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mrmallardsmobileposts · 5 years

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RE: the Easy Mode discourse with Sekiro

I don't mind a game having easy mode. RTS games have easy modes, fighting games have easy modes, all sorts of competitive video games have easy modes. I grew up playing most games on easy difficulties, before moving onto normal for most titles - I don't like being broken down again and again by a game continuously kicking me in the dick, because I don't find that fun. Because of that, I don't like playing FromSoft games.

And I wouldn't play a Dark Souls game, or Bloodborne, or Sekiro, even if they did have an easy mode. Because I realise that the games are difficult by design.

My thoughts on Easy Mode discourse go back to when Cuphead was being roasted for its difficulty. There's footage of a games journalist - a person being paid to cover the game that he's playing - getting stuck on the tutorial for like 3 minutes. He just makes the same mistake over and over again instead of trying something new, and it's a technique that even most kids can work out in about a minute tops - This isn't a kid, or a newcomer, getting their first taste of a run n' gun title, it's a grown man being paid to play and cover this game, and he can't pass a simple and basic tutorial.

This instance isn't a question of accessible game design, because the button inputs are along the bottom of the screen and the physics make sense. It's perfectly fine to fail a few times while you get the hang of it, that's what the tutorial is there for, but floundering on the tutorial for three minutes isn't a fault on the game's part.

The Driver tutorial? That's a pain in the ass. It's unintuitive, it requires knowledge of specific stunt-driving terms out of the box and the time limit is harsh. The Cuphead tutorial is a bit abstract, but the button combos make sense and the actions it wants you to take are pretty clearly signposted. This guy failing to grasp the fundamental controls of the game, free of any hazards or timers or whatever, is a personal problem on his behalf - but that got turned into a "gamer respect" issue regarding video game difficulty later down the line. To my understanding he took the game to task for being too difficult despite his issues with the controls being a personal, localised issue.

I'm bringing Cuphead up because that game's difficulty was lambasted by reviewers upon its release. We had this "developers need to respect gamers by adding an easy mode" discussion before, even with an easier difficulty modifier in Cuphead. Reviewers who were giving the game coverage were roasted for not knowing how to play the game, and rightfully so, and the reviewers shot back with "it's not user-friendly enough, it's a fault on the part of the game!".

Cuphead is designed to be challenging. It can be made easier, but there are aspects to the level design and the bullet patterns of the bosses that give the game its appeal in the first place. It wasn't just a slog through Kaizo-level pitfalls and restrictive controls, and the easier play mode cut boss HP and might have messed with projectile density and enemy placement for all I know - but it was still challenging in the way that the developers intended, with enough concessions to make the game more accessible to less skilled players. That established my distrust of mainstream games coverage in regards to video game difficulty.

FromSoft is known for their difficult games, with different mech combat games years before the Souls games as well as the popularity of their hard-as-nails Souls titles. These games haven't had easier difficulty settings before, with a noted appeal being the feeling of accomplishment that players feel when they wrangle with the controls long enough to be able to beat the game. For all intents and purposes, the Soulsborne titles from FromSoft are made with difficulty in mind. Difficulty is a feature, an obstacle to be overcome.

Of course, plenty of other games are made for challenging play but offer a cinematic mode. That's fine, and it's up to every developer to consider the audience that they want to court with their difficulty modes. But FromSoft games are renowned for their difficulty, and only those players who put up with the bullshit of each game get to experience how those games play out. It's no different to buying a game that you can't beat, or that seems unfairly stacked in the game's favor, or that you just don't like so you take it back - some crazy bastard is going to punish themselves for long enough to finish that game, whether they like it or not. Not everyone is going to find appeal in that experience, or get the most out of that game.

And sometimes games are unbalanced, and require patches to be considered playable by anyone outside of the handful of masochistic "hardcore" gamers who spend hours on end punishing themselves until they're good enough to persevere. Sometimes an easy mode is required due to developer oversight. Sometimes it's just nice having less stuff to stress over so you can enjoy a game's story beats and get a reasonable facsimile of the game's intended effect.

