I managed to save all the side missions, bounties, and challenges for John, except of course for the strangers missions you can only do with Arthur.
I found the perfect time to do this is right after Abigail and Jack leave, and John is tasked with meeting Sadie and/or buying the property from the bank. Like, narratively it makes sense to me that John would just go around exploring, getting bounties, and living the gunslinger life at this moment in the story.
I turned off the music (because it barely plays anyway, which annoys me to no end) and listen to a custom Spotify playlist I created for walking simulation in this game, Skyrim and Witcher 3. It includes music from like The Revenant, Prisoners, Knight of Cups, and other scores I consider "dark" and "brooding".
Now I'm just roaming and exploring every little thing with John. Taking my goddamn fucking time with the game, with a goal to 100% it. It's so damn peaceful and engaging. I don't think I've ever wanted to 100% a game so eagerly.
I thought The Witcher 3's world was immersive, but now I just feel disappointed I can't engage with CDPR's world as much as I can with this one.
A perfect encapsulation of this is that my single favorite game mechanic is that you can hold Triangle or Y and kneel down to "rest" virtually anywhere, and then set up camp or craft/cook. It's a little thing, but it makes it feel like I'm actually part of the world when I can take a break and just look out at the landscape.
anyway,
still 10/10 boahs for me
sorry, this was really unnecessary