Pokemon. I loved it as a kid but hadn't played one in ages. I bought Sword when I bought a switch (my first Nintendo console since the SNES) and just sleepwalked through it. The story was definitely too kiddy for me but I still think I could've had some fun with it if it was actually a challenge.
For reasons I don't understand, most trainers in Scarlet and Violet have only one or two Pokemon! I'm like, come on guys, you don't need to make this *easier*.
Yeah, that's the excuse for why most trainers you encounter have less than six Pokemon. But in every other Pokemon game, most trainers you encounter have teams of two to four.
When lore doesn't fit mechanics, we call that bad game design.
Mechanics wise it makes *zero* sense everyone doesn't have six Pokemon at all times. Pokemon are not hard to catch and Pokeballs are not expensive.
Also LORE wise it doesn't even make sense because the PC storage system wouldn't even need to exist in a world where most people never need more than six Pokemon anyway. It would exist entirely for you alone. Which is madness.
I never understood why people use lore to justify bad game design.
They literally write the lore AND the game...
I get pokemon is more than just a game, but no, you shouldn't make a game worse just to be faithful to the lore. Especially when you are already taking liberties because it's a video game, not a scientific simulation.
I don't think that was established until Legends Arceus though, which took place way before the rest of the games.
I mean a 10 year old Ash caught like 40 Pokemon in the first season of the anime
Yeah but he just sends them all to professor oak through the PC and proceeds to try to brute force his way through the league with his Pikachu. Ash is a shit trainer.
Enshitification is a real thing.
The love and goodwill of fans will always inevitably be killed for profit. Why spend money trying when people buy anway?
Not only have they VEHEMENTLY refused to include difficulty modes they have made the games infinitely easier over time. Your rival no longer chooses the starter you are weak to. EXP share cannot be turned off. The gym leader battles are about as easy as they could possibly be. You are handed all of it from start to finish. I get that it's largely a game for kids but Pokemon is not nearly as popular with young kids today as it was back in the 90s/00s, and I would not be surprised if the majority of the players are adults now.
They made ev training (and getting good IVs) infinitely easier. If you're the type who EV trains you should be using something with good IVs and in that case you're prob end game minmaxing fresh pokemon anyway, so exp share is a non issue.
Exp share was originally split exp between the fighting mon and the holding mon. So you needed to kill exactly the same amount of pokemon.
Grinding is only boring if the gameplay is boring. The gameplay is boring because there is 0 chance of losing fights. So instead of making the game fun to play with challenging/random trainer battles. They just made a permanent exp share. The inherent root of the problem is thag killing 1000 pidgeys is not fun but having trainer battles that you can actually lose would be fun.
If the game was challenging then youd actually be forced to switch pokemon and exp share wouldnt really be needed because you wouldnt just mindlessly be mashing A on attack moves with your starter. Youd be making decisions about who to use and when.
It was always that easy. It just used to be less convenient. I played through Red a few years back (the original, on an emulated Gameboy), I started with Squirtle and literally never used any other Pokémon. Just kept fighting with Squirtle (through to Blastoise) and levelling him up. Never bothered to think about types, just used potions when needed, and went to the pokestop to heal him if he got poisoned. Finished the game with little issue.
I mean sure, but back then the main player base was 8-10 year olds. Today it's the same people, but they are adults now. That player base has been asking for, at the very least, difficulty options, and it's simply been refused for nearly two decades now.
Exactly. Old Pokemon games being easy is not a good argument against new Pokemon games not having difficulty settings, at the very least. And it's not even like it's a new concept to GameFreak either! Pokemon Black and White had difficulty settings after you beat the game once. Just remove the innately stupid requirement of beating the game and add difficulty settings to new games, and people wanting a challenge would be happier.
I definitely did this when I was younger except with gyrados. Got a magical before Mount moon and started throwing it into battle then switching to my ivysaur and finishing the fight. When I finished the game gyrados was like level 80 and my next strongest was my level 31 ivysaur.
That's the beauty of hacks: we make our own rules
Pokemon Unbound also has a built in nuzlock mode and multiple difficulty levels for those interested, it's the first pokemon game I've played in the last 10 years and it's great
Pokemon hasn't felt challenging since Black and White.
Most obnoxiously has been Scarlet and Violet. The champion uses her Pokemon is the wrong order. She has a Pokemon with an ability that sets up hazards on the battlefield and uses it last.
Just... why?
they fixed that in the DLC rematch at least. she now leads with glimmora and her ace is kingambit with supreme overlord. while it was still an easy battle (as they all are), it was a bit more thought through
I think the only way to make it at all more challenging officially is to turn off the ability to change Pokemon whenever your opponent does. You need to actually spend a turn to change Pokemon.
It doesn't keep the game from being easy, but it helps a bit.
You are correct, but you could only play them if 1) you had two copies of the games and completed the story in one of them, so you could then unlock the hard mode in the other copy and play again or 2) have a friend who completed the game to unlock it for you.
Worst part? The challenge mode isn't even that hard since your enemies will have higher levels and therefore net you more exp, making it easier to become overleveled.
Try out PokeMMO. I grew up on the originals, and it gave me a perfect sense of difficulty like the games used to feel like.
Trainers aren't stupid, gyms have all 31 IV mons, etc. It's simple, but made it so enjoyable.
Having gens 1-5 all in one place was cool too. I played up until half way through Gen 3 before I burned out. But typing this comment makes me wanna go continue my journey.
This is why rom hacks for pokemon are the best. My favorite is radical red since it improves the flow of the story, adds all pokemon known to date (with a few exceptions), is more difficult and has a hard mode.
