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Hey, do you happen to remember when the first Megaman Zero game was touted as the "hardest Megaman game ever" way back when? I've played it. It's not really that bad -- there's a lot to be said about the options to make the game hard or easy, like trying to consistently get A/S ranks in every mission on the side of hard, or using as many of the Cyber Elves to give you more health and whatnot on the side of easy. I remember this being a big deal at the time, though afterwards there wasn't much said on the issue as a whole.
Didn't anyone play Megaman 2, though? Did people forget the impossibility of beating Air Man? Or even getting through his stage? Okay, okay, but seriously.
One of the things that bothers me with games today is the allure of difficulty. "I beat [game], and that makes me feel good." Now, I can understand that. Who doesn't want to beat a difficult game? Where I draw the line is how justified that difficulty is. Now, as I said, I like a good challenge. But when it's controller-tossingly brutal, then I start to draw the line. What, what's that you say? "It's easy, so it sucks"? I disagree. I'm not really an old gamer, though I grew up in the SNES/GB era, but there is only one reason why I game: For fun. I don't deliberately hunt for achievements or trophies or anything. I play for myself, not to brag about anything. That's just how I am. I guess that's what you're gonna have to keep in mind when you read this.
Let me use an example, and a recent one at that. I'm currently on my first run of Deus Ex. In the interest of testing the waters, I'm playing it straight-forwardly, all-violence and whatnot. And I'm on Easy. Don't worry, I have a stealthy and Medium save too, just this is for my first go. The most recent mission I did involved Juan Lebedev at the airport terminal. Now, in my infinite wisdom, I didn't realize that the Heal All option took most of your precious Medkits to heal your body parts. And seeing how I was on the last leg of the mission with my Head and Torso areas in the red, a single direct hit meant I was a goner. Deus Ex is already a game with multiple options to any situation, but as I locked myself into a set path, clearing out one guardhouse to get to the plane was a problem. I stood by the wall opposite the house's only entrance, and a few yards away in the corner of the area was a pair of cameras and a pair of turrets to go with them. Having already drawn the attention of some of the guards inside, I faced a difficult task: Kill the guards and not die. Yeah, simple isn't it? Even on Easy, the guards had no trouble killing me, and since my sniper rifle was out of ammo and I specialized in Rifles, the only good weapon I had was a shotgun and ... yeah ... so what I wound up doing that worked was, run blindly at the cameras and turrets. It was a guard tower with a locked door, so I hastily lockpicked it before the cameras turned the turrets on me, and I made my way upstairs and reprogrammed the turrets, taking out two of the guards. Turns out there were three people total, so the last guy put up little resistance. I'm amazed that the guards didn't just waste me while I was fiddling with the door.
The above is the difficulty I like. There is a challenge, but it's reasonably fair and the computer doesn't really cheat to piss you off.
A good example of the kind of difficulty I don't like is Prinny. Yes, I played it on Normal mode, with the three-hit clause, but I never finished it. Got frustrating. Yeah, I know it was marketed as a hard game and I knew that going into it, but something was just off. I didn't like how taking a hit caused you to bounce so much. How many times did I fall into a pit because of that? And having to completely restart on bosses was annoying too. Yes, I know older games did it too, but having to make the boss vulnerable first and then mash the [] button during your limited window of opportunity? Ouch. Just let me flail away like normal.
Another good example of this is the final final boss of Dissidia Final Fantasy. A rare example of grinding in an RPG (or RPG hybrid as DFF is) not doing much. The boss starts at the unattainable level of 110, and this level gap gives him a nice advantage of starting with a higher Bravery amount, which equates to how much damage his HP attacks tick off. Well, the boss already has some pretty hard-hitting moves, though the first time you fight him, you probably had a great level advantage so you mopped the floor with him. This time, the tables have turned. The battle's the same, but the stats aren't. What was probably an easy go the first time around now is fairly difficult -- now you actually have to learn his attacks, and oh did I forget to mention that it's a three-stage battle that you have to completely restart if you die once? Your nerves get shot after a while, and seeing how the odds are stacked so heavily against you, it's not really reassurance that the game gives you. How disheartening is it to get to the last phase, even get the boss on the ropes...and a cheap shot takes you out. Granted, there are equipment options like two items that prevent death once (though one requires you not to be in Break status when the killing blow lands), but the bulk of the best equipment is gained after you kill him. This skirts the line between challenging and frustrating, though playing it constantly for two hours was probably stupid on my part. I did try creative ideas since I was playing under the idea that a single hit would off me, though of course I didn't even think to use the absurdly powerful once-use items. Whoops.
