Here's another thought: Difficulty is actually a narrative device, too. Think about it: most games are about characters overcoming mortal peril. If they do that without the player actually feeling endangered (or being willfully belligerent) then you have narrative dissonance between what the characters are experiencing and what the player is experiencing.
100%. And nothing illustrates this point like Sekiro. Where the difficulty IS the story. And you trying over and over again to beat a boss ties in with themes of stagnation a d forces you to adapt and change your ways if you want to make progress or else everyone will die of dragonrot. It's not really about bragging rights when you beat the game. It's not really even about beating the game. It's about mastering it. The difficulty itself is the medium and the message and I can't believe how many people are just thoughtless enough to miss this.
@@joefission7179 I think allowing this instead of making every game in existence permadeath is just a nice concession to make if we're wanting anyone to enjoy video games. And you know? There are games out there that actually DO impact the story if you fail too much, the most recent example being Sekiro.
That's a nice idea, but it doesn't work in practice because difficulty is completely subjective. You can make only so-called hardcore gamers your target audience, of course, but those are a tiny minority so I'm sure most publishers wouldn't. Some people would have the same experience with an easy mode as you do with the standard difficulty and if they never get to part where they overcome the challenge then the narrative doesn't really work for them. Similarly, if you're a good enough player that the standard difficulty is easy for you then the narrative doesn't work either, because there is no progression in terms of skill. In both of those cases players would benefit from the ability to scale some of the stats (e.g. health, stamina and damage output for Dark Souls) to their need (in both directions!) so that everyone can play the game at the same relative difficulty. And if the UI is well designed (example: Celeste) then nobody will get confused about the intended way to play the game either.
You know i found out something funny about Cuphead: - A story about two brothers? Check. - One's red and the other is blue? Check. - They fight a demon? Check. - The red one likes gambling? Check. - Fantastic soundtrack? Check. - Difficult? Check. Hmmmmm
truly i wished he returned in the current timeline of the lore he was the only villain who threaten both Dante and the player and someone who Dante couldn't just plow through like every other villain besides Mundus
+Tony Infinite with the announcement of Devil May Cry 5 we might just get that wish. I have a feeling Vergil will return and I'm pretty positive I spotted him in the trailer. He's gotta be the one who rips Nero's arm off
Multi Tails Power I immediately tried to think of a better one but it's impossible, outside of *maybe* MGR no boss fight has done for me what Vergil did
HAHA DARK SOULS THIS DARK SOULS THAT Are SPROUTS the dark souls of food? Is WHISKEY the dark souls of drinking? Is having SEX the dark souls of daily life? Because dark souls is SO HARD guys haha everyone can relate!
There needs to be a game where there is an easy mode called "game journalist" where you can't die, you can only walk, and no enemies ever spawn. But also you can never leave the tutorial.
I enjoyed this particular articulation of my own thoughts greatly: "If you could just pick any chapter in DMC 3 the second you booted it up that would kind of ruin the impact of that moment of triumph *even for the people who wouldn't ever use such a function.* The feeling that playing and succeeding is the only way to be here in this fight is the glue that holds masterpiece moments like this together."
I know right? I've tried (poorly) articulating my thoughts on this subject and folks keep insisting my perspective is silly, that if a game offers infinite continues, or an alternate route that bypasses challenging area, then I can "just ignore them".
It isn't even the idea that boss battles should be skippable that pisses me off, it's how they act like anyone who disagrees with them is an elitist and how they treat difficulty, their own inability to play the damn game, like flaw.
I think it's pretty annoying that this whole skip bosses story is a thing because that guy just hates boss fights. Where's my option to have _more_, _better_ boss fights? I spent the whole of last generation wondering where the boss fights went outside of Japanese games, they're not this major thing anymore.
BROOOOOOOO I USED TO BE SO HYPED WHENEVER A BOSS FIGHT HAPPENED. Now they all just died off in American games. And I mean a GOOD boss fight too. One with proper build up and anticipation. Don't gimme that pansy bullet sponge shit.
Here the thing, the reason why Vergil is such a memorable villain is largely because he kicks your everloving ass in. If Vergil had everything else about him intact, but his boss fights where complete cake walks, or Devil May Cry 3 was one of the easiest action games to beat, no one would care about this schmuck. But because he was a badass in the story portions and a completely BITCH to fight in game, and that his fights are without a doubt the hardest parts of DMC3, cemented him as one of the greatest video game villain ever created. To ignore the importance that gameplay or boss fights have on a game's story is ludicrous. PS: I hate it when video games go "Would you like to decrease the game's difficulty?"
