First off, thanks for the engagement. It makes me work/word out my ideas better and hopefully be more helpful with feedback.
Yes, the Tirdeness system would do those things, but what does it add/improve?
It just trades one bar for another. Object names or visibility of the bar is a moot point for me, honestly.
Knowing me, I’d get distracted by the bar anyway, or get annoyed by the idea/pressure of ‘Only have 15 more tries, got to play better’. Even if the bar is mechanically perfect and won’t get in the way of my gameplay, I still feel like it might get in the way*,* and that on its own is a problem.
(A weird similarity for Feel is with Senua’s Hellblade where the player is informed of a creeping death mechanic, more deaths=bad stuff happening to Senua. And it is just a straight-up lie from the Dev to pressure the players. Weird side tangent, but I hope to point out how effective feeling something can be, positive or negative. If I feel like I need to do something annoying soon, even if I never actually need to do it, it still makes me feel annoyed.
Maybe Wicked should also just lie to us and say: “dying spreads the pestillence and makes NPCs sick.” Like they do with dragonrot in sekiro.)
I see no reason to add any punishment for dead other than the boss is full health again. And maybe add grouped enemies, and if any enemy of a group is alive when you die, the whole group respawns.
(That would impair low-level players from slowly going through a high-level area. Though honestly, I don’t see why you’d need to do that anyway, let the crazy nutball go through a high-level area if they have the perseverance. An average player will see the skulls above enemies and turn around.)
So, to get back to the main topic, Durability (or similarly, Tiredness) does not add positively to the gaming experience/feel, nor is it good/interesting friction.
That’s where I stand. Does it make sense why I don’t think Durability or Tiredness fixes the problems I describe/experience?