Useful info for a player with little patience

[Macrowolf]

Hello, I've been thinking about buying this game for a while because the art style looks very captivating, but there are a few questions that need to be answered first.

• Does this game feature a quicksave system?
  
• Can I change difficulty whenever I want?
  
• Is there a console command to activate cheats (like infinite health pool, infinite damage, skip level etc.)?

To some of you these questions may look silly but you gotta understand that I have very little patience and I have a job: I can't loose my sanity over a videogame after a stressful day of work. I play games to relax, not to get angry.
I will delete any comment that personally attacks me or does not provide any useful info (e.g. "git gud"). Please, stay on topic and don't be toxic. Thanks :)

[AlmightyDunkle]

1 - No, saving occurs when you rest at a shrine.

2- No, there is one set difficulty.

3- No clue. I've never messed with console commands. But there are no cheats integrated into the game.

This would be a poor game for you as it does require some patience, depending on how good you are at games. The difficulty of this game comes mainly from its platforming and bosses.

I would suggest watching someone else play it.

[Macrowolf]

Oprindeligt skrevet af AlmightyDunkle:

1 - No, saving occurs when you rest at a shrine.

2- No, there is one set difficulty.

3- No clue. I've never messed with console commands. But there are no cheats integrated into the game.

This would be a poor game for you as it does require some patience, depending on how good you are at games. The difficulty of this game comes mainly from its platforming and bosses.

I would suggest watching someone else play it.

Thank you for the answer. I cannot hide the fact that I'm disappointed though, since I'm probably going to have a hard time with this game. Game designers should work to accomodate the needs of as many players as possible; instead they decided to cater only to a restricted pool of players.
Fine, it means that they won't have my money then ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

[DraftSNK]

If you like Dark Souls, it is more or less similar, but in 2D. I recommend.

[Skull182]

Why don't you buy it, play around a bit, and refund if you don't like it/find it too hard? There's a 2 hour grace period for that.

Games shouldn't be all inclusive. There's a game for each and everyone out there, but not every game should be for everyone. Some people do appreciate the excessive challenge a few games present (not this game's case; it has its moments but isn't that difficult).

[Macrowolf]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Skull182:

Games shouldn't be all inclusive. There's a game for each and everyone out there, but not every game should be for everyone.

The developers should provide us with all the tools we need to make the game suitable for our desires. In this way, every player can customize his experience as he pleases.

[Skull182]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Macrowolf:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Skull182:

Games shouldn't be all inclusive. There's a game for each and everyone out there, but not every game should be for everyone.

The developers should provide us with all the tools we need to make the game suitable for our desires. In this way, every player can customize his experience as he pleases.

Not all players want a game to be customizable, and for a lot of them, even the notion of having the option is going to ruin the experience. It's the whole "difficulty options in Dark Souls" argument again.

It's better for devs to develop their games with a vision in mind, than for it to be diluted trying to appeal to every single type of player. Like I said, there's a game for everyone out there, but not every game should be for everyone.

[MystiQue]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Skull182:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Macrowolf:

The developers should provide us with all the tools we need to make the game suitable for our desires. In this way, every player can customize his experience as he pleases.

Not all players want a game to be customizable, and for a lot of them, even the notion of having the option is going to ruin the experience. It's the whole "difficulty options in Dark Souls" argument again.

It's better for devs to develop their games with a vision in mind, than for it to be diluted trying to appeal to every single type of player. Like I said, there's a game for everyone out there, but not every game should be for everyone.

The nihilism of stories like the one presented here and in Dark Souls, shouldn't have to come from a games difficulty. A book can give you the experience of a characters hardship, without the book exploding or burning your hands, just my two cents. There are narrative devices and then there is excuses for difficulty, which is rarely well executed.
Btw. I am a person, who likes Dark Souls and difficult games, but even I can see, that some things in these games are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, just for the sake of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[Morphic]

Oprindeligt skrevet af GRamsey_HerMajestiesChef:

The nihilism of stories like the one presented here and in Dark Souls, shouldn't have to come from a games difficulty. A book can give you the experience of a characters hardship, without the book exploding or burning your hands, just my two cents. There are narrative devices and then there is excuses for difficulty, which is rarely well executed.
Btw. I am a person, who likes Dark Souls and difficult games, but even I can see, that some things in these games are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, just for the sake of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Yeah but this is a circular argument since both "sides" have valid points.

E.g. games like "I wanna be the Guy" or, say, "Cave Story" are designed specifically to be difficult or obtuse. With "I wanna be the Guy", the game is pretty much 90% artificial difficulty that requires Trial and Error or Meta Knowledge in order to complete. With something like Cave Story, you aren't going to get the "True Ending" unless you do specific things to unlock an excruciatingly difficult level and then complete it... in a single go.(thankfully Cave Story+ made it more lenient)

My point is that some games are designed in a specific way to appeal to a specific audience. Much akin to how, say, a Science Report is written in a way that assumes the reader already understands the complex topics and research being reported.