But the Soulsborne games are intentionally hard for skilled players to enjoy, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I find it really backwards for games journalists to call out From Software as "disrespecting their players", when they're offering incredible gameplay challenges to be overcome with skillful play. That sounds like they're respecting players well enough to learn the game's systems, become skilled at the game's combat and overcome these extreme challenges on their own. The satisfaction of overcoming the game's biggest challenges is the reward you get for playing, and that impact is lessened by hand-holding or watering down the experience.

I would never touch Sekiro with a ten foot pole because I don't like games that are overbearingly difficult like that, but I certainly respect it for what it tries to do. I think making a company go out of their way to change that intended balance of difficulty is rude - if their intention was to create an overwhelmingly difficult game, then that intent should be respected. If you can't overcome the game's challenges, then there's a whole slew of action RPGs with a range of different difficulty modes for you to play.

And despite that, I'm still on board with games having easy modes. Even a developer known for their hardcore game series aimed at enthusiasts can put an easy mode in their video games to appeal to a wider demographic, and that's fine. Like jeez, have you seen the Fire Emblem purists on GameFAQs who insisted an easy mode on Awakenings was the death of the series, despite selling record-breaking numbers of units? People who take a stand against easy modes in video games, calling it the death of gaming or something like that, are usually massive assholes.

My beef here is the social pressure to add an easier difficulty mode to a game built around challenge and skill. If they cave to pressure and add it, it won't be any skin off my back, but I think that games made for the sake of being challenging should be as difficult as they want to be - From Software should be able to make their games as easy or difficult as they like.

Even without touching on the subject of accessibility for different personal conditions, here are game experiences that are crafted specifically for enthusiasts of a certain genre that the average layman wouldn't enjoy playing, despite having the capacity to play with the pros given the right amount of practice and dedication. If folks found a Touhou bullet hell title too difficult, even on the easiest difficulty settings, are the developers responsible for modifying the game's difficulty settings even more to account for all types of players?

There is the accessibility issue of a game being too difficult for everyone to play. Anyone should have the tools to pick up whatever game they want to give it a go, and gaming is known for having issues with accessibility regarding different gaming peripherals - we're used to standardised layouts on a gaming controller, and anyone who can't fit into that paradigm is shit outta luck. Controllers like the Xbox One accessibility gamepad is making headway in that department, but it's still a prohibitedly expensive option. Custom button-mapping has been on the rise with this most recent gaming generation, but that doesn't mean much if you can't hold the controller due to your personal conditions. Different controllers for differently abled people to play games have always been ridiculously expensive. There's absolutely a case to be made for the video game scene not being the most accessible crowd around.

But given that a differently abled person has access to the equipment that they need to play video games, they should have access to whatever games they want to play. But not everyone is going to be able to beat every type of game, even with the know-how and the proper equipment and the desire to play.

And there will be differently abled people who do pull out all the stops to finish whatever video game they put their mind to. There's a quadriplegic man who's beaten Sekiro before. There are people who overcome difficult video games despite having limited mobility and different accessibility needs. Anyone who wants to try to beat a game should have the equipment to take a shot, and they should be able to play on whatever difficulty is comfortable for them to play on, but if a game is designed with a high skill ceiling in mind and only offers the one way to play it, I think those who are willing to challenge, learn and overcome the game on its terms should reap the rewards.

If a game has busted accessibility options, like improper color-blindness options or button mapping that makes the game even more difficult for differently abled people despite being billed as the "accessible" option - even if a game doesn't allow for custom key-binding - there's a case for a developer or company to change and fix things to make good on their promise of a more accessible gaming experience. If a game is improperly balanced on even the easiest difficulties, there's a case for the developers to alter the game on those grounds.

But I think a game that's been built from the ground up to be a significant challenge, with the intended goal to run the game's gauntlet of considerable difficulty, has the right to present its intended challenge as is - as the statement that the developers intended for the enthusiasts who flock to buy each new release. There will be people who are dedicated enough to finish it from all walks of life. But not everyone will be able to play it, or find it enjoyable, whether that person is differently abled or not.

I don't like Soulsborne games, or games that present themselves as hard-as-nails challenge fests. I don't mind a significant challenge from time to time, but From Software games aren't my scene because I know I'm not going to take to them. While I understand the accessibility argument, I'm pretty jaded from instances like Cuphead where even a difficult game with easier difficulty modes was judged as being fundamentally flawed for the level of challenge it presented.

