How balanced is this game? Switching difficulties possible if stuck?

[Torment]

The little information I have makes me dread to try it when it is becoming a beautiful but unbalanced mess. How is the difficulty setting? Can one adjust it when the enemies get too spongy and you play it more for athmosphere than to tryhard?

[Le bozo de Higgs]

You can adjust the difficulty anytime, there is a normal mode and then a narrative mode. You can switch anytime but doing so resets the state of the manor, meaning that it respawns enemies and reshuffles the room placements etc... But there are many teleportation points and you keep those through resets.

[Silky]

Originally posted by Torment:

The little information I have makes me dread to try it when it is becoming a beautiful but unbalanced mess. How is the difficulty setting? Can one adjust it when the enemies get too spongy and you play it more for athmosphere than to tryhard?

Difficulty is based on how you decide to deal with enemies. Magic - easy, firearms - easy but arent available from the start, melee - gets progressively harder an harder.

[Dungeon Goblin 64]

I've been playing in on normal only using melee and not had too many problems. You get plenty of healing items, plus vampirsm that heals on hit, damage reduction etc so it's not too bad but have heard magic/ranged is much easier.

Felt balanced towards the player to be honest, didn't feel very try hard but there is a narrative mode you can switch to at any time if you want.

[AlterEgo45]

I don't know.

I just bought the game and once I get past the easy monsters that I found in the demo, I get the crap kicked out of me. I kinda regret buying this atm. What I find once I get past Charlotte and the other stuff on level one is about twice as strong as what I encountered previously and there are multiple hostiles at once on top of that, who can each two shot you. Charlotte and cholera patients ain't doing that.

To me the melee controls seem too clunky and outdated to really do what you need them to do. It's like playing the original Mortal Kombat but the only controls you have are punch and roll and you have to fumble around with equipment. Though I have to add I haven't played games like that in decades.

I'm hoping I'll find more stuff than just a meat cleaver to take these things on with, but I can't get far enough in the mansion to find anything since I get killed as soon as I venture any distance from the main hallway on level 1. We'll see. I'll give it a bit more time.

The answer to your question is the same as in most games - it depends on how experienced you are at these types of games.

[L]

I personally didn't have much problem playing through the game, but I'm very experienced. I've watched many different people play, and several had trouble at the start of the game. I believe the main reasons for this are:

1. Almost nobody uses backstep. I personally feel it's crucial to melee combat. It lets you bait attacks and punish from a safe distance. Most people try to roll through the enemy instead, which is slower, takes longer to recover from, and keeps them within range to take damage.

2. Some people try to kill everything without watching their health bar (so they don't heal), and without gathering any items, healing or equipment. In this game, the more resources you gather/utilize, the easier time you'll have surviving.

3. Some people don't read anything and don't know how the game works, or they forget soon after.

There are many systems in place to prevent you from getting stuck, but if you're running around essentially naked with no items, you probably won't be able to progress. There's also an easy mode difficulty (which I haven't tried).

That said, there are some puzzles that people may get stuck on, but there is an official Withering Rooms page with hints, at https://witheringrooms.com/hints.html

[Baron von Gosu]

The hardest part is losing your items and gear when you die, however once you hit chapter 2 you unlock a few ways to keep some gear passed death which has made experimenting and trying new tactics a lot better. This game has a hard starting point but seems to balance much better once you get into chapter 2.