This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.
Be warned:
If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.
Surprised no-one pitched Elite:Dangerous. Certainly a labour of love to begin with, incredibly talented sound design, first space sim to VR, truly devoted to the original material... Still going pretty strong (had a few weak years) with updates (only 2 DLC-ish major updates of which were paid) a decade later...
No one mentions Red dead redemption. This world doesn't have any change.
Cold Waters if you're hankering for some hot sub on sub action.
The Stick of Truth, obviously.
Semi-jokes aside, I am a bit sad that not a single person mentioned the first four Silent Hill games. The sheer influence that series had on video games as a whole, especially in the horror genre cannot be overstated. But I guess it is tricky with games because everyone has different tastes and interests. It is rare that games unite people the way lord of the rings did. Gaming is at once so broad and so niche.
Outer Wilds is this game.
Zelda OoT, Majora's mask, BotW, TotK
It's weird that Deus Ex isn't in this thread yet. Such a well made game with quite a few prophetic moments.
The original, not human revolution...
Planescape: Torment does it for me.
More lines of dialogue than all of Shakespear's works? Sign me up for that kinda RPG, lol.
Though these days some good voice actors can do a lot, looking at BG3 here, at least the voice casting.
I would have to go with the Panzer Dragoon trilogy on the Sega Saturn.
While the first title was, at its basics, a fairly simple on rails shooter it was more than the sum of its parts.
It had incredible art direction, a sweeping musical score, innovative world building and rock solid gameplay.
The second title built up on the first installment in every way to solidify it as one of the best titles of that generation.
Then came Panzer Dragoon Saga which evolved the series into a full blown JRPG that is still so unique and unlike anything else out there.
Team Andromeda's passion, dedication and innovation ensured each game was a new benchmark for Segas black box.
What I wouldn't do for a new installment by the original team.
The first Halo trilogy takes the cake for me
YESS
The Yakuza series I guess? Granted I've only played zero, kiwami and kiwami 2, but it all seems to be completely sincere in its craziness. It doesn't appear to pretend to be anything more than it is.
A videogame that was made with complete love and devotion to the medium, made with talent and sincerity, and is a pinnacle of everything it stands, something that will stand the test of time...
And nobody mentioned Stardew Valley? I spent too long looking for it and didn't find a single mention of it. Absolute mastery of its genre, an incredible amount of dedication spent by the developer listening to the fans, and I can't imagine it not still holding up 10 years from now, or even 20 years from now.
Baldur's Gate 3 is great, I love it, but there were so many performance issues with the game even with top tier hardware, and the game was borderline unplayable for others due to these issues. I have a little bias since my save didn't sync across devices with the steam cloud and I have to start all over. Love the game, but I just can't believe Stardew Valley isn't even mentioned.
I kinda feel like Stardew is incomplete, I want to know more about the world, the lore. I also wish that I could have more time in a day to complete what I set out to do.
Not every game needs an endless depth of lore that only those without jobs or have other things that fill up their days can dive into. Stardew Valley is a farming simulator, it doesn't need hundreds or thousands of years of history for you to study up on, and thank the dieties it doesn't. It meets the prompt provided in the original post.
Not bagging on people who enjoy deep lore in games, you do you, but I only get about 1-3 hours a week to play so that shit is not for me anymore. I need a game I can very easily pick up, get some shit done, and be okay putting it back down again before not too much time is up.
You might be interested to know that concernedape's new game haunted chocolatier will be set in the same world.
Terraria I feel would be closer as stardew valley is a one man job. Terraria grew as a vision that hasn't really strayed beyond, but every update instead chisels the stone more. It is a game that took castlevania/mario inspirations and honed it into a perfect conception of 2d sidescrollers but with a liberty. (Akin to stardew being the first real open farming sim)
Redigit did amazing on the original SMBX fangame. Basically took the concept, and removed constraints. You can see the differences in development ethos as new people came on and really created a diverse game. It is so groundbreaking in their conformity that most can only compare to Minecraft, something essentially extradimensional to terraria.
Imagine being so baller you get compared to a game that puts you in control of shaping the world around you. When terraria is a game that predominantly shapes you around the world. Eventually even adding lore to these shapes it forms out of you.
Are you the summoner? The fisher? The knight? The archer? The farmer?
You will be all at some point in your journey of improvement. You will don every hat and for it you will be able to reflect back on your next life and proceed with new knowledge. The Belmont's curse is never over, and this is our only solace.