"Omori is the Persona of indie RPGs" – tweet that I am resisting posting with some of my might
How do I convince Omori fans to play Higurashi without having to let slip the inconvenient detail that Higurashi contains no RPG elements whatsoever and yet is inexplicably longer than Omori
I think what ultimately appeals to me about stagnation conflicts is how ineffable and intangible it is as an antagonistic force, and thus how miraculous and astonishing it feels when it is overcome - how it so controls cause-and-effect that to defeat it is to transcend causality.
Dark Souls, OFF, etc. are about institutional/civilisational stagnation. Start Again and Omori are about personal stagnation, i.e. depression. Undertale and Higurashi are interesting in that they are on face value about one kind, but, later, introduce the other as accompaniment.
Saw a streamer discuss how a lot of videogames, in particular indie games, have conflicts that boil down to "stagnation", of an unhealthy enduring status quo that the player serves as an agent to break. I realised this framing actually succinctly captures a lot of my tastes.