Is hard better?

[Mirage]

but one person's goldilocks is another person's hard

[maybee]

but one person's goldilocks is another person's hard

I was thinking more the lines of Final Fantasy VII/ Final Fantasy IX.


Yes, it could add some challenges for somebody but overall everything is pretty medium. While something like FF 3 where the final dungeon has heavy bosses and monsters and no save points, is pretty unforgivable to the player. In FF VII/ IX If you got stuck on a boss, it's still fair towards experts and novice players, while something like FF3 is like " You don't understand everything yet, suck at the job system or struggle with this game " ? " Tough ducking moogle trout, toughen up and drink your nails instead of milk " !

[Mirage]

Well, in the case of FF7 and 9, one person's goldilocks is another person's easy

[Fynn]

Well, in the case of FF7 and 9, one person's goldilocks is another person's easy

True. I found them a bit too easy, personally. Don't get me wrong, I love both games, but they're mostly just good as a wholesome experience - the story, art, music, etc. The gameplay isn't really the selling point and to me, that doesn't make then too replay able.

I'll mention Atlus again and say that I think it's awesome that they let you always pick a difficulty level nowadays. So if someone wants to experience Persona 3 just for its magnificent story, they can do that, or they can go and play the super hard face-rape old school Atlus hard mode for a classic MegaTen experience.

[Bolivar]

As the target demographic for the gaming industry has gotten older, we don't have as much free time anymore to plow through difficult single player experiences. Developers have had to find that sweet spot which simulates getting better but doesn't drive us away either. I'd say they've been more or less successful.

Two trends have emerged which get around the time sink usually needed by hard games. One is the indie library which I can pick up and put down at any time on my Vita, first choosong a level, then going for any number of challenges or just one more run. Games like OlliOlli, Hotline Miami 2, Rogue Legacy or Velocity 2x.

The other is the MOBA genre- games with skill curves which span thousands of hours but generally match you against players with similar experience. It's awesome that challenge and skill can surpass the level memorization and twitchiness which action games and platforms used to demand and now go to deep game knowledge and mastery, comparable to chess or football.

[theundeadhero]

I didn't mind how hard Nintendo games were, but it's not something I especially look for. Contra and Ninja Gaiden though- those games were hard? I could beat them in elementary school without dying once.

[NeoCracker]

Well, in the case of FF7 and 9, one person's goldilocks is another person's easy

True. I found them a bit too easy, personally. Don't get me wrong, I love both games, but they're mostly just good as a wholesome experience - the story, art, music, etc. The gameplay isn't really the selling point and to me, that doesn't make then too replay able.

I'll mention Atlus again and say that I think it's awesome that they let you always pick a difficulty level nowadays. So if someone wants to experience Persona 3 just for its magnificent story, they can do that, or they can go and play the super hard face-rape old school Atlus hard mode for a classic MegaTen experience.

I don't think Persona is a good card to play here, as even Easy on Persona 3/4 is harder then most Turn based RPG's out there.

That said I love that some games are starting to do that, at least for Indie RPG's, letting you adjust the difficulty. I love a good challange, though other times I don't mind playing an easier title.

I love that I have games like Shin Megami Tensai and the souls series to press my abilities, as well as smaller simple releases like Dragon Quest IX (YEah, strange it's as easy as it is.) and Crystal Story 2.

Of course, some games I never enjoyed on higher difficulties, like Skyrim, New Vegas, Infamous, and other such titles. So yeah on them for including difficulty modes as well.

[Fynn]

Well, in the case of FF7 and 9, one person's goldilocks is another person's easy

True. I found them a bit too easy, personally. Don't get me wrong, I love both games, but they're mostly just good as a wholesome experience - the story, art, music, etc. The gameplay isn't really the selling point and to me, that doesn't make then too replay able.

I'll mention Atlus again and say that I think it's awesome that they let you always pick a difficulty level nowadays. So if someone wants to experience Persona 3 just for its magnificent story, they can do that, or they can go and play the super hard face-rape old school Atlus hard mode for a classic MegaTen experience.

I don't think Persona is a good card to play here, as even Easy on Persona 3/4 is harder then most Turn based RPG's out there.

That said I love that some games are starting to do that, at least for Indie RPG's, letting you adjust the difficulty. I love a good challange, though other times I don't mind playing an easier title.

I love that I have games like Shin Megami Tensai and the souls series to press my abilities, as well as smaller simple releases like Dragon Quest IX (YEah, strange it's as easy as it is.) and Crystal Story 2.

Of course, some games I never enjoyed on higher difficulties, like Skyrim, New Vegas, Infamous, and other such titles. So yeah on them for including difficulty modes as well.

