For a very small nitpicky improvement to the game, I'd recommend making the player press a button to continue after KOing a boss. We spend countless attempts on all the bosses and therefore have the opportunity to see the animations quite a bit (which is good). But, when we finally defeat a boss we get to see their defeat animation for all of about 2 seconds before going to the score screen.
The second phase of the dragon was occasionally bullshit because some of the little flames damaged you before they jumped and for the third phase I used the charged up shots. The robot was way harder in my opinion.
The robot is difficult because it throws a lot at you, but it's all predictable and manageable. Grim Matchstick is hard because of RNG. That's why most people complain about Grim Matchstick even if they beat him more easily than the robot. It stands out as less fair than the other bosses even if it isn't the hardest boss.
You made a really great point on game difficulty and how it applies with the experience of playing Cuphead; just because a game is pretty hard doesn't automatically mean it will drive away "less-skilled" players (nor does it automatically make it "the new Dark Souls"). Also I've heard that all the characters in Cuphead were hand drawn.
Holy shit, what a video.Totally agreed with everything you said. You make a really good point about that clip of that one guy on the tutorial soured the overall discussion about Cuphead's difficulty, as well as how the short stages and progress bar help abate frustration. Also, great editing all around: especially loved the boss montage at 0:03 and the "Cue Manipulative Music" bit. The one thing I disagree with, (and granted this was a minor point and not really related to the overall message of the video) was that the Devil being weaker compared to King Dice was a good idea to help you cool down. Cuphead plucked at the same masochistic strings that Dark Souls has spent the last few years instilling within me, so If anything, after King Dice had gotten me so worked up, I was practically frothing at the mouth for the Devil to put my balls in a blender, and was left sorely disappointed when he died so soon. Still though, an amazing video about this amazing game.
I really like the style you edit your videos. It feels a lot like a YTP, especially with that Michael Rosen appearance. I find myself laughing and it helps to keep me invested along with your interesting analyses on the subject.
I was going to write a HOT TAKE about game difficulty in the comments, but then realised it would be super redundant by this point and stopped. Get on my level, nerds.
Cuphead kind of needed to be hard - there wasn't that much content (when it comes to player experience) not to the fault of the developers but because of how it was made. Players would've been able to finish it in an hour if it was easy and feel ripped off.
i think of the things people overlook when looking at difficulty is how much a player is punished for dying. In cuphead you die a lot but every boss is so short that u dont lose much by dying.
Ok but forreal though I know exactly what you mean about being terrified of sea monsters and shit I think the second pirates movie had a bigger impact than it should have
As far as the art design goes I have to say that first part of The Devil's second phase with that huge sharp toothy grin is one of my favorite images in anything ever
I don't know how often it's brought up, but Mr. King Dice's fight is really reminiscent of Gunstar Heroes' Black boss fight with the dice and multiple minibossess. Can't imagine it's not a direct reference. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ORPYXWGlRK0.html
I got about half way through cuphead before hitting a brick wall. I love the game. It's gorgeous. It's super satisfying when you finally beat a boss you've been struggling against. But it hit a point where I knew I wasn't going to get any further, not without sacrificing hours and hours of my time. Maybe I'll get back to it in the future. But for now, it's a fun memory. I feel the same way about Furi. Beautiful, well thought out mechanically, very creative. I got half way through, and I'll probably never play it again.
I've seen so many people say they suck at the game but then are much better than me. Bosses can take me well over an hour to finally master. It really straddles the line between "this is fair and fun" and "fuck this shit." But I'm grinding my way through Isle 3, and I'm determined to finish.
I also think the crazy nature of it’s levels is fitting for a cartoonish theme: old cartoons had lot’s going on at once, and so does Cuphead. That said, al the talk about how difficult and crazy it was actually prepared me for it so well that it didn’t even feel hard for me in the sense of frustration or overwhelming most of the time once I actually started playing. Whenever I died in the game( which was a lot) I would always approach the progress bar in an analytical way, thinking about what I could do different, until I’d beat the level.
