Rally from Bloodborne is an obvious goat contender mechanic. It creates the perfect gameplay harmony when combined with the faster paced combat, and further reinforced by the lack of any defensive options. It simply wouldn’t have worked on a game like DS1, although it might have fit nicely into DS3.

Also gets points for how simple and intuitive it is

I would say weapon arts are a close second but they keep linking it to mana points for some reason. Why does a melee sword strike use the same resource as casting magic arrows from a wand?

They’re effective when they hit, but often have considerably higher cooldown or start up than your standard R1, which combined with the use of FP, makes me not want to even bother. Either make them hard to utilize with specific timing and unlimited use, or make them easier to use and land with limited use.

Unlimited boost from Frontiers would be tight if it didn’t do that stupid cutscene every single time

Brimstone + fly in Binding of Isaac (Azazel)

Not having easy access to regenerative health, big damage, quicker movement gives it a real top down arcade shooter feel. It's nice to challenge yourself with worse characters, but I never have as much fun.

it made it boring to play anyone else lol

• Mounting in Dragons Dogma

• Monster knockout & tail/part cutting mechanics in Monster Hunter

• Souls lock on (the best 3rd person lock on system imo) by Fromsoft

• The movement in Armored Core 6 (best game movement of all time)

• Pikmin commands and throwing

• Embers in Dark Souls 3

• OG God of War trilogy button commands

• Spirits in Elden Ring & Spirit Animals in Nioh series (basically i like Pokemon-like companion mechanics done in other games)

• Bloodborne quick step dodge

• Dark Souls 2 unique dual weilding combinations

• The unique & combinable powers in Dishonered & Bioshock series'

• Peering through two dimensions in Dishonered 2

• Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice psychosis puzzle solving

• Real time space travel & planet landing/leaving/exploration in No Mans Sky

• Deus Ex literally punch a hole in a wall to make a new path way technique

• Okami paint brush

• Witch time in Bayonetta

• Fatalities in Mortal Kombat

• Zelda Tears of the Kingdom real time and unique crafting system

• Cyberpunk 2077 arm augments

• Flying in Control & the telekinesis powers

• Genre changes in Nier Automata

• Rip n tear in modern Doom

• Power combining in Kirby 64 (why have they not brought this back in Kirby games its genius)

• Parry system in Sekiro

• Witcher vision in Witcher 3 (this does not work in almost every other game tho) & Gwent

• The camera "weapon" in Fatal Frame series and how it forces you to face the fear and horror head on

• Hiding in Metal Gear solid series

• The sword charge slash in Ninja Gaiden

• Using your companions in the first two Paper Mario games to solve puzzle and traversal challenges

• Max Payne's bullet time

Nemesis system, if it wasn’t patent imagine it in a from software game

siege breakable surfaces

WB still the biggest hoes of all time for patenting it

the camo system in mgs3 is up there for me

Materia in Final Fantasy VII

MGS has the best sneak gameplay in gaming bar none

Social Links in Persona

Horse mountain climbing physics in Skyrim

I really enjoy the flashlight in Alan Wake as well, keeps you on your feet juggling the light between enemies while trying not to get hit

Also Titanfall 2 and Dishonored 2 with their time switching mechanics. Each game only use it for one level but they’re both the most memorable missions in the game to me

source bhop

no contest

Arkham games combat

GTA 4 enemy health bar around aiming reticle. Please bring this back

TLOU bricks/bottles laying around that can be used as a distraction or an attack

Dead Space HUD elements like health and ammo actually being part of the environment

Red Faction's destruction system
Bonfires in Souls games
Tranquilizer, cqc and codec in MGS
Command input for hadouken
Smash Bros shield, dodge and grab
Sphere grid in ffx

rally + ranged parries are what make Bloodborne feel so damn smooth. favorite From combat system for sure.

Charging up a greatsword attack and landing it directly on the monster’s head as it moves into position got to be one of the most satisfying things to pull off in a video game

Titanfall 2 has best first person movement system @Water_Giver and AC6 movement is incredible but I wish environment had a little more impact on your movement. Like the movement itself is great but lends itself to just zipping around open areas, especially noticeable during boss fights where it’s just dueling. TF2 is special to me cuz you have incredible freedom of movement but still need to navigate environment and buildings.

Dead Space HUD was already mentioned but I love how they took “zombies” and changed it up by forcing you to aim for limbs instead.

Pokémon emulators letting you speed up the game. I almost can’t play regular Pokémon games like (red/emerald/pearl) because everything happens so slow.

Early Fortnite was the perfect Battle Royale game. Map wasn’t too complicated and before crackheads got building down to a science it was super interesting dynamic to fight with.

Mythic Paths in Pathfinder wrath of the righteous are really the GOAT progression system. Not just do you have your normal class proression like in every crpg. But during the playthrough you basically become a god. But you can decide of what god you want to be. There is 10 options like the obvious ones with Angel, Dragon or Demon but also more suprising ones like Lich controlling Undead or a 4th wall breaking trickster.

And they really leaned into the fantasy of what it means to become a being like that. Aside from the very cool different spells and abilties you get gameplay and story will fundamentally change. Lich will have you kill and raise entirely new companions as undead slaves while your own master wants to progress and experiment on you towards becoming more powerful. As a trickster you become part of this new super secret court that basically only wants to prank the entire world. While the space thing Aeon allows you to literally time travel and rewrite the entire history of the game. Where you change points in history and your character will be the only one knowing the alterantive timelines

Its really the best system Ive ever experienced since its extremely immersive and gives you this epic specialized fantasy that literally influences everything in your game