Early Game Hell: Difference between revisions

This particular valley of difficulty usually occurs between the opening chapter of the game (where there are so few options that it is hard to make a wrong choice) and the point where a player becomes able to understand and accumulate the resources at their disposal, significantly increasing their available options. It is essentially a symptom of [[Unstable Equilibrium]].

 

 

[[Super-Trope]] of [[Early Bird Boss]], and often overlaps with [[Schizophrenic Difficulty]]. If there are difficulty options and the "Easy" mode is harder for whatever reason, that's [[Non Indicative Difficulty]].

* The early game in [[Earthbound]] is more difficult than many later parts. Before you get a proper party, you have to fight several early game bosses <ref>Frank, the Gigantic Ant, and the Onett police force</ref> and go through [[That One Level|Peaceful Rest Valley]]. Once you get Paula and can level her up enough for her strengths to shine, the game gets much easier.

* In ''[[Mother 3]]'', the first three chapters are told from the viewpoint of three different characters. While it's undoubtedly an excellent storytelling choice, getting yanked away from the characters you've leveled up and gotten familiar with is a bit jarring. This comes to a head in Chapter 3, where you have to play as [[Joke Character|Salsa]] for the entire chapter, including fighting ''[[That One Boss|a freaking tank]]'' at the end.

* As soon as the game gives control to the player, [[Resident Evil 2]] throws zombies at you in nearly every direction from the very start. If playing on normal, you won't have enough ammunition to fight them all, forcing you to run. The controls have a definite learning curve to them; expect to die a lot in the early stages (if not the very first screen) if you're not well accustomed to "tank-like" movement.

* The hardest boss in the first ''[[Diablo]]'' is the Butcher, encountered at level 2 and quite capable of surviving all your mana potions and staff charges and killing you in two hits.

* ''[[Minecraft]]''. Entire guides have been written on how to survive the first full day, and what you should set about doing immediately. For the uninitiated, this is because the game starts you with nothing. No weapons, no tools, no food, and no real idea or explanation of how to get them. Just you, dumped into a random landscape, with ten minutes before nightfall, when the monsters appear. In that time you need to prepare some form of defense, even if it's just a basic shelter. The game gets much easier once you have a shelter, some cobble weapons (at least), and have learnt a few ways to craft all the stuff you'll need to survive against the enemies.

* Many players never got past the first chapter of ''[[Dark Cloud]]'' because the very beginning of the game can be '''sheer torture''': before you have access to a shop, you get a VERY limited cache of supplies from the mayor of Norune; your weak weapon needs to be repaired frequently (and God help you if you run out of Repair Powder at a critical time), you may or may not luck into a Healing Spring in the random dungeon layouts, and heaven help you if you manage to get poisoned. Even after you finally get access to the game's first shop, it doesn't get MUCH easier, because the enemies in the first dungeon don't drop much money and the item prices are ridiculous. Add to that the absurd difficulty of the final boss of the first dungeon, and a lot of players gave up on this otherwise excellent game before they could really open it up.

* ''[[X (video game)|X3 Reunion]]'' and previous ''X-Universe'' games are infamous for dropping the player into the universe in a crappy ship with next to no money, no upgrades, bad weapons, and no tutorial. Trading is painfully slow and combat usually results in a Pirate fighter curb-stomping your little ship. [[Sequel Difficulty Drop|Later games alleviate the issue]] by having different game starts give the player a better ship or more money.