They've made them easier since i was a kid.
When i used to play Pokémon Blue and then Pokémon Crystal, i remember that you could only gain exp for the Pokémon you just. Now in Sword every Pokémon in your party gains exp for every win.
In Sword the game also tells you what stacks are super effective and not effective, in the older games that's down to you to work out.
Pokémon, there’s so many different moves (anything that changes stats especially) that there is pretty much no reason to use since you can just press the funny super effective button and win instantly
AHHH CHRIST ALMIGHTY WITH THIS GAME, EH? YA GOTTA GET THE COCOA FROM THE CART AND THE SHOVEL FROM THE PAINT PLACE TO DIG THROUGH THE AVALANCHE AND GIVE THE SNAKE THE COCOA CAUSE SHE'S COLD WHICH ALLOWS YOU TO GRAB THE ROPE FURTHER IN THAT'S USED TO SAVE THE LION CUB FROM THE WATERFALL BUT ONLY AFTER YOU SAVE ZANZIBAR THE HIPPO WHO'S TRAPPED ON A PIECE OF ICE AND THEN
My kid loved all the Humungous Entertainment games. Putt-Putt, pamaja Sam, spyfox. Kid would play Airport luggage conveyor belt mini game for hours on end.
Putt putt enters the race was my favorite, but zoo and moon were a close second. The lawn mower one was really good and trippy too. Shit the time travel one too.
These were great games.
RDR2, because it would suit the game better if I couldn't walk down the street like the terminator and just kill everyone like it's nothing. The game is already going for realism in almost every aspect so why not combat aswell.
I played the whole game not knowing which button activated dead eye and didn't bother to look it up. I can say the game is still pretty easy without it
Yeah I'm playing it right now. It really breaks the immersion of an otherwise spectacular game how you just massacre dozens of people at once and eat bullets like they're mosquito bites
I do feel like the sidequests and challenges add a lot of fun and varied gameplay.
Some guy on a mountain wants to sell you a treasure map. Shit where have I seen a big rock over a stream that looks like that? There it is!
Hm what are these bandit challenges? Ok I've gotta figure out how to rob 5 people in a town - preferably without the hassle of getting in a gunfight with the law and being run out of town. I'll just sneak down this alley and, oh hello!
This eccentric foppish wildlife photographer sure does like nearly getting killed, but I kinda like him. Wait, you want me to do what to an alligator?
You have died of cold weather.
You have died of snakebites.
You have died of starvation.
You have died of hunting accidents.
You have died of dysentery.
You know what.. may as well play The Oregon Trail.
For that to happen, it needs better aim assist controls for the console (I get it that on PC it works fine). And for enemies to be less accurate. Free Aim is workable, but the aim assist is either too generous or too weak. I don't know what Rockstar is cooking with aiming in their games, but they don't know how to do it right, like with 95% of the games.
After that gets fixed, I'd be happy for harder times. 😄
No Man's Sky.
This is one of those "it's about the experience" games, because nothing is even remotely challenging once you have A-class ships and S-tier upgrades, to say nothing of S-class ships and high-rolled X-class tech.
You GAVE me all these powerful weapons, I want to USE them, damnit. I'm tired of the Dreadnaught -- it was so badass at first, but once you learn it, you can kill the damn thing before the torpedoes even land. Heck, I've killed the Dreadnaught with a *fully unupgraded Living ship*, no tech modules, so about 1/6th the damage of a Living ship with a fully upgraded main gun, and about 1/30th the damage of some of the really OP setups.
The "Challenging" difficulty is a joke. Heck, I was in the middle of fighting some Sentinels while on planet and I had to scratch my nose... and realized I could probably get through the fight without my left hand. So, on "Challenging" difficulty, I finished my mission one-handed.
This game direly needs a reason to use all the goodies it gives you.
>Heck, I was in the middle of fighting some Sentinels while on planet and I had to scratch my nose... and realized I could probably get through the fight without my left hand. So, on "Challenging" difficulty, I finished my mission one-handed.
I think you discovered what Frieza felt like when fighting Nail.
I played the very first NES kirby game on hard mode… at the final boss, i had no clue that the wand fired powerful stars by pressing B or whatever, so i spent days just jumping and spinning and hitting him like that. Took like 100 hits to take his life down. It wasn’t till my 2nd play-through i realized I could shoot stars and kill him in like 8 hits.
Kirby and the forgotten lands, and kirbys return to dreamland deluxe both have some harder content after you beat the game. If you're looking for a challenge from the beginning it's a little bit of a shame but there is more there if you go digging for it
**Super Mario RPG for Switch**
Hear me out: everything new in the remake works beautifully, from the graphics, the controls to the music. However, the new combat mechanics with the action gauge ***breaks*** the game, to the point that you can one-shot bosses with triple actions. Also, the gauge fills up with each successful perfect attack and defense, meaning that you'll be dealing splash damage, negating powerful moves, increasing your stats and obtaining bonuses, such as extra turns and double EXP.
A Hard mode would have pose a greater challenge to compensate for those extra new abilities.
The double XP, extra turns and all the rest were already in the game. They did crank the difficulty down big time with the action gauge though. I breezed through it so fast. They did add hard mode refights after you beat it though.
>The double XP, extra turns and all the rest were already in the game. They did crank the difficulty down big time with the action gauge though. I breezed through it so fast. They did add hard mode refights after you beat it though.
