Non-Indicative Difficulty: Difference between revisions
m
clean up
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) m (Looney Toons moved page Non Indicative Difficulty to Non-Indicative Difficulty: Adding proper punctuation to page name) |
m (clean up) |
||
Line 2:
Some games let you select your difficulty, either between easy or hard levels, or between an easy or hard whole game. Occasionally, it fails to actually be the challenge that was intended.
Perhaps the [[Rubber Band AI]] or [[Anti Frustration Feature|similar mechanics]] of the game have made it so that 'easy' courses are harder than the 'hard' courses on the same mode. Perhaps the 'hard' mode is supposed to make the AIs behave more deviously but instead gives them [[Artificial Stupidity]]. Perhaps the [[Hard Mode Perks|bonuses you receive]] for playing on a harder level actually make the game easier than intended. (This is especially the case for games with [[Tech Points]] or [[Evolving Attack
This is not about a bonus you receive for completing something difficult making the game easier (or vice versa), save for unlockable difficulty, it's about something intending to make the game harder that has the side effect of actually making it easier, either with mitigation overdose or the [[Combinatorial Explosion]] of game rules that result in changes in the difficulty.
Line 15:
** Tails' and Eggman's 5th missions usually increased the number of enemies present in their respective levels. This made it easier to get more and higher bonuses for clearing large numbers of enemies at once, therefore making it easier to get an A rank.
** Knuckles' and most of Rouge's stages are randomised on the first mission but not on the fifth, meaning it's much easier to practice for an A rank and avoids the fact that the first mission is a hideous example of [[Luck-Based Mission]].
* In ''[[Mario Kart]] Wii'', playing on 150cc often tends to make the short courses such as Luigi Raceway harder to finish ahead in than the long courses like Rainbow Road, since there's less opportunity to put space between yourself and the other racers before the inevitable [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|last-second onslaught]]. Even on the SLOWER races this is noticeable. Elements of this, though, pop up in any difficulty, though, due to the [[Rubber Band AI]]
* In ''[[Valkyrie Profile]]'', hard mode is supposed to be harder because everyone starts at level 1 and the enemies in general are tougher. In practice, the lowered starting level just means more opportunities to level them up while wearing equipment that gives bonuses to their HP or CP, latter of which being used to learn various skills that also grant various stat bonuses: the actual process of leveling everyone up isn't much of an issue either, thanks to the ability to gain event experience and give it to whoever you want via the menu. Furthermore, playing the game on Hard is necessary if you wish to [[Loads and Loads of Characters|get everyone]], and the various Hard-only dungeons provide a good amount of the game's [[Game Breaker]] equipment. They're also the only locations where you can get the items necessary to get the best equipment and the [[Hidden Character
** Likewise, you miss out on nearly all of the best loot in an Easy game - the result is that it's much more difficult than Normal.
** Also, the fact that a large amount of a character's damage and defenses come from their ''gear'', not their level or skills (though those do help enormously).
Line 42:
* The first ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' game even has this to a lower extent. While you have to complete the first four worlds (Including Traverse Town) before you can access the later ones, you don't necessarily ''have'' to complete them in the order the game recommends you to. Some worlds can actually be completed ''after'' a set of [[Climax Boss|important boss battles later in the game at Hollow Bastion]], but most players won't do that because entering Hollow Bastion means going past a [[Point of No Return]] and if one misses valuable experience and equipment, well it'll either be [[Unwinnable]] or hard. Now to the point...The biggest example of how the battle level can mislead you is within the first four worlds. While it would seem that one should visit the Olympus Coliseum before Deep Jungle, people who had played the game would actually tell you it's better to go to Deep Jungle ''before'' Olympus Coliseum. There isn't that much of a difficulty spike (Unless you're playing expert, that is), and being given the Cure Magic would ''really'' help against a boss with a sudden difficulty spike in Olympus Coliseum.
** The sequel however is noticeably easier. Many players will consider Proud Mode to be just as easy as Standard, but there is still some notable moments where it seems harder on Proud than it does on Standard or Easy. For one, the nobodies early in the game hit Roxas harder, and when you have limited heals...well... And if one chooses to go to Beast's Castle before the Land of Dragons because you get the Cure magic from beating the boss there (Which makes sense...Potions cost Munny after all, and that saves on Munny), don't expect the boss to go down without a fight. But after that, it becomes quite easy, with a few difficulty spikes here and there when you reach [[That One Boss]]. (The Berserker swarm in Twilight Town, Demyx, Xaldin...) One other reason players choose Proud Mode is that you don't have to do as many optional stuff to get the cool bonus video ending everyone so loves as you do in Standard. (In Easy, you can't get it. At all.)
*** But there is also Critical Mode in the [[No Export for You|Final Mix]] version that reduces Sora's maximum HP by half, but gives him a lot of ability points to balance that out. If you as a gamer are consistently good enough to do [[No Damage Run
* ''[[House of the Dead]]: OVERKILL'' has "Director's Cut" mode, which makes the chapters a bit longer and adds more mutants. It also adds a [[Hand Cannon]] that costs about as much as the standard shotgun and starts out with maxed-out Firepower. Plus, all the extra mutants means a better chance of getting a high score, therefore more cash bonus at the end of the chapter.
