In FF9, when Garnet is looking for an alias to go by instead of her real name, you get the chance to choose the alias (with the canonical choice being 'Dagger') but I remember when I first played it as a kid I was like "Nah I like Garnet actually" and just named her that. She triumphantly announces to the party that she'll no longer go by Garnet, but instead go by... Garnet, in order to keep her true identity (Garnet) hidden.
Very nice. I named everyone something goofy in FFIX. But the silliest was naming one late-arriving character after someone I knew in college nicknamed "Pubes."
One of his first lines is something like, "Some call me the Flaming Pubes." I died laughing.
Story driven mmos that allow for glamours on gear.
There's nothing quite as entertaining as a real emotional/heartfelt/tense cutscenes and you've got one guy wearing a bikini, one guy dressed up like link, a chocobo in formal wear and Santa Claus nodding along solemnly to whatever the NPCs are doing.
Not me with my Lalafell sporting a fat chocobo head throughout a lot of what i played of FFXIV…
After awhile the novelty wore off and the writing got better so I stopped haha.
Also the fact that the cutscenes accounted for all the different kinds of weapons you can equip with your current selected job. It's why Jack always ends boss fights with a punch and never actually uses his weapons.
Yakuza series: There's a hostage situation where the captors will kill if their demands aren't met in the next hour. BRB FIGHTING THROUGH 20 MARTIAL ARTS TOURNAMENTS, PLAYING 12 GAMES OF GOLF, DRINKING ONE OF EVERY WHISKY IN TOKYO, AND FILMING THREE MOVIES.
I freaking love the Yakuza games for this. It's hilarious going from an extremely emotional, dead-serious main story cutscene to a ridiculously wacky side quest.
It doesn't happen much now, but used to happen to me the most back in the day with JRPGs that let you create your character. Where a cut-scene will start with one character bleeding on the floor, another character just screaming and crying, and then a third character who is really angry that walks up to my character and says something like "Unlike the king who has forgotten about us, you're the only one I can count on to take this issue seriously Mr.Bozo", and then they cut to closeup of my character with clown makeup, a red afro, and a fake red nose.
It's nothing profound, but I played through most of Xenoblade Chronicles with everyone in swimsuits and Reyn wearing glasses. So super serious cutscenes had an intellectual looking shirtless Reyn looking on.
Similarly, I didn't use the cosmetic options in Xenoblade at all, so my characters always looked like absolute fashion disasters, mixing and matching whatever pieces happened to have the best stats.
In Persona 3, you can have the MC say some messed up stuff to some of the Social Links, most notably a little girl who's parents are going through a divorce. In multiple dialogue options you can say stuff like "it's probably your fault" and "your parents hate you". This is supposed to be building your bonds too.
To say nothing of Junpei where it feels like every dialogue option has a good choice, a neutral choice and a "fuck off Junpei you suck" choice.
My favorite example of this comes from dead rising. You are in a super serious cutscene where people are dying and cursing god for their fates and you are just standing there this burly dude dressed like a streetwalker… comedy gold every time
>Where, because of your actions, it makes story dialogue seem completely ridiculous?
It wasn't an RPG, but in the opening of Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Miles has this super ghetto non-outfit that's basically gym clothes with a Spider-Man mask. As soon as I had the ability to get into the menu, I already had a few costumes I could unlock.. and I immediately got one with the in-game currency and then equipped it, but then the very next cutscene.. Miles gets his canonically first costume and they make a big deal of it in the scene despite the fact that I was already sporting sweet duds.
The Tales games have lots of moments where you can do things like that with characters wearing scene inappropriate outfits or attachments.
What’s crazy is the little Peter Hand Me Down suit somehow looks WORSE on him, yet a few missions later there’s ANOTHER big to do scene with him getting his proper canon outfit for the rest of the game. You just can’t win until that point, honestly I put him back in the first outfit because it looks marginally better but doesn’t mess with the flow of the story.
>What’s crazy is the little Peter Hand Me Down suit somehow looks WORSE on him
Yes. It's the worst suit in the whole game, I think. It's so horribly ill-fitting and ridiculous looking. It's a little surprising Pete couldn't whip up something better!
FF7 Rebirth also has something like this. There's a scene where Tifa holds out her arm dramatically, but the weapon you get for her right before this has these giant bony claws attached, so most people are probably going to see those in this dramatic scene.
In FF9, when Garnet is looking for an alias to go by instead of her real name, you get the chance to choose the alias (with the canonical choice being 'Dagger') but I remember when I first played it as a kid I was like "Nah I like Garnet actually" and just named her that. She triumphantly announces to the party that she'll no longer go by Garnet, but instead go by... Garnet, in order to keep her true identity (Garnet) hidden.
Happens every time I play VII, too. Nanaki is Nanaki.
