Anonymous 03/20/15 (Fri) 07:00:33 4f9e8e No. 4406
How often do you shoot for a more difficult challenge? When the last time do you enjoy it?
Anonymous 03/20/15 (Fri) 08:20:04 733458 No. 4416
I always start off on the hardest difficulty possible because it really forces you to learn the game properly, when you have a section or boss where you keep dying over and over again, but then after learning how to bypass that boss or section, that rush of energy,excitement and pleasure is quite large and great. For me, if a game doesn't have much of a challenge then I won't enjoy it much because I really enjoy having to put a strong amount of effort and will power into beating said challenge and it prevents me from being bored by making everything too easy because it causes me to stay on my guard.
Anonymous 03/20/15 (Fri) 08:48:30 e3bcaf No. 4419
Man I don't know, if I get shit on out the gate I'm liable to have a bad time. With stylish action games I prefer to follow the difficulty progression, that way if I'm still interested by the hardest mode I'm better equipped skill wise
Anonymous 03/20/15 (Fri) 09:35:29 191eb5 No. 4421
I always start going for the hard difficulty mode in every game ever since DMC3. It's more rewarding that way for me. Most games hold my hand too much these days that it's the only way I feel challenged anymore.
Anonymous 03/20/15 (Fri) 09:58:18 c9e69c No. 4426
not very
Anonymous 03/20/15 (Fri) 11:48:38 269974 No. 4439
I aim for the top in mechanically intensive games, things like DMC3 and Bayonetta and fighting games (Playing Arcana Heart 3: Love Max which is so fun for making and raging over combos) In things like say RPGs or Grand Strategy I'm not too concerned on difficulty since I get more enjoyment from those games from simply progressing at any difficulty. Obviously a game being too easy is bad since it removes any satisfaction from the progression.
Anonymous 03/20/15 (Fri) 11:56:56 045f97 No. 4442
Normal for the first playthrough, the hardest for any subsequent ones. If I'm absolutely crushing it though I'll crank it.
Anonymous 03/20/15 (Fri) 12:35:55 729bf4 No. 4443
I automatically crank it to the hardest thing available and keep pushing through the power of sheer autism until I beat it.
Anonymous 03/20/15 (Fri) 14:09:53 03235a No. 4452
depends on the difficulty style, if harder difficulties just turn enemies on bullet sponges and make they do a ton of damage to you, then i don't care, now, if the damage stays the same, but enemy composition and strategies are changed to make the sections harder, then i am all in.
Anonymous 03/20/15 (Fri) 15:05:57 e3bcaf No. 4458
>>4452 Yeah this, I'll never bother with a hard mode if it isn't properly balanced, case in point EDF 2017. It's not even a hard game really but the health values of some enemies is obnoxious. Fuck you elite gunships.
Anonymous 03/20/15 (Fri) 16:56:17 839df1 No. 4472
I start on medium to pick up the game and then turn the difficulty up if I feel like replaying.
Most games I play don't have difficulty settings anyway.
>>4452 Unfortunately it's far easier for developers to change a couple variables than it is for them to create a more complex and satisfying experience for veteran players.
Anonymous 03/20/15 (Fri) 19:43:52 6b6c18 No. 4513
Anonymous 03/20/15 (Fri) 19:45:01 6b6c18 No. 4514
>>4472 >>4452 I'm actually fine with making difficulty based on damage, but you have to do it like Stalker does it. Not just your enemies do more damage, you do more damage as well. There's less margin for error.
not tamtam 03/20/15 (Fri) 21:49:22 c3b54b No. 4543
>>4416 >I always start off on the hardest difficulty possible because it really forces you to learn the game properly This.
Also I suffer from the "saiyan" syndrome, i need to get my ass handed a few times before going "super" and beating the game, it feels so fucking good.
Games with hard modes that depend solely on cheap tactics like permadeath, 1 shot kills, no continues, no saves, extreme bullet sponges, etc. are not interesting to me thought.
Anonymous 03/20/15 (Fri) 22:24:07 fabc9c No. 4552
I usually try for hardest, but sometimes I'll research a game's difficulties before hand. Naturally I'm more motivated to play a hard difficulty if I know it's actually difficulty, and not artificial crap that only changes values on damage.
