Good Design, Bad Design Vol. 6 - The Best and Worst of Video Game Graphic Design

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Time for another Good Design, Bad Design! Here's three more great and three more terrible examples of graphic design in games.
This episode contains:
Mario Maker 2
Hollow Knight
Wario Ware
Yooka-Laylee
Hyrule Warriors
and a classic episode of TOO MANY FONTS! Will Tenchu Stealth Assassins, Dissidia Final Fantasy NT, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, or House of the Dead be able to take down the reigning champion Gungnir?
Support Design Doc on Patreon! / designdoc
Design Doc on Twitter: / warbot400
#mariomaker2 #hollowknight #warioware

[@chiraagvyas5070]

I did not expect to laugh as hard as I did at your too many fonts show

[@DesignDoc]

Neither did we.

[@masterofdoom5000]

This glass...but not that glass...okay but that glass this time.....but never THAT glass....unless it's a Tuesday.

[@isadoracostahamsi163]

That was mildly infuriating to watch. Can’t imagine how it was to play.

[@vr8652]

G7! I win!

[@KnakuanaRka]

Verick Rincon What are you Neanderthals doing?

[@AkaiAzul]

@@isadoracostahamsi163 It was frustrating. I found that glass tube, it would not break whatever I did. Got Sonar Blast, read "don't use near glass," immediately went back and tried it...nothing. tried it some 5-10 more times in different places, nada. Gave up frustrated. Eventually found the roll, explored everything else, completely forgetting about the glass tube until I happened to refind it, used the roll, it worked, and I got hit by the fire. Ha. Ha. Ha. Great. Design. Really. Really. Good.

[@sanfransiscon]

How about a game where your character traveled from the distant past so his map is incredibly outdated, even when it comes to the layout of the land?

[@Naruto_from_the_Naruto_show]

If I'm not mistaken, Zelda Skyward Sword has a small segment where that is the case. Tbh it's a very frustating part, but I do appreciate the idea

[@gavindillon1486]

In Darkwood, you find a map that your character says is two years old and completely outdated now.

[@hedwyn8803]

This sounds like one of those elements that could be AMAZING if pulled off well, and just really frustrating if it's not.

[@gavindillon1486]

@White-Van Helsing it's amazing!

[@slowbro13215]

Google maps has a part like that

[@SuperOvidiuMihai]

Look at him moving a cursor with a controller. Disgusting

[@marcelostringer]

I would agree but I'm not sure you can record the screen on handheld mode

[@Manacus]

@@marcelostringer no for some reason there isn't one.

[@0ctopusComp1etely]

After hundreds of cumulative hours in Hyrule Warriors, it's kind of nice to look back and say "...Yeah, the menu really is kind of bad."

[@pedroscoponi4905]

You put that mask in the thumbnail, you get me to come running, sir

I don't have time for another video. I need to go. Oh, thumbnail featuring Holl... Shit I clicked on it.

[@emmadrew50]

his name is cornifer ): i cant belive you didnt even talk to him twice

[@gregorychristian3643]

Would love to see more TOO MANY FONTS it's a masterpiece, well done

[@Jose_Ruiz932]

One more thing about the hyrule warriors design, something I found happening to me is when an objective is about to fail but the game won’t notify me until the other notifications pop up first. In those moments, it can be really annoying when you suddenly fail just cause the game’s own warning came in too late

[@imageez]

Hollow Knight's incomplete map will be terrible had they designed the world badly. But they didn't. You can simply look on the background/enemy, and you just know that you're transitioning to a different area. It also enhances the Metroidvania (never played it tbh, I just know it as a descriptor) aspect of finding new paths ect.

[@merinMeriyarin]

i'm a simple man i see hollow knight mask, i press click.

[@darrelsam419]

11:19 "Oops I made ze bad design" Is that a Super Best Friends reference? :o

[@DesignDoc]

maaaaaybe

[@darrelsam419]

@@DesignDoc :O Interesting. On another note, thank you for making another Good Design Bad Design video. Very informative. :D

[@DesignDoc]

@@darrelsam419 No prob! They're fun to make.

[@acwalker1376]

@@DesignDoc It's on the same screen as "Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry series" and a Homestar Runner "Let's put one of those beefy fonts back on for good measure." and I can't see it as anything besides a SBPF gag.

[@ATTACKofthe6STRINGS]

Dude, I just subbed to your channel today. It's so interesting to just hear the background music of a bunch of games I played in your videos. I love your content.