That said, with entertainment like games, things should be accessible for people with lower skills/experience or disabilities. E.g. Dark Souls didn't have a Key Rebind option, so a man with only 1 arm needed to get help from Modders to Mod the controls to be friendlier for him.

IMO, it's a fine line between sacrificing intended design/experience to allow a large audience and exiling a large audience to appease a tiny group. In my experience, trying to appease both with ideas like "just add Easy Mode to Dark Souls!" almost never works. E.g. Valdis Story has difficulty settings but also a Rank system for Boss Performance. Beat a Boss with an A-Rank and you get X reward, beat a Boss with a D-Rank and get a different reward. A bunch of people got outraged over this system because they "felt punished for not being good enough, even on easy!". Did I mention the rewards, no matter the rank, are always a powerup? A-Rank you get a Stat Point you can put wherever, D-Rank gives you +HP, etc.

TLDR: No matter what you do, people are always going to find faults and complain. This is why I feel that there should be some games that are designed specifically for X group of people and games for Y group of people. E.g. Roguelikes are often for "hardcore permadeath" type people that don't bat an eye being 1-shot by a baby goblin at level 1. Then there's games like Skyrim that only require ~3 buttons to win in combat. There's plenty of games, just find something you like. Granted, I too get frustrated when a game looks fun/great but is inaccessible to you due to reasons.(Like me and Bullet Hell games or Twitch FPSes)

[Talamarie]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Macrowolf:

Hello,

• Does this game feature a quicksave system?
  
• Can I change difficulty whenever I want?
  
• Is there a console command to activate cheats (like infinite health pool, infinite damage, skip level etc.)?

1 = Yes. Each time you change screen it saves. If you die you keep the actual progress despite coming back to a shrine. Though there is a price to pay if you die. "Saving" at a shrine change the location of respawning. Reloading the game reload you at last shrine saved.

2 = No. Difficulty set by itself in the whole game. "Git gud or die trying." ♪

3 = Get WeMod. Cost nothing. Or Cheat Engine. Cost nothing too.

[MystiQue]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Morphic:

Oprindeligt skrevet af GRamsey_HerMajestiesChef:

The nihilism of stories like the one presented here and in Dark Souls, shouldn't have to come from a games difficulty. A book can give you the experience of a characters hardship, without the book exploding or burning your hands, just my two cents. There are narrative devices and then there is excuses for difficulty, which is rarely well executed.
Btw. I am a person, who likes Dark Souls and difficult games, but even I can see, that some things in these games are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, just for the sake of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Yeah but this is a circular argument since both "sides" have valid points.

E.g. games like "I wanna be the Guy" or, say, "Cave Story" are designed specifically to be difficult or obtuse. With "I wanna be the Guy", the game is pretty much 90% artificial difficulty that requires Trial and Error or Meta Knowledge in order to complete. With something like Cave Story, you aren't going to get the "True Ending" unless you do specific things to unlock an excruciatingly difficult level and then complete it... in a single go.(thankfully Cave Story+ made it more lenient)

My point is that some games are designed in a specific way to appeal to a specific audience. Much akin to how, say, a Science Report is written in a way that assumes the reader already understands the complex topics and research being reported.

That said, with entertainment like games, things should be accessible for people with lower skills/experience or disabilities. E.g. Dark Souls didn't have a Key Rebind option, so a man with only 1 arm needed to get help from Modders to Mod the controls to be friendlier for him.

IMO, it's a fine line between sacrificing intended design/experience to allow a large audience and exiling a large audience to appease a tiny group. In my experience, trying to appease both with ideas like "just add Easy Mode to Dark Souls!" almost never works. E.g. Valdis Story has difficulty settings but also a Rank system for Boss Performance. Beat a Boss with an A-Rank and you get X reward, beat a Boss with a D-Rank and get a different reward. A bunch of people got outraged over this system because they "felt punished for not being good enough, even on easy!". Did I mention the rewards, no matter the rank, are always a powerup? A-Rank you get a Stat Point you can put wherever, D-Rank gives you +HP, etc.

TLDR: No matter what you do, people are always going to find faults and complain. This is why I feel that there should be some games that are designed specifically for X group of people and games for Y group of people. E.g. Roguelikes are often for "hardcore permadeath" type people that don't bat an eye being 1-shot by a baby goblin at level 1. Then there's games like Skyrim that only require ~3 buttons to win in combat. There's plenty of games, just find something you like. Granted, I too get frustrated when a game looks fun/great but is inaccessible to you due to reasons.(Like me and Bullet Hell games or Twitch FPSes)

That's a sound arguement. What I was talking about was moments even in great games. Such as the magic bolts attack in the final phase of the Nicolash attack in Bloodborne or the death from above attack of Ludwig and the incredible (not) camera, that Soulsborne has.
I was not specifically talking about games with artificial difficulty like the I Wanna Be... Games, but more about the crappy design in some other games, that could have been mitigated, if making everything difficult was not the vision.

[Tactix]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Macrowolf:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Skull182:

Games shouldn't be all inclusive. There's a game for each and everyone out there, but not every game should be for everyone.

The developers should provide us with all the tools we need to make the game suitable for our desires. In this way, every player can customize his experience as he pleases.

