I do find it very impressive how Astro has managed to successfully pivot from "splatoon weapon tutorials" to "game design and stuff"

i like how totk also steals all your power away organically and shows that through a gameplay mechanic so you have to progress all over again. All the progress I made last game was removed just so i couldn't walk through ganondorf's door and bully him with my five gazillion hearts and pocket dimension full of munchies ten minutes in.

I love how the progression works in Monster Huntdoor. Like moving on from really struggling with a monster to just being able to casually farm them while watching shit on the side feels like the realest progression.

Fashion Hunter is the true endgame

Another one of my favorite takes on this mechanic is when you're paired up with a future villain and their stats are absolutely bonkers. Kinda like Sephiroth tagging along with Cloud. As in, it's nice to have that power on your side, but the entire time you're cursed with the knowledge that eventually, you're gonna have to FIGHT that power. Comforting :)

In a slightly different take on power in games, I like the way Xenoblade X has the monster size mechanic. You could be lv.20 and see a massive lv.20 dinosaur but because it's bigger it will destroy you until you level up or use your equally sized mech.

One great example of this is the Black Dungeon Dragon from Dragon Quest XI. In the early game, it’s literally unbeatable. Your only option is to run away through a dark corridor filled with obstacles hoping to outrun it. Even while outrunning it, other weaker monsters like Slimes will see the dragon and start running away from it, too. If you’re unfortunate enough to get caught, the battle begins and you literally deal 8 damage max, while the dragon one-shots you and Erik. MUCH later down the game’s span (with Hendrik in tow), you enter the same cave and find the same Black Dungeon Dragon again. The dragon is still relatively tough, but you can mop it pretty quickly with Pep Powers. DOOR

The reasons you mentioned are part of why Unfinished Business is one of my favorite Xenoblade cutscenes. Spoilers: As you said, when Metal Face and all the Xord copies show up, it's intimidating because you've just gone through a grueling fight against just one faced mechon. Metal Face taunts the party with nothing but silence in the background, allowing a sense of dread to set in. But faced with the prospect of an unwinnable battle, Shulk ignites the Monado as Unfinished Business starts playing and rushes Metal Face. It's a great little moment for Shulk as a way to demonstrate the extent of his courage and desire for revenge. But even then we still know it's likely a futile effort. As Metal Face is about to cut Shulk down, we get a glimmer of hope as Dunban makes his entrance. If anyone can turn the tide, it's the legendary Hero of the Homs - his appearance provides a temporary sense of relief. Of course, anyone who's played the entire game knows it doesn't work like that, but at this point in the game, we don't know all the details about their relative power levels, so the main ideas still come across. The emotions players feel in this cutscene _only_ work because of the legwork the devs put in to demonstrate mechanically how powerful the faced mechon are. It's expertly done imo

i think thats the biggest strength of RPGs, feeling that progress is so satisfying

Big fan of Ganon slapping

Megaman X is also a really good game that demonstrates how you grow as a player, with vile almost killing you on the first mission and then you just wrecking him with a hadouken to the face lol

I didnt look at the thumbnail, I thought the video would be about Vergil from Devil May Cry 5

Showing power through gameplay is gaming's greatest way to make a player feel invested. Putting all your effort in to take out one guy, just to have that guy be a regular chump 3 hours later is a very clear way to show progression, and it opens so many doors for the developers to introduce new challenges.

A personal favorite mechanic, is how in SoulsBorne games you have to use weapons 2 handed until you have good enough stats to use it with 1. So when you can't use a weapon, it's not just because it would mess up the game's progression, but because you don't have the necessary skill, strength, etc... to use it efficiently, and you can only manage to sluggishly swing it around.

Door! Oh and 8:13 Boss design reminds me of the big head and two hands boss in Super Mario Odyssey in the frozen pyramid section in the desert map. Great video! Always gets me laughing lol

Piano music gives me Vietnam flash backs because Cinthya

Door For me I think the jet stream Sam fight in mgrr served as a perfect final skills check before the final boss as he has the same ability to kick ass as you the player so it forces you to become better than yourself

I think the best example of this is literally the souls games(elden ring included). The games start off difficult but as both the player understand different mechanics and skills the more enemies they are better at killing which equates to more and better loot throughout the game so far. The soul games perfectly display that through player understanding and skill they can move forward and get stronger without having to rely on one aspect or another.