As I said before, I play games to have fun. There's a sense of accomplishment in beating a game, but there's accomplishment and absolute relief now that you've finally trudged through that one game. It's hard for me to describe, sadly. But I mean, I'm not the kind of person who plays games on their hardest difficulty for the hell of it. Everyone has their own brand of fun, and that's not mine. I remember playing the first Halo on Legendary. I got through part of the first level, up to when you had to climb up a staircase and there were plenty of enemies. I just never made it through there, even using all of the options I used, though that was years ago. I've at least heard of I Wanna Be The Guy's boggling difficulty, but that doesn't sound fun to me, sorry. There's only so many times I can throw myself at a wall, and I'll walk away before it cracks. Some people will keep going until they take down the wall. I just don't have that kind of patience.
Another thing that bothers me is trial-and-error gameplay. Related to the above, I can't try absolutely every possibility when it comes to options. Deus Ex gave me a pretty set few choices: Try to sneak behind people, try to take them on with a shotgun, or use external means to kill my enemies. Halo gave me few options: Try to take out the enemies on the stairs with a grenade, use the assault rifle...try not to die. I just hate when games ..well, not when the answer's not obvious, but when it's something that either will take eons to attempt, pure luck, or is something that'll come up later on to make the game impossible to finish. I somehow missed playing the early Sierra titles, where not taking some obscure item meant you had to restart the entire game. Extreme example, I know. Just, when you have to rely on supplementary materials to enjoy your game, that's not fun anymore. One good example I have is the final boss of Persona 3 (The Journey side, anyway). Apart from being a needlessly long and drawn-out battle, there is one phase where the boss can charm your team, which while bad enough in of itself, can totally screw your strategy. And this is even ignoring that the leader dying is an instant game over. Of course, there's a way to avoid the charm effect with an accessory, one of which you won't possibly know about unless you really experiment with your Personae, and you still have to luck out with that specific Persona being able to give that item in the first place...naturally, unless you read ahead or looked at a guide, you'd have to pray to the RNG gods that this specific attack wouldn't screw you over.
Speaking of the RNG...who here has played Fire Emblem? This is on the side of frustrating, but let's keep this going. Anyone who has played the game has likely balked at the battle status screen. "Oh, he has only a 3% chance to crit, I'm -- what why did he crit oh God he took out my Lord what the hell is going on" We've all been there. Of course, it could be bad luck, but oftentimes, the computer tips the scales into its own favor.. Okay, the rubberband AI thing is common in plenty of racing games, so I won't touch on that, but I do have a nice and recent example. I decided to start playing the PSP port of Final Fantasy Tactics. The first real battle you have, Gariland, is pretty standard fare. You have a team of weak newbies and so does the enemy team, but what really got me was how this battle went for me this time. I wasted at least five complete turns trying to kill the damned Chemist. Sure, he poses no real threat in battle, but every turn I had any damage on him, he'd use Potion and recover HP back to full. I had to double-team him to even stand a chance, and because the RNG hated me that day, I had to finish the battle quickly or be down two of my units in the first friggin' battle of the game! Infinite resources. Of course, this humorously comes back to bite the CPU in the ass later on when Auto-Potion will not heal more than 30HP per activation, and enemy Ninja units can potentially throw the best items in the game to anything with the Catch ability...
I'm actually kinda sad I missed out on God Hand. Trying a constantly-evolving difficulty system would've been interesting to see. The better you do, the harder the game is, so it's always "just right" in most cases. Or, that's how I've heard it. I do things on Normal/Medium/etc usually since that's meant to be the middle ground between Easy and Hard. If I plan on multiple playthroughs, then yes, I will go on other difficulties, but Normal is the "I'm going to play this once and this is what I should expect out of the game as a whole." And while I'm on the subject, what is with the idea that "harder" has to equal higher health/stats/etc.? Artificial difficulty in my eyes. Like, take a typical FPS game. Normal you can guess, but crank the difficulty to max. What changes? Usually, your attacks do less damage and your enemies' do much more to you. Oftentimes there's very little change of tactics, just a change in how dangerous situations get, and how long it takes to dispatch your foes. Diablo gives your enemies higher stats, more resists/immunities, and gives you a nice big penalty to your resists the harder the level (though the second game does balance this somewhat by having the best items in the game be available only on Hell mode). I do admit, just changing the stats does make the game harder, but what incentive is there to keep going? To say you beat it? That just doesn't work well with me, sadly. You can make the first Goomba in Super Mario Bros. invincible, but you'd just avoid it. Make all of the enemies invincible, and the game would be a little different. But what if that first Goomba grew big and chased you through the level? That'd be a massive change, sure, but if I play on Hard, I want a challenge that's outside of higher stats. Which takes me to another example. Yay!
