hey ic! quick question: hypothetically let’s say you’re playing a game or you’ve played a game that has difficulty settings. are you the type of person that gravitates more towards the easier difficulty settings, or the harder ones? or do you just pick whatever the normal difficulty setting is? o: im curious to know!
Not really. I pick whatever the intended difficulty is. If it happens to be a smooth experience, cool. If it happens to be totally stress inducing like Pathologic 2, also cool.
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I usually pick whatever the normal difficulty setting is, assuming that’s the intended experience which got the most attention during design, testing and tweaking while everything else is a less carefully crafted add-on or afterthought. This is not based on actual fact but gut feeling and working experience in a lot of (non-gaming related) software development projects.[1]
I’m considering to try easier difficulties more often (at all) as I’ve had the experience of struggling with a game’s gameplay which prevented me from enjoying the rest. The latest instance of that being IC forums’ 2024 favorite Nine Sols which was too difficult for me at the time. I could’ve practiced and improved but I lacked the mindset and will to enjoy that sort of thing. I really wanted to enjoy the rest of what the game had to offer but couldn’t get over myself and so I didn’t continue playing.
But even then I feel like lowering the difficulty of a game like that kind of defeats the purpose? I’m not sure why, though, and only trying would clear that question up but I have too many other games I want to play right now!
I’m talking about your average video game here. I think genres like shmups/STGs are a special case in this regard since the easier/normal modes function as training wheels for the real game. At least that’s the impression I got. ↩︎
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Yeah I tend to strive for whatever the dev thinks is the normal difficulty.
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Anymore I choose the “story” difficulty in the games that have that—I don’t want friction in my video games really anymore. The only reason I don’t pick that difficulty is if I get the sense that choosing a lesser difficulty is going to lock me out of a “true” ending or something, retro style
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A long (long) time ago, I used to be one of those people that simply had to turn it all the way up to whatever the hardest option on offer was.
Thankfully I have grown out of that nonsense and no longer enjoy headbutting a wall on loop for a few hours for no good reason. I just leave it on whatever the default is, and have no qualms about fiddling with it to turn it down if I feel like it.
Unless I’m playing a puzzle or adventure game. For those, give me the full bullshit puzzles mode.
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I defer to the developer whenever they label a design goal for the difficulty. “Recommended for first time players” or “Recommended for people familiar with action games”, etc.
Absent of that, I lean toward spicy – but not maximum heat. I enjoy some trial, error, and mastery. I want to mess with the systems and eek out an advantage in a tough spot. I’m more put off by many systems/choices/builds that don’t matter than I am about trips to the game over screen.
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I tend to stick with Normal for first playthroughs, and then, if I like a game enough and intend to play through it again, I might consider higher difficulty for subsequent runs. This happens most often with choices-matter RPGs, especially when they have more tactical- than action-oriented combat. I’m not much of a twitch-reaction kind of gamer owing to some disability issues, but I can enjoy a slower paced challenge from time to time
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99% of the time I will choose the normal difficulty.
Generally, I figure this is what the devs balanced the game around. Sometimes (though not always) anything harder than that is just spongier enemies and less health.
I play a lot of games, every spongy enemy that takes twice as long to kill is taking time I could be spending on another game without giving me anything worthwhile in return. If I was just going to play 5 games a year? Sure, I’d play on the hardest difficulty.
The reason I don’t choose the easy mode is because I do enjoy some tension. I like difficult games like Dark Souls, Sekiro, and Nine Sols. There is something emotionally fulfilling about overcoming those challenges, but also knowing this is the standard, dev-polished way to play.
That said, Ninja Gaiden Black was proving too hard for me on Normal mode in chapter 5, and I restarted with the hidden “Ninja Dog” easy mode, and I’m having a much better time.
Oh, and games that lock hard mode behind a completion of normal mode like God Hand or FFVII Remake: I ain’t got time for another playthrough. You should offer that up at the start.
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It depends on the game. I wish the soulsborne game that had an easy mode unlocked after you beat it. I mostly just want to be a tourist in the worlds they create rather than having to inch my way through them on the second run.
Other than that I start on normal and turn it up or down depending on how I play it.
