Elden Ring or Witcher 3, games where you can cruise through by casually tapping two buttons and collect generic +2 damage gear.
Your premise is accurate
Eh, I'd say it's pretty inaccurate. Skyrim sure, Witcher 3 and Elden Ring, no so much. They both have branching paths/choices and endings and frankly, more interesting than BG3's choices being good vs dumb bad. They also have more endings than BG3 had on release too. And while not as mechannically complex, they both require as much, if not more, thought put into a build or fighting a boss. Not to mention the amount of items and abilities you can get as well (Morso for ER than W3).
Either way, was just abit perplexed at those game's being used as a comparison for being "shallow" RPGs, but in keeping with the current topic:
Elden Ring also didn't really compromise on it's genre to get mass appeal either. Fromsoft, even if I might hate part of their formula, took their Dark Souls games and chucked it into an Open world format, added a few new things while not really simplifying much in the process.
Edit: Ignoring whether or not the combat is "dumbed down" or "streamlined", I'd consider the character's writing and the story itself (the lack of interesting alternate pathways, the inconsistencies in the plot and some aspects of the companions) to be a compromise from the cRPG genre.
But also, as another comparison, didn't really add much to the open world genre just like how I don't think BG3 will do much to change RPGs either.
Yeah, I must admit that I was unjust to these games (although not for Skyrim, it compromised badly in every directions). My point that was players have longed for a game where they have to actively think about how to write their own story. Gear and dialogue options have to be chosen with consideration whereas TW3 very much underwhelmed me with its character progression and Elden Ring story is just an excuse to beat cool looking bosses. They are both amazing games though, the depth just isn't focused in the same place.
