What are some bizarre game mechanics you've encountered?

[trickybus]

I'll start! A few moths ago, I played a weird little indie game called Hakoniwa Explorer Plus, a hack n' slash RPG-lite that is saturated with its creator's odd humor. I was several hours into the game yet I couldn't figure out how to cook food. I knew it was possible because there were both raw and cooked variants of the same foods.

I got by on vendor-bought food until I encountered an enemy that inflicts fire damage with a chance to ignite my character. After the fight ended, I realized that some of my food items had turned to ash. I thought about it for a bit before rushing home to get some raw meat out of storage, then jumped onto a camp fire to test my theory.

The intended way to cook food in this game is to set your character on fire with raw food in your inventory.

 

[DunkeyKong]

Damn, that's actually quite bizarre and unique. Maybe mine would be the Scribblenauts…well, scribble mechanics. To me drawing something and seeing it alive is so fascinating to me as a kid

 

[RageBurner]

The intended way to cook food in this game is to set your character on fire with raw food in your inventory.

Nothing like a crispy stake. So what if it cost your character 2nd and 3rd degree burns, eh?

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

Nothing like a crispy stake. So what if it cost your character 2nd and 3rd degree burns, eh?

"Lets have dinner"

"Alright let me just get the meat and throw myself in fire"

"OH GOD YOU ARE BURNING"

"No no im just cooking the raw meat im fine"


A weird mechanic? Sudden strike morale mechanic if troop morale is 0 they panic and no longer listen to your orders.

Faces of war tank mechanics and armor you never know when a shot penetrates or not random as heck

 

[DunkeyKong]

"Lets have dinner"

"Alright let me just get the meat and throw myself in fire"

"OH GOD YOU ARE BURNING"

"No no im just cooking the raw meat im fine"


A weird mechanic? Sudden strike morale mechanic if troop morale is 0 they panic and no longer listen to your orders.

Faces of war tank mechanics and armor you never know when a shot penetrates or not random as heck

That's crazy lmao, but at least he cooked

 

[Bonkers225]

Anything by Sting. Imo, most of their games sucked. It was complicated, and irritating just for the sake of it.

 

[Prism_Red]

Forbidden Siren, you can hijack enemies' POV and see the world through their eyes, was a neat idea, sad there aren't many games that utilizes such mechanic.

 

[glokglakglak]

wtf that is a wack mechanic ??

i can't think of the weirdest one right now but what does come to mind right away is card-game rpgs, like i just can't for the love of mr. crocker understand why that's a thing
i really wanted to try out baten kaitos but the card gameplay turns me off like why do i need a card with a picture of a sword when i can just use my own damn sword

 

[dropsmegamega]

Heroes of Might and Magic has the necromancer faction, which has the power to resurrect a % of the enemies as undead allies. What the game does with that? Has a campaign map solely dedicated around massacring thousands of random neutral peasants units to raise an undead army.


Also SMT:If... has this stupid mechanic were you have to die to get a guardian, its random and you can't just die a lot because your guardian rank will lower, so basically you have to accumulate points before dying to get a better guardian. Getting guardians is the only way of learning magics. Also add to that there's like 1/256 chance of getting a secret guardian if you die during the full moon or something like that.

 

[iegor]

I'll start! A few moths ago, I played a weird little indie game called Hakoniwa Explorer Plus, a hack n' slash RPG-lite that is saturated with its creator's odd humor. I was several hours into the game yet I couldn't figure out how to cook food. I knew it was possible because there were both raw and cooked variants of the same foods.

I got by on vendor-bought food until I encountered an enemy that inflicts fire damage with a chance to ignite my character. After the fight ended, I realized that some of my food items had turned to ash. I thought about it for a bit before rushing home to get some raw meat out of storage, then jumped onto a camp fire to test my theory.

The intended way to cook food in this game is to set your character on fire with raw food in your inventory.

in S.T.A.L.K.E.R you can cure Radiation with Vodka, which makes you drunk so its useless in my opinion

 

[TurnARyu]

It's legal to say a entire game? Lobotomy Corporation is the bizarre game mechanic, the most absurd one is probraly nothing there, which is has so many hidden mechanics to it that insane, for example i found recently that if he breaches while using a shell, you have access a one time execution bullet, its insane.
Now apart from lob corp i would say whatever is happening with the clock thing in shadow hearts, i know its not that hard but I NEVER UNDERSTAND that thing 100%

Forbidden Siren, you can hijack enemies' POV and see the world through their eyes, was a neat idea, sad there aren't many games that utilizes such mechanic.