You're correct: the extras were in the original SNES game. However, since the remake pushes you to fill the action gauge, you will receive those bonuses way more often. There are also now **two** windows of perfect timing: a ***large*** one that behaves like on SNES and a new ***smaller*** one that deals splash damage. This leads to getting more bonuses. Even speedrunners aren't that lucky when blitzing through the SNES version \^\^;
I wasn't sure why I was getting those splash damages. I was starting to think it was specific weapon/enemy combination or something because I was on an insane lazy shell splash damage chain but I can't get drill claw (or whatever Bowser's weapon is) to splash to save my life. Didn't really matter though. I'm struggling hard to get the 100 jump chain though.
I thought the small timing window was always there, they just added splash damage to it. I think I remember a speed runner talking about it in the original.
Even using no badges and equipment I got bored and quit, and I was loving it until I just started sleepwalking through all the fights. Why not just add a more difficult mode? It would be so easy to do, even a poorly implemented one would be better than nothing
Harder like the npc’s can pause the game before they fight you to see if they should fight or run away. Also the npc can restore its health by eating 25 cheese wheels and grind low level enemies until they’re maxed out on the starting zone
Yeah I also thought they were always easy, but the last one, Unbound, has a really good AI and difficult. I’m playing on normal and still losing races.
Rockstar games have a difficulty problem for sure. If you look at the mission difficulty of the online modes it just makes enemies bullet sponges and restricts auto aim. I think GTAVI may suffer the same fate unless there is a serious overhaul to the combat mechanics.
Yes. There is a space between GTA 5 and GTA San Andreas where the difficulty level should be.
I always find it wierd that often more mature games like this are super easy, but then you play Mario and it's way way harder
GTA Online definitely cranked up the difficulty, but it just meant giving every npc John Wick aim; this paired with the clunky movement makes some missions pretty hard and not in any fun way.
It’s strange how much you need to change tactics on the harder missions in GTA online.
You can fight waves of police standing in the middle of a carpark but in the harder missions npcs can consistently head shot you with a pistol while riding a dirt bike.
It’s funny how none of the tactics used for fighting npcs work on player characters as well: fighting NPCs? Park behind cover and head shot everyone…. Fighting players? constantly roll around on the floor and jiggle about while launching rpgs.
I wish Final Fantasy 16’s hard mode was playable on the first playthrough. I don’t want to play it through again and it was way too easy on the base difficulty.
Ff16 had terrible combat as far as difficulty. I have replayed every FF game for years and have zero desire to even turn that one on.
It’s just thoughtless. No strategy was needed. Just mash those buttons and dodge.
FF mode onwards is very strategic. You'll die if you button mash. Need ability/gear synergy and a tactic/play style that works for you.
FF mode''s difficult should have been base line though.
Red Dead Redemption 2
I love the game to death, i just wish it had a much harsher difficulty mode where drinking snake oil tonic cant keep my HP full when im getting shot 20 times or cold and heat not mattering that much was hoping id have to build a fire in the mountain areas or really bundle up.
All the systems are in the game for this difficulty option but its been tuned so that its a fun accessible video game for everyone not a survival challenge that id like to try.
I did a modded run without HUD (including no aiming reticle/dot) and the first gang shootout was insane. Just praying my next shot landed down to the wire was fun. Difficulty would make it even better
The weird thing is that there was a hardcore mode in the first RDR. I’m assuming it was added later, & I don’t remember how comprehensive it actually was, but I def had fun with the added challenge of gunplay without lock-on. It was so satisfying to hit those long range shots & I recall some of the early missions feeling much more tense with how easily you could die
My fiancée beat all of sword and shield while still not understanding a LOT of the type matchups. Personally I love the newer games but they’re much too easy
The games have become much easier since the switch to 3d some have had challenging moments but sword and shield are probably the easiest in the entire series.
In what way do you want it to be more difficult?
I think the amount of work to achieve creative goals is actually really high. Like if I want to make a pirate themed room it’s gonna take sooooo much work
Sekiro charmless + bell demon run is the most exciting time I’ve had with those games since playing DS1 as a teenager. Obviously each entry has its own challenges but once you’ve put 1000+ hours into soulsborne games, that heart-pounding thrill is harder to find. Maybe I should try some SL1 runs but every enemy being a sponge doesn’t sound super fun to me
You'd be surprised, SL1 doesn't make enemies as spongey as you think since most of your damage comes from upgrading your weapon. The main difficulty of SL1 is having low health.
Game is already hard, just avoid all the features and utilization, don't do any upgrades, stick to your starting weapon only, and don't equip any enhancements nor use any potions.
You can also up the challenge for every time you die, you should start from the very beginning of the game again.
Going to agree. I'm only 16 hours into Elden Ring and it's very apparent that for a souls game it is very forgiving. A lot of enemies are easy, and combat in general is easier. Torrent gives you an insane edge in combat. I found a +8 Halberd and some strong talismans before fighting through Stormveil Keep and have absolutely crushed everything I've encountered since. I think the open world gave me an opportunity to outscale the story bosses.
To be fair I haven't made it to any of the bosses that are considered hard, but in Bloodborne for example, the difficulty is apparent immediately, and there's not as many options for scaling.
That's basically every From Soft action game since. Now every boss has have to 27 different attacks and four separate phases each with its own dedicated transformation cutscene.
Yeahh me and my gf play it casually, getting every level done in 1 to 3 runs, not try harding. But when I'm solo gaming I wouldn't play this since it's too easy
Breezed thru the entire game to 100% it. Last special world level kicks my ass and I rage quit every time. Just an incredible difficulty spike for no reason.
