Streamlining Hell

[TechnologicalMF]

One Quality of Life feature that I quite despise though it's universally acclaimed is the guiding path/arrows in simulation/racing games. Just hold my hand will ya, just play the game for me.

I don't play racing games myself but you reminded me how much I hate that yellow tape stuff in modern games. Be it tape or just something with yellow. It literally breaks the worldbuilding sometimes and makes me ask way too many questions

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Part of the challenge is learning the track!!

Personally, I think the challenge is learning how to get a good placement and keeping it

 

[TechnologicalMF]

One modern QoL thing I’m not a huge fan of is when leveling up automatically fills up your HP and MP. It makes dungeon crawling less risky.

However a modern QoL thing I DO like that feeds into that is when games have those ”quick heal” button in the menus. It’s just convenient and economical for your MP.

I never end up using these lmao I still prefer doing it manually

 

[Tonberry]

I don't play racing games myself but you reminded me how much I hate that yellow tape stuff in modern games. Be it tape or just something with yellow. It literally breaks the worldbuilding sometimes and makes me ask way too many questions

Definitely. Guiding the player with clever lighting and presentation is better because it makes it feel more natural, and less blatant. What’s annoying too is that the level design is still there, it’s just got paint all over it so it’s kind of a lose-lose.

I never end up using these lmao I still prefer doing it manually

I’m replaying Final Fantasy 10 right now and I’ve wasted so much MP on Yuna just spamming Cura in the menu after a fight, even if my overpowered Wakka only took like 10 damage, but hey, as long as his name isn’t gray you bet I’m gonna heal him!

 

[Leon_Squallhart]

I'm of two minds with this. To use an extreme example, the only time I've played Final Fantasy III was with the new Pixel Remaster. The final dungeon in the original release is kind of two dungeons broken purely by a brief window where you can save before diving into the second half. That dungeon is full of minibosses that are stronger than anything you've fought up to that point and if you die? Boom. You start back from your save with the 4 minibosses undefeated before you face the intimidating final boss. It sounds completely grueling.

The Pixel Remaster creates an autosave every time you change screens. I got washed by those bosses so many times and I would've given up on the game if I had to do the dungeon 20 times. It's a case where a QoL change made my life SO much more enjoyable, and those bosses will still crush you and give you a very hard time. On the other hand, the game is pretty easy beyond that final dungeon (in the PR anyway) and most of the bosses are in their own "rooms". Dungeons felt less like a game of resource management and more like a series of rooms you blow through and maybe have to try again if you get a little careless. It carries less weight.

Ultimately, I definitely skew towards the side of QoL than against it since I'm very fickle and very quick to drop a game if it gives me trouble that I deem "unfun". I can just recognize how QoL isn't a magic wand that automatically improves every experience. Friction can be good!

 

[TechnologicalMF]

I'm of two minds with this. To use an extreme example, the only time I've played Final Fantasy III was with with the new Pixel Remaster. The final dungeon in the original release is kind of two dungeons broken purely by a brief window where you can save before diving into the second half. That dungeon is full of minibosses that are stronger than anything you've fought up to that point and if you die? Boom. You start back from your save with the 4 minibosses undefeated before you face the intimidating final boss. It sounds completely grueling.

The Pixel Remaster creates an autosave every time you change screens. I got washed by those bosses so many times and I would've given up on the game if I had to do the dungeon 20 times. It's a case where a QoL change made my life SO much more enjoyable, and those bosses will still crush you and give you a very hard time. On the other hand, the game is pretty easy beyond that final dungeon (in the PR anyway) and most of the bosses are in their own "rooms". Dungeons felt less like a game of resource management and more like a series of rooms you blow through and maybe have to try again if you get a little careless. It carries less weight.

Ultimately, I definitely skew towards the side of QoL than against it since I'm very fickle and very quick to drop a game if it gives me trouble that I deem "unfun". I can just recognize how QoL isn't a magic wand that automatically improves every experience. Friction can be good!

I really should play FF III. Though the version I've eyed most is the PSP one

 

[RageBurner]

I can't comment on Persona directly as I dislike it and don't play it, but there is an (often unclear) line separating true QoL from dumbed down streamlining.

My take is that whenever meaningful decision making and gameplay depth are taken from the player, then it is not true QoL.

When mechanics that punish experimentation and player expression are lessened or removed, then it is QoL.

 

[Leon_Squallhart]

I really should play FF III. Though the version I've eyed most is the PSP one

I lied! I forgot that I played a little bit of the Steam version of this. It's extremely hard which is one of the reasons I bounced off of it.

 

[IyoTheHelpfulWolf]

My general rule for quality of life improvements is that they must enhance the core gameplay loop of the game rather than detract from it, and this can be somewhat subjective.

For example, I find really long runbacks and excessive backtracking kind of annoying, so I like the placement of bonfires and the fast travel implementation in Dark Souls 2 onward more so than Dark Souls 1. It makes it easier to explore what I want to explore and fight who I wanna fight without making the fights themselves too easy. I spend less time trekking through shit I've already explored and more time doing what I want to do, even if said thing I want to do is getting me killed anyway.

An example of quality of life that dumbs the game down is how Elden Ring handled Spirit Ashes. The mechanic is very fun, being able to summon a companion with strengths and weaknesses that compliment your playstyle and draw some aggro away from you. Especially handy if a boss counters your build and you need some breathing room. The problem is the Spirit Ash system is unbalanced as shit when the Mimic Tear is the strongest in almost every situation, and most other spirits don't even come close. I wanna roleplay as a general and roll in with my five Mausoleum Soldiers, but the fuckers can't survive shit and I end up doing so much of the work myself that they feel meaningless.

 

[TechnologicalMF]

This isn't QoL, this is just removing features. An actual example would be making a more efficient menu system or adding teleporting in a game that lacked it.

But anyway, as long as it saves time without dumbing down the game (or at the very least, make dumbing down the game optional), then I'm alright with QoL features.

The issue is we have gotten to a point where so many people describe removing features that actually made a game unique and challenging as "the game has been streamlined" which is a completely different thing.

I lied! I forgot that I played a little bit of the Steam version of this. It's extremely hard which is one of the reasons I bounced off of it.

This is actually exactly why I wanna play it lol