TheCrescentKnight Ninja Gaiden apparently actively makes fun of you for going down to easy, I wouldn’t know though because it saw the prompt for easy mode as an insult, which it is.
@@Comkill117 Correct Ninja Dog mode. Ayane makes fun of you in a cutscene then the game takes you back to last save point. She then will sometimes give special healing items when you die or from a kunai message.
It's videos like this that show me how far I still have yet to go as a creator, because I was writing a script that has a lot of the same ideas, but less fleshed out and more clunky in its delivery than what you managed to do here. Fantastic video, and thanks for being a goal to strive towards.
I feel the same way. I have wanted to do content creation for years. But everytime I finish a video. I see videos like this and realize just how far I have to go before I can even get started.
ToasterNinja You never know what you can do until you try. Keep putting out good content and you can improve over time, taking feedback and constructive criticism to keep improving. You never know when you'll get a shot of inspiration that gets you to put out something better than you usually manage. Especially if you don't try. Treat failure like a learning experience. I've only done a bit on youtube but I write about games and anime daily (like 10k word essays) and I only get better as I see other perspectives which help me seperate my subjective views from objective facts.
You can make a game as hard as you want, it just has to be fun. Games like the original MegaMan and Castlevania can be difficult but they're satisfying to play and that's what keeps you coming back. Cuphead is the same way. It can be hard but the satisfying gameplay, animations and art are what make you want to keep going on. Whining about difficulty in a hard game just shows these people don't care about playing games, they just want to finish it and mark it off their list.
Eric Bishton I don't think the guy ever said only brutally punishing games are fun. A game doesn't doesn't have to be brutal feel satisfactory. If you don't like overcoming challenges is games then I'm curious to know what you play games for.
No, a great majority of the early Megaman games are flat out cheap. There are multiple points in the end of the game where if you enter the last phases of the game without a certain amount of items, you are fucked. Guaranteed. Castlevania is good series though.
Eric Bishton I'm so tired of this argument. Many people like challenge. Just because you don't doesn't mean other people do it because they're lowlifes that want to brag about being a hardcore gaming. The AAA culture is raising gamers that can't accept challenge or deaths.
I tend to agree with your point. Although you have to admit that certain parts of the megaman games, especially the early ones did had some cheap shit. Like the wall boss where you need to do it in a specific order, or airman RNG (aka very precision based jumping that not everyone can do even with practice) But considering the other nes games that came out, megaman is the one that managed to set a standard on fair difficulty overrall.
I liked how Spider-Man for PS1 handled it. Easy Normal Hard Kid Mode! Its a comic book game and they want an option for the little children that will get the game from their parents or relatives with their own special mode made just for them and lets them enjoy the game. But today that option would get derided for being insulting, abelist, and elitist and by the end of the week some one has to delete their twitter account.
L N I am making a RPG Maker game, and I used to call the easiest difficulty setting Beta Mode, but now I am actually going to add an easier, Game Journalist Mode. I don't know why I haven't thought of this sooner, it's perfect! I'll probably keep it locked unless the player chooses game journalist-like dialogue choices.
DO IT! Lately, I've seen more and more people discussing this as something that SHOULD happen, but no one with the power to do so. You may be the first I've seen who actually can. Try and stay ahead of the game while you still can!
There is nothing wrong with not liking challenging games but i dont like how these people tell game devs to design games based off their wants, variety allows everyone to have games they like, if all we had was walking sims then video games only become more exclusive as they only will appeal to people who like walking sims
The reason why I enjoy difficult games for the most part is because it brings the depth in the game and forces the player to really learn the mechanics and master them. However being difficult does not make it good, difficulty is just the best way a game can properly showcase it's complexity to judge wether or not the game is any good and has dept. Also games don't need to be difficult to enjoyable. The Kirby series would be a good example.
Residue101 precisely! Harsh difficulty doesn't do a lot by itself but when combined with interesting game mechanics it's a great way of getting the player to use all the tools at their disposal due to them now *needing* them to continue the experience, rather than scrape through with minimal effort
I also do tend to enjoy difficult games, as you've said it forces you to learn the mechanics and also gives the satisfaction of overcoming said challenge with mastery. Though as you've also said diffioculty doesn't mean that something is good, like some of the old nes games with very cheap difficulty that aren't cult classics and maybe i wanna be the guy, because it's trial and error instead of being able to predicty the obstacles.
