Every enemy encounter memorable. Examples.

Hello giantbomb I just started thinking about this after watching a speed run of dark souls. While watching I realized that I can remember pretty much every enemy I faced right down to placement in this game. Im thinking its mostly due to how each encounter can result in a swift death if you arent careful. Im trying to think of other examples of games that have this sort of effect. It seems somewhat rare with all the constantly spawning trash mobs that are usually thrown our way in games. So what other games make every encounter matter and somewhat memorable? Oh and im sure demon souls is the same.

Oh.

Shadow of the Colossus might do it, maybe.

@HistoryInRust said:

Oh.

I agree

The only game I can think of right now is the new XCOM. The enemy placement may be random each game, but the spawns are not. Learning where enemies can spawn on each map is an important part of the game on higher difficulties, and, given the difficult nature of the game, you could certainly make an argument that every encounter with the enemy in memorable, as the enemies are always capable of killing even your best soldiers if you are reckless.

I remember where every single enemy in Resident Evil 4 is. Though mostly from playing it a shit ton, not because knowing where enemies are is tantamount to survival.

The original Resident Evil.

@ShadowConqueror: I really do need to get on playing XCOM.

@Video_Game_King: Thats a good example of this.

Zeno Clash was pretty memorable for how weird everything in the game was.

@laserbolts said:

@HistoryInRust said:

Oh.

I agree

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From what I've seen each encounter in Last of Us is memorable.

@HistoryInRust said:

@laserbolts said:

@HistoryInRust said:

Oh.

I agree

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Sick post count padding brah. I already told you I agree with you.

@Video_Game_King said:

Shadow of the Colossus might do it, maybe.

@Video_Game_King said:

Shadow of the Colossus might do it, maybe.

YES

Tango down in Sector One Alpha.

Asura's Wrath

@mlarrabee said:

Tango down in Sector One Alpha.

I'll never forget the tango.

No shit, if you play Dark Souls seriously, you will encounter the exact same enemies in the exact same places about a million times.

Gitaroo Man

Every fighting game campaign...

Hmmm....my memories about it have grown fuzzy over time, but the FOE placements in the Etrian Odyssey games, particularly when they were designed to show up on your self-made map, just to haunt you with their presence.

Right with you on Dark Souls, and most of Demon's Souls as well. Another one for me would probably be the original Metal Gear Solid.

Punch Out

@laserbolts said:

@HistoryInRust said:

@laserbolts said:

@HistoryInRust said:

Oh.

I agree

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Sick post count padding brah. I already told you I agree with you.

`

@L44 said:

Punch Out

Nice. Never even thought of that.

Prince of Persia 2008. They very intentionally designed the enemy encounters to be memorable rather than just cutting through swaths of enemies as you progress through the game.

I used to know every quest in World of Warcraft up until Cataclysm. I know like 70% of Cataclysm but Precata, man, I knew everything about the game. I still do.

None of them. Even games I've played an obscene number of times. My memory's just not good enough.

I have a rather similar experience with the co-op part of Syndicate. Watching this week's TNT, I kept mentally noting enemy locations, reinforcement routes, (potential) spawn-locations, etc.

Amazing game.

I know every encounter in Resident Evil 4, though that's because I love the game and played it at least ten times. Some of those were things like handgun/knife only challenges, so understanding every encounter is a necessity.

Resident Evil 4, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Bayonetta, Project Zero II: Crimson Butterfly, Shadow of the Colossus, tons of arcade games/games heavily influenced by the arcade formula like Armed Police Batrider, Rastan Saga, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, Hard Corps: Uprising, the Metal Slug games, various Cave games etc.

I probably know more than I think (more games with similar knowledge of encounters), but I've always had a place in my brain for Halo, because it happened to be there at that specific time in my life where games became something more. I'd devoted a lot of time gaming before then, but I'd never had a moment similar to the one I had with that game, I really did fall in love with that game in a weird way. Not in the way of having to read all the books or whatever, though the little lore that did exist in the game at the time was interesting to me, I more just found myself able to play it even when I didn't wanna play 'games', I'd find myself playing it as a separate thing I did regardless of mood or time in my life and very quickly I knew everything in the game completely. Timing of every single enemy, the entire flow of everything as you progress through it down to each and ever player triggered check point (I could feel when each would occur, rather than know based on any sort of visual) and the positions and behaviours of the enemies. To the game's credit not everything is 100% scripted in the sense that it's anyways the same, cause it's not really, often an encounter triggers the enemies to spawn just before the player enters and the AI can react differently based off even how it's facing at the time you enter, and that would kinda mix things up as you played through because the AI was built in a way to be so obvious in it's reactions towards the player, it's environment, and other AI.