[@cowinjapanese6896]

NEXT UP ON "TOO MANY FONTS": JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven

[@shuntarofurukawa5577]

Okay. The president of Nintendo is watching!

[@Flymerick]

It's a joke, right?

[@TheMuslimMan1337]

Absolutely not!

[@Dunika]

@@Flymerick yes, check his about Edit: just in case is not clear: he is NOT the real one, and it says so in his about

[@Flymerick]

I know who Furukawa is, but i think the true president wouldn't show himself like this. I could be wrong anyways.

[@yurineri2227]

It's just a joke @@Flymerick

[@ookazi1000]

So, I got really into borderlands 2 recently; and I keep running into a problem whil playing it that reminded me of this video: some of the random bits of trash in the game have a green stench. This by itself is not a problem except, the game absolutely hammers home that green in its visual language green means one of three things: corrosive damage, lootable chest, or interactable widget (typically associated with the active quest). Having the green stench creates a point of interest, but then betrays that interest when there's nothing there: I spent a minute confused about why there wasn't anything to find there; which ties into another problem: Some lootable chests are quest-locked, meaning they can't be opened except during certain quests because they contain quest specific items. And this wouldn't be a problem, except they're for the most part, also signified with a green marker. I spent 5 minutes in frostburn canyon confused about why I couldn't open the treasure latrine near the start of the area: turns out it's because it's a quest-locked chest. And this problem could have easily been solved (and in some cases was solved) by having quest locked chests glow red, which the game uses to say "No." Like someone on the development team had that idea, and put it into practice in some parts of the game, but not others. Irksome. -- Also, there's the matter of loot. This is more to do with cluttersome information than inconsistant information, but all loot has a glowing line above it to indicate to you that it exists. ALL LOOT. Including ammo drops which because for most ammo types the game is pretty generous, you won't be able to pick up because you're full up on that ammo. So, when your going around picking through the loot of a big battle, you may wind up looking at the same ammo drop several times, or not being able to focus on the actual loot (weapons, etc) because of how much ammo is laying around. Ammo should only glow if your not full up on it; so as to clean up the visual indicators. And because items have rarities, you should be able to set which rarities you are interested in, and have only those rarities glow, because the glow of common weapons after a boss fight are difficult to ignore because there are so many of them. It'd be nice to have a setting to just turn that off: give the player a bit more control over what information they feel is important. -- And lastly, I recently beat the game and got to NG+ which it calls True Vault Hunter mode; and something about it almost immediately irked me. Unlike in the new game run through, some shielded enemies are resistant to one of the game's elemental damage types. Which would fine, except there's no indicator to show you that. Some enemies in the group will just randomly not be as effected by your weapon of choice, and the only way to know that is to shoot at them and read the 'resist' text as it pops up. Random enemy resistances is supposed to add a layer of complexity to fights, and I respect that, but if your not going to tell me they have resistances, until I shoot at them: well, I'm playing a one-shot one-kill sniper, and it's a bit late to switch to a less ineffective weapon after I shot them. It's more annoy than difficult when you fail to communicate that those random resistances visually. And that's setting aside the fact that the game's not really designed to handle random resistances: switching weapons takes a long time, and you only have four weapons slots at any given time, and only one grennade, which might seem like enough (one for each elemental damage type), but factor the six gun types which are appropriate for different situations (I like to kit with a sniper rifle, shotgun, pistol, and rpg), and that different guns behavior differently even with their own category, and your left without the ability to tool an actually usable kit to deal with random damage resistances. It just feels like a cheap artifical inflation of difficulty that can't be overcome with skillful mastery of the gameplay.

[@happycamperds9917]

My one problem with Hollow Knight is that I assumed to bouncy shrooms could be bounced on by an ability I hadn’t I unlocked yet, instead of the nail bounce you begin with. I got lost for quite a while because of this.

[@migueeeelet]

Oof, as a Musou fan, Hyrule Warriors' problem looks serious. I've sometimes had to skip on dialog and have to read it later but that's to be expected; you're in an intense battle and characters are participating in it. At least they're voiced usually, and in english versions (looking at you, Warriors Orochi 4 with japanese only dub), it's not a problem

[@LucaPariah]

Oh dude, Fire Emblem: Warriors is also bad about the notifications and objectives...it’s a mess to keep track of.

