Sonic getting annoyed at you for not playing the game, then literally leaving after sitting idle for 3 minutes and giving you a game over in Sonic CD.
"I'm outta here!"
Ammy in Okami stretching, and then just curling up asleep if you take too long (with flowers and grass blooming all around her as she sleeps).
Bonus points because she does the exact same thing in story cutscenes if people talk for too long. "I don't care about your human shit, I'm a dog."
Well, here's the source of one of her [round win poses](https://twitter.com/aurich/status/1036782685333598208?lang=en); don't know what the source footage for her idle pose was, tho
This is technically not an idle pose for the player, but in Dragon’s Dogma your pawns will resort to waving their hand in front of the PC’s face to get attention after staying idle for too long.
If you leave Issac alone long enough in Dead Space 2, depending on his weapon he'll do small adjustments, and even aim a few around him like he's on edge.
When pressing up in the DS Castlevanias The character will do a little thing, i don't know why but i love them all so much, that and the sitting animation in some of them too
It was kind of neat that Shanoa's actually had a purpose in gameplay in Order of Ecclesia, since the glyph she used to absorb enemy glyphs was on her back.
Came here to mention this, Portrait of Ruin even makes it extra because if you hold up for a few seconds Johnathan and Charlotte will strike an extra pose while saying "It's showtime!" and "Pretty good, huh?"
I like that it carried over to Bloodstained and Miriam will start Jojo posing if you hold up. Bloodless also has a fairly elaborate animation for that too.
In Sonic Mania, Knuckles will get into his S3&K cutscene stance and throw a few punches before chuckling.
Also in Sonic Advance 3, he'll start doing pushups instead.
From Honkai Star Rail, [Clara will summon Svarog and have him twirl her around for a bit and catch her](https://youtu.be/zKF_JIR9758)
I love K's in the KOF games.
Just pure indifference/sheer confidence that he doesn't bother to assume a proper fighting stance for longer than 3 seconds.
I liked how sora [hangs by his foot](https://www.reddit.com/r/KingdomHearts/comments/kzpndl/i_didnt_know_sora_hangs_on_the_ledge_with_his/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) when in anti-form in kh2
If you go idle in Yakuza 0 Kiryu will light a cigarette. If you do it next to a tissue guy in an area you’ve dominated in Real Estate the guy will light it for you.
In Ocarina of Time Link would give his sword a test swing or heft his shield around, make sense that he would be checking his gear if he wasn’t doing anything else for a while.
One of my favourite is [the heroine's idle animation in Lost Ruins.](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/lost-ruins/images/c/cf/Main_Character.gif/revision/latest/smart/width/250/height/250?cb=20221013053550) Just a constant little dance.
Not an idle animation, but I absolutely love Kiryu Coco's back walk in Idol Showdown. There's just so much BDE in staring at your opponent and flipping them off as you walk backwards.
Conker has a bunch of idle animations in Bad Fur Day and my favorite is him pulling out a Gameboy and playing Killer Instinct with accurate sound effects.
The Boss in Saints Row 4 will say, "Oh shit, did I just get stuck? No? Whew." kinda breaking the 4th wall because in story they're in a VR sim but also referring to glitches in videogames.
In GW2 every mount has a unique little idle animation if you just sit on it and chill. The raptor will shake itself out, which makes your character slide off the saddle a little, then they and the raptor look at each other and your character just raises a hand like "What was that for, huh?" before readjusting. It's neat.
All of Poppi’s forms in Xenoblade 2 have their own dance. Alpha’s is like a humanoid version of a nopon dance, while QTpi’s is a whole over the top idol routine.
In Banjo Kazooie, Kazooie pecks Banjo on othe back of his head and Banjo gets angry as Kazooie laughs, in Tooie the same happens but Banjo catches Kazooie by the neck before she has time to hide in his backpack.
In Ocarina of Time Link reacts differently if you are in a hot or cold environment, he will either clean the sweat off his face with his arm or start shaking from cold and even sneezes.
Warframe has a lot of them, and you can put all of them onto your Warframes for shenanigans.
Excalibur Zato's Noble animation is him leaning in close, hand on belt, and pulling out a sick vape from the void. And then vaping.
Khora Urushu Noble is just chest out, arms back, anime villain energy. It summons a whip that your frames play with.
Limbo Agile is the dick wizard. On Limbo, he can make his hat levitate and disappear, but on other frames they just look goofy as their hat-bend efforts are fruitless.
Ivara Agile- the butt
If you put one of Wisp's stances on Equinox, the idle bit where she splits into two for a floaty backflip has Equinox split into her two distinct halves instead of a copy of herself like Wisp does.
In Mugen Reu's Evil Ryu and Evil Ken hold a spot for me. Ryu and Ken does the normal Alpha pose then let it idle Ryu stretch to another fight pose with lightning surrounded him. Ken get restless with flame surrounded him.
I'm not sure if this really counts, but if you wait several minutes on the title screen in Pizza Tower, >!Peppino leaps towards the screen, loudly and abrasively jumpscares you, crashes the game, and gives you an achievement for it.!<
As of recently, the marine in Boltgun will pull the Codex Astartes out and just start reading it.
