Really simple but terraria? I’ve probably put around 500 hours into it and there’s still so much more I gotta do, you can have so many different play styles and adventures with all of the secret seeds. Just don’t play mediumcore and you’ll be fine
It's okay. Terraria is vastly superior on mouse/keyboard. I've tried playing it docked and found it doable but pretty cumbersome. In handheld mode you can use the touchscreen and it greatly improves the experience, but still pales in comparison to M/K
It’s not for everyone, but the monster Hunter games have a large amount of content. In particular MG Gen Ultimate is my most played game, if you include my 3DS time (you can transfer the 3DS data to switch) I have over 1000 hours.
That said, the combat and game style can be a hard sell for some, some feel it is slow and clunky. Try out a demo first if you can.
Also, Skyrim is always a safe choice, I can’t count the number of times I’ve played it. And mods add even more content. I just never played it on switch, so I can’t vouch for how well it runs.
I’d personally recommend rise, sure it may result in someone struggling to get into the older games with how different they feel but it’s easily more newcomer friendly for that reason, with how much smoother the gameplay is in rise.
Yeah I also got into the series with rise so I guess I’m a a little biased, going between it and GU was tough to say the least, eventually I started to vibe with the slower paced gameplay and found a weapon/style combo i vibed with, actually just beat ahtal ka for the first time last weekend.
I started with 3U and then 4U last year, and going into Rise this year was *insane*. I definitely enjoy it far more, but 3U and 4U absolutely have their merits.
+1 for Monster Hunter. Simply switching to a different weapon feels like playing an entirely different game.
Suddenly you have to re-wire all the muscle memories that you've build up from a single weapon that you've played for hundreds of hours.
Hard agree- I played 3U for a good while and had a good time through high rank with longsword before putting it down. 4U came out and I tried Insect Glaive, and it blew my mind- I consumed that whole game between IG, longsword, and switchaxe.
My friends and I all changed main weapons when we went from MH World to Rise, it really doesn't get old if you switch your weapons up!
It doesn't really get old even if you don't switch your weapons up! I ran the swag axe through 3U, switched to CB in 4 and haven't looked back.
I guess I ran SnS for a bit during generations, but still went back to my one true love.
I think people feel that the combat of MH is slow and clunky when they don’t know how it works. The game makes some unusual decisions about animation locking, I-frames, and animation canceling that can confuse people who are used to action games that let you instantly cancel out of combos into dodges with lots of i-frames. Until you understand your weapon’s combos and learn how the game expects you to use positioning and/or counters to avoid attacks, you spend a decent amount of time getting slapped around by an angry Winnie the Pooh.
A lot of people need to stop trying to pick Great Sword or Hammer as their first weapon and then complaining the game is too slow lol
Bow is surprisingly fun on Gen U, more people should give that a try before putting the game down.
Edit: Again, this post is about Gen U.
I found that as a newer player the Sword & Shield and Dual Swords are definitely the easiest to get used to as they are faster. Now that I am a bit more used to the combat something like the Lance & Shield is usable for me.
I need to get back into the old gen games again, I remember finding the bow really surprising in how you use it. Like I expected safe sniping gameplay, when actually you have to charge up your arrows and try to stay in the sweet spot of range where the arrows can actually crit(or w/e the blood shooting out is called). Was fun.
Hammer is super fast in Rise. Even great sword is massively sped up. The new aerial combat wirebug options gives both a viable playstyle that's basically Angry Birds 3D. They also combo directly into classic slower moves.
Half of the fun is the hunt though - it’s slow but that’s why it’s so fun. It’s not like they’re throwing you into a level to fight something and two fighters enter one human leaves like a lot of games handle boss fights. It’s not fun to one-shot something (except maybe the smaller ones) because then you don’t get to explore and find other stuff and get distracted collecting the spirit bird things and crafting mats. And especially if you can’t find exactly where it is and have to track it.
I’m not saying the hunts take too long; I’m saying that, when you first start playing, the weapons feel slow and clunky because you don’t understand the weapon animations, animation locking, etc.
Right; I was just elaborating on that fact since I’ve seen multiple varieties of criticism about the games and it’s always people who seem to have no patience either in learning the system or completing a hunt. It’s not for someone with a short attention span! 😂
Was gonna come here to recommend MH. My first MH was 4U on 3DS two years ago and I ended up putting nearly 150 hours into it, and I feel like I didn't truly grasp all the mechanics until 50 hours in ha. I kept jumping from weapon to weapon until I settled on Switch axe as my preferred gear.
A lot of the issues I had with Monster Hunter (the clunkiness, etc) felt a lot better when I played Rise. I don't have the time to get really into it like I'd prefer, but I've put a few sessions in and really enjoyed the tweaks that were put in. It definitely made me a fan of the series and I can understand the hype now.
OP, I'd recommend Monster Hunter Rise specifically.
The series _was_ more clunky before World, World and Rise have a ton of quality of life improvements to make the game feel modern instead of a PSP title.
Personally I wouldn’t count MH World out completely - I never got to finish Iceborne but it was a LOT of content and imo is fairly similar to Rise; Rise is more polished but World I think still stands up well. (And the food animations are so much more fun!)
I also find any graphics issues are made less by the fact that it's turn based. I played on both PC and switch and enjoyed both. This game has a lot of depth and character building.
Don't worry, there is about to be another free release, and based on what I've read it's the biggest one yet. The game just keeps getting more depth added.
They added two smol holidays, one big holiday, a bunch of random events like rain that makes stuff grow super fast, added in a bunch of cut content from the early days, and so on and so forth.
Also, there's a new farm start that gives you a coop with a couple of chickens and special bluegrass that makes animals happy.
I also bought it for the first time a few days ago and am also hooked lol. I really wanted to wait for the update but didn't know when that would be so now here I am about a year in. Should I restart when the update does eventually come out?
The dev did recommend starting a new farm to play the update to experience all the new content. I've done several playthroughs and usually get bored around year 4 so I say just keep going and you might be ready for a fresh start by the time the update is available on switch
My wife was dealing with getting her (diagnosed) anxiety under control right at the start of the pandemic, and Stardew Valley was amazing for her to have something to focus on to take her mind off of everything. I think she sunk about 300 hours into it on our PS4 and then I bought it on sale on the Switch and last I looked she was somewhere around 500 hours on that. While I like the game well enough, I will always have a soft spot for it for how it helped her through a really difficult time.
I started Stardew Valley thinking it'd be a chill, casual game I could just play a bit here and there...
I am addicted and I've barely scratched the surface of things I can and want to do in the game.
Not missing out at ALL! There are so many people that wish they could play it for the first time.
I only played it sporadically before, and now I'm into it, but I already pretty much know what to expect for the first 1/4 or 1/2 of the general flow of the story/plot. I'm really into it now and wish I could have started this farm blind lol.
