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Difficulty Settings

Terminus

If I was a wizard this wouldn't be happening to me
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Alright, two-parter thread:

1. There's a lot of discourse online about whether or not certain games should have difficulty options (such as the ever-present Dark Souls series) or what those options should be (such as the kerfuffle about Starfox Zero having a mode that more or less auto-played itself). Should games have difficulty options, and at what point do you think a setting is too much?

2. What level of challenge do you personally like in your games? Do you always select the hardest option right off for that sweet sweet Epic Gamer™ Cred, or do you prefer the power-fantasy of "Just the Story" modes?
 

el :BeoWolf:

When all else fails use fire
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I like a nice medium. Something to keep me on my toes. If a game is too hard I'll get frustrated and hate it. Too easy and I'll be bored, so difficulty settings are a fantastic addition for any game as I can set it to where I feel challenged enough without totally getting decimated.
 
Games have been doing the easy, medium and hard thing for years and it has become a science at this point.

The problem with Souls-likes games is that they're hard because of a trend. It may not have started out that way and when Demon's Souls was around there may have been a deeper meaning back then, but there isn't anymore.

As a result people are excluded from Souls-likes because they don't have the skills, like me, or see the worth in headbutting a brickwall for hours on end until one of you crumbles.

As for games with the options that play themselves, that's on you if you activate that option. Options are optional.

Again, Souls-likes are an exception because they're designed as a trend and don't have difficulty options.

Everything else.... People who ***** about options in video games need to get a clue, options are optional.


As for what kind of difficulty I like. I like a fair challenge, I can get platinum trophies on the hardest modes in Bayonetta, that's my skill ceiling and comfort limit.
 

mαrkαsscoρ

Mr. SidleInYourDMs
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I never go beyond normal on an initial playthrough, depending on how I feel [or in a case like Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn] I may even go in a easier difficulty, I don't feel like getting stuck in games anymore

as for the first point, it's whatever for me, if it's there then it's there, if not, I don't freaking know, that's up to the devs
 

Cfrock

Keep it strong
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I think difficulty options should be in most games. They let you adapt the experience to your own taste or needs quickly without having to mod a game or cheat. It sucks when you get to a part of a game that is simply too hard for you and it effectively locks the rest of the game. It also sucks when a game is so easy you don't have to think almost at all. Being able to make things a bit easier or a bit harder lets you solve these kinds of problems with little hassle.

I'd only say a setting is "too much" if it either plays the game for you or makes the game borderline impossible. I don't have any examples of games that do either of those, though, so it's not something I encounter. As long as nothing forces you to use a ridiculous setting then that's fine by me.

As for my own preference, it depends on the type of game. I used to play Halo and Call of Duty on the highest difficulties out of the box because I believed doing so would help me get better at the games faster so I'd do well in multiplayer. If I'm playing an RPG I tend to play on a lower difficulty because the story is usually more interesting than the gameplay, and I'm already going to be playing for 50+ hours, I really don't need to have an extra 20 just repeatedly stabbing people.

Often times I play on a harder difficulty after getting to grips with the game, kind of the opposite I did with Halo and CoD. I did my first run of REmake2 on Standard, but since then I've only played on Hardcore.

A lot of the time when I choose lower difficulty settings I do so mainly to remove or essentially remove mechanics I find annoying or frustrating. For example, I'm currently playing The Witcher 3 and I honestly don't think I would even bother if I weren't on the lowest difficulty. The fact that it removes weight for all alchemy and crafting components alone is essential for me. If those items had weight, and I had to actually spend time managing them as a resource in a game I'm playing mainly for its story and to cut people in half, I'd probably have stopped playing the game outright.
 

Mikey the Moblin

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I'm adamant that Dark Souls isn't a hard game at all- it's the only soulslike I've played so I dunno if other games amp up the difficulty.
I'll always play games on easy mode when available.
 

Dio

~ It's me, Dio!~
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Id prefer most games started at the difficulty they were meant to be played at and then only offered an easier option after repeat failures around the same point rather than just offering an easier mode off the bat.
 
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Games have been doing the easy, medium and hard thing for years and it has become a science at this point.
Correct but this was not always the way. I'd say this trand started around the mid 1990's. Before this and limited cart sizes forced the developers to find other ways to legenth the game play time. This was usually done through a harder game or limited lives so you had to relay content over and over to finisht he game because you died a lot.
 

GrooseIsLoose

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what do you think of Prince of Persia @Terminus ?
I've played to games of PoP. One is Rival swords in Wii. At first I picked easy mode. I loved the speed kill so much that after a few days I deleted the progress and chose the difficult mode. I'm currently stuck at the final boss.
 

Cartoonmaniac

Biggest Zelda fan this side of the South Pole
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If it's a linear story-driven game, I usually do one play through on the easiest difficulty just to get the full experience without any of the frustration. Then if I do a second playthrough, I pick the hardest difficulty so that I can experience it again in a different way or for achievements/trophies

When I play open world games and there's a difficulty setting, I pretty much always go easy, just because I don't want to waste my time repeatedly dying to the 1,000,000th generic bad guy
 

Jimmu

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I think having various difficult options is generally a great thing so that the difficulty preferences of a wider group can be catered to.

Generally I’d play through on a normal difficulty for most things if given the choice, I don’t want it to be easy but I also don’t really feel a particular desire to be challenged too much with most games.
 

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