Hello, in the recent years I find myself willing to spend much less time and energy on games, but I do still enjoy them. Oftentimes I end up quitting a new game I tried out relatively early on, because I’m encountering some block, grind, non-optional boring side quest, empty open world, uninteresting clutter or details that I have to manage, or similar. Like, I just wanna play the actual game play, see how the story continues, and visit those areas that were designed with care. Not worry where on the map I can sell the glimbrunses I collected so I can buy a 37% stronger glarpidifice that I’ll need to beat the next glutrey after which I’m allowed to continue the main story.

Sorry if this turned into some kind of a rant, but I hope it’s understandable what I’m looking for and what I meant by fluff. Some games that have fulfilled this for me during the last years:

  • Stray
  • Skyrim (there’s a lot of fluff you can worry about in Skyrim, but the thing is you don’t have to worry about it, you can also just walk in any direction and see what situation you wind up in, at least for the first 10-20h of a playthrough, which IMO is enough time for a game anyway)
  • Life is Strange
  • Some Pokémon ROM hacks where the difficulty spikes were not too harsh

Looking forward to hear your suggestions :) Games where there is some fluff but you’re allowed to just ignore it are also fine, but not having any fluff is preferred. Bonus points for anything on the Xbox game pass.

  • truite
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    3 days ago

    I don’t understand fluff in this context, what does it mean? I searched in dictionary but I’m still not sure.

    Anyway:

    • Spiritfarer: I don’t remember so much grinding in this game, and it’s a beautiful game, not too long, not too hard
    • The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood
    • Slay the Princess, but you don’t really play, you make choices. It’s a masterpiece of narration. If you dislike body horror, don’t play it.
    • alaphic@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Obviously I’m not OP, but I took them to mean content that might be considered superfluous or otherwise not as meaningful to the overarching narrative in and of itself

    • iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works
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      3 days ago

      Spiritfarer is awesome and I also recommend it, but I think I would concede there’s some “grinding” aspects. You’re going to be going out of your way to collect certain things.