re: The most important attribute of a game?

I can understand that. There’s a lot of good rpgs that have tedious portions that really grind on me.

For FFXV, it’s the puzzle in Castlemark Tower and pretty much everything after the Leviathan fight prior to storming Insomnia.

For Baldur’s Gate 3, it’s pretty much everything in the Act 1 underdark.

For The Witcher 3, it’s the tedious inventory, gear upgrade system, and the skellige caches.

For Ghost of Tsushima, it’s some of the stealth required quests (same with that one quest in Zelda Breath of the Wild).

Heck, most of Hogwarts Legacy feels tedious, which is why I stopped playing.

The key is the balance between feeling fun and time.

Can't remember the Nintendo guy's name (Reggie?) but I always loved that he said Nintendo's philosophy has always been

"If it's not fun...why bother?"

Keep in mind that I haven't owned a Nintendo system since the GameCube but I am buying a Switch 2 on day 1 because it seems some companies have forgotten that.

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Skyrim had a good story?

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It didnt stand out to me. Morrowind did.

Oblivion I also really liked -- mainly for the side questlines like the Guilds, Dark Brotherhood, and DLC.

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it needs to be fun first and foremost

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I agree but being fun is such a broad term. To me, it mostly just comes down to this: can the game keep me engrossed in its world without breaking my immersion and provide a satisfying experience? It also depends on the type of game and what I want out of the experience. If I'm goofing around on a shooter or Fortnite, I'm just looking to shoot guys for 30-45 minutes. If I have more time on my hands and I'm playing a single player game then it gets more complicated.

I'm playing AC Odyssey right now and it does a fricking terrible job at making me want to play it. There's no fluidity to the story, to any of the scenes or dialogue. A game shouldn't be overly realistic (unless that's the main draw) but it shouldn't be too arcade style, either, like Odyssey where I'm constantly floating through the areas like I'm on the fricking moon. The combat is mostly the same, not as diverse and almost never rewarding. As you develop more abilities, get a firmer grasp of the controls, the game should become more and more fun and rewarding, like Jedi Survivor, God of War, Ghost of Tsushima, etc. It makes spending time to get good at the combat system satisfying because not only are you carving up enemies, but you look/feel like a badass while doing them.

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Games that are overly difficult just for the sake of being difficult are unplayable too. Bloodbourne and all the Souls games are the main examples. Bloodbourne's story apparently doesn't even come together until the end of the game and even then its not that clear. That's another thing that bothers me.

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And I agree completely. Why would I sink hours and hours into a game to get more and more powerful, only to still get one shot by bosses after 25-30+ hours into a game? That shite is just frustrating for me, not rewarding.

So I guess for me:

- Interesting and cool characters
- An Immersive story (that doesn't necessarily feel cinematic with a ton of scenes like God of War but doesn't feel like a choice based/Tell Tale game, either.)
- A satisfying combat/gameplay experience that constantly evolves with depth as you get deeper into the game's world

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I need games that respect my time

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I do like this, even Fallout 4 you can accomplish a few things within 30 minutes of playing time or you can dive in for a multi-hour session where you can advance the story.

Immersive games with RPG elements really appeal to me. Especially games where can you loot and find gear and items and you never know what you’re gonna find