Ever since the language puzzle in Tunic that got me to fill up 6 pocket sized pages of notes over multiple days while trying to puzzle it out as I tried to and, eventually, succeeded at translating the in-game “paper” manual, I’ve had a craving for games that force you to pull out a notebook and take notes/puzzle things out as part of the actual meta-gameplay mechanics, because the game doesn’t just do that thinking for you.
What other games are like this, even a little bit, that you’ve loved?
And to be clear, I don’t mean things like TTRPGs which are just inherently on paper. Those are cool and all, but aren’t this thing. I want things that force me to engage my thinking beyond what the inputs of a controller and medium of a screen and my short-term memory alone can do for me.
EverQuest! I was pretty young back then, but I remember EQ not having a quest tracker back in the day. You’d talk to NPCs and have to keep track of what they were asking for.
I took that goddamn boat and ran for hours to get my warrior armor only to have no idea how to give the quest item to the centaur guy. I gave it to him and he just said “thanks”. It was brutal, but kinda hilarious in retrospect.