[@MemTMCR]

I didn't ever use the wayward compass on my first tun through hollow knight made it so much easier to remember how to get places without the map at least compared to my friends

[@hollowknightenjoyer]

doesnt wayward compass help

[@artman40]

When it comes to navigating and getting lost in the map in open-world games, Dishonored 2 kind of relies on a simpler option: In the options screen, you can turn all the objective markers and other user-interface elements off. Fortunately, the game was designed to be played without guides as the environment does a good job at guiding you.

[@gamergalaxy6892]

i think a 7-year old messing around on Google Docs would win Too Many Fonts!

[@BioMatic2]

as a non-zelda fan, that mision queu noise alone drop my interest on hyrule warriors to near 0. that clip alone made me go "okey im already getting sick of it"

[@hiiambarney4489]

That is more a problem of the Warriors Game :)

[@portalfan12345]

With Hollow Knight I really felt like I was wasting a slot just to know where I was and I didn't like that.

[@zelectrode3337]

I'm pretty sure no game can beat Gungnir in amount of fonts on one screen.

[@blackliquidsorrow8249]

Loved the bait and switch with xenoblade chronicles 2

[@misad6308]

I can totally see myself playing Too Many Fonts with EVERY game I see from now on.

[@sarontheartsyglaceon2157]

For bad game design I have two ideas for that Secret of Mana's menu and KH1's Gummi Ship building Those menus are like defusing a bomb

[@DesignDoc]

Fun fact. The KH1 Gummi menu was originally going to be one of the bad design segments in this volume. Might bring it back for a future volume someday.

[@ceresorbit1488]

this isnt technically a game, but more game-adjacent? i would LOVE a small vid on the nintendo switch's overall UI bc i could genuinely flip through it doing Absolutely Nothing for hours and have a good time

[@kaarlomakkarakasa440]

I'm a simple person. I see Hollow Knight, I click.

[@andrewhisey1363]

I recognize those city of tears vocals

[@raugust152637]

Too Many Fonts is recorded with a live audience

[@BlueLightning2554]

Cheap shot, I mean, contestant for Too Many Fonts, but why not have games of the same series compete with Iron Chef Gungnir like Knights in the Nightmare for the DS?

[@speedm222]

Can you cover the Dirt series? Dirt 2 has a really good menu

[@cannabishornliu6119]

0:38/0:39 GF: We don't need something like this in Sword and Shield! Let's go T-posing Wingull, Tail Whip Yamper and Double Kick Scorbunny! Let's make millions like Luigi! ;-)

[@pppoopoo4514]

Good design: putting your sponsored ad at the end of the video.

[@QuesoCookies]

Hollow Knight could stand to be a little more expressive in where to go next. I think the Metroid Prime games handled this best. The next objective is always highlighted on your map. It doesn't tell you how to get there or what obstacles you might encounter, but any time you ran into an obstacle you couldn't cross, you got an additional marker, which, again, only told you where to go, not how to get there. You often need to take a few detours to get to where you're trying to go, but you're never directionless. It's a much better balance of direction vs. exploration than Hollow Knight. Hollow Knight only employed this strategy once with the locations of the dreamers, but each of them required equipment and upgrades to reach that you were given no clue as to where to go to acquire. It was actually way more irritating than rewarding to have no direction whatsoever because you could easily wander into a section of the map that was nearly impossible to traverse without equipment you got from a different section... but again, which section is a complete mystery. Crisscrossing through sections you've already been through over and over again just to go through a process of eliminating all the dead ends you'll inevitably encounter as you do that might be "fun" to some people, but I'll never understand it.

[@jaretco6423]

Glad I'm not the only one that found the biggest flaw Hollow Knight has.

[@Sesquipadalian]

Love what you've been doing!

[@turtlehub2731]

1:08 or you can build turn based combats, and calculators

[@Yoso_tv]

I SWEAR TO GOD IF THE FIRST SONG YOU USED IS FROM THE SONIC HOVERBOARD GAME IM A HUGE BRAIN OWNER

[@Yoso_tv]

actually i might've fucked up and its spectrobes but idk

[@Yoso_tv]

NEVER MIND IT IS FUCKIN SONIC RIDERS ZERO GRAVITY MAIN MENU THEME

[@laitha2550]

the fact you haven't done breath of the wild is a crime, I would argue it has the best design out of any game. (It's my opinion not a fact get it right)

[@DesignDoc]

BoTW is my favorite game and we have considered it in some of our earlier volumes but it probably won't get a good design segment on its own. However we do apply a few graphic design principals to the world design and how it gets the player's attention in our video, "Breath of the Wild's Exploration Cycle".

