But about story, if going by what I saw the devs sharing, humour is very promising. =D

Got to when Kapi is introduce. Up to that point, as a Brazilian? A bit cringe. Can’t say much more about the story as I didn’t play further. On gameplay, at least on that tutorial segment, it plays fantastic.

Been playing Silksong as quickly as possible while still being enjoyable, as I’d rather avoid spoilers and quite a few of the people I follow are posting content on it.

But once it’s done, planning to go back to Final Fantasy XII and Girl from Arkanya.

Dunno on length, but here’s the emulatable (or similar) I recommend, with what appears after the semicolons within the parenthesis (when available) being where you can get them digitally that I know:

The MacVenture series (Apple IIGS / Macintosh Classic; Steam & Humble Widgets)
Nix: The Paradox Relic (NES; Itchio)
Augury Red Code (GB; Itchio)
Castlevania: SotN (PS1; PS Vita’s PSN)
Final Fantasy VI (all versions are mostly the same)
Final Fantasy II and Crisis Core (PSP)
Anodyne (Adobe Flash; iirc all PC versions still have the Flash version)
Metal Slug 1 to 4 and X, Sonic 1 to 3 (any versions you can emulate)
Bravely Default and Bravely Second (3DS)
Böbl (NES; Itchio)
Celeste Classic and Celeste Classic 2 (PICO-8; Lexaloffle forums)
Dissidia 012 (PSP)
Ever Oasis (3DS)
Final Fantasy VII (PS1; PS Vita’s PSN)
Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings (NDS)
God Hand (PS2; PS3’s PSN)
God of War 1 and 2 (PS2)
God of War Chain of Olympus (PSP)
Godzilla Unleashed (PS2)
Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Burning Earth and Into the Inferno (PS2)
Devil May Cry 1 and 3 (PS2)
Disney’s Bolt (PS2)
Dragon Ball: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (PS2)
GrimGrimoire (PS2)
Gunbird & Gunbird 2 (any versions you can emulate)
Ico & Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
MegaRace (MS-DOS; GOG, Steam and Zoom Platform)
Micro Mages (NES; Itchio and Steam)
Naruto Ultimate Ninja 1 to 5 (PS2)
Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island (PS2)
Odin Sphere (PS2)
Okami (PS2)
Parasite Eve (PS1)
Persona 3 FES (PS2)
Phoenotopia (Adobe Flash)
Kunio-Tachi no Banka (SNES; through River City Girls 0 on Steam)
Shantae franchise (first on GBC/GBA, second on NDS, third on 3DS)
Solatorobo (NDS)
Slipways Classic (PICO-8; Itchio)
Tanglewood (Mega Drive/Genesis; GOG, Itchio and Steam)
The Fairly OddParents! Shadow Showdown (PS2)
The King of Fighters 2002 (Neo Geo; most PC versions)
The Simpsons Game (PS2)
The Simpsons Hit & Run (PS2)
VVVVVV (engine open source so several ports exist)
War of the Monsters (PS2)
Wishing Sarah (GB; Itchio and Steam)
Wonder Boy in Monster World (Mega Drive/Genesis)
コテDEメクール (PC-98; Project EGG)
Naruto Uzumaki Chronicles 1 and 2 (PS2)
Dust Bunny (PICO-8; Itchio)

Right now, with lack of major alternatives, it’s the smaller of the two evils.

And if the pushback I see is proportional to the real pushback, I’d imagine Google will take a step back, giving people more time to prepare.

And in line of getting prepared, if the AOSP project is forked, I’d imagine they could and possibly even would be mainteined while the original AOSP goes downhill. Similarly, if making the software is the problem, iirc there are rudimentary ways to make Android programs without Google’s SDK, of which people could start working on more attently too.

So all in all, unless alternatives get a sudden major boost, I think Android is the safest bet for users that care for freedom.

(And a side note, people should look also for devices that don’t have the bootloader locked from factory)

For more psychological horrors, maybe the first Devil May Cry? Early PS2 game, and is a recycled Resident Evil project so part of the ambience remains. Later games are more toned down on horror though.

Dreaming Sarah, I found to be good, but its horror is more on the bizarre.

Limbo, been considering playing for a while now, and from what I’ve seen, jump scares seem minimal. Same for the creator’s other game, Inside.

