Do Difficulty Levels Matter?

[Lea]

I thought I'd make this thread simply because I want opinions from people on KHI. I've had this discussion quite a few times with friends in real life. So I'll admit to you all, I enjoy playing my games on the easiest difficulty. Of course when I let my friends know this, they had a good laugh but I just don't understand why. Now my reasoning for this is because I want to enjoy the game the first time I play it and not get stressed out and gain a bad impression of it the first time I play through it. If I enjoy the game enough, I'll play it on a harder difficulty, and play it until I get to the hardest difficulty so that it gives variety when playing the game and I'll have a different experience each time I play. This is only occasional though, only if I seriously seriously enjoy a game. (Such as KH, TLOU even though I still have yet to play the other difficulties, etc.)

Most of my friends like to play it on the hardest difficulty possible. I understand where they come from, they like the challenge. They like to play the same part over and over and then when they finally beat it they get the satisfaction of knowing that they actually did it. I get it. It's just not so much for me because I don't handle stress well. I will legitimately get angry and just turn off my console and not play the game for a while.

So basically what I'm trying to get at is do you guys think it matters what difficulty a person is playing a game on? If you believe so, please back up your argument. I'm open to any opinions. My personal opinion is that it shouldn't matter what difficulty you play the game on, just as long as you're enjoying the experience.

 

[Reagan Rayden]

In most games, a difficulty change is usually only as in depth as a health and damage increase for enemies. Not actually making the enemies smarter and harder to deal with. This makes me sad.

My philosophy with difficulty settings is that when you amp it up a level the game should be more difficult, but not more irritating. In other words, you should die more often because the death was your fault, not because the game decided to RNG spawn an insta-death thing right on top of you.

I don't know of many games where difficulty doesn't matter for better or for worse (except for Kingdom Hearts 2. Every difficulty is easy mode).

 

[Lea]

I don't know of many games where difficulty doesn't matter for better or for worse (except for Kingdom Hearts 2. Every difficulty is easy mode).

I can vouch for this one. KHII was one of the few games that was just too ridiculously easy on the easiest mode. Had to crank it up all the way to... normal *gasp*

 

[Reagan Rayden]

I actually was playing through on Normal a long time ago and as a goof before I went out to grab some lunch I left the game on the first Cerberus fight. I came back an hour later and I was still alive. Auron could just heal you indefinitely.

 

[Max]

The difficulty I play really just depends on the game.

If I'm playing a game in a series I'm familiar with (even if it's my first time playing that particular game), such as Kingdom Hearts or Uncharted, then I will play on the hardest difficulty possible. There are sometimes that I make an exception to this rule (such as Metal Gear Solid or Dead Space) simply because the first time through the game may get too frustrating (as you said), so I play on normal.

Trophies can affect my difficulty a lot though. If I'm playing a game with trophies and difficulties stack, then I play on the hardest no matter what the game. If there are no difficulty trophies, then the difficulty I choose is again purely dependent on my familiarity with the game (but I will never go below normal).

I refuse to play below normal. I have nothing against people who play on easy, but I myself know that I am capable of playing any game on normal, and that is the default difficulty the game designers intended most people to play on, at least their first playthrough. I guess it kind of feels like a matter of pride to me, as if someone will walk in my house, look at my game data, and judge me based on my game difficulties.

 

[Deleted member 36435]

if you play on anything sub-max difficulty ur just a scrub

 

[Zen]

So basically what I'm trying to get at is do you guys think it matters what difficulty a person is playing a game on?

This depends on the context.

Do they matter to me? It partly does. A good challenge goes a long way in making a game enjoyable, and sometimes that comes from playing on the highest difficulty instead of only self-imposed restrictions. Do I always play on the highest difficulty? Nah, some games I don't like enough to do this. Dragon Age: Origins is a drag to play through it after finishing it a couple of times thus I've never played it on Nightmare. Might eventually change this, but so far, don't plan to.

In general? Yes, in that the option to play on higher difficulties should always be there. Some games are simply too easy even on normal.

What other people decide to play in? Not at all. Some people just play for fun, and like to ease through games. As a form of escapism, video games probably thrive as much as they do because the option is there. Just don't tell me how a certain boss is "tough" if you're playing on easy because I'll laff.

 

[Nyangoro]

I'll usually just play on the hardest difficulty, but I don't really care most of the time. For a lot of games, I care more about the escapism. I just like the extra difficulty tacked on to get a greater sense of resistance from the enemies.

For certain genres, however, difficulty levels are vital. Playing Project Diva F on normal is just plain boring.

 

[Hero]

After playing games like inFamous and Kingdom Hearts where difficulty levels unlock trophies /secret endings, I play on the hardest difficulty by default. Having to go replay the entire game just to unlock a trophy is far worse than not enjoying the story.

 

[Recon]

I play all games on normal first. If I liked it, or know of awards in higher difficulties, I will strive to play the game again on a harder difficulty. This way I can learn about the game without having to stress over the difficultly.

 

[Jesus]

I personally like to play on hard mode, although every now and then I'll play on normal, like I am with Infamous: Second Son right now. Video games were invented in part to be a challenge anyways.

