Gaming

The other annoyance I have is stories getting further and further divided to “build up lore”.

I still feel a good story is told in a single package. With good writing, they can plan to expand with sequels without harming their first narrative, but messes like Kingdom Hearts where you’re constantly hyped for a conclusion should be shamed as sequel bait that they are.

Granted, I have fallen afoul of this in my own writing, but only after discovering I’d breached an expected word limit. JRPGs, meanwhile, seem to work to stuff as many extraneous, irrelevant scenes as they can to justify one package that barely contributes to a narrative.

A shoutout to Ace Attorney - while they’ve built up little character threads through the series, they’re still pretty dedicated to starting and ending an arc in one game.