+assholemon IWBTG is actually very well designed, the traps included. It wouldn't have inspired so many fangames otherwise. I Wanna Be The Fangame specifically is one of my favorite games right now lol :P
I second that. I don't like 'hard' games to feel elite, nor do I like them BECAUSE they are hard, but because the difficulty brings out the nuance of the game, making it more engaging to play on a moment-to-moment basis. For people who don't play higher difficulty levels (even if you have to replay the game several times to get good enough to do so), you simply can't have a complex grasp on the game. That's why it makes me laugh when I see critics dismiss difficult games whilst trying to maintain complexity in their critiques: you CAN'T because you've never been pushed to TRULY understand the game and what it has to offer.
"Games should let you skip through them like movies." Oh sure, who needs the previous eight innings in baseball anyway? Just let me play the ninth one. That'll give me the full experience, right? Or hell, on the flip side, Alfred Hitchcock forbid anyone from entering the theater for Psycho once the film started playing. Hitchcock knew that if you missed out on something by coming in late, your experience was ruined.
Lozicle C. "Games should let you skip through them like movies" Translation: Games should let ME skip them to write the review where I say "blablabla,it's beautiful, blablabla, nice ost, blablabla 8/10" and get the salary without effort, because I have a huge ego.
Devil May Cry is actually the right way to do an easy mode. It doesn't remove the challenge, and past the first one doesn't even remove the annoying enemies. All it does is take the edge off, allowing those who aren't as able as your average person to face it without feeling hadicapped. I actually think DMC3 does it the best, you only get easy mode if you prove you're bad.
Yep, no lie. RU-vid isn't lacking for videogame critics, but besides just the content you also perform it in a way that's fun to watch, and that's a rarity.
He starts out with a strawman followed by a false equivalency than an appeal to emotion while begging a question. Five minuites and four logical fallacies in I decided to stop watching.
To enjoy a good book you gotta learn how to read and if you don't know what a word means, you look it up, to enjoy a good movie you gotta pay attention, to enjoy a game you gotta play it and understand its mechanics and learn by trial and error. If you don't want that then you are in the wrong medium
Worst part is that they didn’t add the spores so it feels like despite it being in the setting it wants they still feel the need to change what would’ve been really cool.
Gamers a few years ago: “I paid good money for Mass Effect 3, I should at least get a decent ending...” Game Journalists then: “Such entitled fanboys...” Game Journalists today: “I paid no money for Dark Souls 3, I should at least get to the ending...” Gamers today: “wat”
Adolf Hitler nobody has ever taken them seriously. less than a third of their readers actually take their advice on games and less than a quarter of gamers even read game journalists.
This was a really good response to this dumb shit that seems to come up every couple of years. You articulated my thoughts on this better than I ever could. Thanks Britman
As somebody who has coordination problems, while I do mainly play games where the challenge doesn't come from twitch reflexes or pinpoint accuracy (should I mention how I can't beat most shooters because of it), I have found myself enjoying the challenge of a well made action game that doesn't require me to mash buttons (hello Devil May Cry, your variation-focused combat actually helped here). At the same time I never start a Shin Megami Tensei game at anything less than normal difficulty, because to me the challenge of entering a new area and trying to survive the normal enemies until you've learnt all the weaknesses is a core part of the game. Sure, these days I can breeze through Persona 3 and 4 because I remember what half the enemies are weak to and the tricks in the boss battles, but only because I spent over a hundred hours learning this and getting used to the battle system. Then I got to the final boss and had a grueling two hour fight that tested my ability to juggle dealing damage and restoring hp before finally going down on my fifth or sixth attempt, and the golden ending felt like it was earned.
what really gets to me is people calling Cuphead the Dark Souls of 2D platformers, when there already is one (Salt & Sanctuary), when its basiaclly more of a call back to games like Contra or Gunstar Heroes. It's like when everyone called Dragon's Dogma just Elder Scrolls, or other MMOs are just WoW clones.
Oh most people say that as a meme now because every single journalist used to (and probably still) say that. I once saw a guy comparing overwatch to DS
Remember when Crash N-Sane Trilogy came out and people were calling that Dark Souls? How to tell someone is a talentless hack: they compare literally anything to Dark Souls.