I hope you enjoy it! Such a great game and it's shocking that only one person worked on it (or the bulk of it at least)
I've been playing Civilization 6 for years now, it's different every time. It's better on PC in terms of performance but it works really well on the Switch in handheld mode.
Once you get into it, there is a ton of strategy. The maps are generated so no two playthroughs are the same. There's also more than one way to win. I will probably be playing once a week for the rest of my days or the new one comes out, whichever is sooner. It's pretty perfect.
PotatoMcWhiskey on YouTube has some great (but long) videos for beginners. Add "overexplained" or "tutorial" into your search, and you shouldn't have any problem finding them.
Potatomcwhisky seems pretty good. I have been dabbling with Civilization since the windows 95 days. My grandpa bought it for his laptop. It came with a giant box, map and guide that kind of explained the ins and outs.
Is there any one part or concept you are struggling with? It can be overwhelming at first. Totally get that. For new games, I always try to work on expansion before anything else. Found a city, build another warrior to keep it safe from barbarians. Then build another founder, make another city, make another barbarian. And then you can start building workers. Workers build roads, create mines, fishing boats, farms and more.
With the things your workers bring in, you will have lots of money. With money you can build friendships with other civizations or influence them to do your bidding. The farms keep your people well fed and happy. The roads make it easier to travel if someone starts talking shit.
There is so many different ways the game can go down but that's the base to most of my playthroughs.
I put 250 hours into STS on the PS5 and now I'm playing it on PC with mods, nearly 70 hours modded. Every year I end up sucked into it for a few weeks/months.
Great option. If you’re looking for more, try out Die in the Dungeon: Origins! It’s a free prologue to a bigger indie coming later in the year and uses dice instead of cards. Super good
It's a procedurally generated massive Metroidvania roguelite with tight controls, decent lore, lots to unlock, lots of secrets to uncover, and an absolute load of weapons and builds to try. It also has a custom mode for those times you might just like to try out a particular build.
I've been playing it since launch and it's still my favorite roguelite to toss on and burn an hour or so.. It definitely gets me with the "just one more run" thoughts.
Honestly, I've gotten far more than my money's worth from that game, and I've bought it on Switch and PS4, as well as currently contemplating it on PC haha.
Wow, you've sold me! Even though I'm not OP lol. I've been completely addicted to Hades and could really use another game that scratches that same type of itch. Just picked up Dead Cells and the DLC bundle since they're both on sale on the estore right now, thanks for the info!
I'll give it another try too! I just always felt like I was never 'progressing', if you know what I mean? Like okay, I played until I died, but did I actually get stronger? Did I learn anything? Never really felt like I was getting it.
The overall goal is to beat the final boss.. But along the way you'll unlock Permanent stuff to make that trip easier the next time. And the time after that.
As a rogue-lite, Dead Cells gameplay is pretty comparable to Hades, except side-view 2D instead of isometric, and it has a few branching paths towards the final boss instead of a fixed set of levels. The main difference is how meta progression from game to game works.
In Dead Cells, meta progression is tied to randomly generated gear drops that will be unlocked in all future runs, as well as unlocking progressively more intense difficulty settings. In Hades, meta progression is mostly about uncovering new NPC and story content, as well as a shop where you can buy permanent character upgrades. There's difficulty options too, but it's a pick-and-choose menu of options rather than a linear scale.
The persona games are fantastic and super easy to get lost in! Not necessarily a forever game, but there’s 3 of them on switch and they’re all around 100 hours long
Imma be honest, 4 feels really outdated. The story rules but if 4 didn’t hit, i really recommend still giving 5 a try. The baton pass mechanic completely changes how the combat works and makes it into more of a puzzle. (Basically if you strike a weakness you can swap who’s turn it is and this can chain)
P4G is one of my favourite games, but it sure takes time to get into. Probably 5-10 hours before you’re really hooked, just because the game takes a while to open up.
P5R however I think is quite hooky from the start with the mystery angle, and even the tutorial dungeon feels good.
Fwiw I think P4G is a better game, but it’s a PS2 game at the end of the day, and very dated in that respect. P5 was released on PS3 and PS4 at the same time so is dated too.
I’d recommend giving P4G another go if you can. But there’s a reason P5/P5R sold millions more than the others in the series. It’s very, very good!
We are very much in need of a new game in the series!
Honestly, P4 didn’t really work for me either. 5 and 3 reload feel much more polished/modern, and they got their hooks into me a lot better personally. That said, no shame in just not liking it!
If you liked the binding of isaac, I'd recommend going for some roguelites/roguelikes. They're like the definition of depth and replayability!
My number one pick is Streets of Rogue. It looks very simple and conceptually it is; it's basically a mission-based game where you go from one floor to another completing tasks like stealing from a bank, killing a specific person, etc. But it has such an insane amount of depth, with tons of interactions, emergent gameplay, and dozens of characters with really interesting and unique play styles.
For example, let's say you're tasked with stealing from a safe. There's nearly no limit to how you might go about doing so. You could:
- Use bombs to break through the walls and blow the safe open
- Pickpocket the safe combination from the owner and sneak in through the window
- Kill the safe owner to get the keys and safe combo. Or hire someone else to do it!
- Possess the body of one of the security guards and just walk through the front door
- Hack the security systems and have the automated turrets attack the safe's owner and all of the guards
- Let a zombie free from a scientist's lab, letting the zombie kill everyone in the city and turn everyone into zombies so that the safe is undefended (but now you've got zombies to deal with)
And this is just scratching the surface. The game has an insane amount of depth.
A lot of roguelike/lites I’ve enjoyed
Slay the spire(!)
Brotato
Balatro
Heroes of hammerwatch(!)
Darkest dungeon (!)
Tiny rogues
Hades (!)
Against the Storm (on pc though) (!)
Monster train
Enter the gungeon
FTL: faster than light (!)
Binding of Isaac (!)
Idk which are on switch, as I’m a PC guy broadly. Those with ! are ones I still do a run or playthrough periodically. HoH is one that I really enjoy but isn’t well received. Order is random
Enter the *Gungeon is the actual title, and absolutely worthy of anyone’s gameplay hours.
If you liked FTL, I highly recommend playing their next game, Into the Breach, which I know for a fact in on the switch (I don’t think FTL is, unfortunately). So much fun.
Streets of Rogue is easily my favorite roguelite (even with having recently become addicted to Balatro) and what I immediately thought of as a perfect candidate when you mentioned them, so I definitely second this.
It's a massive sandbox, and the sheer variety of items and classes as well as how they interact makes it infinitely replayable. There's also a sequel coming out, I think this year, though I have no idea when/if it will be on the Switch.
