The type of game that when you recommend it, you have to clarify they need to play a few hours before they'll understand.
To me, many JRPGs have this problem. Xenoblade, Final Fantasy (14 especially), Tales, Kiseki, etc all take forever to get interesting.
Dragon's Dogma.
So much of the early game tricks you into thinking that you're playing a pretty run of the mill RPG (if admittedly kinda boring), so very few players get to the later parts were it goes fully off the rails.
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Yeah dragons dogma felt like a prototype for a real game. I have trouble getting into it for a lot of reasons, though from what I've seen the late game seems to be way more dungeon crawly and atmospheric than the walking across the open-world forever.
This might just be me misinterpreting the story, but I always thought the bit at the end where
spoiler
You kill god during a fight where he reveals that everyone you met during your adventures are just as mindless as the pawns ultimately.
Was kinda getting at the plot twist that you were expecting.
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