The difficulty spike everyone blames on the game is usually a tutorial failure

Players blame a sudden difficulty spike on bad game balance far more often than the real cause: the game taught a mechanic once, briefly, several hours before it becomes mandatory, and most players simply forgot it existed by the time they needed it.

Good tutorial design re-teaches critical mechanics right before the moment they matter, not just once at the start. When a "spike" appears at the exact point a forgotten mechanic becomes required, that's a teaching failure wearing a balance problem's clothes.

I've watched this exact pattern across a dozen games players call "unfairly hard" at a specific boss. Nine times out of ten, re-reading the tutorial text solves what felt like an unbeatable fight.

Part of the deeper dive: The Guide to What Actually Makes a Game Feel Good (or Bad) to Play.