Hard Mode?

[Iron Maiden]

What is the main difference between hard mode and normal mode please.

[Shyao]

Seems to be that many monsters have more health, hit harder, and are a little faster. Bosses also seem to use their special moves more often than normal. The biggest difference between the two is in the bosses, who scale more and more the further you get; but none of them get too hard. If you know how to cheese the bosses after you get a certain ability for Millenia, most boss fights become rather easy.

[terry309]

Hard mode is Hard... Normal is well... Normal

[Xexilf]

Most things seem to have a flat +20% hp and a bit of speed and maybe power.
Bosses are boosted more, some which before were absolute jokes like valmars body are now actually bossfights, and im told valmar core and zera valmar also really keep your on your toes now compared to before, but im not there yet.

[Iron Maiden]

Thank you very much people for the input I started this on hard yesterday so should be a good challenge.

[Alex]

Well, it was all walk in the park on HARD before Valmar's Eye. This thing had me for the first time. Be prepared :)

jokes like valmars body are now actually bossfights

Indeed. That's the second tough one. Not reached past Heart yet tho. Heart is not that hard.

[Iron Maiden]

Originally posted by Alex:

Well, it was all walk in the park on HARD before Valmar's Eye. This thing had me for the first time. Be prepared :)

jokes like valmars body are now actually bossfights

Indeed. That's the second tough one. Not reached past Heart yet tho. Heart is not that hard.

Thing with me is I do have a problem of grinding like hell, when I got to last boss fight on dreamcast version I was level 75 with Ryudo. I still have the game on a VM unit.

[Iron Maiden]

Also I noticed equipment in the shops is more exspensive as well by at least 10% than usual.

[Black Metal Snow Leopard]

Originally posted by Alex:

Well, it was all walk in the park on HARD before Valmar's Eye. This thing had me for the first time. Be prepared :)

jokes like valmars body are now actually bossfights

Indeed. That's the second tough one. Not reached past Heart yet tho. Heart is not that hard.

The Heart is really annoying if you don't take out the eyes first. Other than that, you only need to worry about its special attack.

[Alex]

For Valmar's Heart, I even did not managed to 'take out' something first, spamming BA-BOOM and Dragon Slash, it was killed completely.

But I presume you're talking about Eye. Yes, if eyes are not taken out fast, they kill you in a few rounds.

[Alex]

Well, having achieved an 'Professional Lepidopterist' one, wanna sum it all.

[beware, some spoilers/tricks below]

Raw meat monsters (mobs) in HARD mode are still all walk in the park. If you play with 'kill everything on the map' leveling strategy in mind, you'll soon be able to just spam some magic/moves on them from savepoint to savepoint, and some are easily killed just with plain combos (I barely used Critical at all, only sometimes just to make it fun). After you get your first Demon Soul / Soul of Asura, fighting with combos become more entertaining as well.

The only dangerous monster pack out there are 'Devil's in the bonus 'combat level' near endgame, but they can be easily spammed with Dragon Slash / BA-BOOM / BOOM / whatever (just make sure you have enough SP/MP recovery potions with you to restore between battles).

For the HARD bosses, once you have Ryudo/Elena leveled up enough, it's also all walk in the park. The only really difficult are:

Valmar's Eye: you just need to destroy eyes first, otherwise they'll own you;

Valmar's Body: here you'll learn to use Spellbinding Eye for the first time, and even then it's a long and exhausting enough fight;

Zera Valmar: it'll give you the creeps, but only until you manage to get to COM with Millenia, after that you just spam Spellbinding Eye / Tensekin Slash / Meteor Strike, and beat him to pulp without him even scratching you in the process; hint: use Decoy properly).

HARD Valmar's Core was surprisingly rather easy (use Decoy, don't forget to heal, spam Dragon Slash / BA-BOOM / whatever, and that's all).

All other bosses are just trash to be thrashed even in HARD mode. The last variations of monsters (Tongue/Eye/Heart) all go completely in two rounds if you leveled up properly, except for heart that required me to do a finishing blow with Ryudo.

So the 'HARD' is not really that hard. A bit more concentration is definitely required for the boss fights, but that's all.

[Iron Maiden]

Originally posted by Alex:

Well, having achieved an 'Professional Lepidopterist' one, wanna sum it all.

[beware, some spoilers/tricks below]

Raw meat monsters (mobs) in HARD mode are still all walk in the park. If you play with 'kill everything on the map' leveling strategy in mind, you'll soon be able to just spam some magic/moves on them from savepoint to savepoint, and some are easily killed just with plain combos (I barely used Critical at all, only sometimes just to make it fun). After you get your first Demon Soul / Soul of Asura, fighting with combos become more entertaining as well.

The only dangerous monster pack out there are 'Devil's in the bonus 'combat level' near endgame, but they can be easily spammed with Dragon Slash / BA-BOOM / BOOM / whatever (just make sure you have enough SP/MP recovery potions with you to restore between battles).

For the HARD bosses, once you have Ryudo/Elena leveled up enough, it's also all walk in the park. The only really difficult are:

Valmar's Eye: you just need to destroy eyes first, otherwise they'll own you;

Valmar's Body: here you'll learn to use Spellbinding Eye for the first time, and even then it's a long and exhausting enough fight;

Zera Valmar: it'll give you the creeps, but only until you manage to get to COM with Millenia, after that you just spam Spellbinding Eye / Tensekin Slash / Meteor Strike, and beat him to pulp without him even scratching you in the process; hint: use Decoy properly).

HARD Valmar's Core was surprisingly rather easy (use Decoy, don't forget to heal, spam Dragon Slash / BA-BOOM / whatever, and that's all).

All other bosses are just trash to be thrashed even in HARD mode. The last variations of monsters (Tongue/Eye/Heart) all go completely in two rounds if you leveled up properly, except for heart that required me to do a finishing blow with Ryudo.

So the 'HARD' is not really that hard. A bit more concentration is definitely required for the boss fights, but that's all.

Well I am playing on hard and at Ryudo's village part to face Melfice, I am already at level 46 with all characters. Yes it is now proving no problem at all still easy.

[Neo NiGHTS ®]

To be honest, what makes Grandia easy aren't the weak enemies or bosses. It's the free recovery spots on the Save Cones.
If you had to rely on potions to replenish your SP/MP (and make them more expensive), then the game would become a bit more difficult. Unless, of course, you are a super-grindy-kind-of-player... that way, almost any RPG becomes easy.

[Iron Maiden]

Originally posted by Neo NiGHTS ®:

To be honest, what makes Grandia easy aren't the weak enemies or bosses. It's the free recovery spots on the Save Cones.
If you had to rely on potions to replenish your SP/MP (and make them more expensive), then the game would become a bit more difficult. Unless, of course, you are a super-grindy-kind-of-player... that way, almost any RPG becomes easy.

Yeah I am super grindy still yet to face Melfice now level 50. But you are right the free recovery spots do make it easier. You can clear out a whole section of foes recover leave go back to area rince and repeat.

[Alex]

Oh, IC. With level 46 @ Melfice, entire game afterwards should be piece of cake. I've reached level 59 @ Zera Valmar, was @ level 50 somewhere near Birthplace of Gods.

TBH, I was quite lazy to re-run any dungeon, always passing just once (killing anything moving) and forgetting afterwards. So this may be considered 'quick' playthrough, without grinding too much.

[Leandro Eidi]

People who are complaining about the difficulty should try the "no recovery at save spots" challenge.

I thought that Kingdoms of Amalur was too easy, even in higher difficulties, and by creating the rule "I won't use recovery potions during battle", it made the game more fun to play.