You could say that about any other story where you save the world. You only ever save it from the present danger, you never make it safe for all time. Otherwise there could be no sequels (of which DS has received a couple). "Happily ever after" is figurative.
That just paints DS as dishonest, since it's designed to be beaten too. There are entire genres of games far less fair and forgiving than DS, such as roguelikes, where death means starting over from scratch and bad RNG can screw you over in a heartbeat no matter how well you play.
these games make you feel pretty unimportant
You're literally addressed as the "Chosen Undead" by a goddess in DS1 and tasked with saving the world.
Daggerfall Unity fits this almost perfectly. You can become hilariously OP if you want to, but exercising some self-restraint on the custom class and enchantment screens can lead to a very challenging experience.
I really dislike Niko as a character due to that hypocrisy, but it's 100% intentional. The guy he's trying to find throughout the game calls him out on it when they finally meet. I'm unsure if deliberately making the protagonist unlikable is artsy or pretentious.
My main issue with IV is that the driving camera is too damn low. My abiding memory of IV's gameplay is having to constantly manually adjust the camera while driving, otherwise I'd crash into obstacles my own car obscured from view. I don't know what the hell they were thinking when they made that or how it got past the first round of playtesting.
@Sordid
@sh.itjust.works