Games That Save the Best for Last
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- Опубликовано: 20 май 2024
- The tiger. He destroyed his cage. Yes. YES. | Directly support me and watch exclusive videos by joining Nebula at go.nebula.tv/jacob-geller
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0:00 Intro
3:33 Thumper
9:53 Pistol Whip
14:37 Superhot: Mind Control Delete
18:52 Brief Re-Summary, Spoilers for all
19:20 The Wonderful 101 and Wrap-Up
Games Shown: Thumper, Pistol Whip, Superhot: Mind Control Delete, The Wonderful 101, God of War 2, Uncharted 2, Uncharted 4, Dead Space 2, Half-Life 2, Half-Life: Alyx, Beat Saber, Frog Fractions, Doki Doki Literature Club, Guitar Hero 3, Silent Hills, Max Payne 3, Asura’s Wrath, Mario Kart 8, Bloodborne, Mafia 3, Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, Resident Evil 4, Bayonetta, The Evil Within 2
Other Media: Baby Driver, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Enthiran, Lightning Bolt- Live at Le Guess Who?
Music Used (Chronologically): Crystals (M.O.O.N, Hotline Miami), Horizon & other tracks (Thumper), Lilith, The Fall, Sword of Truth (Pistol Whip), Scouring the System, Reaching the End, Your Own Crypt (SUPERHOT: Mind Control Delete), Title Screen, Battle in the Blossom City Burbs, The Won-Stoppable Wonderful 100 (The Wonderful 101), Rumfoord and Kazak (Kilian Flowers)
Description Credit: Nael, “They’re Singing a Song In Their Rocket”
Thumbnail Design by: / hotcyder 
Игры
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Mind Control Delete was so good
About super hot, theres actually a story in it, but one you only get putting pieces together between the two versions, you can find any myriad of "superhot explained" videos im sure that could explain it better than i can
Srop making me emotional with your narration damnit
Can you do a video on Enter The Gungeon? aside from the amount of pop-culture influence it has.. . it constantly rewards the player, game modes, characters, skins, secret levels, secret npcs and secret bosses
Jacob Geller can we be online friends ?
*Jacob* *discussing* *Thumper,* *Pistol Whip,* *and* *Superhot:* *MCD:* "The final level of this game introduces a significant change to the gameplay that retains continuity with what it has already taught the player while ratcheting up the tension in an impressive way."
*Jacob* *discussing* *The* *Wonderful* *101:* The phrase "Holy shit" repeated ad nauseam.
101 reactions like my Bayonetta reaction then!
XD
To be fair, I _was_ mouthing "holy shit" throughout the entirety of that W101 part. And to think I saw that game in an issue of Gameinformer about a decade ago when it came out, was like "huh", and promptly forgot about it.
@@anxietyprimev6983 would be the same for me if I didn’t read ild issues somewhat frequently
XD
Basically the epitome of what platinum games go for with every release lol
Okay that Wonderful 101 ending is totally sounds like 3 different guys came up to their boss like "hey I have a great idea for the final boss" and boss just went "put them ALL in"
Yes but thats the boss for like, *every* operation. He didn't for example mention that time you are suddenly playing Punch Out for the boss of a level, and really while I certainly have favorites pretty much any of the bosses would be amazing as final bosses in other games, and even some of the mini bosses.
Truly the Gurren Lagann of video games
@@rootbourne4454 i could only think that watching the video
@@rootbourne4454 I literally said, when he finished describing it, "what if gurren lagann, but video game?". I'd sort-of heard of it before (as in "oh, yeah, Platinum made this other game, and it was also pretty wacky"), but I guess I'd never heard any details before.
Platinum games is like that
"Mash A to Protect Earth" has the same energy as "Press F to pay respects", but it actually makes me emotional for some reason.
I love that the effect of that prompt is to put the Earth into a deathspin. The stars are still, so it's the Earth spinning that fast. Good God, everything on that planet is dead!
Also I'm sorry, did the skyscraper robot fly away at the end? Dude thats an entire city! You can't just let a city fly away into the sky!
Me with an auto clicker *saves all of humanity in 5 seconds*
It's because you're clicking right along with the heroes.
@@mustangwolf1997 well, if the planet is dead I don't think they'll care anymore
"Press F to pay respects" was a clunky, disruptive, and pointless addition to what was meant to be a serious cutscene. It undermines what was supposed to be something heavy and emotional by demanding random input from the user when it wasn't needed.
"Mash A to Protect Earth" is a normal mechanic in the game and fits the rest of the tone; all the other characters are also mashing buttons, and it's completely fucking ridiculous like everything else.
Long story short, CoD meant for it to be serious, W101 meant for it to be a joke.
The X-COM games do a fascinating version of this, especially X-COM 2. Throughout the game, losing even a single squad member can be a crippling disadvantage, so you try very hard not to - you learn to play cautiously, conservatively, carefully managing every risk you take.
But the last level changes all of that, simply because it *is* the last level. With no more levels, there's no need for everyone to survive anymore. Which is important, because the enemy force is much, much larger than any previous level. It's a last-ditch suicide mission to save humanity, and everything you've learned about how to play effectively no longer applies. Caution becomes suicide, and so you're frantically learning how to play aggressively and take entirely new types of risks. The strategic landscape opens up tremendously for that last, final mission, and it's deeply satisfying.
I was literally one turn away from losing when I beat XCOM 2 for the first time. I still remember how anxious that made me.
Something similar to this video also happens in X-COM with the base defense missions in both games. Now, instead of being in a random town/farmstead, you are in your own base, in the HOME TURF that you have either been flying around on up to this point in the game, or have been building up! It makes the stakes of the fight that much more in this context.
The second thing I love from this mission is how it breaks it's own rules for this fight, allowing significantly more soldiers than the normal cap to enter the fight to feel like an "all hands on deck" defense, to fight the swarming enemies in and around your base. It is so satisfying to see everyone that you had built up come together to repel the enemy at your darkest hour.
But the final genius of the mission comes from that aforementioned player cap increase. Because while going on a normal mission, the worst-case scenario is that you squad wipe your squad of 4 or 6 soldiers, leaving the reserves to take a more prominent role if they have to. In the base defense, every new ally that shows up ratchets the tension of an already high-tension mission, as every new body out there is also one that you need to protect, you are no longer responsible for 4 people, you are responsible for 10! This leaves this mission with a "leave it all on the line" with your best vs. their best in the best battlefield of the game.
I've quit and restarted on xcom so many times
@@plasmaburn8003 try to play your campaigns to the end. If you lose, you learned something
Lol, just use saves.
i love how Transistor waits until the very last fight of the game to have someone use the same time freeze/action planning powers that you've been relying on, it really makes you feel uniquely helpless when the boss pauses the game and just stands there carefully deciding how best to attack you.
