10 More Levels That Almost Made You Quit Video Games
6. YHVH's Universe - Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse
Dungeon design is one of the trickiest forms of level design. You want a sprawling area with challenging yet surmountable enemies and environmental puzzles all housed in an aesthetically interesting area. So, it’s no great surprise that often games don’t get it right.
Enter YHVH’s Universe in Shin Megami Tensei IV, a confusing labyrinth that drowns you in an uninteresting, tedious maze before hitting you with an amazing boss battle.
While that might seem like a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow it’s really more like a pot of gold at the end of a needlessly huge and obtuse dungeon replete with confusing teleportation, terminals, dull ambient music, and way too many grindy encounters. It’s initially aesthetically wild and interesting but the novelty wears off and the relentless pounding and shrieking of the soundtrack puts you in a sensory overload where you fall into that “if everything is intense nothing is intense” mode.
Cool game, great final fight, terrible level.