosterone. Make a "man" out of everyone.

[@armageddonchampion]

What always bothered me was mass effect 2 onwards, realizing unlimited ammo is way too good even with heat mechanics, so it limited it by saying everyone agrees firing faster is better, and limiting ammo by saying the mags hold heat.

[@tehnemox]

Which was a stupid thing in my opinion. In just 2 years magically the entire galaxy converted to the new thermal clip system and NOBODY kept any of the old non clip variety? Ever met a gun nut collector? Ok. Maaaaybe I'll buy that...except then you do Jacob's loyalty mission and somehow a ship that was stranded disconnected from the rest of the universe for 10 years somehow has the same tech even tho they should have had the old weapons and no clips? Pft.

[@Smilley85]

@@tehnemox There's one old weapon you can find in ME3 that still uses the cooldown mechanic, in addition to the geth blaster. But yeah, totally agree on the bull**** canon.

[@tehnemox]

@@Smilley85 yeah, I know you can get the original Lancer on the Citadel DLC archives. But that in-universe is treated as a relic already (hence why it was in the archives) which comes off as odd considering it wasn't 3 or 4 years prior that they had used them. The particle beam ones are also flat out specified to be either geth or collector/reaper tech. Don't get me wrong, I love the trilogy to death, but this is one of those (I admit nitpicky) things that will always bother me.

[@Xaiclun]

Code Vein has an explanation why you are able to respawn after dying. If my memory serves me right it is because you all are some sort of vampiric mutants who turn to mist and reform on a safe location nearby as long your heart/core doesn't get damaged while you die. Same goes for the enemies who are the same, just mad and/or corrupted

[@william_sun]

Also, there's a reason why the item you have to pick up to get your "souls" back after you die looks like a Vestige with its red glow: It's because it *is* a Vestige. Because the player character uniquely has the ability to view the memories contained within a Vestige, naturally, picking up a Vestige containing your own lost memories restores your "experience points".

[@squibi-o5522]

Idea for a future video: The most challenging difficulty curves in video games. I can think of many games that start off easily enough, but then randomly get teeth-grindingly frustrating and stay that way for the entire rest of the game.

[@dmkatelyn]

Still my favorite is Final Fantasy XIV, which explains failing a fight and getting horribly murdered, only to try again as your hero precognition power The Echo showing you what NOT to do. Visual warnings about enemy attacks are also part of The Echo.

[@tical2399]

Was hunting for this comment.

[@Dragonslayer22795]

In NieR Automata, things like abilities, the HUD, game settings, and saving are all handled diegetically because you’re an android. Equipping new abilities is as simple as slotting in new “ability chips” that alter your specs/ performance. The HUD is also handled through chips. Need space for a new movement chip and don’t really care about seeing the minimap all the time? Just unequip the minimap chip and slot in something else. There’s a specific scene at the beginning of the game where another character walks you through changing your settings and he reacts to the changes you make, meaning they actually affect your character in-universe. Finally, saving is just uploading your memories and data up to a server so it can be redownloaded into another body later if you happen to die.

[@LarryGarfieldCrell]

Another favorite: In Shadow of Mordor / Shadow of War, you die in the opening credits. Your character is a zombie possessed by an Elf ghost. So you can't die, because you're already dead. You just respawn at the nearest spirit tower. Which is made even funnier when you run into the orc that killed you, who is like "dude, I just killed you last week, WTF?"

[@adamb89]

There was one game I played like 15 years ago or so where you had a limited inventory, but could stash items in storage boxes for later. Kinda like Resident Evil, they were all linked, so anything you put in one storage box was accessible from any other. The in-game explanation was that the storage box was part of a pneumatic system intended to move supplies around. So it literally was the same storage box, you were just summoning it to whatever station you were currently at.

[@shadowneko521]

Would love the opposite list of the most ridiculous ways games went out of their way to try and explain away game mechanics.

[@rautamiekka]

+1

[@oldvlognewtricks]

Or crazy things that really needed explaining, and just weren’t…

[@arcanasoul92]

Another thing about Cal in Jedi: Fallen Order is that he has the rare power to sense "echoes" in the Force by concentrating on an object. And what object did he recently pick back up and is holding almost constantly? His master's lightsaber! It's not a sudden realization like the trauma healing force exercises he does or Force echoes the player finds in the game but more of a slow burn and helps explain his rapid growth in physical combat

[@LukasChodo]

I always loved these justified systems in games! That inspired even for my own MMORPG create one of these of death and respawn. Basically it goes like this player is higher form avatar that possesses intact fallen npc body and once body gets damaged to much it has to look for new body. Also keeping same canon in story and npc despising this act.

