Out of curiosity have you played Tunic?  I thought discovery and collectibles were superb.  Really good game.  

Regarding random, Hades nailed it.  Amazing game.  One of my all time favorites.  Upgrades are random so there is no copying internet short cuts.

Both Tunic and Hades are games I have my eyes on. My issue is the lack of time to play games :P

Fully understand.  So many games I haven't gotten too.  I would recommend both.  I found both unique and stand out among the crowd.  Both have their own thing going, which works wells.  Tunic is particular is very NES Zelda like.  Nothing is explained when you embark.  

Yeah..good luck with that lol

They look at Fortnite and PUBG or a game like The Last of Us and Grand Theft Auto - and go from there unfortunately.

I just wanted to say this is a great thread so far.

I wanna read it all! But I’ve been so busy with work (70 hours this week, on location, rather than in my office). I’m going to need time to get through it (still short on time today). Everyone has great perspectives so far.
I really enjoy the community here.

I don't know how else to say this. 0_0

Friend, there people in the industry calling out the effects of graphic wars and monetization schemes are effect on the creativity on industry. Are they wrong too?

When I say resting; I don't mean slowing down hahahaha. I mean "Resting on their Laurels" AKA: They are over dependent on a few IP to a point of complacency. 

When I say different genres; I don't mean take Final Fantasy Brand and do this:

Final Fantasy RPG

Final Fantasy Action Game

Final Fantasy Fighter 

Final Fantasy Visual Novel

Final Fantasy Souls game

Too much Final Fantasy.

Here is what I mean; We'll use CAPCOM as an example;

Fighter - Street Fighter 

RPG - Dragon Dogma

Platformer - Mega Man

Action game - Onimusha 

Visual Novel - Ace Attorney

Shooter - Resident Evil 

Action Adventure - Okami

It doesn't even have to be those games. The point is that there is 7 Genres and there is a unique IP for EACH genre. Every publisher should have at least 8 different active IP's to rotate between. The industry is currently very factory like.

You misunderstood the Dragon Ball message(There is to much Dragon Ball, not to little), but how do sit there and list AAALLL those Dragon games in just 10 years(Most all fighters) and not say, "Thats a lot of Dragon Ball".

Broad question can only give you broad answers. There are definitely aspects of gaming as of late that could be considered a "never been a better time to be a gamer" moment :

- Never has been easier to hop into cheap worthwhile experiences to get your social fix or "waste time" like on your phone. Massive GAAS games are part of the landscape indefinitely for the better or worse.

- The sheer numbers of games available at any given time in any given genre you desire. It is simply overwhelmingly huuuuge !

- Nintendo as a whole this generation with the Switch got out of their creative/game production drought and gave us what is debatably their best generation to date.

- From an empirical perspective, gaming is just a fact of life now and the sub culture of gamers/nerds from the time is now accepted as the defacto vision. Mix media projects of video games into other medias being so incredibly successful is even more proof of it.

Of course, there's more I haven't said or thought but now ... There's the bad that came from the last few decades where the culture of development and it's corporatization grew as a whole :

- GAAS. The concept of it and it's main popular figures have remediably changed the landscape of how most consume/play the medium now. Considering what is at its center of it, money. Such a concentration of capital and success was of course gonna morph the way games are being pitched, created and the end products we get. In some cases, gems are born, in othera the most corporatist capitalist dystopian venture that any human could imagine, devoid of any semblance of actual human ingeniosity. Only produced for a means to an end.

- The race to upscale the productions of any given games to budgetary proportions untold and scope to justify it has rendered part of the industry to it's knees and advert to actual experimentation and new ideas because knowdays a single failure can put a demise on your lifehood. It doesn't need a genius to have seen whatever has been happening during those last two years with the unprecedented layoff numbers and studio closure that occured even by the biggest player in the field like Microsoft and Sony.

- Over reliance on online and digital goods. Not about to get into a debate on physical vs digital here but nonetheless, we win by having access to all these options at once, not forsaking one or the other. Given the presence of only-online games being shut down at any given noticeable and the absurdity of licensing agreements. Ownership is something gamers should want for.

Others things could be said, but I'll keep it at that for now

People in the industry =/= actual consumers who purchase the products

Personally I'd take the whole list you gave of Final Fantasy over the capcom list except for Street Fighter and Resident Evil - and majority of people see the same, not with the same IPs but just in general. You'd be surprised how many people are out there that only play or buy 2-3 games (GTA Online, Fortnite, PUBG, etc)

Obviously the majority of consumers are okay with it which is why corporations dont make as much new IPs and just expand current big IPs to different genres like Final Fantasy and Mario or introduce services which give these companies more money than they ever made before i.e. GTA Online.

While there are others that try to chase the cash cows that are GaaS games but fail because when you have an existing IP that is already in control of the market, its hard to top them. Which is why Sony's Concord failed, which is why Square Enix's Foamstars failed, etc.

It might make you upset knowing that but its reality, these specific companies dont care for new IPs, they care about their pockets being filled.

But to say there's no creativity in the entire industry and not many new IPs is absurd.

Your favorite Japanese companies focusing on 2-3 IPs instead of 7-8, those days are gone and I dont see it coming back unless those same IPs sell as much as Monster Hunter or GTA. I mean look at Mega Man and its creator, same with Final Fantasy and its creator.

You want new IPs or newer/fresher experiences, you need to look outside of what you are engaged into. There are so many clones of existing IPs that are completely dormant/dead from big name IPs/companies and there are so many new unique IPs and games coming out as well.

Personally not my cup of tea (about the indie games) but I'll take a 100 more Final Fantasy, Mario, Pokemon, Zelda, Kingdom Hearts, etc games over anything else lol.

Edit: As a fan of Dragon Ball, I'll take them all. Sadly didnt get to experience the first few games listed because they were PS3/X360 games. But after playing Xenoverse and Fighterz - and about to start on Kakarot soon, I cant wait for more.

(Still need to get Sparking Zero, been wanting a new Budokai style Dragon Ball game since Budokai Tenkaichi 3 on Wii - and now that there's more to the anime series and manga - its an awesome time to be a Dragon Ball fan).

GaaS isn't a negative to players who are into them, hell many don't mind spending money cause it's one or two games that they play. Yeah, it's shit for getting kids addicted and stuff but that's not the point of the thread. GaaS gamers are having a whale of a time, no pun intended, they love that shit.

...okay, maybe pun intended. 

It's nice to see the passion and yeah, it has been an enjoyable thread with people reasoning out balanced approaches. I don't agree with some takes but I understand them and get where people are coming from. I suppose all in all it isn't really a true or false question and much more nuanced and subjective.