History Main / FlavorText

* The ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'' series ''thrives'' in providing ''everything'' with elaborate descriptions and esoterically backstories, from commonly encountered healing items to bizarre weapons the characters wield and grotesque monsters that may fight. One of the most infamous ones is the description of the Venomous Spider encountered as one of the earlier enemies in the first game, which says that [[{{Squick}} "It injects a powerful, corrosive poison into the anus of its prey, and devours the meat once it has softened."]]
* The VendorTrash in ''VideoGame/PanzerDragoonSaga'' has surprisingly detailed descriptions which have no real effect on game play. Except the [[GuideDangIt Telepathy Scope]].
* ''VideoGame/LiEat'': For all the weapons and equipment. Some examples from the first game:
** Weapons:
*** Knife:
----> A little knife.
*** Small Cookie:
----> A flavor you've never tasted.
*** Serrated Knife:
----> It's all jagged.
*** Liar:
----> Lies with every breath.
*** Small Macaron:
----> Delicious!
** Equipment:
*** Long Red Boat:
----> Warm.
*** Diamond Ornaments:
----> Hard.
*** Blue Dress:
----> Fairly light.
*** Blue Earmuffs:
----> They have a big ribbon attached.
* ''VideoGame/CubeColossus'': The Armaments' Descriptions, although, most are basically just functional information, there's some like:
** DZ-X: "Deciever":
---> Cube's Technology\\
Produces no heat.
** MSM-X: "Fafnir":
---> Strongest of all missiles
* ''VideoGame/PrayerOfTheFaithless'': For some items, like:
** [[https://rpgmaker.net/games/7969/images/67441/ Knight Sword]]: The standard blade for Asalan Knights. Plain, but deadly.
** [[https://rpgmaker.net/games/7969/images/60017/ Iron Scabbard]]: Scabbard reinforced with iron.
** [[https://rpgmaker.net/games/7969/images/70784/ Thanatos]]: A Soulfire axe that feeds off the malice from within its wielder.
* ''VideoGame/ScienceGirls'': For items and some skills, depending on if it's inside or outside battle:
** Items:
*** A Mandarin's is:
----> A small, tart orange.
*** Doughnut:
----> Sugary, deep-fried yumminess.
*** Incomplete Slingshot:
----> Heavy, stretchy bands and plans for a slingshot. Heather wants them.
** Skills:
*** The DefendCommand, in battle:
----> Hide behind your hands. Monsters will do less damage to you, and you will regenerate 2 extra SP.
*** Lightning, outside of battle:
----> A powerful electrostatic discharge fries one enemy.
*** Nerve Pinch, in battle:
----> Pinch a sensitive place to damage one enemy and possibly paralyze it for a round.
*** Affirmation, in battle:
----> Increase self-esteem to boost attack power and defense.
* ''VideoGame/CardCityNights'': For most of the cards in the first game and all of the cards of the second. Such as:
** First game:
*** Discussed by Green Crystal when she says:
----> I like cards with flavor text better than those without.
*** Fish and Frog: Together [[TheyFightCrime they barely fight crime]] at all.
*** Mark: "YEEEAH!"
*** Old Man: Actually just strawmen with record players inside.
*** Bird (Beta) has ones that switch on each look. And the ones seen in the card selection menus at degraded quality also don't match the ones seen when looked at full size. The texts are:
----> This card was rejected for faulty flavor.\\
Dude check out that amazing bird!\\
Everyone needs a bird.\\
----> "{{Flip|pingTheBird}}" this card? We can't write that!
----> "See the world", they said. "Get a bird", they said.
----> Demand for birds far exceeds the supply.
----> "Hands off! I found it first!"
----> Gotta have a bird.
----> It's bird-picking season.
----> They were jealous. They wanted one of their own.
*** Jenny Bird: She knows you are jealous of her bird.
*** Pancake: Also references its ExtremeOmnivore nature:
----> Eats anything. Kinda gross, really.
*** Plasma {{Hydra|Problem}}: Where one is cut off, two more emerge.
*** Princess Pitch DX: PunctuatedForEmphasis:
----> "Galactic! Princess! Buster!!!"
** Second game:
*** Jelly: With AddedAlliterativeAppeal:
----> Decidedly deadly. Deceptively delicious.
*** Key X's: Referencing InterchangeableAntimatterKeys:
----> Modern science has yet to invent a key that doesn't break in the lock.
*** Bunboy: Referencing NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight
----> Don't bring a sword to a gunfight. Bring a laser-sighted revolver with {{homing}Projectile}} exploding beach ball-sized bullets.
* ''VideoGame/CuteKnight'' series: Both games use it:
** For both games, Party Dress's is:
---> For dressing up and looking nice; not for fighting.
** Ones unique to the first game, ''VideoGame/CuteKnight1'', are:
*** Fallen Star:
----> Metal from a meteorite.
*** Night Stone:
----> A shiny black stone with an oily surface.
*** Egg:
----> A dried-up old egg.
** Ones unique to the second game, ''VideoGame/CuteKnightKingdom'', are:
*** Cake:
----> Sweet, sugary cake.
*** Eggs:
----> Eggs, fresh from the hen.