What they really need to do is make a "hard mode" for pokemon games. It's wayyy too easy these days, but I guess that's what you get when you play a game geared towards kids

 

[Wehrmacht]

What they really need to do is make a "hard mode" for pokemon games. It's wayyy too easy these days, but I guess that's what you get when you play a game geared towards kids

i'm not surprised that gamefreak hasn't done something like this yet since they're very complacent when it comes to certain things, but they probably should have done it by now given they know how huge the peripherary demographic is.

for the moment, try playing a romhack like blaze black or volt white. most pokemon romhacks are garbage, but drayano's are pretty awesome.

 

[XIII Heartless]

After playing games like inFamous and Kingdom Hearts where difficulty levels unlock trophies /secret endings, I play on the hardest difficulty by default. Having to go replay the entire game just to unlock a trophy is far worse than not enjoying the story.

It's funny cause the difficulty trophies for KH 1.5 don't stack. I'm still extremely pissed about this, planned on grabbing the platinum trophy after 2 playthroughs, now I've gotta do it a third time. Haven't gotten around to it. Months before that, shortly before I started giving a damn about trophies, I played The Last of Us on Normal and Normal+, then recently jumped to Survivor when I thought I might try and platinum it after all.

Recently, I've become a bit of a trophy hound, so if the trophies stack, I'm jumping to Hard. For example, the second to last trophy I got was for Uncharted 2. I only played it on Hard mode the first time since I knew that was the only way to unlock Crushing, and because I knew the trophies would stack. So I was able to grab the trophy in a week, after playing through it twice (and Crushing mode made me want to break my DualShock 4).

The last platinum I got was on Thursday, for inFamous Second Son. Since you have to play through the games at least twice (once as a hero, once as a villain) to 100% it, I allowed myself to play it on normal the first time and expert the second.

Regardless of if it has difficulty trophies that stack or not, when KH3 releases it's getting played on Proud mode since I'm so familiar with the series. Just depends on the game, in short.

 

[Reagan Rayden]

There actually was a hard mode for Black/White 2 (Makes the Trainer and wild Pokemon AI not use stupid moves). You just couldn't use it until you beat the game.

 

[Max]

Honestly, I think the game to do the best job with difficulties is The Last of Us. The enemies get smarter, the supplies become more and more scarce, and the enemies don't just take extra bullets to kill. I was just so impressed with how they went about it, this is how difficulties should be.

It's funny cause the difficulty trophies for KH 1.5 don't stack. I'm still extremely pissed about this, planned on grabbing the platinum trophy after 2 playthroughs, now I've gotta do it a third time. Haven't gotten around to it.

Regardless of if it has difficulty trophies that stack or not, when KH3 releases it's getting played on Proud mode since I'm so familiar with the series. Just depends on the game, in short.

Yeah, I was mega pissed about the non-stacking trophies as well. Like, really? Was there any reason to not make them stack. I don't know if they just didn't know what they were doing, or if they didn't think it mattered.

And yeah, Proud mode on KHIII first playthrough for me too. The KH games seem pretty easy to me unless I crank up the difficulty, but I played BBS first playthrough on Critical with Terra and... what a nightmare. I beat it, but I did not enjoy the game. Tried doing the same for Aqua, nope, didn't make it past the first world before I restarted on Proud.

 

[Roronoa Zoro]

I play all my games on hard because I feel that increases the game's length and I feel like the enjoy the game more. When I get to a hard part in a game and finally manage to get past it I feel an sense of achievement. It also makes you more talented as a gamer, imo.

 

[Zter]

Difficulty levels are a pointless feature. If the game isn't balanced where you can complete the game by being fun and challenging at the same time then it's not a well designed game.

 

[axel95]

If it's a game series that I am familiar with or if there is a trophy, I'll play on the hardest difficulty. It adds more to the experience for me. But now that I'm in college and don't have as much time for gaming, I'm starting to play on normal just to save a little time.

 

[gamerobber7]

Like others have said, it depends on the game. A lot of games I usually play on the Normal difficulty, at least at first, and then I might play it again later on a harder difficulty. For the Kingdom Hearts series i've been playing on Proud first since KH2 because of how familiar I am with the series and because it's the easiest way to see the secret ending which I like to view on my first playthrough. And about other people it doesn't matter to me what difficulty other people play on, as long as they enjoy it.

Honestly, I think the game to do the best job with difficulties is The Last of Us. The enemies get smarter, the supplies become more and more scarce, and the enemies don't just take extra bullets to kill. I was just so impressed with how they went about it, this is how difficulties should be.

I agree. Survivor difficulty made you really feel the pressure in surviving whatever situation you were currently in without taking the fun out of the game. The only problem was Survivor difficulty made me realize how much I used listen mode in my other playthroughs. xD

 

[Max]

I agree. Survivor difficulty made you really feel the pressure in surviving whatever situation you were currently in without taking the fun out of the game. The only problem was Survivor difficulty made me realize how much I used listen mode in my other playthroughs. xD

Yeah, the listen mode was hard to lose at first. Now I just don't even remember I have it if I play online or something because I got so used to not having it.

I kind of hope Naughty Dog starts using a similar approach with Uncharted's difficulty.