How not to design harder difficulties

[Mythily]

This game is a perfect example of bad design of harder difficulties. Instead of making only the bosses harder (which they need tbh) every single normal enemy becomes a bullet sponge that makes the game quite boring. I for example decided to do everything past the point of no return on hard. Aside from the bosses even with the best equipment it was annoying.

So yea, don't play on hard difficulty. It's a shame, the bosses get actually quite fun on hard.

[Shadowlet]

Boss before timeskip is pretty close to impossible on Hard difficulty. IT was then I decided to stick to Normal for the rest of the game.

[a passerby]

I made a mistake of starting this game on hard. The tutorial fights took an unnecessarily long time.

[Crayon-Sha]

Lol yeah. When I first played this game on the X360 many, many years ago I tried it on hard mode; I dropped the game not long after beating the lizard/whatever shade at Kaine's house because everything was such a slog to fight. I tried it again some time later —again, on hard mode— and dropped it once again. It was only until I replayed it on normal years after I bought the game that I was able to enjoy it.

[Maralva ⛧]

Yeah, unfortunately Nier's hard mode was never good. It sucks in Automata too.
But i mean, personally idm, the game isn't much about providin' a challenge, just more or less a world to indulge in and enjoy.

[Nyu]

if you play nier games on normal. sorry i dont see you as someone who beat the real game.
you never struggled, you never had the sense of becoming stronger. and you never learned how to overcome different enemytypes. you just miss on all the hardship and emotions coming and connecting to the story.

jrpgs had always some enemies that you can encounter but are super strong at start. u can come back a few quest later and finally easily beat that enemy.

and holy piece, i hope no one ever allows your opinion to be real for a hardmode.
its not a hardmode if every enemy beside the bosses is just a pushover.

learn to use items, learn strats. upgrade gear.
change gear and magic
get good
or dont ever play hard lul.

just play normal and skip through everything and enjoy the story pls, you are not the kind of person who should play harder modes.


if you are handicapped and can just play easymode and everything else is just not possible, just ignore my post.

[Shadowlet]

^

It just turns enemies into sponges. That's not difficult in the slightest.

Glad you found something to be proud of though, good for you.

[Mythily]

Yup the person above me gets it. There's no skill here.
Also the post from Nyu is unnecessarily aggressive. Maybe you should read your comment section again and rethink your behavior.

[Nyu]

they are not sponges lul.
okay, if you are a button smasher without strats and refuse to use items and think, than i agree.
so play on normal lul
nothing bad if you play games for story.
but dont complain about way of difficultie if you dont even try

[Mythily]

Originally posted by Nyu:

they are not sponges lul.
okay, if you are a button smasher without strats and refuse to use items and think, than i agree.
so play on normal lul
nothing bad if you play games for story.
but dont complain about way of difficultie if you dont even try

No wonder your comment section is so negative with your snowflaky behavior.
You likely play any game on the hardest difficulty even though it's design is horrible (like this game). You don't have a clue what good difficulty design is.

[Nyu]

Originally posted by Mythily:

Originally posted by Nyu:

they are not sponges lul.
okay, if you are a button smasher without strats and refuse to use items and think, than i agree.
so play on normal lul
nothing bad if you play games for story.
but dont complain about way of difficultie if you dont even try

No wonder your comment section is so negative with your snowflaky behavior.
You likely play any game on the hardest difficulty even though it's design is horrible (like this game). You don't have a clue what good difficulty design is.

you snowflake here and call me snowflake? you really should learn basic logic and take a class how to argue

pls play games on normal or easy.

you just dont get how the game works beside pressing buttons.
that doesnt make the balance bad :o

the game even has an autobattle feature for people like you.

[GODKaiserOs]

B/circle will instant kill any enemy that is knocked onto the ground. Works on everything besides bosses. So for a fast fight you would just hold Y/triangle>knockdown enemy>press B/circle>enemy dead. Alternative you can also use dark execution and then do the IK on the enemies after they fell of the spears.

Also get paralyze+status effect lvl up words like Hoduloth+Soles. This way you trivialize pretty much any normal encounter even on hard.

[Mythily]

Originally posted by GODKaiserOs:

B/circle will instant kill any enemy that is knocked onto the ground. Works on everything besides bosses. So for a fast fight you would just hold Y/triangle>knockdown enemy>press B/circle>enemy dead. Alternative you can also use dark execution and then do the IK on the enemies after they fell of the spears.

Also get paralyze+status effect lvl up words like Hoduloth+Soles. This way you trivialize pretty much any normal encounter even on hard.

Yea I know. I'm more talking about large encounters, like I mentioned in the title. In the palace where you have to fight loads of fatties that need at least 2 executions before they die. It wasn't hard at all, repetitive at best. Dark wall spam was basically the only option I had to prevent from being knocked down all the time by these stupid enemies.

That's why health multipliers is almost always artificial difficulty. This game is no different, except it makes some bosses not die almost instantly which is both good and bad at the same time. For the bosses I would have no problems doing all of them on hard. Some other specific encounters? No thanks.

[GODKaiserOs]

No they do not. They all die within a single knockdown even the fatties. Thats why its called an instant kill.

Again to perform an instant kill you have to press B/Circle, which is the confirm button, next to an enemy that got knocked to the ground. Automata has the exact same mechanic.

[Mythily]

Originally posted by GODKaiserOs:

No they do not. They all die within a single knockdown even the fatties. Thats why its called an instant kill.

Again to perform an instant kill you have to press B/Circle, which is the confirm button, next to an enemy that got knocked to the ground. Automata has the exact same mechanic.

On normal? yes. But not on hard. It deals a certain amount of damage, so if the enemy has too much health, they won't die. Remember, the mobs in the endgame are tougher than anything else. That's how I did fight them anyways, a large weapon + dark wall and dark execution (but prioritizing dark wall if short on mana).

Oh yea and if you weren't aware, after route B they get a massive health boost on hard.

[GODKaiserOs]

Ok so you clearly do not understand, since its dealing as much dmg as the enemy has hit points left ALWAYS regardless of difficulty setting.

otherwise explain to me how i could IK with it throughout the whole game.
why it even works when i set my char to lvl 1 and use the worst lvl 1 weapon i have even after the point of no return. Explain to me how a quick google search for "nier replicant instant kill" or "nier replicant finisher" throws out a bunch of results were players on other foren are discussing the same exact mechanic and how exploitable it is for hard mode.

here just one example: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/286768-nier-replicant-ver122474487139/79421091?page=2

but i guess we are all wrong and you know better.