Now I am not so sharp on my Halo knowledge, but it's something I'd pick up very quickly if I were to play through the game once again, and I would be flooded with the hundreds of times I'd been in each area before. The fun part is that I must have played the game through co-op with almost 10 different friends and definitely 5-7 times with each of them, lots of memories it's kind of amazing to cram all that into just one game. I don't think this can happen because of how good a game really is, it's a mix of some of that and mostly your place in your life and how games fit with that.

Halo combat evolved. I dno why but I just know where all the enemies are in every level, except the flood, those can surprise me at times.

Geometry Wars.

For reals though I wish more games did this, as much as I love to kill hundreds of henchmen there's not enough of Shadow of the Colossus out there. Dark Souls is similar but only because so much of that game is about practise and learning. I love both.

Last of Us better live up to it's promise. Uncharted with individual enemies would be incredible.

Dragons Lair, and it's clones.

Metal Gear Solids 1 and 2.

Stealth games, fighting games, Dark and Demon Souls, Ninja Gaiden. And rpgs like Chrono Trigger, with stationary encounters.

@spankingaddict said:

@Video_Game_King said:

Shadow of the Colossus might do it, maybe.

YES

Shadow of the Colossus goes a long way into this by making them the only enemies. As they are not throwing obstacles by the dozens at the time to you, they can focus on making each of the encounters into something unique and memorable...

Remember Commandos? Those games were greaaaaaaat.

Megaman 2 and Goldeneye 64.

The former because I can probably still beat it on Hard in my sleep. The latter because 00 Agent difficulty was really, really frustratingly difficult.

Huh, I had never really thought about it before, but that is quite true of Dark Souls. Of course, its aided by the fact enemies do not change location, and will often need to be fought again either due to death or passing through an area again after resting at a bonfire. Now, sometimes I think that's a bad thing, because there's something to randomly generated/placed enemies, and the importance of keeping a certain mystery about the game...

But in the case of Dark Souls, it is quite fitting, since its about improving one's performance...I think the more important thing to draw from Dark Souls is that each encounter is important, at least initially, since if you're unprepared or something catches you by surprise, any one encounter could result in your death. Of course they become less important--I think--about the encounters as you master an area, but it's kind of nice to show that growth.

I know this is probably weird to bring up, but I would say Journey has this sort of "memorable encounter" characteristic for me. True, it's not enemies, but each other player I would meet or the NPC "characters" in the environment all seemed quite memorable (or perhaps meaningful is a better way to describe it) to me.

Halo:Reach because I beat it on Legendary solo

RE One to a certain extent. Like a zombie in a room early in the game was a problem and you had to run around them most of the time.

I'd say Mass Effect. The original. I played a lot of that game, and loved the tactical approaches you could take in combat with a varied squad.

The Half Life series. Every enemy placement is naturalistic and makes sense. Also vent = headcrab.

The 'Strike' series of helicopter games on consoles, eg. Urban Strike, Soviet Strike, etc. It was essential to keep good track of where enemies were, since most of them could shred you pretty easily. Many of them had to be destroyed before they reached certain parts of the map. And encountering almost any enemy in a radar zone was instadeath.

Aside from random Pokémon encounters in the tall grass (although I've very nearly memorized what Pokémon are where), there was a time where I'd memorized most the trainer battles in Pokémon Red/Blue. If I played it now, most of them before Lavender Town would probably still be fresh, while anything after that would probably elicit an "oh, yeah, that."

To clarify, I have zero percent recall of what even the Gym Leaders in post-Blue Pokémon carry. I think the Ecruteak guy has a Spearow, and then the Normal-type leader in...Goldenrod, I think? The Normal-type leader had a Miltank. But in Blue, I can tell you exactly where to catch a Pikachu, and that it's just past the Bug Catcher with a Level 9 Weedle in Viridian Forest. (concept pages included for those who do not know a damn thing about Pokémon.)

I'll third the "I know where every enemy placement in Resident Evil 4 is" vote. Also from having played it several times.

I think MGS 1-3 would all be candidates for this. They're not especially dynamic, so with a timely second playthrough, you do end up remembering their locations. Stealth games and horror games are probably the most likely candidates for this conversation, as they're based around considering every encounter heavily as opposed to blowing through baddies God of War style (although I'd argue that God of War is probably a strong candidate too.)

Megaman 1 and 2 are great choices, I agree. I remember more of Halo 1-3, Reach, and Mass Effect 1-3 than I'd ever have expected. Early quests in Borderlands are actually pretty memorable, too, but I can't say I remember most of the mid-level quests very well. Barring side-content and open world encounters, I remember every storyline encounter in The Witcher 2 pretty damn strongly, for what I played of it.

Mainly because I was a kid when I played it and had to go through every mission ten times before I beat them.

@Laivasse said:

The Half Life series. Every enemy placement is naturalistic and makes sense. Also vent = headcrab.

Half-Life has made me wary of vents in any video game. Even if there's guaranteed to be nothing in a vent, I'll still pre-load a melee attack as I round every corner.