What Do You Do When A Game Is Too Easy?

It's Easy So It Sucks is not exactly a common complaint with people I know and it's seldom a criticism from me. Mainly because I suck at video games. However, given how much I suck at video games, when a game is easy even for me, there must be something severely wrong.

Now I mostly play JRPG's and to narrow it down even more, I mostly play FF games. Most of these are very easy. Of course YMMV on how easy or hard some are but it's undeniable that a lot of the games are just broken and easily exploited. The champion of this is of course Final Fantasy VIII which you can dominate in the first two hours tops and never worry about dying ever again.

So what I did was I found a forum called Insane Difficulty which makes hacks/mods for people to use to make games more difficult. I loved it. Playing the difficulty mod for FFVIII made it a ton better.

But a lot of people I meet hate mods like this. "Giving enemies more HP and damage output and nerfing your stats is not real difficulty." Um, yes, that's exactly what it is. FFVIII had so many broken abilities that removing them is a good thing, as is giving enemies more health since none of them ever had enough.

Some people suggested to me to try a Challenge Run of FFVIII where I just pretend all these other abilities don't exist. That is absurd and stupid. If a mod exists to make a game more difficult, to place limits on you, why not use it instead of limiting yourself? I honestly think that's the most ludicrous idea. In what world is just running away from every random encounter so you can do a Low Level Challenge fun?

And then there is the third option - "I don't care." Some people don't care a game is too easy and they love that they can break it over their knee. I don't get this but it's a common enough viewpoint.

What about you? What is your solution when a game has no challenge? Or do you not give a crap one way or the other?

It really depends on my mood, though I mostly gravitate to difficult games nowadays. If I play something for the gameplay rather than the story, well then, the gameplay had better be something challenging, right?

Enjoy the game anyway due to the witty, well written dialogue and FMV/Action sequences.

Enjoy it.

With me being such a natural gamer, every game I play is too easy.

I lose interest when it's too easy and go play something else.

If it's too easy I make it harder for myself. If I want a certain level of difficulty I'm not so entitled as to put in no effort to obtain it.

If it's an RPG, I just level up less. If it's an action game without difficulty settings, I'll probably still finish it if the story is good, but then I'm unlikely to ever touch it again.

Yeah, I'm with Mirage, I would limit my upgrades or levels and hope the story and gameplay are fun and interesting. Otherwise I'd likely lose interest. But I'm curious how you survive as a gamer, just replaying the same games? You never get curious if there's more out there for you to enjoy?

Don't care. I prefer easier games. I really don't care if I can play it one handed while making stew and doing my homework and not even have to pay attention. Just how I am, I guess :shrug:

that said, it is unlikely for action games to be easy for me because i suck at them

I beat it and move on.

Look for higher difficulty options. If none, then

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Originally Posted by Del Murder

I beat it and move on.

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Depends on the type of game. If it's a sports game like FIFA or a roguelike such as FTL or Rogue Legacy I want a challenge. It means nothing if I lose, no progress is lost and the next game will be different. If it's too easy then I get bored and move on.

If it's a sandbox game I just want to dick about and cause mayhem and making it harder to do that isn't a good thing. If it's a story heavy game and I'm stuck in one place forced to repeat the same checkpoint over and over again that's not so much fun either.

Also it depends how the higher difficulty is implemented. Adding more health to enemies and having the player be taken out by a stiff breeze adds difficulty, but does it add fun? Not for me. I can sit behind cover plinking away at an enemy's health for 10 minutes until it drops if I want to, sure. That's more of a test of my patience than a test of my skill though.

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Originally Posted by Del Murder

I beat it and move on.

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Pretty much this. If there are other aspects I enjoy, I may still play the game in the future and likely limit myself. I've never been huge into modding a game but I don't have issues with doing so if you've exhausted other avenues.

I'm actually with those who say just tacking on absurd stats to enemies and nerfing your own isn't real difficulty. You're attempting a patch fix for something that is fundamentally broken. It's like Lunatic+ difficulty on Fire Emblem Awakening. It's not true difficulty, because your survival in that mode depends a lot on how the RNG settles in your favor.

True difficulty in an RPG shows up in games like Shin Megami Tensei and Bravely Default. It's about bosses that force you to approach with tactics and planning, not brute force stats. You can grind stats forever. They may help you live longer. But they won't win the fight for you.


That said, if a game is too easy, I don't really mind. I rarely play games just for the gameplay. If I'm not enjoying the rest of it, the difficulty won't matter. If I am, I won't care how easy it is. I can just ignore easy combat sections, after all.

For any game that you think is "real" difficulty, it could almost certainly become easy if you just lowered the enemy stats and raised your own. How is that different than raising the enemy stats and lowering yours? The point is to make the stats sufficiently in-the-enemy-favor that you have to try specific well-executed or unusual strategies.

I get what he's saying. But it's hard to describe. I do know Bethesda has been guilty of that tactic for some time. If you try to play through Oblivion for instance, with the difficulty slider all the way up, it's extremely likely you'll get stuck at some point and not be able to progress in certain quest lines. Namely the one where you face off against 2 minutaurs who can regenerate health faster than you damage them, no small part due to being in a situation where you're stripped of your equipment and abilities, and the stuff they give you just doesn't do enough damage, because their stats are so high, and yours are so low. And that's just the game-breaking part. The rest of the game played that way feels less difficult, and more just annoying. Having to plink away at an enemy for half an hour to kill them and hope they don't scratch you in the process and one-shot you is really more annoying than difficult. I mean, yeah, it's difficult. But it's not what I think of when I want to raise the difficulty. It's hard to explain. But raising the difficult in an Elder Scrolls game should take it from being a Fable game, to being a Souls game. And it does not. And without putting a lot of critical thinking into it, that is the difference in my experience

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Originally Posted by Pete for President

I lose interest when it's too easy and go play something else.