The soundtrack of that fight is also noticeably different from basically anything else in the game, though I can't really explain how or why.
On a similar note (although this isn't the end of the game, it's the end of the second act), there's the fight against Ninetails in Okami, because Ninetails is also able to use its own brush when you pause the game to use your own brush powers. It's an intensely disempowering thing which makes you feel very vulnerable.
this is the sickest shit, it's like... damn so this is how it feels
He also locks your abilities (or they can get locked?) similar to Super Hot, that fight is insane and I love it.
@@src248
Not exactly. If I remember correctly, in each death in the fight, one of your abilities gets fried and you wouldn't be able to use them during the duration of the boss fight.
The best thing about Jacob as a video creator is the little tingle in his voice when he says something like “and then I played The Wonderful 101” and you just know you’re 5 minutes away from redownloading it and giving it another shot
It's a hard infuriating game. I loved it on the Wii U and couldn't believe that they would even try and re-release it ever again. It's the... It's the best game I've ever played, not for quality or gameplay or anyhthing, but it just DRIPS with a love that you don't see from any other AAA title made now adays.
"You make the first level perfect because it makes sense, it's the first thing people play, it's what you show off for demos, it's the sensible, marketable, profitable decision.
You make the last level perfect-
Because you love the god damn thing." ~Jacob Geller, 2021.
facts
The Ashtray Maze in Control comes to mind for me, absolutely blew my mind because of how serendipitous it felt. I had the biggest grin the entire time and was so grateful I kept playing to get there.
TAKE CONTROL
Honestly I was really disappointed that it just skips through after that encounter
OH MY GOD I HAD COMMENTED THAT TOO!
I have such a massive love for Control, and at least 90% of that love has to come from the first level and the ashtray maze. Control was starting to bore me after a while of running between objective markers, but the Ashtray maze was like the perfect palate cleanser that gave me the push to finally finish the game.
And it starts with a "fuck yeah" moment when you realize the tape itself is a reference to one of the best moments in Alan Wake
21:00 "Let me tell you the times i thought i reached the end"
Ah yes, classic platinum games you defeat the boss that's about to destroy the city and doing that ressurrects the boss that wants to destroy the sun as a starting phase of their 40 phase final boss, love those guys
And all I can picture is an impatient Bayonetta because she's almost late for some sort of meeting.
I enjoy how Supergiant Games have twice made their final bosses shocking by just giving them the same abilities the player has been using all along - stopping time, summoning a companion. It massively unsettles the gameplay, but with mechanics you are familiar with, and in a way that can't feel anything but fair.
ASLO WITH HADES he literally uses a cast, which are the skulls he shoots out. They get *stuck in you if you’re hit like how your cast sticks in enemies if they’re hit* and when I realized that I never forgot about it cause holy SHIT
He even has the same ability that when his cast is on you you take extra damage
@@FinetalPies yeah! It’s the boiling blood effect, and at this point in the game you’re probably familiar with it cause it’s something you can upgrade with the mirror
cough cough, defiance drives this home the best
He uses a Death Defiance too, first time that hit me like a truck
I'm so glad you gave some love to Thumper, easily one of my favorite games. The ominous, reoccurring horn motif that plays every time you see the final boss triangle disappear over the horizon is peak hair raising
Holy shit
It reminds me of the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. It disappears into the horizon as a foreboding musical motif plays
I've never played thumper but I have played Bit Trip on the wii
lmao, wouldnt expect to see you in this comment section zalinki!
Kinda reminds me of Audiosurf
“My omniscience has limits” is my new favorite qualifier
My favorite recent example of this is when Devil May Cry 5 made you play throught the whole game without Nero's Devil Bringer, then they give it back to you for the final boss fight AND give you a Devil Trigger on top of that, then let you play through the whole game again with both unlocked.
Ooooh yes that's a great example, that was awesome
@@vilegrog could you be more specific?
I think that they're referring to the fact that every DMC game is designed to be eventually played at the highest difficulty and that everything before that is basically a tutorial.
Another phenomenal example is playing through DMC5 as Vergil.
For context for the people who haven't played, Devil May Cry 5 follows 3 characters as the player swaps back and forth between their different perspectives. In a normal playthrough, mission 19 is the penultimate mission, where you fight Vergil as Dante, and then mission 20 is the follow up to that, and the mission where Nero unlocks his Devil Bringer and his Devil Trigger.
A while ago, they released a DLC for Devil May Cry 5 which added Vergil as a playable character and let you go back through all the 20 missions again, playing him for each of them. It's almost the exact same as the base game, almost. Mission 19 for Vergil is a fight against Dante. This is somewhat cool because in DMC 3, when you select Vergil as a playable character, when you fight Vergil in the story, he's still Vergil, just with another color scheme. Anyways, this Dante has access to a few of his tools and his own Devil Trigger for an enrage phase. But then, mission 20 comes around. I expected a fight against Nero, mostly because that would make sense, but then...
The loading screen for the next mission comes in before a level select screen, and the music swells:
ruclips.net/video/GBEjs0EmTnY/видео.html
It changes from the standard Bury the Light to a special version with a unique intro and it immediately shreds as... you fight Dante again. This time, he has access to more tools, including his Sin Devil Trigger, and the fight is even harder than the last one. It's a great, small way to subvert the expectations of both long running Devil May Cry fans and newer fans who played Vergil mode after the main campaign.
@@lumina3257 Great example, but I'm still pissed of taking Nero's boss fight, that was just more recycling to me... I loved the version of Bury the Light, but come on, Nero deserved to be a boss too :'(
Wait... Wonderful 101 it's just the ending of Gurren Lagann
This 100% confirms that a colaboration between platinum and TRIGGER would be a banger
BRO! I just came down here to recommend Gurren Lagann! Who the hell do you think I am?! Your drill is the drill that will pierce the Heavens!
Platinum and TRIGGER basically have the same energy.
First thing I thought of when he described it was Gurren Lagann.
@@MarquisdeL3 Spiral energy.
Platinum Robo literally does the gunbuster stance. :P
Getting the double dash towards the end of Celeste was amazing
Oh my god the end of Celeste was so beautiful and hype. Just one giant “I CAN do this!” moment
YEEEEEEEEEEEES
the zing of that unlock immediately followed by the marathon run straight to the peak after how long you spent getting up the first time was so good.
An example that comes to mind is Everhood
The game changes halfway through from a rhythm game to a rhythm action game but near the end, you're not fighting specific characters but the fabric of reality and it feels as if the worlds falling apart as you do it
It's pretty great
literally what JRPG did in every game
I wish more people talked about Everhood, it's a sleeper hit.
