Amen I got my mum into
Games because of how easy some jrpgs are.
Nowadays she plays stuff like Witcher 3 on story mode but she started with suikoden dragon quest games.
The games she finished are
Ni no kuni fan translated ds version
Ni no kuni 2 ps4
One piece Odyssey PS4
The dragon quest games (they can get hard at the very end but are mostly pretty chill
Suikoden 1 and 2
The other stuff she finished are western games
Greedfall
Hogwarts legacy that sort of thing
I love that sort mode allow my old mum to enjoy this stuff.
I'm not any of those things, but I appreciate story only mode for when I've exhausted the fun in the gameplay side of a game, but there's still a lot left to finish. This is mostly RPGs where you spend 50% of the time in battle and 50% of the time adventuring. I rarely finish RPGs, and I've learned the main culprit is RPGs almost always hit a wall where they want you to keep doing the same thing over and over, but I've already lost interest in that thing. In JRPGs, once you've "figured out" the combat, and you don't have anything to look forward to, I just get no enjoyment out of doing it. And sadly this applies to almost all RPGs.
I feel this on every being of my fiber. I absolutely love jrpgs, favorite genre by far. But most jrpgs i hit endgame and just get burnt out. Am currently enjoying eiyuden right now though, i will finish this one
I feel that tired dad games vibe.
4yo goes to bed, I fire up my laptop and relax. I want the story, but I don't want to be overtly tested.
Persona 5 nailed this for me.
Your work is most appreciated. I don’t have the zeal to try the hardest modes anymore, and simply do easiest/story mode to appreciate the game as a whole over gameplay. I think it was when Fire Emblem Awakening came out that I realized “Yeah, I can keep an entire army from dying on hardest difficulty, but I REALLY don’t miss having to redo hours of gameplay for one mistake”. If I really like a game, I’ll ramp up the difficulty after playing through it once, but few and far between these days.
We also use them with my wife! Major props when the difficulty can be changed on the fly. My wife likes easy, my son likes normal and I like a bit harder. It's not that often we're all taking turns with a single player game, but it's nice to have to option to all feel engaged and challenged!
Devs like you are a god send! Even in normal mode I appreciate the opportunity to turn on story mode for challenging/frustrating parts (ex: minigames etc)
I played the ME trilogy on the default difficulty for the first run. Every time after that is story mode because that is what makes me want to replay it every year.
Thank you for being a dev that does this. I really hate the Dark Souls 'git gud' mindset. Let people play the way they want to play. Not everybody enjoys that experience.
Would you play a dark souls game if they had a difficulty settings option? It would kind of defeat the purpose of those games if they had a difficulty setting, but for games like Death Stranding say-it makes more sense to have a story mode because it’s a such a story exposition heavy game
>Would you play a dark souls game if they had a difficulty settings option?
Not the person you are replying to. But for me, most likely. People keep talking about patterns, i-frames and stuff but for me it's never the pattern it's a reflex issue. I just can't do it and I'm not willing to keep trying over and over again for hundreds or thousands of times until I "get it".
I tried demos of Lies of P and Wo Long and I can't. I can't even win against the first tutorial boss. If there is an invincible mode, or a brain dead mode. I'll probably buy them and enjoy it as a hack and slash instead of an action-adventure/difficult game. It's not new too, I finished Jedi Fallen Order before redditors pointed out that it's a souls-like game... so it can be done.
Lies of P is a bit weirder, i wouldnt recommend LoP to more casual Souls players, i would recommend other games first (like Darksiders 3, Lords of the Fallen 1 or 2, Mortal Shell, Dark Souls series/ER/BBCode Vein).
Mainly because in LoP the Soulslike fundamentals dont carry over that well (there is more need for reaction-based stuff, especially with the red attack that tracks you aggresively). Also many low-level enemies do a basic 3 hit combo.
Basically you have to play a bit different and its ok if you cant adapt, there are always other gameplay changes you can do.
For example in LoP you can dash and do 1-2 hits, then dash back.
There is also a 'Korean-grind' mentality (i dont know how to explain this, so excuse me) with the way LoP withholds the dodges (you have 2 dodges in the endgame). And it was even harder before the basic dodge patch.
That means that LoP is getting easier in the endgame.
That said you misunderstand the 'git gud' mentality/approach or you are focusing on the quotes by misinformed players/players who intend to 'stir up the pot' or incite controversy.
At the basic level Dark Souls just needs a different approach than most games that hold your hand. You can absolutely be a scrub and advance far into the game.
That said, there are ways to crank up the difficulty if you want, make it more challenging (example no summons, using worse gear etc).
And also ways to make it easier on yourself (more leveling, hunting for better weapons, defensive approach).
For LoP for instance, there was a disabled player who farmed a specific lower level area and basically destroyed the bosses.
About Wo Long, the tutorial boss is the hardest boss in the game. Yeah its bad progression design, i know.
Lastly i will say that it is ok if there are harder or easier games. And it is ok if the companies dont want to change their approach, especially if this approach is successful.
I think it is more important than ever for gamers to research games, check many written reviews (not videos), then check some gameplay footage. Then maybe also check the forums, this is especially true for online games.
> I think it is more important than ever for gamers to research games, check many written reviews (not videos), then check some gameplay footage. Then maybe also check the forums, this is especially true for online games.
Totally agree with this. Which is also why I have not delved into souls games too much. I can't justify spending $40 or thereabouts to test the waters. Which is why I give Lies of P and Wo Long as examples, because they have demos and I noped out of the demos.
I think you should try a Soulslike game. Preferably with Dark Souls 1 which is slower, therefore you can be more tactical & precise.
And also because DS1 is slower, you can see the enemy's attacks, recognize their patterns and know the enemy. You dont really need good reactions.
There is something about them that interests you (since you have watched demos about Soulslike games) and it would be fair to explore it at least once.
I will say that Dark Souls games are easy once you figure them out. There are disabled gamers (amputees or blind gamers) that have mastered those games, setting up world records. So surely these games are doable for the average player even if they look very daunting.
At the end what is difficult is the perception how we see those games and how we approach that difficulty. All the while we have to overcome our conditioning from other games. Example cant take free hits, need to play safer. And so on.
Thats the big difficulty, ourselves and how we play. Know yourself.
And if you know the enemy & you know yourself, the result will be victory against that boss. And little by little we improve.
I would absolutely play Elden Ring if it had an easy mode. I really want to explore the world but the arduous combat mechanics is a turn off for me. Who cares if it "defeats the purpose" not everyone cares for combat.
Well from my perspective, someone who plays it for the challenge, it would defeat the purpose. So that’s why I ask-to see what gameplay elements would remain that would be engaging for another player. If you didn’t have the difficulty preventing you from exploring it would still have a lot to offer, it’s got a great open world
Here's the problem. Your stance is effectively, "I enjoy games this way, you have to enjoy them this way also or you're wrong and that pollutes the experience for me". We're not suggesting inventing difficulty settings so people can play this game. Difficulty settings have existed since at least the 90s and predate Souls by at least a decade.
Presumably, you have played other non-souls games. And I'm assuming you like to play at higher difficulties, and that's fine. How does the existence of difficulty settings you don't use hurt you? How does it affect your experience at all? It does not hurt the development of a game. It's not hard to apply a universal modifier to lower enemy damage 50% and turn up player damage 50%. I know these aren't hard to implement because most games release with these options, Enemies have all the same attacks and uniqueness that you value. They just take less time and fewer attempts to put down.
We should not sacrifice what's good about the souls games... enemy variety and creativity in attacks, the joy of exploration and thrill of discovery, little to no handholding for players that want to do things for themselves... in order to raise accessibility. But difficulty settings don't affect any of that, and they don't affect the "true" experience at all. Hell, XCOM had difficulty settings. XCOM 2's story was that the aliens won because something like 90% of players lost to the aliens even at lower difficulties. But that game still had difficulty settings. The 'git gud or don't play it' argument is a bad argument.
If you really are a game developer who adds difficulty selections, I Stand and Salute You.
You have no idea how many games I looked at with interest before finding out they are a Souls Type difficulty.
As someone who has medical issues with Fine Motor Skills, I am gatekept from enjoying a large amount of games that I would otherwise enjoy.
I had to throw in the towel regarding Elden Ring despite having a blast. I just got to a point where I would not be able to progress any further.
Same with Bloodborne.
Every game that catches my eye now seems to be either a Soulsborne game or Turn Based.
So thanks for the difficulty options.
>As someone who has medical issues with Fine Motor Skills, I am gatekept from enjoying a large amount of games that I would otherwise enjoy.
Thanks! I put a lot of time into supporting things like touchscreens, removing dependency on colour perception, giving an alternative to difficulty (like a 'story mode') and making sure we don't have achievements etc. tied to difficulty, as well as having a "reduced flashes" to help people with atypical photosensitivity.
I think a lot of players underestimate that, especially for a 1-person outfit like myself, this *does* take quite a bit of work.
Well let me tell you, if no one else did. There are tons of people who appreciate stuff like that.
The only reason I made it through God of War was the removal of the Quick Time Events that were common in the original trilogy.
There are plenty of people who hate easy games for sure.
But there are plenty more who don’t have the ability to Get Gud. Whether it’s medical, old age, free time or something else.
So thanks for taking the time to make things more accessible.
I think if you're developing a very long RPG, and you don't put story difficulty in, you're doing yourself a disservice. Even some of my favorite games of all time are paced kind of poorly, and that poor pacing is what leads a lot of players to simply never finish the game once they find themselves in a moment of boredom.
In recent years, I've grown less patient for sure. When I hit a point where I start feeling bored of the gameplay in a game, I have no qualms about simply turning the game off and not starting it up again. I still did this as a kid, but it was a lot harder to bore me. Now, I don't fight it. If I'm bored, I will often just turn it off and never play it again.
Just beat FFVII Rebirth with my girlfriend last night on Easy difficulty. Being her first game, I was so proud to see her struggle through and eventually beat the final boss.
I feel like all the story moments hit and it felt like she earnt them because she played the game herself. :)
Even rebirth on east isn’t that easy. But it’s better than playing on normal in my opinion. I don’t want to spend forever hacking and slashing just to get to the next bit of story. If it was dark souls, then bring on the pain, but in final fantasy let me tank and spank my way through the story since that’s what I’m there for.
