Souls games especially Elden ring set the standards for fair,tough and addicting difficulty for me. After feeling the satisfaction of beating the bosses in them I look for that same rewarding feeling in other games but often won’t find it cause like you said, other games’ increase in difficulty means the bosses summon more minions or has more health. Great write up!
I've often thought about this too -- games in the past felt unfair to be difficult. And maybe that was a coding limitation? There wasn't an easy way to code the sort of difficulty that is fair but is difficult?
I do appreciate games that let you approach a challenge from different angles. The order of bosses is one way, but using the terrain to your advantage might be another to suit different play styles.
One last thing I've noticed in the genres that I play (turn-based tactics, strategy) is that difficulty often gets confused with complexity. I don't think you necessarily need a complex game for it to be difficult, but I might be in the minority with that opinion.
Other than Elden Ring, what other games have implemented difficulty successfully in your view (or not successfully)?
That's a great question. For the sake of brevity, and clarity I kept a lot of other examples out of that piece!
The rogue-like genre tends to have the best examples here, as difficulty is so crucial to their success. Hades is another case of difficulty done well, that's engrained into a gameplay loop. I'm on the fence about Returnal, and whether that's a well-paced difficulty curve, because entering the wrong room can randomly screw your run.
FF14 also manages difficulty well with its raiding tiers. They spend the better parts of one year planning out each raid encounter and tweaking it to ensure it's fair, but challenging for a team. The also scale that difficulty well with subsequent patches. The encounter is hardest when it's first released, but as gear improves with patches, it gets easier.
I'm also biased as it was my childhood game, but in terms of 2D platformers, I think the original Donkey Kong Country trilogy on Super Nintendo also get difficulty right. They aren't easy games by any means -- especially after the first world. But the level design successfully trains the player and improves their skill as you go.
In terms of getting it wrong, I think the more common mistake these days is making games too easy. There's a long list here. But again, checking my bias here as I've been playing long enough to not really need tutorials for most games.
Oh yeah...rogue likes! I do like where those games have been going in terms of difficulty!
In terms of games being easy, I appreciate that it's a hard line to draw from a development perspective. But you're probably not the only one feeling like you don't need a tutorial for most games...meaning, maybe its about time developers started evolving the game formula so that it doesn't all feel the same!
Souls games especially Elden ring set the standards for fair,tough and addicting difficulty for me. After feeling the satisfaction of beating the bosses in them I look for that same rewarding feeling in other games but often won’t find it cause like you said, other games’ increase in difficulty means the bosses summon more minions or has more health. Great write up!
I've often thought about this too -- games in the past felt unfair to be difficult. And maybe that was a coding limitation? There wasn't an easy way to code the sort of difficulty that is fair but is difficult?
I do appreciate games that let you approach a challenge from different angles. The order of bosses is one way, but using the terrain to your advantage might be another to suit different play styles.
One last thing I've noticed in the genres that I play (turn-based tactics, strategy) is that difficulty often gets confused with complexity. I don't think you necessarily need a complex game for it to be difficult, but I might be in the minority with that opinion.
Other than Elden Ring, what other games have implemented difficulty successfully in your view (or not successfully)?
That's a great question. For the sake of brevity, and clarity I kept a lot of other examples out of that piece!
The rogue-like genre tends to have the best examples here, as difficulty is so crucial to their success. Hades is another case of difficulty done well, that's engrained into a gameplay loop. I'm on the fence about Returnal, and whether that's a well-paced difficulty curve, because entering the wrong room can randomly screw your run.
FF14 also manages difficulty well with its raiding tiers. They spend the better parts of one year planning out each raid encounter and tweaking it to ensure it's fair, but challenging for a team. The also scale that difficulty well with subsequent patches. The encounter is hardest when it's first released, but as gear improves with patches, it gets easier.
I'm also biased as it was my childhood game, but in terms of 2D platformers, I think the original Donkey Kong Country trilogy on Super Nintendo also get difficulty right. They aren't easy games by any means -- especially after the first world. But the level design successfully trains the player and improves their skill as you go.
In terms of getting it wrong, I think the more common mistake these days is making games too easy. There's a long list here. But again, checking my bias here as I've been playing long enough to not really need tutorials for most games.
Oh yeah...rogue likes! I do like where those games have been going in terms of difficulty!
In terms of games being easy, I appreciate that it's a hard line to draw from a development perspective. But you're probably not the only one feeling like you don't need a tutorial for most games...meaning, maybe its about time developers started evolving the game formula so that it doesn't all feel the same!