[@adamroyal-failes506]

The Outer Wilds has one of the best in game explanations for respawning

[@cearnicus]

And many of the other questions too, like [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] and [REDACTED]. And even the DLC answered the question of [REDACTED]. Oh, and _not_ respawning makes perfect sense too.

[@pacifistminigun3987]

what's the explanation?

[@adamroyal-failes506]

@@pacifistminigun3987 Spoilers for The Outer Wilds: Respawning in the Outer Wilds is basically time travel, sending your memories back in time 22 minutes before the sun which surrounds your solar system goes super-nova. Essentially respawning your character with knowledge of previous loops

[@pacifistminigun3987]

@@adamroyal-failes506 uh. neat

[@Michael_Lindell]

That 'Jedi Fallen Order' one seems very Forced...

[@angelitabecerra]

The sleeping Snorlax in first gen was the best in game way to keep you from going where you wanted to go. Had to go around it to get the Poké Flute to wake it up, just to get to the Diglett Cave to access the rest of the map. Ingenious. Or how about the strange shaking tree that's actually a Sudowoodo? Or the Psyduck with the migraines? Pokémon consistently has the best in game ways of keeping you on path

[@Technotoadnotafrog]

Some examples are a bit silly, though. Most infamously, there's a street that's blocked off for a while because there's a blackout. This would make sense at night, but it's blocked during the day, too.

[@nemou4985]

Ah yeah waist-high fences are insumournable objects, very immersive,...

[@angelitabecerra]

@@nemou4985 The technology back then was incapable of allowing you to jump. Your comment is irrelevant

[@mcoleman1051]

Waaayyyy back in the day, in the Apple II/c era, the game "Alternate Reality: The Dungeon" had a monster called The Devourer that would show up randomly and suck items out of your inventory. Turns out it happened when your inventory got so large the game didn't have enough memory to hold it all. There was even a bar in the game where they sung a song about how scary The Devourer was!

[@res20stupid]

The earlier Ratchet and Clank games justify the tutorial messages you get as a help desk program. Ratchet is subscribed to it already and used it to build his first ship and they provide messages throughout the game for his and Clank's convenience. This is actually brought up a few times. In the third game, Up Your Arsenal, you're actually greeted with Ratchet's customer ID when you start playing and your allies also provide updates for mission support due to the war. Since you're in hostile territory where Gadfetron doesn't operate in Deadlocked/Gladiator, Clank does it instead (and has hacked the system to give you covert mission intel without the villains knowing). And in Tools of Destruction, they not only aid Ratchet again, they try to dissuade him out of a side-quest involving a weapon they made which was later cancelled for being too dangerous. In fact, if you do the Map-O-Matic side quest in the first game on Kalebo III, you actually meet the HelpDesk girl who reveals she's been giving you extra aid to try and stop Drek and is rooting for you.

[@pacifistminigun3987]

i never knew this!

[@JoshuaEisenbart]

Warframe has a couple, but I think the best one is how it explains reviving when you take 1 too many bullets to the face and die, how you're able to squeeze into Warframes of different sizes and genders, and manage to not get infected by the Infestation no matter how many times a Juggernaut body-slams you, all at the same time. The answer is, and SPOILER WARNING: You don't. The Warframes are just puppets, and were actually made by infecting selected members of the Orokin Empire's elite military with a specially designed strain of the Infestation, and you, as a Tenno, are the only ones who can control them(how you control them is a bit more complicated though). And when you do eventually gain the ability to play as yourself, the revive mechanic is explained by you "Transferring" back into your Warframe automatically with 2 HP remaining.

[@AdderTude]

I always describe Warframe as "robot ninjas in space" because that's precisely what the Warframes are: bio-mechanical robots (the introduction of Excalibur Umbra proved that there's at least a human body as the skeleton for the chassis, and the Second Dream explicitly implies that there's a surrogate body the Tenno uses in the Warframe upon using Transference).

[@rosie516]

@@AdderTude not necessarily human cus it was the orokin right? but the orokin are probably just a different form of humans seeing as grineer and corpus are

[@eduardobarreto5555]

@@rosie516 Corpus are about as close as human as the enemy factions can get. They don't get cloned the same way as grineer at least. Meanwhile most of the Orokin empire was regular humans, only the highest class got their weird bodies to be unique. In Angels of the Zariman we see Orokin personnel (including an Archimedian) and they were literally the same body type as the Drifters.

[@gamesandglory1648]

and for infestation specifically, the warframes are infested, all of them, to a degree.

[@rosie516]

@@eduardobarreto5555 o oki so just humans, body mods, grofit, and fucked clones basically? just tryin to understand with myvown reasoning

[@El-Burrito]

The way the health system works in Uncharted is cool, with bullets missing you but reducing your "health", unless your health is reduced to 0 and a bullet hits and kills you. Like an action-movie-protagonist-luck meter.

