Indie What is your indie game hot take?

[CyberRabbit]

I'm tired of earthbound-likes or rouge-likes deck building games. No i will not play your game that has the same copy and pasted tropes
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Not all of them suck, a lot of them do and it’s also getting pretty stale at this point

 

[Pinballbuzzbro]

Omori is easily one of the most pretentious rpgs I've ever experienced, everything wrong with the "So QUirKY!!!" Earthbound inspired indie rpg wave that Undertale and Deltarune spawned and I'm sick of seeing the characters from it everywhere.

Also the creator is a creep who needs to be put on a watchlist.

As for a positive take, Blazing Chrome is amazing and is IMO the TRUE follow-up to Contra 3 and Hard Corps, more people need to talk about that game and how perfectly crafted it is.

 

[Xdqwerty Xdqwerty]

Deltarune is/will be better than Undertale

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It's good to pirate indie games aswell

 

[Questless Knight]

Early access is not as bad as people make it to be and I honestly trust early access games more than AAA games. Yes sure I had 2-3 games that´s been abandon.
But thanks to early acess I played bangers such as.
BG3
Subnautica
Palworld
SoulMask
Dawn of Defiance
Necesse
Terraria

So many good games has come from it.


Maybe that´s not a hot take but honestly I think Early access is better than people make it out to be. We just need to right caring companies that rely wanna make a good game.

 

[iamthemilkman]

Hollow Knight did nothing for me.

 

[Sir Auriel of Lionel]

I think if you pay into a Patreon for video game development I think you've made a more dumb decision than single pledge on crowd funding site, double if the game is a visual novel. I've seen a single VN sit on thousands a month from desperate under appreciated fans of visual novels that Japan for years ignored that too advantage of that to avoid putting out a complete product for 7 years. I've seen shitty VNs made with little to no budge with a lot of heart, plenty with cringe and then there's that one I see in my library that might never see completion on there thanks to Visa and Mastercard deciding they wanted be Karens screaming about saving the children who shouldn't even had the credit card access to begin with.

 

[GardeniaSky's icon GardeniaSky GardeniaSky]

Not everything has to be a fucking rogue-like/rogue-lite.

Give me a cohesive linear story with actual progress not your padding-time vague BULLSHIT.

 

[Sfjeov]

Sometimes, indie games calling themselves retro are too damm pretty and fluid that it's easy to tell that they don't feel retro at all.

 

[tizlor]

injecting whatever the current year humor is into games.

make it stop.

 

[Phage]

Not everything has to be a fucking rogue-like/rogue-lite.

Give me a cohesive linear story with actual progress not your padding-time vague BULLSHIT.

This so much, and I'm going to throw open world games under the bus here too.

I miss games with good stories, and roguelikes/open world games becoming the easy keywords for "all the gamers will buy this" has basically drowned the market in a bunch of games that have barely-there narratives to justify their existence, and if they could find a way to get away with not having a story at all, I feel like some of them would.

That's not to say that they're *all* bad either. The Mystery Dungeon franchise has birthed some of my favorite games of all time with fantastic stories across a myriad of franchises, both beloved and original, and they're almost textbook roguelikes.

The problem is, people seem afraid to make a dungeon crawler style game that *isn't* randomized in some way, but without some manner of structure, it's very hard to tell a good story. Too many roguelikes these days are going for the Hades/Cult of the Lamb style games with 1-4 dungeons that they expect you to run over and over and over again with not a ton of variety, expecting you to die multiple times before clearing, and then giving you a nugget of plot for the effort, with other bits scattered about that rely on random spawns in said dungeons that could be missed entirely if you're unlucky. Given, Hades and Cult of the Lamb managed to do this well, but they're well-known and loved for a reason while others... aren't.

Open world games are also victims of their own genre. Too many of them have taken "absolute freedom" as the basis of the genre and forgotten that it wasn't one single aspect that made that genre great in the first place. The reason open world games became popular was because a few really good ones with fantastic plots and lots of exploration blew up. Now the genre seems allergic to having any kind of meaningful story at all, because that would push too much implication onto your character and we can't have *that*. You have to be a completely blank slate, and free to go anywhere in the world from the word go, and characters can't interact with you too much, lest their dialogue impose characterization on you, and it ultimately just creates a bland, pointless experience that's huge and empty without a purpose.