I was incredibly giddy when I saw this video. If A Hat in Time is next I'm now even more giddy! It's nice to watch level-headed people talk about games, people I can actually tell are enjoying themselves. Good stuff!
this game will kick your butt until you learn how to kick it's butt back. That's all people need to know. It's almost always fair, but I think Expert Mode is one of the few times it could border on bullshit, but even that's on the rarest of occasions. Personally, I hated Cala Maria's fight in that mode. The last phase, especially, because it was the only time the game felt a little unfair.
I too have a fond appreciation for the cup-rush format. Have you played "Furi"? It is, in my opinion, the definitive ultimate challenge boss-rush game, definitely give it a shot if you have yet to. That game saved me.
Okay, this video made some fair points. I may give the game another try, but I quit last time out of frustration and the fact that I wasn’t having fun, so I may. It give it another try for a while.
Great video. I bought Cuphead but haven’t started it yet, but I think this video will finally push me to it. Also I’m really excited for your Hat In Time video, can’t wait.
I saw the difficulty as....well, reading and then pondering. Otherwise the game is well designed of the tells and sound of the game, it is very fair and not at all cheap. Most fun I've had in a long while.
I think simply put, the reason a lot of people nowadays are so opposed to difficulty. I think it's caused my a passive mindset when wanting to enjoy any medium. It's just that these people want to have their entertainment "spoon fed" to them and then just move on to the next thing. So there's an unwillingness to really try to actively engage with something and challenge yourself. You can see this at other places as well, I do think this mentality has really pushed the popularity of TV series and "cinematic universes" because with these you don't even have to think what you're going to watch next. So I think it's a matter of most people really going through any type of medium with an incredibly passive mindset. You could of course argue that this hurts videogames the most as they are by nature more "active" as games are interactive.
My apologies for commenting on this seven months after it's creation, but I feel this needs to be said. Your theory may prove true in some cases, but remains moot. Assuming you are right, and a lot of people are opposed to difficulty. There are enough video games in circulation now, let alone enough being made, that you can find just about whatever fits your given niche. One person's preference for an easier difficulty doesn't hurt you, when your preference is to have more a challenge. Last I checked, Prey, Doom, Wolfenstein, Cuphead, Dark Souls and it's analogs, and so on still exist, and remain popular. Last I checked, more narrative games such as Telltale games, doublefine games, and various RPGs also still exist. There is room to coexist here, both in the number of games and the number of potential consumers. Remember when Publishers used to claim that survival horror was dead, and couldn't sell? This whole difficulty thing is the same. Also, full disclosure, I think you're not giving people enough credit in the "opposed to difficulty" thing. But that's neither here nor there.
The whole Cuphead difficulty with the """game journalists""" reminded me of Crash Bandicoot, it's all about progression and learning the pattern, but the game sorta felt short imo, overall it's a pretty good game, -now on to finish damn long -_-Hollow Knight-_- already.- _P.S. stop going to rule 34 to look up giant mermaids ya sick fuck._
I feel like painting a broad brush that it "won't disincentivize new players" is overly reductive. There are quite a few people that literally cannot physically get through the game's absurd difficulty because of how their brains or bodies work differently than other things. And the game seems to actively punish you for picking the easier option. You literally cannot genuinely complete the game unless you've beaten every boss on the hardest difficulty setting at least once. That's just straight up unfair.
Cuphead exists purely as a challenge. The question is does it go out of its way to give people a window into deciding whether or not that challenge is something they can at least try to overcome, and overwhelmingly, from the ability to customise the experience for different hands to the many signs that nudge you in the right direction, I found the answer was yes.
B- Mask I may be misremembering but aren’t most of the actual accessibility options locked until after you’ve already beaten the game? At least for colorblind players. The game’s difficulty is inherently exclusionary. As I said before, there are some people that literally cannot play the game because of the way their bodies or brains work, even if they love the aesthetic and just wanna appreciate the art. For all the “work” you say it does, there are numerous people with disabilities that say otherwise.
