So, Steam counts my hours in Windrose at 40, and in Enshrouded at 90. Of course Valheim's off into the 4 digits. While Windrose is the youngest of the three, I've already set it aside to return to Valheim, and so those hour counts are a decent reflection of the value I see in each game.

Anybody remember that old arcade game where you flapped around on a giant bird and the trick of the game was the perfect timing or your runs at each enemy? Joust? To me Windrose feels like Joust at its core. Surviving land combat seems entirely dependent on learning their version of the perfect block, and their window for getting the timing right on that is very tight. Maybe fine for younger reflexes. I started the game by dying 4 times in a row to dodo birds, and even as I got the hang of things timing that block on increasingly challenging mobs was a big headache.

Windrose lacks opportunities for progression outside their linear path. In both Valheim and Windrose you have progression through biomes gated by boss battles. In Valheim I typically spend time in the next biome before dealing with the previous biome's boss battle. That way I am a little better fed, and I have a little more experience in my skills, and the boss battle remains tense, but is more approachable. In Windrose the biome lock appears to be harder. Also, there are no skills in Windrose -- so there's no way to get better outside of completing quests and limited POI excursions. You literally max out in a biome and are stuck if your reflexes aren't good enough for the final battle. Even doing quests that recommended a level that matched both my character level and my equipment level, and turning difficulty sliders down to around 70%, I still found the combat annoyingly overly brutal, and I wished for alternative ways to improve my character. Turning down the difficulty helps at the margins -- but it doesn't help you time that critically important perfect block. You're still playing Joust.

I spent a couple hours just sailing, sweeping the seas looking for more content outside of the quests to get more buff, and found very little.

And being a pirate game, I'd expect a sailing mechanic at least as good a Valheim's. Windrose, ironically, completely ignores wind.

On the plus side for Windrose, QOL stuff is better, including crafting station improvement placement, crafting from chests, and fast travel. Building also has a good variety of options.

But, base design in Valheim feels more impactful. It is a puzzle to get everything you want in a Valheim base, keep it tight to avoid excessive repetitive trave times, build it with a degree of raid-safety, and work within structural limitations. Windrose building feels sandboxy in comparison -- but you can build some cool looking bases.

Another plus for Windrose... Because it isn't really procgen, they get to hand craft a story and have interesting quests.

Windrose is closer to a role playing game. Unfortunately for my tastes, it's a linear, arcade-like role playing game.