Anonymous 03/20/15 (Fri) 22:30:04 52b1f6 No. 4556
I start on the middle difficulty unless I know that it's been gimped. After that I usually go for whatever the highest one is. This is why I hate games that make you do shit like beat Easy to unlock Medium, beat Medium to unlock Hard, etc.
Anonymous 03/20/15 (Fri) 22:56:35 4f7ab2 No. 4573
>>4552 Would very much like to know examples of the former.
Anonymous 03/20/15 (Fri) 23:14:08 3a09c6 No. 4587
>>4573 In a typical Stylish Action game (DMC, Ninja Gaiden and games by Platinum) the higher difficulties will change the enemy placements to keep the player on their toes even in the early sections.
The highest difficulty in the DMC series (Dante Must Die) also gives the enemies a powered up state (Devil Trigger) that is activated in several ways. In most of the games enemies will power up after a set amount of time (DMC1 showed this timer) but in DMC3 the enemies will also power up when you defeat one enemy in the wave, meaning you should choose carefully who you kill first.
There are a lot of ways you can increase the challenge of a game without doing so in a cheap way, but they require a lot of time to balance which devs may not have.
Anonymous 03/20/15 (Fri) 23:24:45 fabc9c No. 4593
>>4587 One example of this that I always enjoyed was in, I want to say it's in Way of the Samurai 3. To better reflect sword combat, basically every hit was an instant kill, or at least did a ton of damage. This went both ways, you could die in one hit and so could the enemy, which made sense for supposedly skilled warriors fighting with swords.
Anonymous 03/20/15 (Fri) 23:48:10 e79b52 No. 4622
>>4556 >This is why I hate games that make you do shit like beat Easy to unlock Medium, beat Medium to unlock Hard, etc. I don't mind when they lock difficulties above Hard since you're going to be far better equipped to handle the challenge after playing through on the previous difficulty. It also gives me a reason to replay the game and experience it in a "new" way, instead of just jumping on the hardest difficulty right off the bat, beating it and being done with it.
Anonymous 03/21/15 (Sat) 00:21:02 2b8e97 No. 4667
>>4406 Why would you play a game if it isn't a challenge?
Anonymous 03/21/15 (Sat) 06:06:12 191eb5 No. 4961
>>4667 I don't know. I feel like I've probably quit a couple games for not being challenging but I can't quite remember.
Anonymous 03/22/15 (Sun) 23:13:09 aeabb6 No. 5932
I'm shit at RTS, GSG, and strategy games in general and no one recommends a babby's first strategy, so I usually go for a medium setting in those games. I don't like to play on the highest difficulties if I don't get punished immediately after fucking up, it's just not fun for me not knowing that I messed up until several hours have passed.
Anonymous 03/22/15 (Sun) 23:36:08 2b0887 No. 5956
Anonymous 03/22/15 (Sun) 23:52:28 839df1 No. 5977
>>4543 >Games with hard modes that depend solely on cheap tactics like permadeath, 1 shot kills, no continues, Never play a roguelike
Anonymous 03/23/15 (Mon) 02:19:28 9196a3 No. 6091
>>4406 I always start the game on the canon difficulty or default.
/n/tegrity 03/23/15 (Mon) 02:25:41 320227 No. 6096
I always like to try starting at the highest possible difficulty, and only adjust after I hit a wall of dying a ridiculous amount (or in shmups, hitting an area full of those cheap-ass shitty 'shoot bullets as you die' enemies, fuck whomever came up with that.)
Anonymous 03/23/15 (Mon) 02:37:31 0f24c7 No. 6104
Whenever I find a game I like and want to replay it. Which is weekly at least. Currently trying to beat Super Castlevania IV on one life, beat Dimahoo on one credit with an impressive score, beat both loops of Kingdom Grandprix on one credit, and am always trying to improve my Tetris Attack/Planet Puzzle League high scores and my Super Metroid times. I enjoy it very much.
Anonymous 03/23/15 (Mon) 02:39:01 0f24c7 No. 6105
>>6104 Although I start on whatever seems to be the intended normal difficulty for most games.