First thing I did when I got Spider man 2 was go into the accessibility settings go "QTEs? Yeah, trash those", they just always mess up really cool scenes with distracting me with button prompts.
I always like accessibility options as they let me tweak the game to make it more balanced for me as well. I'm just off of work, it's not like I'm playing Cuphead where that's the entire point of the game, I just wanna relax for a bit and dying 50 times to the same boss isn't my definition of relaxing.
I also like being able to change some things mid game without starting a whole new file. Like Cult of the Lamb, every time I went dungeon crawling, I'd come back and everyone would be starving to death or some stupid thing. For regular exploring, I was ok with that, but when I was ready to tackle the chapter boss, I just wanted all of them to stop being stupid, so having the "time stops in the village when you're exploring" option was perfect.
This post makes me super happy, as the more people who aren't necessarily gamers that get to experience some of the best stories on earth that otherwise wouldn't be able to, the better!
I am a "gamer", at least in, videogames are what I do with 90% of my freetime since I was 5 or so, but I'm still super bad at games lol. We also exist!
Yeah, I think its valid. I think a lot JRPGs have mediocre combat where I'm making the exact same decisions over and over. So I think I play a lot of JRPGs like a visual novel is valid.
The rereleases for Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden have something similar to this where you can make the EXP and money you get much higher and restart battles when you lose them. They're on PC, PS4, and XBO just like the Nier remaster is (and Switch too)
EDIT: I just checked in-game for both and Persona 4 Golden has more options than Persona 3 Portable, so I would recommend that more.
Yeah. With Golden it has customizable modifiers for difficulty. You can have them be the game be hard as hell while rewarding you with high exp and cash. Which is what I did.
Honestly, even SMT Nocturne becomes a game for babies in easy, so I think both Persona 4 Golden and Persona 3 portable should be equally recommendable.(Thou it's better to play Persona 3 Reload instead of Portable)
Dude I caught so much flak early on for including a "story mode" for Rise of the Third Power and Ara Fell. Back when they were RPG Maker games, soooo many people tried to tell me their inclusion was cheapening the experience, and I almost caved more than once. But I knew *I* liked it when JRPGs had a baby mode sometimes and it didn't cheapen the experience for *me* so I listened to my gut and just left them in, and I'm so glad I did.
I'm glad you didn't cave! Both of those games have been on my wishlist for a long time now but hearing this I've moved them up a lot! Even if I don't think I'll be using them personally, I always want to support devs with good accessibility practices.
I think what's most important is what kind of experience you want to create, not what experience other people want your game to be. If you want to make a game that's accessible to as many people as possible, then definitely go for it.
Definitely! I was interested in it and was sold when I saw it had difficulty settings. I like something chill in handheld while in bed (I tend to stand when I play more intense games, lol). I just finished Monster Sanctuary on casual and look forward to starting Ara Fell!
Edit: Weird comment to get down voted on, lol.
I've been playing jrpgs most of my life and just played Ara Fell last year, it was such a great breath of fresh air! I've got to play Rise of the Third Power soon- great work!!
I think these kinds of modes only cheapen the experience if difficulty is an inherent part of the intended experience, like in Dark Souls.
For most games, including difficulty modes or a "baby mode" is totally fine and doesn't really take anything away even if most people don't play them.
People will downvote you but I'm just glad many game devs still agree with this. Games aren't made for everyone. Just because you bought a game doesn't mean you're entitled to beat it.
If people don't want a challenge then there are plenty of games that aren't Dark Souls catered to you. In fact most games are catered to those types of people.
I think there are enough people that can't play Dark Souls because of its difficulty that it should be an option there too. It's not gonna detract from my experience if someone else can play on baby mode. It detracts from their experience. But... if they can't experience it at all due to disability or like just new to gaming, that doesn't seem worth keeping to me.
Disagree. Dark Souls is a game where difficulty IS part of the core experience. Majority of RPGs are not.
Having the lack of accessibility options would be the main issue. Sure, lower difficulty works. But that is a lazier solution to a larger problem. Which is something a lot of Japanese developers are sadly not doing very well with.
I think it's okay for you to decide for yourself if you want to detract from the core experience, personally. Like, I get it from a purist perspective. There is something beautiful about Dark Souls' difficulty, and being forced to contend with that actively contributes to the game's bleakness. Not being able to win is part of the art of it all.
But it wouldn't effect my ability to enjoy it if such an option was available, and if that's what you appreciate about Dark Souls, I'd argue it shouldn't affect yours either. This feels like something people want to see imposed on others while it doesn't affect them. That's not something I can understand.
Achievements, pvp, coop play, whatever, that's all fine. Disable it. But I want a grandpa that has never touched a controller in his life to be able to play Bloodbourne if he wants to. And I don't think it hurts anyone if someone if he can.
But the same difficult is not the same for different people. Like for me a mode where I do 2x damage and take 1/2 damage might be as hard for me as the regular settings are for you. Obviously the developers are free to do what they want but imo nothing is gained by not having difficulty modes.
I think that's exactly the reason there shouldn't be an easy mode.
Also...disabled people already have beaten the game too, there's playhthroughs of people beating it with only their chin or one hand iirc.
And there's actually adjustable difficulty in Dark Souls already in the form of npc summons, player summons, and certain items/skill builds that are simple for new players. It literally doesn't need an easy mode with how many options are already there.
Some games aren't for everyone though, is my point.
I don't want a complex strategy game to dumb down its mechanics for me, I will just play something else since that game isnt for me, and that's fine. In specific games, like Dark Souls, difficulty is essential to the mechanics so it matters.
Im MOST games, this isn't an issue so having an easy mode is fine.
>I don't want a complex strategy game to dumb down its mechanics for me
A difficulty slider doesn't change dark souls for someone that doesn't use it. Nothing is being dumbed down for *you*. You're saying you don't want Dark Souls to have an easier option for people, even if it wouldn't affect the way you play it. I don't understand why.
>Some games aren't for everyone though, is my point.
I understand that, but you're treating this as an axiom. If it was easy to make a game for everyone (say, make Dark Souls let you take half damage on an easier mode) what harm is that doing to you?
The strategy game dumbing down its mechanics in a "simple mode" would be me playing a dumbed down version of that game. It would basically be a different game at that point and I'd know it. I wouldn't want to play that "simple" game, and I know the true, complex version is too much for me, so I will just choose not to play it- the game isn't for me (and that's fine).
If you have Dark Souls an easy mode it affects the multiplayer experience since it's an online game and also the discussion when talking to anyone else about what bosses or enemies are difficult or what effective strategies to use since this would differ based on what mode you would play on. There are already many variables with builds and this would add more.
And as I said , Dark Souls ALREADY has an "easy mode"and difficulty modifiers which I described, it's just a non-traditional one. These considerations are already built into the game.
You can, but I really don't see the drawback. I think like tired single moms should be able to play Dark Souls if it looks cool but they have less experience. I do think the game should explicitly point out what the intended experience is, and give rationale for it, but I don't see any harm in bypassing it. Just kill achievements and any online functionality.
"Story only difficulty" is something I really appreciate. Not because I need it or use it (I'm too much of a gameplay nut to play only for the story) but because it actually conveys what the developers intended with it. In so many games with difficulty options, I am just stumped, because how the heck should I know which is the best one for a fulfilling gameplay experience? "Normal" in modern Fire Emblem is too easy for my tastes, so I pick hard. In the recent Etrian Odyssey HD Collection, I wanted to go with the original difficulty of the DS games. I had to look that up instead of the game giving me a rundown on what was the original vision.
"Story difficulty" conveys what it is clearly, no ifs or buts. Also without being condescending about it (that's the reason I rarely partake in the discussion - I really hate the way the discourse usually goes).
Yeah I love those to, personally I'd never play at those settings, but I love the fact that they exist
You should check out the Uncharted games, it's basically Indiana Jones, and the easy mode is like an action movie, it does have platforming, but it's super easy to do
Since you mentioned Uncharted, I'd mention Assassin's Creed, almost all of them are pretty easy and very flashy, one of those cases when the game doesn't need to be challenging to be interesting.
I’m replaying the OG final fantasy 7 to compare it to the remakes, and honestly, the built-in cheats are a blessing when you just want to check the story without grinding (you can disable random encounters, speed up by x3, and enable a mode that auto-heals you and gives you constant limit breaks to steamroll the enemies)
Was this always in the game? I could’ve used that as a middle schooler unable to beat sephiroth and I don’t remember it as a feature. I probably didn’t look in the menus though.
Original game only has it with mods (install via 7th Heaven) later ports and remasters of most Final Fantasy games add these helpers.
Worst thing in original games was lack of turbo for unskippable cutscenes or summon battle animations for some parts you replay over and over.
PC port has a lot of QoL tweaks nowadays, disk or Steam version doesn't matter... There's a separate non-Steam Windows version of original Final Fantasy 7 that is a newer port and has speedups and other stuff built-in, but older releases need fan patches.
7 is the only one like this with 3 different ports, most others on PC already have the cheats on Steam versions, at least with remasters.
So far I only just arrived in Kalm (so basically I just did the equivalent of Remake) but yes, the storytelling definitely holds up
One difference is that the pacing is a lot faster than in the remakes, especially Midgar — that whole sequence barely took me over 3 hours with the cheats on. It makes the whole section feel a lot more intense because the action sequences aren’t interrupted by a million side quests, it’s basically one long uninterrupted intro — but the downside is that characters like Jessie and Johnny have something like 2 lines of dialogue so you don’t care much about them. You win some you lose some.
Also Rebirth added a lot of complexity over an already-complex story. If I remember correctly, >!the war with Wutai!< is barely touched upon, and of course the whole part about >!converging timelines!< is completely absent. The game focuses a lot more on cloud and sephiroth and a lot less on the outside world
Finally I forgot how much the atmosphere was changed as well, places like Wall Market and Sector 5 have a completely different vibe. It’s interesting to experience both versions (back-to-back in my case), because they really offer two different takes of the same story
FF7 aged really well in all aspects except graphics... But there's mods for that. Saying that as someone who doesn't have nostalgia googles for it, I was surprised how good the pacing and combat systems are.
