SoTC was a game entirely designed around clambering over and killing giant creatures, though. The average dev isn't going to be able to allocate all those resources, especially in AAA games where you need a hundred sidequests and a 35 hour branching story mode.
All of things you described about AAA gaming is large part of what's wrong with it and makes it feel homogeneous. All you've done is reinforce my belief that games should do more different things and not be afraid to take the occasional risk.
They won't because AAA game development costs have soared into the hundreds of millions of dollars, no one wants to take big gambles on new game mechanics with that kind of money on the line so they are inclined to make "safe" choices borrowed from other successful games.
It's the same reason why 90% of new movies out of Hollywood are from existing franchises.
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u/Hearthhull_Enjoyer Aug 14 '26
I've always been a fan of how Shadow of the Collosus handled gargantuan boss fights.