Look back at games like Jak and Daxter on the PS2 and you can see an open world adventure that had strong characters, a great story, and a world built such that you could explore within the limits of your abilities, guiding you towards story events that gave you NEW abilities, allowing you to further explore the world and subtly funneling you towards the next story events without making you feel like you were restricted or forced. Good open world design can essentially be categorized as a sprawling 3D metroidvania. It's *okay* to not be able to run straight to the final dungeon, or scale the tallest mountain with nothing but a loincloth and a dream. It's fine to create an obstacle that the player can't surpass right away, because it gives them excitement to return later and find out what's past that mysterious boulder blocking the pass when they obtain an ability to break boulders.

Basically, both genres need to remember their roots and what specifically made the genre so popular to begin with. Randomization without purpose is just chaos for no reason. If I want a random game with no point, I can go play solitaire. If I play a video game, I want to feel like I'm accomplishing something, not just exploring a vast, empty world for no reason, or doing the same hard-as-nails dungeon over and over in the hopes that *this* clear will tell me why I'm doing it in the first place. Bring back structure in games. A bit of linearity is not a sin.

 

[Burzuru]

rouge-likes/lites
survival crafting
metroidvania
doom clones/boomershooters
simulation

its all so tiresome.

 

[Sunnyside]

-snip-

Perfectly said! I wish I could give this post 100 hearts. It's everything I hate about modern game design (monetization aside).

 

[Graves Ruinwalker]

-Most Indie-horror games either are Resident Evil-knock offs or Silent Hill -clones but in bland . Why not trying an entirely fresh concept ?

-Most Pseudo-Jrpgs are good-looking garbage with great pixelart but with bad stories and with more problems than JRPGs already . Sometimes even worsen the problems of JRPGs much more.

-Metroidvanias arent instantly fun just because of putting the souls-like combat into it.

-Soooooo many cancled games with great concepts can be found that never came to fruition and could be made into an own game to push boundaries as an indie-project . Why do we get another Doom Eternal-homage boomer shooter with generic Andrew Hulshut-metal soundtrack that can be ignored too like the thousands of others of tge same "Homages" ?

There are alot of underrated indie-games and some that actually try to have great gameplay and designs . But man ... how often im dissapointed with indies lately cant be bad luck alone .

 

[Burzuru]

-Metroidvanias arent instantly fun just because of putting the souls-like combat into it.

-Soooooo many cancled games with great concepts can be found that never came to fruition and could be made into an own game to push boundaries as an indie-project . Why do we get another Doom Eternal-homage boomer shooter with generic Andrew Hulshut-metal soundtrack that can be ignored too like the thousands of others of tge same "Homages" ?

i am so tired of souls combat

also the sequel to hypnospace outlaw, "dreamsettler" got canceled and i am so mad about that.

 

[kuroninneko]

Too many games are narrative driven. I dont have lots of time and dont feel like talking to every NPC to learn what Im supposed to do. I also think there are too many metroidvanias. I actually miss the old days of games with stages and instant action

 

[moonbits]

Why not trying an entirely fresh concept ?

At the end of the day; this is a product and it needs to sell. Spare me the theatrics of "gaming is art". There has to be some sort of revenue. And risking it all on something completely different is not gonna make profit, maybe in 20 years someone will make a Youtube video about it "X game was ahead of its time" and you'd probably be dead or in an asylum.

Nobody cares if its original, or unique or whatever as much as we plead for originality. At the end of the day, people will buy the souls slop, the resident clones and the boomer shooters.

Post automatically merged: Aug 10, 2025

Too many games are narrative driven.

Story and narrative have diluted game design more than anyone wants to admit.