So glad that Everhood was mentioned! Especially with its secret segment that involves two hours of walking down a corridor like the segments mentioned in this video
Also holy shit the way the soundtrack of the game literally starts breaking down and distorting due to the fabric of reality taking damage, genius
seriously. i thought it would be a rhythm game then i started to fight the SUN and then the universe itself
One of the few occasions I've full on belly laughed at a game, probably because I was already grinning like an idiot, was when it cuts to the characters inside the robot at the end of W101 and they are all button mashing just as frantically as you, it really is amazing.
101 knew it was absurd, but it didn’t care. It was a little kid playing make believe and it knew it.
If you do read these comments, you’re fuelling so many of my English assignments and essays, turns out English teachers love Wang Wei. Thank you Jacob ⁉️
LMAO same. His videos really helped me in philosophy class when talking about art.
I wrote one of my essays for the Ap literature exam on the Haunting of Hill House based off of his video on hostile architecture
I love how he actually saved the best for last in this video. I dont think 101 was ever mentioned in the video before the ending so I thought it was a bonus mention.
(Spoilers for Portal 1 & 2 below!)
I think that there is also something to be said for games that throw in the big game-altering twist smack in the middle of it. From my gameplay experiences, normally I learn to anticipate these huge shifts towards the earlier stages of the game or the later chapters. You covered a lot of good examples of these in your video.
An example of a game that completely swept the rug under my feet, however, was Portal.
I played it a few months ago for the first time because I recently got my first computer that could support Windows games. Portal seemingly follows a very consistent and predictable pattern - it's a puzzle solving game where you are given established mechanics (being able to open two portals around a room on certain tiles) and progression rates (when you solve a series of three puzzles, you are taken to the next level). The plot is also incredibly simple: you are a test subject being observed by a faceless AI that you only hear through the speakers. I was more than happy with the game as it was. The quality of the puzzles was superb, and the mechanics were just simple enough that you still had to rely heavily on your intuition to pass from puzzle to puzzle. You also could see how much of the game you had left, and it was satisfying to see your level go up as you moved throughout the game.
As the final level drew closer and closer, I remember being saddened by the thought of the game ending, but also appreciative of my progress. Nothing gold can stay and whatnot. This inclusion fit the rest of the gameplay style - predictable, structured, and orderly.
When you reached the end, it was revealed that the AI had planned to kill you the entire time once it finished using you for testing. You were taken down a conveyor into a fiery pit, where you were promptly dumped... and burned to death.
Then - to my surprise - the level restarted, like if you had failed normally. It took me a few cycles of being taken down the conveyor belt, listening to her evil monologue, and dying before I spotted it - a portal-able tile, located on a small patch of wall outside of the room. I managed to portal another tile near me, jump through, and escape.
And then, the ENTIRE game shifted.
It turned into this incredible experience of running through this strange, colossal underground laboratory that was literally crumbling to the touch. It ripped you out of that neat, orderly set of puzzles in pristine white rooms and guided dialogue from the AI and instead you found yourself scanning the wreckage of machinery for surfaces you could plant a portal on and listening to either the pump of pistons and conveyor belts, the irregular bouts of shrieking from the AI that was searching for you, or... silence, save for the soundtrack. It was a few "levels" later that I realized that the game was nowhere near ending, like it had established from the very beginning. We were only halfway through. The landscape was completely different, and it was absolutely thrilling. Plus, there was that AI that was breathing down the backs of our necks. It completely opened up the lore behind the game, too - we started getting clues and puzzle pieces as to who we were, who this AI was, and where the hell this laboratory even was. Eventually, we even learned enough about it to place a name and pronouns to it - GLaDOS. And boy, was she mad. She would pop in from time to time, unsure of where you were and demanding you go back to the fire room and die like a good test subject would. It felt so thrilling to be defiant of the seemingly immovable force that was established at the beginning of the game. The boss fight event went as far as you seeing her tangible robotic body and literally ripping her apart, incinerating her cores and dismantling her piece by piece.
Yet, throughout all of this, you still had the EXACT same puzzle mechanics as you ALWAYS had. The only thing that changed was your perspective of the levels. Absolutely and utterly brilliant, and it is why the portal series is to this day my favorite set of puzzle games I have ever played.
Which brings us to the next Portal game. Obviously it couldn't quite have the same effect as the first one did, but the developers knew this and didn't try to replicate it. Instead, it was bizarre and uncertain from the beginning. You were in a strange environment, unsure of exactly where you were going or what you were doing. It then later snapped back into place into a similarly structured format as the first, when GLaDOS reawakens and "kills" your new companion before dragging you back to perform more tests. You feel restless, though, waiting for something to happen. Waiting for that same change you experienced with the first one.
And boy, does it deliver. You don't even get to reach the ending of the levels she has displayed for you. A little more than halfway in, your seemingly dead companion makes a reappearance unbeknownst to her and promises to help you escape. Then, out of the blue a few levels later, the whole WALL gets town down and you run out of the stifling white rooms and back into the massive disintegrating laboratory. It was brilliantly executed, and genuinely caught me off guard - even though we were all anticipating another shift in environment and gameplay. THEN, to top things off AGAIN, it has another huge shift mid-game - your companion betrays you, switches places with GLaDOS, and throws you BACK INTO THE SAME FORMAT OF TESTING!! To which you break free, AGAIN, and NONE of it ever got old!!!
This is long enough, but the Portal series really highlights how amazing games can be that aren't afraid to take these huge leaps mid-game. The key here is keeping a balance between not changing the core game mechanics too much, but still pushing the player out of their comfort zone and shaking it up a little.
My favorite bit of Portal 2 was getting stuck on one part, looking up a walkthrough, and accidentally looking at the walkthrough for the very end of the game.
The walkthrough creator had been conscientious enough to say, "You'll know what to shoot your last portal at when you see it," instead of giving away the last twist.
I played both of them when I was a bit younger and man, the twists and turns are engraved into my memory. I love many games, sure. But I can’t truly adore a game if it doesn’t have massive, sometimes unexpected, but always cool and very smart moments. Like doom eternal’s firing of the BFG into mars. Of course, my favorite game is BOTW, which doesn’t really do much of that, but I still hold to my point. The portal games taught me to expect a quality to games that I rarely find
I ain't reading allat
@@ryanlawson3930😐
Man portal 2, I really liked the part where he kills you
Driver san francisco, a seemingly normal game about driving that becomes a crazy fever dream of psychic car throwing, chasing your own car through someone else's body, and driving through frozen time by the end.
Hell yes Driver SF is incredible!
