Last of Us 2's pupils dilate... Why?!
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00:00 In the past, we here at WhatCulture have covered a lot of video games with details that, for
00:05 lack of better words, are downright pointless. They say that the devil is in the detail,
00:10 and when considering the dark, depressing, and downright gross content that we're about to cover
00:13 today, you have to imagine Satan himself is rubbing his little paws together at the thought
00:17 of what's to come. So let's not keep the big red waiting as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com,
00:22 and these are 8 Video Game Details That Went Too Far.
00:26 8. Horse Testicles React to Weather
00:28 Red Dead Redemption 2
00:30 You knew this was going to be on this list, so let's just get these big swollen meat balloons
00:34 out of the way early doors. Yes, for some reason or another, the devs working on Red Dead Redemption
00:38 2 thought that it would be pertinent to include horse testicles that grow and shrink depending
00:43 on the weather. I know that the player spends a lot of time on horseback throughout the experience,
00:47 but I doubt that any, bar a select few, were spending those journeys gazing at their steeds
00:52 bollocks. And to be honest, unless you're a vet or an actual ranch owner, then I really don't want
00:56 to hear for your reasons why you were staring either. What was quite comical about this whole
01:00 affair, however, was that some real-world horse owners pointed out that this detail was actually
01:05 incorrect, seeing as the real-world equestrian equivalent doesn't 'bounce' as much,
01:10 meaning that Rockstar was perhaps a little too enamoured with those meat marbles.
01:14 7. Ice Cubes That Melt in Real Time
01:17 Metal Gear Solid 2
01:19 Of all of the Hideo Kojima moments that exist within the Metal Gear franchise,
01:23 this is the one that keeps me up at night. Why? Why did the man get somebody to program
01:28 ice cubes that melt in real time? To try and fathom the reasoning behind this would likely
01:34 send me to a padded cell, but one can't argue that it's an impressive, almost fanatical moment
01:39 of dedication. The fact that the player can shoot these individual ice cubes out of a bucket in the
01:44 first place is pretty incredible, especially considering the still very apparent limitations
01:48 of the PS2, but to then find out that they melt slowly over the course of several hours is just
01:54 uncomfortable. This is what makes it a detail that goes too far. Nobody asked for it, nobody noticed
02:00 it for years, it does nothing to enhance the plot, and all you do is walk away from this situation
02:04 with a deep concern for the auteur director's state of mind.
02:08 6. Pupils That Die Late
02:11 The Last of Us Part 2
02:12 Now here's a detail that, while being utterly impressive from a technical standpoint,
02:16 is one that arguably wasn't just pointless, but was something that directly contributed to a rather
02:21 nasty aspect of the gaming industry at large. I'm speaking of course about crunch culture,
02:26 now that's not another YouTube channel we're thinking of starting, but actually the often
02:29 enforced work ethic that sees developers and designers of video games work way past contracted
02:34 hours under the passive-aggressive threat of repercussions should they want to do things like,
02:39 I don't know, have a life outside of work. The Last of Us 2, and Naughty Dog as a whole,
02:43 were hit with reams of allegations about the excessive and unfair working conditions of its
02:48 employees. However, Neil Druckmann responded to the situation by stating that the Last of Us team
02:53 enjoyed crunch culture as they were "perfectionists". Now, while it's all well and good to
02:58 give your heart and soul to a project if you truly believe in it, considering the much less-infused
03:03 workforces of other companies that are forced to go through crunch culture, it seems like a little
03:08 too far to almost begin championing it. The dilation of the eyes is truly impressive,
03:13 but one has to ask the question, is crunch culture as a whole worth detail like this?
03:18 5. The 10-Hour Tutorial - Final Fantasy XIII
03:22 Sometimes it's not the individual detail that goes too far, but the sheer amount of them that
03:28 really yanks at your nostril hair, and such a plucker was how Final Fantasy XIII decided to
03:33 dole out its player tutorials. Now, as it stands, Final Fantasy XIII and its weird offshoots are
03:38 considered to be the Sonic '06 moment for Square Enix, where they doubled down on characters that
03:44 few enjoyed, told a story that even less understood or cared for, and took a hand-holding approach to
03:49 its gameplay that left bruises thanks to its vice-like grip. It's a game that defenders will
03:53 say "gets good" after about 10 hours, which is a statement that carries as much water as a bloody
03:58 sieve, but does inform you that Final Fantasy XIII has some huge gameplay flow issues.
04:03 The biggest assassin of your fun comes in the form of a protracted 10-hour tutorial that will
04:09 feed you meagre information pieces about the battle system and the world around you. It's
04:13 these details that should have been present from the start, as seeing as the level design for these
04:18 opening hours is basically corridor paradise, would have allowed the player some flexibility
04:24 on how these battles play out or how to build a party. We wanted the details, in this case,
04:29 up front, damn it. 4. Every. Single. Special. Move.
04:34 The Mortal Kombat franchise. I mean, how could you not include talking about the worrying amount
04:39 of detail that the Mortal Kombat devs put into their brutal special moves? From the moment you
04:44 witness your first bone breaking in two or your first eyeball being gouged, you might find your
04:48 phone rising from your pocket to dial your parents and ask if they still kept that security blanket
04:53 you had when you were a kid, and yet, somehow, it just keeps getting worse. Intestines are pulled
04:58 from opponents through their mouths, bodies are contorted and twisted, forcing bones to break
05:03 through the skin, and muscles are ripped and blasted apart with rather shocking detail.
