Examples Of Baffling Game Design?

[Box]

What are some examples of baffling eyebrow raising game design you can think of?

For me, Pokémon Sword and Shield comes to mind. Most games let you change the audio level from the options menu but this game requires you to talk to a random NPC to get earbuds or something which makes the option appear in the menu!

Starfield - Even though I haven't played it I don't think I've ever enjoyed reading reactions about a game more than this one. Bethesda's baffling choices while designing this game across 7 years really is striking. Planets that you can only walk on, filled with nothing. Finally find something and it the exact same facility you came across 4 hours ago on another planet. A Space game that literally removes the process of flying through space and landing on planets thanks to boring repeated load screens. This is a company that crafted such great maps and dungeons that a decades and more later people still proclaim Skyrim and Oblivion the best games ever and they decided to not do that at all this time. Not sure where all the development time unless it was trying to harness the procedural engine and incoporate it into their old school game design. DIdn't sound like it worked well at all.

 

[Petekilla]

Even the biggest Xbox fanboys are finally admitting how outdated the game design is.

 

[JAHGamer]

Kingdom Hearts 1 not giving you basic features like dodgerolling, blocking, and being able to see enemy health points until several hours into the game...

 

[Box]

Kingdom Hearts 1 not giving you basic features like dodgerolling and being able to see enemy health points until several hours into the game...

Dodgerolling isn't even standard, in vanilla kh2 you didn't get it at all and in kh2fm you didn't get it until 20 hours into the game.

Also you don't need to see enemy health points, One of the many things I like about Monster Hunter is that you don't see the enemies HP at all.

I don't get why JRPGs feel the need to always show the enemies HP and stats

 

[JAHGamer]

Dodgerolling isn't even standard, in vanilla kh2 you didn't get it at all and in kh2fm you didn't get it until 20 hours into the game.

It's a standard in every other game lol, especially Action RPGs. Also blocking is locked in early game as well.

Also you don't need to see enemy health points, One of the many things I like about Monster Hunter is that you don't see the enemies HP at all.


I don't get why JRPGs feel the need to always show the enemies HP and stats

Obviously you don't need to but it's nice to have, pretty much every game has it, not just JRPGs. And in Monster Hunter, at least you get to see enemy body parts falling off, which is still an indication of progress.

 

[Zzero]

Playing Xenoblade Chronicles 3 right now and you can save your game (among other tasks) at campsites. Orrrrrrrrr, you could do it in the game's menu which is available at any place, at any time. Probably added in a patch, I guess?

Similar duplication of functions in some other games too. Pokemon Legends Arceus had two nearly identical ways to return to base at the start of every level, but when doing one it would first warp you to the other. It also had quests that required going from one map to another but such direct travel wasn't possible, you would have to go back to camp, enduring 30 seconds of loading, just to immediately have to go to the other level with 30 more seconds off loading. Ridiculous. And in Civ III, as a quirk of the game's original design, you could access the espionage screen from the drop-down menu of whichever city you built your Intelligence Agency in. Or, after an early patch/expansion, you could, and almost certainly did, access it from a dedicated Intelligence button on your main screen. But still the original method lived on as an obscure bit of trivia.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Dodgerolling isn't even standard, in vanilla kh2 you didn't get it at all and in kh2fm you didn't get it until 20 hours into the game.

Also you don't need to see enemy health points, One of the many things I like about Monster Hunter is that you don't see the enemies HP at all.

I don't get why JRPGs feel the need to always show the enemies HP and stats

Finished the pre-Epilogue content for Lunar 2 EBC a couple weeks ago; not seeing enemy HP was actually a good idea there because it kind of forces you to be as considerate with your actions in a turn as possible. I think showing the enemy HP can subconsciously make players get lazy in their strategies when they know the HP is low, and just autopilot a finish. It might also remove a lot of the tension from the final stages of the fight, because now you know the enemy's going to die in a few hits, instead of that uncertainty lingering over your head, which in turn would force you to make every action count.

