I think BG3s success bodes well for Owlcat, since it brings more fans to the niche genre, that just went mainstream.

Also - Owlcat makes fantastic games. Kingmaker and its sequel, wrath of the righteous are some of the best CRPGs ever made. Pathfinder rules are a little crazy, there are redundant classes, but the character building and customization are a blast. In wrath of the righteous, you get a hero class that you can make completely broken, which is just a ton of fun. Especially considering the lower budget, they accomplished a ton and I’ve sunk hundreds of hours into their CRPGs.

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I have not tried those things in BotW and TotK. I got to the water temple in Ocarina of Time and got bored, which I heard was common - sincerely tried to beat it because my childhood friends love the game and were excited for me to get through it. Played 10 mins of Majora’s mask and BotW. Watched a bunch of videos of BotW and the new game of people doing cool stuff with bombs and gliders. Just not for me I guess, but I totally see the appeal of them.

I can definitely see your point about modern action RPGs catering to lots of mechanics that other games do better and the genre is saturated now with different souls-likes that lack any kind of innovation but I guess they are safe to make due to their popularity.

This. I think people who enjoy it see every enemy as a puzzle. Even developing your character is a bit of a puzzle, figuring out what stats suit the weapons you like and the play style you’re aiming for. Conversely, Zelda is incredibly simple and boring to me. Most of the fights are boop boss on the head 3 times, or throw their own bombs back at them 3 times. The only Zelda I enjoyed was the first one.

I wanted to like it. I used it for couch co-op a handful of times but always had so many issues. After troubleshooting it for the 10th time, it became ewaste and I just setup chairs next to my small computer monitor. It’s a shame.