>Hard Mode>doesn't make the game meaningfully harder>just turns every enemy into a damage sponge that can kill you in a couple hits
>>736895375gonna cry?
>>736895375and despite everyone realizing this people will still clown on you for not beating xyz on turborape mode (no actual behavioral or design difference to normal mode. just enemy stats)
>>736895375that sounds like it made the game harderyou upset that you actually have to git gud and can't bumble through without really learning the game's systems and mastering your execution?
>>736895375This works fine unless it's an rpg where it means you have to grind to level up more.
>>736895998I always start on the middle difficulty, or whatever is labeled as the intended difficulty, usually Normal. If I like the game ill go harder in a second playthrough, but also I like to replay games so if you dont I get why you might crank the difficulty.
>>736895375I like the hardcore immersive fps/ghost of tsushima lethal mode types where nobody is a damage sponge and fights are brief and decisive.
I felt this when replaying the metroid prime games. these already slow paced games get a parking brake when you have to kill enemies to unlock rooms.the games are genuinely more enjoyable on normal mode
>>736895762Yes, that's why I made this thread.
>>736895375>>736897376*plap plap plap plap plap plap*
>Hey this game isn't harder I'm just forced to survive longer while making fewer mistakes.
>>736896147The operative word is "meaningfully."
>>736897471Dying in less hits means you need to successfully dodge more attacks or you will lose. Giving the boss more hp means it will attack more times before it dies, again meaning you need to successfully dodge more attacks or you will lose. Is having to dodge attacks not meaningful difficulty?
>>736897471the idea of "meaningfully harder" is very subjective unless you actually define the termsgetting 99 in a skill in runescape is "hard" evidently because a lot of people give up before making it there, even if its something functionally everyone can mechanically dolots of times increasing the duration of the encounter and lowering mistake tolerance forces you to engage with every part of whatever the given challenge istake for example raising the health on a boss and making the damage drain your resources fasterthis makes it so that, while previously you might have been able to simply bulldoze through an encounter by eating all of the specific attack you cant (or wont) figure out how to deal with, and they increase the difficulty so that each and every attack is dangerous and requires you to find a means to deal with it, and the encounter is extended long enough that a boss will reasonably loop through all of their attacks, it will effectively be adding new attacks to the boss and making sure you are forced to learn them in order to winit is "meaningfully" harder to make something take 200 hours of grinding to beat, it is also meaningfully harder to increase the execution barrier. it is even still meaningfully harder to add in new challenges you have to learn and overcome. "meaningfully" means whatever you want if you dont specify what you are trying to convey.
>>736898423It raises the floor but the ceiling stays the same. Playing well would look the same on all difficulties which isn't a good thing.
>anime-poutkys
>>736895375I think that makes the game harder, but agree that it doesn't make the game meaningfully harderThere are very few games that make higher difficulties actually difficult in a way that's interesting and engaging rather than just doing number goes up +1
>Hard Mode>Makes game hard>NOOOO NOT LIKE THAT YOU DID IT WRONG
I'd love to hear an example of a "meaningfully" harder hard mode from these people.
>>736895375you dont look like this
>>736898813Enemy AI stops fulfilling its role and playing the game. Instead, all enemies try to bring the game to stack overflow one way or another and crash your PC. You must complete the game before they achieve their goal.
>>736898813Any combination of>more resource scarcity/inventory limits>more aggressive enemies>remixed enemy placement>mechanics added or removed
>>736895375>hard mode>makes the game easier
>>736898959can you name some specific games?
>>736899069Alien Isolation.Viewitful Joe.DMC.Bayonetta.Ninja Gaiden.
>>736895375It's not that hard to make a proper hard mode, right? I mean, you make baddies 20% faster and spawn a couple extra. Maybe give them an extra attack.What else is there?
>>736898959>more resource scarcity/inventory limitsThis basically amounts to a numbers tweak, just like changing health numbers.>more aggressive enemiesThis one is fine in my opinion but you could easily argue it makes the game worse because the lower difficulties are less fun. Most people would probably prefer to fight the aggressive enemies on every difficulty but with more room for error due to lower damage on easier settings.>remixed enemy placementThis one is good but takes way more work and is not feasible if you're making a large open world game.>mechanics added or removedFrom personal experience this makes the game less fun the vast majority of the time.
