In Journey, the player could meditate at any time they wanted to with a simple press of a button. It rarely, if ever, brings attention to this, and once they have found out about this feature, they could choose to partake in the practice at any point for a variety of reasons. In Abzu, the player can go to a designated spot in a "hub" area, press a button that's brought to their attention the moment they step into the vicinity, and can then choose to meditate to look at all the different species of marine life within that "hub". You cannot do it outside these specific spots.

I think you can see the discrepancy of the two approaches

This problem with Abzu becomes more poignant as you go on. More often you are simply strung into grandiose setpieces with the control either mostly or fully pulled away from you just to "observe". You find random craters on the ground where upon activating them, more life sprout into existence. They repeat several jetstream events, ad nauseum, in an attempt to wow and lure you into the fascination and mystique of the ocean, yet rarely giving you natural, organic opportunities dwelling upon what has happened. Sure, there are moments where the game states becomes lax and opens you up to whatever possibility you want to tackle, and even does cool twists to the formula such as being able to walk about near the end, but does that really matter when I'm constantly reminded of my goal just a couple yards away, or how the next section forces me upon one linear path to The End?

This also becomes a bit of a problem when you realize Giant Squid's exact goal was trying to replicate the dreamlike feeling we can cultivate and experience from the blue water, as well as being one of a handful of games using Sumerian practices and utilizing the cosmic ocean philosophy that gets used as influences ever now and then. Really? You immediately brush this aspect away by directly showcasing these two aspects from word "go", the personal aspiration and connection is already washed away cause I'm living someone else's story and not my own. Even if you want to play ball, as I said earlier, the game contains constant reminders that you're on a set path to an endgoal, and rarely allow you to hitch a ride with a fish, or check out other forms of the sea like the kelp, coral, or reefs. This is a minor issue with Flower and even a major reason I didn't enjoy Stray that much, but the former expands and even reiterates itself during the venture and idealistic state, and the latter at least doesn't shy away from the fact that you're playing as a cat and gives you multiple different hubs to act as one.

The application of auteurism in gaming is a rather continuous problem the medium faces, such as a particularly infamous case where an IGN staff member erroneously credits Warren Spector as "the creator of Thief and Deus Ex" directly after dispelling and calling out this cold practice. With that said, despite having some of the same people involved with Journey and/or Flower such as art and creative director Matt Nava and composer Austin Wintory, it doesn't really feel like they were able to follow the same footsteps Jenova Chen, Nicholas Clark, Kellee Santiago and Robin Hunicke laid down. Journey felt like a massive endeavor through various states of the desert to achieve enlightenment in some fashion. Flower, while taking a bit to set itself up, finely crafts a tale about the synaptic relationship humanity and fauna have even within the crux of a more modern, urban setting. Abzu does not feel like this same approach but with the use of Sumerian culture and the cosmic ocean philosophy; it instead feels like a SeaWorld presentation that's so scared it'll lose your attention it constantly has to drag you along, even if you don't want to.

It also didn't help I was already drifting away from the cadences and waves of shifting noise and relistened to some lush samples catering to a nice paradise not too long prior.