I don't want to step on anyone's rights or desires, and I don't dislike easy modes in video games. But a game that's designed to be difficult should be able to present its difficulty on its own terms. If that means offering the single intended experience, then that's their prerogative.

#easy mode #sekiro #discourse #long post

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johnmkenney · 5 years

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Game of the Year 2018

2018 was an interesting year for games. While there wasn’t as much depth as previous years, the games that stood out were truly something special. This was certainly a year where big franchises that had been dormant for a few years came roaring back, but more importantly some developers released some truly unique new IP that took the industry by storm. All of this combined for some great experiences that won’t soon be forgotten. There wasn’t a ton of games I thought were fantastic outside of the top 10, but this was one of the most difficult years to order the top 10 as the quality of each game was unbelievable.

As always, the rules for inclusion are as follows:

The game must have its final retail release in 2018. Thus, anything in an alpha/beta state or Steam Early Access does not qualify. This rule is still being under consideration for removal.

In the case of episodic games, they must have their final episode delivered in 2018 to make the list.

While this list is comprehensive, I haven’t played everything. Games like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Dragon Quest XI, Hitman 2, Forza Horizon 4, Florence, and The Messenger all seem great but are unfortunately all still on my backlog.

Most importantly: the game has to be really good. No-brainer there.

Honorable mentions:

While this year wasn’t as competitive past the Top 10, there were a few other games I played that deserved mentions as my final cuts:

Monster Hunter World - This was a causality of not having enough time to get deep enough in the game, but from what I played MHW does a great job making the series more accessible to a broader audience. Octopath Traveler - The game oozes style and has a great combat system, but unfortunately the late-game repetition and disjointed story keeps it from becoming something great. Yoku’s Island Express - It was truly a unique idea to mix pinball with Metroidvania, and it pays off with a fun game and a great soundtrack.

Without further ado, here are my top 10 games of 2018:

10. Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Bandai Namco/Sora - Switch)

The follow up to Smash Bros for Wii U/3DS, this entry once again delivered. Nintendo managed to bring back every character that has ever been in a Smash game, including characters that were cut from previous installments for various reasons. The team managed to make enough subtle tweaks to most characters to keep the brawler as entertaining as usual. However, the standout mode in this version has to be in the massive single-player Spirits system. There are over 1,000 unique spirits to collect in this game, and to unlock most of them you need to complete a special battle that represents the character of the spirit you are trying to unlock. These clever fights help pay homage to characters that don’t make the cut for Smash, and it is a nice touch to help add several dozens of hours of fun moments.

9. Into the Breach (Subset Games - PC, Switch)

Following up to their 2012 indie hit FTL, Subset Games is back with another clever run-based adventure. Into the Breach is something all its own though, as this turn-based strategy game tasks you with using a few mechs to defend various cities and structures from an invading alien menace. Customization is key here, as you are able to unlock multiple squads and pilots that help completely modify your strategy to save the world. One of the more brilliant parts of the game is that almost all the information is provided to you prior to each turn. You know exactly where each enemy is going to attack the following turn, so the goal isn’t just to eliminate your foe, but also disrupt them. If you see your opponent is poised to barrel ahead in a straight line towards a building, you can use a ranged attack to instead knock it of its path so that it instead rams into another adversary. While it is incredibly challenging to have the perfect turn, everything is within your control so you know it was your fault if things go wrong. Ben Prunty also delivers an incredible soundtrack yet again, as his melodies help really set the atmosphere for each tense battle.

8. Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar Studios - PS4/XBO)

Easily the most talked about game of 2018, Rockstar’s prologue to their 2010 western is an incredible technical achievement. The amount of detail that goes into every aspect of this game seems mind-blowing, and it is quite easy to lose yourself in the world that has been created. The story is also one of the biggest improvements in the game this time around, as seeing how Dutch’s gang fell leading to the events of the previous installment is a fascinating tale. The protagonist, Arthur Morgan, has one of the more gripping character arcs seen in the past few years. There is an absolute ton to accomplish in this game, as it is constantly introducing new side quests as well as presenting random stranger events that help make everything feel very alive. Unfortunately, sometimes the gameplay gets in its own way, and some of the later missions can be a repetitive slog despite the gripping story being told. This is one not to be missed, but there’s just enough keeping it from being a true classic.

