At about 100 hours in on Elden Ring, I realized I hadn’t bothered to look at all the different gloves and gauntlets I’d collected in half that time. Nah, the Warrior Gauntlets are just perfect, thanks. That evergreen style of worn leather with an easy-to-miss bit of flair below the wrist? When I floss my look in The Lands Between, my camera will inevitably drift to those gauntlets. The stats? Who cares. I’m sure they’re fine. In Dark Souls III it was the Dark Sword. In Horizon: Forbidden West, anything Oseram. What I’m saying is: I love the minutiae of these bits of kit. They heighten a game’s personality. I enjoy simply wondering why the Oseram’s colors are white and yellow. Or why – among all swords that have it – the flare at the base of the Dark Sword’s blade is the best. Hypothetical and aesthetic questions like those make me love these games all the more.

In that spirit, Ana Diaz of Polygon recently highlighted a niche Twitter account devoted to stair climbing animations that has over 5,000 followers! And, joke account or not, I remember being happy for the “nice water” guy on Miiverse when Nintendo publicly acknowledged him. So what if the clichés are “don’t sweat the small stuff,” and “the devil is in the details”? Maybe getting caught up in the little gifts video games lovingly put out for us to find is the digital equivalent of stopping to smell the roses.

So, what does it for you? Is there an animated flourish, a graphical flex, or minor detail in gaming visual design that lets you know, “Now this game gets it“? Describe it to us down in the comments or over at the Boss Rush Discord.

Featured Image: FromSoftware