Your Initial Difficulty Choice?

[Koh]

Relevant video.




But really, when you first play a game, what difficulty setting do you start with, if you're given a choice?

If it's a series I'm totally new to, I'll always start on Normal, since as a game developer myself, I know that Normal represents the intended learning and difficulty curve set by the developers.  If I'm already familiar with a series, like Puyo Puyo, Mario, or Zelda, I'll always start on the hardest difficulty setting, because I won't be challenged otherwise, and will get bored.


There are games that totally mock the player for playing on anything easier than Normal.  There are also games that totally deny access to content on easier settings.  I can understand the latter, and have played a few games that end prematurely on the easier settings.  I'm okay with that, since those aren't the difficulty curves the developers intended to reward with the shiny things.  The former, I just find hilarious when they get creative with it.

[Kosheh]

But really, when you first play a game, what difficulty setting do you start with, if you're given a choice?

It really depends on my confidence with the genre. >:

I'll usually pick Normal if it's something I've just picked up and doesn't really require you to play on Easy, i.e. Kingdom Hearts, cool action game (like No More Heroes, or something) and then replay it on Hard for any extra cool things I couldn't unlock on a Normal playthrough.

If the game is inherently difficult and requires a deep mechanical knowledge and very structured decision-making, like  Fire Emblem, Contra... and Street Fighter or Tekken ; I'll go with easy (it's true: im bad at the fighting games I love most) so I can enjoy the story.

With the latest Fire Emblem though, I can't play without Casual Mode enabled...I actually came into the series from Advance Wars, where units are expendable, so to have a unit die forever is just rough. :/
I also hate resetting to keep my units alive otherwise. I've gotten better with it since (playing through Path of Radiance now) and I'm just generally more cautious, period.


I'm an old ass man now and this gaming gramps ain't got no time for "Super Difficult Hard Torture Maniac Mode"
man I gotta work and make money to put a roof over my head. Gaming's a hobby at this point, and I play video games to relax, not scream at

[Maxpphire]

For me it depends on the game.

If it is an RPG of sorts, I tend to choose easy. I'm mainly in it for the storyline and if the gameplay is good enough for me to want to play it again, I will either start over in the middle of a file, or finish the game and make a new file and choose the hardest setting.

If it is a music game, it still depends on the game, but I'll warm up with more mid level songs, then go off to push my limits with things. On IIDX I start off by playing 8s and 9s, and will gradually build myself up to be playing 10s and 11s. Pop'n Music I will play 30s, to build up to playing 35s, Jubeat I will play 6s to built up to playing 8s, Sound Voltex I will play 8s to build up tp 10s, and Reflec beat, fuck it I'll just play the hardest songs because the virtual airhocky konami musical edition is piss easy.

I have not really seen any other games ask this, sooooooooooooooooooooo those are my experiences.

[~Axis~]

I always start out on normal and when I beat the game once, I replay it on hard. I sometimes give myself some quests to do for games that dont have a difficulty setting and/or the difference between them is hard to notice. Like beating a stage without touching a single coin in Super Mario Bros or beating an entire Sonic game without losing a single life for example.

[Lemonray]

I'm an old ass man now and this gaming gramps ain't got no time for "Super Difficult Hard Torture Maniac Mode"

>not playing real life on NEET mode


Hm. Typically I will investigate how hard each given mode is before doing actual playthroughs of games.
I prefer higher difficulties if the challenge is genuine. Genuine meaning, enemy placements, enhanced/smarter AI, and so on.

What I don't like is when enemies are able to cheat. See for example, games where enemies can hit you through walls and other solid objects. This can be fine in the right context (Dark Souls' ghosts, Iron Knuckle's attacks breaking through pillars in the Zelda 64 games...) but it's crazy to see enemy attacks just clipping through things and hurting you when it makes no sense for that to happen.

[~Axis~]

These are the games which I wish there was an easy mode though.

