Terraria Community Forums

This is why I prefer to not prefer new/unfamiliar games to avoid getting overloaded.
Ironically, I would count Terraria as one of them.

I think it depends on the game overall, and how well they can ease you into the game's mechanics along with story + characters. If it dumps a ton of stuff on the player at once it gets overwhelming. But if it starts off with teaching you a simple mechanic then expanding from it after you've gotten the basic mechanic down in a few levels, it is easier to absorb new information from there.

When it comes to some kinds of RTS/TBS games with a lot of elements of micromanagement, I tend to get overwhelmed which robs the enjoyment if I have to pay attention to the actions of 100's of soilders/workers/resources etc. at once and it gets introduced at the very beginning of the game. I enjoy some complexity and macromanagement, but I dislike micromanagement personally. ->

In games such as Trails in the Sky and other Nihon Falcom games, their tutorials work out very well overall. At first it feels complex, but the game gives you time to get accumulated to all the mechanics and before you know it, it feels like 2nd nature to equip orbments and create effective strategies for defeating enemies.

There are other examples I can think of, but I would agree how a game presents you with information on its mechanics can effect whether you get overwhelmed or not to the degree of causing headaches even.

And yeah, I have to agree ppowersteef. Naturally I do love Terraria, but I will admit its form of a tutorial is a bit lacking. All the player has to go off of is the Guide NPC. I always think about how my first journey would have been had I not completely wiki-dived into the game's wiki.

Well the game in question is Surviving Mars this time, but I've experienced it even with games like Hollow Knight. I think it's just... a sensory overload, the brain trying to notice every detail on the screen, the artwork, UI, trying to remember map layouts of new areas, etc.