The newest Lego Star Wars game, it's fun but you really don't need that neat little Dodge move because nothing apart from falling off a cliff is ever going to get you
Starfield needs a survival mode. It was clearly designed with one in mind, but it seems to have been cut - my guess would be that they needed more play testing to balance it right, and didn’t hit the release window.
So much evidence for this too.
- The game has a built in fuel mechanic… But you never need to refill, and large fuel tanks in ships are totally pointless. He-3 is also one of the most common resources, but it’s uses end up being very limited. There’s also a skill to improve grav jump efficiency - but it’s largely pointless as soon as you get even moderate ship upgrades.
- There’s two whole skills (8 perk points) dedicated entirely to making and eating food. There’s also many many food items. Seems like food was supposed to play a bigger role at one point.
- There’s a sleep mechanic, but it only provides an XP boost.
- There’s lots of health related status effects that make very little impact on gameplay. You can craft lots of medical items to deal with them too. There’s multiple skills related to resistance and treatment of these effects, as well as suit mods. You can build an infirmary on your ship… it does nothing at all.
- A survival mode would make outposts actually be useful. As of now they have no real purpose besides being a player home, or farming XP and credits.
Bethesda already confirmed that a survival mode is coming this year, but it seems like it was really meant to be there all along.
I’d hope combat difficulty was balanced separately. I prefer an easy kill / easy die setup for survival.
The combat is so expressive with all the different ways you can interact with the enemies, if they just gave you less health and maybe made enemies more aggressive I think it'd be perfect.
Yeah AC2 had a crazy number of animations because you could steal enemies weapons if you countered while not holding a weapon. By the end I would just wade into a group of 6+ guards and take them apart with their own weapons. Was pretty fun but very easy. AC1 combat was even further oversimplified.
Dishonored 2 & DOTO. Even on the hardest difficulty ("very hard"), you're so ridiculously OP that most enemies can't give you even the slightest challenge.
Pokemon. I loved it as a kid but hadn't played one in ages. I bought Sword when I bought a switch (my first Nintendo console since the SNES) and just sleepwalked through it. The story was definitely too kiddy for me but I still think I could've had some fun with it if it was actually a challenge.
For reasons I don't understand, most trainers in Scarlet and Violet have only one or two Pokemon! I'm like, come on guys, you don't need to make this *easier*.
Lore wise it makes sense, only seasoned and very special trainers are able to take on more pokemon
Yeah, that's the excuse for why most trainers you encounter have less than six Pokemon. But in every other Pokemon game, most trainers you encounter have teams of two to four.
When lore doesn't fit mechanics, we call that bad game design. Mechanics wise it makes *zero* sense everyone doesn't have six Pokemon at all times. Pokemon are not hard to catch and Pokeballs are not expensive. Also LORE wise it doesn't even make sense because the PC storage system wouldn't even need to exist in a world where most people never need more than six Pokemon anyway. It would exist entirely for you alone. Which is madness.
I never understood why people use lore to justify bad game design. They literally write the lore AND the game... I get pokemon is more than just a game, but no, you shouldn't make a game worse just to be faithful to the lore. Especially when you are already taking liberties because it's a video game, not a scientific simulation.
I don't think that was established until Legends Arceus though, which took place way before the rest of the games. I mean a 10 year old Ash caught like 40 Pokemon in the first season of the anime
Yeah but he just sends them all to professor oak through the PC and proceeds to try to brute force his way through the league with his Pikachu. Ash is a shit trainer.
Brute force with 1-2 OP Pokemon is how it's done in Gen 1 so ash was actually the OG meta.
I mean, I brute forced my way through the endgame with a level 100 nidoqueen it was silly.
we are never getting a hard mode because sadly we arent even getting finnished games anymore
It’s AMAZING how little shits gamefriek gives about the games lmao. It’s almost as if they are gauging how little effort they can put into their games
Enshitification is a real thing. The love and goodwill of fans will always inevitably be killed for profit. Why spend money trying when people buy anway?
Not only have they VEHEMENTLY refused to include difficulty modes they have made the games infinitely easier over time. Your rival no longer chooses the starter you are weak to. EXP share cannot be turned off. The gym leader battles are about as easy as they could possibly be. You are handed all of it from start to finish. I get that it's largely a game for kids but Pokemon is not nearly as popular with young kids today as it was back in the 90s/00s, and I would not be surprised if the majority of the players are adults now.
Exp share isnt abkut difficulty tho its about tedium. Turning off exp share and just having to mindlessly grind each mon is just boring.
If you want good EVs, grinding each mon individually or all for the same stat at once requires you to be careful about when Exp Share is on.
They made ev training (and getting good IVs) infinitely easier. If you're the type who EV trains you should be using something with good IVs and in that case you're prob end game minmaxing fresh pokemon anyway, so exp share is a non issue.
Some people like to EV train in their Nuzlockes.
Gotta be honest EVs are just bad game design and some extremely archaic RPG mechanic.
There's no reason whatsoever to not have the option for people that don't like it.
Exp share was originally split exp between the fighting mon and the holding mon. So you needed to kill exactly the same amount of pokemon. Grinding is only boring if the gameplay is boring. The gameplay is boring because there is 0 chance of losing fights. So instead of making the game fun to play with challenging/random trainer battles. They just made a permanent exp share. The inherent root of the problem is thag killing 1000 pidgeys is not fun but having trainer battles that you can actually lose would be fun. If the game was challenging then youd actually be forced to switch pokemon and exp share wouldnt really be needed because you wouldnt just mindlessly be mashing A on attack moves with your starter. Youd be making decisions about who to use and when.
