Non-Indicative Difficulty: Difference between revisions

* In ''[[Sonic Adventure 2 (Video Game)|Sonic Adventure 2]]'', the fifth mission of each level offered a tougher challenge. This usually involved redesigned sections and, more commonly, gaping pits with enemies above them, which actually made it easier for many players.

** 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.

* In ''[[Mario Kart (Video Game)|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]]--a single mistake can spell the difference between a first place finish or a sixth place (or worse).

* 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|Hidden Characters]] in the [[Bonus Dungeon]].

** 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|Combos]]. Opponents with more HP can be comboed longer for more bonus XP - this is especially critical at the very low levels, where foes are weak enough to die before you can finish your combo properly. Also, the [[Evolving Attack]] system found in all Tales games means that enemies that last longer can have more artes used on them, accessing new artes quicker. In ''Dawn'', you may gain significantly less XP on Normal than on Hard, even if you are overlevelled - even after quests for which the party is grossly overlevelled on Hard, it's possible to gain something like 12 xp from an enemy and 600 bonus xp from the fight, because the enemies still last long enough to break a 20+ hit combo out on them.

* ''[[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.

* In ''[[Borderlands (Video Game)|Borderlands]]''' DLC, ''Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot'', after Round 1 Moxxi will randomly choose an effect (or effects) with which to make the next wave harder. One example of this is by making the enemies have double shield strength. Which doesn't come into play if you're only fighting Skags (with no shields) or have Mordecai's Trespass skill maxed (which ignores shields). Granted, it's not making things easier, but it's not making them harder either.

** Value of the coins dropped: Hard actually drops more gold and silver coins than Easy does. This means you'll have MORE powerups when you reach a boss on Hard than you will on Easy, even if you defeat the same enemies.

* The golfing MMO [[Pangya]] has this on its [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|battleship-themed]] Silvia Cannon course. There are cannons that will fire during the course, on their own time, and change the wind - midshot, even, if that's when they go off! Once you realise these are specifically timed and create specific results, you can actually wait for them to go off, and some of the randomness is actually removed from this course. It helps a lot, because it's still a really hard course.

* Some find Superhuman mode in ''[[Resistance]] 2'' easier than Hard because the Bullseye weapon is entirely replaced by the very powerful Bullseye MKII.

* In ''[[Ace Combat]] Zero'', the Mercenary path is supposed to be the hardest of the three; the ace squadrons you encounter along that path have better planes in larger numbers than the other paths' aces. However, it's usually the Soldier path that ends up with harder aces, especially on higher difficulties - for example, Schnee squadron can attack you from a much longer range than anyone else in the game, and Grun squadron can avoid your standard missiles by dropping flares.

[[Category:Video Game Difficulty Tropes]]

[[Category:Non Indicative Difficulty]]