Difficulty Settings in Videogames

[@GSoulNight]

On a less related note, one of my favorite ways a game did its difficulty setting is Terraria and Expert Mode. Mainly adding difficulty by adding new attacks and patterns to enemies instead of only just health and damage increases, and the fact it rewarded players with difficulty exclusive items, ones that go beyond cosmetic, like an extra inventory slot. Its a great way to challenge the player meaningfully and tossing them a good bone for their efforts

[@SemiHypercube]

and then Master Mode is basically like "haha big number go brrr" and the only new items are cosmetic

[@tessfairfield6435]

I love how Supergiant Games allows you to fully customize your difficulty in each game. You can choose not to make things harder, but if you add difficulty modifiers you get rewarded for it

[@jess6831]

Me (and a lot of people) wouldn't play games if there was no difficulty settings. I understand all the points you make, but at the end of the day it's about having fun. I do not find it fun playing Halo on anything past Normal. If games had one difficulty settings then I'd quit. This is why I don't/didn't play NES/arcade games. Difficulty settings in games are beautiful.

[@6pakAL]

I miss the NES days where games were hard by default and seeing the ending screen was an accomplishment. However, those days also had cheat codes where you could skip levels that were too hard, turn on infinite health/ammo/whatever, and just make the game much easier to play if you just wanted to see the ending despite the lack of skill. I guess what I'm saying is, for me, the perfect solution would be Dark Souls with cheat codes. I'd still make it where any tracked achievements would not allowed to be grabbed (or somehow flag it with "obtained with cheats").

[@htwo1]

Yeah I think that having no difficulty setting is definitely my personal favourite way for it to be handled, but I do understand the need for difficulty settings sometimes. I think cheat codes were fine because they were secret, the game didn't tell you what the cheat codes were, what any of them did, or how many of them there were. It was very clear that it was cheating, right. They were literally called cheat codes.

[@thomasffrench3639]

Depends on the NES game. There were a decent amount of pretty easy NES games.

[@comradecatbug5289]

Thank you, this is the first time I see this argument addressed. I always dislike when games ask me to pick a difficulty setting. Even though most games let you change it afterwards, I will still find myself second guessing my choice all the way to the mid game and it really takes away from my experience.

[@ricardoludwig4787]

I really, REALLY like a well done hard mode, so I tend to have a distinct preference for games that allow customizing difficulty, but I absolutely agree that being able to mess around without being locked in for a certain setting should be the standard, especially since it can also help with difficulty spikes and make things more interesting to players that really like to dive into the game, or just want to get to a certain point as fast as possible.

[@htwo1]

Yes I agree. I also quite like completing games on the hardest difficulty to feel like I've beaten the challenge, but the fact of the matter is that if the game was that hard by default, it would have still been just as hard and just as rewarding, but it would have alienated some more casual audiences. I'm personally a big fan of not having the settings there, but I also don't want casual players to be unable to play great games just because of their difficulty. I'm between a rock and a hard place a bit.

[@OldTimeyDragon]

Nice video, I like that you made it clear that there's no distinct "right decision". Personally, I like difficulties that actually change the game's behavior, instead of just stats; kind of like how fighting game bots work. Personally, I like the idea of added difficulties not just so beginners can play (I remember what it was like to be a noob), but also I like the idea of being able to replay the game on a more expert difficulty. I would love for games from my childhood to be given "expert modes". However, I do think it's too much to make this the standard for developers. Games already take a crap ton of time and effort, and shaming developers for focusing on a single more refined experience is like complaining that an R-rated movie doesn't have a censored version.

[@thundageon5962]

I grew up playing video games without a difficulty setting, truly the best experience there was.

[@mrdeathbyzombies3704]

My favorite way a game handled difficulty was Ninja Gaiden Black. Starting a fresh new game is Normal difficulty by default. If you die too often, the game will offer you the easy mode at no cost to your progress in the game. The challenging enemies are still there and they want to see your insides on the outside, but you receive equipment that makes you stronger and extra healing items. You can still experience the amazing combat system and feel like a true ninja. The game has five difficulty modes in total which are: Ninja Dog, Normal, Hard, Very Hard, and Master Ninja. By beating the final boss in each difficulty, you unlock the next one for a fresh playthrough. Now most would ask, "Why replay the same game over again but harder? There's nothing new to discover." This is wrong as each difficulty introduces new items, new enemies, enemies are placed differently, items in chests are shuffled, new bosses, etc. Not to mention the sense of discovery when over time you discover where the hidden scarabs are and the fiend challenges which are enemy gauntlets that reward you handsomely for beating them. The game always tests you and no fight plays the same as you have to make very quick decisions every moment to survive.

