I would say that map size never was "most important", at least not to the players, they've been complaining about huge but empty maps for years (the poster child of this, AC Odyssey was released in 2018, six years ago). It was just something devs and publishers pushed to one up each other in some kind of "bigger = better" way.

[–] andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

One another wound Minecraft opened in CEOs vision of gaming. Another one is everything should have some crafting.

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 17 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I'm so sick of action rpgs including crafting or an endless list of slightly different weapons. Give me a small mix of situational weapons at most and let the gameplay be how difficulty works.

[–] andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 days ago

They don't need to work on difficulties that long if you can just craft over it lol.

[–] Aviandelight@mander.xyz 2 points 3 days ago

I feel like Fantasy Life did this the best though. I absolutely loved this game and wish it would get a port to PC.