Sekiro success, sales, and winning Game of the Year is a huge strike against the "difficulty equals bad" notion

[trugs26]

I was gutted when I found out that Cup Head was a very difficult game. This is because the graphics were making me want to recommend it to a lot of friends (who play games casually), including my partner. When I started playing, I quickly realized that I couldn't recommend the game. It just sucks when games are hard, locking out other interesting aspects of their game to a lot of people. This is particularly bad in cup head since I think the main appeal is the graphics (not necessarily gameplay). Can't comment on souls games which I haven't played before.

To make things worse, cup head does have difficulty options, but won't let you progress unless you do it on the hard difficulty.

 

[-COOLIO-]

I was gutted when I found out that Cup Head was a very difficult game. This is because the graphics were making me want to recommend it to a lot of friends (who play games casually), including my partner. When I started playing, I quickly realized that I couldn't recommend the game. It just sucks when games are hard, locking out other interesting aspects of their game to a lot of people. This is particularly bad in cup head since I think the main appeal is the graphics (not necessarily gameplay). Can't comment on souls games which I haven't played before.

To make things worse, cup head does have difficulty options, but won't let you progress unless you do it on the hard difficulty.

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I think you just can't do the last boss on easy or something like that. Which is a design choice I personally have no problem with

 

[trugs26]

I think you just can't do the last boss on easy or something like that. Which is a design choice I personally have no problem with

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Iirc it's the last boss of each area so you can't progress past the first world. Or was it each boss fight?

 

[MagicDoogies]

I genuinely cannot wait for the era where artistic vision= immunity to criticism fucking ends.

It leads to the most nonsense and unproductive threads and discussions Ive ever seen. If you arent a cheerleader than you're a hater who is apparently out to destroy the IP and stomp on the developers.

 

[darkslayer101]

Yes, agreed. How many games today are balanced well enough so that the game is getting harder towards the end? Almost none. I think From Soft does an incredible job with the difficulty most of the time. Enemies and bosses generally getting more challenging during playtime.
While most games and especially the ones of the 'open world'-variety tend to get easier and easier, because of the better equipment and abilities you're getting.

Death Stranding is one of my favourite games this year, but the game seems to get easier and easier towards the end because of the better equipment. I think that's its biggest flaw.

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I disagree with the stance that the games should get more difficult as you progress just cuz, in the sense that the players get more knowledge of how the mechanics work and at that point increasing difficulty is diminishing returns. I agree that introducing enemies, bosses etc that build on your current knowledge has valid difficulty, which I see in a lot of games.

Death Stranding for example is quite difficult in the beginning due to frustration, but by end game, the difficulty hasn't changed, your knowledge of terrain and equipment bypasses that, making it easier. Idk how they can introduce more difficult scenarios without feeling disingenuous.

 

[medyej]

Same. It's just as Kotaku said: An easy mode has never ruined a game.

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On the Giant Bomb game of the year cast they talk about how they ruined Fire Emblem three houses for themselves by choosing easy mode.

 

[LilScooby77]

Keep doing what you do From. Everyone doesn't have to beat Sekiro and that's how it should be.

 

[Morrigan]

I was gutted when I found out that Cup Head was a very difficult game. This is because the graphics were making me want to recommend it to a lot of friends (who play games casually), including my partner. When I started playing, I quickly realized that I couldn't recommend the game.

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Cuphead being a difficult game was part of its marketing. How were you even surprised?

 

[RavFiveFour]

I'm surprised games like these don't have difficulty settings, difficulty settings have been the foundations of many games for many years.

 

[trugs26]

Cuphead being a difficult game was part of its marketing. How were you even surprised?

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It's not like you knew from the reveal trailer the difficulty of the game. The first thing you see is beautiful animation that I've never seen in a game before. At some point during the marketing (or probably when someone gave a hands on preview) is when I found out. The point is, the games primary selling point is its animation. The gameplay is rather generic.

 

[DerpHause]

I genuinely cannot wait for the era where artistic vision= immunity to criticism fucking ends.

It leads to the most nonsense and unproductive threads and discussions Ive ever seen. If you arent a cheerleader than you're a hater who is apparently out to destroy the IP and stomp on the developers.

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I can't wait for the day when people stop conflating disagreement with criticism as immunity to criticism. Just because you're free to state a criticism doesn't mean everyone is obligated to agree with it or hold it in higher regard than whatever other factors may be present.

I'm surprised games like these don't have difficulty settings, difficulty settings have been the foundations of many games for many years.

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Not having difficulty setting was one of the foundations of these games.

 

[John Rabbit]

I mean, Sekiro would be on my list at all if it had difficulty options. As it stands I found the difficulty very high and detrimental to my enjoyment of the game.

 

[Crayon]

Dying to much breaks immersion is an interesting point. Does player death being tied to the story make a difference? How is it related to the discouragement of getting stuck? Is there anu way it can increase maybe a different aspect of immersion? Maybe just semantics: "game was stupidly hard" = "dying too much breaks my immersion".

 

[DerpHause]

Dying to much breaks immersion is an interesting point. Does player death being tied to the story make a difference? How is it related to the discouragement of getting stuck? Is there anu way it can increase maybe a different aspect of immersion? Maybe just semantics: "game was stupidly hard" = "dying too much breaks my immersion".

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In From's case we're dealing with games that deal with player death as being a cannon concept in the world. That feel like an aspect being ignored by the immersion argument.

 

[ImaginaShawn]

I don't mind hard games, I just don't like hard games that you have to play one way. Whenever I play Sekiro I tend to play stealthfully when facing normal enemies, but when I need to face bosses to progress I have to be hyper-aggressive and rely on parries, jumps and sidesteps, all of which require really good hand-eye coordination which I don't have.

 

[Masagiwa]

I'm surprised games like these don't have difficulty settings, difficulty settings have been the foundations of many games for many years.

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It's a choice the developer made whether we like it or not.

Source: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/heres-why-dark-souls-bloodborne-and-sekiro-dont-ha/1100-6459827/

 

[Deleted member 3196]

This whole "git gud" gatekeeping culture around these games can punch sand, because in the end the work should be aiming to evoke a certain reaction and feeling from people. For more skilled players, a harder difficulty would evoke that. But for others these hard games are impenetrable. In the end, it doesn't hurt the people playing a game on a well-made hard difficulty if lesser-skilled players have to "git gud" on an easy difficulty, which is probably a comparable experience considering their skill level.

I get that not every game is for everyone, but that for me is more to do with genre or aesthetic or setting than difficulty. But clearly the developers disagree with me so whatever.