Ever fired up a massive open world game, only to feel overwhelmed before you even finish the tutorial? You're not alone. James Wragg, lead developer of indie RPG Entropy, totally gets it. He's pointed to "open world fatigue" as a big reason his team at Lovely Hellplace is borrowing from the classics. And he's got a point: "PS1, PS2, GameCube games really never outstayed their welcome," he says.
Lovely Hellplace is all about that retro vibe. Their 2024 game Dread Delusion was like a stripped-down Morrowind, and Entropy is a classic JRPG with some PC gaming DNA spliced in. Both are crunchy and polygonal as hell, but the retro love goes deeper than looks. It's about design that respects your time.
Wragg himself has admitted he's never beaten Breath of the Wild. Whenever he plays, he just wants to revisit 2002's Wind Waker instead. That feeling hits home for a lot of us. I've never beaten BotW a second time after getting all the shrines on my first playthrough (I was unemployed). Lately, I've been ditching Elden Ring for the far more snackable Bloodborne and Sekiro. Even Fallout can be wrapped up in about 12 hours if you focus.
And get this: Dread Delusion was open world, but it's a dense map with a roughly 15-20 hour runtime. So it's not about avoiding open worlds entirely—it's about making them tight and satisfying. These days, I'm way more likely to drop a game before the credits than to finish it and wish there was more. And honestly, the latter feeling is way better.
There will always be a place for long runners and sprawling open worlds. But not everybody gets to be Cyberpunk 2077 or Fallout: New Vegas, and that's what makes them special. Entropy, meanwhile, feels like it has a massive world, at least from the slice of map we've seen. But being able to evoke scale without overstaying its welcome is something Lovely Hellplace already nailed in Dread Delusion.
If you're intrigued by Entropy and Wragg's approach to design, you can check out its free demo or $12 early access on Steam. It's a chance to see how classic-inspired design holds up in a modern indie RPG.
What do you think? Are you tired of bloated open worlds, or do you still love getting lost in them? Will you be picking up Entropy?
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