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Naruto Clash of Ninja Revolution 2: The story fight against Might Guy is difficult in a way that is inconsistent for multiple reasons. Might Guy has no hit-stun and increased health and damage, you have to play as Rock Lee who has no projectiles, your teammates can be defeated quickly and you have have to land your super move as the finishing blow on him because he will ignore being out of health otherwise.
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Jun 22, 2021 06:49
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Gerblyn posted:Don’t play Mass Effect 2 on Insanity mode, it gives all enemies Protection (shields/armor/barriers) that makes them immune to most of your powers until you remove it. It’s an astonishingly dumb design decision, and the game is far better on a lower difficulty where you can actually knock people down and stun them and things. Insanity is the only way to play ME2.
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Jun 22, 2021 08:47
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Gerblyn posted:Don’t play Mass Effect 2 on Insanity mode, it gives all enemies Protection (shields/armor/barriers) that makes them immune to most of your powers until you remove it. It’s an astonishingly dumb design decision, and the game is far better on a lower difficulty where you can actually knock people down and stun them and things. They are also more deadly so you absolutely have to stay behind cover and play whackamole.
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Jun 22, 2021 08:51
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sticklefifer posted:Sounds similar to how you get the real ending in Bloodstained. You have to find a hidden area, get a secret ability, go to a specific spot, use that ability, and have a specific armor equipped to pass a bunch of spikes. Even then, you still don't get the REAL real ending unless you do a very specific thing in a boss fight, beat another area, and beat two more bosses, one of which is a multi-stage fight with even more specific mechanics. 100%ing that game was a huge pain in the rear end. To be fair that's just continuing the love letter the game was writing to old Castlevanias at that point starting from Symphony of the Night. Portrait of Ruin had an absolutely annoying as hell requirement to get the good ending/unlock the "inverted castle" of having to get off a ten second(ish) cast spell where you had to stand still in the middle of a boss fight with TWO bosses that liked to spam huge attacks. That was basically standing in the corner hoping it went off this time.
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Jun 22, 2021 09:57
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Hard modes being badly designed is a 100% valid criticism, but I'm still always thrown a bit at how often people get salty about a game and then it turns out they're playing on the hardest difficulty and it's entirely self-inflicted.
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Jun 22, 2021 14:56
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Sometimes it's not even like the harder difficulties are badly designed on their own but they make overall game design flaws more apparent and consequential.
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Jun 22, 2021 15:20
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John Murdoch posted:Hard modes being badly designed is a 100% valid criticism, but I'm still always thrown a bit at how often people get salty about a game and then it turns out they're playing on the hardest difficulty and it's entirely self-inflicted. People complaining about Dishonored not having any tools for the player and then it turns out they’re doing a ghost run for their first playthrough was my favorite of these.
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Jun 22, 2021 15:23
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Shiroc posted:I started Ghost of Tsushima tonight. The thing dragging it down is that it so far seems like an incredibly standard open world game with good presentation, if embarrassingly committed to C grade samurai honor tropes. The hype when it came out made me expect something more. Ghost of Tsushima is actually pretty critical of samurai honor, that's kind of the point. Lord Shimura is the most honorable samurai-est samurai that your character worships but who you also realise basically never succeeds without your help and who is totally willing to throw peasants under the bus. The game doesn't delve too deep into "actually samurai were not very nice people IRL" but it makes very clear that 'honorable combat' is only a luxury you have when you're on superior ground against your foe and doesn't actually work out when you're fighting for survival against a superior force. I posted it in the 'good stuff' thread a while back but I really appreciated the way how (if you're playing the game on an appropriate difficulty for you) then the way enemies and combats scale throughout the acts help you to get into Jin's mindset on honor vs efficiency. When you start out you have very little in the way of sword techniques or ninja tools/skills. Sword techniques seem more obviously helpful and tools are limited so you think "yeah, well, I'll beat enemies honorably and only use these tools if I get in a bind". Then in act 2 you've basically gotten all the cool sword techniques, picked up sweet armor, you're rockin poo poo and you've met back up with your uncle. Hell yeah gently caress being a ninja, challenge everyone you meet to an honorable duel. Then in act 3 the timing on iaijutsu because so absurdly tight, you're facing much tougher enemies with bigger health bars, you have tools to burn, and various story stuff happens, you match the main character in deciding "yeah gently caress it, time to throw kunai and fire and bombs at everything". bewilderment has a new favorite as of 15:29 on Jun 22, 2021 |
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Jun 22, 2021 15:24
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Nah fair enough, I'm playing on Insanity because I'm broken and want trophies, I understand that. But I also played through ME1 on Insanity and didn't feel this way. It was tough, don't get me wrong, but though careful planning and usage of the area, I got through it. Hell, even the battle on...Noveria(?) with the Krogan right before you got Liara, a battle that I knew was an enormous pain in the rear end, went down easily for me despite everything. ME2 is just tedious so far. Maybe it gets better later, I'm going to keep playing to find out. Also I picked Vanguard because people said it was fun, without realizing that this does not apply to this difficulty because a power where you charge into the middle of a group of enemies that can tear you apart immediately is...not a good power. But of course the intro takes forever, didn't feel like redoing it all, and by the time I realized that the encounter design makes that charge attack suicidal, I just couldn't be bothered to restart. Also doesn't help that you get fewer powers in this game. I can charge (nope), make fire bullets, pull, and shockwave enemies. Do you ever unlock more, for yourself or your teammates (loyalty powers notwithstanding)?
