The other thread about favorite mechanics is great, so let’s also do the opposite: what are some of your most hated mechanics?
The other thread about favorite mechanics is great, so let’s also do the opposite: what are some of your most hated mechanics?
Flowcharts for multiple endings. Let me take multiple distinct routes from the start, or make a choice at the end I can come back to. I hate going through some of the same content again and again and having to look up guides just to find the true ending (looking at you Persona).
I wish more games allowed for choices that are meaningful in the moment but don’t have to affect the ending or even the main plot at all. It doesn’t need to effect that part of the game for the choice to be meaningful to me.
The main example that comes to mind is Soma. I know some people hated that the choices don’t affect the story, but I loved that about it. I thought a lot about all of those choices, and all of them felt more meaningful than most video game choices, and it straight up wouldn’t have made any sense for most of them to have any impact on the player character’s life after he moves passed them.
Edit: I think I prefer the structure of a mostly linear main quest, with a whole bunch of side quests that don’t effect it but are adventures in their own right, over the structure of a super-branchy main story. Especially since I’m always aware that every choice will mean I might miss out on entire areas or characters - that kinda stresses me out, sometimes.
Oddly, AC Odyssey did this for the most part. There are exactly one or two major obvious decisions that impact the outcome, but there were a lot of small visual but otherwise meaningless world changes that can occur as a result of decisions in side quests.
You would HATE AI Somnium Files then, haha. I really like their flowchart, but I definitely see how others wouldn’t.
I actually love AI Somnium Files because it makes it super clear and it doesn’t just repeat the same story bits! haha VNs are really bad for just giving hidden branching paths, and branching-story RPGs for hiding true endings behind convoluted sequences of events.