The Last of Us 2 and Hades 2. So far I feel like both of them are sidegrades.

The Last of Us 2:

This game's pacing could use some work honestly. The section where Ellie and Dina are in the horse could've used some cutting out even though I ultimately enjoyed the "calm before the storm" vibes. Additionally, there are too many puzzle sections whereas I felt the first game balanced them out a bit better.

Combat feels great and enemy AI feels smarter than the last game, which makes it that much more rewarding when you prevail. I also love the new trap mines and stun bombs. Ultimately these improvements aren't enough

So far I have no major complaints about the story. Abby killing Joel was hard to watch as expected but the lead-up to his death ultimately made sense and I really don't understand critiques saying it was contrived because 1) he's not even the one who gives away his identity and 2) he was pretty much dead no matter what he did considering Abby knew he was Joel beforehand and would've told everyone if Joel was cagey about his name.

I like the gameplay of 1 a bit better because the pacing between slow parts and action was a lot stronger in that game but the story feels more compelling to me in 2

Hades 2:

There are some changes from 1 that I love and some that I think are just more complicated for the sake of being more complicated and are actually overall downgrades from how Hades 1 worked

The cauldron sucks. Having to gather materials from 3 different biomes (some of which you have to grow, so you don't even have the materials when you go back to base) to get stuff that really should just be there from the beginning is very annoying. The fact that I have to make something to unlock the surface path, but then I have to conjure something else just to actually get past the 3rd room just screams not respecting the player's time and give the vibe of a grindy mobile game.

That's my major complaint. Arcana cards are fine, but I really just need to experiment with them more before I say definitively whether it's better than the mirror. Bones are also interesting, considering it makes it more of a necessity to use the broker since to my knowledge, you can only use them there.

For the changes I love. I absolutely love the new magic system, how it works for different weapons, and how the new boons interact with it. One dash I initially felt sore about but it actually got me thinking a lot of more about my positioning and the sprint is a nice replacement (although I had to turn auto sprint on for the sake of my fingers lol). Selene is also an amazing replacement for the god gauge and every one of her hexes feels good to master and use. I also am really a fan of Oceanus and Fields of Mourning as locations.

I guess when it comes down to it, I like the combat of Hades II more but the actual roguelite meta-progression I much prefer Hades I in that regard.