Eh, looks like I was unfortunately right about Dracky quest.

[lorddamien]

From the in-game "traveller's tips":
"Dracky Quest
Your party will never be wiped out, no matter how much damage you take. You will deal more damage to enemies. Some bosses will no longer automatically heal themselves at the start of turns."

So yea... looks like this setting is indeed "games journalist mode".

As for how I'm seeing this, well stores did break their street date >.>

[Ozma]

babby mode for babbies. it's funny because normal mode feels really easy too!

[Its Almost Harvesting Season]

Well yea, it's the lowest difficulty. It's usually so younger children can enjoy games without really grasping the higher end of mechanics. Children can often become hyperfocused and miss things so it probably just expects the player to look at their health bar and nothing more lol.

Did you expect the easy mode to not be easy or something?

[Zoophilian Inc]

Clear case of dont like the mode, dont play on / in the mode.

[Joe Kaze]

Are you mad that there's an easy mode for people who want it?

[Chocos Ramabotti]

Originally posted by Joe Kaze:

Are you mad that there's an easy mode for people who want it?

I mean some people truly might want or need an easy mode, but this goes beyond as its an "impossible to lose" mode, which some people still might want the potential to have. So at this point the game goes completely overboard, giving you the middle finger for wanting an easier experience.

[Zarian]

Originally posted by Chocos Ramabotti:

Originally posted by Joe Kaze:

Are you mad that there's an easy mode for people who want it?

I mean some people truly might want or need an easy mode, but this goes beyond as its an "impossible to lose" mode, which some people still might want the potential to have. So at this point the game goes completely overboard, giving you the middle finger for wanting an easier experience.

HUH? That still doesn't make sense to complain though? Like you dont have to play that mode?

[Chocos Ramabotti]

Originally posted by Zarian:

Originally posted by Chocos Ramabotti:

I mean some people truly might want or need an easy mode, but this goes beyond as its an "impossible to lose" mode, which some people still might want the potential to have. So at this point the game goes completely overboard, giving you the middle finger for wanting an easier experience.

HUH? That still doesn't make sense to complain though? Like you dont have to play that mode?

So what do you tell to people for whom normal mode is too hard and Dracky Mode trivial?

[Melodia]

Originally posted by Zarian:

HUH? That still doesn't make sense to complain though? Like you dont have to play that mode?

There's validity in being annoyed there's nothing in between "normal, which can be quite hard for a decent percentage of players" and "you can die mode". The Etrian Odyssey HD games also did something similar....while you CAN die in those, they are so easy you'd pretty much have to force it on yourself to die or like, run from every battle or something.

This is why I'm a big fan of being able to turn on and off individual things along with the suggested types of difficulty mode. A good example is the just-released update to Sea of Stars, you can choose set difficulties but tweak each setting to customize it yourself (Another game I always like to bring up is Fell Seal:Arbiter's Mark which also does this).

[AshaMarie]

The hardest difficulty is even easier than the original game so to me it's god mode, very easy mode, and easy mode. Normal mode is playing the NES version.

[Harriet Tubman]

Originally posted by Chocos Ramabotti:

Originally posted by Zarian:

HUH? That still doesn't make sense to complain though? Like you dont have to play that mode?

So what do you tell to people for whom normal mode is too hard and Dracky Mode trivial?

Normal mode is quite easy, I'm really struggling to figure out if this actually describes anyone.
What do we tell people for whom Dragon is too easy and Draconic is too hard? If there were a mode between those, what would we tell people for whom that one is too easy and Draconic is still too hard? You can slice along a difficulty curve indefinitely, but eventually it's just bloat.

[Metadigital]

I thought game enjoyers got over being mad at difficulty settings decades ago, but I guess some people are still behind on this.

[Harriet Tubman]

Originally posted by Metadigital:

I thought game enjoyers got over being mad at difficulty settings decades ago, but I guess some people are still behind on this.

If there's one thing this game has taught us, it's that some people are primarily interested in being upset about something.

[Metadigital]

Originally posted by Harriet Tubman:

If there's one thing this game has taught us, it's that some people are primarily interested in being upset about something.

Yeah. I think that's just the era we're in.

People are upset about the state of the world, but don't want to acknowledge the underlying causes, so they find all sorts of other scapegoats to blame instead.

[Chocos Ramabotti]

Originally posted by Harriet Tubman:

Originally posted by Chocos Ramabotti:

So what do you tell to people for whom normal mode is too hard and Dracky Mode trivial?

Normal mode is quite easy, I'm really struggling to figure out if this actually describes anyone.
What do we tell people for whom Dragon is too easy and Draconic is too hard? If there were a mode between those, what would we tell people for whom that one is too easy and Draconic is still too hard? You can slice along a difficulty curve indefinitely, but eventually it's just bloat.

I mean the problems are probably more deeply ingrained, no difficulty will solve my issues with the game which are just unfortunate game design decision but which are prevalent in modern videogames.

I think there was no need to go that hard into the the direction to the point becoming invincible, as an potential real easy mode had to die for the god mode.

It's one of many things which are far from ideal. I don't like the idea that you can change difficulty down from Draconian difficulty when that difficulty already lowers you EXP, so there is not a good reason not to grind on easy when it's required. These are settings not game features and my golden rule for settings is that they shouldn't be something you gamify with.
I wanna choose my setting and having it out of my head for the rest of the game, accepting it as the reality of the game, this only works when there is no benefit changing except from the challenge itself.

[Harriet Tubman]

Originally posted by Chocos Ramabotti:

Originally posted by Harriet Tubman:

Normal mode is quite easy, I'm really struggling to figure out if this actually describes anyone.
What do we tell people for whom Dragon is too easy and Draconic is too hard? If there were a mode between those, what would we tell people for whom that one is too easy and Draconic is still too hard? You can slice along a difficulty curve indefinitely, but eventually it's just bloat.

I mean the problems are probably more deeply ingrained, no difficulty will solve my issues with the game which are just unfortunate game design decision but which are prevalent in modern videogames.

I think there was no need to go that hard into the the direction to the point becoming invincible, as an potential real easy mode had to die for the god mode.

It's one of many things which are far from ideal. I don't like the idea that you can change difficulty down from Draconian difficulty when that difficulty already lowers you EXP, so there is not a good reason not to grind on easy when it's required. These are settings and my golden rule for settings is that they shouldn't be something you gamify with. I wanna choose my setting and having it out of my head for the rest of the game, this only works when there is no benefit changing except from the challenge itself.

The reward for 'gamifying' the settings that you're describing is the very thing that influences difficulty in an RPG, though. If a player is choosing to drop the difficulty to level grind, then crank it back up for when they want to proceed in the game, that's not the player who's playing Draconic strictly for the challenge of Draconic. They're playing it because they think the normal game is too easy, otherwise they'd just drop it down full time.

It'd be one thing if Draconic were to despawn some exclusive items or something, but all it's doing materially beyond changing enemy strength is reducing XP and gold. Having more of those things is specifically how you reduce the challenge level in a JRPG, so all you're ever really affecting by jumping between difficulty modes is the challenge itself.