Of course maybe some games need that element more than others, and I can see cases where seeing enemy HP works (obviously, I've played those types of games as well). But there's kind of a psychological element with not seeing the enemy HP that can make tougher fights in particular even more challenging, for the implications rather than some specific game mechanic. With regular enemies tho, I do feel seeing enemy HP could get redundant because after a while you should get a feeling for how much HP those enemy types have and an idea on how to deal with them efficiently.

 

[John Elden Ring]

Even the biggest Xbox fanboys are finally admitting how outdated the game design is.

This.

Starfield design decesions are bafflng.

 

[Nym]

- playing as a powerless girlfriend in a superhero game

- doubling down on the unanimously hated girlfriend missions for the sequel

 

[Systemshock2023]

- playing as a powerless girlfriend in a superhero game

- doubling down on the unanimously hated girlfriend missions for the sequel

Powerless? You can pretty much one shot venom minions with her gun. Also better than agent 47/Batman/Sam FIsher at stealth takedowns for some reason.

I'm going to go with salt and sanctuary, great game but a 2D metroidvania with no map it's a questionable decision.

 

[Nhomnhom]

Bethesda the thread, I always hated the way they approach game design. Other devs should do the opposite of everything they are doing.

 

[Dr Bass]

Powerless? You can pretty much one shot venom minions with her gun. Also better than agent 47/Batman/Sam FIsher at stealth takedowns for some reason.

I'm going to go with salt and sanctuary, great game but a 2D metroidvania with no map it's a questionable decision.

I think he meant "playing as a person without superpowers in a superhero game."

Making her overpowered in general was clearly a way to compensate for the fact that was happening. Which, of course, makes one ask, "what is the point of having super powers?"

 

[Nym]

Powerless? You can pretty much one shot venom minions with her gun. Also better than agent 47/Batman/Sam FIsher at stealth takedowns for some reason.

I don't consider having a taser a super power exactly. The main point being it's baffling to me why developers would want to provide players a playable slice of MJ's life when people come for the web slinging. And then to double down on that when literally everyone hated this shit in the first game.

 

[Killer_Sakoman]

Bethesda the thread, I always hated the way they approach game design. Other devs should do the opposite of everything they are doing.

It was good early to mid 2000s. Need to evolve now, but they are dead under Microsoft. Just forget about them and pray for their good souls.

 

[Muddasar]

Breath of the Wild Weapon durability.

Not only do they break quick but you can’t repair them.

Absolute nonsense which adds nothing to a game. Put me off using my best weapons when it should be the opposite.

Of course cause it was Nintendo no one penalised them for it. Still got perfect scores.

Haven’t played TOTK because supposedly they haven’t changed much other than now you can fuse weapons or something.

 

[historia]

invitation to buy a fucking car through roulette

 

[Zzero]

Breath of the Wild Weapon durability.

Not only do they break quick but you can’t repair them.

Absolute nonsense which adds nothing to a game. Put me off using my best weapons when it should be the opposite.

Of course cause it was Nintendo no one penalised them for it. Still got perfect scores.

Haven’t played TOTK because supposedly they haven’t changed much other than now you can fuse weapons or something.

They have explained time and time again why they did that and oh, wow, on most people it works.

 

[Muddasar]

They have explained time and time again why they did that and oh, wow, on most people it works.

They can keep explaining.

It’s a shit design choice which adds nothing to a game.

Did you ask most people? Ask them if they would have preferred BOTW with or without it.

 

[Nym]

Totally agree on botw it was the worst part of the game and absolutely a baffling decision. It makes you use shitty weapons most of the time, awesome system.

 

[Muddasar]

Totally agree on botw it was the worst part of the game and absolutely a baffling decision. It makes you use shitty weapons most of the time, awesome system.

Exactly.

Only game I have played which never got me excited when discovering strong weapons and itching to use them.

Just simply stored them and continued to use crappy common weapons which can be replaced when they broke.