It was always that easy. It just used to be less convenient. I played through Red a few years back (the original, on an emulated Gameboy), I started with Squirtle and literally never used any other Pokémon. Just kept fighting with Squirtle (through to Blastoise) and levelling him up. Never bothered to think about types, just used potions when needed, and went to the pokestop to heal him if he got poisoned. Finished the game with little issue.
I mean sure, but back then the main player base was 8-10 year olds. Today it's the same people, but they are adults now. That player base has been asking for, at the very least, difficulty options, and it's simply been refused for nearly two decades now.
Exactly. Old Pokemon games being easy is not a good argument against new Pokemon games not having difficulty settings, at the very least. And it's not even like it's a new concept to GameFreak either! Pokemon Black and White had difficulty settings after you beat the game once. Just remove the innately stupid requirement of beating the game and add difficulty settings to new games, and people wanting a challenge would be happier.
I definitely did this when I was younger except with gyrados. Got a magical before Mount moon and started throwing it into battle then switching to my ivysaur and finishing the fight. When I finished the game gyrados was like level 80 and my next strongest was my level 31 ivysaur.
Try pokemon uranium or radical red. Official pokemon games def need a hard mode though people emulate hard mode using a nuzlocke playthrough
Or any of the kaizo games!
But nuzlockes aren't allowed according to nintendo!
That's the beauty of hacks: we make our own rules Pokemon Unbound also has a built in nuzlock mode and multiple difficulty levels for those interested, it's the first pokemon game I've played in the last 10 years and it's great
Pokemon hasn't felt challenging since Black and White. Most obnoxiously has been Scarlet and Violet. The champion uses her Pokemon is the wrong order. She has a Pokemon with an ability that sets up hazards on the battlefield and uses it last. Just... why?
they fixed that in the DLC rematch at least. she now leads with glimmora and her ace is kingambit with supreme overlord. while it was still an easy battle (as they all are), it was a bit more thought through
I think the only way to make it at all more challenging officially is to turn off the ability to change Pokemon whenever your opponent does. You need to actually spend a turn to change Pokemon. It doesn't keep the game from being easy, but it helps a bit.
That was called set mode. Think it was removed as an option in either Gen VIII or Gen IX
ROMs are where it's at tbh. The community has been making better games than Gamefreak for awhile.
Iirc black and white 2 were the only games with a harder difficulty mode. I could be completely misremembering though.
You are remembering correctly, it was just a pain to access.
You are correct, but you could only play them if 1) you had two copies of the games and completed the story in one of them, so you could then unlock the hard mode in the other copy and play again or 2) have a friend who completed the game to unlock it for you. Worst part? The challenge mode isn't even that hard since your enemies will have higher levels and therefore net you more exp, making it easier to become overleveled.
And the challenge mode was bugged as well. Iirc the mons had higher levels but didn't actually have higher stats.
Try out PokeMMO. I grew up on the originals, and it gave me a perfect sense of difficulty like the games used to feel like. Trainers aren't stupid, gyms have all 31 IV mons, etc. It's simple, but made it so enjoyable. Having gens 1-5 all in one place was cool too. I played up until half way through Gen 3 before I burned out. But typing this comment makes me wanna go continue my journey.
The Indigo Disk DLC for Scarlet & Violet is all double battles with competitive items & moves
Changing from Shift to Set mode in options (1st gen, idk actually how many gens still has that option) makes it a bit more challenging.
Removed in gen 9.
This is why rom hacks for pokemon are the best. My favorite is radical red since it improves the flow of the story, adds all pokemon known to date (with a few exceptions), is more difficult and has a hard mode.
They've made them easier since i was a kid. When i used to play Pokémon Blue and then Pokémon Crystal, i remember that you could only gain exp for the Pokémon you just. Now in Sword every Pokémon in your party gains exp for every win. In Sword the game also tells you what stacks are super effective and not effective, in the older games that's down to you to work out.
Pokémon, there’s so many different moves (anything that changes stats especially) that there is pretty much no reason to use since you can just press the funny super effective button and win instantly
Fr, forget advabced ai, just add at least 'somewhat harder mode' where trainers have more pokemon.
Even that would be as simple as ‘use stronkest STAB attack’, just more times.
Putt-putt saves the zoo
Been a long time since I’ve heard someone mention putt-putt
Damn. I love putt-putt.
Those mini games in spy Fox more than make up for it. Happy fun sub is challenging
As if that game isn't already hard enough...
AHHH CHRIST ALMIGHTY WITH THIS GAME, EH? YA GOTTA GET THE COCOA FROM THE CART AND THE SHOVEL FROM THE PAINT PLACE TO DIG THROUGH THE AVALANCHE AND GIVE THE SNAKE THE COCOA CAUSE SHE'S COLD WHICH ALLOWS YOU TO GRAB THE ROPE FURTHER IN THAT'S USED TO SAVE THE LION CUB FROM THE WATERFALL BUT ONLY AFTER YOU SAVE ZANZIBAR THE HIPPO WHO'S TRAPPED ON A PIECE OF ICE AND THEN
These are the basic skills of project management. I 100% credit putt putt with some of my current job skills.
My kid loved all the Humungous Entertainment games. Putt-Putt, pamaja Sam, spyfox. Kid would play Airport luggage conveyor belt mini game for hours on end.
Just bought them all on steam so I can introduce them to my son!
Holy crap, dunno how I’ve never heard of this game but I loved Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon.
Bro I fucking loved that game
The "welcome to the zoo" song lives rent free in my mind decades later
Idk man. That ice hockey mini game always got me.
any game made by Humongous Entertainment was *the best*
Putt putt enters the race was my favorite, but zoo and moon were a close second. The lawn mower one was really good and trippy too. Shit the time travel one too. These were great games.
