Mysterious, thoughtful games? A genre I can't define

Nina
Fri, 09 Jun 2023 23:15:25 +0000

Hello everyone,

I have been craving a sort of game genre, but I'm not quite sure what it is or if it really exists as a genre at all.
It is a game with a lot of existential twists to it. I could call it Mystery though I feel it falls short.
The main story tends to be a complete upheaval of what we thought was the basic premise. Think of it like paradigm shift: the game.
They also tend to be games that you can really only play once. Lucky for me my memory is horrible.

So far I came up with these games:

Outer Wilds

Enderal (which is a "total conversion mod for Skyrim", but an amazing game)

The Forgotten City

Paradise Killer

Most of these have some kind of cycle involved in them, but I'm not sure if that's coincidental. All of them have you learn how the world works and it's never really what you first expected.
They tend to be light in battle, which is probably a skill issue bias on my part.

Honorary mention to:

Strange Horticulture

Horizon Zero Dawn, but the sequel less so (although still a very good game)

The Zero Escape series, although I haven't played the first one yet

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (as it really breaks away expectations you got from earlier games too, and the existential dread is dripping off it)

Nier Automata

Doki Doki Literature Club

Do you know any others? Or do you know a good match to this list?
What do you think kind of links all this? Feel like playing one of these games?

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