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Jun 22, 2021 15:25
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ME1 insanity doesn’t have a ton of enemies where your powers just straight up don’t work on them like ME2 does.
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Jun 22, 2021 15:26
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what kind of fuckwit plays mass effect on the hardest setting? The gameplay is barely there, it's a glorified CYOA movie, what is wrong with you
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Jun 22, 2021 15:35
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Jokerpilled Drudge posted:what kind of fuckwit plays mass effect on the hardest setting? The gameplay is barely there, it's a glorified CYOA movie, what is wrong with you ME3 on the hardest setting is fine (and still easy compared to multiplayer) because the combat is solid.
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Jun 22, 2021 15:40
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Morpheus posted:Also doesn't help that you get fewer powers in this game. I can charge (nope), make fire bullets, pull, and shockwave enemies. Do you ever unlock more, for yourself or your teammates (loyalty powers notwithstanding)? Nope, loyalty powers and different heavy weapons are it. On normal difficulties that's enough, on Insanity though it's rubbish. Shock Wave does literally nothing to protected enemies, Charge is suicide, and a bunch of teammates are pretty much worthless (like Jack) since they don't have abilities that can strip protections, which are the only powers that matter. It really sounds like you'd have more fun if you dropped the difficulty here, man! Doctor Spaceman posted:ME3 on the hardest setting is fine (and still easy compared to multiplayer) because the combat is solid. In 3 your powers work on protected enemies, right?
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Jun 22, 2021 15:41
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Ugly In The Morning posted:People complaining about Dishonored not having any tools for the player and then it turns out they’re doing a ghost run for their first playthrough was my favorite of these. Similarly, people who didn't get that Dishonored tempts the player as much as the Outsider tempts Corvo: "Here's all these cool powers and tools, but if you want to be a good boy and get the sunny ending you have to not use them".
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Jun 22, 2021 15:45
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Philippe posted:Similarly, people who didn't get that Dishonored tempts the player as much as the Outsider tempts Corvo: "Here's all these cool powers and tools, but if you want to be a good boy and get the sunny ending you have to not use them". The good ending is easier to get than people think, you can kill in the neighborhood of 25 percent of all NPCs (not just enemies, all NPCs) and get low chaos. And high chaos is also super interesting, some people are just allergic to “the bad ending”.
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Jun 22, 2021 15:48
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Gerblyn posted:In 3 your powers work on protected enemies, right? Generally. There are exceptions (like Lift only working on unprotected enemies) but spamming powers to set off combos can be effective against virtually everything.
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Jun 22, 2021 15:55
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bewilderment posted:
I wouldn't even say it's about a superior force, just a force that doesn't respect or know your rules. The game makes it pretty clear the samurai were a bunch of nobles squabbling with each other and weren't tested much, if at all, against invaders.
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Jun 22, 2021 16:13
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Philippe posted:Similarly, people who didn't get that Dishonored tempts the player as much as the Outsider tempts Corvo: "Here's all these cool powers and tools, but if you want to be a good boy and get the sunny ending you have to not use them". I try to avoid killing because someone said it makes zombies and rats which I really don't like
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Jun 22, 2021 16:20
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I'm sure I've posted in this thread before but dishonored 2 finally broke me of worrying about killing people in those games. I was trying to do a clean hands run and some dumbass AI got themselves trapped somewhere and died- I only found out after I finished the level, which was a pain in the rear end. So I said gently caress it and started murdering everyone and it turns out that game is pretty fun when you don't give a gently caress
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Jun 22, 2021 16:25
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Perestroika posted:For a game that presents itself as playing a careful hunter relying on stealth and traps more than brute force, Horizon Zero Dawn sure loves throwing you into unavoidable open combat. And it's just... not very good at that. Yeeeah, I stopped playing at a point where your home village gets attacked and you have to wade through tons of machines and bad people to get there and there's a ton of what seems like unavoidable combat along the way and it's just a total drag. Lame.