Whenever I boot up Dmc3 I almost always start with mission 20 on DMD. But that's because I've beaten the core game so many times I could practically play it blindfolded...
To me, adding an easy mode or an option to skip bosses in difficult games would be like if movies constantly explained what was happening and told you exactly what everything represented and what the themes and symbols were.
Eventually it'll become too hard for them and they'll ask for a summary function. Just tell me the plot in one phrase so I don't have the hassle of actually using my brain.
I hate the "but its optional" argument because the person making that argument is saying that games are simply reduced to the specific actions that you do and not the deeply woven interaction of mechanics that forms the art of the games. Having "the option" to skip to any part and gain any powerup only really means that everything that you do is inconsequential. Beating level 4 no longer unlocks level 5 because level 5 is unlocked from the start. At that point even opting out of using these free passes essentially is all just a facade that you pretend exists but you know it doesn't. Fantastic video!
Easy. Balance the core mechanics for whatever your core audience is. Tweak some numbers to make easy mode laughably easy. You don't expect all your mechanics to be utalized by players playing it anyways.
No, the person making the "it's optional" argument is saying that it's optional and you don't have to use it if you want the challenge, meaning it has no bearing on how you play the game, so shut the fuck up and quit being such an elitist prick. Having an easy mode in Mega Man 10 didn't take anything away from me because easy mode is optional, and I opted not to use it. I just played on the regular difficulty mode and my experience was not harmed in any way. Imagine that! If something is optional, you don't have to use it! Wow! Life is amazing when you use the correct definitions of words instead of spewing elitist bullshit!
There's a thing in psychology called "the flow", it explains why challenging games can be more engaging than easy games (in relation to your skill level of course).
There was actually a game I played called "The dishwasher: vampire smile." If you die enough times in the game,it unlocks a special difficulty called "pretty princess." You also get an achievement called: "The game reviewers shall be pleased' (Or something along those lines.)
And for the whole "I just wanna see the story" argument: Wouldn't it really cheapen the story if your characters just had a magic button that let them skip all danger at any point? Wouldn't that just remove all tension from everything? I think people should stop acting like gameplay and story are these completely seperate elements that have nothing to do with each other. Another thing that I just don't get is why one would spend so much time and money on games if they just do that for things you can really get alot cheaper with other artforms.
I've had a lot of people tell me it's just a problem of strength of will that I can't enjoy self-imposed restrctions, but I'm pretty sure the catharsis in overcoming an obstacle truly is dependent on the path to progression truly being blocked off, and not having that just be an arbitrary limitation you decided on yourself. I once played through the Dreamcast port of Gunbird 2 to the end, and didn't feel even a smidgen of the satisfaction that I would have if I hadn't had to play the game while ignoring the option to ignore each and every death and just revive immediately right where I dropped. Even though the challenge I'd overcome was real, the fact I'd had to ignore the shortcut made the whol experience feel inorganic, so having reached that ending lacked any of the weight it would have if avoiding death had been the ONLY way to get there.
As always great video man. I wanted to tackle this subject myself but you handled it in a way that went so much more in-depth than I possibly could. You really showed me that I have a ways to go as a content creator. Keep up the great work man.
You know what accessibility means to me ?? It means I can go into a fucking gamestop and buy the game or I can download it from the Playstation store, that's it. If you don't wanna learn how to play a particular game then don't buy it or quit and go watch a movie. When I first bought Bloodborne I thought this is magical but I couldn't get past the first hoard of enemies so I raged and returned the game, the next day I went back to gamestop and bought it again because I couldn't get it outta my head and now I'd consider it the best game I've ever played. If they put a skip function in Bloodborne or dumbed it down then it would've just been another game and I wouldn't have had all those remarkable gaming moments that I'll never forget.
@@egoalter1276 It wouldn't feel the same at all after that, i say that from experience, playing a game with all the cheats First vs on hard first, ends up being a very different experience, especially with puzzle games.
Oh, Agreed. I usually have three playthroughs. One on medium which I sometimes don't finish, to learn the game, one on the hardest difficulty the game has, because I am a masochist, and one with cheats on just as a fuck you to the game.
Perfect. Perfect perfect perfect. I'm always so impressed with TGBS. Your arguments and videos hit EVERY beat they need to, so naturally. Fluid and cogent in execution, but so obviously well-constructed and solid in nature. You explained this as well as it could be explained. Props. Serious props.