@@ravenfrancis1476 That wasn't an accessibility option- it's black and white because the developers wanted another option to emulate old cartoons. I think that presents the fundamental misunderstanding here- while I do believe some options can be implemented by devs to help accessibility (like cupheads remappable controls, you have no idea how big a deal that is), I think most of the work lies at the feet of the hardware, which needs to be multifaceted enough to let anyone interface with any experience, while the devs are making simply what they wanted to make. Cuphead was designed to be a challenge, as I said, and it's about whether or not it's trying to turn you away from that challenge, and I don't think it does. It is possible to view the visuals on youtube, but you've bought the game to play it, the gameplay is itself an artistic statement, and I think the accommodations they've made to try and let people at least see if its for them and to encourage them to keep trying is perfectly justified.
B- Mask Then maybe they shouldn’t lump it in with the other mode that changes the coloration of the game that is meant for colorblind people (which was also locked until you beat the game btw). It can still be “about the challenge” and have a difficulty setting, or at the very least accessibility options that make the game playable for people with disabilities. Hell, Celeste is a prime example of this. It exists “for the challenge” but still has a bunch of accessibility options that allow the player to modify aspects of the game to actually make it playable for them, WITHOUT locking them out of fully completing the game for doing so. If it doesn’t wanna turn people away from the challenge, why are there so many people saying they felt turned away? “This game is perfectly accessible because I, a person with no physical or mental disabilities, was able to complete it so you should too!” is fucking terrible logic
@@ravenfrancis1476 Haha okay, that's very much not what I meant but I understand how it could be taken that way. My point was that I think games should be made playable for everyone, right- they should all have the same equal opportunity to be able to play the game regardless of their handicaps, and if devs know how to make that possible, then of course they should apply that, and we're seeing that awareness become more widespread, which is great. However, that doesn't entitle us to be able to beat the game straight out, I find that's actually rather patronising as a solution. One of the great things about advancements made in hardware is that we now have created systems whereby disabled players can participate in the medium on the same level as able bodied people, so they too can experience cuphead at the same level as everyone else- again, remappable controls, served up for any controller that allows a more comfortable or appropriate way to get in on the same experience, that's a big deal. If you lower the difficulty, you're not getting the same game anymore, so all those people who want to participate are basically being served something that doesn't reflect the intended, actual experience, and you know, I don't think they want to compromise on that posistion, I totally get it. They wanted to make a difficult game, one that felt quite fair, and they succeeded. The game itself I don't think is the issue. You say you see a lot of people saying they felt turned away, I see a lot of people saying the opposite from various positions. It's not that I don't understand that it can be an issue, it's that I don't think, in this particular case, it's the fault of the devs. The video was generally about people who are scared of difficult games and whether or not it's possible or encouraged to beat cuphead, and while accessibility is always a big question on any game, I think that's a much broader topic, and I think the specific question is answered.
I say an assist mode akin to that in celeste would be good; you could have anything from invulnerability to making the game 5% slower - universal difficulty tweaking!
I play with a keyboard [god bless the devs for customisable controls] and have minor physical issues (basically i'm kind of neurotic & my hands start slightly trembling after playing for a while), i've finished only 2 run&guns and 1 boss atm and already died probably at least 1/3 of times you did in total (while finishing w/ B- somehow). Honestly, Cuphead's difficulty is pretty standard for a normal video game of that genre. Of course, it's hard and frustrating if you only played walking simulators and point&click adventure games. At least all the talk brought more attention [and hopefully customers] to the game, so that's good.
Oh wow. Still, a keyboard isn't that bad once you change the default ZXVC buttons to, for example, SpaceWDA. [And the last time i held a controller was ~10-15 years ago, so the thing won't help much.] But yeah, the game is not that difficult.
Hi. I am a huge fan of Disney in general and I noticed that you have taken down your old Epic Mickey Disney History video series from a few years ago. I have watched it twice. Once when it was first being made by you and once not too long ago before you took it down. Would you please put it back up or at least upload it somewhere on Google Drive or Dropbox or something so that I can watch it again. I love it very much! I thought you did an excellent job on the series and it gave me all kinds of nostalgic vibes and I don't think I have seen anything quite like it. Please re-upload it.
A lot of the tension around difficulty in games and accessibility comes from an obnoxious number of people obtusely refusing to engage with the discussion in any meaningful capacity. The 'git gud' attitude, talking down to people for not being 'gamer' enough to be hardcore or whatever the modern version of L33T SP33K is these days. Just my take on it.
