Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

I mean that is simply not true at all, mechanical changes are not the same as difficulty changes. Difficulty is not a universal, binary, thing. Things that are hard for some, are not hard for everyone and vice versa. You can leave the mechanics entirely alone and just tweak things like damage outputs, input windows etc for different gamers. Granular difficulty really is the future. Any argument otherwise is exclusivism, elitism or goal post moving.

@roy130390 Thank you for your post - I have been saying that the Soulsborne games aren't that hard for awhile but I felt very alone in that opinion. I think in most cases you can get through the games with some perseverance and lateral thinking. And I don't play them online either, so I never encountered any grief from other players lol. Anyways, thanks again and happy holidays 😁

@VoidofLight Dude if you get into the games let me know. I played through all of them this last year and I've been dieing to talk more about it 😂 roy130390's post is really on-point with everything, but I'll add the horror/gore elements will vary slightly depending on the game. If it's just Dark Souls you're looking into then you're fine but something like Bloodborne has more blood and gore in it (though nothing like DOOM). Anyway, happy holidays to you as well!

@Pizzamorg Changing damage outputs won't make a game that's hard mechanically any easier.

@roy130390 Ah, alright! I'll probably look into the souls games more, and eventually get into them. Demon Souls for ps5 caught my interest, but I might start with the Dark Souls switch port.

Obvs, which is why it isn’t the only thing I listed.

This is how I see it, If you as a dev want the game to be this hard, then maybe it would be nice if they added a Practice mode, where you can't die, and just pure Practice, Hate this kind of enemy, Go to training, what to Work on Blocking, parrying, dodging, so on so forth, that would at least fix the difficulty issues if you don't want to change the difficulty of the game.

Games like Dead cells actually did this, where you have a whole training mode, and Power ups. But there is a price, and that price being the fact you might be able to beat the game, or get achievements.

Cuphead, kinda does this? where you can you can Beat all the bosses in simple mode, but you wont be able to beat the game, nor fight the last two bosses, which I feel like is fair, The simple mode serves as a practice, so you can learn how to play the game, plus if you played the game in simple mode this far you should be able to beat the game just fine.

Just my two cents.

@DarthNocturnal The closest I've been to a souls-like is also Jedi Fallen Order. I'm on one of the normal difficulties, and man does that game throw punches. It's the best feeling ever just having to struggle for a while, and then eventually coming out on top afterwards, and that game really knows how to make you feel that. I think I got to the colosseum area, and got stuck because the game throws two boss-like enemies at you at once, expecting you to dodge their attacks and keep finding openings.

I love Dark Souls, but I eventually had to give up on it. Partially because this type of clunky, dodge focused, melee combat game is sometimes a weakness of mine. But also because the loading times and repeating the samey boring enemy parts I already mastered just to die to the boss again without a clue on a good way to maybe beat them, is just too much of a time sink.

If there's any change I wish was made to Dark Souls is to let you retry a boss at the boss after you've gone through the same enemies no problem several times to get to it. Because at some point, there's no reason not to give me that option other than purely to waste my time.

@Losermagnet Exactly! Souls games do difficulty right since once you overcome something, you usually can replicate the result as it comes more from understanding than dexterity. Sure, there's always the thong guy with a broken sword making every challenge more difficult for himself on purpose haha, but for the average player the game throws many tools to overcome whatever problem you face and once you get the flow of the game most players I've seen usually make constant progress.

Same mate! Happy Holidays to you too!

@DarthNocturnal That's a great reference for the game as both follow a similar formula and approach to difficulty. Also yeah, sometimes bosses do feel that way and in my experience it's either because one needs to figure something out (they getting tired after a pattern of attacks, being able to fall on them with the sword from a high point, etc.) or because one needs to explore a bit more in the area to upgrade equipment. I really can't express how much difference does it make when you finally understand equipment and upgrades. Don't be afraid to check the wiki or ask players about it.

@VoidofLight Nice! I recommend to go for Dark Souls first. The first Demon's Souls is to me the easiest out of all of them, but from my understanding the remake has significant changes so I can't guarantee that it's still that way as I haven't played that one yet. However, the first Dark Souls is a great entry point and the Switch port, just as with most games on the console that are properly optimized, is even more enjoyable as you can have it on the go.

If anyone needs advice or is looking for some Jolly Cooperation, feel free to contact me.