Anonymous 03/23/15 (Mon) 07:04:49 4f7ab2 No. 6214
>>5977 As a guy who has the "saiyan syndrome"
I pretty much exclusively play roguelikes these days.
Anonymous 03/23/15 (Mon) 10:20:49 1f8d00 No. 6263
I still replay Dark Messiah on Hardcore regularly.
Anonymous 03/24/15 (Tue) 18:02:58 49ffb5 No. 6871
I prefer to play games that are naturally harder, like roguelikes or Monster Hunter.
Anonymous 03/24/15 (Tue) 21:37:44 5372fe No. 6965
>>4406 Generally I try to play on hard or hardest on my first playthrough nowadays so I'm engaged more in a game.
Anonymous 03/24/15 (Tue) 22:13:32 82912d No. 6985
>when the last time do you enjoy it
Anonymous 03/24/15 (Tue) 23:09:55 4e940a No. 7028
If a game has no chance of failure it just isn't fun for me. I almost always set it to the highest difficulty. Exceptions are situations like the elder scroll games, where difficulty just makes enemies soak up damage.
Anonymous 03/25/15 (Wed) 09:59:31 4f9e8e No. 7286
Be honest. Do you cave in and look up a guide?
Anonymous 03/25/15 (Wed) 10:04:18 4c7f2d No. 7287
>you can't play higher difficulties unless you beat easier ones
Anonymous 03/25/15 (Wed) 11:03:59 128f75 No. 7302
>>4452 What this guy said
I always play hard mode right off the bat unless it's absolutely awful lazy balance
The game will also kick my ass so I'll be forced to learn the game mechanics and have to use them better, meaning I experience the full complexity of it's gameplay.
Anonymous 03/25/15 (Wed) 11:18:43 170584 No. 7306
It depends on the genre and how good I am at them but normal for ones I'm not great at otherwise it can get frustrating how bad I am (I'm garbage at shmups and shooters, for example), hard for stealth (not that there's any new stealth games coming out but when I replay any it's on the hardest difficulty) and RTSs.
>>7287 I'm not too bothered by this if the offered difficulties at the start are challenging enough - giving the player easy-normal-hard and unlocking more is perfectly fine. If there's only normal and easy, normal needs to be reasonably challenging.
I know some games like to mock players with 'You've unlocked easy modo. You're shit.' but I don't remember any that do the opposite and unlock harder modes early if you're doing extremely well. I think most just unlock them if you finish the game on any given mode.
The worst is when the only starting option is easy mode.
Anonymous 04/02/15 (Thu) 07:14:32 191eb5 No. 10309
>>7286 I only look up a guide if I'm stuck completely and I've exhausted all my perceived options.
I love using the pen/paper approach to mapping out level design though when a map isn't handy in a game. It's fucking great.
Anonymous 04/13/15 (Mon) 12:48:17 e21057 No. 13347
>>4406 I used to pick the highest available difficulty and a lot of the times, it'd involve a lot of restarts/reloads. Which did take a lot of patience.
Now, I just pick the harder difficulty (since that's when the challenge seems appropriate) for a first playthrough. However the games with the grade/ranking, I tend to play normal and work toward a Plat/Pure Plat or S/SS rank before proceeding onto Hard.
Anonymous 04/13/15 (Mon) 12:50:44 e21057 No. 13348
>>4587 >enemies a powered up state (Devil Trigger) that is activated in several ways The most I notice with that is they're harder to stun/launch (which is okay, affects combo's), and they take reduced damage (same as having more health). They also probably do more damage.
It's normally after a certain period of time.
Anonymous 04/13/15 (Mon) 14:58:34 613610 No. 13367
I recently replayed Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin on Lv1 hard mode, on a clean data. That right there is straight-up bullshit difficulty until you've maxed out a few subweapons. The underground prison is frustrating as fuck.
