You ever play a game and it’s all competently made and such but somehow it just feels 20% off for what it’s supposed to be? And then you play something else of similar genre and it just feels SO much better to play.
What’s the esoteric part about gamefeel? Why’s 2013 Tomb Raiders and it’s sequels feel like 20% off? Why is Black Ops - rated on Gameplay - so much better than Singularity which came out the same year despite both being made by Raven?
What are you asking then? you said the final 20% or the “esoteric” part. I would even argue that sound could be considered even more important than either of those. i’m not particularly married to this but i’ll keep it going for the sake of discussion
Sound is the final touch of suspending disbelief. Video games are incredible feats of trickery. A game could have tight responsive controls, pixar tier animations, and giga brain design; but if it’s missing sounds to match the animations and a proper soundtrack or environment noises etc then your brain has to work a lot harder to imagine another world