This whole discussion reminded me of this game - SEASON: A letter to the future
One can learn from it that when the world ends, another one begins. It does not negate all the tragedy, broken dreams, suffering, violence, etc. It’s also a kind of a curse because all mistakes will be made again at some point, all achievements will be lost inevitably. But at least the life goes on
Let me translate from corporate language: “We see that LOTR is a huge franchise with a lot of devoted fans and it wasn’t compromised yet in any serious sense. So it’s a gold mine right here. We need to squeeze every cent from it in any way imaginable and let the remains rot while we’re moving to the next mine”. Whatever they will do, LOTR is and will be great
The game is just wonderful. Gameplay, style, lore, story, quests, dialogs - all done very well. It has a certain nice unique feel to it too - reminiscent of a lot of old (J)RPGs, but also fresh. The only drawback is that it can be pretty hard at certain points, but it’s also part of the charm. You try, learn, overcome and end up satisfied. Having said that, I actually play this game in several week sessions switching to something else in between them cause I become irritated by hard parts after some time. Still have to finish A New Home DLC. But it’s always great to come back when there’s nothing interesting to play. Feels like home, a lot like Death Stranding in that sense
God, I want a new game though