I think everything would be clearer if we all agreed a visual novel is a kind of ebook and not a video game.
This wasn’t always the case for JRPGs[0]. There was quite a long period where JRPGs were pushing technical limits. Especially around the time of Final Fantasy VII.
[0]: https://youtu.be/EhQamvbfDxc?si=rWRJmHeo_69OI99e&t=5145
Even on consoles there was NieR, which has all the kinds of gameplay you could want.
Square-Enix is trying to bring this back, each Final Fantasy game has had a different combat system and largely been an action game for some time now. I think they largely failed at this, except for FFXIV and FF7 Remake/Rebirth which are great, but they definitely try.
Bethesda's weakness has always been writing and content, though. Lots of it, but the main plots are consistently terrible.
And any decent form of in-game inventory management! Why is it sooooooo bad in bethesda games :(
Since then, it doesn't seem to me that the industry has taken this advice.
I wouldn't go quite as far as he did—I think there are many different ways for video games to tell stories. But the way that Half Life and especially Portal does it is extremely effective—and I haven't seen any other games pull it off or even really attempt it!
I would argue even Half Life: Alyx doesn't really follow the Half Life storytelling formula, because the main character isn't mute. When the character can speak of his/her own accord, they aren't really you, they're a different person.
There was absolutely nothing like it before it. It's like claiming no one cared when Halo 2 and 3 was released.