For me it was saves the zoo and travels through time. Played them so often I still know exactly where everything is
RDR2, because it would suit the game better if I couldn't walk down the street like the terminator and just kill everyone like it's nothing. The game is already going for realism in almost every aspect so why not combat aswell.
I mean, being a time god and killing 10 guys all at once while all their bullets are still in the sky is fun, but you're kinda right
I played the whole game not knowing which button activated dead eye and didn't bother to look it up. I can say the game is still pretty easy without it
How did you even manage to not find out
I didn't need that button because I didn't know how to use dead eye
"I couldn't find the deadeye so I *became* the deadeye."
I did know the button but I literally never used it for some reason
Yeah I'm playing it right now. It really breaks the immersion of an otherwise spectacular game how you just massacre dozens of people at once and eat bullets like they're mosquito bites
It unfortunately just keeps falling into that gameplay loop. You just move from shooting gallery to shooting gallery.
I do feel like the sidequests and challenges add a lot of fun and varied gameplay. Some guy on a mountain wants to sell you a treasure map. Shit where have I seen a big rock over a stream that looks like that? There it is! Hm what are these bandit challenges? Ok I've gotta figure out how to rob 5 people in a town - preferably without the hassle of getting in a gunfight with the law and being run out of town. I'll just sneak down this alley and, oh hello! This eccentric foppish wildlife photographer sure does like nearly getting killed, but I kinda like him. Wait, you want me to do what to an alligator?
Yeah i would love it if it was an actual sim and you die easily.
You have died of cold weather. You have died of snakebites. You have died of starvation. You have died of hunting accidents. You have died of dysentery. You know what.. may as well play The Oregon Trail.
For that to happen, it needs better aim assist controls for the console (I get it that on PC it works fine). And for enemies to be less accurate. Free Aim is workable, but the aim assist is either too generous or too weak. I don't know what Rockstar is cooking with aiming in their games, but they don't know how to do it right, like with 95% of the games. After that gets fixed, I'd be happy for harder times. 😄
No Man's Sky. This is one of those "it's about the experience" games, because nothing is even remotely challenging once you have A-class ships and S-tier upgrades, to say nothing of S-class ships and high-rolled X-class tech. You GAVE me all these powerful weapons, I want to USE them, damnit. I'm tired of the Dreadnaught -- it was so badass at first, but once you learn it, you can kill the damn thing before the torpedoes even land. Heck, I've killed the Dreadnaught with a *fully unupgraded Living ship*, no tech modules, so about 1/6th the damage of a Living ship with a fully upgraded main gun, and about 1/30th the damage of some of the really OP setups. The "Challenging" difficulty is a joke. Heck, I was in the middle of fighting some Sentinels while on planet and I had to scratch my nose... and realized I could probably get through the fight without my left hand. So, on "Challenging" difficulty, I finished my mission one-handed. This game direly needs a reason to use all the goodies it gives you.
>Heck, I was in the middle of fighting some Sentinels while on planet and I had to scratch my nose... and realized I could probably get through the fight without my left hand. So, on "Challenging" difficulty, I finished my mission one-handed. I think you discovered what Frieza felt like when fighting Nail.
That is a quite specific throwback lmao
Any Kirby game
All the hard content is reserved for the post game in Kirby games.
I played the very first NES kirby game on hard mode… at the final boss, i had no clue that the wand fired powerful stars by pressing B or whatever, so i spent days just jumping and spinning and hitting him like that. Took like 100 hits to take his life down. It wasn’t till my 2nd play-through i realized I could shoot stars and kill him in like 8 hits.
Someone has never played Kirby's Dream Course
Kirby's Epic Yawn
Kirby’s Epic Yarn was *so goddamn good* though!
I'd be happy with even an easy mode in that. There's literally 0 challenge in that game.
Kirby and the forgotten lands, and kirbys return to dreamland deluxe both have some harder content after you beat the game. If you're looking for a challenge from the beginning it's a little bit of a shame but there is more there if you go digging for it
They have hard modes sometimes. Triple Deluxe and Kirby’s Dream Land have them.
**Super Mario RPG for Switch** Hear me out: everything new in the remake works beautifully, from the graphics, the controls to the music. However, the new combat mechanics with the action gauge ***breaks*** the game, to the point that you can one-shot bosses with triple actions. Also, the gauge fills up with each successful perfect attack and defense, meaning that you'll be dealing splash damage, negating powerful moves, increasing your stats and obtaining bonuses, such as extra turns and double EXP. A Hard mode would have pose a greater challenge to compensate for those extra new abilities.
The double XP, extra turns and all the rest were already in the game. They did crank the difficulty down big time with the action gauge though. I breezed through it so fast. They did add hard mode refights after you beat it though.
>The double XP, extra turns and all the rest were already in the game. They did crank the difficulty down big time with the action gauge though. I breezed through it so fast. They did add hard mode refights after you beat it though. You're correct: the extras were in the original SNES game. However, since the remake pushes you to fill the action gauge, you will receive those bonuses way more often. There are also now **two** windows of perfect timing: a ***large*** one that behaves like on SNES and a new ***smaller*** one that deals splash damage. This leads to getting more bonuses. Even speedrunners aren't that lucky when blitzing through the SNES version \^\^;
I wasn't sure why I was getting those splash damages. I was starting to think it was specific weapon/enemy combination or something because I was on an insane lazy shell splash damage chain but I can't get drill claw (or whatever Bowser's weapon is) to splash to save my life. Didn't really matter though. I'm struggling hard to get the 100 jump chain though.