The last place I expected a “on my island is buried a treasure chest” reference :’)

I accidentally went to an area in TotK where I had to fight 5 lynels in a row to get a reward. I did this far too early. I initially thought it was only one. Then a gate opened. Then that happened 3 more times, each time me thinking I was done. After dying like 100 times, doing math to determine what fusions with the items the lynel would be most effective, only against the next lynel. All with too little health to be able to live a single hit from them. I felt so rewarded just from winning, and after an insane amount deaths, I have yet to be hit by a lynel again after 60 more hours of gameplay.

The Jhen Mohran siege fight from MH3U was my first major wall. It took several times to finally beat him. After that, the "door" opened up. Great video, my friend!

MHR definitely has some of the coolest-feeling progression of any game I've played because you're both getting better armour/weapons *from* the guys you kill *and* you need to actually get more skilled at playing the game because the enemies get faster and telegraph their attacks less. In the Etrian Odyssey series when you're wandering through dungeons there are "FOEs" which are basically mini-bosses almost as hard as the final area boss - sometimes harder - walking around. There is real tension when you're fighting some mooks and one of these guys is coming up behind you one turn at a time. I think games have to be willing to scare the shit out of the player to start (while still making a surmountable challenge) in order to achieve that satisfaction of surmounting your fear later on. Door?

istg youre my absolute favorite youtuber, somehow your sense of humor and writing style just hits the spot for me and im always happy to see another upload man thank you

Door. Also, I gotta say Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (the DS game, not the collection of cutscenes that was 1.5) has a hell of a moment in the final level where Roxas dual wields for the first time.

I like how in FE Engage you really do feel stronger when you have more rings. It hurts a lot when you lose them hut when you have them all your army feels like gods (except for whoever has Leif equipped)

I just found your channel, just wanted to say you make great videos. I wish I had found you sooner. Looking forward to the next one.

I love your videos and there are times that I like a door when the video game throws a a impossible/very difficult part, but The satisfaction of overcome The difficulties easier later in The game is incredible

This was a great presentation and I lol'd at a few lines, thanks for the vid

One of my favorite bits of this kind of thing was Kingdom Hearts 3 have 1 and 2’s final bosses just hanging out by the DOOR you need through. Up until then any time the game tried to threaten me it felt limp, but I was genuinely tense wondering if I’d have take them on at the same time.

Im so glad Capn is a monster hunter fan. I live for every take

One of my favorite cases of this was in Panzer Dragoon Saga. Throughout most of the game, there's a ruined airship you're slowly able to make your way further into. It's enormous and mysterious. The final boss uses it as a projectile. And, if you didn't grind, like I did, it takes about half your health. And breaks apart. This thing you spent ages trying to break into, using the door, earlier in the game.

"I'm surprised they never brought this boss back." Me: Oh they did. Just not in Zelda.

I would watch a 3 hour video of you just talking about wind waker. That was so funny

I'm DOOR walkin' straight DOOR out that DOOR

I loved the part in Jedi: Fallen Order when you get your new lightsaber. It’s around the end of the game, and you pretty much know every enemy type and their attacks. But when losing your saber, you are nerfed heavily. Being forced to run But after getting a new one. You earn a new attack. Which is incredibly strong. And wipes the floor with enemies. It’s one of the most triumphant moments in that game

I love the humour and personality you pepper throughout these videos, it really livens everything up ❤ Opens the door and lets the good vibes come in, if you will 👀

Just realized why am I not subscribed to you yet. Also Happy Mother's Day! May you or your mother have the best day and forever more after that day.

I love showing power through gameplay, if done well it genuinely makes you feel powerful

And then in Tears of the kingdom: We learn that the final boss of botw was Ganon's force projection whileche was veing chokeholded.

There's a mechanic in Wild Arms 3 that lets you cancel out random enemy encounters by spending a finite resource called ECN. The stronger the enemy, the more ECN you have to spend. You can find some items that raise your ECN total but the real interesting part is that as you progress through the game and collect Migrant Seals, it raises your Migrant Level which makes it so that each random encounter will cost less ECN to negate. What this means is that as you go through a location for the first time you'll probably need to fight the new enemies there since you won't be able to negate most of your encounters, but as you get through the game then exploring and backtracking becomes easier since you get to a point where most encounters will be at 0 ECN cost to negate. In addition, there are side quests that might put very powerful enemies into universal areas, and the visual representation of something that can be negated for free is different from one that will cost you some of your bar, so having the ECN system lets you track down these powerful enemies more easily - negate all the fights until you get one that you can't negate for free.

man this brought me back, kecha wacha was a wall for me too. really hope we see him back as he had a really cool design

"I like this Ganondorf because he will not hesitate to punch a child" -Captain Astronaut, 2023

Really interesting doorway into what makes game progression make sense in the contrxt of the story

I'd say a good moment would be the end of generation 1 in Fe4.

I love you and your videos

"That" part of Jedi Survivor where it shows how your Force Slow can be used in a different way was pretty cool

This is one of your best opinions yet. Completely agree.

This vid was SO good n I was enjoying the hell out of it… then Xenoblade poped up n now I’m subbed n another great example of a “click” moment is Genichiro from Sekiro

Celeste. You spend the whole game being able to climb a couple feet, and do a dash in the air, needing to land to recharge. Run from yourself and struggle a lot. Endgame you accept yourself and learn transfems can double jump and good lord the freedom and power there.

Door, solid vid 🎉

9:19 I cracked up here!

Bruh why is she slapping that guy so much like chill with the jiggle physics

door waiting for the day we get to see a full captain astronaut bass cover lol

I'm a simple hunter, I see Monster Hunter, I leave a like. fr tho this is GOATed way of showing player growth. I wish developers do more than "This boss is regular enemy now"

I should recommend Copy Kitty. The whole game's plot is making you feel like an unstoppable force, pitching you with progressively more and more powerful opponents.

Touhou lunar night after I got my thousand knifes it's just so satisfying to beat the extra bosses even though the final one was balls. Perfectly using time stop in conjunction with the knifes makes you feel like you regained all the powers you previously were stripped from.

"Still more than a time lord" ayy I understood that reference

there's a youtube bug that amused me on this video, where _all_ of the captions were displayed at the same time on the screen, leading to a big wall of text and I could have just paused the video and read the whole thing. But I'll still watch the video, that was just a funny thing to happen.

FOEs in Etrian Odyssey also show this in a fantastic way. The game basically teaches you "this guy is too strong for you, just find a way around him" so when you do finally beat one it feels really cool.

Those mermaids from Inside are up there in the scariest video game enemies ever list

Door! Monster Hunter is so good at creating these moments, even just on a small scale when you land a great combo... although beating the Path of Pain in Hollow Knight takes the cake, that was a moment of absolute glory. (Also 3:54 is this a Stormlight reference I'm hearing?)

Most Metroid games progress from taking multiple shots to kill basic enemies to powering through everything with plasma beam, scree attack, and power bombs. Number based level systems where you magically gain some atk power after so many battles has nothing on growing through an expanded arsenal.

2:12 that run through.

I like how you include botw master sword in the thumbnail, but don't touch upon how that one is the absolute opposite of what it's supposed to feel like.

I think one of my favourite examples of the player actually just getting better, without much in the way of in game levelling and getting stronger, is Cosmoteer. You build spaceships and sure the later space ships you fight are going to be much larger and stronger, but they don't have new weapons, you pretty much have access to everything from the get go and all that you get in terms of stuff are things that serve to make piloting giant ships actually possible. If you know your stuff and identify a good enough weakpoint, you can easily just evade a lot of the larger ships and kill them in seconds, there's no big beefy health bar telling you "no you can't fight this your weapon only does 256 damage"

One of my favorite moments of this was when you use the doors in monster Inc kingdom hearts

foghorn leghorn killed me 💀

Door should do a video on Videogame Backgrounds

The algorithm has brought him back.

8:13 Knuckotec: Am I a joke to you?? 😢

RUN EVERYONE!!! That’s a trap! He’s pretending to make a general video just to say how amazing Xenoblade Chronicles is again…

Zelda really is good at this. Just beat TotK, and I gotta say there were moments in the final boss fight where i was smiling because the game was finally fighting fair. But also a few moments that just made me laugh, lol

I "uh-DOOR" your videos. The king of feeling like a baller is MELTING Mother Brain after [SPOILERS REDACTED] at the end of Super Metroid

Bro said, “lets GMTK the thumbnail” lmaoo

I really wish you would do a video on Xenoblade 1,2, and 3 and show how the series changed and opened new DOORS for players with it’s systems and stories

Truly a door

Ganondoorf

I a DOOR feeling like a boss. Honestly no better feeling that over preparing and making the final boss seem like the 2nd or 3rd

I think an extremely good example of power progression and the player having full control over incredible power is the doom franchise, especially eternal. In the beginning of the game you’ve got one shotgun and a chainsaw, and a double jump. And while your movement is impressive and you can deal some good damage, it’s literally nothing compared to what you become as your skills increase and you regularly grow your arsenal. The game teaches you how to play it in a way that, when you’ve gotten good at the game, the incredible feats of power you achieve are all your own

I like games that have both narrative and mechanic power-ups over the course of a playthrough but I think skill based games does it the best especially when using mechanics players can learn/unlock. In DMC and Sekiro if you are skilled enough you can have fights that are straight up cinematic worthy. You basically make your own "cutscenes" by applying a lot of pressure and styling on enemies. Fights range from "a fodder enemy bullied me" to "I just used this difficult boss for a montage". The Xord example you used plays into the rival archetype but I don't think it's as well done as DMC Vergil and MGR:R Jetstream Sam. In these other example's narrative they start off stronger than you and mechanically they have a very similar kit to the player. Throughout the game you get stronger mechanically and in the narrative but you also get better skill-wise so by the end it does not feel like a test of stats, instead it becomes a test of skill. As I wrote the previous paragraph I realized it's more of an "unstoppable force that must be overcome" so a Nemesis instead of a Rival. I apologize for misusing the term and I think it is also great. For MMO's or RPGs that have a bigger emphasis on stats I feel like skill isn't as valued. MMO's attacks just hit so you can die in 1 hit with little to no counter-play. I remember in one of the Xenoblade games I would accidentally start a fight against a random fodder enemy but because of the level difference I would get 1 shot and/or do no damage in return. In Black Desert I remember hitting a basic deer of all things for like 10 minutes and because I zoned out I didn't realize I was doing literally 0 damage to it. In contrast for Monster Hunter, I would do most or all of high/master rank with gear from the previous set of tiers and skill alone carries me most of the way until I reach endgame, a little too hard of an encounter, or a wall that stopped me completely from progressing. Metroidvania games also have plenty of unlockable tools and turn based RPG games feel a bit more organic stat-wise especially in Xcom and SMT where you can train and use game play mechanics to your advantage like damage types to counter enemies. There is also researching and proper building to counter tough encounters.

The fact that not a single rogue like was mentioned is WILDING.

A really good example of this is doom eternal which straight up just starts using bosses as regular enemies at the end of the game.

I dunno man. Getting stronger through more movement and combat abilities is more mechanical and satisfiying than getting stronger through raw power.

your wall was kecha wacha, mine was zinogre in mh4u... that took a while to git gud

Kingdom Hearts 1 does this soooo well, at the beginning of the game your combos suck you cant jump for shit and you get your shit rocked if you're not careful, but as you're nearing the end of the game not only has Sora grown as a character narratively, but now you're pretty much a firework-show death machine. It's very satisfying.

door. Hell Yeah.

lotsa link slapping

My wall boss was monster hunter world anjanath and then much later raging brachydios

Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood spotted

I'm a huge fan of thar bass. Ever fuck with learning persona music?

8:14, Super Mario Odyssey: am I a joke to you?

Monster Hunter really opened the door for this type of game design

died at "fashion hunter"

8:15 mario odyssey, have you played it?

I like how FE4 has varying levels of power available throughout the game. It gives you time to wreck scrubs with legendary weapons before having you fight foes that have access to the same tools like holy weapons, leader stars, and skills that made you so broken to begin with.

i remember playing xenoblade and being pissed off at all 3 times i fought xord

In yakuza Kiwami Kazuma Kiryu is at the top of his game and is about to start his own yakuza family and this is shown through you having all your upgrades fully unlocked for all styles but then spoilers happen. He goes to prison for ten years for a crime he didn't commit and during his 10 years of obedient prison time he loses many of the fighting skills he had years prior which then lead to the skill tree being reset and you as the player learning these skills. his dragon style especially is a shadow of its former self and absolutely sucks ass at the beginning of the game but as you progress the style further it goes from being unusable to kiryus most powerful and versatile style showing him regaining his title as the dragon of dojima. if you haven't ever played a yakuza game I highly recommend doing so if you like 3d action games and really well written down to earth characters and story

I want to post a comment relating the video's subject matter to Super Lesbian Animal RPG, but I unfortunately can't do that without spoiling it, so instead I'm just gonna say play Super Lesbian Animal RPG so you can see a good demonstration of this video's thesis statement while also opening the door to peak fiction.

You really nailed why i loved monhun so much, i havent been a fan of the more recent titles cuz they kinda killed the game with movement tech to broken youd think it was a pay to win gacha game you had to spend money on lol.

Door!