Another one I can think of is Breath of The Wild, and probably Mario Odyssey. I've also heard good things about the FF7 remake, but haven't played it.
“can you help me?”
“only if you complete this task that makes you look like a bad ass”
repeated 8 times
Sure there's a formula, but few stories, if any at all, are original in their foundations. Their success seems to be more in the execution of such story/production and immersion of audiences.
Or is it more of an issue of the predictability in knowing what the "quest" objectives and items are, and from that extrapolating the outcome? Imo, both cases are understandable, as many times the main story quests can feel on rails/going through the motions, but again those quests seem to be more about the audience's immersion (including player playthrough/execution in games) in the modeled experience.
Tldr: I totally understand your point, and can agree to an extent. Though I believe one can find enjoyment in well curated/executed experiences/productions/writing/immersion, rather than seeking "originality" in story telling, as on rails/predictable as they can be
1) Thematically feels like Star Wars and ties into the established world, and
2) Meets the minimal standard for good writing/storytelling.
"I'll allow it."
Even though the formula is simple, the events didn’t feel predictable to me.
And I could easily imagine more complex plot that would be less satisfying to watch.
This is all I've been thinking throughout the series. The writing is damn good, the character development is on point, it's not forceful (no pun intended) or disingenuous in trending social themes, cinematography is amazing, great casting, it's immersive in keeping to canon. It's something you can point to and say, "That's Star Wars".
One could only wish those two get a shot at making the full lengths.
https://www.thewrap.com/the-mandalorian-ahsoka-tano-star-war...
Incredibly well executed and fantastic characters.
Disney dropped the ball on every single thing other than R1 and Mandalorian.
1. Rogue One 2. Revenge of The Sith 3. Empire Strikes Back
I think most of my actual exposure was through toys and advertising. The movies were only on TV every couple of years. I remember listening to Star Wars on the radio
Playing it at the moment, and I'm nearly done with it. I think it's a great game. Its' beautiful, and has a nice mix of carrying forward old storylines and settings and mixing in new things. It also made a lot of characters more authentic to me than the original one - e.g. the turks felt more like real bad guys. Aerith character is great too.
What I'm not too sure about is whether it was the right decision to stretch the Midgar part of the story that much (I'm already at 45 hours in chapter 17). The original FF7 had a lot more places to offer, and climbing up a buildling or moving through sewers or tunnels for 2 hours isn't that exciting compared to that.