Correct me if I’m wrong, but enshitification seems like a problem entirely contained to publicly traded companies. Valve is a privately owned company and doesn’t need to grow, thus they can just enjoy the millions if not billions of dollar revenue.
It’s a really well done RPG in the spirit of the original Paper Mario games. Charming and fun to play. Got some depth to the build choices using a similar badge system as Paper Mario or even Hollow Knight.
Awfully presumptuous of you, I’ve played most major releases within the genres I like. Let me tell you, the Xenoblade series is among the best RPGs I’ve played - up there with Persona and everything Fromsoftware among others.
Also, what’s up with the 30h comment? A good chunk of their games are longer than that. But it doesn’t matter anyway, or you’re also arguing against the quality of every God of War, every The Last of Us, Bloodborne, every Portal, Hades, every BioShock, every Resident Evil - you get it. A good chunk of these is also below 20h, and all of them are beloved and once sold at full price. All of them worth it, if you like the genre.
Many of the most fun games I’ve played the past 5 years are made by Nintendo. You might not like them and that is okay, but tgey are by no means garbage.
The next take is probably more controversial, but I don’t think they are overcharging. Why drop the price after a year or two? Games don’t get magically less fun and their games are usually polished enough to last for the entire gen without being overshadowed by later releases (expect for Pokemon, they are hot garbage - at least on the technical side). I’d even argue that not dropping their prices is one of the reasons Nintendo doesn’t need the mtx bullshit most other developers pull with their games. Just look at how well Mario Kart sells despite being something like a decade old at this point.
I disagree. I love both of them, but I gotta say P5 is only fun once. It is way too dialogue heavy for a 80h game to replay and literally every side activity is boring on a repeated playthrough, hence I’d never have gotten to the actual Royal story content if I had played all of P5 initially. Yes, I could skip through most of it, but at that point I’m only playing a worse SMT with way too many interruptions and would potentially skip some changed stuff. SMT V on the other hand I see myself replaying anyways, should there be enough new stuff I’ll go for VV. It’s just pure gameplay goodness.
You absolutely can! There are classes, subclasses and equipable skills depending on the game. All with different builds. You can win with all of them and swapping around can be fun. However, you can also do this within a single playthrough. At least in my opinion, the dungeon is the main draw here - but of course, as with all games here, there are certainly people who like to replay them.
They don’t exactly fit with your theme of short mystery and puzzle games, but based on your initial question most JRPGs and most story-focused games came to mind. Let’s go over a few of them I’d recommend to everyone interested in those games:
Persona 5 Royal: It’s about a 100h and very story-heavy. There are some twists and turns which keep you engaged and you build relationships with a wide cast of characters. Besides the story and actual combat, there’s a ton of side activities, all of which you only do a few times. It’s probably my favorite game I’ll never replay, because all these things are an absolute slog to play again. The same goes for Persona 4 and maybe 3, haven’t played that one.
every Etrian Odyssey: They are old-school dungeon crawlers originally released on the 3/DS and got remakes on steam and the Switch. You draw your own maps of every layer the dungeon has, which is a large puzzle in itself. However, once you know the dungeon, there is literally no point in exploring it again. You know every trap, every worthwhile detour and of course the path to take.
Like a dragon 7/8: They combine an open world with lots of mini-games, funny and/or touching side stories and an epic overarching main story to follow. There are tons of interactions with your companions, all of them interesting. It’s just, similarly to Persona 5, all these mini-games and interactions only carry themselves for the short burst you get them in and while they are fresh. Replaying them? It’s an absolute slog. You know every punchline, you have optimized most mini-games and probably remember most of the great backstories each character has - you’d be skipping most of the content and the non-optional combat system isn’t fun enough to carry itself on its own.
I loved it too! Until I learned you can attack your own party to essentially powerlevel. Couldn’t stop myself from abusing it instead of doing some proper leveling.
I’m about 45h in. So far I’ve completed most side stories, the Pokemon League and I’m now doing Dodonka Island. Still have most of the main story before me, didn’t even had a fourth party member for close to 35h. It’s still great.
The hardware is more than ready, there is no way in hell that 3D Pokemon would need more hardware power than Monster Hunter Rise or any Xenoblade game did. Monster Hunter Rise even had a horde mode of all things, using models that are way more complex than any Pokemon.
It’s OK for people to spend as much money as they want supporting [gambling]. If you enjoy the work that a developer does for a [gambling service], it makes sense to fund their business.
Would you feel the same about your paragraph with these changes? Destiny 2 used to have full blown loot boxes after all.
I think it is important to still ralley against predatory mtx mechanics even if they don’t work for you. Other people don’t necessarily have full control over their own spending habits and by allowing these systems we openly allow developers to exploit these people. Luckily we started having laws against gambling mechanics (although Gacha is still a thing), but there are still many other psychological tricks at play for almost all of these shops.
According to interviews it’s supposed to be bigger than Limgrave and have it’s own upgrade system in addition to the normal rune level. Something similar to Sekiro. At least 10 new bosses. Multiple new weapon categories. If that’s all true, it’s basically a standalone game built into Elden Ring. I’ve bought smaller games for about the same or even more.
I honestly can’t answer you, I don’t know anything about the game besides seeing it everywhere for years. Stuff like: How in your face is advertising? Do season even add anything besides these packs? Are they missable? The only thing I can say for sure: I dislike how they present multiple bundles with varying amounts of DLC on their steam page. Without prior knowledge I’d have to go through everything and check if I’d be missing out on some actual DLC content and I’d assume there are people buying an actually reasonably priced game for over a 100 bucks because they want all DLC assuming it’s real content. Sure, that’s on them not checking, but also kinda on the developer naming it stuff like “Deluxe” or “Master” Edition instead of “All Cosmetics Edition” or something among those lines.
Regardless, even if it is an genuine exception, they add massive content updates and don’t push these packs at all. Do they even make a profit then? Massively successful games like DRG, Terraria or Stardew Valley can do whatever they want - they have funded themselves more or less for life already and probably would still sell anyways. Normal service games need to turn a profit with their updates which still means either having a subscription or predatory mtx.