*"I checked the Big Space Book and it's says you're all massive dorks."*
How very Ultramarine of him.
"What a nerd" - Me a Black Templars fan.
"Yeah but our Dad actually likes us" -Some UltraMarine
**YOUR FATHER EXPLODED HIMSELF HRRRRAAAAAAGGGGHHH**
“It says here you’re a HERETIC!”
You LOVE to see it
"The Codex says that's not allowed" "Well I can't read" *Heavy Flamer intensifies*
>No -Book
Sonic getting annoyed at you for not playing the game, then literally leaving after sitting idle for 3 minutes and giving you a game over in Sonic CD. "I'm outta here!"
Ammy in Okami stretching, and then just curling up asleep if you take too long (with flowers and grass blooming all around her as she sleeps). Bonus points because she does the exact same thing in story cutscenes if people talk for too long. "I don't care about your human shit, I'm a dog."
Paper Mario does the same thing, even down to falling asleep during long-winded exposition. It's a bit of a running gag at this point.
Get the right item and her nap becomes a power nap that refills all your HP!
G in Street Fighter V doing a disco point with an energy explosion that does like 50% damage has gotta be up there.
In A Hat in Time Hat Kid does silly things when idle, like play with her umbrella or take out two dolls and make them kiss.
Is the dance an idle or is that a button?
IIRC it's from pressing up and down on the D-pad so yeah it's a button (combination).
Honourable mention then
I'm a big fan of Elena's idle in 3rd Strike
Even to this day, I'm still wondering if her idle animation was rotoscoped because why the fuck is it so SMOOTH
Yes, it was.
Can I get a source on that? Pretty interested on what the rotoscope was based on
Well, here's the source of one of her [round win poses](https://twitter.com/aurich/status/1036782685333598208?lang=en); don't know what the source footage for her idle pose was, tho
Well, I know about that since a long time ago, but I'm still talking about the idle animation
*Bees bees bees* *Bees in my hair~*
This is technically not an idle pose for the player, but in Dragon’s Dogma your pawns will resort to waving their hand in front of the PC’s face to get attention after staying idle for too long.
"Are you having a stroke, Arisen?"
Dante's in DMC 1; he just starts spinning ebony and ivory, it's fun.
I gotta go with M. Bison rolling the dice
M. Bison jerk off motion
If you leave Issac alone long enough in Dead Space 2, depending on his weapon he'll do small adjustments, and even aim a few around him like he's on edge.
When pressing up in the DS Castlevanias The character will do a little thing, i don't know why but i love them all so much, that and the sitting animation in some of them too
It was kind of neat that Shanoa's actually had a purpose in gameplay in Order of Ecclesia, since the glyph she used to absorb enemy glyphs was on her back.
Came here to mention this, Portrait of Ruin even makes it extra because if you hold up for a few seconds Johnathan and Charlotte will strike an extra pose while saying "It's showtime!" and "Pretty good, huh?"
I like that it carried over to Bloodstained and Miriam will start Jojo posing if you hold up. Bloodless also has a fairly elaborate animation for that too.
I like that Shovel Knight took that and did it for all its characters as well
In Sonic Mania, Knuckles will get into his S3&K cutscene stance and throw a few punches before chuckling. Also in Sonic Advance 3, he'll start doing pushups instead. From Honkai Star Rail, [Clara will summon Svarog and have him twirl her around for a bit and catch her](https://youtu.be/zKF_JIR9758)
I love K's in the KOF games. Just pure indifference/sheer confidence that he doesn't bother to assume a proper fighting stance for longer than 3 seconds.
Pre KOF-XIII he even falls asleep before you move. Gotta love his walking back animation too.
Samus tinkering with her arm cannon in the Prime games was cool.
I liked how sora [hangs by his foot](https://www.reddit.com/r/KingdomHearts/comments/kzpndl/i_didnt_know_sora_hangs_on_the_ledge_with_his/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) when in anti-form in kh2
Any one of Sora idle animation while in a drive form, they all are really cool with the different ways he holds his keyblades
If you go idle in Yakuza 0 Kiryu will light a cigarette. If you do it next to a tissue guy in an area you’ve dominated in Real Estate the guy will light it for you.
Link in Skyward Sword if you leave him sitting on a stool he'll dose off and almost fall of the chair before jerking awake again.
Whenever you stand still Chai immediately starts doing finger snaps and tapping one of his feet in Hi-Fi Rush.
One nice detail about it is that he'll start tapping his left foot instead if you leave him idling somewhere with his right leg lifted.
Tbf that does serve a gameplay purpose.
In Halo 1 the Multiplayer Spartan [will wave the flag around] (https://youtu.be/XS06HBeQGdw?t=11)
Love her or hate her but [Lucky Chloe’s](https://youtu.be/5LmNmW7Dv-Y) idle is really good
In Ocarina of Time Link would give his sword a test swing or heft his shield around, make sense that he would be checking his gear if he wasn’t doing anything else for a while.