TRUE! I was creating a project using that mechanic in godot but i never was able to finish, maybe i will go back to it now that you reminder me of Siren

 

[trickybus]

Nothing like a crispy stake. So what if it cost your character 2nd and 3rd degree burns, eh?

Furthermore, you can't be on fire for too long or the stuff you tried to cook burns. Along with anything else in your inventory that's flammable.

Post automatically merged: Feb 10, 2025

Forbidden Siren, you can hijack enemies' POV and see the world through their eyes, was a neat idea, sad there aren't many games that utilizes such mechanic.

That game is on my soon-to-play list! It really is a great mechanic for a horror game and I'd love to see more experimental, creative stuff like that.

 

[KirboDeku]

In Star Ocean and Star Ocean 2, if you have the Radar, Piety, and Playfulness skills, you get the Oracle specialty. In the first game, it takes you to a room with all of the devs and they tell you funny stuff. In the English fan translation, the translators even inserted themselves and say stuff like "(SHAMELESS SELF-ADVERTISEMENT)" and "My stomach's a black hole!!!1". In the second game, it doesn't take you to a different room, you just use it in the menu and it tells you stuff like "Thanks for playing this game" or "Did you know that this is the second Star Ocean game?".

 

[RanmyakuIchi's iconRanmyakuIchi]

Not sure if "Game Mechanic" is the right term, but I always found it incredibly jarring and hilarious how you can just kill everyone in the Star Wars Phantom Menace PS1 game.

 

[TheGamesArchivist]

I could note a couple odd evo methods in Pokemon games that were a bit unconventional
-Inkay evolving into Malamar by reaching level 30 while the 3DS was held upside-down
-Milcery evolving into various forms of Alcremie after spinning clock/counterclockwise for 5-10 seconds depending on time of day

 

[trickybus]

I could note a couple odd evo methods in Pokemon games that were a bit unconventional
-Inkay evolving into Malamar by reaching level 30 while the 3DS was held upside-down
-Milcery evolving into various forms of Alcremie after spinning clock/counterclockwise for 5-10 seconds depending on time of day

Okay, that's pretty wild. I would have needed a guide for that nonsense.

 

[TheGamesArchivist]

What's even better, Inkay's evolution method remains the same for Pokemon GO. You need the prerequisite number of candies to evolve it, then hold your phone upside-down and hit "evolve".

 

[ObscureJigglypuff]

The entire combat system of Knights in the Nightmare.

The combat is weird (and i love it) but is confusing and the tutorial is confusing too...

It's more troublesome on DS than PSP in my opinion...

 

[Cu-Neo]

Not sure if "Game Mechanic" is the right term, but I always found it incredibly jarring and hilarious how you can just kill everyone in the Star Wars Phantom Menace PS1 game.

Thanks to that mechanic we got one of the best moments in GDQ ?

Also a Unique mechanic I can think of is getting outside to get sun for your GBA and play Boktai.

 

[TheGamesArchivist]

WAIT, I FORGOT THE ULTIMATE MECHANIC.

Ladies, Gentlemen, and the rest of you, I present: Boktai and the SOLAR SENSOR.
Yes. Boktai, the GBA game that released prior to the AGS-101, so you either had NO lighting, or a terrible frontlit screen.

Kojima's big-brain idea? "Let's put a Solar sensor on the game cart that charges the player's in-game weapon, and is used to defeat the Vampire bosses!"
Ah, yes, Sunlight. Meaning going outside or near a well-lit window...and play the game on a hard-to-see screen. And worse still, if you were playing on a SP? You had to tilt the console up to face the sun! FUN, RIGHT?

The first two games in that franchise were like...Anathema to most NA gamers due to that very reason, despite them actually being quite fun otherwise.
Of course, the third and final entry in the series, Lunar Knights (on the NDS), removed the need for the solar sensor, though, if you plugged Boktai 1 or 2 into the GBA Cart port, it'd retain prior mentioned functionality.