Over the last decade or so, smaller studios have often been able to create takes on styles of games originated by bigger, better funded teams. We've seen Stardew Valley take over where Harvest Moon left off, Palworld introducing fresh ideas to the Pokemon formula, and Shovel Knight, Celeste, and Hollow Knight compete with Metroid and Mario. This is also true with the action RPG formula established by Diablo, with even Blizzard's own Diablo 4 facing stiff competition from the likes of Path of Exile and, most recently, Last Epoch. As its player count shows, the latter game continues to find a huge audience, its numbers of active players surging now that its latest update has launched.
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