Highest difficulty; Unlock or available from the get go?

[Jiro]

I don't want it to be locked at first. If it's so damn hard then let me get my ass handed to me until I ragequit and start on an easier difficulty level. Sometimes I play games for an hour or so to see what the difficulty is like and then quit to go up/down if need be.

[KuRt]

the HIGHEST difficulty option is ok to be locked in the beginning in my opinion but if every other difficulty besides easy/normal is locked and you gotta beat the game to get hard difficulty, then beat hard to get pro, then beat pro to get elite and so is really frustrating. The amount of rage was legendary when I beat Dirge of Cerberus first on hard to unlock extra hard and i thought "yea, cool, extra hard, this is gonna be awesome!" and then after beating extra hard getting Extra hard + unlocked as a difficulty. So playing the same game 3 times ain't that much fun, even if it gives you a good challenge.

[Meat Puppet]

Definitely should be available straight away. Any unlockable modes should not be difficulties but the funny/gimmicky modes, like some of that weird :bou::bou::bou::bou: in Perfect Dark (and as MILF said, zombie mode)

[Raistlin]

I would prefer it to be available right away, largely because I usually can't bother to play the game a second time just for a higher difficulty.

[Rantz]

I probably wouldn't use it if it was available from the start, so personally I don't mind if it's locked. Obviously some people will want it from the start though, and I see nobody really benefiting from having it locked until they've completed the game. Unlocked from the get-go seems like the more sensible alternative!

[blackmage_nuke]

I usually play on the normal difficulty anyway but i dont really see why the difficulty level should be locked.

The only time this has really effected me was when I played Neon Genesis Evangelion for N64, to get the best ending you have to finish the game on hard but to get the hard dificulty you had to finish it on normal first...but to get normal you had to finish it on easy. So the game forced you to play through 3 times to get the actual ending which annoyed the heck out of me.

Actually what I like most is a game with NO difficulty options so I dont feel like im missing out or getting in over my head.

[Ouch!]

As others have mentioned, I feel a new game plus feature of some sort is really the only way that unlockable difficulties are ever acceptable. While certainly possible, I can't imagine trying to beat Mass Effect on Insanity with a level one character on my first play through of the game. It's certainly possible, but that would strike me as an act of masochism. I do think that the increased difficulty should be well worth it if you have to unlock it, though.

[Rase]

I don't like any gameplay elements having to be unlocked. Difficulty settings, characters, modes, whatever. I bought the game, I don't like having to do something I don't want to just to unlock what I wanna mess with. If unlocks are needed make them concept art or the like.

[RedPouch]

Depends on the game, I could understand on Ninja Gaiden II because the game wasn't actually that long (minus the 5 billion death times), and to be fair to that game, you couldn't beat it on Mentor or Master Ninja without first playing the easier modes.

Sure you could. It's more fair for the option to be there at the start. I felt the same way about Ninja Gaiden Black for the Xbox. I was highly irritated that I'd have to play the game on Normal mode, Hard mode, then Very Hard mode, just to unlock Master Ninja mode. It took forever to unlock! Especially considering that I didn't get to play it that often. I really would have appreciated it if I could have started Master Ninja mode from the start. When Halo 2 first came out, I was thrilled to play it on Legendary mode from the start [and I concluded that the first mission in Halo 2 is actually the hardest on that difficulty setting].

And if you're someone that's having way too much difficulty on the highest difficulty setting during your first time playing the game - the chances are, you probably haven't progressed very far into the game, and will not have to go that far back by starting over on a lower difficulty setting, so you aren't losing much time really. And if you are someone that's struggling with that difficulty setting, yet you've progressed pretty far, that may show that while you may be ripping your hair out, you're showing that you can adapt and press onward through that difficulty, and have the ability to make it through.

I will admit though, once I finally unlocked Master Ninja mode, it felt pretty damn sweet, since very few players actually get that far. And it was also quite a nice feeling to finally complete that and actually end up on the top 100 Karma score list. And don't knock me down for making a boast like that, because most of my friends haven't played Ninja Gaiden Black, and this is probably one of the few times that I can actually announce something like that and it'll actually mean something to someone.

I won't even go into how annoying it was to get to 4D difficulty in Star Ocean 3, though it's slightly different for that game since you have to play the other modes as well to get more trophies, and I was dead set on getting 95% [285/300] of the trophies to unlock Full Active Mode.