15 Hidden Video Game Design Secrets That Are Total Genius

2. Dark Souls 3 Bosses Attack In Time With The Music

Rather like the earlier Halo example designing its world around all manner of dynamic encounters and then composing music on the fly, Dark Souls' various battles have the music set in place, but then see their bosses attack, hang back, circle you or go in for the kill right when everything feels the most intense.

Possibly down to why the Souls series is so beloved, and its boss battles are so popular and iconic, this technique means that when something like the Asylum Demon or Iron Golem swing their hulking weapons, the resulting cacophony of noise is not only meant to represent the gnashing of steel, but comes backed by a rise in strings and instrumentation.

It may not literally be 'on the beat', but the result is genuinely phenomenal, and as FromSoftware started designing more spectacle-filled fights - like Dark Souls 3's Dragonslayer Armour or The Nameless King - they were able to ratchet up the purely epic nature of these encounters like nothing else.