The Neo Geo Metal Slug games were extremely fun to play side by side with a friend. Just note Metal Slug 2 has lag problems due to the engine used, but it was later ported to MS3’s engine as Metal Slug X.

Also, most versions of the games on PC come with the ROMs, if you’d rather use your own emulator.

Another set of games we also enjoyed a lot were the River City Girls games. Just had to use health cheats on the SNES game repurposed because it was getting too hard for the time we had. "<.<

Maybe also cross-post in data-hoarding and archival communities? Seen some in the time I’ve been here on the fediverse.

Remember when you could play to customize characters? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

And regarding taking less time to progress, borrowing from South Park’s “freemium” explanation, maybe making the gameplay loop a bit more than just barely fun would avoid the player’s need for the game to hurry up? And if it involves gambling, it’s a whole other can of worms.

Sounds like gaslighting to investors that start hearing about the subject.

Dunno when, but been using Android since around Android 2, and I remember it only worsening over the years.

Looking from another angle from Yoko Taro’s point, I’d say that, in fear of failing due to being too big, companies would rather play it safe, but that causes creations to grow sterile.

And as consequence, people allegedly “weird”, which I wouldn’t think are necessarily people with curious antiques as Yoko Taro himself, but simply people whose game ideas are far from a safe ground, go for making indie titles instead as then they can be free to do whatever they want.

In my opinion:

If memory serves me right (as I played the game a while back), Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse’s intro stage acts as a tutorial, but it’s so seamless to gameplay and story that it barely feels like so. Iirc, also same for Valkyria Chronicles 4’s first mission.

And that I remember better due to playing relatively recently, Final Fantasy VI and Catherine’s tutorials are well integrated to their games’ specific flows, the former being a series of NPCs you talk to, something you already do a lot in the game, and the latter being quick, straight to the point and given like it is a normal part of the narration and the increasingly frenetic (for a puzzler) gameplay.

And also if memory serves me right, Dirge of Cerberus and Outlive both have optional missions in their main menus that act as tutorials, that don’t feel like a chore, and that if you ignore them, the game is still sufficiently manageable.

I think there has never been a proper line separating indies from other games, rather being a loose perception of games made to show what the developer wants. And the impression growing stronger as bigger projects more and more seek to go for the lowest common denominator or go by what who gives the orders demands.

Even if a game is from a bigger company, but the company gave the thumbs up for doing whatever the team wanted, without conditions, handholding, etc., then I’d say the game is indeed independent enough.

Though, on a more negative view, I wonder if Dave the Diver getting nominated was a case of that meme of the older man trying to act as a cool kid.

Unironically, Dissidia 012 for the PSP, maybe? Been some years since I last played it, but I remember that graphics seemed pretty sharp, even on a PSP screen.

You’ll lose all your local data as the bootloader gets unlocked, so back them up.

Tutorials on modding phones, from my experience, are fairly obtuse despite the process itself usually being rather simple and straight forward.

If you want to go as privacy-oriented as possible, you’ll likely pick a vanilla system (that is, as close to AOSP, “Android Open Source Project”), and will often be on the lookout for software that is either DRM-free (no dependency on 3rd party software), or open source / FOSS (“Free and Open Source Software”). Also VPNs to mask your online usage may come with their own set of cobsiderations, like some sites breaking, some others considering it ban-worth, and others setting prices, languages, etc., to a given region.

Does Mbin count? =P

Jokes aside, imo, Skyrim, Starbound and Final Fantasy XII are great games to sink a long time. Of those, Skyrim I played the least due to life happening, but was enough to sink a few dozen hours already. Starbound easily surpassed the 600 hours for me, even if I barely use mods or played multiplayer. And Final Fantasy XII, on my first save I got to the final boss, I was nearing 300 hours already, and for a game originally on a 4.7 GB disc, it has a lot to do, so much so that, in that save, I was just starting to scratch past the surface.

Short version is that Blizzard’s removal of Warcraft I & II is the first case to be in the scope of GOG’s (re)commitment to game preservation since GOG published that commitment.

Regarding the question itself, Starbound and Minecraft. Maybe Final Fantasy XII if I was to play it multiple times, as I take at the very least 100+ hours to finished it, and 250+ if I’m not in a hurry.

But regarding gaming fatigue, perhaps it could be a symptom of playing too much of only a handful of game styles? If you wouldn’t mind, may I suggest to check some smaller games in length and scope, specially indies? Those tend to be rather diverse in their scopes and executions.