* The first ''[[Hearts of Iron]]'' has a difficulty level in the form of AI personality. The highest level (the lowest is named "weakling") was stupidly aggressive and was easily countered.
Line 57:
** Similarly, in some older arcade games (''Ms. [[Pac-Man]]'', for instance) the cabinet can be set to a difficulty by the owner. While it isn't universal some players find the fastest speed to be much easier than the slower ones.
* ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' players will sometimes go through the game without gaining a single point of experience, competing it at level one. Through creative use of abilities, spells and equipment, most early bosses can actually be killed ''faster'' than if one were to play through normally. Quina's Limit Glove Blue Magic deals 9999 damage if s/he has 1 HP remaining, which is enough to one-shot everything until Oeilvert, by which time Zidane and Freya are able to do the same with their own attacks.
* In ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'', setting the Battle Speed to the fastest setting will give you an advantage once you start encountering bosses that completely disregard charge
* ''[[Beatmania]]'' had this problem when putting the song SNOW on the US version. The US version had much more easier charts that your standard [[Nintendo Hard]] bemani game, but SNOW's hyper chart ended up being ''harder'' in the US.
* The harder difficulty level in ''Two Worlds'' begins as an unbelievable
* On ''[[Fire Emblem]]: The Sword of Seals'', Hard Mode starts gets easier after a few chapters, because the awesome stat bonuses your enemies get [[Heel Face Turn|also go to the characters that can be recruited]].
** Not all of them. Ray, Douglas, and Hugh don't get the stat bonuses. Percival, too, if you recruit him in Chapter 13 instead of 15.
Line 67:
* Driving games that offer automatic and manual transmission are often more cumbersome to play in automatic, as the auto-shift tends to shift at the wrong speeds and techniques that involve shifter manipulation (such as ''[[Daytona USA]]'''s shifter sliding) become impossible.
** Similarly the faster cars that appear later in racing games are often easier to drive, despite needing quicker reflexes, because they have more downforce and bigger tyres and don't slide around as much as the slower cars. In ''Race Driver [[GRID]]'' and the ''[[Need for Speed]]'' games the classic American muscle cars are far more 'tail-happy' than the supercars. This is partly [[Truth in Television]]; [[Formula One]] cars are often described by the pros and being relatively easy to drive compared to touring cars, because they are so advanced. It's the ''level of competition'' that makes F1 difficult.
* In ''[[Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World]]'', and other [[Tales (series)]] games, on Hard mode, opponents have more HP. However, in ''Dawn'' (and some other games in the series) you gain bonus experience for long [[Combo
** The consequences are even more glaring in the [[New Game+]] - since you spend Grade in order to buy upgrades (like x5 XP gain, keep all learnt artes, etc.) for your new playthrough, and harder difficulties earn you more Grade (plus better chances to earn Grade-boosting achievements like breaking a 50 hit combo in a fight or ending a fight with a large combo), starting from Hard difficulty at the start of your first playthrough would enable the player to achieve in two playthroughs (getting the best hidden weapons, beating the Bonus Dungeon on Mania difficulty, etc.) what you would need three playthroughs to achieve if you start on Normal difficulty.
* ''[[Lord of the Rings: The Third Age]]'' has an issue similar to ''[[Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World]]''. If you play on Hard you'll have maybe three genuinely difficult fights, but the rest are trivialized by the fact that enemies' longer HP bars means you use twice as many skills to kill them, and thus get twice as many SP to earn abilities sooner.
Line 90:
* ''Star Wars: [[Shadows of the Empire]]'' compensates the player for the increased difficulty of the highest level (Jedi) by making the player's blaster much more powerful. As a result, [[Harder Than Hard|Jedi]] becomes a lot easier than Hard.
* This happens to some attacks and spellcards in ''[[Touhou]]'', particularly since easier difficulties tend to slow down the bullets, which sometimes just makes the patterns denser, leaves more bullets on the screen, and requires more micrododging. A good example is "Mountain of Faith", Kanako's last spellcard, on Easy and Normal: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKRMW-RWUlc see this video for a comparison].
* [[Donkey Kong Country]] 2's hard mode removes all DK barrels, but on the other hand, levels always start with both Kongs, which is beneficial in Tool Assisted [[Speed Run
* In ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', the submarine minigame (Gold Saucer version) is easier on "harder" modes because of the abundance of targets helps reaching the required points total.
* ''[[Aerobiz]]'': ''Supersonic'' plays with this one. The first four difficulty levels determine the scenario goals, with each step up requiring dominance in one more region. However, the scenario goals are the same for all four players, thus while you have to dominate [X] regions against your competitors, so do they against you. Combined with Artificial Stupidity, this makes the middle difficulties easier to win because an astute player can easily block the others from getting enough regions to win. It's the easiest level where players have to watch out for airlines expanding into regions he may not be able to reach as they go for the win.
| |||