[@gagedixon7899]

what is the theme at the beginning

[@TheLordDai]

If I wasn't just told that hyrule warriors is an actual thing, I would have just assumed it's a dynasty warriors mod made by zelda fans. But, then again, you could say the same thing about every new dynasty warriors game.

[@HansAlRachid]

I wonder what you'd think of the Etrian Odyssey series.

[@daiyahigashikata]

it's fairly easy, consistent and simple to understand. some menus can be a little confusing at first though, like the skill trees.

[@kinkstou]

not enough fonts ;(

[@thaariqbinaziz2821]

whats the game name on 17:17 ?

[@cynthiathornton6975]

Ai design doc you forgot geometry dash my kid loves it

[@NightFore]

18:38 All of these fonts actually pushed me away from the game... Looked terrible to play even though it has awesome OST :(

[@-orion-6359]

I love you!

[@Codricmon]

I was a contestant on "Too Many Fonts" once, but I misunderstood what it was about. I probably looked a bit silly with my 20 fondue sets.

[@DesignDoc]

This is stupid but I like it.

[@NameEntry]

Too Many Cooks?

[@brightonpauli3916]

And my parents wonder why I spend all day on the internet.

[@penntopaper9305]

hazbin hotel profile picture located

[@Codricmon]

@@penntopaper9305 No, that's my actual face.

[@justafan5437]

Hollow Knight is an amazing game that also tells you what’s your enemies Almost everything is a cold color so that when you see the forgotten crossroads over run with the infection it feels dangerous That’s Color Theory

[@darrelsam419]

Hollow Knight managed to make me afraid of the color orange, which is generally a warm, friendly color. I'd say Team Cherry succeeded very well with utilizing colors in their game.

[@justafan5437]

Yes

[@justafan5437]

Wait holy shit they hearted my comment yes

[@donutstarve3012]

infected crossroads friggin terrified me when I first saw it

[@theEduardo9800]

@@donutstarve3012 me too man, i had just finished dealing with deepnest (including nosk), so i took the tram to ancient basin and from there i went up to the city of tears, upgraded my nail, and went to dirtmouth from the stag station, i then noticed an orange cloud coming from below the well you normally use to go to the forgotten crossroads, i went down and i got scared shitless when i looked at the area, i really didn't expect anything like that after killing herrah

[@ASquared544]

The Knight is in the thumbnail The title says “The best and WORST of game design” Me, quietly: _Don’t_

[@Foregoner]

same

[@Dinoman972]

I was begging he put the game in Good Design for half the video.

[@VVen0m]

Lol, I literaly watched this vid JUST to check out if HK is gonna be in the "bad" category, great clickbait tbh if you think about it

[@geoffmartin5545]

all of us hollow knight fans teleport behind Design doc* THE COUNCIL HAS ARRIVED

[@eyoshinthemaximum]

I was like “You better not” when I saw the Knight

[@Lugmillord]

Gungnir is just unbeatable in terms of font count.

[@MochiMac17]

Lugmillord I get a headache just looking at the game...

[@CalebWillden]

Alright gang: it's time to make an indie game to beat the reigning champion!

[@luciendodge]

Every letter in a single word will be a different font.

[@sanfransiscon]

I'm still not sure what the problem with having lots of fonts are. Doesn't it help differentiate the types of messages?

[@nellancaster]

@@sanfransiscon Well, yes, it does help, but it's best to use different fonts only to group information under a similar category (i.e. using similar fonts for status effects and MP and HP counts in a JRPG), and when it comes to _prioritization_ of information, size and chromatic differences will do just fine.

[@MelancholiAyr]

"Xenoblade Chronicles 2!" Me: Wait what? But it- "How many fonts is that? ONE? That's NOT ENOUGH FONTS" Me: o

[@malcovich_games]

I got baited too... I eventually realized there was a crapton of text... but only one font... :o

[@Zimran03]

Ayr Yea Xenoblade 2 Somehow organizes all of that battle information neatly.

[@goldencyclone4984]

@@Zimran03 Was gonna say, I never had any issue understanding what was happening in XB2. Sure, the tutorial dump was annoying, but once you're in the flow of battle it all makes sense.