 

[Graves Ruinwalker]

At the end of the day; this is a product and it needs to sell. Spare me the theatrics of "gaming is art". There has to be some sort of revenue. And risking it all on something completely different is not gonna make profit, maybe in 20 years someone will make a Youtube video about it "X game was ahead of its time" and you'd probably be dead or in an asylum.

Nobody cares if its original, or unique or whatever as much as we plead for originality. At the end of the day, people will buy the souls slop, the resident clones and the boomer shooters.

Tbh , im not for the statement that games are art .

More Creative-works that are for Entertainment but its more than art .
The same goes ,for example, Trading card games. These aint art but a entertaiment product that has art-pictures used in functional cards for a card game . Its more than art .

And that games are just products reflects perfectly to todays instances how wrecked the gaming industry is thanks to oversaturation of souls-likes and stuff with such varying quality between horrible till mediocre . With exceptions but the majority aint worth the look .

Without unique spins and approaches -> no enthusiasm towards gaming -> no interest -> no demand -> no supply .

Classic marketing rules (capitalism) .

 

[tizlor]

Tbh , im not for the statement that games are art .

More Creative-works that are for Entertainment but its more than art .
The same goes ,for example, Trading card games. These aint art but a entertaiment product that has art-pictures used in functional cards for a card game . Its more than art .

And that games are just products reflects perfectly to todays instances how wrecked the gaming industry is thanks to oversaturation of souls-likes and stuff with such varying quality between horrible till mediocre . With exceptions but the majority aint worth the look .

Without unique spins and approaches -> no enthusiasm towards gaming -> no interest -> no demand -> no supply .

Classic marketing rules (capitalism) .

Not an indie take, but a take: The gaming is art crowd suck ass.

 

[Deleted member 819841]

Undertale is better than deltarune
now im wanted 9stars

 

[Graves Ruinwalker]

Not an indie take, but a take: The gaming is art crowd suck ass.

Off-topic:
Its not that they suck , rather its mostly taken as self-explained and a fact which are seen as impossible to debunk .

Ignorance would be the fitting answer . While there are people that give actual good arguments why games are art , most of them dont have any and dont see its worth to discuss about , what really irks me the most .

 

[SylvanSwordstress]

I absolutely ADORE Super Metroid and the FromSoftware games, but I've never been drawn to play "Metroidvanias" or "Soulslikes." I'm not against them, but there's too many out there and I never feel like they capture what makes the original games great.

 

[Phage]

Too many games are narrative driven. I dont have lots of time and dont feel like talking to every NPC to learn what Im supposed to do. I also think there are too many metroidvanias. I actually miss the old days of games with stages and instant action

I don't think I've ever read a post here that I disagree with more. Narratives are overwhelmingly trash today, either being barely there, poorly structured, or way too rushed. There are plenty of games that aren't narrative focused, but let's stop blaming a good story for bad games. If there's too much story for you, it's simply not the game for you. Similarly, there are plenty of games that I might enjoy if they had a bit more narrative bite, but when they don't I simply don't care to continue playing it because it's just empty gameplay loops.

I also adore metroidvanias, but too many games these days try to do this without having anything unique too offer, or by leaning too hard on souls-like difficulty instead of just being a good game. If people want souls-like games, there are souls-likes. The two genres need to be untangled, and with a quickness. Again though, if you don't like metroidvanias, don't play them. Some genres just aren't for everyone. I don't like FPS, or realistic racing games, or RTS, so I don't play them. If metroidvania isn't your jam, fine, but saying "there are too many" when other people like them is just being short-sighted and self-centered.

I'll give you, there's plenty of room for classic retro-style titles, and I'd enjoy those myself. I used to have a blast replaying Toejam and Earl: Panic on Funkotron, or Super Mario World, or Sonic 3 & Knuckles, or any number of side-scrolling platformers, as well as a good chunk of 3D platformers/adventure games in the N64/PS1/PS2 era, like Gex, Glover, Mario 64, Sonic Adventure and the like. The thing is, there's room for *all* of this.