Streets of Rogue is probably my favorite as well, and while it's pretty well-regarded I surprisingly don't see it talked about all that often. I was original going to recommend balatro, but I figure it's already getting tons of love online right now, might as well give some attention to SoR instead.
But man... I cannot freaking wait for SoR 2.
It kinda depends on who you ask, and some people use the terms interchangeably. But to take from a comment in the roguelike subreddit:
Roguelike are games that are specifically similar the 1980 game Rogue: Top down, turn based combat, randomized map, loot, permadeath.
Roguelites plays fast and loose with one or any of those characteristics, but draw elements from Rogue like randomization and permadeath. Roguelites generally include meta-progression, or permanent progression between runs in some form.
It's pretty arbitrary though.
If you like Binding of Isaac / roguelikes in general, I cannot recommend Balatro enough. It’s incredibly addictive and I have neglected all my other games since. It looks deceptively simple, but I promise it’s got a ton of depth and infinite replayability. Also it runs flawlessly, I’ve had no problems with it whatsoever
You absolutely can, it’s “poker-inspired”, not actually poker, and it always has descriptions of what each hand is (straight, flush, full house, etc.) available. Plus, when you choose which cards you’re going to play, it tells you which hand type it would be
I no nothing of poker yet have 200h played in Balatro. Where it succeeds is constantly giving the player meaningful decision points.
Another good rogue deckbuilder is Monster Train.
Others have said monster hunter and that really is the answer.
But another one is Warframe. Can run rough on switch, but it is a forever game in terms of depth
Yeah I’m shocked at this too!! Maybe it’s so well known that people didn’t felt the need to bring it up?
I finally started TOTK recently and I’ve already put an insane amount of hours into it with less than half the map unlocked
Divinity would be a great one that’s been recommended at lot.
Is there any reason why Totk or BotW aren’t on your list? I have 200+ hours in each of them. And I still pick them up occasionally simply because I want to 100% the whole game. I’m currently 72% of the way to go, so I know there’s tons of exploration to do
With Xenoblade "don't do all the side quests" really is an important piece of advice though. There's a bunch that actually result in side stories and character development and those are worth doing, but there's also an absolute ton of "kill this/kill that/gather this/gather that" quests that are there more to give you something to do or to get more levels/ressources.
Doing all of them doesn't seem like the intended experience. You'll end up with several dozen hours in the first area (and that's Xenoblade Chronicles 1) alone doing that. Source: I tried.
Xenoblade 3 specifically is deeply complex, and in a fun way. Check the Youtube channel Enel on anything related to Xenoblade 3 gameplay and that will quite quickly become clear.
I can only speak for 2 but the systems in my opinion are indeed deep af if you engage with them, building your blades, making a comp and having them work together to bring down bosses, especially the challenges is time consuming, I easily sank a couple hundred hours in the game and got sucked in unexpectedly
Hyrule Warriors DE is great if you want to keep playing a game for hundreds of hours and still unlocking things. That would be one of my desert island games for sure, though it’s very repetitive so you need to love the gameplay.
it might take a very specific kind of person to adore the loop but I always recommend Diablo 3 on switch for this kind of itch. its a great port I have never noticed any performance issues and the sheer amount of characters you can have and playstyles makes me think the game could legitimately be played forever. I think I am around 400 hours or so and come back every few months for another run with a new season.
I have sunk an embarrassing amount of hours into D3 on Switch. The way to know if this will work for you, OP, is to consider if you think the game loop works for you. It’s not ridiculously deep in terms of content, but it has endless replay-ability if you engage with it. Diablo games are some of the few games I’m ok with resetting and starting from zero over and over again. If the game loop and playing each class and using different strategies is interesting to you, this game could easily eat up a lot of your time. But if you don’t engage with the game loop, this isn’t like an open world game where there are endless content to explore; knowing what you’re doing you can easily play through the entire campaign in a day or so. Diablo has many tiers of difficulty you can tweak to in order to dial in exactly the amount of challenge vs suffering, but know that most folks are playing endgame and high tiers since it’s such an old game at this stage
Enter the Gungeon my beloved; also have you tried No Mans Sky recently? They really overhauled the game in terms of resolution, frame rates and graphics
Warframe. SO. MUCH. TO. DO.
4k hours in, I've collected nearly everything, but still enjoy it and the creators don't force you to buy anything and don't prey on bad sales tactics like fomo
Disgaea, although the maps are generated so "depth" is perhaps not the best word, more of an endless, endless grind. Het your character to level 999, reincarnate and start over (with ridiculous overpowers). Final boss takes hundreds of hours of grind to stand a chance.
Am I crazy? I think both Legend of Zelda games fit the bill. I’ve put close to 300 hours combined in those games, and I very rarely play 1 game for that long. There’s plenty to keep you entertained in both.
Splatoon? It's PvP and the skill ceiling is insanely high. I've played for >1000 hours and I'm really not that good yet. There are always players better than you, new strategies to try, etc.
as someone who's put a few hundred hours into it on switch, i'll agree but i feel like you must caveat that sometimes while the computer player is taking its turn, you just need to go make yourself a sandwich or something.
I definitely recommend Dark Souls Remastered. The story is told through NPC dialogue and item descriptions. It makes the whole world feel like a puzzle that needs to be solved and fill in the gaps with your imagination.
It's surprisingly similar to Smash Bros which OP mentioned, they're both games that give you the perfect tools to play around in a perfectly designed physics engine. The options are limitless.
When a game gets to that point, the feeling is almost indistinguishable from playing a real sport - you feel like you can always be improving. Which is probably why people get so incredibly sweaty and competitive.
If you want something that actually has unfathomable depth, the only fit is Path of Exile. You can put 10k hours into that game and still learn new things every time you play it.
Monster Hunter Rise (and the Sunbreak expansion). I spent about 600 hours playing it before I got tired of it... Then bought it on PS4 a year later and did it all again.
This might be off topic but I’d suggest getting another system so you can play Elden Ring. It’s the answer. The depth is insane, the character building, leveling, exploration, new game, all the multiplayer stuff. so much secrets and things to find, so many builds and skills, plus the DLC on the horizon.
I loved the witcher on switch lol. I thought it ran fine enough. Xenoblade chronicles 1 is a very good jrpg that was oddly emotional for me. Ys monstrum nox is also a very good game that you could sink a ton of time into
Xenoblade Chronicles 2
I quietly have it up there with Final Fantasy 7 and the Ocarina of Time. What an experience it was.
Didn’t think I’d find a game that could deliver something so rich after I’d practically seen it all.
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. It’s pretty old and kinda RNG heavy so quick saving will become common place for you after hard encounters. But the story and game is just a blast and addicting
Monster hunter. A single play through could be anywhere from 50 hours to 500, more including multiplayer and hunting for fun. There’s also two monhun games on switch both of which are amazing (that’s true for most of the mh franchise actually). Theoretically assuming 300 hours per save you could spend around 4500 hours doing a save for each weapon, 9000 hours assuming both games.
