Is this game hard?

[Front Bucket]

I'm used to *difficult* games. Is this one difficult?

[Bobywan]

Not that hard.
But once you beat the final boss once, you can add "heat level" that will add more challenge.

[Suzaku]

For some. Some beat it in a couple tries, some still fail to win after a hundred attempts. Either way, it's a rogue-lite, so win or lose, playing it many, many times is expected.

[meheezen]

the game starts "dark souls difficult" and you're expected to fail and die, then you learn you can unlock abilities, upgrades and different weapons; the game starts getting easier with every try.

it is meant to be played many times, but there is always something different in each try to keep you entertained

[DarrkPhoenix]

If you're already familiar with similar action gameplay then you probably won't find it particularly difficult at the start. You'll still have a decent amount of deaths at the start as you learn enemies, bosses, and the overall mechanics, but you'll probably manage your first clear pretty quickly. Once you manage your first clear, though, you'll get access to the Pact of Punishment, which allows you to increase the difficulty of the runs in a variety of ways. At higher difficulties (heat levels) the game can be very challenging, so you can rest assured you'll be able to dial in the difficulty to whatever level you find enjoyable.

[Not Rawr]

Pretty damn easy compared to other similar games. You gotta bump up the difficulty a bunch to make it hard.

[Tryxis]

Not too difficult, but as others have said you can pump up the difficulty in a way that suits you best via the Pact of Punishment before starting a run.

Conversely the game can also be made easier through an optional God mode, which will give you a stacking 2% damage resistance buff every time you fail a run.

[Sokaku]

There is a bit of RNG that you can influence through permanent upgrades, so your first few runs will be about as difficult as the game gets for a little while until you clear it and unlock the ability to increase the difficulty. From there I'd say the only downside is that if you found the initial game somewhat unrewarding, you will need to "grind" finishing it many times to gradually unlock higher heats. For instance once you finish the game at 0 heat and unlock the pact of punishment, you cannot instantly go and try a 64 heat run. You have to clear a Heat 1, then 2, then 3, etc. And that is per weapon as well. So you might get to H32 with shield or bow, but stopped playing sword at H10. You have to re-run 11-31 with sword to try H32. (Not sure, maybe if you start in Hell mode you can skip heats??)

For the most part though, the challenge come from what you set out as a goal yourself, growing through using less "optimal" boons, no hit runs, or joining speed run ladders and such.

[DarrkPhoenix]

Originally posted by Sokaku:

There is a bit of RNG that you can influence through permanent upgrades, so your first few runs will be about as difficult as the game gets for a little while until you clear it and unlock the ability to increase the difficulty. From there I'd say the only downside is that if you found the initial game somewhat unrewarding, you will need to "grind" finishing it many times to gradually unlock higher heats. For instance once you finish the game at 0 heat and unlock the pact of punishment, you cannot instantly go and try a 64 heat run. You have to clear a Heat 1, then 2, then 3, etc. And that is per weapon as well. So you might get to H32 with shield or bow, but stopped playing sword at H10. You have to re-run 11-31 with sword to try H32. (Not sure, maybe if you start in Hell mode you can skip heats??)

This is actually incorrect. You can increase the heat without completing previous heat levels, but you'll only get the bounty for the lowest uncompleted heat level. For example, once you complete your first run you can then pump the heat straight to 10, but you'll only get the bounties for heat 1 for that run. You can then leave the heat at 10 (or increase it further), but on the next run you'll only get the bounty for heat 2, then the run after that for heat 3. This applies separately for every weapon. The game will also throw up a warning that you've exceeded the heat level, but will still let you start a run with the increased heat.

[Something about Ivy]

It's not as hard as you thought. It's considered a good experience for me. You keep playing, you keep learning. That's all you have to do, so you can have fun with this game pretty much. recommend it.

[Shoxjau]

Unlock the Pact and it will be much more interesting