The return of the Dragon's Dogma series this year has been a real breath of fresh air. Not because the sequel is perfect—it certainly has its quirks and flaws—but because it so confidently walks its own path. There are all sorts of elements of it that make it feel so different from its peers, and the more I play it, the more I think I'd love to see other RPGs and open world games take a little inspiration from its choices.
Dragon's Dogma 2's world isn't necessarily the most realistic or detailed, but it feels brilliantly tactile and alive. You can lift almost any person, object, or creature, and climb around on monsters. Chaotic battles can destroy trees, break bridges, and set huge boulders rolling down mountains. Settlements run to their own schedules, with characters going about their lives and even getting into fights with the wildlife.
Not every game needs pawns, of course, but I think there's still a lot of untapped design space in the idea of allowing players to have a positive impact on each other's singleplayer adventures. I'd love to see more developers thinking about that as a core element of the experience, as Dragon's Dogma does, rather than an afterthought or, worse, an add-on to retroactively justify an always-online requirement.