[@Zimran03]

@@goldencyclone4984 Yea the long tutorial was annoying but its better than playing XBX and then realizing the game doesn't tell you any of the important stuff in the HUD and menus. So now you then have to read the 50+ page digital manual multiple times to have a basic understanding. And then still not have everything explained to you. The UI in that game was so small that I had to sit closer to the tv just to play it.

[@Khord22]

@@Zimran03 I feel ya on XCX, It was baad with font size and also getting across what the different arts did. Especially with how much I played on a 720p monitor or the gamepad I kinda had to guess

[@cobisss]

"You know what game nails that balance very well ? " I see what you did there Sir !

[@tomaszwota1465]

Yep, that was a good one.

[@ArgenteonYT]

I was expecting Hollow Knight but slightly hoping BotW would get mentioned as well, since it also achieves that balance

[@Flymerick]

8:40 **City of Tears OST starts** HECK YEAH, HERE WE GO

[@racciastitan5534]

Hollow Knight is fun!

[@PuppetMasterIX]

*Gungnir:* "Hey House of the Dead, how many fonts are you on?" *House of the Dead:* "Like, maybe 5 or 6, my dude!" *Gungnir:* "You are like a little baby. Watch this..." 𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕭𝖆𝖙𝖙𝖑𝖊 𝕳𝖆𝖘 𝕭𝖊𝖌𝖚𝖓!! 𝘋𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘮𝘺! ꜰ ᴏ ʀ ᴠ ɪ ᴄ ᴛ ᴏ ʀ ʏ

[@rage_2000]

I just realised that “dumb ways to die” was basically a modern warioware for mobile phones

[@shadowfalcon1269]

11:19 *Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry series* God those transitions are treats

[@CalebWillden]

I'm glad I didn't pick up Yooka-Laylee, because that type of puzzle inconsistency frustrates me like nothing else. I'm getting worked up just by watching this, haha. Hollow Knight was terrifying at first. Not having a map of any sort was almost too overwhelming. I actually almost gave up on the game, but I pressed forward and once I found the cartographer in a new area and bought some map upgrades, it became really satisfying to explore every nook and cranny to completely fill out the maps. I became much more confident in my exploration abilities as the game progressed. Masterfully designed.

[@wolfekupo5651]

Only reason I have Yooka-Laylee is because it is a free game on Twitch Prime this month, I finished the first world (about as much as I could) and that was about it, I went to my yearly FFVI playthrough

[@whiz8569]

Those 'Bad Design' screens are terrible! The title is clearly visible in the middle of the screen! I know exactly what's going on!

[@Its_just_me_man]

Glad to see Hollow Knight being mentioned.

[@LashknifeTalon]

That's one of the best sponsorship/ad segues that I've ever seen. You could almost say it was a...good design.

[@MforMovesets]

The Yooka Laylee issue could have easily been solved with color patterns for the glass.

[@Wiimeiser]

This. Definitely. Maybe a clear difference in the density of cracks, too.

[@MoonSpiritChannel]

Not gonna lie about Hollow Knight. Wasn't initially a fan of the map system, but once I got it, it felt like I was growing as the character. Plus, the UI of the game is pretty clean.

[@bence0302bence]

Agreed 1000%

[@HidingOverHere]

the whole game pretty much makes you feel like youre getting better in skill personally not just a bunch of in game stats "levelling up".

[@qilinit]

MoonSpirit in the beginning, i didn’t understand the map, it was kind of unclear and not very detailed, but now its kinda cool!

[@kasajizo7184]

@@bence0302bence * 112%

[@elenafriese891]

I just wish bosses had health bars ( I'm bad at them,and I don't even know how far I got. It can break my will.)

[@morganwithaneevee246]

Gungir's so painful to look at.. And it's not like strategy games have to look complicated. With Fire Emblem Awakening, for example, when you're about to attack an enemy, it shows you 6 boxes. Your Hp-> How much Hp you'll have after combat (if you double attack, it will show up as a 2x symbol.) Your hit % for each attack And your critical hit %. These three boxes also are shown for the enemy. When looking at character stats, they are arranged from top to bottom. Str (if there is any modifier next to any stat, there will be a +X next to that value) Mag Skill Spd Luck Def Res Hp is display separately, at the top of the screen to emphacize how important it is to keep your units alive. It's the easiest thing in the world to judge how one unit will do against another just by looking at there stats, which are arranged neatly and efficiently. It isn't a chore to strategize thoroughly.