Kirby's Dream Land. A nice game on its own, and beating the game once revealed the code to access Extra Mode, which while it was the same adventure, the enemies were different. They did more damage, but they behaved differently than their normal mode counterparts, and bosses were no exception. This is the kind of hard mode I like best. Yeah, it does have the higher-stat nonsense I mentioned earlier, but the enemies use different patterns and attacks. Things take you by surprise. It's actually a different experience, even if only slightly so. Kirby Super Star Ultra took this idea further with Revenge of the King mode, which was based on KDL's Extra Mode, and had the stages be completely different as well as use the new enemies. Not a lot of games I've played go to such lengths.
So yeah. A long-winded post that didn't really go anywhere, but whatever. I'm not a fan of games where pulling your hair out is normal. No, give me something I can enjoy playing. Even if it is easy. I'll take on a challenge, oh yes, but if it's going to be a waste of time pushing that rock up a hill only for it to keep coming back down, I'll just quit and leave it unfinished. Why, by now my backlog is so long that unfinished games don't necessarily bother me!
I will gladly take comments and questions.
Contest:
7:00 PM on 12.18.2009
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I'd rather be nuked in COD... at least the frustration is over quickly.
Tanukitsune made a blog post about clearing out your backlog by playing on the easiest setting and rushing, but I can't really do that. I mean, I'd rather just lie to myself and say I beat it. Normal is usually how I do it, if I'm going to actually play. Normal is how the developers should build the game for the normal person. I've heard at least one person say of Muramasa for the Wii, "play it on Hard from the start because Normal's too easy." I haven't had the chance to play it, but if Hard's the right balance...it's screwy, though some games screw with the names of difficulties too (region X's Easy is region Y's Normal) or maybe a game is made much easier in some regions (Summon Night Twin Age comes to mind).
Why can't we have a normal Normal?
It's a rare type of game where cheating and exploitation of certain moves is very much encouraged. I think there's a beauty in that somewhere. 3 weapons, around 3-4 moves each (from more than a dozen on each) is the only way to get by on the largely broken sections of the game.
@Los255: But I shouldn't have to cheat to win at the game. I mean, I haven't played any NG game, and while I've heard of the series' difficulty, it doesn't really appeal to me. I know cheating back is the way to make things fair, but I don't want that to be forced upon me. Get rid of the situation where the computer cheats and I'll be fine, but come on. So yes, I would probably hate the Ninja Gaiden. *cough*
But yeah. Though stuff like Automatic Mario is nice to watch, seeing how it was made with that purpose in mind.
I was trying to get the Platinum Trophy in Resistance 2 during the summer but got too frustrated with the enemy AI on the harder difficulties. I mean, maybe three shots will kill me and they can shoot and see through walls. Not too mention that no matter how well you are hiding in the dense foliage, even the grunt enemies will always be able to know your exact location from miles away. I know it's not impossible if I really tried but when the game is sucking that much fun out of it, you just want to play another game. Eh maybe someday I'll go back and beat it.
@Celica: Platinum trophies are the highest tier, right? I can understand those having the hardest challenges, but your situation doesn't sound very fun. I forgot to mention something in my blog, but one thing I do like is when difficulties don't bullshit you about the challenge you'll face. Devil May Cry does this, doesn't it? Dante Must Die mode pretty much tells you what you'll be expecting. And then Heaven and Hell mode is an interesting twist has the enemies die in a single hit too. That's something I want to see in more games. Where the difficulty works against the enemies too. Apart from Easy and all, I mean.
@Tanukitsune: Hardcore aside, that's how I see most people when they look to challenge. As though their manhood is at stake, bro. So let's crush another can of beer on our foreheads and be Legendary, rawararrrrrrrrr. *rolleyes* I think that's the whole deal with the Hardcore Rocks/Casual Sucks debate. People hate easy casual because it's "no challenge" yet that's all in the eye of the beholder. What's the challenge my mother is working on in Peggle? Get a million points in a single stage, or something? Sure, some people will scoff and upturn their noses, but it's a challenge of a different flavor. What makes that bad? =\
@Sir Legendhead: And exploits too. Ask any person who plays Soulcalibur and how they deal with the CPU, and they'll almost always mention anti-AI moves. I know SC isn't the only series where at the hardest difficulty, the computer reads your inputs, but the fact that's necessary is sad. I don't even need to touch on SNK Bosses (another trope, oh no!).
