Hmm, looks like maybe my 'designer memory' really is on the short side. Or my 'mental digestion' uses up my memories of games I've played in the past thoroughly enough that after 5 years everything has been digested and incorporated into my own thoughts, there's nothing interesting of the original left to chew on.

My opinion of what's the most compellingly interesting thing to design does shift every few years. Well, actually it probably looks like a bigger shift to others than it does to me. From the beginning I've been interested in pretty games with semi-anime graphics that are some hybrid of RPG, adventure, and sim (the plant growing and pet breeding kind), have an interactive story, and their combat is either tactical turn based or adventure/arcade (jumping and biting if the character is an animal, or punching/kicking/sword use if the character is a humanoid). But in different months or years I'm in different corners of that territory, varying between single-player and MMO, focusing more on the adventure side or more on the sandbox side or more on the interactive story side.