[@0rangepel378]

"You'd have nothing. Actually, you'd have Game & Wario. Which is adjacent to nothing."

[@Sagaan42]

9:35 i was expecting the outer wilds. God damnit this game has gone under the radar so bad, and it's one of the best open worlds ive ever played.

[@Sagaan42]

@Arie Elberian definitely!

[@artman40]

That game goes to good game, bad business decisions but that's another topic.

[@SpunkyMcGoo]

It flew under the radar cause it went epic exclusive, pretty sad.

[@tiagoalmeida8549]

It probably went under the radar since it‘s only platforms are X-box and epic games store... Epic games store has a pretty bad reputation so there goes a big percentage of the gaming community. I‘ll take myself as an example: I have tons of games on steam so it would just be an unnecessary hassle to own games on 2 seperate libraries. Constantly switching between the stores gets annoying after a while and as paying method i prefer to use steam wallet, which means i would have to get more digital currency to buy something in epic store. (I dont own a credit card) And since i dont own an X-box i can‘t buy it there either. (I do agree though that it‘s an awesome game wich deserves more attention)

[@skydiamsteam6005]

MjrCinnaminBun Fuck off...

[@whatisfzeroanymore2nd]

The worst part is that the "TOO MANY FONTS" logo is actually good design. It shows you exactly what the show's about and what the point is: Pointing out and mocking games with *Too Many Fonts*. Beautiful.

[@LibertyLocalizer]

Next time you should do "mediocre design, mediocre design" where you point out a bunch of okay menus that do their jobs and that's it.

[@Hoopryfien]

That mission queue noise is ingrained into my head due to the hundreds of hours I have on Hyrule Warriors

[@yolobot4644]

I hear Sonic Rider Zero Gravity music at the start. I’m pretty excited now! :)

[@ashrevyr755]

I was looking for someone to say that! I LIVED that game as a kid!

[@yolobot4644]

Ashrevyr same :)

[@ashrevyr755]

@@yolobot4644 that was surprising, I didn't expect you to reply so quickly after a year

[@yolobot4644]

Ashrevyr I look at every notification I get and I use KZbin too much.

[@ashrevyr755]

@@yolobot4644 fair point

[@AdmiralBobbery123]

Go back and play the first WarioWare, and I feel like you may notice that game was oftentimes pretty rough at conveying information about microgames - commands will be generic, you often don't get a sense of which character you're playing as, and things don't work as you think they would - definitely something that got improved in future games!

[@DesignDoc]

We wrote this specifically with Smooth Moves and Gold in mind but I also went and played the first WarioWare recently and yeah. It is rough in regards to this. 90% of the time it's fine but there are quite a few microgames that are not intuitive enough for how fast the game is. Stuff like the one where a person is bouncing on a trampoline but you control the trampoline and the "Sniffle" game come to mind. Some of the harder minigames can feel borderline impossible to do successfully unless you're already prepared for them. But in the newer games, almost every microgame is intuitive with only a handful of exceptions.

[@AdmiralBobbery123]

@@DesignDoc For sure - I remember there being a Game and Watch inspired one where you have to cross to the opposite side while avoiding objects falling from above but the prompt only said something like "Avoid!" - whenever I would play it I wouldn't realize until it was too late that there was a win condition besides just surviving, lol

[@CAPAE]

I love this Animaniacs inspired series. You are a man of culture. Side note: I put this in my Game Design playlist.

[@HaitaniMasayuki]

Ironically, the "cleaner option" for Super Mario Maker 2 is one of the biggest points of critique.

[@trajer1535]

I was wondering why you never mentioned Hollow Knight in your other videos. This explains it!

[@TainoMoya]

When you pulled out Xenoblade chronicles 2 my heart skipped a beat. Phew! Xenoblade chronicles 2 is amazing

[@123goofyking]

I was SO confused and then amused

[@Shakzor1]

I was "where are the different fonts?" and then he pulled a sneaky one^^

[@danzy211]

I saw Xenoblade 1 at the beginning too and was worried the entire way through

[@recursiveslacker7730]

9:30 “You know what game nails that balance?” I see what you did there.

[@vermilingus9018]

Funny to have that thumbnail show up just as I take a break from my Hollow Knight replay.

[@JoaderR]

That Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity music at the beggining gave me hope...

