Uncommon game mechanics that you want to see more of?

Are there any game mechanics that you’ve seen once or twice in games, and want to see appear more often? Maybe there’s an idea for a mechanic you have, and are unsure if any games employ that feature.
Here’s some that I want to see:

Footnotes: In the visual novel 428: Shibuya Scramble, there are words that are highlighted blue and are able to be selected. The blue word will bring up a footnote page, giving you information on Japanese cultural context that most readers of the localization would not know beforehand, as well as small bits of trivia about the characters and story. The only other example I’ve seen of this is in If found… another visual novel. Footnotes are applied as asterisks that when clicked show trivia again, as well as cultural context, this time for Ireland.

Shuffling Party Members: I haven’t seen any games that use this concept, but I think it would be cool for an RPG game to shuffle your party members before each battle. In some games you’ve got like 3 party members that can participate in a battle, and a total of 4-7 or so members in total that you can configure into the 3 participating members. I think it would be neat if you could set a toggle so that for random encounters, the party members that participate are shuffled each time. I’d appreciate a feature like this, so that your party can have more equal exp gain as well as being able to play with each character more often.

In Remember Me there was a system which allowed you to create your own combos by collecting upgrades, you choose the number of slots (combo length) and which buttons to use. It was something I hadn't seen before. I don't know if more games implemented this because i haven't played as many as i did before, but that ludeme would be a selling point for me.

There are some amazing mechanics that were copyrighted and never used again, which I absolutely HATE because now they're locked in the copyright vault... The two that come to me off the top of my mind are:

1. Sanity Meter - Eternal Darkness - A sanity meter that messes with the player's head by pretending to delete your save, mess with the audio on the TV, pretend like you just finished the demo, and so many other random things. It was amazing!

2. Nemesis System - Shadow/War of Mordor - What an amazing system for developing enemies and adversaries in an open world.

Love both of these mechanics, hate that they can't be used in other games because they're copyrighted...

As for something that isn't copyrighted and that I'd like to see more of:

1. Persuasion System - Pentiment - This game just came out last week, but in my opinion, this is the most realistic persuasion system ever done in a game. Rather than some silly little mini-game or simplistic stat check, this game actually keeps track of everything you say up to the point of trying to persuade someone to determine whether they'd actually believe you. Just like in real-life, you have a reputation that follows you around even before you're trying to persuade someone, and every single person you're speaking to has their own biases that you have to account for and/or overcome. Absolutely Brilliant!

In Remember Me there was a system which allowed you to create your own combos by collecting upgrades, you choose the number of slots (combo length) and which buttons to use. It was something I hadn't seen before. I don't know if more games implemented this because i haven't played as many as i did before, but that ludeme would be a selling point for me.

The PS2 exclusive God Hand from 2006 did have a similar system where you could assemble your own combos, with even more freedom in customization than Remember Me ever offered.

@Bauble: Would definitely love to see more of the Nemesis system first shown in Mordor (in a world where certain mechanics aren't patented, anyway), the problem with that system was a noticeable pattern in how character traits were constantly shuffled, meaning there's a number of personality-defining voice lines that EVERY single general in the game is going to use at some point, you might think their response depends on your actions, but it's actually mostly RNG-based. This isn't something you pay attention to during the first 4-6 hours, but once you start working your way through the ranks facing the same adversary on multiple occasions and hearing them repeat the same lines you've heard from another guy a couple fights back, it kinda rips you out of that immersion. It's still impressive for a concept that hasn't existed in this form yet, but improving on that formula demands serious effort.

I haven't played Eternal Darkness yet, but whenever I see the term "sanity meter", I instantly associate it with the original Amnesia, which, in my opinion, implemented it in the worst way possible with the blurry filter and the shakyness simulating fear, it doesn't exactly ruin the game but it adds nothing except an annoying filter, despite the atmosphere already being tense up the ass and thus ticking the right boxes in the horror design philosophy. Going back to ED, there is a Silent-Hill-inspired one-man-project on Steam called Lost in Vivo that replicates these fake panic-inducing moments such as the aspect-ratio acting up or the game engine simulating a crash notification, it might be a one-time-thing that is hard-scripted at predetermined points in the game, but still suprising enough to think back on years later. I wouldn't want the game to go full-on-troll-mode on me just because the protagonist is close to losing it, but randomizing these events and intergrating them into a multitude of scenarios would most definitely make for a unique concept that I'd love to see more of.

Are there any game mechanics that you’ve seen once or twice in games, and want to see appear more often? Maybe there’s an idea for a mechanic you have, and are unsure if any games employ that feature.
Here’s some that I want to see:

Footnotes: In the visual novel 428: Shibuya Scramble, there are words that are highlighted blue and are able to be selected. The blue word will bring up a footnote page, giving you information on Japanese cultural context that most readers of the localization would not know beforehand, as well as small bits of trivia about the characters and story. The only other example I’ve seen of this is in If found… another visual novel. Footnotes are applied as asterisks that when clicked show trivia again, as well as cultural context, this time for Ireland.

Shuffling Party Members: I haven’t seen any games that use this concept, but I think it would be cool for an RPG game to shuffle your party members before each battle. In some games you’ve got like 3 party members that can participate in a battle, and a total of 4-7 or so members in total that you can configure into the 3 participating members. I think it would be neat if you could set a toggle so that for random encounters, the party members that participate are shuffled each time. I’d appreciate a feature like this, so that your party can have more equal exp gain as well as being able to play with each character more often.

Footnotes: In the visual novel 428: Shibuya Scramble, there are words that are highlighted blue and are able to be selected. The blue word will bring up a footnote page, giving you information on Japanese cultural context that most readers of the localization would not know beforehand, as well as small bits of trivia about the characters and story. The only other example I’ve seen of this is in If found… another visual novel. Footnotes are applied as asterisks that when clicked show trivia again, as well as cultural context, this time for Ireland.

"Tips" sections in Visual Novels, where you can get definitions and explanations for terms as you come across them are commonly found in Japanese VN's if the subject matter makes one worth having.

The combat system from Resonance of Fate. There are two layers of damage, which requires one character to do one layer and the other two to do the other layer. Sometimes you'll have to jump over an enemy to actually hit them otherwise you hit their "shield". There's also a "pip" gauge that is required for attacking/movement. Honestly, the learning curve is massive, but once you know it, it's really not that bad.

Math. There's a boss in an FF14 raid that requires you to do math. I appreciate that and it's hilarious. Instead of puzzles, give me maths.

Attunement swapping. This is something that is a bit hard to explain, so I'll start with an example. In Guild Wars 2, the class Elementalist is able to swap between 4 elements (Fire, Water, Air, Earth). Each element has its own abilities based on the weapon you're using. You can swap between the elements in combat which allows for some really nice combos to maximize damage. WoW had a minor usage of such a system originally with Death Knights being able to swap between Blood, Unholy, and Frost. Just adds nice flavour to combat as well as makes a class more interesting.

Music. In Warframe there's a character (Octavia) whose kit is based on music. You can choose a song (custom or game default) and the rhythm and beat of the song assists in making the kit be more effective. Really fun to use and also quite enjoyable being able to create your songs in game. Really like the idea of music (actual music not just abilities named after something related to music) being the foundation of a class/kit.

Endorparasitic

Manually reloading every weapon and having to move through an environment with missing limbs is captivating, stress inducing and fascinating. Granted, I don't want every game to just copycat the ideas in play, but would appreciate more games try and play with these mechanics in fun ways.

Lose the remaining bullets in the clip after reloading. I've only seen this feature in Killing Floor, and while I understand why it's not commonplace (takes away from the power fantasy a bit), it fits pretty well for a survival game.

1. Sanity Meter - Eternal Darkness - A sanity meter that messes with the player's head by pretending to delete your save, mess with the audio on the TV, pretend like you just finished the demo, and so many other random things. It was amazing!

Even though I haven't played Eternal Darkness, I second you on that. From what I have seen, the sanity mechanic is pretty brilliant, and with other games like Amnesia: the Dark Descent that I have played with similar mechanics and gimmicks, I really want to see a horror game do more of this stuff. Meta stuff, along with a disintegrating psyche is always pretty cool and spooky.

Another mechanic that I would be interested in seeing more of is something like blade mode from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Sure some games like Skyward Sword and No More Heroes use this mechanic as their main combat, but a limited use of it similar to Metal Gear Rising is just a lot better overall. I really enjoy how it was integrated with fights such as with Sundowner and Monsoon, as quick moments where with a successful and precise strike, you can easily turn the tide of the fight into your favor. I also love how with normal enemies, it can incapacitate limbs and such which can help make rough combat encounters involving multiple enemies more manageable.

Lately I have been playing through the Dread X Collections, which are small indie horror collections created in a rough 10 days. Each one of the games in each of the collections usually is pretty unique, and with that there are quite a few really neat mechanics that I want to see more of. For instance, with the game Hand of Doom, the main gameplay gimmick is that you have a grimore where with it you can cast a variety of spells depending on a combination of syllables put together. The game was only like 15 minutes long, so with it the mechanic never felt fully reallized. I really want to see more of that, and I am pretty hyped since Hand of Doom is getting a full release sometime soon. Another really cool mechanic is the rationalization mechanic in the game Solipsis. This is somewhat similar to the sanity mechanic I mentioned above, but with this you are given a variety of shapes, where you need to find the correct one that fits in the specific outline given. Each of these shapes has an image that does not entirely make sense in the moment, but when you look back on them they make complete sense. As the game progresses the few puzzles with this become more complex as the mystery unfolds. You need to eventually break apart one of the shapes to fit it into the outline symbolizing you trying to find a solution in something you cant comprehend and you are reaching for a truth that you want to be true. My final one which I will mark with a spoiler comes with the game Submission, which I best recommend checking out yourself before reading about it. That being the whole game design and testing mechanic of it. I really enjoy how this game has puzzles completely set up with you inputing specific codes while jumping into a variety of areas where that said code is executed allowing you to slightly progress while opening more scary possibilities. Submission is a really stellar little game and the main mechanic for it's gameplay is one of the best things I have seen in a while from an indie game.

In Remember Me there was a system which allowed you to create your own combos by collecting upgrades, you choose the number of slots (combo length) and which buttons to use. It was something I hadn't seen before. I don't know if more games implemented this because i haven't played as many as i did before, but that ludeme would be a selling point for me.

I'd like to see that utilized a bit more as well - I didn't realise it already existed in God Hand though, thanks TheOro44.

Also from the same game, the memory mechanics - they were underutilized in the game itself, but rewriting someone's memory to change how they perceived a situation that was a defining moment in their life. I loved that mechanic, but it was only used a couple of times in the game.

Originally Posted by: DesperadoChilly

Lose the remaining bullets in the clip after reloading. I've only seen this feature in Killing Floor, and while I understand why it's not commonplace (takes away from the power fantasy a bit), it fits pretty well for a survival game.

This one too. It might finally cure me of my overactive reload button finger.

The loosing bullets when reloading a clip feature is also in the horror game Cry of Fear for those wondering.