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Jun 22, 2021 16:42
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Ugly In The Morning posted:ME1 insanity doesn’t have a ton of enemies where your powers just straight up don’t work on them like ME2 does. The lamest part of ME1 insanity is that you're basically forced to either CC enemies or become invulnerable or you get 1-shot or ragdolled by the tougher enemies. And while CCing them is fun, you can do the exact same thing at lower difficulties and so the only difference is the sheer amount of firepower you have to spam into the helpless enemies. I recall modding my weapons to never overheat so I could just hold down the trigger long enough for things to actually die while they floated in the air or flailed on the ground. It would have been way better if they made CC worse at higher levels but made it so enemies would die in a reasonable time if you were good enough. ME2 did the first bit but went too far and still dropped the ball on the second. ME3 had the best high difficulty level because they finally figured out the second bit. Enemies are tough but don't (typically) 1-shot you or take forever to die and CC is usable and valuable but doesn't render enemies pointless.
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Jun 22, 2021 17:45
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Vandar posted:Yeeeah, I stopped playing at a point where your home village gets attacked and you have to wade through tons of machines and bad people to get there and there's a ton of what seems like unavoidable combat along the way and it's just a total drag. Lame. There's two mandatory fights in that section - the corruptor at the gate and the thundermaw at the mountain. Everything else can be run past. And honestly I'm not even sure about the first one, I just killed it because I could.
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Jun 22, 2021 20:22
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The worst part of badly designed difficulties is when a game does have well designed difficulty, when you recommend it to people they don't believe you. Crysis had a great top difficulty and I lost three discussions about it from people who refused to touch it, and I'm still salty
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Jun 22, 2021 20:39
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Related to "hard difficulty is maybe TOO hard?" I just started God of War (newest one...Dad of War?) cause it was on sale and good LORD it is a lot harder than I remember the previous entries being. I played 1+2 and part of 3, so I'm used to the "spam attack and chain combos relentlessly" style of God of War, and that does NOT work in new God of War, at least not with the starting loadout/skill set. Part of it is the difficulty, I'm on "Hard" but not the "God of War expert NO TURNIG BACK" mode. Maybe I'll put it back to normal for a couple hours until I get some upgrades, but I am dying multiple times in almost every fight that has more than 3 or 4 low-level enemies. I can only take like 3 hits, and even when I TRY a combo, I'll never get it off. Even if there's just one guy, the basic R1+R1+R1+R2 combo that is one of the first skill unlocks doesn't stun-lock them, so I get 2 or 3 hits into it and he hits me back. And trying to awkwardly switch from L1 to block an attack to L2 to aim and throw the axe, then rapidly back to L1 to block the fireball the guy I threw an axe at launched at me is drat tricky. And I also want to say that The Stranger fight was annoying as Hell. Maybe if he had more than two voice lines he spammed relentlessly it would have been better? But constantly hearing "WHAT ARE YOU HIDING" and "I FEEL NOTHING" over and over was tiring.
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Jun 22, 2021 20:56
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Yeah I wouldn't touch the higher difficulties in GoW without more moves and abilities and gear. You need your own stun and crowd control and i-frames moves to be effective in tough fights and not feel like you're constantly just reacting/defending.
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Jun 22, 2021 21:08
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Play every game on easy because your time is valuable.
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Jun 22, 2021 21:12
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I play every game on easy because I am poo poo at games.
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Jun 22, 2021 21:14
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DrBouvenstein posted:Related to "hard difficulty is maybe TOO hard?" I just started God of War (newest one...Dad of War?) cause it was on sale and good LORD it is a lot harder than I remember the previous entries being. If you keep up with that difficulty, be extremely aware of enemy level relative to yours. Even on Easy, a higher level enemy will gently caress your poo poo.
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Jun 22, 2021 21:18
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There are exceptions, but I mostly like to power around on easy so I can pretend I'm good and not get too frustrated.
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Jun 22, 2021 21:19
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Captain Hygiene posted:There are exceptions, but I mostly like to power around on easy so I can pretend I'm good and not get too frustrated. I try to start on Normal, but if the game doesn't have on the fly difficulty switching I have no problems starting on easy. Now that games cost MY money instead of my parents' I want my money's worth, dammit.