@Magnalon: I need to play Bayonetta sometime. Need a system for it first. =P But I will agree. In many cases, pattern-learning is the key to survival. Case in point for me? Castlevania Order of Ecclesia. The stages weren't hard, but the bosses were. For the first time in my gaming of the portable Metroidvanias, you could not really afford to just tank the boss's attacks and heal. The bosses could easily kill you in two or three solid hits, and one of the bosses becomes impossible to beat if you screw up dodging him (giant skeleton at the prison). It was refreshing. Sure, I could always try to beat the bosses in other CV games without healing, but it was a nice touch in that you couldn't just use whatever strong weapon you had. Elements actually mattered. :O As for games being cheap, there's a difference between learning patterns to a tough game (Megaman) and having the computer cheat (Soulcalibur).
The only game I know of where you could actually somewhat micromanage the difficulty was 007 Mode from Goldeneye 64. Enemy strength, accuracy, etc...I think it'd be fun for one game to give you very direct control of the enemy AI and attributes (after you beat the game or complete some challenge of course). Really customize the game. Though my demands are rightly impossible I'm sure...
@Dtoid as a whole: Welcome back, and wow does it seem odd to have most of the comments gone. >_>
Other than that I agree with most of your points. The most important thing about a game is that it's fun, some games are more fun with a challenge, others don't need it.
I played many tough games these days. God Hand is a great game that offers a challenge without going frustrating.
Demon`s Souls is another that you keep coming back even if you die a 1000 times. I finished the game and now I`m playing again. The Second game is a lot harder, but I`m still playing for the challenge.
Otherwise I liked the article, I agree with a lot of the point that games should be fun, but IMO challenge can also be fun, if not funner than playing through an easy game.
Great blog; again! Grats on the front page!
I don't have a problem with difficulty as long as the difficulty is based upon skill, for instance the 3% crit thing going off, could mean failure and it is not based on the players skill rather a random event. Random grenades come to mind.
@Dtoid Staff: Thank you too. And thanks for providing the pictures. I'll actually find something good next time around. =P
@Zeik56: I will agree that when compared to Megaman, Prinny doesn't seem so bad, but I hit a wall harder with it than with the Blue Bomber. It's just, Prinny has a limited stock of moves. In Megaman, you can use certain weapons to help clear a stage, and every boss is weak to something. With Prinny, you have only your limited pool of moves, and there's nothing to help you kill a boss. Yes, you can easily argue that Prinny is the more challenging game because there's no boss weaknesses. I just like the freedom of choice with Megaman. It's my choice to run through the game using only the Buster, or with a certain pattern, or just playing like normal. That is one thing that'll always bother me about Megaman. "Continue" only really works in the fortresses...
@slbr: Yeah, I'm still sad I can't play Demon's Souls. For me, there's a distinction between "challenging and fun" and "God damn why am I wasting my time with this?" Of course, I've heard nothing but difficulty coming from DS, and I've heard as much in the opposite direction, in that it's not brutal and it punishes you for making stupid mistakes. That sounds kinda alluring. Of course, I walked into The Dark Spire expecting about the same and...look, I don't like when random battles stand a good chance to murder you. Leave that to bosses. And that's what I'm running into with Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time. Yes, I know the bosses are tough but it seems like they have too much HP at times. =\
@kefkaesque: I understand your point, but I don't like my games unfair. Of course, IWBTG was built with unfairness in mind, to operate as narrative to show how much The Kid has to go through to meet The Guy. I just didn't get into it, difficulty aside. Different strokes, right?
@KingSigy: My hat's off to you, because I don't have that kind of patience. I can work my way up to that level, but playing solely on it is outside of my ken. I mean, I don't exactly game to relax, but the last thing I need is a game giving me some heart condition. An exaggeration yes, but you understand my point I'm sure. If a game is very obviously broadcasting that it wants me to fail, I feel nothing to let it get its victory. Of course, if a game properly hooks me and I'm not just playing to complete it, then yes, I'll be more apt to rise to the challenge and take another bite. Otherwise...
