Clean UI doesn’t always mean smart UX. Somewhere along the way, “sleek” became a substitute for “usable.” That’s a problem — especially in modern games.
Hiding health bars. Removing inventory weight. Auto-pinning quests without feedback. These are not elegant touches — they’re design evasions. Less information often means more confusion.
A good UI supports flow. A great UI becomes invisible because it communicates, not because it erases itself. Many “minimal” UIs remove context in favor of whitespace. That’s not design — that’s negligence.
Half the games today launch with 4 settings and a dropdown that breaks. Clean doesn’t mean functional. Gamers need clarity, not a guess-the-feature simulator.
Some games get it right. Hades. Inside. Even Soulslikes. But in those cases, minimalism is a philosophy, not a shortcut. Most fail because they copy the aesthetic, not the thought behind it.
Bottom line: If you’re removing friction — great. But if you’re removing usability, you’re doing your job wrong.