Why does playing this game give me a headache?

[Fiona Kaenbyou]

Grabbed this game after some internal debate. Was getting into it from what I've played of Chapter 1, but for some reason I just cannot bear to play this game for more than 30-45 minutes at a time because it really messes with my head. I never had any issues like this when I was playing Disgaea 5, so does anyone have an idea what's happening here?

I've tried limiting frame rate to 60, turning vsync on/off, lowering the resolution, etc, but nothing seems to help. I get this effect with a few different games. Atelier Ryza 2 comes to mind, but so does False Skies which is much less graphically intense. On the flipside I can play Street Fighter 6 without any issues, so I can't think of a consistent explanation. My best guess is that something about camera movement is making me motion sick, but I have no real hard evidence for this and even if I did I'm not sure how I'd go about resolving that.

If anyone with experience in these matters could offer some advice, it'd be much appreciated! If I can't find a solution soon I might have to refund the game altogether and I'd rather not resort to that :(

[Louis Cypher]

What do you mean exactly with "headache", "messes with your head"?

Do you experience real pain or illness? Or do you mean the visuals are just ugly?
Ultimately you cannot do anything but refund. Everyone but the ultra-cucks agree on that the 3D-Engine was a vital mistake. The colors are too strong, almost no model-details and the animations are straight from the year 2000.

Concerning motion sickness because of the camera movement and because every special is now a half-baked animation:
Well, maybe try first deactivating animations or use only normal attacks and then look if it helps you.

Good luck, while it is worse than 5, it is at least better than 6 so I hope you can enjoy the game but please do not force yourself.

[Blood]

If it happened with just this game IDK. But since it happened with other games it sounds like you need to go to an eye doctor,

[Fiona Kaenbyou]

I mean an actual physical pain in the back of one eye. Sort of like a migraine. I've had it a few times before but it's usually caused by some sort of fast moving/bright graphic. (I've seen a doctor about it but they found nothing wrong, and in fact they ended up prescribing me a pair of glasses I didn't actually need!)

It's not just the special animations that set it off - even moving around in the base is enough to mess with me.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Louis Cypher:

The colors are too strong

This might actually be a big part of it. Looking back at a lot of the games that set me off they tend to have big flashy lights or very intense colours/high contrast. Maybe that's enough to give me some form of eye strain?

If that's the case though then there's probably no solution and I'm better off just refunding :( Thanks for the suggestions though!

[Ignosius]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Fiona Kaenbyou:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Louis Cypher:

The colors are too strong

This might actually be a big part of it. Looking back at a lot of the games that set me off they tend to have big flashy lights or very intense colours/high contrast. Maybe that's enough to give me some form of eye strain?

If that's the case though then there's probably no solution and I'm better off just refunding :( Thanks for the suggestions though!

You could try lowering the contrast on your monitor to counter the high contrast of the game. See if you're able to play without as much eye strain then, and that should narrow it down.

[croix]

D6 has the same problem too, you just need to mess with your monitor colors, the only way for me to fix this...

[SivartStoneheart]

Sounds like you may have a personal problem but one setting most Disgaea pro/grinders change is
Ally Effects [Skip B](I use) [Skip A]
Enemy Effects [Skip B](I use) [Skip A]

[Skip B] Lets you see the skill spell once then starts skipping it.

I have other settings too but I didn't think it would help this problem.
First time I do for ANY game on any platform is check game settings. Many times I don't know what I should change but I want to see what I can change.

[reliankru]

Not associated with this game, but a version of Castle Wolfenstein would cause me to get nauseated after about 5 minutes.

[JtDarth]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Fiona Kaenbyou:

I mean an actual physical pain in the back of one eye. Sort of like a migraine. I've had it a few times before but it's usually caused by some sort of fast moving/bright graphic. (I've seen a doctor about it but they found nothing wrong, and in fact they ended up prescribing me a pair of glasses I didn't actually need!)

It's not just the special animations that set it off - even moving around in the base is enough to mess with me.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Louis Cypher:

The colors are too strong

This might actually be a big part of it. Looking back at a lot of the games that set me off they tend to have big flashy lights or very intense colours/high contrast. Maybe that's enough to give me some form of eye strain?

If that's the case though then there's probably no solution and I'm better off just refunding :( Thanks for the suggestions though!

FTR: I have significant light sensitivity myself, and what you are describing sounds like what happens if I spend time outside without sunglasses. In my case, it starts out as a light feeling of pressure, but pretty rapidly scales up to a 'high-frequency' headache like phenomenon that feels like it's inside my eyes. If I am stupid enough to push it further, I get the wonderful feeling of someone digging around behind my eye with a tattoo gun. Some games with 'pure' white flashes and especially Yellow flashes can trigger it as well. Bright green across the screen hurts to look at as well. Deeper, less acidic colors don't trip it, no matter how often they are flashed.

In your case:
Symptom wise it sounds like some sort of light sensitivity (do keep in mind, colors are different frequencies of light) causing abnormal strain or possibly even minor form of epilepsy. I highly doubt the game is rendering in interlace or faking some sort of screen effect that could be doing it on every screen, which is something that can give me trouble. If I try to, for example, suddenly start playing an old console like a PS2 or N64 for hours at a time, my eyes just do not put up with it. I have to do smaller doses to 'adjust' to the different render method they use compared to modern graphics.

At any rate, if you are having pain or spikes of a feeling of 'pressure' in the eye from it, it is not 'nothing wrong', you may want to try a couple other eye doctors, or even talk to your family doctor/gp about the issue. A lot of 'eye doctors' don't actually do full exams, they just check vision and assume if you aren't showing any surface symptoms that everything is fine. As for the glasses that don't noticeably improve your vision: Doctor may have assumed eye strain/fatigue and given minor correction or even just used lens filter to try to reduce strain. I'd say check with a different eye doctor and see what they say, as well as mention what the prior eye doctor said and that they gave you glasses and you aren't sure why.

As for things that might help: Someone already mentioned lowering contrast, but I'll mention that changing brightness and 'sharpness' settings might help too.

IANAD, but have a parent that worked in the field for more than 30 years (and had to do certs every 2 years to keep position) and have eye problems myself. If your eyes are telling you something is wrong, DON'T WRITE IT OFF. Today it might be a stimulus driven migraine, tomorrow it might have progressed to macular edema, the day after that you get to find out how deep that rabbit hole can go. Seeing the needle INSIDE your eye is something I recommend you try to do without.

[Casual Amateur]

You feeling sick for playing this game. That remind me of feeling sick in my eyes and in my head for playing Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Not sure it were light setting or to many flashing effect.

[blight]

I started getting silent migraines back in the day when playing Hyperdimension Neptunia which has a lot of shiny colors, turned out i needed glasses and my eyes were straining, that fixed my problem. I would see a flashing light thing out of the corner of my eye followed by throbbing and what felt like a hangover afterward. I was able to tell i needed glasses after getting prescriptions so not sure if its the same thing.

[lam.singsing]

try to play with the v-sync and antialiasing setting see if that helps

also,... use a bigger screen if you can.