This hasnt been a major issue for me tbh, or at least its not in the majority of games I play. I think it mostly happenes with some jRPGs. Its one of the reasons I dont replay Persona 5. I feel it takes forever before I can actually get into the action.

Unlike the goated Elden Ring that has the simplest and straightforward of tutorial scenarios - and its actually optional. You can start bonking things right away whenever you replay. Its just so good.

Yes, that's where the AAA industry went. Going back and working your way up to modern times from the Atari, you can see it inching there every single gen. I would say for me, gaming peaked with the PS2 generation. That was when 3D was fully realized. After that, it was basically refining the same formula, and we're still doing it; still stuck in the mud, rehashing and re-releasing ideas and entire games from a time when mind-blowing innovation was around every corner, and every new system was like discovering a new continent.

I feel bad for kids these days.

They'll never know.

It's because gaming went from a nerdy hobby to mainstream. And with how many games are available, many of the biggest being free to play, devs have to hand hold new players, otherwise they'll lose interest and just go to other games.

I never got past the tutorial in RDR2. Get on with it already.

For games where the narrative plays a big part and is good I don't mind a slow paced start to get you introduced to the world and characters though a thrilling start is usually better and if it's not a big part and it's just a overly long hand holding tutorial then yeah that's always annoying. I've been playing BG3 again lately and considering how complex of a game that is it does a really good job with this since after a cool few minute opening cinematic you're dropped right into the 1st dungeon and for a tutorial dungeon it works very well since you get to experience combat almost right away and the tutorial isn't hand holdy with it letting you mainly figure out things for yourself.

It'll take most people 30-60 minutes the first time but if you're replaying the game and just wanna get to the end of the dungeon and properly start the adventure you can breeze through it once you know what you're doing so a good example of a complex narrative focused game not babying players. Also I'm curious so Curl what game are you referring to?

No specific game; yesterday I started Hyrule Warriors Age of Imprisonment and as soon as I got my copy home my first thought was "okay, first things first, let's get all the intro bullshit out of the way so I can actually sit down and play it properly tonight" and I realized then that wow, it kinda sucks that this has become my routine with each new game, that they often take so long to actually get started.

I despise Kingdom Hearts 2's tedious opening with boring Roxas! It goes on and on and on, let me play as Sora, Donald and Goofy already. 

Weren't you referring to a specific one in the OP? You said one recently took nearly an hour of BS before it let you off the leash. It seems like playing older games could be a good change of pace to get away from that routine for a stretch.

That was a little while back, but that one was The Evil Within 2; good game, but the intro really dragged. 

If I didn't love the story of Persona 4 so much, it would be unbearable at the start. You have virtually no gameplay for the first two hours.