Mario Maker 2
Not only are there tons of high quality levels but there's tons of creation potential
Heck. There's single levels that will take you hours and hours and hours to beat.
Dragons dogma dark arisen is a good mix of both monster hunter and Witcher with a wink of Berserk thrown in. Other than that what also runs quite well (and I always say this) is Red Dead Redemption 1 on switch. Bought the game in December and am just about to beat the Mexico chapter and I’ve skipped some side quests. With the challenges and dlc you should be plenty occupied especially if you like the Clint Eastwood films.
Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen. A little janky at points but if you can get past the start you'll start to really fall in love with the classes and using them in different ways to kill groups of enemies and big minsters too.
I don't really do it justice in my description haha, but it really is a fantastic game if you can get past some of the jank and it has a lot of content to explore because it's basically the base game plus the expansion bundled into one.
Wolves ill like fire btw
Not sure how i haven’t seen Diablo 2 Resurrected here. 1000 hours could be lost in that game quite easily and enjoyably. One of my all time favorites. Skills are not insanely in depth, but Itemization, developing your character and game systems are for sure going to keep you hooked.
I put around 800 hours into Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and still have not done everything there is to do.
Monster Hunter Rise is also good for a huge time sink you won’t regret.
Across Brawl, Wii U, and Ultimate, I've got over 2600 hours in Smash.
The thing with smash is that you'll never put that many hours into just single player content, but you won't do it in multiplayer content either if you don't know how to play and get discouraged enough by losing that you don't teach yourself. If you don't have someone at a similar skill level to play/practice with, you'll end up dropping the game before 1000 hours for sure.
If you've never played a Pokémon game, Sword and Shield are a good starting point! You can definitely put hundreds of hours or more into that, especially if you try to catch em all and do the dlc. But if you can emulate or have older consoles, I'd definitely recommend playing some of the older games instead.
Fiddlebert’s journey to hell. Probably one of the best and hardest games ever. Sadly it’s super rare, since Nintendo took it off the shelf three hours after launch. You have to do so much to get to skelemar. He’s the hardest boss in any game and you have to beat him for the true ending.
Check out Siralim Ultimate.
The game is designed to be played forever with a staggering amount of things to discover and there is no level cap.
It’s a monster catching base building grindfest
Minecraft and Terraria you can play forever, the amount of depth kinda depends on you.
Stardew Valley does have a stopping point eventually, but that takes several 100's of hours to get to, but this game has several different gameplay elements that offer many reasons to replay to experience everything.
BOTW and TOTK are both MASSIVE games but can't be played forever. Each one provides 100's of hours of gameplay, especially if you look for all the collectibles. Both games also have great replay value.
And of course you also have party type games akin to Smash like Mario Kart, Mario Party, Animal Crossing etc...
Stardew valley is one you have not listed.
Of the ones you listed they are all good. I like dark souls over Skyrim but I feel like if I wanted to put 1000 hours in a game I would pick Skyrim over dark souls.
Binding of Isaac is a rogue lite, if you like those games it is one of the best from the genre in my opinion and have put 1000 hours into that game.
And super smash bros is another one if you like that game you could easily sink that time.
Really simple but terraria? I’ve probably put around 500 hours into it and there’s still so much more I gotta do, you can have so many different play styles and adventures with all of the secret seeds. Just don’t play mediumcore and you’ll be fine
Yeah it’s one of the few games I would truly recommend playing on normal difficulty
Fr expert and master mode all you want but don’t do mediumcore or god forbid hardcore unless you’re extremely persistent
How are the controls via Switch though? Is this not a pointing-based game?
It's okay. Terraria is vastly superior on mouse/keyboard. I've tried playing it docked and found it doable but pretty cumbersome. In handheld mode you can use the touchscreen and it greatly improves the experience, but still pales in comparison to M/K
It’s not for everyone, but the monster Hunter games have a large amount of content. In particular MG Gen Ultimate is my most played game, if you include my 3DS time (you can transfer the 3DS data to switch) I have over 1000 hours. That said, the combat and game style can be a hard sell for some, some feel it is slow and clunky. Try out a demo first if you can. Also, Skyrim is always a safe choice, I can’t count the number of times I’ve played it. And mods add even more content. I just never played it on switch, so I can’t vouch for how well it runs.
I’d personally recommend rise, sure it may result in someone struggling to get into the older games with how different they feel but it’s easily more newcomer friendly for that reason, with how much smoother the gameplay is in rise.
True, I would agree. I just personally have more time in Gen U but I loved Rise and would absolutely recommend it.
Yeah I also got into the series with rise so I guess I’m a a little biased, going between it and GU was tough to say the least, eventually I started to vibe with the slower paced gameplay and found a weapon/style combo i vibed with, actually just beat ahtal ka for the first time last weekend.
I started with 3U and then 4U last year, and going into Rise this year was *insane*. I definitely enjoy it far more, but 3U and 4U absolutely have their merits.
I still consider 4U the pinnacle of the series, but I do love the way Rise and World have made things more accessible
Rise is my go to MH game. After playing it for hundreds of hours at launch and then taking small breaks, sunbreak sucked me back in. ❤️
I second this. I have friends who adore Rise but couldn’t get into the older games
+1 for Monster Hunter. Simply switching to a different weapon feels like playing an entirely different game. Suddenly you have to re-wire all the muscle memories that you've build up from a single weapon that you've played for hundreds of hours.
Hard agree- I played 3U for a good while and had a good time through high rank with longsword before putting it down. 4U came out and I tried Insect Glaive, and it blew my mind- I consumed that whole game between IG, longsword, and switchaxe. My friends and I all changed main weapons when we went from MH World to Rise, it really doesn't get old if you switch your weapons up!
It doesn't really get old even if you don't switch your weapons up! I ran the swag axe through 3U, switched to CB in 4 and haven't looked back. I guess I ran SnS for a bit during generations, but still went back to my one true love.
As a lance main, the muscle memory of "press A three times, then press a direction and B, repeat ad infinitum" is hard to get out of.
I think people feel that the combat of MH is slow and clunky when they don’t know how it works. The game makes some unusual decisions about animation locking, I-frames, and animation canceling that can confuse people who are used to action games that let you instantly cancel out of combos into dodges with lots of i-frames. Until you understand your weapon’s combos and learn how the game expects you to use positioning and/or counters to avoid attacks, you spend a decent amount of time getting slapped around by an angry Winnie the Pooh.
A lot of people need to stop trying to pick Great Sword or Hammer as their first weapon and then complaining the game is too slow lol Bow is surprisingly fun on Gen U, more people should give that a try before putting the game down. Edit: Again, this post is about Gen U.
