Is the game shifting into fast visual puzzles?

[Valence]

I want to preface this honest question by the fact that this is not a complaint about difficulty. I actually enjoy the re-addition of some modicum of spice to keep things out of residence sleeping territory, notably in endgame dungeons, not that it was much to begin with. I have also been a relatively high end raider since SB and have played since HW extensively.

But since Endwalker I seem to have come facing a specific type of encounter design that has left me extremely frustrated, and that quite frankly makes me feel extremely dumb. I am speaking about encounters where main mechanics are almost entirely based on visual cues to watch for on the arena or the boss (or both), and asking the player to solve it as a visual puzzle within a relatively fast time window. The most egregious example to date for me has been the second Ex Trial in Dawntrail, which is leaning pretty hardcore on that kind of mechanics (the Volok swords, and the moving lines). But other examples can be found everywhere, like the ghost dungeon and its teacup boss (expert), or Superchain Theory in EW, and that obnoxious samurai boss or Statice in Criterion (or a lot of criterion tbh).

I do understand that the game encounters require diversity and variations to please everybody, and that rationally there is nothing saying those mechanics are worse than any other per se, even though they don't really tie in with the jobs or the battle system much, which could pass for a flaw in my view. But my actual problem is that it feels like I've been playing a completely different type of game lately whenever it comes to those, and worse, I am having genuine trouble with them, unlike anything else I've seen before in XIV. There are specific mechanics like the water waves in Rokkon (criterion), Superchain 2, or the moving lines in Everkeep Ex for which my brain genuinely just shuts down and freezes in sheer refusal of dealing with them. I usually excel at tasks where I have time to think things out and I am often one of the first to get to grasp with classic mechanics like High Concept, Pangenesis, Hello World, etc.

However, I've been frustrated to no end with all those visual puzzles slowly creeping into gameplay recently because no matter what I do, I do not seem to get to grasp with them. I still die consistently in the moving lines section of Everkeep Ex unless I follow another player with a dorito above the head, I still can't deal with the teacups of a simple endgame ghost dungeon, and I'm not getting better at it. I genuinely find even those stupid teacups harder to deal with than Classical/Caloric Theory or whatever. It's been an absolute misery to play through so far, while in sheer contrast I've loved the heck out of Valigarmanda Ex.

While I've been excited for the new raids to come, this has shaken a lot of my confidence into dealing with that specific type of mechanic, and I would be lying if I wasn't worried about what's to come in the future.

Am I the only one that's having that problem with those specific types of new mechanics?

[TDawnstar]

Is the game shifting into fast visual puzzles?

Yes, because SE removed everything else.

No more long gearing, no more interesting stats, easy catchup, abundant loot. From that point, the only thing SE can do to increase the game's difficulty is to increase the number and complexity of mechanics.

[Darkedone02]

Sadly with people who have mental learning disabilities like I do (autism), It's hard for me to think fast to save my life in this game, and if it keeps getting harder and harder, I might have to toss my hat in.

I don't like to die often and become a burden on the party that i am in, and I don't enjoy feeling incompetent, that and how that becomes a victim of toxicity in these games when folks have the focus and mental ready state to want to push for finish and set higher expectations on everyone.

I'm not asking to keep making mechanics harder, I'm saying give people more time to think and move.

[yoshinoharu]

I'm not asking to keep making mechanics harder, I'm saying give people more time to think and move.

Narratively these types of mechanics are actually the ones that make the most sense. You can (and frankly a lot of players frustratingly do) memorize a fight by rote because the same mechanics happen at the same time consistently. The amount of things that you have to actually react to is very minimal, and you can memorize the fight timeline. This is how, lore-wise, we actually win fights with the echo. Every wipe is just an experience that we're avoiding using the Echo. If you are having trouble reacting to things, I recommend trying to commit the actual fight timeline to memory instead. A lot of players like myself find reacting to things easy because we know before even entering the fight when it's going to happen. If you're feeling like you aren't given enough time to react, the simple solution is to stop reacting and start planning.

[VioletCatastrophe]

Sadly with people who have mental learning disabilities like I do (autism), It's hard for me to think fast to save my life in this game, and if it keeps getting harder and harder, I might have to toss my hat in.

