I bought hades 2 last week and already have almost 30 hours. Those games have the most satisfying difficulty curve. The first time you fight a boss it’s overwhelming and maybe even feels unfair, but smash cut 10 tries later where you’re nailing a no-hit and thinking “hey maybe this boss needs a buff actually”
And the presence of “god mode” means I can recommend it to literally anyone, regardless of how apt they are for ARPGs!
I bought Vampire Survivors two weeks ago and I have almost 40 hours, all on Steam Deck. It's the most fun I've had gaming in a long time. Simple gameplay loop with constant action and so many possible permutations of characters, stages, and power ups! I have ~ 2/3 of the unlocks and achievements so far.
That was the first thing I played when I got my deck! My “recently played” at the time was all multiplayer FPS games and other shit that doesn’t play well with controllers. I figured “shit, at least I can get a feel for the device” and then blasted like 8 straight hours of it that first day hahahah