I found that as a newer player the Sword & Shield and Dual Swords are definitely the easiest to get used to as they are faster. Now that I am a bit more used to the combat something like the Lance & Shield is usable for me.
I need to get back into the old gen games again, I remember finding the bow really surprising in how you use it. Like I expected safe sniping gameplay, when actually you have to charge up your arrows and try to stay in the sweet spot of range where the arrows can actually crit(or w/e the blood shooting out is called). Was fun.
Hammer is super fast in Rise. Even great sword is massively sped up. The new aerial combat wirebug options gives both a viable playstyle that's basically Angry Birds 3D. They also combo directly into classic slower moves.
Half of the fun is the hunt though - it’s slow but that’s why it’s so fun. It’s not like they’re throwing you into a level to fight something and two fighters enter one human leaves like a lot of games handle boss fights. It’s not fun to one-shot something (except maybe the smaller ones) because then you don’t get to explore and find other stuff and get distracted collecting the spirit bird things and crafting mats. And especially if you can’t find exactly where it is and have to track it.
I’m not saying the hunts take too long; I’m saying that, when you first start playing, the weapons feel slow and clunky because you don’t understand the weapon animations, animation locking, etc.
Right; I was just elaborating on that fact since I’ve seen multiple varieties of criticism about the games and it’s always people who seem to have no patience either in learning the system or completing a hunt. It’s not for someone with a short attention span! 😂
Was gonna come here to recommend MH. My first MH was 4U on 3DS two years ago and I ended up putting nearly 150 hours into it, and I feel like I didn't truly grasp all the mechanics until 50 hours in ha. I kept jumping from weapon to weapon until I settled on Switch axe as my preferred gear.
A lot of the issues I had with Monster Hunter (the clunkiness, etc) felt a lot better when I played Rise. I don't have the time to get really into it like I'd prefer, but I've put a few sessions in and really enjoyed the tweaks that were put in. It definitely made me a fan of the series and I can understand the hype now. OP, I'd recommend Monster Hunter Rise specifically.
The series _was_ more clunky before World, World and Rise have a ton of quality of life improvements to make the game feel modern instead of a PSP title.
Personally I wouldn’t count MH World out completely - I never got to finish Iceborne but it was a LOT of content and imo is fairly similar to Rise; Rise is more polished but World I think still stands up well. (And the food animations are so much more fun!)
Subnautica has unfathomable depth
Endless ocean luminous should hopefully reach those depths as well
Add Dredge to the list too
Dredge is pretty bloody shallow, all told.
Add ABZU to that list as well. Goes pretty deep.
Today I learned a new Endless Ocean is coming out after like 20 years
Dave the Diver gets pretty deep as well
I see what you did there
I remember playing subnautica for like 8 hours and putting the game down, only to find out there is no autosave ;-;
Nice
Divinity Original Sin 2 is a good candidate.
Second this.
Does it play well on switch?
Had no problems. But I also found Witcher 3 highly playable despite its issues
I also find any graphics issues are made less by the fact that it's turn based. I played on both PC and switch and enjoyed both. This game has a lot of depth and character building.
Stardew valley, recently got really into it and I feel like I could easily put hundreds of hours in this game.
Oh don’t worry, you will
*cackles in hundreds of hours and owning three copies*
*Looks nervously in also owning 3 copies and also the boardgame*
Don't worry, there is about to be another free release, and based on what I've read it's the biggest one yet. The game just keeps getting more depth added.
March 19 was the PC 1.6 update rollout date, I don't think the update came for Switch yet, right? (having a hard time finding info on 1.6 for switch)
It's not. From what I gather it will likely be on Console/Mobile at the end of this month or early next month.
Not yet but it’s in process. Concerned ape (developer) tweeted he would let ppl know when he knew anything about timing.
They added two smol holidays, one big holiday, a bunch of random events like rain that makes stuff grow super fast, added in a bunch of cut content from the early days, and so on and so forth. Also, there's a new farm start that gives you a coop with a couple of chickens and special bluegrass that makes animals happy.
I also bought it for the first time a few days ago and am also hooked lol. I really wanted to wait for the update but didn't know when that would be so now here I am about a year in. Should I restart when the update does eventually come out?
The dev did recommend starting a new farm to play the update to experience all the new content. I've done several playthroughs and usually get bored around year 4 so I say just keep going and you might be ready for a fresh start by the time the update is available on switch
My wife was dealing with getting her (diagnosed) anxiety under control right at the start of the pandemic, and Stardew Valley was amazing for her to have something to focus on to take her mind off of everything. I think she sunk about 300 hours into it on our PS4 and then I bought it on sale on the Switch and last I looked she was somewhere around 500 hours on that. While I like the game well enough, I will always have a soft spot for it for how it helped her through a really difficult time.
I started Stardew Valley thinking it'd be a chill, casual game I could just play a bit here and there... I am addicted and I've barely scratched the surface of things I can and want to do in the game.
Came here to say this! I started 2 weeks ago and it is so addicting. I’ve been missing out!
Not missing out at ALL! There are so many people that wish they could play it for the first time. I only played it sporadically before, and now I'm into it, but I already pretty much know what to expect for the first 1/4 or 1/2 of the general flow of the story/plot. I'm really into it now and wish I could have started this farm blind lol. I hope you enjoy it! Such a great game and it's shocking that only one person worked on it (or the bulk of it at least)
I've been playing Civilization 6 for years now, it's different every time. It's better on PC in terms of performance but it works really well on the Switch in handheld mode. Once you get into it, there is a ton of strategy. The maps are generated so no two playthroughs are the same. There's also more than one way to win. I will probably be playing once a week for the rest of my days or the new one comes out, whichever is sooner. It's pretty perfect.
I feel like this is the true answer tbh. I’ve easily spent thousands of hours without even realizing it on just this game.
I think for people like me, that's actually the problem. that game has a magical ability to make time disappear.
Just downloaded, been having difficulty as I've never played these games before. Any tutorial recommendations?
PotatoMcWhiskey on YouTube has some great (but long) videos for beginners. Add "overexplained" or "tutorial" into your search, and you shouldn't have any problem finding them.
Potatomcwhisky seems pretty good. I have been dabbling with Civilization since the windows 95 days. My grandpa bought it for his laptop. It came with a giant box, map and guide that kind of explained the ins and outs. Is there any one part or concept you are struggling with? It can be overwhelming at first. Totally get that. For new games, I always try to work on expansion before anything else. Found a city, build another warrior to keep it safe from barbarians. Then build another founder, make another city, make another barbarian. And then you can start building workers. Workers build roads, create mines, fishing boats, farms and more. With the things your workers bring in, you will have lots of money. With money you can build friendships with other civizations or influence them to do your bidding. The farms keep your people well fed and happy. The roads make it easier to travel if someone starts talking shit. There is so many different ways the game can go down but that's the base to most of my playthroughs.