I think a good argument against dumbing down an action game would actually be comparing gaming to the art form that I think it most closely resembles; which is literature. A good example would be James Joyce’s Ulysses. Ulysses is a difficult novel to read for anybody who’s not at all versed in high level literature. Should Ulysses be dumbed down for the sake of someone who’s not on the level of reading it? I don’t think so. Instead, that person can spend their time reading lower level literature (lower difficulty, not quality) and move their way up to being on a James Joyce reading level. Same goes for Dark Souls and Cuphead. Start with stuff like A Hat in Time or Uncharted, then build your way up to the challenging stuff. In summation, there’s a reason they call it “video game literacy.”
Hit the ball out the court with this one. I'm surprised with how quick you made this one - but even then, you hit the nail right on the head. Amazing work as always.
It's amazing how here we are, 4 years later, and we're still having the exact same discussions every single month. The only way the discourse has changed is that people now call difficulty options part of "accessibility" and if you don't think every single game should have them, even if it's contrary to the devs' wishes, you're an ableist.
They've found a frame to moralize this debate, a pretty common trick, if you're against difficulty options, you're against "accessibility" and so you are 'gainst people getting access to the game aka disabled people. That they mix these two words happens on purpose and I have to admit it works. Every time I cringe when I read the word "accessibility" in the option menu tab (or anywhere else) although it's actually supposed to be a good thing. But most of the time the definition what "accessibility" truly means become stretched in favour of relativising any feed you could "conquer" in a videogame, just because some people are not willing to dedicate themselfes to it. I believe the reason for this debate is simply money and the strife for a purpose. People invent problems that never existed, because that's a way to justify there lousy game-corrospondent career ( no, such people are not journalists)
A single video game shouldn't focus on catering to as many groups as possible. That just dilutes the overall product. However, on the subject of difficulty, I feel there is a bit of a middle ground. We can still have those bone-crushing but fair games, but I'm not entirely against including an optional metaphorical safety net for players interested who aren't experienced in a particular genre. The key question that needs answering is whether or not that safety net maintains the intended experience for the more inexperienced player.
Not all games need to cater to a hypothetical inexperienced player. There would be plenty of entry points into the genre for them to try before that game.
Not every game should cater to new people, I agree. But there should be at least one game in a genre that's meant to attract newcomers. Otherwise, the particular genre's audience shrinks over time.
So long as the game itself adequately teaches you the mechanics and how to master them using your own intuition then I don't see the issue. But that's only so long as the inexperienced player realises "Oh okay so this attack combo is what I need to do to defeat this enemy, alright. that mistake was on me" Its a learning experience that so long as the game itself is designed in a way where it tests the player's skill in a firm but fair manner there's no real need for a safety net outside of the early stages in the game where they're still learning the ropes. At the same time you can't always expect gamers new to a genre to go "Ah fuck it play something else to git gud skrub" That's a sentiment I disagree with. They picked up the game There was clearly a premise and story that enticed them to buy the game. And I shouldn't have to waste my money on something else just because the developer couldn't be bothered thinking that "maybe this could be someone's first *Insert genre* game. Maybe I should make their first experience a great one by adequately teaching them how to play" Granted you don't need hours of tutorials to tell them what to do, but at least allow the new player time to familiarize themselves with the controls and show them a taste of what the player character is capable of against their enemies. From their the challenge steadily rises until you defeat the final boss, satisfied with your victory, roll credits and there you have yourself a game worth its price tag.
In my opinion, i agree with games allowing easier mode to let the inexperienced/handicapped players play the game normally SO LONG as said easy mode remains optional and not mandatory, the best example is Fire emblem casual mode which still has people raising eye brows over it, but if there is a dedicated option to play the game casually and with permadeath respectively, why complain about it at all? If the permadeath was removed altogether for marketing, then yes, it is worth getting mad about it, but that is not the case, it simply made Fire emblem more popular and and ended up saving the frachise. I am not saying darksouls NEEDS a easy mode, but if it where to be implemented, it wouldn’t affect the other group of professionla/massochist players on the mentality that said modes remain optional. As for the whole”allow players to skip portions of the game”... i am mixed. Because when i play a hard part of a game, i toughen up and playthrough it, but i have to realise that other players are not me and struggle due to different skill levels, which is why i like the super leaf from super mario 3d world, it helps inexperienced players get to complete the game if struggling, and the best part? More experienced players can completely ignore it. So there is merit to that argument, but skipping the level all together is too much. So on the whole i don’t agree with everything you have to say(I AM SO SORRY! YOU ARE A GOOD GUY AND PLEASE DONT TAKE OFFENSE TO THIS) Good video as a whole.
