I’ve noticed a trend—particularly in some recent RPGs—of, well, let’s call it ‘Netflixiness’.
Dialogue designed to leave absolutely nothing to interpretation, to exposit information in the most direct way possible, devoid of any real character or context. There’s an assumption that any moment the audience spends confused, curious, or out-of-the-loop is a narrative disaster.
I hate to keep knocking Dragon Age: The Veilguard about, especially since I still had a decent time with it all told, but the thing that made me break off from it after 60 hours really was its story. It’s a tale that does get (slightly) better, but it gave me a terrible first impression I never quite shook.
What’s even the point of playing story games then if the story is condensed and simplified to such a degree? If all explanations are spoon fed to you and the story if so primitive that the bar is on the floor it just becomes boring. At this point you are better off playing games that focus on gameplay instead, it will be a more fun experience.
It’s like reading a summary of a book of just watch a short clip about it on TikTok because books are “too long” and then calling yourself a reader.
It is only boring if you get to play it from start to finish in a couple of days.
It is not boring if the same story is spread out over months because of limited playtime.
I’m not sure where the Trails games fall when it comes to being dialogue or story heavy, but it has taken me a good 380 hours to get to the 7th game in the series (Trails of Cold Steel 2) playing over the last 3 years and it has been fantastic.
I’m in my early 40s and have a kindergartener so gaming is fairly limited. These games have become my “nightly TV” where I play about an hour before I go to bed.