@Danzflor: That's a debate for another time, but I will agree. There's nothing wrong with a game being easy, as long as it's fun. Some people don't agree, and that's fine, as long as they don't do the "mightier than thou" bit in regards to them. And yes, I understand some people are masochists and don't have fun unless they're being brutally whipped to death, but that's just not me. I will say, even I have a limit on too easy. One reason I didn't get into NSMBDS was because the game practically threw 1UPs at you. Apart from your random screw-ups and the occasional death-pit, I never really died. Sure, easy to beat but not 100% I know, but after I beat it, I felt no real incentive to keep going. It's hard to explain. =\
Certain tendency bosses had too high HP(Take forever to kill). This is slightly mitigated by level and gear but not completely.
Games I tend to stay away from harder difficulties are ninja gaiden and God of war. Those games are hard yet fun on the normal difficulties but I don't find any of the harder difficulties fun at all for one simple reason: enemies are cheap. In both these games, there is just no avoiding damage. You're going to get hurt no matter what but you gotta play in a way so that you take less damage. In DMC3, an enemy always give you a cue whether it is visual or auditory to let you know is it going to attack. So even if an enemy is off screen, you will know when it will attack and you can safely dodge it.
So I agree with Doomsday. I play for fun and I enjoy a difficult game but being a cheaply difficult game is no fun. Being painfully easy is no fun either, which is why Super Mario bros wii is the only mario game i've liked since the super nintendo days.
And mostly I agree with that "Elsa" said. I'm like that too. But some games I enjoy beating over and over, so I play on harder modes (the MGS series, mostly)
Great article, though.
For the most part, I play for fun, regardless of difficulty. Some games have to be hard, and some have to ease up on the difficulty. As long as the game is well-designed, difficulty shouldn't be the issue.
Fable 2 is a PERFECT example. Molyneux jams a game full of neat abilities and moves, but you can beat the game just by tapping X with minimal difficulty. No need to block, dodge, cast magic, or anything because the regular melee attack will beat the game for you.
3 Difficulty settings and that game would have been perfect. Ok, not really, but it would have been a lot better.
It seems like you enjoy a game that allows you to think your way around scenarios, but doesn't test you reflexes ('cheap' deaths, trial and error gameplay). To me, a game should do all of the above if it can. Games that are cheap or read inputs actually force gamers to think outside the box for ways to beat them. To whit, I bet it was harder for someone to figure out how to constantly beat the AI in Super Street Fighter II Turbo than it is to decipher most FPS puzzles.
And casual game difficulty? Stuff like Peggle goes back to the very root of gaming, with score being the end-all-be-all. Sure very few gamers give these games props but they are assuredly as hard as titles like Geometry Wars at certain levels (although the base level is much easier to attract the wider audience).
Sure, sometimes the game gets in the way of a good story, but that isn't so much a problem of the game's as it is a problem that the story is in a video game. I would much rather have watched Metal Gear Solid 4 for the last 5-6 hours than played it, and that isn't because the game was hard, but because it was a fun story wrapped in a bad game.
But I'm like you. If the difficulty is just cheap, life's too short. I'll walk away, who needs the headache? I just want fun, too.
But don't worry about missing God Hand. That game was terrible and you would have walked away from it's cheap graphics and terrible camera before the first level was done.
God Hand is garbage that some self proclaimed hardcore kids like to say was some hidden gem to feel like they're cool for having played it. Fun-wise, forget it. Move on and let it stay out of your life.
@ninjikiran: That's exactly what I've heard about it. You're not throwing yourself at a wall to bust it, you're trying to put together tools to climb it. In one way of putting it, that is. I just don't like when bosses run on and on and on and on. Let's take my Partners in Time example from an earlier comment. Let's say I can dodge all of the boss' attacks perfectly. The longer the battle drags on, the less fun I have with it. Of course, I have no idea what the perfect balance is between time taken and challenge. I'd rather have a curbstomp battle on my side than an easy boss with too much HP.
@gamadaya: More power to you. =P As I said, I can feel when something's too easy, then it starts becoming something not worth my time. If you start to doze and fall asleep while playing a game, that is a very bad sign! There was one game..what was it, From the Abyss for the DS? I went the easiest route and completely steamrolled every enemy and boss I found. I still beat it once, somehow. It took me just over five hours. It was really easy, but I guess the exploration bit of the game kept me going. That, and sometimes it's nice to trip on power especially when you earn it. Why else do people clamor for Super Sonic in regular stages?
@wutang4ever: You touched on something I mentioned and agree with, about how difficulty relates to damage taken/done. I do have DMC3, and I need to play it sometime...having to relearn some enemies would be kinda fun. And now that I remember...I mentioned Megaman Zero earlier. That series had a (somewhat) sliding bar of difficulty in the ranking system. Sure, there was no reason to not use the Cyber Elves and just not aim for A/S rank, but that's where the difficulty of the series lies. The best part is, when you are on either of the above ranks, the bosses get a new attack. And it's also a pain to maintain the rank too, though if you do beat the boss and keep your A/S rank up, you get an attack skill. The game actually rewards you for taking the hard route.
