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Most satisfying gaming mechanics

I've been playing Sekiro recently and oh my god I am obsessed with diving from high places and ramming my sword through the nearest enemy skull I can find. It feels so damn good!

What are some of your most satisfying gameplay mechanics in games you've played?

What makes them feel so good?
 

Sheikah_Witch

I just really like botw
Joined
Apr 8, 2019
Location
Sweden
Took the words out of my mouth there!


Also, Witch Time in Bayonetta comes to mind.

And ...Slo-mo shooting arrows in BotW.

And off - landing a Tetris in Tetris!


I think a variety of things work together to make these moments klick. The animations, the effects on the screen, the rumble, all of these things makes the tactile feel in the fingers feel so satisfying. The gyro aiming in BotW, for instance, is a huge part in why the whole act feels so damn good to me.
 
Dagger kills in Prince of Persia: Two Thrones were bloody satisfying too!
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I can't really think of anything super specific, but for gameplay mechanics, what makes them feel satisfying is the visual and audible feedback you get from doing certain things, at least for me. Stuff like parrying, or the bullet time in BotW, etc in games is almost always hella satisfying because the game does a good job at emphasizing it without disrupting the gameplay. How about them critical hits in Smash Ultimate? The feedback on those make them feel good, and if you're on the receiving end, it feels... bad... GAME! --Oh! Yeah, I'm gonna go with spiking the last stock in Smash as what I find really satisfying. :goron:
 
Joined
Oct 14, 2013
Location
Australia
Most satisfying gaming mechanics
1. Enemies that appear on the world map. As in not random encounters.
I hate being forced to fight a random enemy every few steps. What if I had the choice to fight enemies every few steps or running right past them? That way I can level when I want to, or not level. The choice is up to me. Also I have the option to grind a particular type of enemy if I need to.

2. The alchemy system in Secret of Evermore
I'll explain this as I've not seen it used anywhere else. I'm sure it's not the only game to use this systme but it works so very well.
In this game you cast spells but you have no mana or any mana like resource. The resource you need to cast spells is alchemy ingredients. You either find them in the world (limited quantities) or you buy them from vendors (only limited by how many you can afford at the time). Sure this game is not balanced at all. But if it was, it would make gold/money a valuable resource and it'd really make you think when you use your spells in battle. Also in this game spells are levelled up by using them over and over. That's lots of trips to the vendor for ingredients so lots of gold farming. early on do you want to spend your gold on armour or on more materials for more powerful spells? Sure the spells get way too powerful in this game but in a properly balanced game this would work really well.

3. Switch gyro aiming.
It's so much better than aiming with the right stick. Honestly any Switch game that is shooty shooty bang bang that does not offer gyro aiming as an option is doing it wrong. Sure not everyone likes it, that's why it should be an option.

4. Movement in turn based combat games.
Dragon Quest XI is a recent example of this. In the 3D battles you can move all over the little battle area. Does it affect the actual comat in any way? No. However it makes the combat more immersive and less like boing text based turns. At it's core DQXI is just a text based adventure with a lot of graphics added on top. This text based core (which existed in every DQ game since DQ1 which itself was based on actual earlier text based adventure gameas) is still there, it's just more in the background now and most players won't even notice it.
 

Castle

Ch!ld0fV!si0n
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Going In Circles - Odin Sphere

So this game is an insanely gorgeous 2D side scrolling beat em up that is all pixel backgrounds and sprites. Not a single 3D model in sight.

Levels are designed in such a way that most stages are 2D circular planes. So if you move from left to right or right to left the stage will loop and you can just run around in circles endlessly. At certain points there are exits to other stages and every level is just a huge web of these interconnected circular stages (and some linear or vertically oriented ones.)

Not only that but the inventory does this cool thing where it doesn't even go into separate screens. The game just pauses and your character opens their bag and you can cycle through all the contents of the bag. You can just keep cycling around through every item and then choose an action on the currently held item. It's an incredibly efficient way of storing and sorting through a bunch of inventory items without having pull up a whole menu screen.

Gliding - Batman Arkham series

It's just simple and cathartic to lazily soar above the streets of Gotham - usually for no reason or just to get from place to place. Since you constantly lose altitude you have to periodically use the grapel gun to pull yourself higher and keep gliding. Grapeling gives you a brief intense burst of speed to break up the monotony of soaring around.
 
Going In Circles - Odin Sphere

So this game is an insanely gorgeous 2D side scrolling beat em up that is all pixel backgrounds and sprites. Not a single 3D model in sight.

Levels are designed in such a way that most stages are 2D circular planes. So if you move from left to right or right to left the stage will loop and you can just run around in circles endlessly. At certain points there are exits to other stages and every level is just a huge web of these interconnected circular stages (and some linear or vertically oriented ones.)

Not only that but the inventory does this cool thing where it doesn't even go into separate screens. The game just pauses and your character opens their bag and you can cycle through all the contents of the bag. You can just keep cycling around through every item and then choose an action on the currently held item. It's an incredibly efficient way of storing and sorting through a bunch of inventory items without having pull up a whole menu screen.

Gliding - Batman Arkham series

It's just simple and cathartic to lazily soar above the streets of Gotham - usually for no reason or just to get from place to place. Since you constantly lose altitude you have to periodically use the grapel gun to pull yourself higher and keep gliding. Grapeling gives you a brief intense burst of speed to break up the monotony of soaring around.

I Frakking LOVE OdinSphere. It's so damn good!
I want that team to remake Adventure of Link, it'd be amazing.
 

mαrkαsscoρ

Mr. SidleInYourDMs
Joined
May 5, 2012
Location
American Wasteland
I don't remember if it had a name but that ongoing CQC slamming in MGS Peace Walker, which is basically if you're around multiple enemies and you CQC slam one of them, you can press R and slam the nearest one and so on, pretty satisfying to do

also the Mother 3 heart beat mechanic where you can hit an enemy up 16 times in succession, it especially feels great if you can do it on a tougher enemy
 

GrooseIsLoose

Slickest pompadour in town
ZD Legend
Joined
Aug 16, 2019
Location
Skyloft
Not to forget the Pow block in Mariokart Wii. You have to shake your Wii mote for dodging it. I didn't know that at first :p
 

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