u/ArcIgnis

A furry genie offers to either turn everyone in the world into an anthropomorphic character except you, or you are the only anthropomorphic in a world of humans.

What would you choose?

May you cool off during these humid times.

Him saying "Hey hey hey", that frequency can stabilize or shatter dimension.

I don't know how often difficulty has been debated on when something is really difficult or not and it's done in so many ways across games, that I'm curious on what you all think.

We all experience difficulty in our own way. It's difficult for some, and easy for others. This can be mechanics, this can be learning a system, learning to navigate, remembering established environments, find/discover new timing to be faster or sharpen your skills, etc.

Now my question is this and this can apply across all game genres, and I'll mention examples too.

- Inflated HP & Attack & Defense in RPG games -

This is when enemies aren't different in behavior. They are exactly the same as you may have defeated them before, but the only thing that tips on this scale really, is the boss has more chances, and you have less chances. Defining chance to be how many hits one can take before losing.

- Increased Speed in racing games -

This is when your opponent(s) have a new standard for lap times. In normal difficulty, you may notice that you leave quite the gap between you and the ones behind you, but on higher difficulty, they simply go up in speed. No shortcuts, no special tricks, they simply go faster, and you have to start scraping buy, turn and brake as little as possible to preserve speed.

- Value increase of things to purchase -

This can occur across any type of game genre, whether it's gear or items, or vehicles, their price has simply gone up.

- Behavior changes in opponents -

This is where an enemy you have defeated before, suddenly gets new moves, and has counters for things that you used to be able to exploit, or even use you to advance themselves, or are more aggressive, where while they are defensive, they're also fully capable of stopping/forcing your method to change.

- Rulebreaking opponents -

Rules that you are forced to abide by, do not apply to opponents. If cars bump into walls, they don't lose speed, spellcasters never run out of resources to fight you, enemies don't stagger when you strike them, opponents move much faster than your character could respond to, and invulnerability periods.

- Disadvantaged Protagonist -

The type of game that establishes from the very start of the game, that everything, even things that are the same size as you, can waste you with less effort than you would spend on them, things can fly around you, have access to resources you can't have, like restoring health on the spot, homing projectiles, etc.

- Changed environment -

Something you've overcome before, is not quite the same in high difficulty. This can be more obstacles that were never there before such as blockades, added NPCs/Enemies, more traps, and arenas that benefit your opponent more, corrupted grounds you can't work with or stand on, and of course, more pit falls.

I'm certain there are more types of difficulties out there that I couldn't come up with as I was writing this, and I tried to keep this neutral as possible for I know most of you will have games come to mind when applying these types of difficulties that you may have experienced, and how you felt about them.

I'm quite aware that everyone has their own definition and experience on what they would consider difficult, and whatnot, and I am curious if said "difficulty" is truly difficult to you or not.

For me, the only thing I consider difficult that is enjoyable in games, is when opponents or obstacle behavior changes, and I have to re-adapt. This forces me to re-learn and study my opponent because things are different, or maybe my environment could have changed, or both even.

I don't consider inflated HP, attack and defense, or rulebreaking to be "difficult" to be exact. If any, I consider it lazy and unfair for the way I look at game, I'm given tools to overcome obstacles. Don't misunderstand since I can equalize and say "It's fair when a huge beast doesn't stagger, and one hit of his will crush me" but in exchange, said beast is very slow and telegraphs their moves for you to avoid danger, but if that same beast in higher difficulty, can move as fast as me, but keep the same properties still of not staggering and 1-hit kills, then I call it unfair, unless I potentially can do the same as my opponent. At that point, I'd consider it to be more limiting in how I choose to play a game with the options available.

So, what do you consider difficult and not so difficult to you? Feel free to share your experience in games that have higher difficulty settings, and the kind of difficulty that you do enjoy.

First weapon is the Swordspear from Dark Souls 3, also known as a Swordstaff.

Second weapon is the Double Sword from Dynasty Warriors, also known as a twinblade or double-bladed sword, or more known as the saberstaff that Darth Maul uses.

Third weapon are the Katars from Elden Ring, but also used by Assassins in Ragnarok Online.

So that Eevee can grow big and strong!