I was very confused playing that game because my previous experience with the series was Driver 2 on the PS1. It's very good indeed
#bringbackdriversanfransico
SECOND-PERSON GAMEPLAY
"A L T H O U G H T T H E Y W I L L F A C E J U D G M E N T"
I will dare to say Earthbound did something like this too, the final boss breaks the rules by requiring the player to use a skill of a particular character that is mostly unviable, 8 times in a row, while the rest of the team's work is to keep standing
I was hoping to see Earthbound mentioned in the comments
Possibly my favorite example of last-minute gameplay subversion is when you are forced to take a ridiculous long shot as a final resort after trying literally everything first
The way you just slowly devolve into a frantic, breathless frenzy describing the ending(s) of Wonderful 101 is hilarious
I would throw in the game Here They Lie. It was a Playstation VR exclusive, but they allowed it to be played without the VR.
It starts out as a black and white surrealist nightmare, a combination of Eraserhead and Cronenberg's oeuvre filled with sprawling vistas and the insane claustrophobia of Junji Ito.
My favorite instruction in a game came from this: "You'll know when to run."
By the end, it's combining elements of Phantasm, Neverending Story, and Jodorowsky. It's totally worth the 3-4 hour journey.
whooa I have never heard of this, that sounds amazing
@@JacobGeller When I originally played it, I only streamed once I realized how crazy it was getting. I immediately apologized and proceeded to absolutely lose it as it continued to spiral out of control. Hope you like it.
sounds like a metaphorical cocktail of fancy fear you cant pour in a glass or on paper lol
@@DubiousConsumption "you'll know when to run" has to be one of the most chilling things ive heard said in a game
Someone's gonna mention NieR Automata, might as well be me. It might not have been included because it's so intertwined with story but it's an incredible moment in terms of playing it too.
I'm glad you mentioned it, because I was going to. I'm playing through Replicant (like everyone else is) right now, but I don't know if I've ever felt the sheer intensity of emotion I felt at the end of Automata. It's an all-time great for sure (on the topic of successes by Platinum Games, no less).
The best late title card of all time
Beat me to it
The sad part is that most people barely even made it to ending A, wich is barely scratching the surface of the whole thing, the second half of the (complete) game is by far the best, route C is gut wrenching and the final ending makes you feel a very special mix of joy and sadness, it's a shame that so few people get to experience it
Yoko Taro kind of made a habit of this, with the Drakengard/NieR series. They weren't always _good_ endings - at least when it comes to Drakengard 1 (I don't count Drakengard 2, because it wasn't Yoko Taro's game) - but they were always interesting and out of left field.
Titanfall 2 also does this, I would say. It saves the explosive titan battles until last, saves the nation-destroying smart pistol until last, and saves most of the emotional moments until the later levels
The Smart Pistol moment is incredible in my opinion because of what a menace it was in the first game. If you watch a playthrough of TF2, in that moment you will know if the player has played the first game from their facial expression. It's amazing how this little unassuming pistol causes every veteran to lose their mind.
I feel like the time travel mechanic was pretty late too. The smart pistol was awesome but my favorite bit was the "the only way out is up" part. Such a cool way to engage players with the wallrunning and jumping.
@achillesa5894 this was me lol
I played a ton of Titanfall 1 and actually got pretty good at playing as and against the smart pistol and cloak meta. I have never felt more power than being given that tiny pistol, and that's in a game where you literally pilot giant mech suits with missile launchers
@@joejoemyo Were you playing on PC? I don't recall anybody using smart pistol but I used to play on console at that time
I was looking for this comment.
The escalation in wonderful 101 sounds as insane as the power escalation towards the end of gurren laagan
Nobody seems to mention this but your taste in music is just as superb as ur taste in games
Hotline Miami ost is so fukin good
Hell yeah
hearing jacob geller namedrop lighting bolt sent me for a loop for sure
hotline miami ost is the fastest way to get my respect
@@trinitysarah2992 Yeah, I'd say that came out of nowhere, but the best part is that it wasn't just a random namedrop
NieR: Automata's titlecard only shows up when you play the game for about 40 hours. You have to play the game, replay the game in its entirety from another perspective, and then you play the game a third time, with a continuation of the story you played the first two times. The game is phenomenal and brilliant before the third part. But everything changes completely when you reach it. The game leaves the best part for after 40 hours of game.
It's a game with the veneer of a normal AAA, but it's truly a game made specifically for Yoko Taro fans.
My god, the story just gets better too, Nier really does save the best for people who most likely will never see it.
Automata was fantastic, it will always have a place in my heart
And the continuation of*that* doesn't show up until after somewhere in the ballpark of 300 hours into another, COMPLETELY UNRELATED game
@@Lifeinerinn wait what
Lightning Bolt is one of my favourite bands and yet I did exactly what you described here, played a few levels of Thumper and then abandoned it years ago. The moment I saw it was in this video I turned it off and spent a couple of days playing it start to finish, wondering what the 'best for last' bit would be, and I'm so glad I did because I never saw it coming
the messenger is a perfect representation of this
not only does it turn from a linear platformer to a metroidvania halfway through, but the final boss TURNS INTO A PUNCH OUT BOSS
WHAT
I feel like I need to mention Okami here, with the fact that Yomi literally depowers you into a normal dog, even with the most op gear you can get. The sheer panic I felt the first time as I struggled to draw anything to help me fight was amazing, especially when I slowly got them back and realized just how strong I became over the course of the game.
omg yes. That game had me literally sobbing. I'm choking up just thinking about it writing this comment. It's such a power fantasy up until the last moment when they strip everything away after you've spent so much time grinding power ups as you struggle to scratch the final boss. Only for you to realize that your strength came from the prayers of every friend you made along the way. I really wish there was an easy way to play Okami on PC because I'd have played through it a dozen times by now. Breath of the Wild tries to do a similar thing but it falls a lot shorter than the emotional gut punch that Okami slams you with at the end.
I was going to mention Okami. Going from a weak mortal to the shimmering Shiranui you thought was unnattainable, but is how the world will tell your story, is maybe my favorite part of that game.
No surprise, then, that the people who made Okami went on to found Platinum Games and made games with incredible endings such as Bayonetta (which ends with you literally punching God into the Sun itself) and The Wonderful 101 (as seen in this video)
@@MandrakeHorse People: Clover studios is gone =c
Intellectuals: oh REALLY? *strokes Platinum games*
@@Mekose >I really wish there was an easy way to play Okami on PC
Okami HD is available on Steam tho
I don't know if it quite fits because I wouldn't necessarily call it saving "the best" even though it's extremely funny, but I love the way Rhythm Heaven Fever trolls the player by breaking its own rules at the literal last second. In the final level of that game, Remix 10, the last section involves alternately catching candies and swatting away spiders (pretty normal as far as this series goes), and at the very end of it, you catch what seems to be the final candy as the song finishes on a sustained note that fades to silence. It's not over yet though: after another second or so, the music kicks back up again with that same final 2 measures as you go through your actual final set of candy catching and spider swatting, and you can tell it's actually the last one this time because as that last note fades out, your character's disembodied hands withdraw and the screen fades to black. Except just after the screen goes completely dark, the music kicks in again, the visuals come back, the hands re-emerge, and you have to react to that same final set of cues for the actual for real definitely last time (this time the final candy is replaced with a bouquet of flowers), scrambling to pick up the controller in time if you're like me and had just finished setting it down in relief. This entire sequence of events lasts less than 20 seconds and doesn't really represent any big expenditure of effort on the developers' part, but I still really fondly remember it for how thoroughly it pulled the rug out from under me right at the very end.