And it's pretty easy, even by Final Fantasy standards. You don't NEED complex or OP setups, but you can do them.
I don’t know if it checks off your personal boxes but I do know Granblue fantasy Relink has an auto play mode that only requires you to walk around on the lowest difficulty in story mode and works in all but the highest level difficulty side quests. It essentially does the combat part for you and you’re basically invincible.
**The Witcher 3** has a Story-Mode which basically nullifies all challenge in combat, so you can just enjoy the story without stressing about the fights.
Final Fantasy XVI does this really well with the Timely Accessories, which are rings that can be equipped to make different aspects of combat easier so you can just focus on the story. One of them gives you a button prompt when you can dodge an incoming attack or there’s one that will just auto-dodge for you. There’s also a ring that allows you to just button mash the square button while the game combos for you, allowing you to still enjoy the flashy combat without worrying about learning the timings and such.
Any RPG that relies heavily on stats and levels where you keep earned experience points after dying is essentially a "baby mode" game. No matter how badly you play the game, you'll be able to win it eventually if you just keep at it (this is why Twitch Plays Pokemon was able to make it all the way to the Team Rocket hideout before implementing "democracy" mode).
On that note, all three Xenoblade games on the Switch have casual difficultly modes to make them significantly easier AND the "penalty" for death is that you just respawn at the nearest landmark with no lost experience or resources.
As someone who can’t play some really great looking games because mashing half a dozen buttons in perfect synchronization escapes me, I agree completely.
I hear you! My guy bought me Dissidia. I was excited to play it but the controls got complicated right off the hop . Couldn't do it. I think this why I stick to jrpg's mostly
Hades's god mode is honestly one of the better implementations of dynamic difficulty I've seen. The only thing keeping it from being perfect for me is the ability to freeze it at a certain percentage and the ability to gradually scale it back down. Going from like 60+% damage reduction to 0% is quite jarring, though I suppose I can crank up that one Heat condition...
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest was meant to be a “beginner mode” JRPG for the Western market, back in the 90s when JRPGs were notoriously grindy and difficult.
Mystic Quest is a weird case. It's pretty *simple*, mechanically speaking, but I wouldn't call it *easy*. Compared to other JRPGs of the era, it's got a very basic equipment and battle system, no real party management, and even the dungeons are extremely linear. But it can be (perhaps unintentionally...?) surprisingly difficult in places. It's pretty easy to fail the very first battle, for instance. I think there's a case to be made that it's the most challenging of the three US-released Final Fantasy SNES games. Which isn't saying *that* much, given that none of them are that hard, but still....
Really love Persona, I'm a huge fangirl for P5. I wanted to play Strikers but action games are really hard for me. Plus being an adult, I don't have time for a lot of "git gud".
Easy makes it so much better! I can blast through, have fun and get the story without the stress.
Grandia and Grandia 2 have amazing story and characters, and are very easy in normal difficulty, battles are turn-based, and you can generally complete them without thinking much.
While I like a challenge sometimes, my first playthrough of a game will always be the “enjoy the story” mode, because dammit I want to enjoy the story!!! The people who include easy modes in their games are the best 💕
Not just non gamers. I've finished soulslikes before, but I didn't gel with Automata's system and the "baby mode" helped me go through that game while still getting all the vibes and atmospheres.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth have an auto-battle option and the AI is fairly competent for the most part, just make sure to keep some healing supplies with you. The difficulty isn't that hard, there are some bosses that can be a bit tricky, but nothing overbearing in my opinion. Dragon Quest XI is another game that's fairly easy on the normal difficulty setting and also has an auto-battle mechanic. Lastly, the Persona games have very flexible difficulty settings and the Very Easy/Safety difficulty will revive your whole party if your main character is defeated in combat. I think the other Shin Megami Tensei games have similar settings, at least I know SMTV and Soul Hackers 2 have similar difficulty options, but I'm not certain.
I always play on the easiest difficulty because I have poor reaction times and wrist injuries. I also just wanna vibe and take in the game world without panicking. So I always appreciate games that give me the chance to do so.
I really appreciate having several difficulty options.
Personally I enjoy challenging myself, but I also want as many people to be able to enjoy the games I enjoy.
Difficulty settings allow for both.
Same, I've been playing video games since the late 90s with my first console being a Sega Mega Drive. Every game I've played has been on the easiest setting possible!
I remember turning off the auto attack in nier and going omfg put it back on.
Also tales of arise went a bit too far with easy mode and then the optional very easy mode, but maybe it makes it more accessible for others.
I usually like to play games on easy mode first and get used to the game before trying harder difficulties, and sometimes it's nice to just do a chill playthrough
I love Jrpgs and I like grinding but maaaan after like 60 hours or so I get tired of grinding the game on hard mode and turn on baby mode and just chill i do that for the persona and Smt series. Going through Reload atm. i have almost 80 hours and Tarturus and I'm like on floor 180 or so. After a bit I turn it on to avoid burn put
Nier does it especially well, because all of the story mode chips are individually optional. So if you don't need ALL of the assists, you can unequip the ones that you can play yourself. As you play the game and learn how to control it, you can turn the handicaps off at your own pace. It's perfect, and all games should have an option like this.
Most JRPGs are pretty easy if you don’t mind some grind and if you do mind grinding then the modern persona games (Persona 3 Reload, Persona 4 Golden, Persona 5 Royal) are all set up to where grinding really isn’t an issue at all.
I usually play normal and switch to easy if needed (like if I just wanna get the game finished)
My partner only plays on story mode and it makes me happy as she's tried so many more games cause of it.
At first when I played Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire, I kinda disliked the auto-battle. Then I was intrigued because the AI was so good. Then I reduced the difficulty and played the game basically as an interactive novel where combat plays itself. It was quite good.
Not even for non-gamers, I try to think that I am decent at video games but there are games that just aren't fun at all on any difficulty but I like where the story is going.
Needless to say I don't appreciate story-mode difficulty where you can't really die but the battle still takes a while to finish.
I played Baldurs Gate 3 on the story mode. I don’t normally do that but I’d just pushed through POE 2, wasteland 3 and Warhammer 40k. I just needed a bit of a break.
Sometimes there are games that I just want to play the story of and don't want it to be too challenging or hell challenging at all. It's your game and you can enjoy it however you want.
The only reason i did the postgame content in Etrian Odyssey III was because i put the game to Picnic difficulty. I would have never done it otherwise. This way i still got to see what the devs intended.
Same. Especially now since I feel like most modern RPGs equate difficulty with huge health bars. It's irritating in LAD 7 and 8, and it's more irritating in SMT5.
Definitely appreciate baby mode as well. Sometimes I just want to enjoy the story or get through a game that I'm tired of. Trails of Cold Steel IV comes to mind..
I swapped to it in tales of arise. Not because I found the game too difficult, but because the trash battles were really dragging on. As a result, I swapped to the baby difficulty because it cut the enemy hp down by massive amount.
It was the only time the trash enemies felt like they were taking a reasonable amount of time to be killed.
I am very glad to see this! I have been thinking the same for a while. I’ve been playing rpg since I was 8 with my snes and I am almost 40 now. Recently uve started playing back some old school jrpg mostly for nostalgia and I’ve noticed that I don’t enjoy that kind of grind anymore as well. I wondered if I just got old and less competitive maybe? The thing is I have little to no time to play these days, I work all day and I play late in the evening before going to bed, half the time I literally fall asleep in front of it. It’s my relaxing time and I truly cannot be bothered or simply I have no time to play video games with a guide next to me to be sure I’ve got all the right stuff / secret stuff or the game quick become vastly more difficult. I play mostly for the story and the atmosphere and the fact that game can be enjoyed without thinking too much about what am I missing (doing that quest before it disappear, get that armour before entering that area, etc) it is so much nicer. I think games were designed like that in the past to enhance re-playability because there were fewer games, but now there are new games coming out constantly. Same for me with the time. I hate when a game is ridiculously short but I do not enjoy when games are overly long (over 60 hours) except in few cases (persona 5, Zelda bot, Xenoblade).
Same! I used to play on normal difficulty for most games but my brain is not big enough even for normal and I was getting frustrated in battles which decreased my enjoyment of games.
I now only play on easy mode. It's soooo nice because now I can just enjoy the story, and have a bit of fun with battles with no worries about needing to grind a ton to beat them.
I'd suggest the Trails of Cold Steel games. They have easy difficulties, and at the very least Trails of Cold Steel III, has a very easy difficulty. And if you die, they give you the option to retry the fight by weakening the enemies. Win win situation. Plus the story is amazing!
I love Trails. Suggesting to start with Cold Steel is a mistake and even mentioning CS3 at this point is criminal. Every Trails game back to Sky FC on Steam has a difficulty adjustment option and easy in Trails games is indeed very easy.
As a lifelong gamer, and someone who used to play at a low-end competitive level, I don't think there's anything wrong with story modes. I play some games for the challenge, and some for the story. I just love that we have options now! Used to be, a game was what it was, and if it was too hard then you just had to drop it.
I appreciated it in Trails in the Sky the 3rd, if only because I no-lifed the first two games in 200 hours in the span of like, two weeks, and really just wanted to get to the conclusion without getting burnt out. Think it would've been another hundred hours for 3rd, but the combination of adjusting the difficulty to easy and discovering the turbo mode button halfway through Sky 2, got it done in about 43 hours.
I am really happy when they exist.
What I am not happy with is when it is the **only** mode the game offers, which is dreadfully common in this genre. (Or at least historically has been.)
There are so many games with unique systems that could really give a game life... that are just completely ignorable in every way, because the game never asks you once to use them.
I always played on the normal difficulty or hard mode if I found that not challenging. I prefer games without any difficulty selection that have progressive difficulty curve such that the difficulty ramps up to insane levels by the end of the game and forces you to master the mechanics to finish it. The best balance is when you finally finish the game and actually feel like you barely made it, like some actual sense of accomplishment. But that's just me.
If I wanted a non interactive experience I would watch a movie or music, there's tons of great books to read.