05:08 It's not rainbow rhythms, is what I'm getting at. While it would be wrong of me to chastise
05:13 the franchise for the success of violence and gore, because, spoiler alert, I love the MK
05:17 franchise, things are approaching a worryingly fanatical approach to detail that it makes my
05:22 stomach churn. Because what else are the devs going to subject us to down the line? At what
05:26 point will the line be so crossed that we lose sight of it? Only the person programming Scorpion
05:32 sucking the bone marrow out of his victims truly knows the answer.
05:35 3. You Never Actually Get The Crown - Fall Guys
05:39 So, as we all know, Fall Guys is a game for absolute sadists that is dressed up in a manner
05:44 that makes it look like a 90s Saturday morning cartoon. It's a game that will make you coo with
05:49 awe before then crying out "awww, f*ck this bullsh*t" as it swings wildly between being
05:54 so cute that butter wouldn't melt to roasting your very soul as your friends betray you at the
05:58 final hurdle. Compounding all of this frustration, however, is a small detail that admittedly breaks
06:04 my heart every single time I see it, and that's that even when winning the elusive crown by
06:08 persevering through drunken bean hell, your little fella over here never, ever gets to
06:14 have the crown, either losing it or failing to grasp it before it floats away again.
06:18 It's a scenario that seems like the cruelest moment in the cruelest of games,
06:22 a shattering of glass that reveals that you're locked inside a gameplay loop of chasing a crown
06:27 that you'll never actually win. Woof.
06:29 2. Some of the Enemies Are Forced Conscripts - Call of Duty World at War
06:35 Now, the Call of Duty games are well known for their rather bombastic approach to warfare,
06:39 often resembling a Michael Bay venture with the excess of explosions and patriotism that oozes
06:43 out of every orifice. However, there are key moments when COD decides to get shockingly real,
06:48 and for some, it's a little too much like the real thing for comfort. Take, for example,
06:53 the shocking revelation that in Call of Duty World at War's sixth mission, Burn 'Em All,
06:57 you're not just fighting against the Imperial Japanese Army, but also conscripts that were
07:02 forced to serve the Japanese Army after being captured. This rather grim detail was found by
07:07 fans who analysed the speech of some of the soldiers that you're roasting alive, as it was
07:11 revealed that not all of them were speaking Japanese. Some, it turns out, were speaking
07:16 Indonesian, and thus leading many to believe that these soldiers are forced conscripts who
07:20 really don't want to be fighting either way. We've witnessed nuclear devastation and multiple
07:25 player deaths in the first person in these games, but somehow, this is the moment that feels like
07:30 things were most real, and most painfully traumatic. 1. Burning a Man Alive to Open a Door - God of War
07:37 When you're a seething mass of muscles and might, and might as well have 'I love revenge' tattooed
07:43 on your head, you'd likely expect a lot of people to out and out just try everything in their power
07:47 to never have your shadow darken their doorstep. This is likely why very few people have Kratos
07:52 on their Christmas cards list, as this God of War will truly stop at nothing to get vengeance,
07:57 meaning that he's murdered more than his fair share of innocents along the way. Take, for example,
08:01 the absolutely shocking scenario within the Temple of Pandora, where Kratos finds that the way is
08:06 blocked. Now, the devs at this point could have easily just had the God of War find a key or
08:10 bust down the door using his brute strength, but for some reason, they decided that this
08:14 particular door could only be opened with a human sacrifice. So Kratos drops back from the gate and
08:20 lowers down a soldier who's trapped in a cage, who, at first, is relieved that he's being saved
08:24 from a rather terrible fate. Except the fate that's actually in store for him is much worse,
08:29 something the soldier realises as he's dragged at an agonisingly slow pace up to the entrance.
08:34 He pleads with Kratos, asking what he's doing, that they could just return to Athens together,
08:38 but it appears he's just yelling into the void, as Kratos then burns the man alive in order to
08:44 proceed. It's a detail that's dragged out, feels unnecessarily cruel, and doesn't even further our
08:49 relationship with Kratos as a character, making the whole affair feel like excess for excess's sake.
08:55 And there we go, my friends, those were eight video game details that went too far. I hope
08:59 that you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in the comments
09:01 section below. As always, I've been Jules, and you can go follow me over on Twitter @RetroJ,
09:05 but the O is a zero, or you can swing by Liv and Let's Dice, where I do all of my streaming outside
09:10 of work, and it'd be great to see you over there. But before I go, I just want to say one thing.
09:14 Consider this to be a detail that I don't think gets pushed far enough, and that is that you,
09:19 my friend, listening to this video should be kind to yourself, both physically and mentally,
09:24 because you deserve all of the best things in life, alright? I know I say this a lot,
09:27 but I truly believe it. You are a massive ledge, and I just want the best for you. So please go
09:32 out there with love in your hearts, try to build bridges instead of burning them, and remember,
09:36 above all else, that you deserve all the good things, alright? As always, I've been Jules,
09:40 you have been awesome, never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.