Sick, TLDR but yea I love games like that, games that break the dynamic. Like the flowie fight in undertale
This is actually a cute little troll you can see coming if you're familiar with that particular minigame, since it always ends with a piece of candy that's different from the rest, as does Remix 10 when it's actually over.
I just realized that It’s actually a great troll because, given how hard remix 10 is, you probably didn’t beat it first try, even if you did get the last part, so it doesn’t really hurt you.
OneShot let you play through the entire game again with a new storyline and new dialogue to get a new ending, but this only happens if you checked the game's files to find a note explaining how. Pretty cool, also it completely breaks the forth wall and it has a very good, heartfelt story.
Fourth wall? What fourth wall?
As someone who's played about half of thumper, seeing that footage of the final fight actually made my heartrate go up violently. That game is so intense it has PHYSICAL EFFECTS on you.
No wonder Platinum Games put so much love into The Wonderful 101, considering the entire game is essentially a Platinum Games style spectacle fighter taken to its most logical extremes.
Or they just really liked the second half of Gurren Lagann
Both is acceptable.
Both are acceptable, but we all know the latter is the real reason, almost feels like platinum wanted to make a gurren lagann game but they couldn’t get the rights to it, or didn’t want to, which is a shame cause I think they could’ve pulled it off.
I think drawing the P was a bit on the nose...
@@user-pk3gr6wx1g Oh not at all, you draw shapes and stuff during the whole thing, at least for me when the P came in I had more of a "You crazy bastards actually did it!" kind of feeling.
Asuras Wrath is your kind of fun then. Though its ending is surprisingly minimal.
The ending of transistor has you facing off against another guy that is taking advantage of the exact same extensive customization system that you’ve been using the whole game, using his own set of your abilities, and it’s really cool
The end of the story completely eclipsed that in my mind. I played through almost the entire game again after that, and stopped right before the end.
I wish Cyberpunk did this with cyberpsychos, many would dash and move in hyperspeed just like the player could; but it didnt really have much effect on the combat considering you could do your super speed and they would still slow to a crawl. Yea I know; Blunderjunk 2077, doesn't make me wish it had better combat among cyborgs nonetheless.
The final segment in Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice comes to mind. Spoilers ahead.
You desperately fight the last boss and the literally infinitely spawning mobs, only to realize that you can't beat it. It's the game's way of telling you, the character, to confront her mental illness directly - there's no use fighting its symptoms.
Huh, that's a shame.
I've played basically everything of that game except the final boss (got stuck through a glitch on that invisible bridge thing and didn't want to replay everything) and I actually didn't quite get the "mental illness" angle from the game.
I rather felt it was about accepting people who are different, about how different viewpoints can change the world. Which is also reflected in the gameplay, most of which is about looking at things from a certain angle (apart from the combat, obviously, but the combat felt very much like it was clunky on purpose, as if to imply that Senua wasn't actually that good at fighting).
That's also what a lot of the story segments were about, about unique viewpoints and the prejudice of society against people who are different.
I literally did a thesis in my literature exams in university on that, on how that's a story that only a video game can tell because it's so much about the literal viewpoint, and you couldn't do that story without being actually in the character.
I feel like taking a mental illness approach in that last moment would really ruin what the story has been setting up. If Senua is just mentally ill, that would make the prejudices others had against her more or less right, that would make so much of her journey just meaningless.
@@Tacklepig If I remember it right, the specific mental illness they were focusing on (and the one Senua supposedly had) was some form of schizophrenia (I'm no mental health expert, idk if schizophrenia has classifications). In other words, the "others" you were referring to were manifestations of her imagination, much like the voices in her head but more prominent. Therefore, the prejudices against her, however right, were being manifested by her. It was still a representation of her combating her illness.
The non-canon theory is that Senua's village was raided by an invasive tribe. She lost her mother and lover Dillion (who most likely died fighting the invaders) in the process and was one of the few if not the only survivors. To cope with that trauma, coupled with her schizophrenic episodes, she invented this narrative from stories told by her mom when she was young and known to the common folk (the latter I surmised because Dillion seemed to have some knowledge of it based on her memories - although that could also have been fabricated), and the rest unfolds as we see in-game.
A bit off-topic, when playing through those segments, I drew parallels with specific scenes from A Beautiful Mind. Her fabrication of the Viking folklore tied to her mother and Dillion's death is analogous to John Nash's fabrication of encrypted ciphers and the premise of the US Defence Dept fighting a war against an unknown enemey. The apparition of Druth is analogous to Charles and Marcee accompanying Nash at key points of his life. And finally, the apparition of her father Zynbel condemning her for choosing this path of heresy through Hel is analogous to William Parcher condemning Nash for abandoning his duties. The difference here is that Zynbel was real and presumably died, but the Zynbel Senua converses with was no more real than William in the movie. That last bit applies to the other apparitions too, possibly even Druth.
I want to read this but I haven't finished the game yet. But I will still like your comment for mentioning the game though
Is this like the spiritual successor to the best Halo level? Because if so then I kinda wanna check this game out.
@@Tacklepig OK, I need to play the game because at a glance "senua being mentally ill makes the prejudice against her justified" sounds like a wildly bad idea or bad take..
That final boss of Thumper appears heavily inspired by Radiant Silvergun, another game that has a disembodied floating "crystal" as a recurring villain you associate with boss fights, only to nonchalantly uplift the entire game to transport you thousands of years into the past at the end, as if saying that although you did well, humanity itself needs to go through its entire societal development a few more times to really compare. It's a commentary on the recursive and iterative nature of SHMUP games. Nobody is going to beat Radiant Silvergun on their first try. To reach the final level, you'll have already played the first level dozens of times. This is made clearer by the game's stage naming, where stages are numbered not by your subjective experience of them, but by their objective chronology, hence the final level is "Stage 1" in the distant past. It gives the sense that the next time you beat the game and improve your high score, the crystal knows, and it still thinks you need to do better. No score or perfect run will satisfy it - there is no "good ending", just the assertion that you can always do better.
Last week, I read someone’s theory on Thumper and how they think the reason you are on a narrow path that occasionally twists, is because you happen to be the beetle, running on a vinyl record and the ending is supposed to signify that the record has been scratched, making that pyramid-like object the needle. Made alot of sense to me. Anyways, everyone should play Thumper. Now that it’s free. Hopefully Drool can throw a PS5 port to the game, so that it can work with PSVR2, while also making use of haptic feedback, because playing with HD Rumble on the Switch, is still one of the best uses of haptics that I’ve felt.
