Originally Posted by
Wolf Kanno
Trial and Error Gameplay - I blame this on my early roots of gaming being in the arcade scene so I'm usually not as discouraged by cheap deaths brought upon by needing to memorize the level layout, enemy placement, or boss patterns. I feel it's why my recent marathon of Demon's Souls, Dark Souls and Bloodborne was pretty positive overall. It's also why I don't really mind when a MegaTen game decides to cut me down to size cause I'm taking too many risks or not pre-planning the eventual run in with instant death magic that works.
Silent Protagonist - I've seen them done well, I've seen them done poorly, they don't really bother me.
Obvious Gameplay Mechanic Handicaps - No I'm not talking about the terrible out of nowhere stealth mission, I'm talking about things like a Stamina Gauge to limit your running or climbing, breakable gear, things like Vagrant Story's Risk System. If it makes sense and the trade-off works, I don't mind these types of handicaps. Again, I've seen some of these done well and some of them done poorly, but many games I really like actually incorporate these types of elements and I feel it makes the game richer for it. I feel it only fails when the mechanic seriously hampers the flow of the game even when you are playing well, and thus you can't really improve your situation.