Not everyone likes every genre of game - so here’s my grouped list:
The “I’m a nerd and like to build things and I like to watch lava lamps flow”
Factorio
The “I enjoy tough but fair games that I can totally become OP in once I figure it out”
Elden Ring
The “I just want to chill” game
Stardew Valley
The “I like to build things” game
minecraft
Honorable mention-Terraria
The “Metroidvania” game
Hollow Knight
The “Arpg” game
Diablo 2
Honorable mention - PoE
The “I like action and smashing things in an open world” game
Neir Automata
Honorable mention - God of war (play one of the originals so you can 1st hate the remake, and then get to THAT point, and then happily eat crow and let Kratos be your baby daddy.
I managed to get into Stardew after some insistence, but I also struggled with this for a long time and I know exactly why in my case after coming back to harvest moon for a bit: the player character is too slow. You spend soooo much time walking and unlike HM/RF you don’t have a sprint button, so everything becomes more stressful to do.
Yeah you're running by default but it can easily take an in-game hour to get anywhere. When you're done with the plants or animals you have to race to get to the shops in order to be there before closing. Especially the blacksmith
See, after one year everything repeats indefinitely. You literally can’t miss anything. So there’s actually infinite time. If you’re stressing out like “omg spring is gone and I didn’t grow abc”. That’s what’s supposed to happen - you’ll grow it next spring.
Yup. There’s a story reason for it. It’s actually part of the charm of the game. But that first bit (which should be an intro cake walk, but isn’t) is a bad design choice IMO.
I have it. I don’t know why, but it won’t sink its claws into me. It’s a great game but something isn’t clicking for me. Most people like it though from what I can tell.
I would say, if you're interested, the best way to see if it clicks is to give it's best system it's best chance. Which IMO is the skill spec. Find a class with a spell you like, give it a few points to transform and if it's not getting you by then it never will.
For me it's a perfect middle ground. More complex than Diablo but not as over the top as PoE. Not for everyone though, I totally respect that.