[@thomasffrench3639]

Yeah I’m pretty sure that was taken from Devil May Cry. And for those type of action games, I feel like the difficulties are all pretty well balanced as they are designed to master the mechanics through multiple play-throughs so it feels more deliberate.

[@mrdeathbyzombies3704]

@@thomasffrench3639 devil may cry and onimusha were big influences on Ninja Gaiden 04 and Black.

[@SemiHypercube]

yeah honestly I'm gonna have to agree with you on how golden strawberries shouldn't be collectible in assist mode, since they're meant to show skill

[@NecromancyBlack]

I like when games do difficulty by basically offering alternative paths. Often one path is short but much harder, requiring more skill, and both knowledge and experience of the game. The other path is longer but easier and is designed to be a learning area so players can build up said experience and knowledge of the game. Bonus points for making both paths worthwhile to take (NPCs, items, shops, etc) so that eventually all players take them. Open world games do this a bit by default, as you can always just run into a higher "level" area. Depending how the games mechanics works a fresh character can often take on the are as long as they know what they are doing, though most RPGs you can't do this just cause the stats system results in you doing no damage and getting instant hit.

[@htwo1]

Yeah metroidvanias do that sorta thing very well, because they can have lots of the map be open to you from the start, the only thing stopping you from going there being your characters level or something. So technically you can go there if you're good enough to make your way through. A game that does something like this quite well is super monkey ball. There is no difficulty setting, but a lot of the levels have multiple paths with multiple goals, the harder paths lead to goals with extra point bonuses and stuff like that

[@artemixzs]

It is a genuine crime you don't have more subscribers

[@htwo1]

I wish it was. Then I could ARREST people who don't sub to me. I'd hit a million INSTANTLY! Thanks man ;)

[@bazookaman1353]

Playing shmups made me realise most difficulty options are not that good.

[@Freefork]

Wish more games were just non linear. If there were pathes of varying difficulties to take that you can switch between easily, everyone would accidently experience all difficulties and have an idea of how they want to enjoy the game. Just reward the try hards if they succeed on the hardest path! :)

[@htwo1]

You know a series that does this pretty well? Super Monkey Ball. You get more points and higher value goal posts when taking harder paths to the end. Monkey ball doesn't really have a difficulty setting, its just a bunch of worlds labelled "easy, medium, advanced, expert", but they let you try your hand at really hard challenges whenever you feel like

[@Freefork]

@@htwo1 A better example would probably be God Hand. You could literally get on your knees and beg for mercy when things get too tough. And if you hate yourself, you can taunt and get destroyed.

[@htwo1]

@@Freefork I've actually never played God Hand, I didn't realise it did that!

[@swootproonce634]

Dark Souls does kind of have an easy mode if you use summoning.

[@thomasffrench3639]

@@TiomesTheOneI mean it is a choice tho

[@gaminginhdmax3854]

Nice hollow knight music in the background love that game. Also dark souls literally ruined difficulty for me, i love how they fine tune the game to be hard until you learn then its like you won. It never gets boring and its so gratifying to complete. Compare this to mostly anything else difficulty just gives AI cheats and artificially boosts difficulty with inflated damage and health feels disgusting. I do think that resident evil has also found a good medium with giving you less resources to make you engage with the game as you choose instead of just blasting everything. Most modern games for me just feel like lazy difficulty i liked the adaptive difficulty in ff7 rebirth and i think most devs will pick this option but souls difficulty is my preference

[@KingKnowledge245]

Just get rid of difficulty modes. Its a waste of time. Its another reason games take for ever to come out. Get rid off obnoxious difficulty settings and just make a good balanced game, that is fair and reasonable. And not just punishing the player just for the fun of it.

[@analt2379]

Halo 2 is not necessarily the hardest it is the hardest on legendary and arguably LASO but on heroic or lower it’s annoyingly easy and that’s the biggest issue with the game’s campaign it doesn’t have a single good difficulty setting