To be honest, I didn't really like your recent uploads. I don't know why, maybe I thought you lost some impact or got too cocky, but that's maybe just me. But with this video, I remember why I subscribed to this channel. A channel with personnality, with a man that truly loves gaming and will fight for its reputation and art form, like the badass protagonists he likes to play. Also thanks Charlie, you recommended so many good games to me. DMC 4, Bayonetta, Vanquish, the MGS franchise, Killer is dead, RE6 and so on... I wasn't this type of passionnate gamer before but you clearly influenced me in a good way. I totally see what you mean by those "moments and sensations", and it feels so good! So thanks buddy, keep up the good stuff
He didn't really talk about any of it, did he? It looks like he hasn't played much either, but wanted to make a video really badly on the topic. It just feels misleading or even disingenuous, especially when he tries to scrutinize journalists or critics or other topical game writers for refusing to put the work in, because the need to publish something validates them. I don't know what's worse, demanding a skip-section button so you'll feel justified in talking about the game, or just putting in the bare minimum and doing it anyway. You can't have your cake and eat it too, cake is saved for people who bothered to make it to Baroness von Bon Bon before opening a dialogue. I also felt like there was a missed opportunity to talk about the ability to briefly change difficulties if you get stuck, like in Yakuza or Persona 5 or MGSV. You can switch it back at virtually any time and continue normally. Cuphead's simple mode, however, simplifies attack patterns, sometimes cuts out entire boss phases, and it's selected before each level. It would have actually been relevant to the subject of skipping content for ease in rewarding but challenging games, which is what all the worry seems to be about. At least he talked about prioritizing custom control schemes, especially for anyone unable to play standard. I've seen some wild setups that take skill and creativity, despite any need for a less technically intense difficulty mode as well. A personal accomplishment can't get more personal than that. I don't know, man, this video left a lot to be desired. Why bother even including Cuphead, you know what I mean? Why even pretend?
I've never understood the argument to make a game easier, there are literally thousands if not millions of games out there, if you are really bad at one of them and arn't willing to put the effort in to get better then just move on to another one. You don't see people like me demanding that an easy game gets a harder mode which frankly sounds stupid but why does it seem to be OK when asking for the opposite?
Great video Brit thanks for reminding me why I play video games. Being good at challenging games is like being good at an instrument it takes practise/co-ordination and execution
I really dug your Dark Souls and Difficulty video from way back, so I'm glad to see your core thesis from that video is back with more nuance to show off how you've developed as a critic over the years. Cheers!
The thing about videogames is that sometimes, the high difficulty (or high skill ceiling in multiplayer games) is the main point of the game. Easymode-ing Cuphead would be as stupid and pointless as reading a synopsis of something like 'War and Peace.'
Say you got a test tomorrow on war and peace, whatcha gonna do? Or you just want to know what all the fuss is about this book, but don't fancy reading Russian realist drivel for a month? People may not necessearly want the full intended experience from media. Its their choice.
'War and Peace' was just an example. There's plenty of other books that you have to _read_ to truly know what's inside them. A synopsis will tell you the plot, it won't take you on the journey.
Some books are hard to read, some movies have very challenging content that's difficult to watch, some games present a real challenge to the player. These are all good things, they elevate the medium
Rewatching this for like the tenth time or something, I'm suddenly reminded of my time playing Etrian Odyssey. It was not a very popular game back then and most likely had a cult following until Dark souls came along to push people into playing difficult games but seeing people talk about parts of the game I hadn't reached yet. Them talking about a plot twist in a game that pushed gameplay over story. I remember putting off the game for years and just sort of wondering what it feels like to reach the last level. So about half a decade later, I dusted off my DS and plunged into the heart of Yggdrasil. And I fought, I slogged and I grinded my way through that JRPG dungeon crawler until I reached the last floor. And it was the greatest mix of emptiness and accomplishment I ever had. Yeah, it's a moment just like any other. I could have watched it through youtube, or asked someone else's save file to get there. But there was that sense of accomplishment that told me something. All those guides, all those discussions, all those things I've been hearing about as spoilers. I was there, I reached it, that place everyone who loved this game was at. I felt like I was finally on their level and I was ready for the sequel. Looking back, you know that's true because the difference between a veteran and a newbie in etrian odyssey is "respecting butterflies" at level 1.
