Current Events > Most overrated game in terms of difficulty?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Meaning everyone says it's hard but you don't think so
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Dark Souls. the hardest bosses for me are the character creation and navigating the world
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AvantgardeAClue posted...

Dark Souls. the hardest bosses for me are the character creation and navigating the world

really? or was that sarcasm
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Zelda 2
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Medevil 2
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F-Zero GX

Most overrated part of a game (in recent memory): Jump rope minigame in Super Mario Odyssey
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Dark Souls for sure. It's become synonymous with difficulty with things being called "the Dark Souls of _______" and it's not even actually hard and the difficulty that is there is artificial difficulty.
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Dark Souls, but mostly because reviewers won't shut the fuck up about games ...
Slip-N-Slide posted...

... being called "the Dark Souls of _______"

Every time a game makes them think a little bit.

Hmm. What do you mean when you say difficulty? Like, an overall difficult game? Or a game that has a certain aspect that is difficult for most people?

Because I've found people that claim the Disgaea series is a nightmare. Little do they know that once you learn how the item world works and you level up a simple rank 6 or 7 weapon, you can breeze through the game with one character.

If you mean difficult as a whole, the Dark Souls series is overrated when it comes to actual difficulty. It's not really hard, it's just annoyingly frustrating when you don't know what to do and when to do it. Second playthrough is a walk in the park.
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Manocheese posted...

F-Zero GX

Most overrated part of a game (in recent memory): Jump rope minigame in Super Mario Odyssey

GX was super underrated
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Slip-N-Slide posted...

and the difficulty that is there is artificial difficulty.

It's one thing to call Dark Souls overrated in terms of difficulty, but it's quite another thing to say nonsense like this
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dark souls

Spooking posted...

WildStar (raids).

this too
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UnholyMudcrab posted...

Slip-N-Slide posted...

and the difficulty that is there is artificial difficulty.

It's one thing to call Dark Souls overrated in terms of difficulty, but it's quite another thing to say nonsense like this

Yeah Dark Soulss difficultly is definitely overrated but it is real difficulty. The only reason it is overrated is because people talk like its the hardest game of all time when really the hardest thing about the game is just that you have to approach it differently than most games. Once you get used to it and get the hang of it, it isnt all that hard.
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UNLIMITED SaGa

Once you figured out how to play it, it became easy and fun.
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Is artificial difficulty just giving enemies more HP and making them hit harder, while changing nothing else about them?
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I'm not great at games so I don't think I've found many games to be easier than what I hear others say on here.
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Mega Man

Once you know what each boss is weak to and what tools you need for certain levels, it becomes a lot easier. Also, Yellow Devil is stupidly easy if you just study the pattern.

There are still a few ridiculously hard parts throughout the games though.

dmc3
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Vertania posted...

Also, Yellow Devil is stupidly easy if you just study the pattern.

...or, you know, press select a lot.

scar the 1 posted...

Zelda 2

I think this is my vote. While some parts of the game are hard (Death Mountain), you can learn from your mistakes and still move forward eventually. Challenging game, but not "Hardest NES game ever, if not, hardest game ever" that some people make it out to be. Once you get the down-thrust, the game becomes moderate in difficulty until the path to the Great Palace.
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SavenForever posted...

Once you get the down-thrust, the game becomes moderate in difficulty until the path to the Great Palace.

Then, you learn how to budget and plan deaths at specific points.

Dark Souls is great but its difficulty is way overblown imo.

Slip-N-Slide posted...

the difficulty that is there is artificial difficulty.

This is wrong, though. At least for DkS1. I can very much see it being the case for DkS2 and, to a lesser extent, 3, but certainly not 1.
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world of warcraft, specifically raiding

50% is making sure you have the right gear & setup, which is really just a matter of how much time you're willing to waste (since you can go on icy veins and read a guide or w/e).

the other 50% is the actual raid, and most of the difficulty comes from making sure that 40 people are all doing the right things. mechanically they're not THAT difficult
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Mega Man
Castlevania 2 - Simon's Quest (Once you know what to do and where to go. It's actually one of the easiest CVs)
Super Meat Boy (not including some of the dark world levels. They can get brutal)

Slightly unrelated: Flying the Dodo in GTA3. It's not really hard once you realize pointing the nose down makes you bop back upwards and vice versa.
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Dyinglegacy posted...

Is artificial difficulty just giving enemies more HP and making them hit harder, while changing nothing else about them?

Artificial difficulty is just a term people use when they don't have an answer as to why something is hard. It's a pointless term that contributes nothing and the complaint can usually be worded better about something specific.