Anonymous 04/15/15 (Wed) 14:59:34 684898 No. 13802
Ideally, I like to play any game for the first time on a difficulty that forces me to pay attention, but isn't going to make me play the same level several times before I can finish it. Typically this is either Normal or Hard, but you never really know how hard those are until you try them, and I'd rather ere on the side of too easy when I'm learning the ropes. Say what you will, but I prefer a smooth difficulty curve to bashing my head into a wall over and over with the exact same lack of results until finally, a crack appears. Even if it takes the same amount of time either way, I'd rather play through the game once on Normal than again on Hard then again on Dante Must Nightmare. If nothing else, there's more changes of scenery in the course of gradually improving my skills that way. So yeah, sign me up for liking to get comfortable.
Anonymous 04/17/15 (Fri) 07:55:51 613610 No. 14211
>>4458 Never play Borderlands. The enemy HP in the higher settings becomes nothing short of utterly insane.
Anonymous 04/18/15 (Sat) 13:54:01 684898 No. 14445
>>14211 Yeah, UVHM is garbage with its universal 4x HP AND direct level scaling. Two game design sins in one.
Oh, and everything gets regen too. And not even regen that kicks in if they don't take damage for a bit, CONSTANT regen. So damage over time effects become pretty useless since it's quite possible the regen will be simultaneously higher than the DoT, even when it's the element that enemy is weak to.
And of course, in UVHM enemy damage scales a good deal faster than your health and shields do, which makes you really notice how poor the essential gameplay is when you can't simply take the hits like in lower difficulties but you can't really dodge either.
Point is, they did everything wrong with the higher difficulties.
Anonymous 04/18/15 (Sat) 17:31:14 613610 No. 14459
>>14445 Honestly, if DOT in Borderlands became %-based damage in TVH and UVHM, it would have resolved the majority of balance issues. The slag boost does not suffice. Even when I play Mechromancer with the slagga (which results in EVERYTHING being slagged) it's not good enough.
If every 1000 DOT translated into 1% of their max HP as damage, it would have been tolerable.
Anonymous 04/18/15 (Sat) 18:17:40 684898 No. 14465
>>14459 >Mechromancer with the slagga That level of specificity brings up another problem with higher difficulties- Despite being a game with billion guns, when you crank up the difficulty, there are so few pieces of equipment that are viable whatsoever. Which isn't to say I have a huge problem with legendary guns being so much better, but even in that tier most of it won't do the job in UVHM.
Turning DoT into a percentage would probably help, but if you have to change calculations entirely (as opposed to just altering specific variables) to balance the other changes, that's still evidence that you've got some serious balance problems.
Anonymous 04/19/15 (Sun) 16:38:20 f78de1 No. 14619
I pretty much always start games on normal difficulty, but eventually I may go back and play it on a harder difficulty. I've found that most games I play more than once are games without difficulty settings (Souls games being the first to come to mind).
Anonymous 04/19/15 (Sun) 18:27:06 14079d No. 14648
-Ace Combat games or Vector Thrust
Always the hardest available. It usually goes Very Easy - Easy - Normal - Hard - Very Hard - Ace, although Very Easy and one of the Hard options might not be available at all, and Ace is usually locked the first time around.
But goddammit there's nothing better than playing on Ace and having to actually give a fuck about damage and missile counts.
-Musou games
Clear everything on Normal first time around, then if I still care enough I usually go the higher difficulties to unlock more shit. However the series is autist even for Japs so there is a lot of aggravation involved.
-GS games/4X games
I pump up the difficulty to just before the turning point where the AI goes from "improved and capable of putting up a fight" to "completely fucking OP and getting free money/units." With GS games I often make my own little tweak mods to mechanics obstacles that the player can handle but gimp the shit out of the AI, like decadence in CK2 or bankruptcy CBs in VickyII. It's no fun playing if the AI constantly collapses.
-Every other game
Usually go on normal first, then pump up the difficulty if the game is good enough.
Anonymous 04/29/15 (Wed) 20:13:58 45ed26 No. 15890
Because of this thread I finally got around to beating DMC3 on Hard and I couldn't remember when I had last enjoyed a game so much, now shooting for Very Hard. Thanks OP
Anonymous 04/29/15 (Wed) 22:51:51 29c0fd No. 15902
>>4406
I only try to go for hard. Wonderful 101's 101% hard gave me a ramming I'll never forget.