itch.io

Considering how many "Roleplaying games" even on this site lack any actual roleplay elements like Baldur's gate 3 has in spades from custom builds to get through combat and rewarding you for creative thinking like tricking a minotaur to jump off a cliff to get to you for an easier fight or even bypassing some encounters completely by just exploring using the tools provided, yes most people really don't understand what RPGs are and don't care to commit to taking their own story seriously. Then act surprised when the audience rightly doesn't either. They don't leave the immersion destroying and 4th wall breaking inside jokes for Easter eggs or the audience and their friends like what used to happen naturally if people liked a game well enough. Nope they dump that nonsense right in the middle of the main plot and keep forcing that garbage.

Video games and RPG's especially, are an interactive medium and most RPG's and Visual Novels masquerading as "RPG's" don't get that. Especially Visual novels or developer's insistence on constant speedbumps and exposition dumps. Even in a 2D written format where you literally don't have to illustrate anything sometimes. Its just pure laziness when its "GO FORWARD" as the only option in dialogue. May as well remove that completely and save the player a few seconds.

DDLC was the one exception I've found where a VN had actual RPG elements and actually engaged the player in any meaningful way with Monika and going through the game files for her. The player being talked at the whole time like some third party overhearing a group's conversations is not "RPG" material at all and would better fit a book.

This site hosts a ton of unfinished projects and a lot of the work I've been seeing over the years at a casual glance is uninspired garbage primarily made by cliques of children/shitposters or patreon/discord scammers who have this unspoken belief that its criminal to have any real imagination or original lines of thought. While of course being solely motivated by money. Not wanting to make something cool for the hell of it and that's a bonus if they can monetize it too. The very different mindset that built this industry decades ago.