Where Exalted failed and Godbound and Yoon-Suin succeed

Of the many RPG out there, there are few I have such a mix love/hate relationship with as those produced by White Wolf. Of those, one has completely captured my imagination and that was Exalted. It's hard to say where exactly it struck a chord but it's imagery of distant, exotic lands inspired by ages long past and it's mixture of mythology with the over the top nature of anime made it seem rather unique. That and a blend of over the top implausible action and myths isn't too strange once you learn about Hindu myths.

Unfortunately, Exalted never managed to live up to it's potential, at least in my eyes. The setting alienates many players, not to mention that nobody can really decide or agree on what the setting even is: some prefer it for the bronze age exotic lands and wuxia aspects, others for the sword & sorcery and others still see it as a kitchen sink fantasy which abuse Clarke's Third Law. Others still see it as a setting steeped in darkness, despair and disturbing imagery where heroes are always doomed to fail while others still see it as some cosmic trans humanist tale. Personally I like it most for the previously-mentioned bronze age, mythology, wuxia and sword and sorcery elements than whatever the hell it became as it's second edition went on. However, Exalted's setting, Creation, is not a setting which is easy to use or approach no matter which take on Exalted you wish to use.

Looking at both Godbound and Yoon-Suin I believe I can summarize what went wrong: which is, to say, White Wolf's bad habit of overly fleshing out a setting in a rigid, pre-ordained manner to stretch out a game's lifespan and print more book. The dreaded 'm-word', or 'metaplot' reared it's ugly head. Had Creation been properly presented as a living, breathing world that each Game Master Storyteller can tailor to his own need and had this vision been enforced rather than paid lip service to, I firmly believe that Creation could have lived up to it's potential. And why? Because we have two OSR games which both, in different ways, accomplish an aspect of Exalted. These games are Godbound, with it's divine heroes of overwhelming power and Yoon-Suin: The Purple land, with it's exotic setting which draws more from asian culture and sword & sorcery weirdness than D&D's faux-Tolkien veneer...which is exactly a part of Exalted's inspiration and intended style and tone.

tl;dr: Exalted should have allowed us to make Creation our own and early on it wanted us to, but White Wolf's terrible design ethos and mentality reared it's ugly head and self-destructed what could have been a great setting.