* An ''[[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick Order of the Stick]]'' strip in ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' featured a character who claimed that ''ignoring'' flavor text was the key to true peace. He didn't do ''anything'' that wasn't required by the rules; so since dirt didn't have any mechanical effect he didn't bathe, since there were no rules specifying that characters got sleepy, he only slept when hit by a [[StandardStatusEffects magical effect]] (if he'd been a magic user, he'd also have done so when he wanted to recharge his spells), and he ate a revolting gruel once every two weeks, because the rules said that if he didn't he'd starve but didn't specify any other effects of not eating.
* ''LightNovel/LogHorizon'' introduced an interesting spin to this trope. Originally, flavor text in ''Elder Tales'' items were strictly decorative with no effects on normal gameplay but when [[TheGameComeToLife the game became reality]]:

** All items gradually took on attributes as described by their flavor text which [[spoiler:created havoc in Akihabara in volume 6 after a {{City Guard|s}} came into possession of a cursed sword that was a rare drop from a raid boss. The sword's curse as mentioned in its flavor text became real, possessing the City Guard and causing him to begin a killing spree in Akihabara which could not be stopped by conventional means.]]

--> It had taken Uncle most of an afternoon and evening to fill out the necessary information in a way that was clear, and he'd tried to make it funny as well, with descriptions like "Makes a magic snowball that you can stuff in someone's ear, down their pants, whatever. Good for getting people to chill out." He'd hoped their giggles were for the jokes he'd actually intended.

--> [[SelfDemonstration This TV Tropes article]] is one of 42000+ articles availible to read, and is said to be somehow delicious to eat.

* ''VideoGame/TheWitchesTeaParty'': For some items, and presented from Charlotte's point of view. For example, for a tomato: "Sweet and sour. I hate it."
* ''VideoGame/GemsOfWar'': Every card has a snippet of text that appears when you click on them and then move to their picture in the Troops menu. For example: DRACOS 1337: Draconic Robot Assistant, Courtesy Of Sparkgrinder...
* ''VideoGame/AVeryLongRopeToTheTopOfTheSky'': There is some, for crafting materials and non-crafted equipment. Crafted equipment just has lists the stats boosts that they give. For example:
** Saecelium Circlet:
--> "Time slows around this, giving the wearer more time to think."
* Most of the dialogue options in ''VideoGame/{{Harvester}}'': do nothing to advance the plot, but rather to show how incredibly disturbed and utterly insane the people and the town are. The wrongpuarue by Retsupurae even states that the game is "ninety percent flavor."
* ''VideoGame/CognitiveDissonance'':
** A pair of CoolShades: "If looking awesome was a stat it would give +10."
** A CosmeticAward, the "Braggart's Coin": "For those who win battles they aren't supposed to."
* ''Videogame/FireEmblemHeroes:'' When on the home screen, various characters that the player has randomly unlocked will be standing around and can be interacted with, where they'll give a few lines about their past, their homeland, or their deep feelings about something. None of this is referenced anywhere else in-game, nor does it have an effect on gameplay; it's merely for fleshing out character personalities.
* ''VideoGame/EVEOnline'' A great deal of flavor text on items, organizations, even regions of space. Very little of it is of any consequence, but there's thousands of words worth of fluff to take in if you "Show [=InfO=]" on just about anything in the game.
* The game map of ''[[VideoGame/NexusWar Nexus Clash]]'' has hundreds of unique location descriptions that shed some light on just what happened to [[ShiningCity Laurentia]] in its final days. A few of them are clues to exploration bonuses, but most are just flavor.
* ''VideoGame/WarioMasterOfDisguise'' and ''VideoGame/WarioLandShakeIt'' have humorous flavour text for every piece of treasure you collect in the game. Such as " Grizzled Prospector Candy: These lovingly handmade candies contain large pieces of real gold. Give them to your beloved and watch the teeth fly." and "Ghost Potion: One sip and you'll turn into a ghost... Wait, isn't that just poison?"
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series' games include tons of additional information about the game world in the form of NPC dialogue, {{Fictional Document}}s, and full blown [[InGameNovel In-Game Novels]]. Much of it is simply background details about the history of the ConstructedWorld of Nirn, it's religions, cosmology, and peoples that have no impact on the game itself.
* ''VideoGame/BetrayalAtKrondor'': Nearly every action in the game is accompanied by a prosaic description of what's happening. Even mundane actions such as opening a chest[[note]]Locklear gritted his teeth. While they had agreed the box should be opened, he was privately concerned the previous user might have left behind an unpleasant surprise.[[/note]] or looting a body[[note]]Owyn looked for supplies. Feeling a bit like a vulture, he turned the body this way and that as he searched for anything that might be of use to them on their journey. All in all, he supposed that if he were the dead man, it wouldn't matter to him any longer what happened to his belongings.[[/note]] feel like they're straight out of a fantasy novel.
* Fiend Tales in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2 International'' provide world-building and extra backstory to events in Spira (since most Fiends in Spira are WasOnceAMan); some also serve to be RuleOfFunny. Most recruitable Fiends have these Fiend Tales, usually consisting of 2-4 small boxes of text, then by releasing the Fiend at max Fiend Tale level, there would be a short epilogue scene following that Fiend as he finishes his story.
* ''VideoGame/KhimeraDestroyAllMonsterGirls'': For every object of the ChainOfDeals, and every power. Some examples:
** Golem Hand's is also a ShoutOut to the video game, ''VideoGame/GodHand''.
---> "Summon up the power of the Golem Hand!"
*** ChainOfDeals items:
*** The Lollipop you get from Bernadette:
----> "Candy for kids. You're not a kid."
*** Autograph pad from the Video-Game-Playing-Kid:
----> "An Empty Autograph Pad. Get the Fairy Queen to sign it."
%% * It's common for ''VideoGame/{{Tales|Series}}'' games to use the equippable item's description to provide some lore while summarizing its direct effects in a neat chart.
* In ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'', you can click on a "?" icon on your HUD to get information on items in your inventory, including their in-game use and fluff.
* Every enemy in ''VideoGame/CthulhuSavesTheWorld'' and ''VideoGame/CosmicStarHeroine'' comes with a blurb visible when targetting them. Most of them is just wit, but some drop hints regarding your foes.
* In ''VideoGame/DawnOfTheDragons'' all Generals, Troops, gear, craft items, etc usually have them, in the form of serious backstories and/or BlackComedy.
** It's Sci-fi equivalent ''VideoGame/LegacyOfAThousandSuns'' has gear, officers, crew, CoolStarship[=s=] and engineering items that help give background lore and tell miniature stories.
* ''VideoGame/BraveHeroYuusha'': For equipment, but not consumables, such as:
** Leather Helm:
---> A sturdy helm made of leather. May cause chaffing.
** Mistral Helm:
---> Shrouds you in a mysterious aura. People think it's pretentious.

