10 Video Games That Punished You For Trying Too Hard

2. Chocobo's Dungeon 2

video game
Square Enix

Never have I experienced a game this cutesy be so absolutely brutal to players looking to swipe a bit of easy EXP. Chocobo Dungeon 2 actually takes multiple measures to tame this type of power play by making healing items extremely hard to come by, thus naturally curbing the incentive to fight tougher bosses or stay in an area too long. Next, it adds in a horrible beast called DOOM which will hunt you down if you linger in one area too long, acting kind of like The Reaper from the Persona series, but even MORE deadly.

If this wasn't enough, the game also adds in everyone's favorite mechanic, weapon degradation, meaning that you actively want to avoid wasting your potentially decent weapons and items on mere cannon fodder. I bet you're feeling pretty de-incentivized to try and grind up a few levels now, right? Well, if not then don't worry, because here's the final nail in the coffin to that mentality. The rewards for exp go down as you level up and you get far greater rewards from the game's bosses and story beat set pieces.

Talk about a hard line on power gaming right?!

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Contributor

Jules Gill hasn't written a bio just yet, but if they had... it would appear here.