From Dark Souls lava to damned Zelda NPCs, the Internet’s “useless video game knowledge” is really cool
A new water cooler discussion exploded on Twitter this week, with a post from Super Pod Saga pays everyone (Opens in a new tab) And their dog to share “the useless knowledge of video games” and she too Really cool Video game knowledge.
The turnout has been massive — over 17,000 quoted tweets alone at the time of writing — and has yielded some incredibly niche trivia fodder, so if you’re planning on taking the plunge, you’d better prepare for the rabbit hole altogether. I picked a decent part of that iceberg in search of the wildest factoids I could reasonably check, and returned to share my findings.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild NPCs are based on Miis
The way the human NPCs are coded in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild actually stems from Miis, which means you can modify the game to import mostly accurate Mii NPCs in BotW’s art style https://t.co/7rbhoNxe1A pic.twitter.com/s1LGSaIUDFJanuary 26, 2023
This is a little older, but it still occupies my mind. Because some character models use a similar system, He found the modern (Opens in a new tab) You can even inject actual Miis into Breath of the Wild.
Mark Hamill was from Star Wars at the Yakuza Games
Mark Hamill voiced Majima in the original Yakuza on PS2 and doesn’t even remember doing it https://t.co/jgpYhyiNaF pic.twitter.com/HMFxMlhlRRJanuary 25, 2023
Remember that time Mark Hamill voiced Goro Majima in the 2006 movie Yakuza? Nor is he.
Splatoon has statues that will laugh at you
In Splatoon 1, if you play Museo D’Alfonsino during Splatfest (at night), the gnomes will laugh at you. https://t.co/Ynd1uPOMqm pic.twitter.com/TfWQViYKj5January 24, 2023
This sounded like some creepy noodle nonsense, but nope, several videos confirm that these gnomes do exist, and are actually possessed by the spirits of laughing squid babies.
Sonic & All-Star Racing Transformed announcer can’t be silenced
In Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, if you lower the volume under Options, you’ll hear the announcer begging you to stop. https://t.co/Ncr0XP7enK pic.twitter.com/XgBf7ZZ6tjJanuary 23, 2023
You gotta love the sound menu with interactive audio, especially when the reaction shrinks, the increasingly desperate screams from a startlingly optimistic announcer.
Save The Final Fantasy 9 Moogle can’t be spam
In Final Fantasy 9 if you spam summon moogle saves in the overworld they threaten your life and go completely insane https://t.co/pA2y30T9G9 pic.twitter.com/3aqqNWH8fmJanuary 24, 2023
This is another great example of how menus and their associated characters can respond to player actions. Is it reasonable to threaten someone with a knife just because they have sent you too many direct messages? Maybe.
You can prevent lava damage in Dark Souls 3, but only if you’re facing the right way
Kinda useless but kinda useful, in Dark Souls III you can block lava but only when you’re facing in the right direction https://t.co/jwV5Q6P2ke pic.twitter.com/k3zxBvSO5SJanuary 23, 2023
This is exactly the kind of deception I’ve come to expect from Dark Souls’ environmental hazards. Anecdotally, I’m sure Dark Souls 3 isn’t the only Souls game to have directional damage in lava, but it might be the most famous.
Creatures in Kingdom Hearts 2 can technically win battles
In KH2, there’s a large cargo net in Port Royal that’s technically coded as a member of the party, which means if you cause the last hit in a wanted story battle, the camera zooms in dramatically on the wooden post. https://t.co/CK91llQBEe pic.twitter.com/Sl4qtRiEQ6January 24, 2023
This is one of my favorite posts because it highlights how much weird things happen under the hood of every game, and how that weirdness really doesn’t matter unless you find yourself in incredibly strange circumstances. You know, like using a chest or some other support asset to deal the final blow to a fight and give that chest an Overwatch-style game. Hey, as long as it works.
You accidentally kidnap a little man in the cave story
In Cave Story, there is a side mission to pick up a little guy and bring him to his home. If you get the best ending with him still in your inventory, this will appear right before the credits roll https://t.co/RrHfxDYNrd pic.twitter.com/RVY0tdIqoAJanuary 25, 2023
This got me wandering around some wikis. Cave Story obviously has a little guy named Littles that you can put in your inventory for a side delivery mission, and if you finish the game before letting him out, you’ll receive a special prompt in the credits asking if you forgot something.
Derkeethus is the most flying groom in Skyrim
In skyrim, if you play as a man and marry a gay Derkeethus, the moment your wedding ends, he’ll inexplicably walk out the church door and start wandering skyrim, on his own, forever. Your only means of annulment is to accidentally bring him into the wilderness https://t.co/DW7sqzbnD1 pic.twitter.com/L5aTeweF5WJanuary 26, 2023
Of all the Skyrim NPCs you could possibly marry, only Derkeethus the Argonian would immediately journey through the wilderness toward Darkwater Crossing as soon as the ceremony was over, and also every day after that. This bug, which appears to be triggered by Derkeethus also joining Blades, is so well known it even has a dedicated fix NexusMods (Opens in a new tab).
The choreography of Elena from Street Fighter matches a David Lee Roth music video
Elena’s win from SFIII: 3rd Strike is depicted from this music video. https://t.co/dYdqj4EGBO pic.twitter.com/7iDEcOZenZJanuary 26, 2023
We’re getting into some weird stuff now. Elena’s victory in Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike was filmed live by one of the women in the game music video (Opens in a new tab) For “Just A Gigolo” by David Lee Roth. That’s for sure a sentence you just wrote.
There is a random glowing trophy floating on the screen in Portal 2
In the final Chapter 6 map in Portal 2, there is a glowing wood-decorated cup floating away from the border. I found it as a kid but never saw anyone mention it https://t.co/pi2hzRI42w pic.twitter.com/6HrHcxdDu2January 23, 2023
I’d like to give this post the honor of being the most knowledgeable useless video game I’ve found so far. How do you find out? Why is this cup here? Why does it glow? Does the game explode if it is deleted? do not know f Nor the people who looked at it (Opens in a new tab)but I’m glad thousands of people are familiar with this cup now.
I’m going to expire before I get to all the interesting conversation this tweet has sparked, so to round things up I got some of my co-workers to contribute their useless gaming info because it just wasn’t right to take it off that iceberg without adding to it so here it goes.
US Managing Editor Rollin Bishop told me that Thedas, the Dragon Age setting, is, in fact, representative Drpregnancy aGeneral Electric ssetting. huh.
My fellow news writer Dustin Bailey told me Street Fighter’s Guile’s signature haircut is based directly (Opens in a new tab) On a Nazi cyborg Rudol von Stroheim (Opens in a new tab) From Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.
For my contribution, did you know that a 3D model believed to be Shockwave from Transformers once was Found in the game files for Genshin Impact (Opens in a new tab)?
Here are some of gaming’s weirdest questions: Final Fantasy 14 developers determined This anime reference was just too much.