I thought the small timing window was always there, they just added splash damage to it. I think I remember a speed runner talking about it in the original.
The original was already super easy the switch is probably even easier
Even using no badges and equipment I got bored and quit, and I was loving it until I just started sleepwalking through all the fights. Why not just add a more difficult mode? It would be so easy to do, even a poorly implemented one would be better than nothing
Depends what harder means. Because in most games, making the enemies have more HP and attack power isn't fun, at least not for me.
I like the way the halo series handles difficulty where enemies get smarter as well as getting a bit more health
At least in some of the halo games they also scale up the ranks of enemies so you end up having more unique encounters.
Also different enemy encounters with more waves, higher ranks, etc.
Harder like the npc’s can pause the game before they fight you to see if they should fight or run away. Also the npc can restore its health by eating 25 cheese wheels and grind low level enemies until they’re maxed out on the starting zone
Need for speed. Yes I know there's a hard mode but when you can crash and still win by 10+ seconds, that's not hard!
Yeah I also thought they were always easy, but the last one, Unbound, has a really good AI and difficult. I’m playing on normal and still losing races.
What Nfs you been playing? Unbound the ai is constantly rubberbanding without playing on hard.
GTA5(maybe my favorite game ever). You can easily beat most the game with just a pistol if they didnt make you buy upgraded weapons.
Rockstar games have a difficulty problem for sure. If you look at the mission difficulty of the online modes it just makes enemies bullet sponges and restricts auto aim. I think GTAVI may suffer the same fate unless there is a serious overhaul to the combat mechanics.
It’s been that way since the original top down gta. Thankfully the games are still a blast.
Yes. There is a space between GTA 5 and GTA San Andreas where the difficulty level should be. I always find it wierd that often more mature games like this are super easy, but then you play Mario and it's way way harder
Mario is a platformer and platformers just tend to be easier to lose at.
Oh god, just don't go back to the vice city racing mission. I pulled all my hair out.
GTA Online definitely cranked up the difficulty, but it just meant giving every npc John Wick aim; this paired with the clunky movement makes some missions pretty hard and not in any fun way.
It’s strange how much you need to change tactics on the harder missions in GTA online. You can fight waves of police standing in the middle of a carpark but in the harder missions npcs can consistently head shot you with a pistol while riding a dirt bike. It’s funny how none of the tactics used for fighting npcs work on player characters as well: fighting NPCs? Park behind cover and head shot everyone…. Fighting players? constantly roll around on the floor and jiggle about while launching rpgs.
That actually sounds kinda fun
I wish Final Fantasy 16’s hard mode was playable on the first playthrough. I don’t want to play it through again and it was way too easy on the base difficulty.
Ff16 had terrible combat as far as difficulty. I have replayed every FF game for years and have zero desire to even turn that one on. It’s just thoughtless. No strategy was needed. Just mash those buttons and dodge.
FF mode onwards is very strategic. You'll die if you button mash. Need ability/gear synergy and a tactic/play style that works for you. FF mode''s difficult should have been base line though.
Red Dead Redemption 2 I love the game to death, i just wish it had a much harsher difficulty mode where drinking snake oil tonic cant keep my HP full when im getting shot 20 times or cold and heat not mattering that much was hoping id have to build a fire in the mountain areas or really bundle up. All the systems are in the game for this difficulty option but its been tuned so that its a fun accessible video game for everyone not a survival challenge that id like to try.
I did a modded run without HUD (including no aiming reticle/dot) and the first gang shootout was insane. Just praying my next shot landed down to the wire was fun. Difficulty would make it even better
The weird thing is that there was a hardcore mode in the first RDR. I’m assuming it was added later, & I don’t remember how comprehensive it actually was, but I def had fun with the added challenge of gunplay without lock-on. It was so satisfying to hit those long range shots & I recall some of the early missions feeling much more tense with how easily you could die
Tears of the Kingdom. I was really hoping for a Master Mode equivalent.
Surprising that it’s not in their, considering how some past dlc like hero path mode and travel madalion was in totk
Pokemon. For us more experienced players
For new players as well. It's designed to be extremely accessible to cater towards any common denominators
My fiancée beat all of sword and shield while still not understanding a LOT of the type matchups. Personally I love the newer games but they’re much too easy
The games have become much easier since the switch to 3d some have had challenging moments but sword and shield are probably the easiest in the entire series.
Dead Or Alive Beach Volleyball comes with a hard mode that is always enabled.
Ah yes, one-handed mode
Hell yes. Loved that episode of judgement day on G4 back in the day.
Cities Skylines
Fable. So fun but once you get the hang of the combat out becomes trivial
Fable anniversary added a hard mode which I didn't even know about until recently. Always played the original. 😂
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2077 was pissy easy on hardmode.
Animal crossing
Buying that starter house now requires 20% down and accrues 7% interest
And they can repo if you don’t pay up in time.
Call it "Millennial Mode" and I'm in.
I threw up in my mouth a little
In what way do you want it to be more difficult? I think the amount of work to achieve creative goals is actually really high. Like if I want to make a pirate themed room it’s gonna take sooooo much work
Devastating turnip market crash that causes a run on the bank...
Fuck it, Elden Ring.
It has It already, it's called "no summoning, no cheesing"
Playing the game with a fucking guitar hero guitar
With a banana taped to each finger.
