Quote Originally Posted by Supersnow845 View Post
I don’t get why you replied to me

I understand and accept that the nebulous “15 path dungeon with all being equally useful and leading to meaningful story divergence” is a fairytale. I’m saying that that mindset doesn’t preclude still

1) at least trying to pretend like the dungeon isn’t a curated hallway (zot and aetherfont looking at you two specifically)
2) making trash meaningful
I mean to add onto this, every dungeon in God of War is linear. But they do a lot to disguise that, and it's not even about adding branching paths. In Alfheim for example there is a lot of verticality. Sure you need to go down a spiral staircase here, but the verticality, of seeing a path below you and above you adds a lot to the sense that you're not just walking down a corridor but are actually in a real temple.

There is also backtracking and interactivity, for example you pull a lever and the whole ground shifts to reveal another level in front of the temple. So you go back through there and now you are able to access the path forward.

Haukke Manor is incredibly linear and is probably the closest thing they've got to modern AAA design, but it's still pretty far.

Doing this unfortunately requires some serious effort put into planning and design, so you'll never ever see it happen.