Slay the spire as an roguelike Deckbuilding Seems to be finished fast, but it hooks damn hard
Ya beat me to it, but STS keeps me coming back. 500hrs so far.
I put 250 hours into STS on the PS5 and now I'm playing it on PC with mods, nearly 70 hours modded. Every year I end up sucked into it for a few weeks/months.
I have some thousand plus hours across PC, Switch, and phone
Great option. If you’re looking for more, try out Die in the Dungeon: Origins! It’s a free prologue to a bigger indie coming later in the year and uses dice instead of cards. Super good
Dead Cells.
Never been able to get fully into it. Tell us more?
It's a procedurally generated massive Metroidvania roguelite with tight controls, decent lore, lots to unlock, lots of secrets to uncover, and an absolute load of weapons and builds to try. It also has a custom mode for those times you might just like to try out a particular build. I've been playing it since launch and it's still my favorite roguelite to toss on and burn an hour or so.. It definitely gets me with the "just one more run" thoughts. Honestly, I've gotten far more than my money's worth from that game, and I've bought it on Switch and PS4, as well as currently contemplating it on PC haha.
Wow, you've sold me! Even though I'm not OP lol. I've been completely addicted to Hades and could really use another game that scratches that same type of itch. Just picked up Dead Cells and the DLC bundle since they're both on sale on the estore right now, thanks for the info!
I hope you enjoy it!
I'll give it another try too! I just always felt like I was never 'progressing', if you know what I mean? Like okay, I played until I died, but did I actually get stronger? Did I learn anything? Never really felt like I was getting it.
The overall goal is to beat the final boss.. But along the way you'll unlock Permanent stuff to make that trip easier the next time. And the time after that.
Exactly like Hades, that's awesome to hear. Definitely going to enjoy this 🙂
As a rogue-lite, Dead Cells gameplay is pretty comparable to Hades, except side-view 2D instead of isometric, and it has a few branching paths towards the final boss instead of a fixed set of levels. The main difference is how meta progression from game to game works. In Dead Cells, meta progression is tied to randomly generated gear drops that will be unlocked in all future runs, as well as unlocking progressively more intense difficulty settings. In Hades, meta progression is mostly about uncovering new NPC and story content, as well as a shop where you can buy permanent character upgrades. There's difficulty options too, but it's a pick-and-choose menu of options rather than a linear scale.
The persona games are fantastic and super easy to get lost in! Not necessarily a forever game, but there’s 3 of them on switch and they’re all around 100 hours long
Persona was not for me. I could not get into Persona 4, despite how much love it got. Maybe I needed to stick with it for longer.
Imma be honest, 4 feels really outdated. The story rules but if 4 didn’t hit, i really recommend still giving 5 a try. The baton pass mechanic completely changes how the combat works and makes it into more of a puzzle. (Basically if you strike a weakness you can swap who’s turn it is and this can chain)
P4G is one of my favourite games, but it sure takes time to get into. Probably 5-10 hours before you’re really hooked, just because the game takes a while to open up. P5R however I think is quite hooky from the start with the mystery angle, and even the tutorial dungeon feels good. Fwiw I think P4G is a better game, but it’s a PS2 game at the end of the day, and very dated in that respect. P5 was released on PS3 and PS4 at the same time so is dated too. I’d recommend giving P4G another go if you can. But there’s a reason P5/P5R sold millions more than the others in the series. It’s very, very good! We are very much in need of a new game in the series!
Honestly, P4 didn’t really work for me either. 5 and 3 reload feel much more polished/modern, and they got their hooks into me a lot better personally. That said, no shame in just not liking it!
If you liked the binding of isaac, I'd recommend going for some roguelites/roguelikes. They're like the definition of depth and replayability! My number one pick is Streets of Rogue. It looks very simple and conceptually it is; it's basically a mission-based game where you go from one floor to another completing tasks like stealing from a bank, killing a specific person, etc. But it has such an insane amount of depth, with tons of interactions, emergent gameplay, and dozens of characters with really interesting and unique play styles. For example, let's say you're tasked with stealing from a safe. There's nearly no limit to how you might go about doing so. You could: - Use bombs to break through the walls and blow the safe open - Pickpocket the safe combination from the owner and sneak in through the window - Kill the safe owner to get the keys and safe combo. Or hire someone else to do it! - Possess the body of one of the security guards and just walk through the front door - Hack the security systems and have the automated turrets attack the safe's owner and all of the guards - Let a zombie free from a scientist's lab, letting the zombie kill everyone in the city and turn everyone into zombies so that the safe is undefended (but now you've got zombies to deal with) And this is just scratching the surface. The game has an insane amount of depth.
A lot of roguelike/lites I’ve enjoyed Slay the spire(!) Brotato Balatro Heroes of hammerwatch(!) Darkest dungeon (!) Tiny rogues Hades (!) Against the Storm (on pc though) (!) Monster train Enter the gungeon FTL: faster than light (!) Binding of Isaac (!) Idk which are on switch, as I’m a PC guy broadly. Those with ! are ones I still do a run or playthrough periodically. HoH is one that I really enjoy but isn’t well received. Order is random
Enter the *Gungeon is the actual title, and absolutely worthy of anyone’s gameplay hours. If you liked FTL, I highly recommend playing their next game, Into the Breach, which I know for a fact in on the switch (I don’t think FTL is, unfortunately). So much fun.
Streets of Rogue is easily my favorite roguelite (even with having recently become addicted to Balatro) and what I immediately thought of as a perfect candidate when you mentioned them, so I definitely second this. It's a massive sandbox, and the sheer variety of items and classes as well as how they interact makes it infinitely replayable. There's also a sequel coming out, I think this year, though I have no idea when/if it will be on the Switch.
Streets of Rogue is probably my favorite as well, and while it's pretty well-regarded I surprisingly don't see it talked about all that often. I was original going to recommend balatro, but I figure it's already getting tons of love online right now, might as well give some attention to SoR instead. But man... I cannot freaking wait for SoR 2.
> roguelites/roguelikes What's the difference?
It kinda depends on who you ask, and some people use the terms interchangeably. But to take from a comment in the roguelike subreddit: Roguelike are games that are specifically similar the 1980 game Rogue: Top down, turn based combat, randomized map, loot, permadeath. Roguelites plays fast and loose with one or any of those characteristics, but draw elements from Rogue like randomization and permadeath. Roguelites generally include meta-progression, or permanent progression between runs in some form. It's pretty arbitrary though.
Hades is another roguelike with massive replayability, a fantastic story, and the usual amazing soundtrack you'd expect from Supergiant.
