For most games, it's not difficult to make AI that can absolutely destroy humans. But it turns out to be very difficult to make AI that feels like a fun and engaging challenge to a human. Hardest of all is making AI that realistically plays like a human does.
The slowdown problems you experienced may be relegated to the Switch version, because...it's the Switch.
It's a 2D puzzle game. It's not doing anything the Switch shouldn't be able to handle. Champions never had any problems. Even the Wii was perfectly capable of running 20th, and not much has actually changed since then.
Like, I know the Switch is not the beefiest system ever, but this is not a game that should need a PS5 Pro or whatever.
You may not like playing against bots, but you'd also hate playing against absolutely no one.
That's the current state of every platform but Switch.
I'm well aware that crossplay isn't trivial, but it's too important to not be a priority. If you're making a multiplayer game and you want it to have a playerbase, crossplay is vital to keep your game alive. A publisher the size of Sega has the resources to get it done.
I don't know that some new game is going to solve the player acquisition problem without a new gimmick.
Does simply being content-complete count as a gimmick? It's something we still haven't seen yet in the west. I think 20th and Chronicle had a ton of great things to offer new players. Chronicle's JRPG story mode might be the most innovative onboarding experience any puzzle game has ever seen.
Strongly recommend playing Earthbound before Mother 3. Mother 1 is entirely skippable, I've tried to play it multiple times and never could get through it.
Most Kirby games. Skip Amazing Mirror I guess, and for Super Star you can play every mode except Great Cave Offensive.
Metroid Fusion (I do feel somewhat bad putting it on this list though)
OneShot
Persona series
Punch-Out!! series
Rhythm Doctor
Rhythm Heaven series
The World Ends With You
Any stage-based arcade(-style) game. I'll name Puyo Puyo (Tsu, 20th, Chronicle specifically), Panel de Pon, Puzzle Bobble 3, Twinkle Star Sprites just for a few.
Percentage-based damage doesn't make you struggle more with more health, it just means a few attacks take the same number of hits to kill. You're never any worse for it, and you're still better against every other attack in the game.
I've been holding onto a pet conspiracy theory that BW2 was a last-minute change from Gray, loose ends and plot holes felt too rushed. Curious if the leaked source code will corroborate this.
1 - ...I respect the historical importance of this game.
2 - Actually, dual-wielding shields and attacking yourself to grind evasion is peak game design.
3 - Beta for FF5. Shame about that final dungeon.
4 - First game that actually holds up.
5 - Peak.
6 - I liked this game up until I found out that I was supposed to be grinding three distinct parties the whole time.
7 - I went into this expecting the first 3D installment to be another example of historically important but poorly aged. Was pleasantly surprised by how well it holds up.
8 - I went into this knowing it's the weird one. I was the sicko that liked 2, but I still couldn't get through it.
9 - Bought it alongside 8, when I dropped 8 I never got around to this. I will eventually... maybe...
10 - Perfects the classic formula while still feeling sufficiently modernized. Uh, for some definition of modern...
12 - Hated hated hated the combat. Painfully tedious to take manual control, automation is too primitive. And I don't want to automate the game away, I want to play it!
Even DRM-free, all digital purchases are still just a license, legally speaking.
Pragmatically speaking, they can't forcibly take the bits off my hard drive. But it also bears pointing out that these days most games on Steam don't bother enabling Steamworks DRM either.
It was a great game that I enjoyed start to end, but ending on a "this will only make sense when the 3rd game releases in X years!" note leaves a really sour taste in my mouth.
Well, one problem with ZTD is that it completely ignored the teaser in VLR's epilogue. Actively contradicted it even.
I don't think the teaser made VLR feel incomplete though, since it was also completely disconnected from VLR's otherwise self-contained story.