Ever consider doing a video on Final Fantasy IX? Also, it's me, Brandon (the one who likes to ask you all the questions), I've just changed my account name for privacy reasons and I am somewhat considering doing RU-vid videos, just haven't figured out what to do a video on and been busy. Any advice?
Casual babby non-gamers need to leave the room and never touch videogames again. These people, as well as greedy corporations wanting to sell more copies at any cost, are the cancer of the industry. Cue manipulative music. I just realized I don't watch classic cartoons, have not for more than a decade.
I'm annoyed with uber nerds arguments for hard games, just add achievements for bragging rights, last stages should be accessible for paying customers to appreciate a product they own, like a movie or book that don't require barriers for entry for later parts Games were only hard before to eat quarters, and a cheap way to pad out gametime Review Hat in Time next for the return 3d platformers
I think the problem is that you need to stop treating games like other forms of art. Their interactivity is what sets them apart from other mediums, and challenge is undeniably an important part of that interactivity. If the gameplay isn't challenging me or getting me to seriously think about the environment of a level, then I might as well be watching a movie or reading a book.
Beefmeat So don't progress the medium of video games, you might as well tell Alan Moore and Kubrick to not try so hard. Also doesn't mean an easier optional mode would not be appreciate for a wider audience, for pragmatic reasons, little kids, handicaped, or people with jobs and responsibilities. Hardcore gamers are oddly enough acting like babies that don't want to share their toys and elitist snobs jerking off that beating games as the height of their accomplishments, because they probably done nothing else worthy ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QidBCKYVCMA.html
Beefmeat Also your argument is paradoxically confusing, games should not have artisitc integrity just your specific kind of integrity, for essentially a toy. Which is not business savvy, am i suppose to treat Cuphead as a work of art or a product of commerce? Cuphead is not the Dark soul of games, it's the Eraserhead of Games, unaccessiable for normies, because it's a personal artistic expression. You can enjoy your hard games, but don't just fight pretentiousness with a different kind of pretentiousness that's more shallow than American Bipartisan politics
Oh man, this is great. Let me remind you that niche entertainment is a thing. Not everyone is going to enjoy every game, movie, or book. That''s alright. If you try to make every piece of art appeal to the mass market, you're going to get a lot of samey, boring, overly safe media. I would in fact say that the work done by both Kubrick and Moore doesn't appeal to everyone, since they took so many risks with their work. Without risk-taking niche media, the world loses out on a lot of brilliant art. We wouldn't have games like Shadow of the Colossus, Demon's Souls, Devil May Cry, Resident Evil, Half-Life, Doom, Metroid, Deus Ex, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, and hell, even Minecraft, if developers weren't willing to take risks on products that may or may not sell since they weren't made with everyone in mind. I don't have a problem with safe media itself, I have a problem with people actively stifling the creativity of others just to make guaranteed money. Also, don't bring politics into this, they have absolutely nothing to do with the argument at hand.
0:25 - You call playing a platformer from the late 90's/early 00's "being spoiled"? No dude, playing modern Call of Duty is being spoiled. Playing Overwatch is being spoiled. Playing Street Fighter 4 and 5 is being spoiled. Taking advantage of micro transactions built into an EA game is being spoiled. Counting interactive movies exclusive to Playstation, from Until Dawn to Detroit Become Human, as "video games" is being spoiled. Comparing anything to Dark Souls is being spoiled, thinking that just playing Dark Souls makes you a hardcore gamer is being spoiled. You are not spoiled for playing 3D platformers, you're just a good ol' fashioned casual gamer who actually likes playing video games, nothing wrong with that :3 5:42 - Personally I prefer the Auto Parry Sugar, being noticeably autistic that's one less timing button press to worry about. Plus I'm always iffy about losing sight of my character even if it's only a second. 9:39 - Yeah between her and Android 21 I just have to wonder if these people even realize what they'd be risking for a piece of those pies....
You want another game where when you learn the parry mechanic you can't help but use it every chance you get AND the penultimate boss requires you to master it to beat? Metal Gear Rising
