Sometimes, when talking about the games we enjoy, it is easy to overlook the little things. You know, those small touches go that extra meter to help deliver narrative beats or to even just add a dash more flavor to the game’s setting or playability.
In the case of Firegirl: Hack ‘n Splash Rescue, a game full of nice little touches and extra steps, the detail that stands out the most to me is the way that a character’s avatar in speech windows react in real time to the character model outside of the speech window.
What do I mean exactly? Well, I can illustrate it for you with two simple screenshots. In the scene depicted above, the Mayor is having a conversation with another character. Both are represented as actual character models in the scene. Both are then also represented by avatars of themselves in their respective speech windows.
Now, look closely and you’ll notice the mayor is wearing a hat, and so is his avatar. And when he removes said hat, the avatar version also removes the hat.
And when the character model in the scene puts his hat back on, the avatar follows suit yet again.
It’s a small little touch, but it shows an eye for detail that quite possibly would be overlooked by most people playing the game. But that change was still coded into the game, which, quite honestly, kind of blew my mind. It would’ve been easy enough to ignore this little detail and just leave the hat on, because who cares? But someone did care, and as a result, I care. Hopefully whomever was responsible gets a nice pat on the back for a job decidedly well done.
This detail won’t make or break Firegirl: Hack ‘n Splash Rescue in the grander scheme of things. It probably won’t tip the scales in either direction as to whether you find it enjoyable overall (in my opinion, it certainly is and then some). But sometimes you just have to stop and enjoy the little things, because it’s often the smallest details that loom the largest.