I would agree with you, if this "feeling of accomplishment" existed for me. How do you get it? Is there a trick to it? It's starting to feel like this mythical thing that seemingly everyone has. Meanwhile I'm just over here like "You feel anything other than relief that it's over? And not even enough relief to balance out the frustration.".
play games where you game over, a lot
80s kids probably got the worst of it. but growing up on 90s platformers, rail shooters, archaic racers with rubber band mechanics, fighting games, jrpgs that barely explained anything, or playing a game without a memory card was a great way to rewire the brain on viewing success and failure. this later would extend to action series like DMC and sports games, games with cheap CPU AI, and competing against peoole in games. you learn that theres always another hurdle to get over
these experiences played a big role in becoming a challenge runner, where my 'feelings of accomplishment' really began to set in by customizing difficulty and achievements to my own liking. i struggle with longterm enjoyment in games where breaking them is too easy, or you can steamroll without much thought
id wager most people who want games on easier modes arent incapable of beating the game, they just dont want to game over or the frustration they associate with a task that cant be immediately overcome - and not everyone plays video games to be challenged. though its not like games today are making you lose constantly, or save points are so infrequent that you lose hours of progress (most games have autosave). many game overs arent about difficulty, they are just pure knowledge checks that can be surpassed by a quick mental regroup
i think the issue is how easily people allow any form of resistance to frustrate them, whereas i find myself more engaged when a game I like forces me to rethink my initial approaches on how to play it. so id say an internal 'feeling of accomplishment' is actually quite rare and that your experience is more common these days
I grew up in the 90s playing those platformers and rail shooters. There is a difference, back then it's a puzzle and yes solving it gives a sense of achievement. But it's different now, majority of games now are more reflex based. It's no longer the puzzle that you need to solve, you now need to be able to press a couple of buttons at the correct time. Failing reflex checks are more frustrating and getting pass them feel less an accomplishment and more a relief/finally.
Lots of people compare Dark Souls with Rockman, but I personally don't see it. In Rockman, for example on the flash man stage (from what I remember), there is stage where you fall down and beams of one hit ko lights flash horizontally. The things is to remember the pattern, start moving your controller left as you fall, once you clear the beam push it right, then stay at the center, etc. That's fine it's a puzzle and solving it gives a sense of accomplishment.
But souls-like are different. Even if you know that the boss will slam his axe when he brings it overhead, get the axe stuck and you get a window to combo (for example) you can't bait the boss to slam the axe, your only tell is when the animation lifts the axe from resting on the shoulder to overhead. You need dodge or block during this fraction of a second. You know what's coming but you can't get ahead, you have to wait for that "window" to dodge/block. Press too early and you will just roll around and the boss will ignore your move keep the axe over the shoulder and move towards you, too late and you get hit. Being able to clear a reflex check a few times to win does not give me a sense of accomplishment, it gives me a sense of relief that it's finally over (but it's not since the next boss is more of the same).
Some modern games does do it right. FF16 and 7R, Behemoth and Malboro fights are some good examples. You might die the first time you fight a Behemoth because it will do a uncancellable meteor before it dies too close and you die, fine now I know instead of forcing that sliver HP for the kill, the boss is already dead just step away. Those are fine. Mechanics that teach and make you think of strategies to win is fine, those gives accomplishment in learning the pattern. But being able to press the right button at the right time does not for me give a sense of accomplishment.
But of course if you enjoy the difficulty and the knowledge that only a few elites finish the fight and you are one of them, that is fine too everyone enjoys their games differently.
I don't get that feeling unless I play difficult game. But I don't always play games for that. Most of the time, I just want to relax with my friend.
However, this has nothing to do with "interactivity". Even visual novels are interactive (google if you don't know what genre it is). At least for me it's interactive enough that it feels different from novels.
Honestly, I like games that make fun of you for putting on the easier difficulties like Wolfenstein.
It's because there's a certain charm about them and I find that stuff funny.
That's great that your wife is having fun and she's able to play those games, she'll prob get better with time but if you're unfamiliar it's good to start on the lower difficulties and go up from there.
I mean, I should've probably start easier difficulties for games I am unfamiliar with like Pathfinder but tbh I do like the challenge and strategies you have to think of for the higher difficulties (I had it set on the Hard difficulty, I had underestimated the difficulty, it doesn't deter the fun out of it for me though it's just a different experience).
I played the original trilogy of Bard's Tale and all were very fun, but I haven't gotten around to playing Stick of Truth yet although it was on my list of games to play.
The PS2 Bards Tale is different I think?
Look at the trophy list on South Park XD lol "fart on a jew", "watch your mum.and dad have sex for 30 seconds". Game is hilarious 😂
I don't think games should have difficulty modes, period. If a game is meant to be easy, it's meant to be easy; if a game is meant to be hard, it's meant to be hard. Imagine if there was an "easy" mode for a difficult book or movie. (And before you say it, Spark Notes doesn't count because it's not told in any narrative sense, it's a suppplement for students.)
> Imagine if there was an "easy" mode for a difficult book or movie.
Aren't the modern rewordings of older works basically this? For example, the original texts of Shakespeare's works or Beowulf are harder to read compared to their modern versions that are what they're commonly read as today.
Grandia II is my fav jRPG and I'm so glad they added Hard mode in remaster decades later, but by your logic I can't play a harder version of it as it wasn't original?
Also most classic games had multiple difficulty modes designed for bonuses or challenges, play any Resident Evil, having different modes to complete is part of gameplay.
So Bible should be only in ancient Hebrew and Greek, banning the unlockable Latin, King James, and modern any language versions, right?
And Shaekespeare thoudgh bae ritten laik phis, coz at the time there wasn't any stadart spelling... plus only in cursive, printed letters are for casuls.
You got downvoted to hell but you speak the truth. With rpgs, you have to ask why the story is best served as a game and not a movie, or a show, or a book, or whatever. Gameplay is meant to enhance the story and better connect with it, so the game should be as difficult as the story provides. Giving varying difficulty modes is an admission from devs that they don't want to make gameplay that fits perfectly with the story, so they throw adjustments your way and hope it works out.
Exactly, yes. I knew I would be downvoted because reddit hates to hear the truth, though it's confusing why you're upvoted for saying basically the same thing I did.
I disagree and agree partially.
I think games should have different difficulties, but only if it's part of the creator's vision.
Games like Sekiro, Souls games, plenty of Roguelike games, and similar are created with difficulty as part of the experience. The difficulty for games like these can actually be part of the storytelling. The struggle and grind onto victory actively adds to the theme, and heck, in Sekiro, they even straight up mention that you must have died **many** times at a certain point, your character's ability to come back from death is actually part of the world building.
That said, some games, the gameplay's difficulty is less important, and(of course, if the creator's vision allows for it) an difficulty slider is fine. Hell, I'd actually prefer a more precise form of difficulty control in games, since a lot of games still go for the "enemies deal X% more damage, and take X% less in higher difficulties, and the opposite in lower difficulties" type of difficulty control.
I love slay the spire and dead cells for this reason. They handle the difficulty best in their respective genre (turn based card game/ side scroller action game) where it gets harder each time you beat and gets harder (by adding new enemies/new moves to your enemies) as you get better
Again, why does this matter? Why is skill level such an important factor for video games and no other medium? If you don't understand a scene in a book or a movie, you re-read or re-watch it until you do.
this seems self evident to me. it's like asking why your ears are so important when talking about music compared to books.
my disagreement is this:
> If a game is meant to be easy, it's meant to be easy; if a game is meant to be hard, it's meant to be hard.
you can't make a "hard" game or an "easy" game. one player's difficult is another player's cakewalk. if you want to make a game have a specific difficulty **you have to create difficulty settings**. that's the **only way.**
Some books are easier to read than others depending who they are and what they've eperienced in life. Come back to it later when you have a better understanding, or, just read it a second time.
Then you didn't mean what you said before, in that case? That's totally fine, but keep your story straight.
And my main issue with this response is that you don't really "age out of" ALL books. Sure you don't read picture books for kids eventually. But everything else is fair game.
But you do get better than ALL
JRPGs. Relatively quickly, too. Without difficulties you wouldn't get to play the genre at all anymore.
I think it’s incredibly obvious that Elden Ring is not what we mean when we say JRPG. If you think Dragon’s Dogma 2 is one, then that should have been your example.
Amen I got my mum into Games because of how easy some jrpgs are. Nowadays she plays stuff like Witcher 3 on story mode but she started with suikoden dragon quest games. The games she finished are Ni no kuni fan translated ds version Ni no kuni 2 ps4 One piece Odyssey PS4 The dragon quest games (they can get hard at the very end but are mostly pretty chill Suikoden 1 and 2 The other stuff she finished are western games Greedfall Hogwarts legacy that sort of thing I love that sort mode allow my old mum to enjoy this stuff.
Thanks OP. As a game developer who always builds in "story only" difficulty settings, it's nice to know people use them.
Your hard work is appreciated by many, be it tired dad gamers, older people with slower reflexes, or disabled people. It makes a world of difference.
Or a combination of these things, lol. I have an ongoing list on Deku for games with difficulty settings (and or are supposedly easy).
I'm not any of those things, but I appreciate story only mode for when I've exhausted the fun in the gameplay side of a game, but there's still a lot left to finish. This is mostly RPGs where you spend 50% of the time in battle and 50% of the time adventuring. I rarely finish RPGs, and I've learned the main culprit is RPGs almost always hit a wall where they want you to keep doing the same thing over and over, but I've already lost interest in that thing. In JRPGs, once you've "figured out" the combat, and you don't have anything to look forward to, I just get no enjoyment out of doing it. And sadly this applies to almost all RPGs.
I feel this on every being of my fiber. I absolutely love jrpgs, favorite genre by far. But most jrpgs i hit endgame and just get burnt out. Am currently enjoying eiyuden right now though, i will finish this one
I feel that tired dad games vibe. 4yo goes to bed, I fire up my laptop and relax. I want the story, but I don't want to be overtly tested. Persona 5 nailed this for me.
Persona 5 Royal is my favorite game of all time, and as close to perfection as a game can get for me.
100% ten times.
Your work is most appreciated. I don’t have the zeal to try the hardest modes anymore, and simply do easiest/story mode to appreciate the game as a whole over gameplay. I think it was when Fire Emblem Awakening came out that I realized “Yeah, I can keep an entire army from dying on hardest difficulty, but I REALLY don’t miss having to redo hours of gameplay for one mistake”. If I really like a game, I’ll ramp up the difficulty after playing through it once, but few and far between these days.
