Some random favorites of mine:
- Player special move that also damages you, so you can perfect dodge the damage to activate perfect-dodge-based abilities
- Instant-kill attacks that work on bosses
- Enemies having multiple health bars that break in a dramatic/satisfying way when you deplete them
- Parries built into actions that should not in any normal universe be able to parry enemy attacks, like firing a sniper rifle
- Using musical instruments like violins or flutes as a weapon. Bonus points if you can twirl the flute
- When an attack hits multiple enemies, hitpause duration is multiplied by the number of targets
- Guns are Physical weapons, and therefore their damage is governed by the user's Strength
- Dialogue system as alternative to combat, e.g. "what if you were so insanely good at debate club that you convinced your opponent to kill himself"
- Gimmick bosses that are damaged by healing spells/items
- The physically-smallest anime girl on the team is also by far the most powerful attacker1
- More "writing" than "design" but: People constantly explaining incredibly fundamental facts of reality to the protagonist, for the player's benefit. Like imagine you're like 18 and your friend Exposition Dumps on you to explain what Cars are, how Cars require Gasoline, and how Gasoline has been the source of past military conflicts2
- Whatever the hell this is, from Code Vein:
god code vein rules
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Bonus points when the designers seemingly didn't intend this. Shoutouts to Valkyria Chronicles' slow transition from "interesting, tense tactics game" to "cute swiss bakery girl singlehandedly accounts for 90% of german losses in World War I, by jogging across battlefields at transonic velocities and shooting each individual soldier in the face from three inches away, with a sniper rifle for some reason"
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Still very proud of this joke about that one
The physically-smallest anime girl on the team is also by far the most powerful attacker
Using musical instruments like violins or flutes as a weapon. Bonus points if you can twirl the flute
Assault Trumpet.