Another game that comes to mind that rewards you for your effort is Valkyrie Profile Lenneth. In that game, Hard mode didn't do much to affect the enemy or your units, outside of every new character joining your roster starting at level 1, something which isn't really crippling. You also get eight items that open up paths in the post-game dungeon, Seraphic Gate. And you get access to all of the characters provided you follow the proper ending path. Normal mode doesn't have all of those, though it and Easy have their own unique dungeons that Hard doesn't and vice versa. Funnily enough, Easy is very difficult near the end of the game because you're locked out of certain items being available making the final stretch of the game harder than it should be. I love a system where you're actually given a good incentive to play on a harder mode other than your own self-satisfaction.
@Starrynight: Thanks. I'm somewhat the same way as you and Elsa. I'll play on hard by choice if I really like the series, or I'll pull self-imposed challenges (which are fun in their own right). Otherwise I'm content to not be masochistic. =P
@Camiwaits: How is the difficulty in UC2 on hard compared to normal? Do the enemies actually use different tactics, or is it a "hurt me more, hurt you less" ordeal?
@Arkhon: Unfortunately, I'm not fond of savestates anymore. I think they erode your skill after a while. Maybe I'm wrong, I dunno, but it's a crutch. A hell of a time-saver, but...=P Fire Emblem is an extremely difficult game if you're trying to keep absolutely everyone alive to the credits. Your own personal luck is a big factor into the formula, and sadly you don't really get to save scum on the real hardware. FE is a perfectionist's nightmare because even one slip up can result in a loss of an hour or so, depending on the person. =\
@Gee-Man: Naturally. And like I said to Arkhon, savestates aren't really something I'm fond of anymore because I think they're why I'm so terrible at games. When you save before something difficult and you just force yourself into victory, are you really learning? Granted, I still do this in some games (hi, Deus Ex!), but that's due to the game having no set save points. I save like a paranoid man because I control exactly how much time I lose if I die. But I am glad you play for fun itself. :D
@Threaded: One problem I had with the first Fable was, if you went the route of evil, you were on Easy. Use the...well, Force Push move over and over and you could obliterate nearly everything. Tough foe? Pin him against the wall. Your multiplier skyrockets and you net a ton of Will EXP, making you a badass mage for no effort. You could completely destroy towns without any resistance. Hell, hitting towns was a great way to rack up EXP with the infinitely-respawning guards...Fable seems like a game that wouldn't benefit much from the three difficulty levels. It'd just be the same tired-and-true system we're familiar with. Maybe if it gave you a pool of harder quests or like Goldeneye, more objectives plus stronger enemies.
@BiroBiro: Yeah...I admit, I may've been a bit too harsh on Prinny, but that can't do anything to save my low interest. =P Having checkpoints means you can break the stages down into bites than trying to eat the whole thing in one go ala HH. I dunno what they were thinking with that. I suppose you can recover health or whatever (didn't play for very long), but who really wants to go through all of the stage after getting to the boss and dying? Those of you with your hands up, when would that become pointless and trite? How many lives?
Also, this is slightly unrelated, but can we have an option to completely skip story scenes in games from now on? Xenosaga had it nice with the "pause and press triangle to skip movie" feature. One button can be pressed too easily, but a great experience in frustration is dying to the final boss and having to slog through all of the story bits before it and not be able to skip it at all. >O
@mjemirzian: I'm not really sure how to respond, so bear with me. I don't agree with skill being on the back-burner for games. Sure, you can have fun without skill, but if something's so easy that it requires no skill at all, then is that still fun? Go to the local fair, pick up the gun and shoot at those targets that laze on by. Let's say you're good enough to hit around 60% of your targets and you get a stuffed bear, a small one. You earned that bear, tiny as it may be. Now, let's say the game was fixed. Even if you try to deliberately miss, you hit 100% of your targets and you wind up with a bigger bear as a prize. Is that really worth it? You didn't earn it, the vendor may as well have given it to you. You'd have been better off giving the guy the money and just taking the bear without even fiddling with the gun and save time. Of course, some people choose to play blindfolded, or with a crooked gun, but isn't that their choice? Who would want to stop such a person? Hell, if I was the guy running the show, I'd reward the person who could pull off such stunts/self-imposed challenges.