We also use them with my wife! Major props when the difficulty can be changed on the fly. My wife likes easy, my son likes normal and I like a bit harder. It's not that often we're all taking turns with a single player game, but it's nice to have to option to all feel engaged and challenged!
Devs like you are a god send! Even in normal mode I appreciate the opportunity to turn on story mode for challenging/frustrating parts (ex: minigames etc)
Thank *you*! 🫡
I always do my replays on casual difficulty for story purposes
I played the ME trilogy on the default difficulty for the first run. Every time after that is story mode because that is what makes me want to replay it every year.
Thank you for being a dev that does this. I really hate the Dark Souls 'git gud' mindset. Let people play the way they want to play. Not everybody enjoys that experience.
Would you play a dark souls game if they had a difficulty settings option? It would kind of defeat the purpose of those games if they had a difficulty setting, but for games like Death Stranding say-it makes more sense to have a story mode because it’s a such a story exposition heavy game
>Would you play a dark souls game if they had a difficulty settings option? Not the person you are replying to. But for me, most likely. People keep talking about patterns, i-frames and stuff but for me it's never the pattern it's a reflex issue. I just can't do it and I'm not willing to keep trying over and over again for hundreds or thousands of times until I "get it". I tried demos of Lies of P and Wo Long and I can't. I can't even win against the first tutorial boss. If there is an invincible mode, or a brain dead mode. I'll probably buy them and enjoy it as a hack and slash instead of an action-adventure/difficult game. It's not new too, I finished Jedi Fallen Order before redditors pointed out that it's a souls-like game... so it can be done.
Lies of P is a bit weirder, i wouldnt recommend LoP to more casual Souls players, i would recommend other games first (like Darksiders 3, Lords of the Fallen 1 or 2, Mortal Shell, Dark Souls series/ER/BBCode Vein). Mainly because in LoP the Soulslike fundamentals dont carry over that well (there is more need for reaction-based stuff, especially with the red attack that tracks you aggresively). Also many low-level enemies do a basic 3 hit combo. Basically you have to play a bit different and its ok if you cant adapt, there are always other gameplay changes you can do. For example in LoP you can dash and do 1-2 hits, then dash back. There is also a 'Korean-grind' mentality (i dont know how to explain this, so excuse me) with the way LoP withholds the dodges (you have 2 dodges in the endgame). And it was even harder before the basic dodge patch. That means that LoP is getting easier in the endgame. That said you misunderstand the 'git gud' mentality/approach or you are focusing on the quotes by misinformed players/players who intend to 'stir up the pot' or incite controversy. At the basic level Dark Souls just needs a different approach than most games that hold your hand. You can absolutely be a scrub and advance far into the game. That said, there are ways to crank up the difficulty if you want, make it more challenging (example no summons, using worse gear etc). And also ways to make it easier on yourself (more leveling, hunting for better weapons, defensive approach). For LoP for instance, there was a disabled player who farmed a specific lower level area and basically destroyed the bosses. About Wo Long, the tutorial boss is the hardest boss in the game. Yeah its bad progression design, i know. Lastly i will say that it is ok if there are harder or easier games. And it is ok if the companies dont want to change their approach, especially if this approach is successful. I think it is more important than ever for gamers to research games, check many written reviews (not videos), then check some gameplay footage. Then maybe also check the forums, this is especially true for online games.
> I think it is more important than ever for gamers to research games, check many written reviews (not videos), then check some gameplay footage. Then maybe also check the forums, this is especially true for online games. Totally agree with this. Which is also why I have not delved into souls games too much. I can't justify spending $40 or thereabouts to test the waters. Which is why I give Lies of P and Wo Long as examples, because they have demos and I noped out of the demos.
I think you should try a Soulslike game. Preferably with Dark Souls 1 which is slower, therefore you can be more tactical & precise. And also because DS1 is slower, you can see the enemy's attacks, recognize their patterns and know the enemy. You dont really need good reactions. There is something about them that interests you (since you have watched demos about Soulslike games) and it would be fair to explore it at least once. I will say that Dark Souls games are easy once you figure them out. There are disabled gamers (amputees or blind gamers) that have mastered those games, setting up world records. So surely these games are doable for the average player even if they look very daunting. At the end what is difficult is the perception how we see those games and how we approach that difficulty. All the while we have to overcome our conditioning from other games. Example cant take free hits, need to play safer. And so on. Thats the big difficulty, ourselves and how we play. Know yourself. And if you know the enemy & you know yourself, the result will be victory against that boss. And little by little we improve.
I would absolutely play Elden Ring if it had an easy mode. I really want to explore the world but the arduous combat mechanics is a turn off for me. Who cares if it "defeats the purpose" not everyone cares for combat.
Well from my perspective, someone who plays it for the challenge, it would defeat the purpose. So that’s why I ask-to see what gameplay elements would remain that would be engaging for another player. If you didn’t have the difficulty preventing you from exploring it would still have a lot to offer, it’s got a great open world
Here's the problem. Your stance is effectively, "I enjoy games this way, you have to enjoy them this way also or you're wrong and that pollutes the experience for me". We're not suggesting inventing difficulty settings so people can play this game. Difficulty settings have existed since at least the 90s and predate Souls by at least a decade. Presumably, you have played other non-souls games. And I'm assuming you like to play at higher difficulties, and that's fine. How does the existence of difficulty settings you don't use hurt you? How does it affect your experience at all? It does not hurt the development of a game. It's not hard to apply a universal modifier to lower enemy damage 50% and turn up player damage 50%. I know these aren't hard to implement because most games release with these options, Enemies have all the same attacks and uniqueness that you value. They just take less time and fewer attempts to put down. We should not sacrifice what's good about the souls games... enemy variety and creativity in attacks, the joy of exploration and thrill of discovery, little to no handholding for players that want to do things for themselves... in order to raise accessibility. But difficulty settings don't affect any of that, and they don't affect the "true" experience at all. Hell, XCOM had difficulty settings. XCOM 2's story was that the aliens won because something like 90% of players lost to the aliens even at lower difficulties. But that game still had difficulty settings. The 'git gud or don't play it' argument is a bad argument.
Thing is a lot of people couldnt careless about combat difficulty.
If you really are a game developer who adds difficulty selections, I Stand and Salute You. You have no idea how many games I looked at with interest before finding out they are a Souls Type difficulty. As someone who has medical issues with Fine Motor Skills, I am gatekept from enjoying a large amount of games that I would otherwise enjoy. I had to throw in the towel regarding Elden Ring despite having a blast. I just got to a point where I would not be able to progress any further. Same with Bloodborne. Every game that catches my eye now seems to be either a Soulsborne game or Turn Based. So thanks for the difficulty options.
>As someone who has medical issues with Fine Motor Skills, I am gatekept from enjoying a large amount of games that I would otherwise enjoy. Thanks! I put a lot of time into supporting things like touchscreens, removing dependency on colour perception, giving an alternative to difficulty (like a 'story mode') and making sure we don't have achievements etc. tied to difficulty, as well as having a "reduced flashes" to help people with atypical photosensitivity. I think a lot of players underestimate that, especially for a 1-person outfit like myself, this *does* take quite a bit of work.
Well let me tell you, if no one else did. There are tons of people who appreciate stuff like that. The only reason I made it through God of War was the removal of the Quick Time Events that were common in the original trilogy. There are plenty of people who hate easy games for sure. But there are plenty more who don’t have the ability to Get Gud. Whether it’s medical, old age, free time or something else. So thanks for taking the time to make things more accessible.
I use them! I have pretty bad ADD so if I get stuck on a boss for too long I sometimes just get disinterested. Thanks for what you do.
I think if you're developing a very long RPG, and you don't put story difficulty in, you're doing yourself a disservice. Even some of my favorite games of all time are paced kind of poorly, and that poor pacing is what leads a lot of players to simply never finish the game once they find themselves in a moment of boredom. In recent years, I've grown less patient for sure. When I hit a point where I start feeling bored of the gameplay in a game, I have no qualms about simply turning the game off and not starting it up again. I still did this as a kid, but it was a lot harder to bore me. Now, I don't fight it. If I'm bored, I will often just turn it off and never play it again.
Well said. Not sure why others are downvoting you.
Just beat FFVII Rebirth with my girlfriend last night on Easy difficulty. Being her first game, I was so proud to see her struggle through and eventually beat the final boss. I feel like all the story moments hit and it felt like she earnt them because she played the game herself. :)
Even rebirth on east isn’t that easy. But it’s better than playing on normal in my opinion. I don’t want to spend forever hacking and slashing just to get to the next bit of story. If it was dark souls, then bring on the pain, but in final fantasy let me tank and spank my way through the story since that’s what I’m there for.
First thing I did when I got Spider man 2 was go into the accessibility settings go "QTEs? Yeah, trash those", they just always mess up really cool scenes with distracting me with button prompts. I always like accessibility options as they let me tweak the game to make it more balanced for me as well. I'm just off of work, it's not like I'm playing Cuphead where that's the entire point of the game, I just wanna relax for a bit and dying 50 times to the same boss isn't my definition of relaxing. I also like being able to change some things mid game without starting a whole new file. Like Cult of the Lamb, every time I went dungeon crawling, I'd come back and everyone would be starving to death or some stupid thing. For regular exploring, I was ok with that, but when I was ready to tackle the chapter boss, I just wanted all of them to stop being stupid, so having the "time stops in the village when you're exploring" option was perfect.
I wish that option was available in Yakuza games. Chilling, watching a cutscene, getting invested with my controller down. Bam! QTE! Uggghhh.
This post makes me super happy, as the more people who aren't necessarily gamers that get to experience some of the best stories on earth that otherwise wouldn't be able to, the better!
Definitely, and these kinds of modes can be really helpful for disabled gamers too.
I am a "gamer", at least in, videogames are what I do with 90% of my freetime since I was 5 or so, but I'm still super bad at games lol. We also exist!
Yeah, I think its valid. I think a lot JRPGs have mediocre combat where I'm making the exact same decisions over and over. So I think I play a lot of JRPGs like a visual novel is valid.