The funny thing is, most of these games offer difficulties. Most people just don't like being called out on lowering it. Cuphead has an easy mode, it just locks out the final boss if you play on it. As well as the final phases to most fights. That seems like a fair trade off. It seems most of these people aren't advocating for an easy mode, but all the rewards of playing on a higher difficulty. Imagine Devil May Cry 3, imagine if you just had to beat normal mode to unlock the super costumes instead of Very hard and DMD?
I love that this video is a thing. Trying to get all the diamond speedrun trophies in Rayman Legends was a super difficult task for me. But I loved every second of it! If the game let me skip pushing myself to my limits and gave me the trophies just like that, then I would have never had that sense of acomplishment. Great work man!
When you make a work of art, the viewers are guests in your world. And yes, you should be courteous to guests and treat them with respect, but you shouldn't go so far as to remodel your entire house for them.
Ok, here we go, I got an important Math Test tomorrow, so I'll study as hard as I can to get the best possible grade and- **Sees notification** Y'know TGBS...Sometimes...I really hate you.
You nailed it and I couldn't agree more. Great video man, keep the challenge torch lit. There certainly is room for all kinds of games, no need to remove what makes games like the DMC series, Dark Souls, and various other titles special just because they're not for everyone.
Ya know a game that let you skip everything? Alone In The Dark (2008)! It's set up through like DVD-style "episodes", where the player can choose to start the game from the beginning or choose to skip to a section if they get stuck. If they choose to do that, the past events are cobbles together in a "Previously on Alone in the Dark..." cutscene at the start of the episode. And I'm just sat there like "....Are you actively trying to make my interactive entertainment a passive experience? On purpose?!" 🤨
The crazy thing is when the argument is applied to other mediums is when you see how dumb it really is. Imagine someone saying that all singers/rappers should explain out all of their lyrics for those who have trouble picking up context clues. Or someone saying that all directors should make their movies with a compilation of the best parts because some people don't like sitting through important dialogue
Video games are a new and diferent art form, and everything sounds stupid if you find the right thing to compare it to. In every analogy all you do is say "something is dumb because in this other situation it dosn't work like that" Well that defeating the point, of cours it sounds dumb we're talking of something else.
Video Games while a relatively new medium, still falls under the umbrella of entertainment. I think the analogy I gave is perfectly sound. I'm comparing it to the other things in its class like music and movies. A lot of the critiques that are targeted at a movie for example also apply to games (pacing, story, dialogue, visuals, theme, etc) so comparing the two isn't that far off.
Yes and no, Most of the time when we use analogies is for the sake of making our arguments sound like they make sense and we use only the parts that are convinient for our cause. If we put all kinds of entertaintment under the same standars we're just making a disservice to what makes the specific media different and interesting.
Nier:Automata has one of the best custom difficulty settings I have seen. As someone with a disability who just wanted to see the story and explore the world on my own terms it was absolutely wonderful. Although remembering back to 5 years ago when I could play more difficult games without it causing me so much pain I certainly felt like I missed something in doing so. I entirely agree that games that have a high difficulty with no easy mode shouldn't be obligated to include an easy mode because that feeling of accomplishment is absolutely magical. At the same time people shouldn't get upset of games that decide to include them, because accessibility is pretty darn sweet. I think one of the best Solutions is including a difficulty mode that is incredibly easy, could even make your character invincible, and just calling it "story mode" as some games already do. That way people who want to play the story get that, and people who actually want to play a challenging game can use the normal difficulty.
What about Nier: Automata's difficulty selection is so great? I think it is one of the worst I have ever seen. Allow me to explain. The Easy, Normal, and Hard Modes are all pathetically easy. You can buy and spam your very cheap recovery items whenever you want. And you can buy super cheap buff items that double your damage and halves incoming damage. And you can switch difficulty mid-game. However the Very Hard difficulty is going to be nier impossible for a lot of people. You die in one hit, so recovery items are completely useless. What they should have done is on Hard Mode, cap the amount of recovery items to 9, and buff items to 3. They should also have tripled the cost of all items, especially recovery. The game is either beyond easy, or extraordinarily difficult, there is zero inbetween. Oh but I agree with you on Story Difficulty settings, but only if you can't opt out of it, and all trophies are unobtainable.
