I'd think Player Agency is a contender - horror spans a spectrum within survival/action where you are more or less powerful in the setting, some very clearly want the game to do things to the player, and vice versa

I think it feels better in a game where setup/tempo matter, when an ambush gives the enemy some free time to buff / start a charge / etc, or you have to get your own party back in formation

You might be able to leverage party shuffling depending on how integral the character positions are

"Not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine that one day I would paint a picture of hot Bowser for official material, announced by Miyamoto himself. 😭 I laughed so hard in disbelief while painting, you have no idea lol"

I really liked Lost Odyssey for treating most dialogue like the characters were ACTUALLY talking to each other. They'd speak over each others' lines sometimes, or mumble in the background while someone else is speaking

it feels wrong to say something like Devil May Cry is retro, even though I believe it is.

My test has been a mix of the vibes/intent (Blasphemous is retro) and "what would my niece say" (Wind Waker is retro)

I can identify that "retro" means "stuff I grew up with, when everything was shiny and new" and therefore it ends at GC/PS2 era. Once those consoles hit, I was making my own money and could just have things, and then I became jaded. It's emotional reasoning & that's why I don't think I'm right

Stronger Enemies is what I'm on right now, and there are a couple roadblocks in the form of bosses that you have to fight when neither you or they have many mechanics, so it just does 3/4 hp per attack and might be fast enough to get a second turn. Still totally manageable but it could be a turnoff

I'm going to perform drastic TOS-appropriate acts on myself

I had thought I found a good solution, but I noticed that Heliodor's night music was still playing synth. I have yet to try disabling the mod + making sure 'Orchestral' is selected in settings, but I auto-assume that's not good enough

I did the aforementioned PC asset swap (looks good, barely took any effort), and I'm trying a few things out to get the highest-quality OST recordings 'cause that part really matters to me. Just started a new file yesterday, actually.