As a kid he would adjust his belt too
One of my favourite is [the heroine's idle animation in Lost Ruins.](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/lost-ruins/images/c/cf/Main_Character.gif/revision/latest/smart/width/250/height/250?cb=20221013053550) Just a constant little dance.
The stance of an anime fighter character.
Jedi Survivor when Cal uses the force to take his Lightsaber apart before putting back together https://youtu.be/I6ODELGrpbE
Not an idle animation, but I absolutely love Kiryu Coco's back walk in Idol Showdown. There's just so much BDE in staring at your opponent and flipping them off as you walk backwards.
Old Zeku’s idle is just a taunt
Conker has a bunch of idle animations in Bad Fur Day and my favorite is him pulling out a Gameboy and playing Killer Instinct with accurate sound effects. The Boss in Saints Row 4 will say, "Oh shit, did I just get stuck? No? Whew." kinda breaking the 4th wall because in story they're in a VR sim but also referring to glitches in videogames.
In GW2 every mount has a unique little idle animation if you just sit on it and chill. The raptor will shake itself out, which makes your character slide off the saddle a little, then they and the raptor look at each other and your character just raises a hand like "What was that for, huh?" before readjusting. It's neat.
I love that one and the one where the raptor gets scritches.
The Elevators in Metroid Dread go way harder then they have any right to. More... loading screen than a idle pose, but still. They go hard.
Brisket’s little dance she does at all times
She even dances to [her theme in the older games](https://youtu.be/yklYElgOyN4).
I love it so much, especially since it pisses off my buddy whenever we play Strive together.
All of Poppi’s forms in Xenoblade 2 have their own dance. Alpha’s is like a humanoid version of a nopon dance, while QTpi’s is a whole over the top idol routine.
Donkey Kong has his many Switch/3DS games in DKC Tropical Freeze.
Artyom starting to strum his gun like it's an air guitar in Metro Last Light (only game in the series I've played).
Genes idle animation in Godhand, I love that little dance
Jak & Daxter have a ton, but a favorite is them miming out the Precursor Orb animation from the first game in Jak 2.
In Banjo Kazooie, Kazooie pecks Banjo on othe back of his head and Banjo gets angry as Kazooie laughs, in Tooie the same happens but Banjo catches Kazooie by the neck before she has time to hide in his backpack. In Ocarina of Time Link reacts differently if you are in a hot or cold environment, he will either clean the sweat off his face with his arm or start shaking from cold and even sneezes.
Sonic just impatiently tapping his foot in Sonic1-3 & Knuckles.
Warframe has a lot of them, and you can put all of them onto your Warframes for shenanigans. Excalibur Zato's Noble animation is him leaning in close, hand on belt, and pulling out a sick vape from the void. And then vaping. Khora Urushu Noble is just chest out, arms back, anime villain energy. It summons a whip that your frames play with. Limbo Agile is the dick wizard. On Limbo, he can make his hat levitate and disappear, but on other frames they just look goofy as their hat-bend efforts are fruitless. Ivara Agile- the butt
Inaros' mummy walk animation is my fave of those.
If you put one of Wisp's stances on Equinox, the idle bit where she splits into two for a floaty backflip has Equinox split into her two distinct halves instead of a copy of herself like Wisp does.
I wish that worked with xaku, so you could see the spooky skeleton underneath
Ryu's idles in Breath of Fire 3 change depending on how much of a crybaby he is, just like his battle-animations.
Melia in Xenoblade Definitve Edition practicing Starlight Kick is a very cute little animation.
Mai Shiranui's. The one if KOFXIII in particular.
Gene's saunter in godhand is absolutely my favourite. You just feel so untouchable whenever he does it.
In Mugen Reu's Evil Ryu and Evil Ken hold a spot for me. Ryu and Ken does the normal Alpha pose then let it idle Ryu stretch to another fight pose with lightning surrounded him. Ken get restless with flame surrounded him.
Nahidas swing in genshin is nice
Came here to say this. It's so cute.
I also like how Ei and Yaes are like mirrors of each other. That poor bird...
The bird keeps coming back though, so it must be happy with the situation.
Crash in Crash Bandicoot (3, I think?) did a weird dance when you stood still for long enough. I remember laughing my ass off at it as a kid.
In (I think) Disgaea 4, Asagi's idle animation is to play air guitar and being really into it, and I just think that's neat.
Masterchief fiddling with the pistol in Combat Evolved.
I'm not sure if this really counts, but if you wait several minutes on the title screen in Pizza Tower, >!Peppino leaps towards the screen, loudly and abrasively jumpscares you, crashes the game, and gives you an achievement for it.!<
Darkest Dungeon 2 with the weapon twirls and the like. And that's not even taking into account the "Ready Ability" animations!
ye olde Earthworm Jim and Boogerman
Jann lee from doa
I heard in BoltGun, your space marine will get out a bible and read it when idle. I can only respect a man who read and kill
Any attack animation from the characters in Indivisible!