"HEY I WONDER IF YOU CAN FREEZE THE WATER AND MAKE IT GO SOMEWHERE ELSE".
It's great that you use this as the example. Because that phrase being said over and over again, is the part that I was watching someone else play.
I also find "games that put you in small wave-style combat arenas ad-nauseum" is my least favorite combat scenario to deal with. Because it's probably only done that way, to make up for the enemy AI's shortcomings.
I'm Team Bloodborne all the way still. Elden Ring has the most boss fatigue out of any of the games in its ilk, because of how many bosses are not unique or well designed.
I certainly do have my critiques of Elden Ring. (Like how the platforming is pretty terrible. And how jumping somewhere I shouldn't, is usually the reason I die. Or how finicky the camera/lock-on system can be at times. Or how the balancing is unsurprisingly all over the place. Or how much this game could use an NPC quest journal.)
But I'm 90 hours in Elden Ring (some of that being afk), and I keep finding new locations, enemies, NPCs with bits of lore, set pieces/cutscenes, equipment, and new boss variations. That it honestly puts most open world games that I've played to shame.
And yeah, it sort of does feel like this game will literally never end. But I guess I haven't gotten to a point where it's soured my overall experience. Because it's genuinely engrossing. (At least, for me.)
Though I plan to revisit both Bloodborne and Dark Souls at some point.Jedi Survivor was good.
Insert "You actually got this game to work?" joke here.Did you play Fallen Order? And is the sequel better? (I've heard that it's basically Fallen Order 2.0, in that the Pros and Cons are basically identical.)
And my experience with Fallen Order was a brief one. But it made me question the "PS5 load times are fast now", when I was waiting minutes on end for every loading screen to go away.
Anyway, I'm only a couple hours into Tears of the Kingdom, but I think the starting tutorial island is less good than the BOTW one because of how more blatantly linear it is.
I wonder sometimes if I didn't give Breath Of The Wild a fair chance. But
this game really feels quite empty in its early areas. And I miss the original dungeons that make the Zelda games special.
And honestly, BOTW's start could've probably used a bit more linearity/direction. (Though I say this, knowing full well, that 'Nintendo direction' probably means "handholding, JRPG-level tutorializing".
Also, 'weapons breaking every few seconds' is a cancerous game mechanic.