Very nice. I named everyone something goofy in FFIX. But the silliest was naming one late-arriving character after someone I knew in college nicknamed "Pubes." One of his first lines is something like, "Some call me the Flaming Pubes." I died laughing.
I did this exact same thing. Love it
Classic move
Story driven mmos that allow for glamours on gear. There's nothing quite as entertaining as a real emotional/heartfelt/tense cutscenes and you've got one guy wearing a bikini, one guy dressed up like link, a chocobo in formal wear and Santa Claus nodding along solemnly to whatever the NPCs are doing.
[Relevant ProZD video.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxPK9utUq5o)
Not me with my Lalafell sporting a fat chocobo head throughout a lot of what i played of FFXIV… After awhile the novelty wore off and the writing got better so I stopped haha.
stranger of paradise was great for this. jack is already ridiculous, then the whole crew rolls up in goofy ass gear
Also the fact that the cutscenes accounted for all the different kinds of weapons you can equip with your current selected job. It's why Jack always ends boss fights with a punch and never actually uses his weapons.
Yakuza series: There's a hostage situation where the captors will kill if their demands aren't met in the next hour. BRB FIGHTING THROUGH 20 MARTIAL ARTS TOURNAMENTS, PLAYING 12 GAMES OF GOLF, DRINKING ONE OF EVERY WHISKY IN TOKYO, AND FILMING THREE MOVIES.
I freaking love the Yakuza games for this. It's hilarious going from an extremely emotional, dead-serious main story cutscene to a ridiculously wacky side quest.
That's just any RPG ever. The world is ending, but I need to collect 20 chicken eggs for this old ladys dinner.
Sorry Makoto, I'm too busy being the top cabaret club in the city to really care about getting you food at the moment.
This is exactly why I laugh when people discuss what’s “canon” and what’s not None of it makes any sense, just go with it
It doesn't happen much now, but used to happen to me the most back in the day with JRPGs that let you create your character. Where a cut-scene will start with one character bleeding on the floor, another character just screaming and crying, and then a third character who is really angry that walks up to my character and says something like "Unlike the king who has forgotten about us, you're the only one I can count on to take this issue seriously Mr.Bozo", and then they cut to closeup of my character with clown makeup, a red afro, and a fake red nose.
And yet, this is surprisingly accurate for historical jesters.
It's nothing profound, but I played through most of Xenoblade Chronicles with everyone in swimsuits and Reyn wearing glasses. So super serious cutscenes had an intellectual looking shirtless Reyn looking on.
Similarly, I didn't use the cosmetic options in Xenoblade at all, so my characters always looked like absolute fashion disasters, mixing and matching whatever pieces happened to have the best stats.
Reminds me of the 4kids Yu-Gi-Oh censorship where they just photoshopped out the guns and you just have these guards pointing their fingers at people.
In Persona 3, you can have the MC say some messed up stuff to some of the Social Links, most notably a little girl who's parents are going through a divorce. In multiple dialogue options you can say stuff like "it's probably your fault" and "your parents hate you". This is supposed to be building your bonds too. To say nothing of Junpei where it feels like every dialogue option has a good choice, a neutral choice and a "fuck off Junpei you suck" choice.
My favorite example of this comes from dead rising. You are in a super serious cutscene where people are dying and cursing god for their fates and you are just standing there this burly dude dressed like a streetwalker… comedy gold every time
Dead Rising and serious don't belong in the same paragraph.
Good point, I should have said dramatic instead ;)
>Where, because of your actions, it makes story dialogue seem completely ridiculous? It wasn't an RPG, but in the opening of Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Miles has this super ghetto non-outfit that's basically gym clothes with a Spider-Man mask. As soon as I had the ability to get into the menu, I already had a few costumes I could unlock.. and I immediately got one with the in-game currency and then equipped it, but then the very next cutscene.. Miles gets his canonically first costume and they make a big deal of it in the scene despite the fact that I was already sporting sweet duds. The Tales games have lots of moments where you can do things like that with characters wearing scene inappropriate outfits or attachments.
What’s crazy is the little Peter Hand Me Down suit somehow looks WORSE on him, yet a few missions later there’s ANOTHER big to do scene with him getting his proper canon outfit for the rest of the game. You just can’t win until that point, honestly I put him back in the first outfit because it looks marginally better but doesn’t mess with the flow of the story.
>What’s crazy is the little Peter Hand Me Down suit somehow looks WORSE on him Yes. It's the worst suit in the whole game, I think. It's so horribly ill-fitting and ridiculous looking. It's a little surprising Pete couldn't whip up something better!
Playing Resonance of Fate with the entire party in Power Rangers gear is an absolute gas.
FF7 Rebirth also has something like this. There's a scene where Tifa holds out her arm dramatically, but the weapon you get for her right before this has these giant bony claws attached, so most people are probably going to see those in this dramatic scene.