7. Donut County (Ben Esposito - iOS, PC, PS4, Switch, XBO)

Donut County is easily the weirdest game on this list as this is a game where you play as a hole. While in most games that have pits you are used to avoiding them, here you are actually trying to have as many characters and objects fall into a hole as possible. The puzzles aren’t difficult at all, but every time you suck something up, the hole gets larger so that you are able to go after larger items until nothing is left on screen. It is a unique concept that works, and it is something that anyone can play. What ties everything together though is the tremendous cast of characters in the game, as BK the raccoon and everyone around him will keep you laughing the entire way through. There is a journal in the game, the Trashopedia, which includes hilarious descriptions written by a raccoon describing real world items. It is worth ready every single entry. The soundtrack does a great job pulling everything together, and the game only being 2 to 3 hours makes it a great quick jaunt for everyone.

6. Tetris Effect (Monstars Inc/Resonair - PS4)

At this point, everyone knows what Tetris is. So, there’s nothing new that can be done with Tetris, right? Wrong. Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the mind behind Lumines, helped gets the rights to Tetris so that his studio could help work on a version of Tetris that functioned similar to his music-based puzzler. While he only served as a producer on the title, his influence is clearly seen. The hallmark mode, Journey, has you making a specific number of lines as the speed changes based on the tempo of the song that is playing. All the while this is happening, interactive backgrounds also animate to the rhythm. Once you hit your line goal, you keep your blocks on screen, but you are then transported to another song and environment to continue on with its own tempo with a new count of lines to achieve. While the game was initially built for VR, it plays just fine on a normal TV and will have you glued trying to get that classic four line namesake. The presentation also extends to multiple other challenging modes, including trying to build the highest combo as well as using 3 or 4 blocks to clear every line on a puzzle. The weekly events will keep you coming back, and overall this a great package to help revitalize one of the best games ever created.

5. Marvel’s Spider-Man (Insomniac Games - PS4)

While the previous generation saw great comic success with the Batman Arkham series, it was often wondered when some other classic heroes would get a resurgence in the gaming world. It took a while, but Insomniac found a way to capture that lightning with their PS4-exclusive Spider-Man. Skipping the origin story that has been told to death at this point, you are transported into the life of Peter Parker years after he has already become Spider-Man and several of his foes are already locked up in the Raft. Certain characters have yet to become their iconic villainous forms yet, while others are already terrorizing New York City like the Shocker. A unique Spider-Man story is told here, as with the change of canon you aren’t sure the twists and turns each character arc is going to take which always keeps you on your toes. Most importantly, the gameplay here is a blast. Previous Spider-Man games always have trouble making it feel fun to swing around the city, but Insomniac’s version has you darting around the city with ease. Random events happen in the city in real time, and everything is so tightly packed that you can accomplish anything even if you only have small amounts of time to play. There are great nods to Spider-Man and Marvel lore through with Peter’s costumes and collectibles. The underrated gem of the entire experiences are the sequences where you play as Mary Jane and Miles, as their ventures help show that everyday people are just as important to Peter’s success as Spider-Man is.

4. Return of the Obra Dinn (3909 LLC - PC)

Definitely the most unique game on the list this year, Return of the Obra Dinn casts you as an insurance claims collector that needs to catalog the deaths and disappearances of a few dozen people from an abandoned ship that has just returned. Ok, that might not sound captivating at first, but stay with me. Lucas Pope (creator of Papers Please) made one of the most novel puzzle games here, as you are given an empty journal and an artist’s rendition of everyone who was aboard the doomed vessel. You are then able to walk up to any corpse on the boat and be instantly transported back to the exact moment of their demise. Sometimes you hear brief dialogue, but mostly you are just able to walk around a still scene of the exact moment of their death. Here, you walk around and try to figure out who the person is, how they died, and who else was there. While you can typically figure out how the person died, the true puzzle solving comes with finding out the names of who each person is from their involvement in other scenes, and it creates a deep loop of investigation and revisiting moments. There truly is nothing like this game, and the unique look helps it give it a style all its own.