Age speaks through text "The world needs to create and perform the way that I desire!"

[Morphic]

Oprindeligt skrevet af GRamsey_HerMajestiesChef:

That's a sound arguement. What I was talking about was moments even in great games. Such as the magic bolts attack in the final phase of the Nicolash attack in Bloodborne or the death from above attack of Ludwig and the incredible (not) camera, that Soulsborne has.
I was not specifically talking about games with artificial difficulty like the I Wanna Be... Games, but more about the crappy design in some other games, that could have been mitigated, if making everything difficult was not the vision.

Oh, I totally agree with that. Even some games that I play, which are specifically designed to be difficult, I get frustrated with because of these kinds of things. Off my head, ARPGs that have mobs using Thorns and explode on death. If you use Melee, you are basically hurting yourself each hit for a % of your damage ... but then if you kill it, the explosion can easily deal tons of damage and kill you. IMO, it's poor design to have both affixes on a mob since it heavily punishes Melee characters but doesn't affect Ranged or Casters in the slightest.

Another issue I tend to have is controls, some games have really obtuse controls or clearly didn't think about the interactions. E.g. one of the platformers I was playing recently had grapple hook bound to Forward A, but jump is also A. So half the times when I try jumping right I end up using grapple hook instead.(and usually die because of it :P)

[vitez_vaddiszno]

Why is everyone bashing OP when he has a valid point? Developers usually aim to maximize income. They can do that by accomodating the needs of the broadest possible playerbase. And no, by that I don't mean making everything super easy because then you don't get the money of hardcore gamers. Instead, everything should be modular and customizable (not just in video games). Difficulty options are an excellent way of doing that.

You can have the standard difficulty, just like now, with all the tears of blood and flagellation that you like. And then noob difficulty for those that just want to enjoy the wonderfully dark and somber story and atmosphere and play casuallly. This means more development but results in more revenue too so it evens out. What is more, an easy difficulty would just essentially mean that enemies do half damage, spikes don't instakill but take away a large chunk of health, enemy knockback is nerfed, items are cheaper, etc. Basically adding an IF check and a percentage modifier inside in front of numbers. I'm not a game dev but I think that stuff can be programmed in a matter of days at most - so it's a small time investment from the devs, but they would see a noticable rise in purchases - it would make sense financially.

And there could be an achievement specificaly for beating the game in the original, hard difficulty. In this way, nobody would take anything away from you, but less skilled players would still get their enjoyment. Why are you people so part of the FYIGM group (as in, F*ck you, I got mine = f*ck your low skills because I already got high skills)? Would it cause you physical pain to see a different person play a singleplayer game, that he paid for, the way he likes it? Devs get more money, more people play the game, everybody wins except envious hunchbacked trolls that play 16 hours a day. And I say this as someone who sometimes plays 18 hours of games in one sitting during summer.

It's basically a test of "would you press a button to gain nothing, but a stranger gets a chocolate bar?" There's no reason not to press it. Give me ONE argument against optional difficulty levels.

[Jsvenne]

Video games are often works of art. If you like a particular painter or musician, would you feel entitled to request that this painter or musician level his art to your particular preferences? Unless you are financing this artist, and are willing to invest a substantial sum of money to this artist so that he would create a piece of art according to your specifications, you have absolutely no basis to complain about the output of this artist. You take his art as he offered, or you leave it.

This being said, I am about halfway into Blasphemous, and yes, it is difficult, but not unfairly difficult. I had to redo some segments a few times to learn the way to progress, and this is very fair to me. This game is indeed punishing, but it is fair, and if you are too impatient to experience such a well crafted game, then it only means you have no respect for the people who made this game.

Addendum: I am no hardcore gamer, I do think that anyone who uses the "git gud" argument deserves a good kick in the butt. If the game is fair, it is ok if it"s hard. Two examples: Celeste is a very hard and very fair game, but Gungeon is somewhat hard and very unfair.

[MystiQue]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Jsvenne:

Video games are often works of art. If you like a particular painter or musician, would you feel entitled to request that this painter or musician level his art to your particular preferences? Unless you are financing this artist, and are willing to invest a substantial sum of money to this artist so that he would create a piece of art according to your specifications, you have absolutely no basis to complain about the output of this artist. You take his art as he offered, or you leave it.

This being said, I am about halfway into Blasphemous, and yes, it is difficult, but not unfairly difficult. I had to redo some segments a few times to learn the way to progress, and this is very fair to me. This game is indeed punishing, but it is fair, and if you are too impatient to experience such a well crafted game, then it only means you have no respect for the people who made this game.

Addendum: I am no hardcore gamer, I do think that anyone who uses the "git gud" argument deserves a good kick in the butt. If the game is fair, it is ok if it"s hard. Two examples: Celeste is a very hard and very fair game, but Gungeon is somewhat hard and very unfair.

Gungeon is highly fair. Maybe you are talking about the state of Enter The Gungeon when it came out back in 2016, but right now it is highly fair. You can win everytime and even obtain Lead God every run, if you are good enough.