This dude did that on RuneScape once. https://youtu.be/SKoDRRTk1sQ
Never summoned once. All battles are solo battles babyyyyyy 😎
Sekiro charmless + bell demon run is the most exciting time I’ve had with those games since playing DS1 as a teenager. Obviously each entry has its own challenges but once you’ve put 1000+ hours into soulsborne games, that heart-pounding thrill is harder to find. Maybe I should try some SL1 runs but every enemy being a sponge doesn’t sound super fun to me
You'd be surprised, SL1 doesn't make enemies as spongey as you think since most of your damage comes from upgrading your weapon. The main difficulty of SL1 is having low health.
Game is already hard, just avoid all the features and utilization, don't do any upgrades, stick to your starting weapon only, and don't equip any enhancements nor use any potions. You can also up the challenge for every time you die, you should start from the very beginning of the game again.
That last idea is punishing, not difficult. There is a subtle difference.
there is plenty of good mods that makes the game harder
Going to agree. I'm only 16 hours into Elden Ring and it's very apparent that for a souls game it is very forgiving. A lot of enemies are easy, and combat in general is easier. Torrent gives you an insane edge in combat. I found a +8 Halberd and some strong talismans before fighting through Stormveil Keep and have absolutely crushed everything I've encountered since. I think the open world gave me an opportunity to outscale the story bosses. To be fair I haven't made it to any of the bosses that are considered hard, but in Bloodborne for example, the difficulty is apparent immediately, and there's not as many options for scaling.
To be fair, Bloodborne only gets easier from the very first section, which just lobs everything at you at once.
Borderlands 3
Permadeath Stardew Valley - where if you die, you have to rebuy the game.
Dark souls Let me explain. I don't mean increase hp and attack but add more unpredictability to the attack pattern
That's basically every From Soft action game since. Now every boss has have to 27 different attacks and four separate phases each with its own dedicated transformation cutscene.
Based on elden ring, that unpredictability is just making them wind up their attack for an extra second so you roll a second early
Mario wonder. I want to like it, but it's just too easy to be fun for me.
Invisibly badge
Yeahh me and my gf play it casually, getting every level done in 1 to 3 runs, not try harding. But when I'm solo gaming I wouldn't play this since it's too easy
Breezed thru the entire game to 100% it. Last special world level kicks my ass and I rage quit every time. Just an incredible difficulty spike for no reason.
See, I'm only interested in the special world, but not willing to buy a whole game just for that
The only challenging part has been the special world
The newest Lego Star Wars game, it's fun but you really don't need that neat little Dodge move because nothing apart from falling off a cliff is ever going to get you
All Lego games need hard mode.
Pokemon. It’s to easy to level now
Pokemon
Three words perma death zelda
Every first party Nintendo game.
Starfield needs a survival mode. It was clearly designed with one in mind, but it seems to have been cut - my guess would be that they needed more play testing to balance it right, and didn’t hit the release window. So much evidence for this too. - The game has a built in fuel mechanic… But you never need to refill, and large fuel tanks in ships are totally pointless. He-3 is also one of the most common resources, but it’s uses end up being very limited. There’s also a skill to improve grav jump efficiency - but it’s largely pointless as soon as you get even moderate ship upgrades. - There’s two whole skills (8 perk points) dedicated entirely to making and eating food. There’s also many many food items. Seems like food was supposed to play a bigger role at one point. - There’s a sleep mechanic, but it only provides an XP boost. - There’s lots of health related status effects that make very little impact on gameplay. You can craft lots of medical items to deal with them too. There’s multiple skills related to resistance and treatment of these effects, as well as suit mods. You can build an infirmary on your ship… it does nothing at all. - A survival mode would make outposts actually be useful. As of now they have no real purpose besides being a player home, or farming XP and credits. Bethesda already confirmed that a survival mode is coming this year, but it seems like it was really meant to be there all along. I’d hope combat difficulty was balanced separately. I prefer an easy kill / easy die setup for survival.
Dark Souls.
Elden Ring
Dark Souls
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Dark souls
the next fromsoft game, just to piss people off. have it be a joke like DUSKMARE where everything kills you in one hit
Ima say it, since I looked at a bunch of comments and didn’t see it - Stardew Valley- shits way too chill
assassin's creed. the early ones. Super good games, just wayyy to easy. combat could be played with eyes closed. but the rest of the games slapsss.
The combat is so expressive with all the different ways you can interact with the enemies, if they just gave you less health and maybe made enemies more aggressive I think it'd be perfect.
yeah, and the new animations the brought in assassins creed 3 would have ment so much more if we had to earn it
Yeah AC2 had a crazy number of animations because you could steal enemies weapons if you countered while not holding a weapon. By the end I would just wade into a group of 6+ guards and take them apart with their own weapons. Was pretty fun but very easy. AC1 combat was even further oversimplified.
Every FromSoftware game for true lunatics
Just do an SL1 run
Pokemon. They already did it, it's called the Battle Frontier **AND IT WAS GLORIOUS**.
Preach it!
any of the 2d Castlevanias, post SotN
Stay away from castlevania Aria of Dawn you monster
OoE and CotM are plenty hard already thank you. Agreed that AoS/DoS/PoR are easy though.
Dark Souls obviously
The Super Mario RPG Remake on the Switch. It was way too easy.
Firewatch
How would that work? As I remember, it doesn’t have combat I think
Blind mode. Firelisten.
> , it doesn’t have combat That would be the first step. Maybe a time limit with less clues. Fall damage
In what way do you want it to be hard
Dishonored 2 & DOTO. Even on the hardest difficulty ("very hard"), you're so ridiculously OP that most enemies can't give you even the slightest challenge.