3. God of War (Sony Santa Monica - PS4)

While multiple franchises saw returns this year, none had more of an impact than the return of God of War. Previous installments in the series saw Kratos as a bloodthirsty screaming god looking for revenge, but this time around he moved away from Ancient Greece to Midgard for a quieter life where he is taking care of his son Atreus. His wife in this realm has recently passed, and your objective is to honor her last wish of spreading her ashes at the highest point in the realm. Part of what makes this entry in the series so satisfying is that it slows down the adventure and gives more weight to the combat as well as more options to vanquish your foes. The light-RPG system implemented helps you determine what skills Kratos can utilize and lets your specialize your character more than previous games. While the combat is great, the world and its story is what takes center stage here. Kratos’ relationship with his son makes for great moments throughout and does a lot more to humanize Kratos compared to previous games in the series. The supporting cast does a great job of making the world feel alive as well, especially Mimir who will help give insight to the history of everything around you in real time as you travel. Kratos’ return is a triumph, and it helped make me care about a franchise that I thought I had lost all interest in. The ending was left very open, so its very exciting to see where Sony Santa Monica goes from here.

2. Dead Cells (Motion Twin - PC, PS4, Switch, XBO)

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Early Access has been a system that has certainly had its ups and downs, but Dead Cells just may be the best thing to ever come out of the program. There have been games in the past that have attempted to fuse Metroidvanias and rouge-lites, but none have succeeded like this. It’s simple, at the beginning of every run you are given a melee weapon and a choice of one other weapon, all of which differ depending on what you have unlocked so far. From here, you’re free to explore the first level of the game and keep any upgrade that you find. Also along the way you occasionally pick up cells from enemies, which serve as your currency for upgrades. However, if you die before the end of a level, you lose everything that you picked up so far in that area. This helps build tension when you’ve gotten a rare blueprint for a new item or a large number of cells, as you want to make sure you can reach the collector who will essentially bank your cells and let you buy things to improve future runs. Its a loop that works.

While the upgrade system, the unique weapons and skills, and branching paths help set this rogue-lite apart, the true glory in Dead Cells is the combat and how tight the controls are. There are few 2D action games that feel this good to play, and it makes some of the more frantic levels an absolute blast. You’ll certainly get to the first boss in an early run, but he’ll likely demolish you. Improve yourself a little bit, and the next time you get back to him you see progress but still no victory. Hone your skills more, and the next thing you know it you are trouncing the first boss every single time you get to him. Then as the game ramps up in difficulty in the following levels, you learn to adapt in new ways to advance even more. After tons of runs and hours, you’ll eventually find yourself at the final test: The Hand of the King. He is without a doubt the hardest aspect of this game that will do everything to crush what you thought was a perfect run. But when you finally have a run that allows you to land that final blow and defeat him, it is something special that encapsulates the beauty of perseverance in this game. This just might be the best rogue-lite since Spelunky.

1. Celeste (Matt Makes Games - PC, PS4, Switch, XBO)

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At the beginning of the game, you’re told that Celeste is a game about climbing a mountain. While that is very true, it’s about much more than that. Celeste is a precision platform that stars a young girl named Madeline who is setting out to climb Celeste Mountain to prove she can do it. Her intentions aren’t crystal clear at first, but she’s told by one of the other NPCs that she’ll fail. She has told by her mother in a dream sequence that she’ll fail. She’s followed by a dark version of herself that tells her that she’ll fail. It becomes evident quickly that this is a game about conquering your own anxiety and doing something outside of your comfort zone.

While Celeste draws inspiration from games like Super Meat Boy and I Wanna Be the Man, there is enough to give the game its own identity here. This game is punishing, but at the same time it is incredibly fair. Anytime you die, you are sent back immediately to the beginning of the screen. This allows you to easily evaluate how you made a mistake adjust or fine tune your strategy from there. Soon obstacles that seemed impossible are nothing to you, and you instead need to figure out how to get through the next roadblock. You get better and learn something every time you die, and that helps you propel forwards better than other similar games in the genre. There are also collectibles hidden on most screens known as strawberries, and they serve as an extra challenge to help make each level even harder if you want to take the extra step. But the true difficulty lies in the bonus B-side and C-side levels that unlock should you find the other collectibles in each level. These are remixed levels that are shorter than the main game but present new twists on the mechanics of each world, leading to one of the most rewarding feelings should you be able to conquer these. They are not for the faint of heart.

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