Such a great hangout game. As a kid with a vivid imagination and not enough English understanding to follow the plot I enjoyed my time just roaming around crafting spells and exploring samey dungeons a whole lot.
I got certainly the most lost I’ve ever been in a game in a Daggerfall dungeon, trying desperately to find the tiny wall tag that’s supposed to be the exit.
They’re easy to make, actually, all flags and variables, but it seems like a natural fit for what you want to do. The “princess” is usually pretty limited by the trainer, which can be herself or the dragon in this case. Have the dragon own a library and something she can use for training and the game becomes about your princess getting Prison Jacked while finding ways to communicate with her rescue, with events and endings responding to the training choices.
Making the player feel trapped is relatively easy, just place limits on her actions based on the dragon in various ways.
Can’t train in the morning because you have to serve it breakfast. Can’t go riding or outside or whatever until it trusts you or whatever. Can’t research certain topics in the library unless you find a way to sneak in, etc.
Honestly, even if you want more of a 3d exploration game the limitations should probably be the same vibe. Just have the dragon be a constant voice of “No”
Some games do, some games don’t. It’s a design choice.
Also, Oblivion was released originally in 2007, and Morrowind in 2002. The consoles, game logic, and gfx were a fraction of what modern games can do, a lot of games (most, in fact) back then didn’t have the fancy animations for all directions. There were likely other backend/engine limitations at the time that don’t exist today, because CPU/GPU power.
ETA: as someone who has coded a 3rd person camera and animations in 3D to work in all directions, it really fucking sucks to do in a well-known engine with online search available from others that have done it before. Now imagine having to code everything like that from scratch into a custom game engine, being one of the firsts to figure it out. I’m also gonna guess other bugs were far more important than which direction the character is walking in TPV, being a Bethesda game and all.
Oh I think I know a good one! Haven, and it’s currently 60% off. You play as a couple who escaped a controlling society to a foreign planet. (Three gender combinations can be chosen for the couple)
There is a combat element, and I don’t think you can avoid it, but what you do is essentially clean the corruption off the local wildlife, instead of killing. Don’t know if that works for you, but it’s worth giving it a look I think.
Undertale, mercy run. The goal is to never kill a monster. It has combat, but the combat mechanic is moving your “heart” to dodge attacks and keep chosing mercy.
A game where you play Silvia, a potion crafter who has taken over her uncle’s shop on an island full of adventurers. You get to meet many kinds of people, both adventurers and not, and have a chance at romancing pretty much all of them (at once, if you select the polyamory mode). The art style is adorable (please physically release the cards, devs) and the voice acting is so well done.
Monster Prom
Strictly a slice of life / dating sim about trying to get a date for prom. The cast of characters are very cute, as is the art style. It’s also multiplayer if you’re into that.
Emily is Away
I believe this one is free. It’s a nostalgia blast for those of us who grew up with instant messaging like MSN or AIM. It’s been a while since I played, but I remember it being cute and very interesting.
Fantastic story, voice acting and mechanics. It’s such an odd mix of deck building, crafting and VN romance. Yet it delivered on all fronts with a solid character writing that kept surprising me.
Throwing in a recommendation for Tiny Glade. Not so much a game as a sandbox where you make small cottages, towns, or castles. Lots of options in photo mode for showing off your creations.
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