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The Games That Drove Me Insane | Semi-Ramblomatic (Patreon)

Published:
2025-03-20 15:04:29
Imported:
2026-06

Content

On this week's episode of Semi-Ramblomatic, Yahtzee loses his mind over sanity effects in games.

Files

The Games That Drove Me Insane | Semi-Ramblomatic

This video brought to you by Battlecruiser Games and their upcoming game Guards II: Chaos In Hell, a tactical turn-based strategy game with seemingly simple rules but deep and thoughtful mechanics – https://store.steampowered.com/app/2958570/Guards_II_Chaos_in_Hell/ This week on Semi-Ramblomatic, Yahtzee goes crazy over sanity meters in games. Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SecondWindGroup Second Wind Merch: https://store.dftba.com/collections/second-wind https://sharkrobot.com/collections/second-wind

Comments

William Alexander

Fun essay. I quite enjoyed the Consuming Shadow. Worth checking out if it seems up your alley.

Zomboni

Idea: swapping the control mapping. Similar to Yahtzee's idea of it randomly changing the function of a button for a short burst. Displaying the wrong inventory items? Instead of using a healing item, it destroys an ammo clip, or vice versa? Cram a sandwich into your magazine slot. Light a flare instead of hiding.

Davsau

In a Baldur’s Gate style rpg you could do something like swapping out lines of dialogue or cutscenes, thus screwing with your decisions at critical moments. Then maybe have some subtle clues, like a character’s outfit is slightly different, or their accent changed, to tip you off that something isn’t right. So you have to think before you go ahead and attack them because you can no longer trust whether they are a bag guy threatening your life or just some random innocent.

Jason Youngberg

Idea: Low sanity means you see things that aren't there, but you also see things that are hidden to reflect paranoia. Is there something behind that painting? Could be a trap. Could be loot. Could be nothing. But the only way to even know about it is to have a low sanity. Remember the phrase, "It's so crazy it just might work." so perhaps having low sanity reveals a weak point in the boss's armor. Or it may do nothing. Or it may work against you.

Allan Mills

It wasn't tied to a stat or gauge, but I seem to recall Dead Space 3 had a feature for 2 player mode where one person might see monsters that the other player could not. So your partner might be shooting madly at their hallucinations while you were just seeing empty space.

FancyShark

Of all the little tricks Eternal Darkness played on the player (pretending your save file was deleted/corrupted, the sudden game over that was just a screen blocking your view, etc), my favorite was telling the player the sanity meter was full when it wasn't. So I think having sanity affect item usage and efficacy would be a neat little mechanic. Like you have an assortment of items that normally heal you, like a home surgery kit or something; but as your grip on reality starts to fade, the odds of harming yourself when using the kit increases. But also because you're less confined by conventional thought, you could also stumble upon some medical breakthrough shown by a percentage chance of healing yourself dramatically more than the item is capable of if you were using it as instructed.