The Difficulty Ramp is Perfect

[yoshinoharu]

[Reposted from General Discussion]

I have seen a lot of coverage of posts complaining about the increased difficulty of optional content in this game, and even, interestingly enough, complaints of the final dungeon of the game. For these people, I genuinely wonder why they play games to begin with, and whether or not battle content is even for them, or if they are even legitimately attempting to play the game.

I personally think that the difficulty ramp of the dungeons perfectly leads into the level 100 dungeon. The optional Expert dungeons are a step up in difficulty from the MSQ level 100 dungeon, and in my opinion that is exactly how it SHOULD be.

For the first time since Stormblood, Trials actually feel like a trial of your ability to play the game. Expert dungeons feel like you should have learned how to play the game through the duration of your journey through it and actually demand a certain level of expertise. That is to say, things actually feel labeled correctly now and there is a logical progression of difficulty that now actually includes the optional expert dungeons being a step up and basically an accessibility ramp to move into normals and EX.

There used to be a logical progression of difficulty in dungeons during the levelling experience. That was entirely lost in Shadowbringers and Endwalker where we saw an initiative to make everything clearable with minimal effort. I am beyond happy that I can now add optional and even levelling dungeons into that difficulty progression.

I know that fun is a subjective thing, and some people don't really enjoy needing to put in effort into what they are viewing as a recreational activity, but that doesn't mean they should use their opinions to spoil the difficulty design of the, and I must heavily stress this, optional content that the long-term endgame players that truly invest their time into the game have been asking for for years at this point.

I guess all this is to say, if you are finding the game too difficult past watching the credits roll, that content might not be for you or actually require extra effort. It is okay for people to have to work for their rewards. It is okay for not all content to be for everyone. Anyone who says otherwise, regardless of actual circumstances, I would argue is being incredibly narrow minded, selfish, and should consider the experience of the rest of the people around them.

Let's not forget that a vast majority of this game is already designed to be accessible to everyone. Combat content, however, is the one place in this game where people who desire a challenge must draw a line in the sand. The rest of the game belongs to everyone, is it really so much to have, and I again I reiterate this, optional content be for people who desire, you know, the option to be challenged? Must it really only be a sheer cliff wall of difficulty being designed into ultimates with no ramp of progression in difficulty?