I don't like to die often and become a burden on the party that i am in, and I don't enjoy feeling incompetent, that and how that becomes a victim of toxicity in these games when folks have the focus and mental ready state to want to push for finish and set higher expectations on everyone.

I'm not asking to keep making mechanics harder, I'm saying give people more time to think and move.

Generally speaking, if this is your issue, you are taking in too much information and the solution is to take in less. Reduce mechanics down to what you need to look for, and what you need to do in response. It will get easier over time. You can also reduce mechanics to simpler forms, which is why raiders constantly make reference to earlier mechanics - with a mindset like 'no need to re-solve this mechanic, it's just a basic protean which I've done multiple times before'.

In aviation, there is a concept known as task saturation, which occurs when you are taking in the max amount of stuff you can handle, and thus can't handle any more. Solving a mechanic is much harder than executing, so the more work you can do before hand the easier. That task of 'solve and execute' becomes just 'execute'. Can't handle your rotation too? Throw that out during difficult sections, staying alive is better and with time you'll be less overwhelmed and can maybe bring it back in. We've had the normal raids for not even a week. Give it time to develop a familiarity with them and the feeling of being overwhelmed will dissipate with it.

I have autism too, though given the breadth of experiences within that I could hardly say my experience is representative of yours. But I do firmly believe that there are ways to mitigate your issues and let you do the content comfortably regardless. And honestly, if it just means getting hit a bunch and dying more than the better players in your party then who cares tbh. You aren't a burden, so don't think of yourself as one.

[Naomishtola]

Sadly with people who have mental learning disabilities like I do (autism), It's hard for me to think fast to save my life in this game, and if it keeps getting harder and harder, I might have to toss my hat in.

I don't like to die often and become a burden on the party that i am in, and I don't enjoy feeling incompetent, that and how that becomes a victim of toxicity in these games when folks have the focus and mental ready state to want to push for finish and set higher expectations on everyone.

I'm not asking to keep making mechanics harder, I'm saying give people more time to think and move.

Perhaps you can bring a friend or ask someone in the party to mark themselves with a triangle? (Also commonly refered to as a danger dorito)

[PorxiesRCute]

Sadly with people who have mental learning disabilities like I do (autism), It's hard for me to think fast to save my life in this game, and if it keeps getting harder and harder, I might have to toss my hat in.

I don't like to die often and become a burden on the party that i am in, and I don't enjoy feeling incompetent, that and how that becomes a victim of toxicity in these games when folks have the focus and mental ready state to want to push for finish and set higher expectations on everyone.

I'm not asking to keep making mechanics harder, I'm saying give people more time to think and move.

I'm also autistic so I feel this. If it helps, so many of these fights are basically choreographed dances. Once you learn what the attack names and telegraphs are, it becomes second nature to react without really having to think about it.

Don't worry about failing one or two or even fifty times; practice makes perfect. If your party gets salty about it they're not worth your time anyway.

[Jinglypockets]

I'm also autistic so I feel this. If it helps, so many of these fights are basically choreographed dances. Once you learn what the attack names and telegraphs are, it becomes second nature to react without really having to think about it.

Don't worry about failing one or two or even fifty times; practice makes perfect. If your party gets salty about it they're not worth your time anyway.

The post is complaining specifically about visual puzzle mechanics -- not the stuff you can just memorize.

[Krainz]

Some of the puzzles you can memorize instead of solving them completely. Vorlok Swords, for instance, if you look at the swords on the platform and they haven't started glowing, you can run to that spot because the sword spots don't overlap. After that is solving the left or right side from the boss that is being hit by the cleave. Over time you can memorize to stand in front of the boss or behind him, see which side he is going to strike with the cleave, and then look at the platforms to run to a sword that isn't glowing. Three steps of memorization but you're not doing that all at once, like someone trying to solve a puzzle with several different pieces of information in one go.

[Jinglypockets]

Agree. I hate the visual puzzle mechanics.

With all of them, there's always a "trick" I have to figure out to be able to solve them quickly, so it ends up just being another memorization mechanic but with more stress (and not the fun kind).