If you play Persona 4 Golden on the lowest difficulty, you can easily beat the grim reaper on level 9, since when you lose you get to restart the battle at full health, while the enemy's HP remains at the level you brought it down to. If that isn't baby mode, I don't know what is

[NeoCracker]

Well, in the case of FF7 and 9, one person's goldilocks is another person's easy

True. I found them a bit too easy, personally. Don't get me wrong, I love both games, but they're mostly just good as a wholesome experience - the story, art, music, etc. The gameplay isn't really the selling point and to me, that doesn't make then too replay able.

I'll mention Atlus again and say that I think it's awesome that they let you always pick a difficulty level nowadays. So if someone wants to experience Persona 3 just for its magnificent story, they can do that, or they can go and play the super hard face-rape old school Atlus hard mode for a classic MegaTen experience.

I don't think Persona is a good card to play here, as even Easy on Persona 3/4 is harder then most Turn based RPG's out there.

That said I love that some games are starting to do that, at least for Indie RPG's, letting you adjust the difficulty. I love a good challange, though other times I don't mind playing an easier title.

I love that I have games like Shin Megami Tensai and the souls series to press my abilities, as well as smaller simple releases like Dragon Quest IX (YEah, strange it's as easy as it is.) and Crystal Story 2.

Of course, some games I never enjoyed on higher difficulties, like Skyrim, New Vegas, Infamous, and other such titles. So yeah on them for including difficulty modes as well.

If you play Persona 4 Golden on the lowest difficulty, you can easily beat the grim reaper on level 9, since when you lose you get to restart the battle at full health, while the enemy's HP remains at the level you brought it down to. If that isn't baby mode, I don't know what is

There's an even lower difficulty in P4 Golden Version? Did not know that.

[Mirage]

Sounds like the P3 easymode. You get an item that revives your party and graints full hp/sp up to ten times whenever the main character dies.

Well, in the case of FF7 and 9, one person's goldilocks is another person's easy

True. I found them a bit too easy, personally. Don't get me wrong, I love both games, but they're mostly just good as a wholesome experience - the story, art, music, etc. The gameplay isn't really the selling point and to me, that doesn't make then too replay able.

I'll mention Atlus again and say that I think it's awesome that they let you always pick a difficulty level nowadays. So if someone wants to experience Persona 3 just for its magnificent story, they can do that, or they can go and play the super hard face-rape old school Atlus hard mode for a classic MegaTen experience.

You know, atlus should call "hard mode" "classic mode".

[Bubba]

For my response, see Del's entire post.

[Ayen]

Depends how much of a challenge you want. For me? I like to have fun. I'm not having fun if I'm constantly dying over stupid trout. And when I finally get past said challenging part the only thing on my mind is, "I'm not doing that again." And I don't. Not worth the headache.

[Mirage]

It's no problem to die frequently if dying isn't a big deal. For example, Hotline Miami.

[Ayen]

It's no problem to die frequently if dying isn't a big deal. For example, Hotline Miami.

Well, yeah. I didn't mind dying so many times on Rush because the explosions are cool.

[Vermachtnis]

Depends how much of a challenge you want. For me? I like to have fun. I'm not having fun if I'm constantly dying over stupid trout. And when I finally get past said challenging part the only thing on my mind is, "I'm not doing that again." And I don't. Not worth the headache.

That's how I feel. I don't mind a challenge, but I can't stand it when I don't make any progress. And since it keeps getting brought up, Ninja Gaiden isn't hard. It's unfair. A surprise Eagle over a pit that sends you back two screens is just dumb and getting to the final boss which when you die to, well send you all the way back to the start of 6-1 is especially dumb when those eagles only send you back to 6-3. Castlevania on the other hand was hard hard. Everything was placed in way to give you a challenge to get over, but it never felt unfair. Even the Medusa Head and Axe Knight hallway wasn't unfair. I mean, it was brutal and one little slip up most likely meant death, but it was your fault.

I love MegaTen, but it's difficulty leans towards the Ninja Gaiden side of the scale. If you enter a new dungeon, at full health and get ambushed and die before you can make a turn, which MegaTen is famous for, than that's dumb. They've got some good fights that do require some thinking, but it's still a turn based RPG and as long as your numbers are bigger than their numbers you'll win.

Sure that's not always true, for their games or turn-based games in general. Take the final boss of Disgaea D2 for example. It has a passive that punishes you for having bigger numbers and this is Disgaea, a game famous for absurd numbers. He was Lv84 and my team was in the early hundreds, statistically speaking it should have been a breeze, but that little thing turn it into one hell of fight and it was awesome. I got my ass handed to me my first attempt, but it was my fault. I didn't look at what he could do or observe the battlefield, I just sent Laharl up there to poke him.

And I guess that's what I'm trying to get at. I don't like RNG-type difficulty that is out of the players hand like eagles with pushback or ambushes followed by four Megidos. I like difficulty that I can overcome. If it's too much of the former, I'll just lower the difficulty. I have a job and bills and I don't want to spend 30+ hours just to make a 1% of progress.