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Quoting my brother: "Sell it, forget it!"
That's why I'd choose any hard game over the easiest one, even if I suck at playing it! :lol:

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Originally Posted by Vyk

I get what he's saying. But it's hard to describe. I do know Bethesda has been guilty of that tactic for some time. If you try to play through Oblivion for instance, with the difficulty slider all the way up, it's extremely likely you'll get stuck at some point and not be able to progress in certain quest lines. Namely the one where you face off against 2 minutaurs who can regenerate health faster than you damage them, no small part due to being in a situation where you're stripped of your equipment and abilities, and the stuff they give you just doesn't do enough damage, because their stats are so high, and yours are so low. And that's just the game-breaking part. The rest of the game played that way feels less difficult, and more just annoying. Having to plink away at an enemy for half an hour to kill them and hope they don't scratch you in the process and one-shot you is really more annoying than difficult. I mean, yeah, it's difficult. But it's not what I think of when I want to raise the difficulty. It's hard to explain. But raising the difficult in an Elder Scrolls game should take it from being a Fable game, to being a Souls game. And it does not. And without putting a lot of critical thinking into it, that is the difference in my experience

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Bethesda games all have wretchedly bad combat so whether it's hard or easy doesn't really matter very much. Oblivion's scaling system is uniquely bad in that you could in fact ruin your own game by leveling up random stuff for fun.

Play a hacked version that offers more difficulty. Which right now is Super Mario RPG Revolution.

I play games mostly for the story and the fun involved. If a game is too easy I don't mind, I'll still complete it though depending on the type of game, the nature of it may too repetitive for me to bother touching it again once I've completed it. Other games however, I can enjoy no matter how easy I find them, simply because I enjoy the game or it's story or it's world so much. Games like Final Fantasy often fall in to this.

I find it's far more aggravating to find a game too hard to enjoy. I completed Call Of Duty 4 on Veteran difficulty for example, but many of the levels felt very grindy, it was advancing 10 feet, dying, being pushed back 5 feet and then trying again until eventually you memorized exactly how enemies would react to your tactics and where they would be to take down. I enjoyed it but I'll forever have 980 Gamer Score on that because smurf the mile high club achievement, that level is way too difficult for just 20 gamer score. That said, when playing an FPS game, I generally want the higher difficulty so it is a challenge, though the challenge should be fun and not just a case of slowly forcing my way forwards in a war of attrition.

If the story is good and captivating I stick with it. If it is all same old run of the mill blah blah blah but easy I'll put it aside and move on to something new.

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Originally Posted by Del Murder

I beat it and move on.

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Yeah, pretty much this.

To be honest, had you asked me years ago, I would have told you a lack of difficulty directly correlated with a lack in overall quality in a game. If a game was easy, then it wasn't a very good game. But now I don't really feel that way. I certainly don't want a game that's so pathetically easy that I feel absolutely zero sense of accomplishment when I win, but a game that's not particularly trying is just fine with me these days, so much that I tend to enjoy them more than games that are unforgiving difficult.

I prefer a game with moderate/below average difficulty and a nice story/world/characters greatly over a really challenging game with none of those.

Only case of this I can really think of is Barney the Dinosaur for Sega Genesis, in which case I just beat it, move on, and forget about it.

Go play X-com Ironman Impossible.

Actually, go play Long war.

Dennis inc. is not responsible for any increase in salinity.

Long War Ironman Impossible is a life goal of mine.


Also, everything Psychotic said.

If it's too easy I tend to fall asleep XD but that goes for just about anything that's absurdly boring to me.

I'll relish in that sensation of being a total bad ass until however long it takes until I get bored.

Edit: I mean, I've been playing Time Clickers for over a week now just because all the numbers going up makes me feel SO good.

you're a junkie

If a game is easy I thank The Lord of Games for this holy grail.

Sure it gets boring but bored is better than what I'm like with the hard games (oh no, GTA flashback, GTA flashback make it stop!)

Also definitely true that sometimes an easy game is exactly what is desired, and stomping effortlessly over everything is really fun.

May just be me but in most games I jump straight into the 'above normal' difficulty (when given the option). I simply like the challenge n feel like Im getting the most out of the game that way. For eg. I've only ever played n completed the Halo games on Legendary. Ninja Gaiden 2 on Acolyte was much easier than I expected (moreso aftr playing NG) and on Warrior -normal- altho it had its moments with the bosses. If I find the gameplay fun n exciting, it easily makes up for any frustrations I might experience along the way. I honestly cant recall the last time I played an 'easy' game which would answer your question.

If it's a good game, I go "Wow, this game is easy." And I carry on playing.
If it's a bad game, I wouldn't bother playing it anyway.

Honestly, difficulty isn't really a consideration for me.

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Originally Posted by Mr. Carnelian

If it's a good game, I go "Wow, this game is easy." And I carry on playing.
If it's a bad game, I wouldn't bother playing it anyway.

Honestly, difficulty isn't really a consideration for me.

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Could not have said it better.

A well written game should not matter if it is "too easy" or not.

One person's "too easy" is another person's "too hard" anyway.

>>> In an RPG, if the game is really good I can overlook that.
For other games, I would just quit out of boredom..:luca: