Hard mode is unfair

[Vynira Snowy]

This is what I call "Fake Difficulty." The challenge only comes from being able to take less hits and not from the game's design.

[Panda]

I quite like it, to be honest. I see Cave Story as on of those "old school" games that are unapologetic with how hard it can be.

Still, I can totally understand where you're coming from. Do you have any ideas or suggestions on how to ramp up "real difficulty" in something with such a simple (but hard to master!) gameplay?

Either way, if you feel hard mode is unfair, I suggest lowering difficulties then. :)

[John4300]

What I would do is to put few new enemies, give enemies and especially bosses some extra patterns that are more difficult to dodge. Maybe even change some maps to have extra spikes or more difficult jumps. Maybe give player less missiles too (That's what Metroid Zero Mission does).

Making a new difficult at this point of the game would be rather difficult (Indeed). It would need a whole new balancing of the game, and that would be a lot of work.

[Vynira Snowy]

Originally posted by Panda:

I quite like it, to be honest. I see Cave Story as on of those "old school" games that are unapologetic with how hard it can be.

Still, I can totally understand where you're coming from. Do you have any ideas or suggestions on how to ramp up "real difficulty" in something with such a simple (but hard to master!) gameplay?

Either way, if you feel hard mode is unfair, I suggest lowering difficulties then. :)

For making a more "real" difficulty look at some of the things John4300 said. Things like harder jumps, difficult to dodge patterns and less ammo.

[Panda]

Having more damaging enemies and hazards and putting more projectiles to dodge is effectively the same as "being able to take less hits"; it's just having the same amount of health as lower difficulties but having a lot more sources of damage. Having less rockets would be interesting but that would just change the meta to make people not use them and, believe you me, have people inevitably complain that the hard difficulty is too hard because of it. So regardless of what choices devs make in their games, ultimately, you can't win em all.

My point is, it's hard mode. It's a difficulty people knowingly choose to play in. Is it unfair? Absolutely. Is hard mode supposed to be accessible? You'll notice that the people who love the game the most and play it the most are the ones who enjoy the difficulty. If people like the challenge and they find it fun conquering it, they will play it. If people find hard onerous and unfair, they simply won't play it. Does not being able to play in hard detract from the experience people get on their normal difficulty playthrough?

I'm currently playing a Civ V game and trying to win at Diety which is the hardest difficulty and I haven't been able to beat it yet. The AIs' advantages on this difficulty are overwhelming and just downright unfair but I don't ever remember seeing anyone complaining about it. You see, you don't have to play at hard if you don't want to.

How about Ori? It doesn't have a hard mode per se but it has an achievement that you unlock by completing the game with zero deaths. Imagine playing Cave Story with permadeath. That is absolutely, ridiculously unfair even in normal difficulty where you have max health but just like pursuing a separate hard mode, it is a choice people willingly make; you're not forced into it.

I could understand criticism of unbalanced mechanics when it's on a game's default difficulty. But criticism that a separate hard mode is hard? Not so much, sorry.

[Dentorhedge]

The stuff in Cave Story is already hard to dodge, otherwise having three health wouldn't be a problem. Also, how is altering the health to a max of 8 HP any different from decreasing Mr. Traveller's attacks or gifting his enemies more projectiles? As for reforming the physics (even just of the Traveller), that would mean having to change huge portions of the game.

Thank gosh Yacht club is swimming in money to be able to do that with Plague of Shadows.

[Plastik20xx]

Christ on a bike.. "Hard mode is too hard!" Don't play hard mode, mystery solved Scooby.

[The Grand Mugwump]

Having fewer room for errors seems like a fair way to raise the difficulty to me. Accomplishing this through stat changes is the least creative way, but it is acceptable. I do enjoy how Bleed handles its difficulty increase. Enemies and bosses get new AI's with each difficulty, changing their attack patterns and/or making the patterns harder to avoid without ramping up the damage they deal or the boss' health. In a way, this alternate method is also more frustrating, because it involves relearning boss fights and mob patterns for each difficulty.

The Final Cave does change with difficulty. It ambushed me with its black winds and trickery when I waltzed in on original difficulty after clearing the game on easy.

[Chrisader]

If you think Cave Story is too hard on......hard. Then, I really would not recommend playing any and all Mega Man games what so ever. Or Zelda 2;)

[Vynira Snowy]

Originally posted by Chrisader:

If you think Cave Story is too hard on......hard. Then, I really would not recommend playing any and all Mega Man games what so ever. Or Zelda 2;)

I've played quite a few of the Megaman games and they're quite easy.

[Chrisader]

Originally posted by Mint-Berry Crunch:

Originally posted by Chrisader:

If you think Cave Story is too hard on......hard. Then, I really would not recommend playing any and all Mega Man games what so ever. Or Zelda 2;)

I've played quite a few of the Megaman games and they're quite easy.

Well, In that case. This game on any difficulty setting should be no problem for you then.

[Chrisader]

Originally posted by Ryuu-senpai:

If there were no achievement for Hard Mode - then it would be easy to not play it :hee:

Or, Do what i do. And not bother with achievements as they give you bugger all.

[Vynira Snowy]

Originally posted by Chrisader:

Originally posted by Ryuu-senpai:

If there were no achievement for Hard Mode - then it would be easy to not play it :hee:

Or, Do what i do. And not bother with achievements as they give you bugger all.

I know achievements don't give you anything but for me it's goals to achieve that increase the replay value.

[SonicBoomNFA]

Originally posted by Chrisader:

Originally posted by Mint-Berry Crunch:

I've played quite a few of the Megaman games and they're quite easy.

Well, In that case. This game on any difficulty setting should be no problem for you then.

Dude, don't even, lol. Cave Story on Hard is 100x harder than Mega man. In fact, one of the things I literally told my friend today at school while trying to beat Sacred Ground was, "Dude, ♥♥♥♥ this. If Mega man had a jet pack, it would be this." These 2 games aren't comparable.

[Xavi-Da-Imp]

The problem I had with Hard (which I finished after a strugle) rises drastically compare to normal. When I first played CS+ I tried Hard, since I already finished original game and wanted something more. What I dont want was a hardcore, no life capsules run (which I also did with Good Ending, didnt have the pantience or soul for hell after such soulsucking experiance...). THOSE ARE NOT FUN! THOSE ARE PAINFUL!

I think hard should be like John4300 said - harder hits, less ammo, but still with health capsules. And then Hardcore would be like Hard now.

[Leafeon]

If you want a "easier" version of hard, do easy mode with 3 hp. It makes quite a few parts ALOT easier.