I don't fully agree on the 'story mode', that's not at all why I play games. At that point you're not beating the game, you're just enabling it; might as well watch a let's play instead. I want to feel like I've earned it, not be patronized. This is also why walking simulators miff me, how can they be praised as 'great games' when they take out absolutely everything that makes games *games?* You don't move the medium forward by removing everything that defines it. A good game with a good story doesn't sacrifice gameplay for story but when it comes down between those two, gameplay will always be king.
There are two kinds of people who like challenging games: the kind that genuinely appreciate a good challenge and overcoming obstacles... and the kind that only play a "hard" game as some kind of dick enlargement ritual. It's too bad video games tend to attract the latter.
BasementMinions I'm 100% with you on that. No game NEEDS an easy mode, especially if it's centered around its challenges, but if something like Dark Souls had a separate easy difficulty setting, nothing would be lost from the normal mode. If games wanna have variety in difficulty, cool; if they want to challenge the player through and through, cool! Not to mention that easy mode for some games can act as a starting-off point for new players, encouraging them to try harder modes. One-Size-Fits-All "solutions" like skipping bosses or having one concrete difficulty doesn't help anyone.
I think both players and developers have different tastes and priorites when it comes to story vs gameplay. Like yeah, you can get games where challenging gameplay is absolutely king and the main reason you're there, or games that mix the two well. But you also get games where the two exist in complete separation, or where the gameplay is minor time management, sim-style character/city management, the Minecraft style building gameplay, item hunting, dumb point & click puzzles or making branching choices in a visual novel. When it's just one or the other, you can just go to the story game or the gameplay game and that's that, you choose what you prefer. But a lot of games have both. Even if you don't feel this way, you can probably think of someone you know that would love the corny sidequests and story aspects of Yakuza 0 or Nier Automata but would absolutely loathe the brawler gameplay or the top-down shooter segments. Having an easy "story mode" difficulty level doesn't harm a soul, it just means my grandma can enjoy watching Kiryu teaching a dominatrix how to dominate without having to have the reflexes of a 60 year younger person. Though in the youtube age it would be reasonable to ask why she doesn't just watch a playthrough or let's play, then. The walking sim bit is kind of a tangent, but besides some genres just having more story and less gameplay or challenge than others, I think being a game is a big part of the appeal of at least some of those games. I liked What Remains of Edith Finch a lot this year, because it's the only game in which I've played a shark rolling down a hill and an octopus eating sailors. It's a game where a guy is so bored by the tedium of his job(and so doped up on drugs) that he startes hallucinating a more interesting life, and then you control his job with one hand and the dream with the other. The things you do are very much "game" things even though the challenge isn't a big part of it and the systems aren't deep. Even Gone Home, which seems a lot more boring to me, is basically just the environmental storytelling/item rummaging of games like Bioshock and Skyrim separated out into its own game, as a new form of Adventure game. Journey is super easy and I don't think it's possible to die in it, but it still feels great to move around in it and it's fun to traverse the stages along with the randomly matches online partners, giving you a connection you can only get from a game. There's no need to bag on games that aren't difficult or don't have deep gameplay systems, there's room for both. The reason walking sims and "experience" style games get such a good rep among a wide swathe of reviewers is because they're accessible and easy to get into and finish in a couple of hours while a game like Vanquish isn't something a reviewer(who's job it is to review hundreds of games, new ones every week) has the time to get deep into and understand all the systems in. Everyone can understand Journey in a minute.
I loved how cuphead looked, it's used of rubber hose era animation visuals drew me in, and it's a platformer; one of my favorite game genres. So it's sad to see all this difficulty nonsense be what everyone talks about. Im gonna try to get this game and see just how difficult it really is.
Ian Not that difficult if you're used to mechanically challenging games. I'd put it on the same level of difficulty as something like Super Mario Bros 3. Or maybe easier since you don't have to restart the entire game once you loose all your lifes. Btw, just before you buy it: it's mainly a boss rush game. Platforming is important, but not a platformer game exactly.
Opa, legendando em pt-br, vlw o esforço amigo, assisto do começo ao fim e sou do lado q prefere jogo com dificuldade elevada tbm, a sensação de vitória no fim do jogo é bem mais emocionante, pq olha para trás e vê q conseguiu zerar um jogo bem desafiador, a sensação é muito boa