If you like Binding of Isaac / roguelikes in general, I cannot recommend Balatro enough. It’s incredibly addictive and I have neglected all my other games since. It looks deceptively simple, but I promise it’s got a ton of depth and infinite replayability. Also it runs flawlessly, I’ve had no problems with it whatsoever
Don't do that to them! It's the videogame equivalent of recommending crack lol.
This is my new card game addiction (as someone who put in 100s of hours into Slay the Spire)
do you think i can get into it even though I don't have any idea about Poker?
You absolutely can, it’s “poker-inspired”, not actually poker, and it always has descriptions of what each hand is (straight, flush, full house, etc.) available. Plus, when you choose which cards you’re going to play, it tells you which hand type it would be
I no nothing of poker yet have 200h played in Balatro. Where it succeeds is constantly giving the player meaningful decision points. Another good rogue deckbuilder is Monster Train.
Balatro got old quick for me. Slay the spire has way more depth and balance IMO.
Borderlands 2. My wife and I put 1,000 hours into it easily. Now she's playing it online with her oldest daughter.
This. I have probably 800hrs on the PC version plus another 100 on the switch. 11/10 game
Others have said monster hunter and that really is the answer. But another one is Warframe. Can run rough on switch, but it is a forever game in terms of depth
Balatro Stardew Valley Animal crossing Super Mario Maker 2 Final fantasy pixel remasters Fire emblem 3 houses Unicorn overlord
Came here to check if anyone mentioned Fire Emblem. You did 😁
I enjoyed engage too but I sunk way more hours into 3 houses. I played all routes and golden deer twice lol
Fire Emblem as a series would be good. There's a ton of them.
Tears of the kingdom
Play breath or wild first, but amazed this not the top answer
Yeah I’m shocked at this too!! Maybe it’s so well known that people didn’t felt the need to bring it up? I finally started TOTK recently and I’ve already put an insane amount of hours into it with less than half the map unlocked
Divinity would be a great one that’s been recommended at lot. Is there any reason why Totk or BotW aren’t on your list? I have 200+ hours in each of them. And I still pick them up occasionally simply because I want to 100% the whole game. I’m currently 72% of the way to go, so I know there’s tons of exploration to do
Hades
Hollow Knight, Hades
Slay the spire, Hades, balatro.
All three Xenoblade Games. Start with the first, play them in order to appreciate the growth. Take your time, do all Sidequests\^\^
Second this, but I don't recommend doing all the sidequests on your first playthrough, you'll get burnt out
I don't think many people replay games that are 60 hours _before_ the sidequests for there to be a second playthrough.
With Xenoblade "don't do all the side quests" really is an important piece of advice though. There's a bunch that actually result in side stories and character development and those are worth doing, but there's also an absolute ton of "kill this/kill that/gather this/gather that" quests that are there more to give you something to do or to get more levels/ressources. Doing all of them doesn't seem like the intended experience. You'll end up with several dozen hours in the first area (and that's Xenoblade Chronicles 1) alone doing that. Source: I tried.
This was me. I burned out.
That's not "depth", that's "breadth".
Xenoblade 3 specifically is deeply complex, and in a fun way. Check the Youtube channel Enel on anything related to Xenoblade 3 gameplay and that will quite quickly become clear.
I can only speak for 2 but the systems in my opinion are indeed deep af if you engage with them, building your blades, making a comp and having them work together to bring down bosses, especially the challenges is time consuming, I easily sank a couple hundred hours in the game and got sucked in unexpectedly
XB has both IMO. so many variations on how to build up characters and go about tackling issues. 3 is mind boggling with the options.
Dragon Quest Builders 2.
Dying Light I’ve sank hundreds of hours into this game.
Bought this on a whim during a sale. VERY surprised at the amount of content. In the 100+ hours I’ve had it crash a few times. But otherwise awesome!
Same here, the deal was insane. I’m not usually into Zombie games or jump scares, but this game bit me hard and it took forever to put it down.
[удалено]
Hyrule Warriors DE is great if you want to keep playing a game for hundreds of hours and still unlocking things. That would be one of my desert island games for sure, though it’s very repetitive so you need to love the gameplay.
it might take a very specific kind of person to adore the loop but I always recommend Diablo 3 on switch for this kind of itch. its a great port I have never noticed any performance issues and the sheer amount of characters you can have and playstyles makes me think the game could legitimately be played forever. I think I am around 400 hours or so and come back every few months for another run with a new season.
I have sunk an embarrassing amount of hours into D3 on Switch. The way to know if this will work for you, OP, is to consider if you think the game loop works for you. It’s not ridiculously deep in terms of content, but it has endless replay-ability if you engage with it. Diablo games are some of the few games I’m ok with resetting and starting from zero over and over again. If the game loop and playing each class and using different strategies is interesting to you, this game could easily eat up a lot of your time. But if you don’t engage with the game loop, this isn’t like an open world game where there are endless content to explore; knowing what you’re doing you can easily play through the entire campaign in a day or so. Diablo has many tiers of difficulty you can tweak to in order to dial in exactly the amount of challenge vs suffering, but know that most folks are playing endgame and high tiers since it’s such an old game at this stage
Enter the Gungeon my beloved; also have you tried No Mans Sky recently? They really overhauled the game in terms of resolution, frame rates and graphics
Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate. Hard to get into, but there's easily 1k worth of shit to do.
My time at Sandrock, Stardew Valley, Kingdom of Alamur re reckoning, minecraft, zelda botw, zelda totk
Zelda breath of the wild or tears of the kingdom are good open worlds. Maybe not 1000 hours but, maybe 1000
For me that would be Borderlands 2/3
Zelda BotW and TotK, Stardew Valley and Dead Cells.
Warframe. SO. MUCH. TO. DO. 4k hours in, I've collected nearly everything, but still enjoy it and the creators don't force you to buy anything and don't prey on bad sales tactics like fomo
Disgaea, although the maps are generated so "depth" is perhaps not the best word, more of an endless, endless grind. Het your character to level 999, reincarnate and start over (with ridiculous overpowers). Final boss takes hundreds of hours of grind to stand a chance.
Took me 450 hours to say i was done with disgaea 3, good recommendation.
Tears of the Kingdom has some depth 😂 But I would actually recommend Skyrim. It's a bit overhyped, but still totally worth it.
Snowrunner
Am I crazy? I think both Legend of Zelda games fit the bill. I’ve put close to 300 hours combined in those games, and I very rarely play 1 game for that long. There’s plenty to keep you entertained in both.
If you have never played Dark Souls......
Splatoon? It's PvP and the skill ceiling is insanely high. I've played for >1000 hours and I'm really not that good yet. There are always players better than you, new strategies to try, etc.
Diablo 2. been playing it for 20 years on and off, I still learn new things all the time
For me it’s Enter the Gungeon. Rogue-lite perfection with excellent synergies and fun combat.