* ''VideoGame/GwentTheWitcherCardGame'': Found on every card in the game, even tokens spawn by other units.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'' series has in-universe descriptions for all of its units in the manual of the game.
* ''VideoGame/{{Kindergarten}}'' and [[VideoGame/Kindergarten2 its sequel]] have a CollectionSidequest where the player can collect [[FictionalCounterpart Monstermon cards]], all of which have their own description. For example, the flavour text for Doom Jelly:
-->This is the Doom Jelly card. Goes perfectly with doom peanut butter.
* The ''Franchise/MassEffect'' franchise:
** ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' lets you inspect your weapons and armours for the description of their manufacturer, shedding more light on an already detailed setting.
** Upgrades in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' have a short description of their direct in-game effect, followed by a TechnoBabble on how they work.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' consists of flavor text for the most part. Most games can be finished in under two hours, but feature far longer mandatory and optional dialogues on real-life politics, history, science, and culture. The gameplay-sections basically do serve the purpose of connecting all the pieces of flavor text.
* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
** For every Pokémon a player captures in the wild, their [[MonsterCompendium Pokédex]] adds one or two sentences of in-universe description for their species. Later games add such details as the creature's footprint (if applicable), a SoundTest ability to play the creature's vocal cry, a size/weight comparison to the player character, and a comparison of form or [[SecondarySexualCharacteristics gender differences]] between the species's different members (where applicable). The species's weight and height actually do have some gameplay consequences, but those are very few and far between.
** Additionally, each Pokemon's status screen includes some text documenting where it was caught, hatched, or otherwise acquired, and a two-word description of its personality (following the format of "[adjective] nature"). Since Generation IV, this screen also says when it was caught, and an additional one-sentence remark about the individual creature's personality. The lines about personality are actually related to the Pokemon's stats, [[GuideDangIt but you'd never know that without doing some research]], [[CompetitiveMultiplayer and you'd probably never care unless you were playing competitively]]; nearly every possible nature boosts one stat and lowers another, though there are a few neutral ones (such as "bashful") which don't affect stats, and the additional line about personality is actually a hint regarding hidden scores which help determine how high ''all'' of that particular Pokemon's stats are.
* Nearly every item in ''VideoGame/TheSims'' series of games, often with recurring gags:
** ''VideoGame/TheSims1'':
*** Birthday Cake:
---->Talk about an instant party!!! What better way to cheer up a Sim on their birthday than a Yumko Cake Corp. birthday cake? Patented aspartame technology yields cakes 500 times sweeter than other brands! Serves 12. Candles included. Contains: Refined Flour, Milk, Saturated Fat, Corn Starch, Aspartame, Methyl Cellulose, Lecithin, Butylated Hydroxytoluene, Phosphoric Acid, Citric Acid, Limonene, natural flavoring.
*** A Sim's Guide to Cooking from ''Makin' Magic'':
---->Why waste precious time and energy trying to follow that cryptic recipe scrawled by your great-great grandmother? The Busy Baker's Association has spent years collecting the best and most popular recipes to make your life that much easier. Printed in large, clear text on plastic coated pages, there's absolutely no better resource for your cooking needs.
** ''VideoGame/TheSims2'':
*** London's Famous Birthday Cake:
---->No birthday celebration would be complete without this festive and lovingly baked confection. Make sure to invite family and friends to the party before it's all gone!
*** The Limey/Buttery/Purpley [=CulinaryCounter=] (Age++) from ''Celebration! Stuff'':
---->Your birthday, as a child, is the one day you look forward to more than any other, but as you age it acts as a reminder of just how old you really are. If it's not your friends heckling and teasing, it's that cake with one more candle squeeeeeeezed onto that little surface each year. The way we figure, if a cake is going to make you feel bad for being a year older, at least it will taste fantastic!
** The Birthday Inferno Birthday Cake from ''Videogame/TheSims3'':
--->Usher in a new age with this white-hot pastry! Delicious, yet dangerous for the elderly and waistlines, the Birthday Inferno is a blazing flash of fun and excitement. (A Sim can throw a birthday party with this cake to transition to the next age category at any time.)
** The Tickle My Ivories Grand Piano from ''Videogame/TheSims4'':
--->Learn to play this ebony dream, and control the mood of entire crowds at the touch of its faux-ivory keys. Gain even more attention by hiring a babe to lie across the top, or just do it yourself.
* One particularly noteworthy example in ''VideoGame/StarCraftIIWingsOfLiberty'' is the Armory level of your CoolStarship. Precisely one object in the room (the console where you buy upgrades) actually ''does'' anything; the rest is an excuse to [[ShootTheMoney show off the high-res versions]] of your units and give blurbs about their background.
* In ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheSecondStory'', there's a huge number of items that are raw materials for crafting and items that can be crafted. Many of them contain flavor text not related to what the object does, such as describing the texture or taste of [[HyperactiveMetabolism food items]].
%%* The ''VideoGame/TotalWar'' series use Flavor Text on units to [[ShownTheirWork show their work]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Vindictus}}'' has flavor text for all items. Oddly, it often describes effects that ought to have an effect on the gameplay but don't, notably {{curse}}s.
* ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'': The in-game Battle Memory has flavor text descriptions of each enemy you've met.
* ''VideoGame/PaperMario'': Using the [[EnemyScan Tattle ability]] gets you the statistics of enemies, as well as some off-the-cuff remarks by the tattler (Goombario or Goombella).
* In ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' Tippi handles this role as well, coming off as a bit snarky after giving the description. After [[spoiler: she and Blumiere (A.K.A Count Bleck) possibly sacrifice themselves to create yet another set of Pure Hearts, you can get a replacement: Tiptron. She will make all the exact same tattles as Tippi on enemies, being a robotic counterpart. Sound a bit creepy? It's expressed in game that Tiptron is programmed to think like Tippi and even call herself that, but is smart enough to realize she isn't the real deal.]]
* All of the items in ''VideoGame/{{Recettear}}'' have humorous descriptions, in keeping with the {{Woolseyis|m}}ed script.
* In ''VideoGame/NetHack'' the "tell what a symbol represents" command will optionally give a quote from a real life source.
** Examining a coyote will display a randomly chosen ''WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadrunner'' [[CanisLatinicus fake species name]].
** Examining a headstone will display a [[GraveHumor randomly chosen epitaph]].
* Weapons in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' have this:
** Blazefire Saber:
--> A weapon new to the Sanctum army, this gunblade is only issued to highly trained soldiers.