Everything in a game is artificial, which is the dead giveaway that the term means absolutely nothing.
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HippopotamusRex posted...

Dyinglegacy posted...

Is artificial difficulty just giving enemies more HP and making them hit harder, while changing nothing else about them?

Artificial difficulty is just a term people use when they don't have an answer as to why something is hard. It's a pointless term that contributes nothing and the complaint can usually be worded better about something specific.

Everything in a game is artificial, which is the dead giveaway that the term means absolutely nothing.

Fuckin a
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Dark Souls
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HippopotamusRex posted...

Artificial difficulty is just a term people use when they don't have an answer as to why something is hard. It's a pointless term that contributes nothing and the complaint can usually be worded better about something specific.

The term basically translates to "Don't take my opinion seriously, I have to resort to bullshit to justify my dislike of a game."
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HippopotamusRex posted...

Dyinglegacy posted...

Is artificial difficulty just giving enemies more HP and making them hit harder, while changing nothing else about them?

Artificial difficulty is just a term people use when they don't have an answer as to why something is hard. It's a pointless term that contributes nothing and the complaint can usually be worded better about something specific.

Everything in a game is artificial, which is the dead giveaway that the term means absolutely nothing.

to me, artificial difficulty is when a challenge exists in a game that does not test a player's skill, it's just something added or tacked on in order to make progression harder.

so for example, a boss that has difficult mechanics i think is a normal difficult encounter. but then take that same boss and add in an RNG mechanic that results in your failure, hide information from the player that is important, overly inflate the enemy's stats so i takes an hour to beat them, etc and I think that gets into the artificial area.

in my opinion dark souls is normally pretty fair in terms of difficulty, but there are a few moments in the game where i feel the mechanics aren't designed to test the player but basically make things extremely inconvenient. Shrine of Amana in Dark Souls 2 comes to mind as a very poorly designed level that doesn't teach you anything.

imo artificial difficulty is the kind of thing where it's hard to explain, but everyone can recall times when they felt like a game is "unfair"
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I would say Dark Souls 1 - not a hard game by any means.

Dark Souls 2 actually felt like a fair challenge to me (some would have my head for saying that but I'm talking SotFS.

Dark Souls 3 however is full bullshit mode. I steamrolled the first two but in this, the enemies attacks are insanely fast, the dodge has an on-release delay and the enemies tracking is amazingly accurate.

I had pretty bad FPS for 3 though.
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Dark Souls is a challenging game, but obviously its way overblown. Its not that hard, its just about as hard as games used to be in a time where most games coming out are piss easy.

And I would say Dark Souls has some "artificial difficulty". Like losing your souls when you die and having bonfires be a decent distance away from each other. Not that any of this is a bad thing. Its just most games are way more forgiving by comparison, even the newer Resident Evils have checkpoints around every corner.

And I have no exact definition for artificial difficulty, but I always just considered it as something that makes the game harder without really actually changing the core gameplay I guess.

I've seen some people say Contra is a hard game, and I'm like "what?"
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ThePredominate posted...

Dark Souls 3 however is full bullshit mode. I steamrolled the first two but in this, the enemies attacks are insanely fast, the dodge has an on-release delay and the enemies tracking is amazingly accurate.

I had pretty bad FPS for 3 though.

idk Dark Souls 3 never really challenged me, granted I had at least 600 hours in the series when the game came out so maybe that's unfair of me to say.

Now, if we're talking Ringed City, that shit is rough. But I really really like Ringed City.
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LJRENEGADE posted...

And I would say Dark Souls has some "artificial difficulty". Like losing your souls when you die and having bonfires be a decent distance away from each other. Not that any of this is a bad thing. Its just most games are way more forgiving by comparison, even the newer Resident Evils have checkpoints around every corner.

Neither of those things are artificial difficulty. If you didnt lose souls when you die, then there is no downside to dying. And the bonfires are spread out enough that you have to manage your resources (estrus and spell uses) but never far enough apart that you cant make it.
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Rikiaz posted...

Neither of those things are artificial difficulty. If you didnt lose souls when you die, then there is no downside to dying. And the bonfires are spread out enough that you have to manage your resources (estrus and spell uses) but never far enough apart that you cant make it.

Not to mention, in the case of Dark Souls 1 (and to a lesser extent 3), there are dozens of shortcuts you unlock between bonfires so the distance between them isn't exactly accurate.