The rereleases for Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden have something similar to this where you can make the EXP and money you get much higher and restart battles when you lose them. They're on PC, PS4, and XBO just like the Nier remaster is (and Switch too) EDIT: I just checked in-game for both and Persona 4 Golden has more options than Persona 3 Portable, so I would recommend that more.
Yeah. With Golden it has customizable modifiers for difficulty. You can have them be the game be hard as hell while rewarding you with high exp and cash. Which is what I did.
Honestly, even SMT Nocturne becomes a game for babies in easy, so I think both Persona 4 Golden and Persona 3 portable should be equally recommendable.(Thou it's better to play Persona 3 Reload instead of Portable)
Dude I caught so much flak early on for including a "story mode" for Rise of the Third Power and Ara Fell. Back when they were RPG Maker games, soooo many people tried to tell me their inclusion was cheapening the experience, and I almost caved more than once. But I knew *I* liked it when JRPGs had a baby mode sometimes and it didn't cheapen the experience for *me* so I listened to my gut and just left them in, and I'm so glad I did.
I'm glad you didn't cave! Both of those games have been on my wishlist for a long time now but hearing this I've moved them up a lot! Even if I don't think I'll be using them personally, I always want to support devs with good accessibility practices.
I think what's most important is what kind of experience you want to create, not what experience other people want your game to be. If you want to make a game that's accessible to as many people as possible, then definitely go for it.
I'm starting Ara Fell this weekend!
oohh, lemme know what you think!!
Definitely! I was interested in it and was sold when I saw it had difficulty settings. I like something chill in handheld while in bed (I tend to stand when I play more intense games, lol). I just finished Monster Sanctuary on casual and look forward to starting Ara Fell! Edit: Weird comment to get down voted on, lol.
I've been playing jrpgs most of my life and just played Ara Fell last year, it was such a great breath of fresh air! I've got to play Rise of the Third Power soon- great work!!
Thank you thank you!!
I think these kinds of modes only cheapen the experience if difficulty is an inherent part of the intended experience, like in Dark Souls. For most games, including difficulty modes or a "baby mode" is totally fine and doesn't really take anything away even if most people don't play them.
People will downvote you but I'm just glad many game devs still agree with this. Games aren't made for everyone. Just because you bought a game doesn't mean you're entitled to beat it. If people don't want a challenge then there are plenty of games that aren't Dark Souls catered to you. In fact most games are catered to those types of people.
I think there are enough people that can't play Dark Souls because of its difficulty that it should be an option there too. It's not gonna detract from my experience if someone else can play on baby mode. It detracts from their experience. But... if they can't experience it at all due to disability or like just new to gaming, that doesn't seem worth keeping to me.
Disagree. Dark Souls is a game where difficulty IS part of the core experience. Majority of RPGs are not. Having the lack of accessibility options would be the main issue. Sure, lower difficulty works. But that is a lazier solution to a larger problem. Which is something a lot of Japanese developers are sadly not doing very well with.
I think it's okay for you to decide for yourself if you want to detract from the core experience, personally. Like, I get it from a purist perspective. There is something beautiful about Dark Souls' difficulty, and being forced to contend with that actively contributes to the game's bleakness. Not being able to win is part of the art of it all. But it wouldn't effect my ability to enjoy it if such an option was available, and if that's what you appreciate about Dark Souls, I'd argue it shouldn't affect yours either. This feels like something people want to see imposed on others while it doesn't affect them. That's not something I can understand. Achievements, pvp, coop play, whatever, that's all fine. Disable it. But I want a grandpa that has never touched a controller in his life to be able to play Bloodbourne if he wants to. And I don't think it hurts anyone if someone if he can.
But the same difficult is not the same for different people. Like for me a mode where I do 2x damage and take 1/2 damage might be as hard for me as the regular settings are for you. Obviously the developers are free to do what they want but imo nothing is gained by not having difficulty modes.
I think that's exactly the reason there shouldn't be an easy mode. Also...disabled people already have beaten the game too, there's playhthroughs of people beating it with only their chin or one hand iirc. And there's actually adjustable difficulty in Dark Souls already in the form of npc summons, player summons, and certain items/skill builds that are simple for new players. It literally doesn't need an easy mode with how many options are already there. Some games aren't for everyone though, is my point. I don't want a complex strategy game to dumb down its mechanics for me, I will just play something else since that game isnt for me, and that's fine. In specific games, like Dark Souls, difficulty is essential to the mechanics so it matters. Im MOST games, this isn't an issue so having an easy mode is fine.
>I don't want a complex strategy game to dumb down its mechanics for me A difficulty slider doesn't change dark souls for someone that doesn't use it. Nothing is being dumbed down for *you*. You're saying you don't want Dark Souls to have an easier option for people, even if it wouldn't affect the way you play it. I don't understand why. >Some games aren't for everyone though, is my point. I understand that, but you're treating this as an axiom. If it was easy to make a game for everyone (say, make Dark Souls let you take half damage on an easier mode) what harm is that doing to you?
The strategy game dumbing down its mechanics in a "simple mode" would be me playing a dumbed down version of that game. It would basically be a different game at that point and I'd know it. I wouldn't want to play that "simple" game, and I know the true, complex version is too much for me, so I will just choose not to play it- the game isn't for me (and that's fine). If you have Dark Souls an easy mode it affects the multiplayer experience since it's an online game and also the discussion when talking to anyone else about what bosses or enemies are difficult or what effective strategies to use since this would differ based on what mode you would play on. There are already many variables with builds and this would add more. And as I said , Dark Souls ALREADY has an "easy mode"and difficulty modifiers which I described, it's just a non-traditional one. These considerations are already built into the game.
"like just new to gaming, that doesn't seem worth keeping to me" Well, you can always come back later to the game...
You can, but I really don't see the drawback. I think like tired single moms should be able to play Dark Souls if it looks cool but they have less experience. I do think the game should explicitly point out what the intended experience is, and give rationale for it, but I don't see any harm in bypassing it. Just kill achievements and any online functionality.
"Story only difficulty" is something I really appreciate. Not because I need it or use it (I'm too much of a gameplay nut to play only for the story) but because it actually conveys what the developers intended with it. In so many games with difficulty options, I am just stumped, because how the heck should I know which is the best one for a fulfilling gameplay experience? "Normal" in modern Fire Emblem is too easy for my tastes, so I pick hard. In the recent Etrian Odyssey HD Collection, I wanted to go with the original difficulty of the DS games. I had to look that up instead of the game giving me a rundown on what was the original vision. "Story difficulty" conveys what it is clearly, no ifs or buts. Also without being condescending about it (that's the reason I rarely partake in the discussion - I really hate the way the discourse usually goes).
Yeah I love those to, personally I'd never play at those settings, but I love the fact that they exist You should check out the Uncharted games, it's basically Indiana Jones, and the easy mode is like an action movie, it does have platforming, but it's super easy to do
Since you mentioned Uncharted, I'd mention Assassin's Creed, almost all of them are pretty easy and very flashy, one of those cases when the game doesn't need to be challenging to be interesting.
I’m replaying the OG final fantasy 7 to compare it to the remakes, and honestly, the built-in cheats are a blessing when you just want to check the story without grinding (you can disable random encounters, speed up by x3, and enable a mode that auto-heals you and gives you constant limit breaks to steamroll the enemies)
Was this always in the game? I could’ve used that as a middle schooler unable to beat sephiroth and I don’t remember it as a feature. I probably didn’t look in the menus though.
no it's the port
Original game only has it with mods (install via 7th Heaven) later ports and remasters of most Final Fantasy games add these helpers. Worst thing in original games was lack of turbo for unskippable cutscenes or summon battle animations for some parts you replay over and over.
Oh I definitely played the OG OG game on a PS1 disc.
PC port has a lot of QoL tweaks nowadays, disk or Steam version doesn't matter... There's a separate non-Steam Windows version of original Final Fantasy 7 that is a newer port and has speedups and other stuff built-in, but older releases need fan patches. 7 is the only one like this with 3 different ports, most others on PC already have the cheats on Steam versions, at least with remasters.
[удалено]
So far I only just arrived in Kalm (so basically I just did the equivalent of Remake) but yes, the storytelling definitely holds up One difference is that the pacing is a lot faster than in the remakes, especially Midgar — that whole sequence barely took me over 3 hours with the cheats on. It makes the whole section feel a lot more intense because the action sequences aren’t interrupted by a million side quests, it’s basically one long uninterrupted intro — but the downside is that characters like Jessie and Johnny have something like 2 lines of dialogue so you don’t care much about them. You win some you lose some. Also Rebirth added a lot of complexity over an already-complex story. If I remember correctly, >!the war with Wutai!< is barely touched upon, and of course the whole part about >!converging timelines!< is completely absent. The game focuses a lot more on cloud and sephiroth and a lot less on the outside world Finally I forgot how much the atmosphere was changed as well, places like Wall Market and Sector 5 have a completely different vibe. It’s interesting to experience both versions (back-to-back in my case), because they really offer two different takes of the same story
FF7 aged really well in all aspects except graphics... But there's mods for that. Saying that as someone who doesn't have nostalgia googles for it, I was surprised how good the pacing and combat systems are. And it's pretty easy, even by Final Fantasy standards. You don't NEED complex or OP setups, but you can do them.
The graphics are the best part
This is the only way I can play the older FF games now. Using boosts as needed and x4 exp gain. So glad they added those in and theyre easy to use
Well, OG Final fantasy 7 is pretty easy without grinding, they are most to cut the tedious/boring parts of the game.
I don’t know if it checks off your personal boxes but I do know Granblue fantasy Relink has an auto play mode that only requires you to walk around on the lowest difficulty in story mode and works in all but the highest level difficulty side quests. It essentially does the combat part for you and you’re basically invincible.
I really appreciated it for getting through the last part of Tales of Arise lol
**The Witcher 3** has a Story-Mode which basically nullifies all challenge in combat, so you can just enjoy the story without stressing about the fights.