*The* thing that got me into gaming as a kid though? Stories. I loved a good narrative and got sucked into RPGs because of it. One of the biggest drawbacks of games today as far as I'm concerned is actually a LACK of narrative, or an aversion to it by developers. I already went into plenty of detail on that in my post above about rogue-likes and open world games, so I'm not gonna repeat a rant here. Suffice to say, if you don't like narratives, there are plenty of boomer shooters, side scrollers, open world survival crafting games, and other genres aside from the ones you don't like that are right there for the taking, that have little to no story so you can get your fix. Meanwhile, some of us are starved for stories to give our gaming sessions some meaning, and that's why games like Clair Obscur absolutely explode in popularity when they drop, because you just don't get that anymore.

Ultimately, you gotta play what speaks to you, but complaining about too much story or too many games of a genre you don't like is like saying that just because you don't like it, nobody should be able to enjoy it. I don't complain about the 50th shooter to drop this year just because I don't play them. I complain about games that I *want* to enjoy, but fail to live up to promises. I stick to what I like, and it doesn't bother me that others are getting things *they* like.

 

[kuroninneko]

I don't think I've ever read a post here that I disagree with more. Narratives are overwhelmingly trash today, either being barely there, poorly structured, or way too rushed. There are plenty of games that aren't narrative focused, but let's stop blaming a good story for bad games. If there's too much story for you, it's simply not the game for you. Similarly, there are plenty of games that I might enjoy if they had a bit more narrative bite, but when they don't I simply don't care to continue playing it because it's just empty gameplay loops.

I also adore metroidvanias, but too many games these days try to do this without having anything unique too offer, or by leaning too hard on souls-like difficulty instead of just being a good game. If people want souls-like games, there are souls-likes. The two genres need to be untangled, and with a quickness. Again though, if you don't like metroidvanias, don't play them. Some genres just aren't for everyone. I don't like FPS, or realistic racing games, or RTS, so I don't play them. If metroidvania isn't your jam, fine, but saying "there are too many" when other people like them is just being short-sighted and self-centered.

I'll give you, there's plenty of room for classic retro-style titles, and I'd enjoy those myself. I used to have a blast replaying Toejam and Earl: Panic on Funkotron, or Super Mario World, or Sonic 3 & Knuckles, or any number of side-scrolling platformers, as well as a good chunk of 3D platformers/adventure games in the N64/PS1/PS2 era, like Gex, Glover, Mario 64, Sonic Adventure and the like. The thing is, there's room for *all* of this.

*The* thing that got me into gaming as a kid though? Stories. I loved a good narrative and got sucked into RPGs because of it. One of the biggest drawbacks of games today as far as I'm concerned is actually a LACK of narrative, or an aversion to it by developers. I already went into plenty of detail on that in my post above about rogue-likes and open world games, so I'm not gonna repeat a rant here. Suffice to say, if you don't like narratives, there are plenty of boomer shooters, side scrollers, open world survival crafting games, and other genres aside from the ones you don't like that are right there for the taking, that have little to no story so you can get your fix. Meanwhile, some of us are starved for stories to give our gaming sessions some meaning, and that's why games like Clair Obscur absolutely explode in popularity when they drop, because you just don't get that anymore.

Ultimately, you gotta play what speaks to you, but complaining about too much story or too many games of a genre you don't like is like saying that just because you don't like it, nobody should be able to enjoy it. I don't complain about the 50th shooter to drop this year just because I don't play them. I complain about games that I *want* to enjoy, but fail to live up to promises. I stick to what I like, and it doesn't bother me that others are getting things *they* like.

Its a thread called hot takes so dont get all upset. And youre talking to someone who plays a ton of retro & modern rpgs. The fun ones would allow the player the ability to freely get into the game, explore the world, and the combat system would take strategy. The balance of narrative and gameplay was done right. Also Clair Obscur is a good example of a narrative game done right but it does feel rare today. Its obvious theres room for all types of games yet too many promising games get ruined by long cutscenes, locking player's movement to only forward (before watching another scene), fetch quests, press A to win situations, or find the right npc to continue. I think youre being assumptious and reading way too far into what I said with your own opinions but I guess thats whats gonna happen in the hot takes thread.