I think that record idea significantly detracts from all the cosmic horror of the game
“Furi” , developed by The Game Bakers ,to me was a fantastic finale as the entire game had been leading up to both the final 3 fights
Both story ,atmosphere and sheer difficulty in its mechanics made overcoming its story and combat a genuine victory that I hold close to my heart to this day so many years later
Oh my god yes, the entire final sequence of Furi, during and after the credits, is just - immaculate. Granted the whole game is immaculate, but that final sequence the first time through was so impactful. And that last fight, in difficulty and in sheer scope, is so good.
That’s why I bought even after seeing a Speedrun and thinking CAN I EVEN WIN?
GrandpaTime is still sitting there...
XD
I often listen to your essays while working, crying tears of joy while washing dishes is a common result. you are incredibly passionate in your speaking.
Lobotomy Corporation is a game that just gets better and better and better the further you play into the game. Specifically Midnight Ordeals are absolutely crazy stuff.
How do I get through lob corp? It feels like a chore
@@jayritter2901i promise you, the story picks up once you get to rhe middle layer. take notes, find a routine, make some ways to suppress abnos, and itll all fall into place and youll be managing your facility like its an extension of your body.
its a knowledge heavy game, each restart is a successful one if you learned something new
@@jayritter2901 Real talk that isn't just "git gud" or "try harder"...
Use cheat mods if you really have to. the parts of lobcorp that actually make it good aren't the gameplay or balance.
cheats mean that you can explore the games incredible story and visual spectacle without slogging through a game with an unintendedly long and grindy gameplay.
I personally didn't use any cheat mods but that's only because I am a masochist and a half lol.
God magically summoning 110,920 unamed projact moon fans to reply "PROJECT MOON MENTIONED" on every comment in any RUclips video ever
god even just describing mind control delete sounds like the most spectacular kind of psychological horror of just grinding you down and erasing you, slowly being paralyzed and being forced to agree to it everytime. literally my jaw dropped when you were explaining it.
The ending of Outer Wilds almost brought me to tears. That game was so ridiculously good, and yet they somehow still stuck the landing.
Really? I mean it definitely wasn't bad, but I just felt like there wasn't much substance to the game.
@@ForumArcade I could see that if you don't complete the ship log and consider the implications of the events. By design, the game can be completed very quickly. But that doesn't always mean it lacks substance.
Favoruite ending since Journey for me. Had me in tears as well.
It doesn't really break with the mechanics but Outer Wilds' ending definitely breaks with the simulation of physics that it kept up so well up until that point. You're not really in the toy-size solar system anymore, the game doesn't need verissimilitude at that point and can just be _weird._
@@Corvertbibby That's what I mean though; I did every side quest and explored as much as possible. It was a better narrative experience than Fallout 4, for instance, but there just wasn't all that much to do. And what there was didn't feel especially compelling or satisfying in the end.
I guess I was hoping for a richer story that just never materialized.
You’re one of those people who makes videos that you legitimately feel like you’re at the end of a journey when you and your video
Every year Jacob puts out a video close to my birthday and I can't help but feel it's a gift for me, a video that I can watch many times in many different ways and later spend many hours thinking about many different things based on my experience with them. Thank you, Jacob.
If there ever was a channel that can get your creative juices flowing anytime you watch any video, it's this one.
"So that must have been the end of Wonderful 1-"
*Sorairo Days stars playing*
JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM
no matter how many times i watch that show, i always get chills when the guitar comes in right near the end of the final episode.
HASHIRIDASHITA
I can hear this in my head
@@flashtirade OMOI GA IMA DEMO
I feel like Mario Odyssey’s final capture was a really cool cathartic moment. Not necessarily an entirely new mechanic but I think worth mentioning.
yep yep yep, a great twist.
I know it is not exactly at the ending, it's the final 1/4 of the game, but I remember Portal 1 blowing my mind when GLaDOS try to barbecue us, and we have to step out of the platform and the clear cut, pristine rooms, and delve into the behind the scenes.
No more carefully arranged puzzles, we need to navigate in places that were not made for portals, and with this we learn some of the backstory, without reading anything at all! What a great game!
The end of the genocide route in Undertale is this for me. Throughout the entire game you have been one shoting every enemy, with only one other exception at the halfway point, and then the final boss just. Dodges. You have built up such a high defense and HP values, and now that defense is pointless and your HP can be melted in seconds. Even when the final boss happens is a surprise. If you went in unspoiled, having only played a true ending route prior, you would never have expected Sans to put up any sort of fight. You likely expected Asgore, one of the harder bosses in the true ending, to be your last challenge. It is just so good
It's too bad that this twist was arguably TOO effective. Sans and Megalomania got memed out and even a normie who doesn't know anything about Undertale will still know Sans is a boss fight and a very big deal.
I'd say this also happens with omega flowey just the shift in art style, AND Asriel Dreemurr with the *But you refused* bits
Jacob saving the best ending for the last spot on the list is a delicious piece of meta goodness.
Not to mention that like the endings he mentioned before, he had one thing going the whole video, and had the last part be completely different.
Your profile pic reminds me of another game that saved the best level for last...
Me: [sees The Wonderful 101 for the first time in my human life] lmao what the whole entire heck. This is absolutely absurd and easily one of the greatest things I've ever seen
The Wtiness.
Not quite the same as your examples, since the "secret" have been there, hiding in plain sight all along. But when you find it. It completely changes your entire perspective on the game-world. It feels like youre seeing the world for the first time.
I think the end of the Celeste DLC is my favorite. It's not particularly hard after the C sides, but it's a minute and a half long where any mistake means starting all over. The game has trained you so well that you see it and know exactly what to do. It takes hours to complete if you're like me, and I think the story conclusion is also fantasic
Playing the entirety of undertale, finding it a cool, wholesome jrpg parody, only then understanding what the game was actually about and, just a few days later, finishing it on my third playthrough was one of the best moments I've ever had in gaming and still makes me emotional.
Unironically choked up at THAT hug.
Oh yeah, for sure. "Haha, she's called Toriel because it's a tutorial, isn't this game clever"
~5 hours later: _uncontrollable sobbing_
Same: I heard a lot a praise of it back then, so I gave it a shot and thought it was okay and funny. Of course, I only did the neutral ending but felt a bit lazy to play it again after it. But a few weeks later, after browsing through the wiki, I realized I really had to see the real ending and went through it again. I did not expect to have missed so much and I only then I realized what the game was about.
Now 5 years later, it is still one of my favourite games ever.
