Vote now as we continue deciding the single best thing in games
Last time, you decided thatding!
is better than the Howie scream.
I have only word for that: yeeeuuuuaaaaauuuuughh!
This week, I suppose it’s a question of spectacle.
Do you want to do ridiculous cool things, or have ridiculous horrible things done unto you?
Tell me, what’s better: ridiculous spell animations or the mangled hands of Ethan Winters?
Overkill, sure, but I cannot resist ridiculous spell animations.
Not having consoles, I came to JRPGs (the true home of daft animations) late.
I think my introduction to ridiculous spell animations was inPlanescape: Torment.
I appreciate not only the ridiculous displays of special effects (which artists must delight in creating!
His left hand is cut off then stapled back on.
A werewolf bites off several fingers.
Vampire teenagers cut his palm with a knife so their big sexy mum can drink from the wound.
A haunted doll bites his hand.
Stomach acid makes its flesh bubble.
Vampires suspend him on hooks through his palms, which he yanks down and through to escape.
I can’t even remember all the other maimings he suffers across the two games.
Fittingly, his healing animations focus on pouring disinfectation over his hands.
The games hate his hands to an absurd degree, and I love it.
It can be difficult for first-person games to show progress or lasting consequences to our character.
RE 7 and 8age focus their trauma, waving it in our face.
He wears his heart and his struggles on his tattered sleeve.
But which is better?
Too close to call.
I’m willing to turn this over entirely for you.
Tell me, reader dear, which thing is better?