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Jun 22, 2021 21:29
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I don't ever really change the difficulty of a game unless it's a notoriously easy/difficult and I've read advice to do one or the other. I feel like if the game isn't fun on normal, the setting the developer set me on, then I should probably just move on and play something that is fun on default. If I replay a game or it's run-based then I'll tweak the difficulty based on my experience but if it's just a one-through I'll play or quit based on how it plays out the box. I don't want to tweak my own experience unless it's little tweaks like turning on subtitles or changing volumes. The actual difficulty of the whole game should be designed for me by the person/people who are being paid to design the game. Games that provide a shitload of options actually put me off a bit. Like Invisible Inc. I don't want to see a menu with the ability too turn all sorts of poo poo on and off on my normal level selection screen. Bury that poo poo in a menu please. All putting it in front of me does is get me thinking about features I can toggle and thinking about which way I like them instead of just experiencing the game as it is. You're basically making me take a critical eye to every system. I probably would have played Invisible Inc more than once-through if I wasn't so overloaded by the options that I just didn't want to deal with it. If it had just have a simple difficulty menu for me to bump it up one setting for another playthrough I'd have just done that.
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Jun 22, 2021 21:48
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More options are better actually because they massively increase accessibility. Give me every option going, I want to be able to adjust any variable in the game I might ever wish to.
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Jun 22, 2021 21:51
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I used to play everything on easy until Castlevania 64, which let you play for a couple hours and then after a boss fight 1/3 through throws up a splash page that says something like "Play on Normal or higher to get the full story!"  I've definitely been going back to normal or even easy more often nowadays though. I've been caring less and less about achievements and without unlockable stuff that so few games do now, who cares about the difficultly level
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Jun 22, 2021 22:02
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The port of Resident Evil Remake includes a new Very Easy difficulty setting, but the regular Easy setting already gives you enough ammo and healing items to wipe out every monster in the game.
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Jun 22, 2021 22:33
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I pretty much never play on hard unless it's a game I especially love and feel good at, and even then I need some sort of incentive, like doing Insane difficulty in the PS4 Spider-Man game getting me a trophy. By the same token, though, I also never really go easy unless I'm just not understanding how the game operates, like when I tried to play the first Bayonetta.
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Jun 22, 2021 22:34
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I swear there are a few games where everything is balanced around the "hard" difficulty and it just annoys me to no end when "normal" isn't the "intended experience". Thankfully I think that's since fallen out of practice.
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Jun 22, 2021 22:58
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christmas boots posted:I swear there are a few games where everything is balanced around the "hard" difficulty and it just annoys me to no end when "normal" isn't the "intended experience". Thankfully I think that's since fallen out of practice. I think the intended experience is usually harder than normal but players are happy to enjoy a difficulty that doesn't pose too much of a threat or require really engaging with and learning everything. Plenty of games I've played over the years where a lot of the tools and skills and upgrades are cool but can just be extra flavour if you want it on Normal but you need to use everything at your disposal on the higher difficulties.
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Jun 22, 2021 23:35
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Retro Futurist posted:I used to play everything on easy until Castlevania 64, which let you play for a couple hours and then after a boss fight 1/3 through throws up a splash page that says something like "Play on Normal or higher to get the full story!" Wasn’t the normal difficulty for Castlevania 64 bugfuck hard in places? I remember some section with a nitroglycerin barrel that would blow you up constantly, and a bunch of gotchas about buying items that could wreck your game in the long run.
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Jun 22, 2021 23:40
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Ugly In The Morning posted:Wasn’t the normal difficulty for Castlevania 64 bugfuck hard in places? I remember some section with a nitroglycerin barrel that would blow you up constantly, and a bunch of gotchas about buying items that could wreck your game in the long run. That goddamn nitroglycerin is ultimately what made me drop that game. If I remember right you had to navigate between some horizontal gears at some point, while being slowed down from carrying the barrel, and I just couldn't get past it.
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Jun 22, 2021 23:45
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DrBouvenstein posted:Related to "hard difficulty is maybe TOO hard?" I just started God of War (newest one...Dad of War?) cause it was on sale and good LORD it is a lot harder than I remember the previous entries being. A lot of Dad of War seems balanced around the style of "parry an attack, get some hits in, then back off when the enemy recovers". Blocking is decent, but parrying is the really important tactic. Learning the timing for when to block to parry everything you can is possibly the best possible battle strategy, especially once you get projectile reflect (you get invulnerability for the entire reflect animation, which is handy in of itself). Your magic abilities (once you unlock them) and your bow and its abilities (once you unlock them) are also very good. Although I did a normal-difficulty-but-only-punching-things run (well, mostly - haven't finished it yet) so I can't speak for how effective weapons actually are.
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Jun 23, 2021 00:04
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