[recme]

hard mode. except for cave story. beating the game like that is impossible :c

[[robo9]]

For the first 3 years I had Melee, I would only play against level ones

This should give you a hit

[Vipershark]

Considering that I have so many games, I generally either play on the default normal mode or if it's a choice of either Easy or Hard, I pick Easy. Then if I enjoyed the game enough, I might go back and play it again on Hard.

It really depends on the game though.
On the new Smash games for example, my goal is to first beat classic mode on the default 2.0 with all the characters, then increase the difficulty until I can beat it on 9.0 (with at least one character)

[E-Man]

In the past, I always chose the weakest difficulty. These days, I start off with the normal one and occasionally try harder difficulties and challenges.

[DioShiba]

I usually play hard for most the games I play now a days.

Unless there isn't a difficulty setting in which case I just play the game. Personally I just like to challenge my self since I've been playing video games for so long that I just really want to enjoy the challenge presented in a game.

[Koh]

Have you guys played any game that ends prematurely, or totally omits content on the easy settings? How do you feel about games that do that?

The only game I've played that does this is Columns III. Practice ends on the Spider, and tells you to play on a higher difficulty. Normal ends on the Mummy, you don't find any treasure, and are told to play on a higher difficulty. Hard ends on the Sphinx, you find the treasure, and get new music in the credits.

Some games go so far as to have Easy Mode as it's own thing entirely, with its own cutscenes and such, like Puyo Puyo Tsu. I'm okay with that too.

[Kriven]

I generally only play Hard if there's some kind of reward for doing so that isn't just bragging rights. A lot of the time I'll go Easy in fighting games or RPGs simply because I want to see the story, and fighting game AI is pretty often just ridiculously cheap. Those kind of competitive party games, if I want to challenge myself, I play with other people. For other games (platformers and the like) I haven't really come across a skill level type of thing... I tend to play on whatever the default settings are.

[puggsoy]

I used to always choose easy, but now I choose normal. If I want to replay it then I'll replay on hard.

Some games are a bit weird with difficulty naming though, like Anomaly Warzone Earth has "Casual", "Advanced" and "Hardcore". I played through the game in Casual, assuming that was the intended difficulty, since Advanced sounded like it was for more experienced players. Looking back though, Casual was sort of easy, so these were probably just different names for "Easy", "Normal" and "Hard". It is a fun game though, so I'll probably replay it on Advanced, especially since most achievements are gotten on that mode.

Jamestown had a really cool way of encouraging people to experiment with different difficulties. It has 4 difficulties; Normal, Difficult, Legendary, and Divine. However, to access level 4 you need to beat every previous level on Difficult or higher (and you can only play it on Difficult or higher). Same deal with level 5, but with Legendary. You can also unlock the hardest difficulty, Judgement. The fact that the game actually requires you to try higher difficulties was pretty cool. I mean, I've beaten all levels on Legendary, simply because I had no other choice. I'll probably attempt Divine, and maybe even Judgement sometime.

I do find it a bit disappointing when a game that I really enjoy and replay doesn't have difficulty options. For example Hotline Miami, it's a great game that I've replayed for achievements, and it's still really fun. It'd be great if there was some sort of difficulty setting, to challenge myself a bit more.

[Vipershark]

Have you guys played any game that ends prematurely, or totally omits content on the easy settings?  How do you feel about games that do that?

The only game I've played that does this is Columns III.  Practice ends on the Spider, and tells you to play on a higher difficulty.  Normal ends on the Mummy, you don't find any treasure, and are told to play on a higher difficulty.  Hard ends on the Sphinx, you find the treasure, and get new music in the credits.

Some games go so far as to have Easy Mode as it's own thing entirely, with its own cutscenes and such, like Puyo Puyo Tsu.  I'm okay with that too.

I don't mind this so long as the game actually tells you about it, but unfortunately most don't.
I guess in that situation it's beat it once, get mad at not being able to see the rest, then play again on the intended difficulty.

I do think it's kind of ridiculous, but I don't really mind it.