@Pacman: It's okay to disagree. Really, if the game was meant to win against all odds, you'd die as soon as you pressed Start. Pretty hard to beat the thing when you're dead, right? =P But seriously, I'm not telling the computer to just lay down its arms and let me invade. No sir, I want there to be a real semblance of a challenge so it feels worth it, otherwise I'll get bored and probably never finish it or worse yet, force myself to finish and resent the game from then on (hi, Pokemon Pearl). Fighting someone on equal footing is the greatest challenge since it's not about stats or numbers, it's pure skill. In a fighting game, mirror matches are interesting because it involves two people pitting their knowledge of the character against the other's, and it's not something mitigated by someone taking more damage naturally or the other having an unblockable super, etc.
Let me give you a situation. You're in Vegas, and you're betting at the Blackjack table. You've been there for a good while and you've lost a lot of money. You can't even remember the last time you won. Come to find out, the cards were literally stacked against you and the dealer was cheating. You try to call him out and you get escorted out of the casino, down on your money. Bad example. Let's say that my boss character has an unblockable, unavoidable, uninterruptable guaranteed-to-hit move that takes off around 35-50% of your health bar and has no cooldown. There is nothing stopping the boss from using it twice or more in a row, and it was the hidden boss you had to trudge through the game to beat! Your victory relies on you being able to cause a lot of damage in very little time, the mercy of the CPU, and your own devil's luck. Extreme example. And yes, that is extremely overboard for an example, but that's not really my idea of fun. I don't want the CPU to cut corners, give itself a big advantage, outright cheat. Do you like playing against people who use Action Replays? I know I don't. I feel no sense of victory or pride in humanity when I best the dastardly game, just a sense that it's finished and the feeling of wanting to play it again or not. Games are entertainment. I don't throw down a book and crush it under my heel after I read it to assert my dominance. I don't harass or call my CDs names when I've finished listening to them. And so on. Yes, I'm taking things out of proportion but I'm making a terrible point! =P
Games stop being entertaining and fun when I run into certain things, that's all. Everyone has their own preferences, right?
@TheTruth: Indeed But graphics and all don't scare me away. I just want to experience the dynamic difficulty is all. I can't say I've heard of many other games accomodating your prowess in such a way. I just need to find a place to rent it, really. I want to see how well this system works. How it makes the game fun, if at all. And so on. Not really for the sake of saying I played it, but more for a research project.
As far as i can tell it mostly changes the number of bullets it takes to kill them, but on the brightside, i do think the enemies AI has a certain variation from play to play. It could be my impression, but i think i've been attacked in different ways on the second play.
Take God of War 2's Titan Mode. Its the same game, except enemies have WAY more health and you're killed WAY easier. You're gonna be doing the exact same thing you did on Normal, except now its gonna be really tedious and frustrating. And for what? Hercules costume? Whoop-de-damn-do. It was one of the worst gaming experiences of my life.
Now go to something like Ninja Gaiden Black's difficulty levels. On the first level, you can tell the game is gonna be different. What used to be easy brown ninjas, are now the harder white ninjas, and what used to be white ninjas, are now the stage 5 black ninjas! New enemyplacements, new enemies all togtheer, surprise boss encounters, several new bosses, old bosses but with a new attack and some of your old "Flying Swallow" moves won't work this time. It changes the game up just enough for you to want to keep playing, and the combat/gameplay system is so fun, that when you die you still feel like was your fault, and with the mastery of the system you can beat it. THATS how you do difficult levels, making it a new fun challenge of an old favorite, instead of just the same damn thing, but 10x more frustrating.
So I'm mostly done on the whole "Beat the Hardest Difficulty" thing. I mean yeah, trophies are cool, but unless theres an easier way to bypass it(like infinite ammo in Resident Evil 5/Uncharted 2), I really have no interest in it.
Now, the enemies do more damage when you raise the difficulty, but they also get more attacks. Some of the bosses stop using their most devastating attacks when you go down to the easier difficulties. You might see completely different enemies depending on the difficulty, too.
I agree with The World Ends With You comment. Also, it made sense to play it on higher difficulties, because you'd get better pins and better magic, but you weren't obligated to do so if you reached a really hard part of the game (for example, the epic last boss).
