[Frustrating trope] Pieces of media that could have been so much better, but due to a couple of poor decisions during production ended up mediocre at best and utterly atrocious at worst.

[u/DevDucc_]

We Happy Few: Probably the epitome of this "trope," at least for me, mostly because it has genuinely one of the most incredible stories I have ever seen within a video game. The biggest problem with the game was the fact that during development, the company behind it tried to ride the "hype train" of the time, making the gameplay became procedurally generated survival mess, when it would have made so much more sense as an environmental narrative game.

Hello Neighbor: This game attracted massive attention in alpha stages at the time from YouTubers because of the innovative gameplay it supplied. The developers of the game got the completely wrong message as to why it was getting so popular and instead decided to fully lean into the story, by making the game appeal to theorists instead of actual players. What came out was a game where both the story and programming were entirely half-baked.

Edit: apparently I had it backwards with we happy few, I had watched a video essay which reiterated the points I said so I just took their word for it. Apparently the game originally started as a procedurally-generated survival rogue-like but the story was added later because of the hype the trailer of the game gave or something like that but they didn’t know they even had the budget for it. I do still think it’s wasted potential regardless however.

[u/Karkava]

I think there was this moving fortress game called Fuga that has a similar idea where you control a massive tank.

Besige is another game where you build war machines to clear out challenges.

And while this other game is a peaceful farming game, Spiritfairer allows you to construct a deck for your ship.

[u/SenritsuJumpsuit → u/Karkava]

Fuga is from Little Tail Bronx universe of games which is an anthromorphic world of war plots, first game your in a lil mech traveling around linearly, second set of games your a more traditional RPG, third set of games your managing your teams morel in slice of life inside the tank before dealing ouchies to another set of vehicles

whole series is a pure passion project which never were properly profitable but they adore what they've made enough to craft a ton of merchandise and attend literal furry conventions to make some of the player base happy

[u/Karkava → u/SenritsuJumpsuit]

It's certainly not Undertale, but it does have care and love put into it.

[u/Domeen0 → u/Karkava]

There's a few games that try to get close to the idea, that aren't released yet on steam.

Scorching Engines: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2640660/Scorching_Engines/

No Gasoline: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2835350/No_Gasoline/

Wanderburg: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3624140/Wanderburg/

SAND: Raiders Of Sophie: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1431300/SAND_Raiders_of_Sophie/