I'm lately not having time to play AAA games that take like 60 hours to beat, with a lot of that content being padded out bullshit. I was hoping I could get some recommendations for shorter, less grindy/padded out experiences.
You could try "Eternal Senia" on steam, a free to play 5h rpg game which i enjoyed playing. (no mictrotransactions or stuff like that) What the game creator says on the storepage: "I believe that gaming should not be anything complicated or diffcult, but a relaxing and pleasure experience. Therefore, I designed this ARPG battle system which requires no attack button to play. The simplicity brings a fluent and interesting gaming experience. Eternal Senia is the realization of this concept. I spent one year developing this game. It is a game that can be easily enjoyed by any player."
Some random suggestions I guess Dunno if you like roguelikes, but Slay the Spire Hyper Light Drifter Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight MO:Astray If you're fine with something that's more of an interactive story than a true game To The Moon and Finding Paradise OneShot
Well, f.ex. more classic point and click like Thimbleweed Park (if 4th wall is not important to you), Indiana Jones series (Lucasarts time), Beneath a Steel Sky, Darkside Detective series, Sam & Max Hit the Road, Day of the Tentacle, and so forth.
I played these on game pass: carto (good if free) Outer wilds Katana 0 (good if free) Banjo kazooie Celeste Control Descenders Donut county (good if free) Both guacamelee games Human fall flat Observation (good if free) both ori games Both peggle games Streets of rage 4 Both Super hot games Tetris effect West of dead (good if free) Wilmots warehouse (good if free)
I do like Slay the Spire. And Hyper light drifter has been starting at me in my game library for a while so maybe its time I finally install it lol. People keep raving about it, maybe I should.
Both Ori and the Blind forest and Ori and the will of the whisps games are pretty casual platformers where you can jump in play a bit, and leave. And the game itself isn't long either.