[@alyssinwilliams4570]

in the old, old MMO "Fallen Earth" you are a clone, and if you die your memories are zapped to the nearest cloning facility where you get a new body

[@juggaloskorpio]

GTA:San Andreas CJ - "Where'd this truck come from? It wasn't parked out front when I rolled up." Ryder - "I'm tellin you, my homie's like a gangsta ninja."

[@AdderTude]

Hardspace: Shipbreaker's respawn system is explained through LYNX owning your DNA, and thus can generate a new body for you (dubbed "spares" in-game). They killed you as part of the onboarding process to get your genetic sequence in order to instantly make clones in the event you die on the job...which then incurs a sizeable fee that adds to your already-massive debt just from getting hired.

[@nickmurphy2936]

It also retains a backup of your neural pathways so you don't lose your memories upon expiring too.

[@cericat]

It's such a weirdly relaxing game despite all the pressure going on in it, monitor your O2, don't damage the wrong parts, *carefully* extract generators, etc. But just a wonderfully zen way to start your day.

[@gamesandglory1648]

@@cericat don't, don't, DON"T accidentally shoot your cutter through the fuel tank as for some reason the beam ignores literally everything it isn't specifically targeted at except fuel tanks, which are like the worst thing to hit.

[@cericat]

@@gamesandglory1648 Yep, I'm always careful with the fuel storage, I try not to have to pay for recloning.

[@gamesandglory1648]

@@cericat The loss of the fuel tanks is probably a greater loss in profits than if you die.

[@DarthMater]

Ark: Survival Evolved explains a lot of its mechanics as intentional story elements, but I think the most important one is arguably the most basic in respawns. In the story people who die ust died that's it. But player characters are a special type of Survivor that Helena created in an attempt to save the world and defeat the King Titan- the Ones Who Try Again, who can come back after death and recover or try something else. And it's through their efforts that the world is eventually saved.

[@cassiemoyles4177]

I don't know how I never caught the "whole bullet" joke before, that's funny as hell lol

[@XxRedRocket15xX]

This channel hasn't changed in a decade. Surreal seeing something I would've watched in middle school talking about a game that released while I'm in college

[@waterinmyotter6245]

ANDY: “…According to Asimov’s little known 4th Law of Robotics, you’re programmed to go to the bus stop…” ME: Oh God! I go to the bus stop every day! Am I an android‽ *Goes in search of a kitchen knife to slice arm open with*

[@TheOmegaXicor]

but you ended up at the bus stop, didn't you?

[@endplanets]

"Asimov also added a fourth, or zeroth law, to precede the others: Zeroth Law A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm." Bit more dramatic than a bus stop.

[@blackmagician7645]

Ghost of Tsushima has a great path finder marker built into the games natural world mechanics as well.

[@nobodyelse8064]

In Robots and Empire, Asimov implemented a fourth Law of Robotics, called the Zeroth Law (since it was programmed in to supersede the other three laws in priority). "A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm." As in humanity as a whole, not just individual humans defined by the First Law. So Andy's would be the even more little known Fifth Law.

[@frodobaggins7710]

The Psychonauts hand is definitely creepy, but I still prefer it to the lurker shark in Jak and Daxter as a form of punishment for going near water. That shark still scares me to this day

[@Stratelier]

Especially the underwater boss battle, where every time you approach the wall of the bubble you see those creepy water hands just hovering outside, doing nothing but patiently waiting for you to accidentally stray outside....

[@deathraygonzo6339]

2:52 Launching the whole cartridge probably also makes it tumble so it's slower and may hit sideways.

[@cericat]

Well that's always a thing wih bullets, it's why at longer ranges or adverse conditions rounds will "key hole" they're tumbling in flight.

[@Brian-tn4cd]

One i remember being neat is in Cod: WW2 Nazi Zombies where everything from regenerating health, special abilities to getting weapons and perks were justified, by the special batteries carried by everyone, the Elektromagnet, which are powered by Geistkraft the energy that makes zombies come to life, hence why killing them gives you money or "Joltz"

[@firehedgehog1446]

Not related to the subject of the video but I dig the "Andromeda Inititive" shirt there Mike, good to see that i'm not alone in the fact that actually like Mass Effect: Andromeda

[@rayn0577]

The two explanations for Eagle Vision in Assassin’s Creed is a good one. In AC1, Eagle Vision was the animus visualizing an assassin’s observational skills and known information. It was later retconned into being an actual ability that comes as a result of humans breeding with precursors, but both explanations are interesting.