@artha14: Well, it took me some time to get into the game. This is my third time playing it and I've actually stuck with it instead of getting bored by the second mission. It's a little slow to start because you begin with so little equipment and it being a FPS-RPG hybrid, you're probably tempted to just blast everything to hell. You can't do that in this game, at least, not at the start. There isn't one correct way to do any one mission, and the game accomodates a number of playstyles. You just have to take the time to line up your shots or they'll go wide, and that time is reduced when you raise your skill levels with that class of weapon. Isn't it $10 on Steam? I'm playing with the Shifter mod that, while I suppose it would make the game a little easier, gives so much more yet doesn't do much to change the game itself. I do strongly suggest the game regardless.
@Michael Brown: I've yet to try that, though I'm playing around on Shifter's Unrealistic difficulty. More or less the same as Realistic, but all of the enemies have explosive ammo...and you get to use any character model you want. Kinda funny having a little kid sound just like JC. =P
@catsithx: Well, there's no real shame in playing on Easy. Personal shame is up to you, but what anyone else thinks is their problem. Of course, there's something to be said if you get burnt out on a game before you complete its hardest difficulty because you've gone through it on every one before it...If Normal is stomping you hard, then go for Easy. After all, some games use the Japan Hard American Normal idea, and some even reverse that sometimes.
@Ninja In Distress: That sounds terrible. I mean, it's like artificial padding. Now you've beaten it on Normal, take a lot longer for massive replay gains. Yeah, sure. It's the same game as you said, and the reward isn't even worth it. But you have to do it for 100%! *rolleyes* I do like the sound of NGB, since it gives the player a reason to actually go through with it even if he's learned and mastered the original game through and through. Sure, the game's the same, but when the game starts throwing curveballs and changes things up, that's interesting! Just like my example of Kirby's Dream Land in the blog entry. Enemies completely change and use different patterns and the bosses are not only faster but use new moves. Yes please.
@twentythoughts/camiwaits again: Argh! I can't believe I forgot TWEWY. The game even gives you an option to retry the battle on Easy if you want. But yeah, that's one great way to do difficulty, and it even gives you the option to nerf your own levels (though this really only affects HP) in order to boost your drop rate. You didn't have to go on anything besides Normal, but you'd be denying yourself a good selection of pins and entries in the bestiary otherwise. What other game allows you to nerf your own level/stats to get a boost in item drop rates? I'd kill for that in other places! Of course, in TWEWY, it was very possible to run through the game with SOS HP gear on both characters. Dangerous, but still possible.
@protomark: Hey now, let's not start anything.
I don't think that would necessarily work in every game, but it would be nice if more games took a similar approach.
As for the feeling of accomplishment, that is I guess where the big divide between our mentalities lays. I grew up with gaming as both entertainment AND competition, not necessarily with other people but with the game to see if I could constantly perform better and improve on my performance. Gaming is to me an activity like a sport, and you should feel accomplishment when you win against a challenging opponent. If I just want to be passively entertained I'll read a book or watch a movie.
@Pacman: Yeah, I'm not the king of examples or anything, but I tried. =P See if you've played any of the games from either of these lists though. It's not cheating until it becomes unfair. Rubberband AI for example. Yeah, I know that makes the game fair for the computer since you're gonna be in the lead if you're great at the game, but you worked your way up to that point. Why do they get the easy route? I mean, I remember playing one of the Mario Kart games, and I would notice the computer players actually slowing down whenever I looked at them. It's just like the idea of "as long as you don't see it, it's okay." No, it's not okay. =\ But yeah. I never was competitive with my games. I grew up playing primarily single-player games and had no one to co-op or play VS mode with, so there was no competition and I played only for myself. It wasn't until 4th gen Pokemon that I played VS with someone, after all. Or even traded. Of the time I've been gaming, I can safely say that 99% of it has been done on my own.
As for movies or books, no thanks. Those are static affairs. Yes, with a good memory you can remember every detail in any medium, but how many allow you to try different things? Mario saves the princess in the faraway castle. That's the base story. Does he kill everything he come across? No powerups? Speedrun? In movies, you have the same story and characters and order of events and way things happen each time (barring deleted scenes, made-for-DVD extras, etc.). And books are no different. Of course, I say this as a person who doesn't reread books or rewatch movies or even has a vested interest in sports! By the way, I'm from the 1880s; don't be alarmed..
@makesfive: Amen. I want to spite the people who boast of their accomplishments from a game (sorry, people who do this): "Oh, good for you. Want a cookie?" It just bothers me so much when people pull the holier-than-thou bullshit because they've done more in a game than I have. Really, bravo, I'm happy for you, but you have no right to rub that shit in my face. =\ That doesn't make you a better gamer than me. It only proves you have more patience and time to waste on such a silly thing. That's all. *ragequit*