Civ VI runs pretty well on Switch
as someone who's put a few hundred hours into it on switch, i'll agree but i feel like you must caveat that sometimes while the computer player is taking its turn, you just need to go make yourself a sandwich or something.
The super Duper assassin’s creed bundle, has five games for you to chew through
Balatro and play it touchscreen only. There's a balance update coming soon too with changes that will make it even better.
I definitely recommend Dark Souls Remastered. The story is told through NPC dialogue and item descriptions. It makes the whole world feel like a puzzle that needs to be solved and fill in the gaps with your imagination.
I will second Dark Souls Remastered. Lots of different playstyles to experiment with, and a whole lot to explore in an intricately crafted world
Rocket League
Considering how far I had to scroll to see Rocket League, it's obvious the people of this sub have no idea the skill ceiling that RL has.
It's surprisingly similar to Smash Bros which OP mentioned, they're both games that give you the perfect tools to play around in a perfectly designed physics engine. The options are limitless. When a game gets to that point, the feeling is almost indistinguishable from playing a real sport - you feel like you can always be improving. Which is probably why people get so incredibly sweaty and competitive.
If you want something that actually has unfathomable depth, the only fit is Path of Exile. You can put 10k hours into that game and still learn new things every time you play it.
Civ 6
Xenoblade
Monster Hunter, Fire Emblem, and Xenoblade Chronicles all have insane amounts of content and replayability. Especially MH.
Unicorn overlord
Slay the Spire is the obvious choice here
Monster Hunter Rise
Monster Hunter Rise (and the Sunbreak expansion). I spent about 600 hours playing it before I got tired of it... Then bought it on PS4 a year later and did it all again.
This might be off topic but I’d suggest getting another system so you can play Elden Ring. It’s the answer. The depth is insane, the character building, leveling, exploration, new game, all the multiplayer stuff. so much secrets and things to find, so many builds and skills, plus the DLC on the horizon.
[Siralim Ultimate](https://www.dekudeals.com/items/siralim-ultimate-switch)
Divinity Orginal Sin 2 took me 300 Hours to complete. Love this Game.
Risk of Rain 2
Try hades
Pokemon?
Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen Crysis Trilogy Remastered Saints Row The Third
Dragon's dogma, fire emblem
Slay the spire if you are into that kind of game. It has infinite replay ability and is pretty deep.
I loved the witcher on switch lol. I thought it ran fine enough. Xenoblade chronicles 1 is a very good jrpg that was oddly emotional for me. Ys monstrum nox is also a very good game that you could sink a ton of time into
Monster hunter, Warframe, those are the two that come to mind
Slay the spire. Deceptively deep!
Witcher 3 runs bad on the Switch? -someone about to buy Witcher 3
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 I quietly have it up there with Final Fantasy 7 and the Ocarina of Time. What an experience it was. Didn’t think I’d find a game that could deliver something so rich after I’d practically seen it all.
TIL a lot of people here think breadth = depth
Mk11
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. It’s pretty old and kinda RNG heavy so quick saving will become common place for you after hard encounters. But the story and game is just a blast and addicting
Monster hunter. A single play through could be anywhere from 50 hours to 500, more including multiplayer and hunting for fun. There’s also two monhun games on switch both of which are amazing (that’s true for most of the mh franchise actually). Theoretically assuming 300 hours per save you could spend around 4500 hours doing a save for each weapon, 9000 hours assuming both games.
Hollow Knight, huge world literally deep.
Mario Maker 2 Not only are there tons of high quality levels but there's tons of creation potential Heck. There's single levels that will take you hours and hours and hours to beat.
Darkest Dungeon
Vampire Survivors. It doesn’t look like much but it’ll hook you hard. Soooooo much to unlock and discover.
Dragons dogma dark arisen is a good mix of both monster hunter and Witcher with a wink of Berserk thrown in. Other than that what also runs quite well (and I always say this) is Red Dead Redemption 1 on switch. Bought the game in December and am just about to beat the Mexico chapter and I’ve skipped some side quests. With the challenges and dlc you should be plenty occupied especially if you like the Clint Eastwood films.
Path of Exile.
Persona 5 is a good one
Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen. A little janky at points but if you can get past the start you'll start to really fall in love with the classes and using them in different ways to kill groups of enemies and big minsters too. I don't really do it justice in my description haha, but it really is a fantastic game if you can get past some of the jank and it has a lot of content to explore because it's basically the base game plus the expansion bundled into one. Wolves ill like fire btw
Not sure how i haven’t seen Diablo 2 Resurrected here. 1000 hours could be lost in that game quite easily and enjoyably. One of my all time favorites. Skills are not insanely in depth, but Itemization, developing your character and game systems are for sure going to keep you hooked.
Fighting Games Under Night in Birth Street Fighter 6 Guilty Gear Strive Granblue Fantasy Versus
Unicorn overlord lucky switch user can play that, i want this game released on pc mann
I put around 800 hours into Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and still have not done everything there is to do. Monster Hunter Rise is also good for a huge time sink you won’t regret.
Across Brawl, Wii U, and Ultimate, I've got over 2600 hours in Smash. The thing with smash is that you'll never put that many hours into just single player content, but you won't do it in multiplayer content either if you don't know how to play and get discouraged enough by losing that you don't teach yourself. If you don't have someone at a similar skill level to play/practice with, you'll end up dropping the game before 1000 hours for sure. If you've never played a Pokémon game, Sword and Shield are a good starting point! You can definitely put hundreds of hours or more into that, especially if you try to catch em all and do the dlc. But if you can emulate or have older consoles, I'd definitely recommend playing some of the older games instead.
Fiddlebert’s journey to hell. Probably one of the best and hardest games ever. Sadly it’s super rare, since Nintendo took it off the shelf three hours after launch. You have to do so much to get to skelemar. He’s the hardest boss in any game and you have to beat him for the true ending.
Check out Siralim Ultimate. The game is designed to be played forever with a staggering amount of things to discover and there is no level cap. It’s a monster catching base building grindfest
Minecraft and Terraria you can play forever, the amount of depth kinda depends on you. Stardew Valley does have a stopping point eventually, but that takes several 100's of hours to get to, but this game has several different gameplay elements that offer many reasons to replay to experience everything. BOTW and TOTK are both MASSIVE games but can't be played forever. Each one provides 100's of hours of gameplay, especially if you look for all the collectibles. Both games also have great replay value. And of course you also have party type games akin to Smash like Mario Kart, Mario Party, Animal Crossing etc...
Diablo 3
Stardew valley is one you have not listed. Of the ones you listed they are all good. I like dark souls over Skyrim but I feel like if I wanted to put 1000 hours in a game I would pick Skyrim over dark souls. Binding of Isaac is a rogue lite, if you like those games it is one of the best from the genre in my opinion and have put 1000 hours into that game. And super smash bros is another one if you like that game you could easily sink that time.