----> Level 1: There was once a wind spirit who fell in love with a mortal man. Though it was against all the laws of her race, each day she allowed her love and passion to grow.\\

----> Level 1: Juices oozing from tender, succulent flesh, the sweet aroma of fine herbs... The master cook made dishes of meat that none in the city could resist.\\

----> Level 1: The young man was popular with everyone in the village. He had the ability to control the wind, and was often seen flying over rivers and valleys. He was a cheerful boy, though he always seemed be troubled by something.\\
Level 2: Several years later, his father passed away. Before he died, he told his son about the young man’s mother, whom his son had learned never to mention in his presence.
----> Level 3: “Go to the place marked on the map.” said his father. As if guided by a spirit, the young man took up his scythe and left, carried by the wind.
----> How long had he been travelling? Over the forests, oceans and mountain Ranges he flew. Exhausted and frail, He came at last to a village.
----> Level 4: The chief of the village welcomed the young man and told him that the scythe he was carrying had once belonged to the village. Just then, a beautiful woman entered the room. The young man knew at once that she was his mother. From that day forth, he helped keep peace between humans and wind spirits. The scythe was never used again.

----> Effective against Intoners. It levels up as your dragon grows.

----> An executioner's sword that passes merciless judgement on the sinful.
* Some of the ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' unlockable weapons and hats have flavor text in their description. Japanese-themed items have haikus. The Description Tag item also lets players write their own flavor text to apply to their weapons and headgear.
* The player character's library bookshelf in ''VideoGame/LegendOfMana'' includes not only their MonsterCompendium, but encyclopedias discussing gameworld locations, artifacts, weapon types and raw materials.
* The Bestiary of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' provides a lot of flavor text, along with a lot of backstory, for everything from the land of Ivalice to the Bazaar to the Espers.

* ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic 3'' has a small text describing the acquisition of a new artefact, ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagicV'' and 6 has description of every unit in the game.

** ''VideoGame/FableI'': The Lost Chapters:

---> The rarest and most valuable gem in Albion.

----> An inexpensive but lovely gem. It was said to be a favourite among Old Kingdom maidens, but the recent discovery of large deposits has lowered its value.

----> Avoid unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases with this fetching sheath made from only the very best animal intestines.

*** Gravel Chocolate
-----> Less likely to melt someone's heart than to disintegrate their teeth.
*** Mudbrick Chocolate
-----> Well, it's brown, but that doesn't necessarily make it chocolate. Still, at least its sweet. In an unusual and repugnant way.
*** Milk Chocolate
-----> Sometimes, nothing but chocolate will do, even if it's this inexpensive and slightly chalky variety.
*** Pure Chocolate
-----> Whoever you give this to is bound to love the delicate but rich chocolaty taste.
*** Superior Chocolate
-----> How could anyone resist such an exquisite confection? Smooth, luxurious and seductive.
*** Deepest Dark Chocolates
-----> The perfect gift for any occasion, these chocolates make it easy to woo anyone in Albion!

----> This is a common gem. You can sell it for profit at a pawnbroker or use it as a gift.
* In the ''VideoGame/{{X}}-Universe'' series, just about everything in the entire game has its own little tale to tell. Sometimes ships give you historical details, sometimes weapons tell you of their designers' money problems, and of course you get political details by looking at the races' entries in the in-game encyclopedia. Early games in the series got bonus points for having all of that ''spoken'' - thousands of lines of audio were a small price to pay for flavor.
* This is one of the primary storytelling mechanics in ''VideoGame/DarkSouls''. Every item has some sort of flavor text revealing key information about the game's world and lore.
* ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve2'' has an enormous amount of flavor text when you examine every part of the environment--multiple times! The protagonist Aya reveals quite a lot of her own inner thoughts and the backstory when you do this. Visually, the environments are hyper-detailed and gorgeous, especially for the time in which this game was made. The designer ''cared'' about the level design.

* In addition to descriptions of inventory items, right-clicking on certain parts of the environment in ''{{VideoGame/Penumbra}}'' will give brief descriptions that (excepting hints) have little to do with their use in the game.

* The ''Franchise/SilentHill'' series features this, with the disturbing environments lending themselves to very terrifying, or disturbing descriptions. A few of the protagonists develop a little, personality-wise, through this, but Heather from ''VideoGame/SilentHill3'' really takes the cake. She has a snarky personality as it is, being a 17-year-old girl. The story's events further help shape the insight she provides, and she even shows this attitude in the item descriptions.
* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' has lots, especially in the older main series entries. One of many examples: "A lockpick. I can unlock the simple locks with this." when examining the lockpick in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil 2''.
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil0'': The grappling hook pistol has text stating it will be damaged if it lifts more than 80kg. Both of the protagonists weigh less than 80kg (the heaviest only weighs 73), so this has no effect on gameplay.
* Appears throughout ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'', with perhaps the best example being the titular Tome of Eternal Darkness: "Cradled in what appears to be a leathery hand lies a mysterious book. It is bound in human skin and intricately decorated with shrunken bones. It beckons and yearns to be possesed."
* ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar 2'' had these for its wargear. Due to a few indicating they'd belonged to other chapters, the "Blood Magpies" meme was born, where the Blood Ravens are depicted as unrepentant kleptomaniacs that live only to steal weapons and vehicles from their allies and enemies.
* In ''Videogame/FableIII'' once again the flavour texts are pretty hilarious. But in one of the quests you encounter some tabletop game players, and while the DM says writing the flavour texts are one of his favourite bits one of the players retorts that no-one reads them.
* In ''VideoGame/PathOfExile'', every single thing that's marked at a Unique (items, abilities, etc.) and Divination Card have a flavor text attributing to it. Some of the texts give insight on lore, while other accentuate the main features of the subject. Many supported-made unique items created their own unique flavor texts, such as [[http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Infractem Notch's item]] referencing his [[VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} own work]] and words dedicated to [[http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Lantadors_Lost_Love a deceased loved one]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'' has the Collectopaedia in which you can register items scattered throughout the gameworld. With how [[WordSalad weird]] some of the collectible names are, this is the only hint as to what a lot of them even are in the first place. This feature returns in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'' along with the new [[MonsterCompendium Enemy Index]] which contains a short bio for each type of enemy giving some insight into the life-cycle of many of Mira's indigenous species and the culture of some of the alien races.
* ''VideoGame/TheSims'' series has ample examples of Flavor Text; because most items in Buy mode are self-explanatory, the text is usually something silly. The Sims 1 has an "Oval Glass Sconce" whose text reads "[[ShapedLikeItself It's Oval! It's Glass! It's a Sconce!!!]]" and a huge story about ancient Sim City llama worship on llama topiaries.
** ''VideoGame/TheSimsMedieval'' follows the tradition with your inventory and descriptions of food and drink you can create. Like "Wine: There are two kinds of wine, red and white. [[ATankardOfMooseUrine This is neither]]" and "Weak Health Salve: Hey! Just because I'm weak doesn't mean I'm not useful!" Also the delightful LampshadeHanging of "Boiled Goo: Boiled residue from that attack on the Reception Hall. Eating this is [[SarcasmMode a great idea!]]"
* Most ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' games show a short blurb describing Kirby's current [[PowerCopying Copy Ability]] when the game is paused. More recent entries also give a description of each boss if you pause while fighting them, often providing some interesting plot details.

* ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' has humorous Flavor Text for its item and skill descriptions, which also tends to be laden with [[ShoutOut shout-outs]].

* The ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'' series has in-universe descriptions for all of its units in the manual of the game.

* In ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheSecondStory'', there are a huge number of items that are raw materials for crafting and items that can be crafted. Many of them contain flavor text not related to what the object does, such as describing the texture or taste of [[HyperactiveMetabolism food items]].

* For every Franchise/{{Pokemon}} a player captures in the wild, their [[MonsterCompendium Pokédex]] adds one or two sentences of in-universe description for their species. Later games add such details as the creature's footprint (if applicable), a SoundTest ability to play the creature's vocal cry, a size/weight comparison to the player character, and a comparison of form or [[SecondarySexualCharacteristics gender differences]] between the species's different members (where applicable). The species's weight and height actually do have some gameplay consequences, but those are very few and far between.
** Additionally, each Pokemon's status screen includes some text documenting where it was caught, hatched, or otherwise acquired, and a two-word description of its personality (following the format of "[adjective] nature"). Since Generation IV, this screen also says when it was caught, and an additional one-sentence remark about the individual creature's personality. The lines about personality are actually related to the Pokemon's stats, [[GuideDangIt but you'd never know that without doing some research]], [[CompetitiveMultiplayer and you'd probably never care unless you were playing competitively]]; nearly every possible nature boosts one stat and lowers another, though there are a few neutral ones (such as "bashful") which don't affect stats, and the additional line about personality is actually a hint regarding hidden scores which help determine how high ''all'' of that particular Pokemon's stats are.

* VideoGame/BraveFrontier has Flavor Text for every unit, sphere, and item in the game, and provides lore outside of the main Quest storyline for every unit (even Burny and friends).
%%* The ''VideoGame/TotalWar'' series use Flavor Text on units to [[ShownTheirWork show their work]]

Flavor Text is regularly found in [[MonsterCompendium Monster Compendia]], {{Pamphlet Shel|f}}ves and [[VideoGameItemsAndInventory inventory items]], they sometimes take the form of an EncyclopediaExposita. See also ExpandedUniverse, where the flavor text forms entire works, and DayOldLegend, where the flavor text contradicts the fact that the item was recently made.

Compare AltText, a mouse-over caption that supplements an internet image, and ArtificialAtmosphericActions for NPC behavior equivalent.

* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' has a lot, usually tied to each set's story. But not always. Flavor texts are also used to link together a series of cards like the cycle of Temples in the Theros set, or as part of some meta-joke (e.g. Deep Analysis vs. Masticore, Lotus Petal vs. Black Lotus). Some examples are:

* In the ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' TCG, flavor text appears only on Normal Monster cards:
** PlayedForLaughs with one version of Alligator's Sword, one of [[BrooklynRage Joey Wheeler's]] monsters; the text is written with his FunetikAksent.

* Appears at times in ''TabletopGame/DuelMasters''. Partway through the game's English release, Wizards of the Coast began to change some of the cards' text to match the GagDub nature of the show.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Pokemon}}'' cards contain Pokédex text generally taken from the most recent games at the time of their release. Played with by the E-reader and EX-sets from the second and third generations - the text instead appears on your GBA when you scan the card's bottom dot code into the E-reader.
* Every card in the ''Series/BabylonFive'' CCG had flavour text, containing either an in-universe quote from the series, information from [[AllThereInTheManual official guides and associated info texts]], or (in some rare AlternateUniverse cards) postulations on [[ForWantOfANail how things could have gone different]].
* ''TabletopGame/StarWarsCustomizableCardGame'' had flavor text, called "lore" on every card. Unlike most other card games, the lore often contained '''bolded keywords''' that other cards could play off of. For example, characters may be a '''bounty hunter''' or '''spy''', and other cards would specifically target characters that were bounty hunters or spies. Some vehicles were '''enclosed''' while unmarked others left their pilots in the open. This was done to avoid having to create new icons for every keyword, as with "warrior" or "pilot" (there were enough icons already), and unlike many card games, the flavor text and the game text were not in the same text box, but in separate text boxes of a (generally) standardized size. Placing keywords in the lore box left more room for game text.
* TabletopGame/TwilightSparklesSecretShipficFolder has flavor text that almost universally is derived from one of Twilight's supposed fics. The exceptions are either from her own diary, or Cheerilee desperately trying to get out of a shipping card game.