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This is probably the best option, though it does rely on the game letting you change difficulty without restarting, which is pretty rare in older titles.
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yeah, in fact i totally forgot that it wasn’t an option in earlier games.
I pick the normal/intended difficulty unless I have reason to believe I’ll enjoy it more on hard mode. If the game annoys or bores me I set it to easy. And if I still don’t like it after that . . . 
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i tend to pick what the developers intend as the best experience or whatever is destined to the average player, be it normal or whatever they decide to call it. if i’m up for it i might play a harder difficulty later
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I pick whatever “Normal” is on a first playthrough, unless I have seen strong reasons to pick otherwise. I don’t mind scaling difficulty down if I want to get through the story. (I did this after a while for Baldur’s Gate III; act III especially felt chunky in a way I could have slogged through on higher difficulty but not while having fun).
I rarely go higher on a first playthrough; the only Draconic challenge I started in Dragon Quest XI was the one where characters sometimes lie. And that was cute more than anything else.
I also rarely go lower. Fire Emblem Path of Radiance was my first FE, so I picked Easy. I still had some characters permadie, so I think I chose well while I was still learning the series.
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I’m currently where @rejj was before.
I will immediately crank the difficulty to max whenever possible. It is extremely rare that I drop the difficulty and this is usually for those games where max difficulty is a challenge requiring perfect execution and researched min-maxing, on-top of crazy rules / effects like halo skulls or Bastion’s idols, etc
I love fetishise the challenge and find the satisfaction I get [occassionally] outweighs the frustration and increased time commitment that can sometimes often accompany it.
It’s important to note though that I’m aware this comes from a prideful and competitive place. I feel compelled to finish the challenge to protect my pride of being ‘good at video games’ which impresses no one genuinely. Sometimes the satisfaction at the end can feel really hollow because games as a medium can rarely reward you enough for the effort you put into them at these difficulties. I eventually convince myself there are better things to be doing and go learn / practice a skill. Though after some time I conveniently forget all this and come back and do it again, the cycle repeats.
Just a few hours ago I finished replaying Bloodborne 100%, doing all the cursed chalice dungeons and soloing the bosses to make it harder. Great game, but afterwards I was just sat on the couch turned the console off and felt a bit empty. I think the process of playing the game is far more enjoyable and so that’s the only part you should focus on. So if that means playing at a comfortable difficulty to progress at a satisfying pace for you then you totally should. Pushing to beat games at hard difficulties is a slippery slope to just anhiliating your free time for little to no gain.
I’ve convinced myself writing this to take a page out of Rejj’s book and just focus on having a good experience in the discrete session I’m playing in.
Thanks everyone for your posts as well it’s good to read such a volume of stances that differed from mine. This really helped me scrutinise my behaviour.
-Edited to make my post more cohesive as I was figuring it out as I went.
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I’ll generally just go with whatever the default is. I don’t ever feel the need to play on easy modes and don’t get much out of it, so I don’t. Only genre that would necessitate easy mode would be FPSes and I just avoid those. Something like turn-based RPGs I always put on the hardest mode, because I know that I’ll be bored with them otherwise.
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Usually normal, sometimes easy, but never hard: my life in games and romance by MoH
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I’m an ultraviolence sort of gal
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Only ever cared in a few games.
Madden. It wasn’t real if you weren’t playing on All Madden. Too easy otherwise for us Madden-heads back in my younger, more competitive days. But I quit playing years ago, so not really relevant.
Ninja Gaiden Black (and Ninja Gaiden 2 Black currently). As I’ve mentioned in other threads, I was shamed/challenged by my friend to master NGB & do so on as hard a difficulty as possible. This ended up becoming one of my favorite things I’ve done in any video game. So now I’m similarly enjoying the “grind” of playing through NG2B on Very Hard.
It wouldn’t feel right to walk through these games. Most of the fun comes from dying over and over, and being forced to learn every nuance of killing my enemies. Then making my way through the game with growing confidence and skill.
Mirrors real life martial arts in that way. We all get whooped for a long time before getting good enough to actually be skilled in fighting (in the gym btw, never the streets!). So when you finally are able to hold your own, it’s extra gratifying.
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