Secret Discoveries in Games

[Moonface]

I saw a couple of cool things just now I wanted to share but saw we didn't really have a thread dedicated to what they fall under and I didn't really wanna put it in General Game Chat because I think this sort of stuff is too neat to not talk about in a dedicated thread.

The first thing I saw was that a new cheat code has been discovered in DKC2, 29 years after the game was released. This newly discovered code allows you to leave any level from the pause menu and return to the map screen, regardless of whether you've completed the current level or not.

While reading that article, I saw it mention a few other new cheat discoveries in really old games, and the one that caught my eye was a cheat code in Alien: Resurrection for PS1 that actually lets you play pirated games on your console?!

So what secrets and/or hidden things have you seen for games that you find crazy or just interesting to learn about?

[Maniakkid25]

I think my favorite secret in a game is from Remnant 2, because it was intended to be found the way it was. In Remnant 2, there is the Archon Archetype (class, basically), and to unlock it in game, you have to a really convoluted series of tasks that you are NOT going to figure out on your own. However, it was found out about because dataminers immediately broke open the game when they got it, and found the code mentioning it. The Developers INTENDED for this to happen; it was supposed to be a secret that was found by cracking open the game's code, and spread around the internet. I always find it wild when developers know something is going to happen, and rather than try to stop it, they just lean into it. It's so much more interesting than throwing a hissy fit and trying to stop it.

[Moonface]

@Maniakkid25: I feel like I've heard of other cases where a developer purposely put something somewhere for specific people to find it and then share it with the larger community, but I'm drawing a blank on examples.

I did find this comment about another secret that's from Remnant 1 which I thought was cool when trying to see if Google could jog my memory on anything relative to my above sentence.

In the first Remnant game, near the beginning, there's a wall that has "only the penitent man may pass" written on it. My friend and I had just started the game and were on voice chat. I did my besht Sean Connery and said, "the penitent man kneels before God", crouched and walked forward through the wall. I didn't expect it to work and we both went nuts. There's a secret on the other side.