itch.io

I said Metal Gear Solid because it's simply the one more people know. It's funny that you use that as an example because the story of MGS is also notorious for being a near copy of MG2, so like, the point about "more than gameplay" is moot there. Almost everyone at the time entered the series with MGS first, if people entered the series with MG2 it would have been innovative for its gameplay too.  

Demon's Souls and Dark Souls play drastically different, what are you talking about? The areas are more linear unlike the more interconnected Dark Souls world, the crescent grass functions different to estus which changes its usage in the game, there's item burden, there's world tendency, NPCs matter more. Just because they both have stamina bars and you can roll and swing a sword doesn't mean the gameplay is the same.

The same applies to Doom and Wolfenstein. Go play Doom and Wolfenstein back to back and tell me the gameplay is the same besides you shoot gun at people. Doom is as similar to Wolfenstein gameplay wise as it is to Halo. Even just the addition of character momentum changes how you play entirely, and thus the feelings and ideas evoked by each game (see even just how differently Doomguy and BJ are characterized in their subsequent remakes. Hey, another example of gameplay being able to convey ideas on its own!)

Does Ico being a "spiritual sequel" to Another World make Ico's gameplay not at all unique or different? Like???

Hey, mind telling me why DMC3 is superior to DMC? What exactly people think makes DMC3 a better game? Is it, perhaps, the gameplay????

Like even besides all of that what even is the point that you're making? Yes, games build upon eachother's systems and add to them with their own concepts and ideas. That's how art works. "Cloud Atlas is derivative of Slaughterhouse Five because it also utilizes a non-linear narrative and therefore the framing device doesn't actually matter to the novel" What Are You Talking About

Gameplay isn't a set of interacting buttons you press to get through a movie and that's the part you don't understand. It's an intrinsic part of the medium in itself that is needed to create the experience. Truly great games are great because they are more than gameplay the same way paintings are great because they are more than strokes on canvas, or books are great because they are more than prose on a page. No game is great without gameplay. They are no longer games. Gameplay obviously always mattered. You've missed the point of the artform.