Rambling On About Demon's Souls and Dark Souls' Difficulty (KitFez)
4 replies, posted
Some idiot prattling on about video game difficulty in terms of "progress given versus progress taken away"; specifically in the soul-crushing Demon's Souls and Dark Souls.
[video=youtube;xYmWP97wwM4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYmWP97wwM4[/video]
I don't remember that level in Jak II. You should also specify that you're only talking about checkpoint games (which I think should be eliminated entirely, and replaced with quicksave/some autosaves). I think the difficulty for Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are a good change, because they are one of the few games now that do that. Very refreshing, gameplay- and metagame-wise. The hardest levels in Jak II I can vaguely remember, but I really only remember the city level (the main city), and the guns. Ratchet and Clank had very good "hard" sections in their games, such as some of the Arena challenges in Going Commando. But the difficulty was slightly erased when you were at the 3rd or 4th Challenge Mode, because you had every upgrade of every weapon. There should still be games like Demon's Souls, because it really separates the modern gamer from the oldschool gamer, as in you really have to focus on the game and your character. Let me describe my point better. Most of today's (~2000-present) games have almost no consequence to dying. You might say "well, you die, and have to reload. That's no fun. And what if you forget to save?". Well, think about it this way. Are you really afraid of dying in videogames now? Now that you know that you can just quickload, and it's really like you never died in the first place. Games like Demon's Souls bring back that consequence, and the key to being good at those kinds of games (no saves) is to actually feel "If I die, that's really bad, I need to focus on not dying."; not "If I die, that's okay, just 5 minutes of lost playtime, I can just reload anyways!".
[QUOTE=Meatpuppet;33968974]I don't remember that level in Jak II.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Meatpuppet;33968974]The hardest levels in Jak II I can vaguely remember, but I really only remember the city level (the main city), and the guns.[/QUOTE]
Exactly my point. You remember the game as a fun, cohesive whole, but you don't remember the bits that made you want to throw the controller at the screen.
[QUOTE=Meatpuppet;33968974]Well, think about it this way. Are you really afraid of dying in videogames now? Now that you know that you can just quickload, and it's really like you never died in the first place. Games like Demon's Souls bring back that consequence, and the key to being good at those kinds of games (no saves) is to actually feel "If I die, that's really bad, I need to focus on not dying."; not "If I die, that's okay, just 5 minutes of lost playtime, I can just reload anyways!".[/QUOTE]
You make a good point, though as I say in the video they also take away the sense of satisfaction and replace it with relief. Playing Demon's and Dark Souls really wears you out (or rather, it wore me out) to the point when I just wasn't having fun anymore.
I love difficulty in games. Legitimate difficulty, and not some artificial piece of shit, as is seen in most games. The same enemies with just more HP, or little things changed so you're at a disadvantage.
(AKA level scaling)
When I played Demon souls, and dark souls, I felt really great once I'd overcome enemies that had teared my ass inside out earlier on. The difficulty puts barriers in place that players can bypass through progression of skill, not because they've done some silly little quest that opened a gate that opened another gate which activated a switch which released a bunch of enemies in to your room whom had to be defeated to obtain a key to open a door.
[QUOTE=DeeCeeTeeBee;33969211]I love difficulty in games. Legitimate difficulty, and not some artificial piece of shit, as is seen in most games. The same enemies with just more HP, or little things changed so you're at a disadvantage.
(AKA level scaling)
When I played Demon souls, and dark souls, I felt really great once I'd overcome enemies that had teared my ass inside out earlier on. The difficulty puts barriers in place that players can bypass through progression of skill, not because they've done some silly little quest that opened a gate that opened another gate which activated a switch which released a bunch of enemies in to your room whom had to be defeated to obtain a key to open a door.[/QUOTE]
Indeed - like I say in the video, my opinion of Demon's/Dark Souls has more to do with how I personally react to having all my hours of progress wrenched away from me, and how that exhausts me but encourages others.
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