Unique or Essential Game Mechanics

While watching a review of \Beast of Reincarnation\ I was struck by the line "anothe game with dodge/parry mechanics because they're too lazy to think of new ones."

I enjoy parrying and dodging in hack and slash games, sometimes to the point that it makes those games souls-esque. I played a game without them recently, and it felt empty/missing. I remember a similar feeling playing old shooters where you couldn't take cover.

It got me thinking: are there any mechanics that are so standard now that you feel like you couldnt go without them?

Alternatively, are there any mechanics you remember from one game that never became mainstream in the genre?

For the latter, I really enjoyed \ME Andromeda\'s "profile" system. Instead of picking a class and leveling in it, you could freely switch between "profiles" at any time (including mid-fight) and completely swap your class. I loved the freedom that gave to mix playstyles and keep combat interesting all playthrough. Shame about the rest of the game, though.

Saving and loading.

Having grown up at a time to be able to remember the advent of password-enabled loading, this hits hard.

Pausing during the cutscenes. I mean just let me go pee if you are showing me a 5 min. mini movie.

We couldn’t afford memory cards when I was a kid so I feel you 10000% lmao

Super real. Similarly, skipping cutscenes, especially if its like a boss intro and i keep dying

Core memory unlocked
I definitely remember reading the password to unlock certain levels in a game guide and feeling like a hacker when I used it to skip ahead

I hadn't even considered this an answer because its become such a normalized part of gaming.

For shooter fans, probably the ’damage circle’ that appears when you get hit. Likely as ubiquitous to the genre as what damage numbers are to the RPGs.

Almost all Jrpgs used to have constant unavoidable random encounters throughout the whole games for years. FF VIII hand enc half and enc non abilities and was heavily criticized for it. So it was cut from FFIX.

Nowadays it's fairly normal not to be forced to fight every 50s for hours and hours. You can most of the time "physically" see the enemies and choose to fight or run.

I won't lie. Never really liked it and I am glad it's pretty much gone form the genre.

It sure us fascinating to look back at how the various mechanics we now take for granted has evolved, huh? By all accounts it was the ps2/gamecube/xbox generation when saving and loading your games more or less firmly became the standard with nary a password in sight.

Skill based avoid damage mechanics are pretty important in a melee focused game IMO; without them. It feels like a damage race of stats rather than the players skill mattering. Or devolving to other abilities the player has being hyper important and the only skill expression is using them properly

It doenst specifically have to be to be a "dodge" or "stun enemy for attacking you" though. It can be blocks. Deflects or otherwise negating or mitigating damage taken

Sekiro is a good example of a mechanic like that

For some mechanics i wish are more:

Diddy kong racings determistic item boxes. Instead of boxes with random items. They were ballons with colors and each color always gave a certain item. Like blue ballons giving you a boost

Also their super boost mechanic. If you are not pressing accelerate when you get a boost. It's about twice as strong but it ends the moment you press accelerate. Press it too early and you lose out on milliseconds of having like 220% speed but too late and you lose most of your speed

Luigi's mansion's frantic ghost movement from the 1st game. It was amazing for a wide skill floor and ceiling from Nintendo

Customizable difficulty rather than 4 or 5 levels of "how fair is the game" with the differences being something like: kiddy pool, 5 foot pool, flood and drowning machine

Applying graphic settings without needing a restart.

Bonus of it shows vram usage and the difference in settings.