Sure, the distance between the Undead Burg and Undead Parish is far, but I can think of 3 shortcuts between those two bonfires alone (kicking down the ladder, getting rid of the bridge wyvern and unlocking the portcullis behind him, and unlocking the portcullis behind the armored warpig).
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XCOM games

they're very much beatable, and you can take all the time in the world to figure out your moves
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Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne

Maby if it's your first rpg.

Rikiaz posted...

LJRENEGADE posted...

And I would say Dark Souls has some "artificial difficulty". Like losing your souls when you die and having bonfires be a decent distance away from each other. Not that any of this is a bad thing. Its just most games are way more forgiving by comparison, even the newer Resident Evils have checkpoints around every corner.

Neither of those things are artificial difficulty. If you didnt lose souls when you die, then there is no downside to dying. And the bonfires are spread out enough that you have to manage your resources (estrus and spell uses) but never far enough apart that you cant make it.

They don't really change the core gameplay though. Its like Resident Evil with ink ribbons and save points. Its not actually going to effect the combat or anything like that.

Slayerblade11 posted...

Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne

Maby if it's your first rpg.

Ive heard Nocturne isnt that hard but the things that are hard are just unfair. Is that the one with the boss that is immune to all damage so you just have to tank it until it kills itself?
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Flappy Bird.
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Zelda 1. Everyone always says you have to bomb every rock, burn every bush, etc. While there is quite a lot of trial and error invilved, its nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be. I beat it without a guide in like 3 or 4 days.

LJRENEGADE posted...

They don't really change the core gameplay though. Its like Resident Evil with ink ribbons and save points. Its not actually going to effect the combat or anything like that.

Hell yeah it does. Managing healing is basically half of the Dark Souls experience. If you don't have estus left, you have to judge whether you can make it to the next bonfire, risking all your souls in the process, or turn around and rest, restarting the challenge all over again. It's risk management, that's Dark Souls in a nutshell.
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Rikiaz posted...

Slayerblade11 posted...

Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne

Maby if it's your first rpg.

Ive heard Nocturne isnt that hard but the things that are hard are just unfair. Is that the one with the boss that is immune to all damage so you just have to tank it until it kills itself?

Pretty much, you need to know what is ahead or else you will train the wrong companions, and bosses have the weirdest immunities to things. One boss will negate physical the next will be immune to two different types of damage spells. So you're constantly grinding. I stopped at the 4 oni's that was some bullshit.
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MACisBack posted...

Rikiaz posted...

Slayerblade11 posted...

Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne

Maby if it's your first rpg.

Ive heard Nocturne isnt that hard but the things that are hard are just unfair. Is that the one with the boss that is immune to all damage so you just have to tank it until it kills itself?

Pretty much, you need to know what is ahead or else you will train the wrong companions, and bosses have the weirdest immunities to things. One boss will negate physical the next will be immune to two different types of damage spells. So you're constantly grinding. I stopped at the 4 oni's that was some bullshit.

I love RPGs with difficulty boss fights but from the things Ive heard it sounds absurdly excessive.
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Minute posted...

LJRENEGADE posted...

They don't really change the core gameplay though. Its like Resident Evil with ink ribbons and save points. Its not actually going to effect the combat or anything like that.

Hell yeah it does. Managing healing is basically half of the Dark Souls experience. If you don't have estus left, you have to judge whether you can make it to the next bonfire, risking all your souls in the process, or turn around and rest, restarting the challenge all over again. It's risk management, that's Dark Souls in a nutshell.

Maybe I'm wording it wrong. But what I mean is that the combat mechanics don't change. The enemies moves don't change. Losing souls on death and having to be set back further isn't really going to make a boss fight more difficult because of the boss and enemies themselves.

Making it more punishing for the player to die will influence the way they play, sure, but it is what I'd consider artificial difficulty. Again, I'm not saying its a bad thing, but I think its a big part of why people think Dark Souls is hard. Like Resident Evil. No one would think the classic REs were tough if you just had checkpoints, no item managment, and regenerating health, like a lot of games today.

MACisBack posted...

Rikiaz posted...

Slayerblade11 posted...

Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne

Maby if it's your first rpg.

Ive heard Nocturne isnt that hard but the things that are hard are just unfair. Is that the one with the boss that is immune to all damage so you just have to tank it until it kills itself?

Pretty much, you need to know what is ahead or else you will train the wrong companions, and bosses have the weirdest immunities to things. One boss will negate physical the next will be immune to two different types of damage spells. So you're constantly grinding. I stopped at the 4 oni's that was some bullshit.

"Guide, dammit!" games aren't really games, but Skinner Boxes instead.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GuideDangIt