[@retinas2001]

9:58 But a map is a map. You can't say it's only a half-finished map. This comment is a joke.

[@tppcrpg6311]

Well Patrick "Henry" Norton....

[@Cryothia]

The Sonic Riders Zero Gravity menu theme is always a win from me

[@MFBandit]

Do i hear the Menu theme from Sonic Riders Zero Gravity at the beginning??? My Dude

[@mr.cobbweb1624]

*Hears Sonic Riders Zero Gravity menu theme* so you're a man of culture I see

[@davidartrip85]

Your videos just get better and better. Really good stuff.

[@variousthings6470]

I spotted the "thanks, I hate it"! I understood that reference!

[@BasicBraining]

Yooka-Laylee problems: "Why can't I lick that?!"

[@tomaszwota1465]

0:39 this intro segment was done best in the very first episode of the series. There was something about words "[the] presentation [of] information" together with the icons still on screen, the iconss being just that, the presentation of information. The newer way doesn't have the same charm and natural dynamic.

[@gonderage]

I wish you talked about Ico in the bad design part. The game is not friendly to new players; I had to use a guide to play through it.

[@variousthings6470]

The only problem I remember having with Ico was the one puzzle that involved timing your jump in sync with a piston's motion in order to get a jump boost. (On the original PS2 version, the puzzle was only in the PAL release, not the US one.) It was a completely different kind of puzzle than everything else in the game up to that point. I didn't even think that jumps interacting with the environment in that way we a thing the game engine was capable of. It stumped me in the same way that the infamous barrel in Sonic 3's Carnival Night Zone stumped so many players - it just wasn't the kind of interaction that the game had taught me to consider.

[@appelofdoom8211]

You really deserve more subs. This serie of videos alone is informative, funny and introduced me to Pyre.

[@marcgoncalis9802]

Yeah, random wall-hiting aside, Hollow Knight is the way to go for exploration. It's a pity silksong is steping back by including a quest system.

[@Camkitsune]

8:39 TFW the subject's excellent soundtrack in the background gives away the joke.

[@Silvershire]

The minimap in Hyrule Warriors is SO terrible. So many flashing squares and circles that blend together... Age of Calamity improved on it, thankfully.

[@Bane_Amesta]

I really wanted to like Hyrule Warriors, but just the idea of mashing buttons to the infinity and beyond is just repellent to me, now I have another reason to hate the game

[@camtheman7654]

Fire emblem warriors is worse. You have to wait for the character to say a two line dialogue box before the next appears for almost every single enemy that isn't just the for KO count fodder.

[@Folutu]

I dunno. Hyrule Warriors's grunts are inherently at a disadvantage against Fire Emblem Warriors's two-liners because you get to listen to understandable voices telling you something about the state of the mission or battle in the latter, which helps keeping you focused on the action and on everything else better than the former does. Granted, this particular aspect is a weakness of Hyrule Warriors specifically.

[@TheBarteringBard]

I'm currently taking a graduate level Human Factors Psychology class..a lot of what you discuss in this video was very helpful for my term project! Bravo! :-)

[@Matty002]

ok this good design title card is almost as bad as episode 3 i cant believe you have 'more text the better' and 'too much empty space fill it up' and yet there are huge gaps of no text in the bad design card "like fonts? font it up with EXTRA FONTS!" - design doc july 18 2019 #TooManyFonts

[@FlameRat_YehLon]

Just a quick talk about too many fonts. If a game is translated into Chinese that issue would usually not exist, because that would quickly make you broke as commercial Chinese fonts are expensive, while free Chinese fonts are basically just Noto Sans/Serif and Wenquanyi. Therefore, games that are in Chinese usually use a single font for everything, while Final Fantasy and other SE titles (for example, Octopath Traveler) seems to prefer using 2 or 3, but that's it. They are mostly not on the same screen, or at least not for the same purpose, though.

[@LowerBlack64]

Yo, is that the Sonic Riders Zero Gravity Menu theme? WHOA

[@djordjesulovic.7374]

The hunters journal in hk also gave some motivationl to stay around complete it find new bugs explore fight screw around with few of them try out new strats or make you seek for upgrades delaying you before you go somewhere to early also if you shared an opinion with the hunter it would be satisfying and a relief that it was meant to be that way mostly. It was a small feature but a really Big one for the first play experiance (even in my 5th playtrough it was a fun and a good refreshing feature after forgetting a lot of the game).