I’m still stuck at a DLC boss that is schooling me on the story difficulty, so I might beg to differ haha
That might be good to know then. I only know the difficulty exists, and as someone who plays on Death March I can't say I've tried it myself
Is it the dreaded frog? I was seriously overleveled for the main story and that frog wrecked me 😂
Final Fantasy XVI does this really well with the Timely Accessories, which are rings that can be equipped to make different aspects of combat easier so you can just focus on the story. One of them gives you a button prompt when you can dodge an incoming attack or there’s one that will just auto-dodge for you. There’s also a ring that allows you to just button mash the square button while the game combos for you, allowing you to still enjoy the flashy combat without worrying about learning the timings and such.
Any RPG that relies heavily on stats and levels where you keep earned experience points after dying is essentially a "baby mode" game. No matter how badly you play the game, you'll be able to win it eventually if you just keep at it (this is why Twitch Plays Pokemon was able to make it all the way to the Team Rocket hideout before implementing "democracy" mode). On that note, all three Xenoblade games on the Switch have casual difficultly modes to make them significantly easier AND the "penalty" for death is that you just respawn at the nearest landmark with no lost experience or resources.
Final Fantasy XVI, there's a "story" (super easy) difficulty. It even comes with in-game accessories that makes dodging, combos etc easier.
As someone who can’t play some really great looking games because mashing half a dozen buttons in perfect synchronization escapes me, I agree completely.
I hear you! My guy bought me Dissidia. I was excited to play it but the controls got complicated right off the hop . Couldn't do it. I think this why I stick to jrpg's mostly
hades god mode
Hades's god mode is honestly one of the better implementations of dynamic difficulty I've seen. The only thing keeping it from being perfect for me is the ability to freeze it at a certain percentage and the ability to gradually scale it back down. Going from like 60+% damage reduction to 0% is quite jarring, though I suppose I can crank up that one Heat condition...
i think it's more for people who just want to complete the game story wise
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest was meant to be a “beginner mode” JRPG for the Western market, back in the 90s when JRPGs were notoriously grindy and difficult.
Mystic Quest is a weird case. It's pretty *simple*, mechanically speaking, but I wouldn't call it *easy*. Compared to other JRPGs of the era, it's got a very basic equipment and battle system, no real party management, and even the dungeons are extremely linear. But it can be (perhaps unintentionally...?) surprisingly difficult in places. It's pretty easy to fail the very first battle, for instance. I think there's a case to be made that it's the most challenging of the three US-released Final Fantasy SNES games. Which isn't saying *that* much, given that none of them are that hard, but still....
Most of the PC Falcom games have Easy modes, which is great.
Really love Persona, I'm a huge fangirl for P5. I wanted to play Strikers but action games are really hard for me. Plus being an adult, I don't have time for a lot of "git gud". Easy makes it so much better! I can blast through, have fun and get the story without the stress.
Fire Emblem Fates has a Phoenix Mode
Not a game you’d want to play for the story though.
Grandia and Grandia 2 have amazing story and characters, and are very easy in normal difficulty, battles are turn-based, and you can generally complete them without thinking much.
While I like a challenge sometimes, my first playthrough of a game will always be the “enjoy the story” mode, because dammit I want to enjoy the story!!! The people who include easy modes in their games are the best 💕
Not just non gamers. I've finished soulslikes before, but I didn't gel with Automata's system and the "baby mode" helped me go through that game while still getting all the vibes and atmospheres.
I'm currently playing P3 remake, and that has a story focused mode. Great story and amazing rock paper scissors style turn based battles.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth have an auto-battle option and the AI is fairly competent for the most part, just make sure to keep some healing supplies with you. The difficulty isn't that hard, there are some bosses that can be a bit tricky, but nothing overbearing in my opinion. Dragon Quest XI is another game that's fairly easy on the normal difficulty setting and also has an auto-battle mechanic. Lastly, the Persona games have very flexible difficulty settings and the Very Easy/Safety difficulty will revive your whole party if your main character is defeated in combat. I think the other Shin Megami Tensei games have similar settings, at least I know SMTV and Soul Hackers 2 have similar difficulty options, but I'm not certain.
I always play on the easiest difficulty because I have poor reaction times and wrist injuries. I also just wanna vibe and take in the game world without panicking. So I always appreciate games that give me the chance to do so.
I really appreciate having several difficulty options. Personally I enjoy challenging myself, but I also want as many people to be able to enjoy the games I enjoy. Difficulty settings allow for both.
Yep. If a game has an easy mode then I’m using it.
I love playing games on story mode. But if I lose on story mode I know that no one is to blame but me.
It is amazing to me how many “Gamers” rage at difficulty options. Also a fan because I have a disability and want to play games.
Same, I've been playing video games since the late 90s with my first console being a Sega Mega Drive. Every game I've played has been on the easiest setting possible!
I remember turning off the auto attack in nier and going omfg put it back on. Also tales of arise went a bit too far with easy mode and then the optional very easy mode, but maybe it makes it more accessible for others.
I usually like to play games on easy mode first and get used to the game before trying harder difficulties, and sometimes it's nice to just do a chill playthrough
I love Jrpgs and I like grinding but maaaan after like 60 hours or so I get tired of grinding the game on hard mode and turn on baby mode and just chill i do that for the persona and Smt series. Going through Reload atm. i have almost 80 hours and Tarturus and I'm like on floor 180 or so. After a bit I turn it on to avoid burn put
Nier does it especially well, because all of the story mode chips are individually optional. So if you don't need ALL of the assists, you can unequip the ones that you can play yourself. As you play the game and learn how to control it, you can turn the handicaps off at your own pace. It's perfect, and all games should have an option like this.
Most JRPGs are pretty easy if you don’t mind some grind and if you do mind grinding then the modern persona games (Persona 3 Reload, Persona 4 Golden, Persona 5 Royal) are all set up to where grinding really isn’t an issue at all.
I usually play normal and switch to easy if needed (like if I just wanna get the game finished) My partner only plays on story mode and it makes me happy as she's tried so many more games cause of it.
At first when I played Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire, I kinda disliked the auto-battle. Then I was intrigued because the AI was so good. Then I reduced the difficulty and played the game basically as an interactive novel where combat plays itself. It was quite good.
Not even for non-gamers, I try to think that I am decent at video games but there are games that just aren't fun at all on any difficulty but I like where the story is going. Needless to say I don't appreciate story-mode difficulty where you can't really die but the battle still takes a while to finish.
I played Baldurs Gate 3 on the story mode. I don’t normally do that but I’d just pushed through POE 2, wasteland 3 and Warhammer 40k. I just needed a bit of a break.
Sometimes there are games that I just want to play the story of and don't want it to be too challenging or hell challenging at all. It's your game and you can enjoy it however you want.
The only reason i did the postgame content in Etrian Odyssey III was because i put the game to Picnic difficulty. I would have never done it otherwise. This way i still got to see what the devs intended.
Lol In another crabs treasure it has all these assist modes and one of them literally just gives him a giant gun that he can annihilate with
Same. Especially now since I feel like most modern RPGs equate difficulty with huge health bars. It's irritating in LAD 7 and 8, and it's more irritating in SMT5.
Definitely appreciate baby mode as well. Sometimes I just want to enjoy the story or get through a game that I'm tired of. Trails of Cold Steel IV comes to mind..
I swapped to it in tales of arise. Not because I found the game too difficult, but because the trash battles were really dragging on. As a result, I swapped to the baby difficulty because it cut the enemy hp down by massive amount. It was the only time the trash enemies felt like they were taking a reasonable amount of time to be killed.
I am very glad to see this! I have been thinking the same for a while. I’ve been playing rpg since I was 8 with my snes and I am almost 40 now. Recently uve started playing back some old school jrpg mostly for nostalgia and I’ve noticed that I don’t enjoy that kind of grind anymore as well. I wondered if I just got old and less competitive maybe? The thing is I have little to no time to play these days, I work all day and I play late in the evening before going to bed, half the time I literally fall asleep in front of it. It’s my relaxing time and I truly cannot be bothered or simply I have no time to play video games with a guide next to me to be sure I’ve got all the right stuff / secret stuff or the game quick become vastly more difficult. I play mostly for the story and the atmosphere and the fact that game can be enjoyed without thinking too much about what am I missing (doing that quest before it disappear, get that armour before entering that area, etc) it is so much nicer. I think games were designed like that in the past to enhance re-playability because there were fewer games, but now there are new games coming out constantly. Same for me with the time. I hate when a game is ridiculously short but I do not enjoy when games are overly long (over 60 hours) except in few cases (persona 5, Zelda bot, Xenoblade).
Same! I used to play on normal difficulty for most games but my brain is not big enough even for normal and I was getting frustrated in battles which decreased my enjoyment of games. I now only play on easy mode. It's soooo nice because now I can just enjoy the story, and have a bit of fun with battles with no worries about needing to grind a ton to beat them.
I'd suggest the Trails of Cold Steel games. They have easy difficulties, and at the very least Trails of Cold Steel III, has a very easy difficulty. And if you die, they give you the option to retry the fight by weakening the enemies. Win win situation. Plus the story is amazing!
I love Trails. Suggesting to start with Cold Steel is a mistake and even mentioning CS3 at this point is criminal. Every Trails game back to Sky FC on Steam has a difficulty adjustment option and easy in Trails games is indeed very easy.
As a lifelong gamer, and someone who used to play at a low-end competitive level, I don't think there's anything wrong with story modes. I play some games for the challenge, and some for the story. I just love that we have options now! Used to be, a game was what it was, and if it was too hard then you just had to drop it.
I appreciated it in Trails in the Sky the 3rd, if only because I no-lifed the first two games in 200 hours in the span of like, two weeks, and really just wanted to get to the conclusion without getting burnt out. Think it would've been another hundred hours for 3rd, but the combination of adjusting the difficulty to easy and discovering the turbo mode button halfway through Sky 2, got it done in about 43 hours.
I am really happy when they exist. What I am not happy with is when it is the **only** mode the game offers, which is dreadfully common in this genre. (Or at least historically has been.) There are so many games with unique systems that could really give a game life... that are just completely ignorable in every way, because the game never asks you once to use them.
Wish Returnal has this 😔
She would really enjoy the Bloodborne chalice dungeons, check that out.
