Tales From Windy Meadow - fantasy pixel art Visual Novel

[BeerDrinkingBurke]

Haha, yeah that is Doc for you. ;-)
"I'd generally say that more people will connect with an interesting, relatable character in a tired, cliche setting than with a boring trope-heavy character in a unique setting. The setting may be fascinating for a writer, but it can rarely deliver a punch."
That's a really good way of putting it.

[Jubal]

The setting I guess is more front-loaded: I won't often pick up a game for a character, because that relies on me both knowing the character and knowing the writers well enough to be sure it'll have that kind of quality. So I wonder if the lore is sometimes analogous to the outer parts of a sandwich: it's the bit you start people off with, and it's the depth bit underneath that you can dive into, whereas the character really provides the core narrative enjoyment in the middle?

[BeerDrinkingBurke]

That's a nice metaphor.

I think the setting can be distinguished from the lore in some way. For example, Dark Souls has a very evocative setting, but lore in terms of actually conveyed details about the history of the world is limited to mostly item descriptions and a few choice dialogue lines.