Thumper is a goddamn masterpiece and more people need to play and talk about it. It's the one game that feels the most like playing an instrument, the sheer physicality of it is breathtaking!
the sound design is a technical marvel
It now being free on PlayStation will hopefully get more people playing it. That’s how I discovered it anyway.
I tried the VR demo and it made me really uncomfortable after a while. I can see how it's good but something that makes me feel physically wrong is not something I want to play.
This concept always makes me think about Yoko Taro games, and how much commitment is required from players to see every ending and path
Portal 2 has a cool ending, though I don't think its good enough for this. But using everything you've learned to defeat Wheatley is so fun. You have to use bombs, gels, portals and previous story knowledge (conversion gel being made out of moon rock) to beat the game.
I like that Asura's wrath was shown in the montage beginning. I feel not enough people talk about the sheer awesomeness the game has in its boss fight cut scenes
I agree, Asura's wrath had some of the most jaw-dropping scenes I've seen so far
"A great beginning can stay with you for one hour, but a great ending can stay with you for one lifetime."
That's what OP mom's said last night
So Thumper likes some weird time signatures, eh? I think they’d like a little someone named Chris Christoudoulou.
It’s amazing hearing you so passionate about these. When you talk about these games in the tone of an exited kid with essay written evidence it makes me passionate too!
I feel the same watching your essays. Every time i finish one i think "wow, isn't this the greatest video i could ever watch, roll the credits, youtube is over", and then you put out another one
This isn't at the "end", it's about at the half-way point, but Baba Is You has given me the single most massive gameplay twist I've ever encountered. Throughout the game, you solve puzzles by manipulating the rules of the world, like cloning yourself with BABA IS MORE or letting you walk through walls by destroying WALL IS STOP. However, near what you presume is the last level of the game, it introduces a new word - LEVEL. At first, it does the basic stuff with it, like LEVEL IS MOVE to cause the entire screen to shift. At some point, you realize you can make the phrase LEVEL IS BABA.
The game returns to the world map, except the level you were just playing has been replaced by a BABA object.
Then you turn another level into a goal flag and "beat" the world map as if it was just another level.
At this point, the game completely breaks the boundary between world map and levels, and you have to move objects around what initially appeared to be a simple world map in some of the most mind-bending puzzles in the game. Levels will shapeshift back and forth, objects will carry your level select cursor, said level select cursor will be removed and re-created in a different part of the level... not only does the initial twist break one of the most fundamental rules of game design in a way that no other game has, it follows through and fully explores that idea, making some of the best and most challenging puzzles in the entire game.
"Near the last level of the game" if you haven't explored everyother world, then sure. You can access these two levels after completing most worlds, so you can skip Volcano and Mountain worlds (worst parts of the game, Finns hate everyone)
God During creation screen: Jacob, my son.... How thick should I make your beard?
Jacob: "Yes"
Baba is You has perhaps my favorite "best for last" moment for me. I think it would be right up your alley.
Baba is you isn't a game with recognizable magic but in my opinion it's 100% a game about being a mad wizard tampering with the laws of the universe. The ending is only the capstone.
Just wanted to say thanks for adding closed captions! I know I'm not the only person who really likes having them on videos. Thanks!
Nier Automata was and still is the greatest game I've ever played. One of the endings are insane with the way it's made and the feeling of accomplishment you get when you beat it...
Ending E gives me goosebumps through the entire thing every damn time, there's also the sudoending at Ending B which makes it feel like you're playing a sequel.
8:19 "It's hard to communicate just how destabalizing this is"
No kidding. I'm so glad you talked abt Thumper though cause experiencing it for yourself w/out knowing what's going to happen is such a trip for all the reasons you mentioned. Love it 💜
I have to mention the complete artistic direction mark of the ninja took in the final section of that game. The way all the hallucinations build up and the way everything re-contextualizes itself in front of your very eyes makes the decision you have to make at the end all the better. Klei could have just done a simple get to the end and make a kinda difficult plot decision, but instead they ramp up the tension to the max and make you question your sanity completely and thoroughly, leaving you to question if there even is a correct answer. There's so much to love about that game I would love to see it become a full video one of these days.
The end of Earthbound comes to mind. Going from semi-goofy mobs and settings to the nightmare horror of Giygas and his fight, the massive tonal shift is something that sticks with every player. And the game integrates that mechanically by changing the rules for the final fight, and making the player figure out the solution out of desperation, I think was intended. Attacking isn't working, so use the command you probably haven't used the entire rest of the game, Pray. That whole sequence sticks with every player who makes it to the end, and contributes to the games lasting legacy
Unlocking every ability in control completely changes the game, they all just flow together so perfectly that the juxtaposition of having them all vs missing any single one of them is kind of mind blowing
Nier Automata and Lair of the Clockwork God both blew my mind with late game twists. It was amazing in two completely differently ways
Edit: so lots of people are talking about Nier, but no one is talking about Clockwork God. It is a really neat indie game where you play two characters. When you play as one, the game is a platformer, when you play as the other it’s a point and click. This game is one of the funniest things I have ever played. It definitely falls into the trolling the player game, but for me it somehow managed to do it without pissing me off
The Wonderful 101 is definitely an entire Gurren Lagann reference
The robot even did a straight-up Gainax pose in one of the clips in the video.
I always love your videos, Jacob. It's so pleasant to hear you speak about the intricacies and subtleties of games and get so excited and emotional about them. Often in your videos, I'll listen to you talk about a game I've also played and describe the minute feelings and thoughts you're experiencing, and I'm so happy for you and I'm so jealous. I wish I would play a game and pick up on all the tiny little things you do: how Dark Souls 3 isn't just 'sad' or 'apocalyptic' or 'nearing the final end', it's a world that's stretched beyond it's limit and is struggling just to exist, it's throwing everything it can together into a semi-coherent mess just to try to keep going, and it's failing anyway. That's the kind of stuff you show me, and I'm so thankful for it.
This is also why Thumper is my favorite game of all time; I really, truly felt this in the last level. I was moved genuinely to tears watching this video (which isn't abnormal for me with your videos).
The space beetle's sole purpose is to get to the end of the track, and every level, you never actually get there; you get to checkpoints and the track keeps going, and at the end of the level you glimpse the pyramid for a moment before you beat the boss and then the level fades away *without ending the track*. You're still going. There's no rest. You're in a world hell-bent on keeping you away from the end of the track and you will not give up until you get there.
So what happens after you beat the final boss? There's nothing left to stop you. And now that you're approaching the end, your understanding of the world doesn't matter here: like the inside of a black hole or the exact moment after the big bang, you're at such an extreme point in space and time that things stop following the rules you thought were established.