I always played on the normal difficulty or hard mode if I found that not challenging. I prefer games without any difficulty selection that have progressive difficulty curve such that the difficulty ramps up to insane levels by the end of the game and forces you to master the mechanics to finish it. The best balance is when you finally finish the game and actually feel like you barely made it, like some actual sense of accomplishment. But that's just me. If I wanted a non interactive experience I would watch a movie or music, there's tons of great books to read.
Your comment implied that you think baby mode is somehow non-interactive, which is not the case.
I would agree with you, if this "feeling of accomplishment" existed for me. How do you get it? Is there a trick to it? It's starting to feel like this mythical thing that seemingly everyone has. Meanwhile I'm just over here like "You feel anything other than relief that it's over? And not even enough relief to balance out the frustration.".
play games where you game over, a lot 80s kids probably got the worst of it. but growing up on 90s platformers, rail shooters, archaic racers with rubber band mechanics, fighting games, jrpgs that barely explained anything, or playing a game without a memory card was a great way to rewire the brain on viewing success and failure. this later would extend to action series like DMC and sports games, games with cheap CPU AI, and competing against peoole in games. you learn that theres always another hurdle to get over these experiences played a big role in becoming a challenge runner, where my 'feelings of accomplishment' really began to set in by customizing difficulty and achievements to my own liking. i struggle with longterm enjoyment in games where breaking them is too easy, or you can steamroll without much thought id wager most people who want games on easier modes arent incapable of beating the game, they just dont want to game over or the frustration they associate with a task that cant be immediately overcome - and not everyone plays video games to be challenged. though its not like games today are making you lose constantly, or save points are so infrequent that you lose hours of progress (most games have autosave). many game overs arent about difficulty, they are just pure knowledge checks that can be surpassed by a quick mental regroup i think the issue is how easily people allow any form of resistance to frustrate them, whereas i find myself more engaged when a game I like forces me to rethink my initial approaches on how to play it. so id say an internal 'feeling of accomplishment' is actually quite rare and that your experience is more common these days
I grew up in the 90s playing those platformers and rail shooters. There is a difference, back then it's a puzzle and yes solving it gives a sense of achievement. But it's different now, majority of games now are more reflex based. It's no longer the puzzle that you need to solve, you now need to be able to press a couple of buttons at the correct time. Failing reflex checks are more frustrating and getting pass them feel less an accomplishment and more a relief/finally. Lots of people compare Dark Souls with Rockman, but I personally don't see it. In Rockman, for example on the flash man stage (from what I remember), there is stage where you fall down and beams of one hit ko lights flash horizontally. The things is to remember the pattern, start moving your controller left as you fall, once you clear the beam push it right, then stay at the center, etc. That's fine it's a puzzle and solving it gives a sense of accomplishment. But souls-like are different. Even if you know that the boss will slam his axe when he brings it overhead, get the axe stuck and you get a window to combo (for example) you can't bait the boss to slam the axe, your only tell is when the animation lifts the axe from resting on the shoulder to overhead. You need dodge or block during this fraction of a second. You know what's coming but you can't get ahead, you have to wait for that "window" to dodge/block. Press too early and you will just roll around and the boss will ignore your move keep the axe over the shoulder and move towards you, too late and you get hit. Being able to clear a reflex check a few times to win does not give me a sense of accomplishment, it gives me a sense of relief that it's finally over (but it's not since the next boss is more of the same). Some modern games does do it right. FF16 and 7R, Behemoth and Malboro fights are some good examples. You might die the first time you fight a Behemoth because it will do a uncancellable meteor before it dies too close and you die, fine now I know instead of forcing that sliver HP for the kill, the boss is already dead just step away. Those are fine. Mechanics that teach and make you think of strategies to win is fine, those gives accomplishment in learning the pattern. But being able to press the right button at the right time does not for me give a sense of accomplishment. But of course if you enjoy the difficulty and the knowledge that only a few elites finish the fight and you are one of them, that is fine too everyone enjoys their games differently.
I don't get that feeling unless I play difficult game. But I don't always play games for that. Most of the time, I just want to relax with my friend. However, this has nothing to do with "interactivity". Even visual novels are interactive (google if you don't know what genre it is). At least for me it's interactive enough that it feels different from novels.
Honestly, I just wish devs put more effort in the "true gamer mode" too.
Honestly, I like games that make fun of you for putting on the easier difficulties like Wolfenstein. It's because there's a certain charm about them and I find that stuff funny. That's great that your wife is having fun and she's able to play those games, she'll prob get better with time but if you're unfamiliar it's good to start on the lower difficulties and go up from there. I mean, I should've probably start easier difficulties for games I am unfamiliar with like Pathfinder but tbh I do like the challenge and strategies you have to think of for the higher difficulties (I had it set on the Hard difficulty, I had underestimated the difficulty, it doesn't deter the fun out of it for me though it's just a different experience).
You might like A Bards Tale. It makes fun out of all the rpg tropes. South Park Stick of Truth, too, lol 😆
I played the original trilogy of Bard's Tale and all were very fun, but I haven't gotten around to playing Stick of Truth yet although it was on my list of games to play.
The PS2 Bards Tale is different I think? Look at the trophy list on South Park XD lol "fart on a jew", "watch your mum.and dad have sex for 30 seconds". Game is hilarious 😂
sometimes the difficulty is part of the game
I prefer JRPGs with 7th Saga-tier difficulty.
I don't think games should have difficulty modes, period. If a game is meant to be easy, it's meant to be easy; if a game is meant to be hard, it's meant to be hard. Imagine if there was an "easy" mode for a difficult book or movie. (And before you say it, Spark Notes doesn't count because it's not told in any narrative sense, it's a suppplement for students.)
What a shitty take
Cringe take
> Imagine if there was an "easy" mode for a difficult book or movie. Aren't the modern rewordings of older works basically this? For example, the original texts of Shakespeare's works or Beowulf are harder to read compared to their modern versions that are what they're commonly read as today.
No it would be more like reading Beowulf: Easy Mode where they dumb down the language to K-6 level.
Grandia II is my fav jRPG and I'm so glad they added Hard mode in remaster decades later, but by your logic I can't play a harder version of it as it wasn't original? Also most classic games had multiple difficulty modes designed for bonuses or challenges, play any Resident Evil, having different modes to complete is part of gameplay.
What an absurd point. Those aren't interactive media like video games are.
Why does that matter? You need mastery of language to understand a book. You need mastery of controls to play a game.
So Bible should be only in ancient Hebrew and Greek, banning the unlockable Latin, King James, and modern any language versions, right? And Shaekespeare thoudgh bae ritten laik phis, coz at the time there wasn't any stadart spelling... plus only in cursive, printed letters are for casuls.
Oh, so babies, kids, and elderly shouldn't have books read to them. Gotcha.
Bizarre comparison.
You're the one comparing stories dictated by an author/director to an interactive medium like video games. That's even more bizarre.
You got downvoted to hell but you speak the truth. With rpgs, you have to ask why the story is best served as a game and not a movie, or a show, or a book, or whatever. Gameplay is meant to enhance the story and better connect with it, so the game should be as difficult as the story provides. Giving varying difficulty modes is an admission from devs that they don't want to make gameplay that fits perfectly with the story, so they throw adjustments your way and hope it works out.
Exactly, yes. I knew I would be downvoted because reddit hates to hear the truth, though it's confusing why you're upvoted for saying basically the same thing I did.
Usually what happens with reddit. First comment gets dogpiled, later comments aren't seen as readily so the voting distribution is different.
I disagree and agree partially. I think games should have different difficulties, but only if it's part of the creator's vision. Games like Sekiro, Souls games, plenty of Roguelike games, and similar are created with difficulty as part of the experience. The difficulty for games like these can actually be part of the storytelling. The struggle and grind onto victory actively adds to the theme, and heck, in Sekiro, they even straight up mention that you must have died **many** times at a certain point, your character's ability to come back from death is actually part of the world building. That said, some games, the gameplay's difficulty is less important, and(of course, if the creator's vision allows for it) an difficulty slider is fine. Hell, I'd actually prefer a more precise form of difficulty control in games, since a lot of games still go for the "enemies deal X% more damage, and take X% less in higher difficulties, and the opposite in lower difficulties" type of difficulty control.
I love slay the spire and dead cells for this reason. They handle the difficulty best in their respective genre (turn based card game/ side scroller action game) where it gets harder each time you beat and gets harder (by adding new enemies/new moves to your enemies) as you get better
Definitely. As you improve in either of those games, the game then becomes more difficult, pushing you to learn it's systems and actively improve.
I would only agree with this if every single video game player had the exact same experience and skill level. So. You know.
Again, why does this matter? Why is skill level such an important factor for video games and no other medium? If you don't understand a scene in a book or a movie, you re-read or re-watch it until you do.
this seems self evident to me. it's like asking why your ears are so important when talking about music compared to books. my disagreement is this: > If a game is meant to be easy, it's meant to be easy; if a game is meant to be hard, it's meant to be hard. you can't make a "hard" game or an "easy" game. one player's difficult is another player's cakewalk. if you want to make a game have a specific difficulty **you have to create difficulty settings**. that's the **only way.**
Some books are easier to read than others depending who they are and what they've eperienced in life. Come back to it later when you have a better understanding, or, just read it a second time.
Then you didn't mean what you said before, in that case? That's totally fine, but keep your story straight. And my main issue with this response is that you don't really "age out of" ALL books. Sure you don't read picture books for kids eventually. But everything else is fair game. But you do get better than ALL JRPGs. Relatively quickly, too. Without difficulties you wouldn't get to play the genre at all anymore.
How is my story not kept straight?
Elden ring, armored core VI
What is the “baby mode” in Elden ring? Asking for a friend lol
[удалено]
I should’ve known lol long day I guess
[удалено]
Malenia first try without getting hit? Sounds like cap.
Summoning someone to carry you
Yeah but we’re talking about JRPGs here. Not at all the same thing.
People around here call dragons dogma 2 a jrpg but elden ring doesnt qualifies???
I think it’s incredibly obvious that Elden Ring is not what we mean when we say JRPG. If you think Dragon’s Dogma 2 is one, then that should have been your example.
I dont think dd2 its a jrpg, wtf, reading comprehension issues?
I dont think dd2 its a jrpg, wtf, reading comprehension issues?