For Your Information Difficult Games = Fun Games

[Raptor29aa]

I just saw this youtube video and felt it was worth sharing

Main Points of Video:

Usability of tools/Utility of tools -> Creativity -> Determination (opposite of RQ)

Learning Curve -> Specialty -> Team Roles

Guidlines/Policies -> Less Cheese (cheap wins) -> Fulfilling accomplishment / not feeling cheated

Ease of Intuition / Decision making Hints -> Less Confusion / Less Helplessness -> Increased Skill / Strategy over time

Complexity -> Frustration (Not Difficulty)

 

 

 

 

[devilslayersbane]

This shouldn't be too much of a necro, if it is at all a necro.

I finally got the chance to play the first dark souls when the "remaster" came out. Aside from FromSoft cheaping out a bit and not fixing many of the major issues that plagued the multiplayer (chain-backstabs and the like), I love the game. It's a perfect example, for the first half, on how to properly scale your difficulty without "scaling difficultly" that you seen in common AAA RPG's (see Elder scrolls IV, and V, and fallouts 3, NV, and 4). That's not to say that scaling difficulty doesn't have it's place, as it certainly helps keep the game interesting throughout the entire time you're playing when you can wait until level 99 to enter the intended tutorial dungeon. However, Dark Souls doesn't do this for 2 reasons. 1, to let new players know when they're going the wrong way without limiting exploration. 2, to give players a sense of accomplishment for overcoming a previously insurmountable task/challenge.

 

You can even see this escalation in the latter half of the game when the Taurus and Capra demons (2 early game boss fights) become fairly common enemies in the Demon Ruins. It's also visible when you visit early game areas to discover that the enemies haven't leveled with you and are pretty easy to overcome now. Dark souls also avoids the trap of locking off areas by doors (at least at the start), by putting enemies that you aren't ready to deal with in those areas like the skeletons in the graveyard outside of firelink shrine.

 

It's not a perfect game, and you can definitely tell where the budget/time ran out. The Bed of Chaos is less of a boss fight and more of an RNG to hope you don't get yeeted into the void below. There's the great sea of dragon ass in Lost Izalith, and copy pasta enemy placement in the Demon ruins. However, these are relatively minor complaints for an overall great game. There are only 2 points where I see players give up on Dark Souls: Sen's Fortress and the archers in Anor Londo. Sen's fortress is all about trial and error and being aware of your surroundings. It's full of traps and relatively beefy enemies. The Archers in Anor Londo is genuinely frustrating, but is also a lot of trial and error.

 

The important thing is that they can all be overcome without making you, the player lose agency or a need to cheese (read: exploit) the game. Dark souls is one of my favorite games of all time now because of its tough love attitude and surprisingly fair challenge.