--> Times have been hard. To save on money, you've moved out of your old castle, and into a luxurious ravine. You didn't like that castle anyway; it was always getting looted, and never at a reasonable hour....
* In ''TabletopGame/CosmicEncounter'' each alien card has both crunch (what the alien's power actually does in game terms) and fluff (usually a statement about the history or philosophy of each race that attempts to explain either ''why'' or ''how'' it breaks the rules in that particular way).
* In ''TabletopGame/GraveRobbersFromOuterSpace'' many cards have flavor text, often a LampshadeHanging of the trope the card is based on ("Why does the king even trust this guy" on an EvilVizier) or at least a {{Pun}} about it. ("What's a crossbow? Like a regular bow, but angrier.")

* The fixed deck superhero card game TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse has flavor text at the bottom of almost every card in the form of quotes from the various in-universe comics that the various characters come from. Each quote is relevant to the card it's on, the art of which usually represents a comic panel or cover.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' consists of flavor text for the most part. Most games can be finished in under two hours, but feature far longer mandatory and optional dialogues on real-life politics, history, science and culture. The gameplay-sections basically do serve the purpose of connecting all the pieces of flavor text.

* ''VideoGame/GwentTheWitcherCardGame'': Found on every card in the game, even tokens spawn by other units.

** ''VideoGame/TheSims1''

---> Talk about an instant party!!! What better way to cheer up a Sim on their birthday than a Yumko Cake Corp. birthday cake? Patented aspartame technology yields cakes 500 times sweeter than other brands! Serves 12. Candles included. Contains: Refined Flour, Milk, Saturated Fat, Corn Starch, Aspartame, Methyl Cellulose, Lecithin, Butylated Hydroxytoluene, Phosphoric Acid, Citric Acid, Limonene, natural flavoring.
*** ''VideoGame/TheSims1'': Makin' Magic:
*** A Sim's Guide to Cooking:
-----> Why waste precious time and energy trying to follow that cryptic recipe scrawled by your great-great grandmother? The Busy Baker's Association has spent years collecting the best and most popular recipes to make your life that much easier. Printed in large, clear text on plastic coated pages, there's absolutely no better resource for your cooking needs.

*** London's Famous Birthday Cake
----> No birthday celebration would be complete without this festive and lovingly baked confection. Make sure to invite family and friends to the party before it's all gone!
** ''VideoGame/TheSims2'': Celebration! Stuff
*** The Limey / Buttery / Purpley [=CulinaryCounter=] (Age++)
----> Your birthday, as a child, is the one day you look forward to more than any other, but as you age it acts as a reminder of just how old you really are. If it's not your friends heckling and teasing, it's that cake with one more candle squeeeeeeezed onto that little surface each year. The way we figure, if a cake is going to make you feel bad for being a year older, at least it will taste fantastic!
** ''Videogame/TheSims3'':
*** Birthday Inferno Birthday Cake:
----> Usher in a new age with this white-hot pastry! Delicious, yet dangerous for the elderly and waistlines, the Birthday Inferno is a blazing flash of fun and excitement. (A Sim can throw a birthday party with this cake to transition to the next age category at any time.)
** ''Videogame/TheSims4'':
*** Tickle My Ivories Grand Piano:
---> Learn to play this ebony dream, and control the mood of entire crowds at the touch of its faux-ivory keys. Gain even more attention by hiring a babe to lie across the top, or just do it yourself.
* All the TomesOfEldritchLore, vaults, characters and items in ''VideoGame/CultistSimulator'' have short descriptions detailing an aspect of the game's intricate lore. Most of them are pure fluff... but a precious few of them hold ''vital'' hints to progress through the game.
* ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires'' and ''VideoGame/AgeOfMythology'' have long in-universe description of their units.

* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' has a lot of Flavor Text, usually tied to each set's story. A number of cards stand out for their flavor text because it's unusually cool (e.g. Dark Confidant: "Greatness, at any cost") or funny (e.g. Canyon Minotaur); flavor texts are also used to link together a series of cards like the cycle of Temples in the Theros set, or as part of some meta-joke (e.g. Deep Analysis vs. Masticore, Lotus Petal vs. Black Lotus).
* In the ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' TCG, flavor text appears only on Normal Monster cards, which are virtually non-existent in competitive play, so the lore is rarely cared about and mostly forgotten.

%% Most tabletop games require Flavor Text by their very nature to help tell the story. Put here only particularly noteworthy examples.

----> Level 1: There was once a wind spirit who fell in love with a mortal man. Though it was against all the laws of her race, each day she allowed her love and passion to grow.
----> Level 2: The spirit was condemned to death for the betrayal of her race. The Lord of Spirits sent vassals to carry out the sentence, armed with a bardiche enchanted to slay spirits.
----> Level 3: Sensing that her life was in danger, the spirit made one last visit to the man she loved, then fled through the forests and seas and mountains, pursued all the while by her would-be executioners.
----> Level 4: Some years later, a healthy young boy was seen playing around the village. This remarkable boy could control the very winds. His father never told him who his mother was...