@kkslider5552000 thats a fair point and almost guarenteed happen to everyone eventually. Some offenders are worse than others [thinks of Dark Souls 2's DLC. Left eye starts twitching] but it makes it a slog.

Talking of clunky, dodge focused, melee combat, I am sure glad that didn’t take off, it seemed like for like a five year stretch between like 2014 and 2019 every new game came out with a combat system where you had to roll around on the floor constantly during fights, doing slow, clunky melee swings in between rolling sessions. I hated it pretty much every single time, it was the main reason I gave up on Witcher 3 - game wasn’t hard, but the combat was just so ***** tedious. Very few did anything to make that combat feel good like say Monster Hunter, most just seemed to cash in on the fad and do the bare minimum. It thankfully seems we have mostly moved beyond that now and thank God for that, with even games like Monster Hunter adding in new mobility mechanics, so it isn’t just a forward roll simulator.

@Pizzamorg I mean, those types of games are meant for a niche audience who do like that. Who do like slower and clunkier combat systems that make you have to time rolls correctly, and time attacks at just the right time. If you don't like those games, then you really don't have to play them. Just like, I don't play FPS games because I find them incredibly mindless. I don't think it was really a trend, since the style doesn't fit many games, and those that do have it did it because they thought it'd make the combat engaging, which it does for a certain demographic of people (Which I'm apart of). It's not just a mindless hack and slash, but something that makes you have to think on your feet, or you could end up wiping.

And that is fine if it is kept to niche games, but that style started to leak into all kinds of mainstream titles and so you couldn’t really avoid it for a while. It was kinda like for a phase before that it felt like every game had you heal by sitting behind cover for a stretch. These fads in games come and go.

I also agree I am not a huge FPS fan, either, I prefer third person games in general but if there isn’t some kind of meaningful loop or a great story or environment or something, I don’t much care for FPS games. Shooting guns isn’t in and of itself a compelling enough hook for me to enjoy a title.

I have some... interesting opinions which may or may cite a mob against me Simpson's Movie-style but hey, no time like the present to just let it all out, right?

• Super Punch Out is fantastic, easily on par with the original.
• Big Top Turnabout isn't that bad, you guys are just mean.
• Pokemon is my favourite video game franchise of all time and I will probably buy the games 'til the day I die.
• Mario Kart 7 has the most interesting and innovative track design in the entire series.
• The original Legend of Zelda is a convoluted mess of a game that I just absolutely despise.

And finally:

• Super Mario World is very good, but not very fun at all (to me).

I prefer K-1 games on PS2 than Punch Out games.
If you don't know about K-1 games on PS2, here is the gameplay video.

I mean, if that's somehow true, it speaks even worse for how uninteresting and lacking of innovation every other aspect of the game felt like, to such a degree that its new gimmicks somehow felt more fresh when used in the next game.

I literally can't remember that much about Mario Kart 7 outside of the ones that came back in 8. Like Rainbow Road was really good, one of the early levels had a windmill. Oh yeah, Wii Sports Resort's island appeared too.

...

Bee character.

God what a forgettable game.

@kkslider5552200 The tracks in 7 are what keep me coming back. Yeah, the roster kinda sucks (and set a bad precedent by adding Metal Mario), but there's something about almost every track that I instantly remember. Gliding over the town as magic carpets fly by in Shy Guy Bazaar, circling round the entrance to and inside the castle before rocketing outside in Mario Circuit, constantly going in and out of the water in Wario's Galleon and Piranha Pipeway, racing being affected by the beat in Melody Motorway and so many more.

And then the retro tracks brought back are easily the best selection out of any Mario Kart for me. Waluigi Pinball, Airship Fortress, Coconut Mall, Daisy Cruise, Koopa Cape, Kalimari Desert, it is such an amazing selection of tracks overall. I even found some of the battle tracks fun shockingly enough, like Sherbert Rink and especially Wuhu Town, a track so good they brought it back as some of the very few retro battle tracks in MK8D.

I understand if it's not your favourite, and I think they could've chosen better tracks to represent the game in MK8 (Neo Bowser City? Really?) but I still absolutely love almost every track in the game and hope the really cool ones return in MK9.

@Fizza
Too bad, we cannot choose the track individually in Mario Kart 7.

@Anti-Matter It pains me so much.

I agree. If 7 had had single player VS, giving the player the ability to select which tracks to race on and how many races, 7 would be my favorite Mario Kart game. As is, it's a coin flip between Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart 8 DLX. 7 is the most innovative Mario Kart game, but has the worst omission.