And above it all is the pyramid, the source of it all. It creates the track and it towers above you so ominous and enigmatic that words like 'malignant' or 'benign' can't even apply to it. And there's still one more obstacle keeping you from the end: the pyramid is still making the track, and it has to stop. I didn't feel like the pyramid was the evil final boss trying to destroy you, I feel like it was defending itself. After all, you are the space beetle. You are a pest. A nuisance, a vermin. You are a scourge unwaveringly obsessed with the single goal of reaching the end of the track and you will do anything to get there.
Again, thank you, Jacob, for allowing me to reside for moments at a time in your beautiful, poetic, powerful, emotional psyche.
Yes!!! I don’t know if I’ll ever forget the way I lost my mind at the boss fight in Pistol Whip. That crescendo at 12:13 matched perfectly with my SCREAMING as suddenly everything I knew about the gameplay felt turned on its head. What a great moment.
Is it just me or does The Wonderful 101 feel like kind of a love letter to Gurren Lagan?
That's exactly what I thought.
I certainly has that Trigger spirit, by the looks of it...
@@pedroscoponi4905 You mean Gainax?
@@weirdofromhalo Not anymore he don't.
there is also a love letter to punch out..
and saturday morning cartoons.
and power rangers.
and devil may cry kinda.
and okami kinda.
and probably a bunch of other shit I forgot
Kind of a nitpicky thing: the "first level last" mantra is (imo) more about knowing what the game you're introducing actually is. Sort of like writing the intro paragraph to an essay last, it's not because you're going to be better at writing by the end, it's because you know concretely what essay you're introducing.
Absolutely. It's not just about wowing new players so they'll be compelled to keep going (although that certainly does matter); it's about teaching new players everything that they're going to need to know going forward.
Actually doing the work of building the last part first also forces you to take it into consideration during the rest of the development. But then of course you revise your last-part work completely to take into account lessons learned.
The game that comes to mind for me is Cytus 2. A mobile rhythm game that is pretty standard all around except for a phenomenal story told through logs you unlock. A story of conspiracy and beautifully written characters that ends with you making choices by playing notes, a trolley problem and a custom composed 8-minute song that is 4x as long as a standard song in the game. It ends so incredibly that i honestly score it up there as one of my favourite endings in a game. Ever. I genuinely don't want to spoil it for you and genuinely recommend you play it because it sent several waves of chills down my spine. It pulls all the stops. I cannot beg you enough to try this experience. Although I'd recommend following a character playthrough chart to follow the story linearly instead of fragmented and time jumpy as that is somewhat left to the player. I cannot beg you enough to try this experience.
Thank you so much for shedding light on the wonderful 101. When I first played it I was nine and I almost quite a bunch of times because of the difficulty but, after sticking with it and seeing the ending it instantly became my favorite game so thank you.
I can't begin to tell you Jacob how unbelievably happy I am with you talking about the very essence of what makes The Wonderful 101 the absolute peak of interactive hype entertainment.
*Posted 14 seconds ago*, nice. Could not have come at a better time my dude :)
Jacob (that feels really overly familiar but here we are),
I've re-watched your entire catalogue of videos multiple times. When I'm deep in the night and incapable of even considering going to sleep, I dip into your work. Thank you so much for sharing this with us. Your capacity for telling a compelling story that orbits some chosen subject is phenomenal. I really appreciate each piece you put into the world, and am truly thankful you've been here for this last year.
That is all. A sincere thank you.
I haven’t played Mind Control Delete, but I played the initial SUPERHOT and had that wonderful feeling of complete silence and awe after I finished it. The gameplay is super fun, but the story of SUPERHOT just kinda got me. And the way that it’s integrated into the gameplay and menu of the game just... I loved it. The craziness of that last level just blasting into people is wild. I need to recommend it to more people.
I thought that I remembered how sick the ending to Wonderful 101 was
And I did
And it still OWNS
Every day with a new Jacob Geller vid is a great day.
Fantastic idea for a video! Loved every example you used!
These are great disclamers.
I've finished Thumper's 2 first levels. I don't have VR but I've used good quality headphones. Yet my head hurts from speed of that beatle and music was pumping in my ears even after I've had finished playing. I'm impressed that you've been able to finish it.
The end (well, one of the ends) of The Talos Principle is something special. Really special.
it really is
The Messenger is great for this. Halfway through the game it pretty much changes genres and artstyle. It’s crazy cool
[Anyone who hasn't played it, spoilers for The Messenger down, you should play it]
Man, the moment the shopkeeper makes you dress up and you go "OH MY GOD IT'S A LOOP", is unbeliavable.
Also, the DLC ending with that boss fight. just. wow.
ULTRAKILL just keeps getting more and more wild with every new layer.
The first few levels look like they were made by one guy in a couple months, because they were.
The last act kicks off with you tearing through a whole city in hell and taking down a mountain-sized war mech. By this point, there's dozens of people working on this game and every level takes a month to make.
Your videos are unlike any video game content out there. The way you tie the themes of video games together with other mediums is prefect and you write with so much emotion. Keep up the good work! I'm always impressed!
You're currently tied as favourite with Joseph Anderson and Super Bunnyhop for me
Love your videos! :) I'm a UI Artist and UX Designer who's been working in games for over a decade, and I did want to respond to your point about dev teams designing the first level last. A lot of your thesis hinges upon the idea that this is done for marketing reasons and to make a good first impression, and you're not wrong, but having spent a loooot of time on designing game User Experience, I can tell you that it's more than that. Games change so much over the course of their development. Entire levels are cut, mechanics are scrapped, the story is re-written. The first level is not just meant to act as a vertical slice that represents the best the game has to offer. Rather, it needs to effectively teach the player how to play the game. We call this the First Time User Experience. If you make your first level before you know for certain what you need to teach, you're going to have to recreate it again. And again. And again. And honestly, the team is going to do this anyway. Everything is iterated on multiple times.
I'm all for games with big, grand finales to their gameplay! But these are not created at the expense of getting the intro gameplay just right. If a game is made well, it is made holistically, with the continuous flow of gameplay in mind. The games you cite have amazing final levels, but they also have solid intro levels, too. With the exception of expansions, like Super Hot Mind Control Delete, I would not be surprised if those first levels were created and/or polished last in all of those games.
Again another amazing video. This makes me think of Katamari Damacy, as the game just let's you go buck wild as you get to see all of the town that you've been rolling around, then planet earth, and then finally the cosmos.
“I feel it. I feel the cosmos.”
Thumper - awesome feeling. The flight mechanic is also insanely cool when you pull off the perfect wall hits
I'm a simple man pleased by simple things.
I See Thumper in Thumbnail, I click.
I Hear M.O.O.N in first 5 seconds, I stay.
This entire video can be summed up in a single, laughter-filled “FUCK YEAH!!!”
We love a good “fuck yeah” moment. So cathartic.
I think a giddy, laughter-filled "what the fuck!?" is more accurate