----> Level 1: Juices oozing from tender, succulent flesh, the sweet aroma of fine herbs... The master cook made dishes of meat that none in the city could resist.
----> Level 2: Every day, customers lined up outside his inn, waiting for their chance to partake. Even the king himself would sneak down from his castle to sample the master's art.
----> Level 3: But once he entered his kitchen, the smiling cook's face would grow stern. The meat he used was no ordinary meat...
----> Level 4: The years passed, and the cook and his inn disappeared from the town. But his cleaver remains as gleaming and sharp as ever, waiting for its next master.

----> Level 1: The young man was popular with everyone in the village. He had the ability to control the wind, and was often seen flying over rivers and valleys. He was a cheerful boy, though he always seemed be troubled by something.
----> Level 2: Several years later, his father passed away. Before he died, he told his son about the young man’s mother, whom his son had learned never to mention in his presence.

-----> Less likely to melt someone's heart than to disintegrate their teeth. -20.0% 20.0% 20

* ''VideoGame/AVeryLongRopeToTheTopOfTheSky'': There is some, for crafting materials and non-crafted equipment. Crafted equipment just has lists the stats boosts that they give. For example: The Saecelium Circlet, says that "Time slows around this, giving the wearer more time to think."

* VideoGame/EVEOnline has a great deal of flavor text on items, organizations, even regions of space. Very little of it is of any consequence, but there's thousands of words worth of fluff to take in if you "Show InfO" on just about anything in the game.

** Golem Hand: "Summon up the power of the Golem Hand!", which is also a ShoutOut to the video game, ''VideoGame/GodHand''.

*** The Lollipop you get from Bernadette: "Candy for kids. You're not a kid."
*** Autograph pad from the Video-Game-Playing-Kid: "An Empty Autograph Pad. Get the Fairy Queen to sign it."

** Leather Helm: A sturdy helm made of leather. May cause chaffing.
** Mistral Helm: Shrouds you in a mysterious aura. People think it's pretentious.

*** Knife: A little knife.
*** Small Cookie: A flavor you've never tasted.
*** Serrated Knife: It's all jagged.
*** Liar: Lies with every breath.
*** Small Macaron: Delicious!

*** Long Red Boat: Warm.
*** Diamond Ornaments: Hard.
*** Blue Dress: Fairly light.
*** Blue Earmuffs: They have a big ribbon attached.

** MSM-X: "Fafnir": Strongest of all missiles

** As does it's Sci-fi equivalent ''VideoGame/LegacyOfAThousandSuns''.

* In ''VideoGame/DawnOfTheDragons'' and ''VideoGame/LegacyOfAThousandSuns'' all Generals, Troops, gear, craft items, etc usually have them, in the form of serious backstories and/or BlackComedy.

** ''VideoGame/Drakengard'' has a short story for each of its 65 weapons:

** ''Drakengard'' has a short story for each of its 65 weapons:

----> How long had he been traveling? Over the forests, oceans and mountain Ranges he flew. Exhausted and frail, He came at last to a village.

** ''Drakengard 3'':

* In ''VideoGame/DawnOfTheDragons'' and ''LegacyOfAThousandSuns'' all Generals, Troops, gear, craft items, etc usually have them, in the form of serious backstories and/or BlackComedy.

* In ''VideoGame/DawnOfTheDragons'' all Generals, Troops, gear, craft items, etc usually have them, in the form of serious backstories and/or BlackComedy.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pokemon}}'' cards contain Pokédex text generally taken from the most recent games. Averted during the E-reader and EX-sets from the second and third generations (the text instead appears on your GBA when you scan the card's bottom dot code into the E-reader).

* For every Franchise/{{Pokemon}} a player captures in the wild, their [[MonsterCompendium Pokédex]] adds one or two sentences of in-universe description for their species. Later games add such details as the creature's footprint (if applicable), a SoundTest ability to play the creature's vocal cry, a size/weight comparison to the player character, and a comparison of form or [[SecondarySexualCharacteristics gender differences]] between the species's different members (where applicable). The species's weight actually does have some gameplay consequences, but those are very few and far between.
** Additionally, since Generation IV, each Pokemon's status screen includes text documenting when and where it was caught, and a one-sentence remark about the individual creature's personality. The line about personality is actually a hint as to that particular Pokemon's hidden IV scores, [[GuideDangIt but you'd never know that without doing some research,]] [[CompetitiveMultiplayer and you'd never care unless you were playing competitively.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'' have multiple items with red flavor text, which are usually an indicator that the item is some of the game's better loot. All items with flavor text also have at least one unique effect or property, as well. For example, a sniper rifle with "I can see my house from here!" means that rifle has a particularly long-ranged scope. How long-ranged? Most sniper rifles have a zoom of between 4x and 6x zoom. "I can see my house from here!" has a zoom of ''[[UpToEleven 11x]]''.

* It's common for ''VideoGame/{{Tales|Series}}'' games to use the equippable item's description to provide some lore while summarizing its direct effects in a neat chart.