> A Short Hike is incredible because the player's intrinsic motivations line up so perfectly with the Claire's
This right here. I hated Firewatch because my motivations didn't line up AT ALL with Henry's, and I stopped playing Night In The Woods because I couldn't relate at all to being Mae. Especially, in both cases, because backstory I had no say in, no interest in, and no sympathy with, kept getting revealed. Here in A Short Hike, there was none of that crap, so I could just do my thing.