Good Wednesday afternoon everyone. I hope you all found your way into the new year well and didn’t have to worry too much about broken resolutions that became a case for “next year” on January 2nd. Today, I want to complain a bit less and instead talk about an essential aspect of games – the difficulty level.
Between Corpse Runs and LFR
My New Year’s transition was relatively calm as well, and I had the opportunity to meet some people from my online circle whom I rarely see otherwise. Since we are all nerds at heart, many conversations revolved around video games and their development over the years. An (at least for me) exciting discussion arose when a guest struggled with “Bloodborne” on the PlayStation 4. The game is the direct successor to the “Dark Souls” series, which is particularly known for its high difficulty level. As we watched the character in Bloodborne die many times, we wondered what exactly constitutes a “good” difficulty level in games.
In Bloodborne, every death hurts. The player loses all earned experience points that have not been invested yet and can only reclaim them by reaching the place of their death. If they die on the way again, the experience points are lost for good. Especially in boss fights, there are many deaths, and often it takes several minutes to run back to them. Honestly: Watching was quite monotonous. Quickly, the comparison was made to the other extreme: LFR raids in World of Warcraft. Here, neither experience nor equipment (probably not even a keyboard or screen) is needed to complete the game’s “challenge”.
What is a good difficulty?
But what is actually a “suitable” difficulty level? Personally, I like the principle of old JRPGs. If a boss was too difficult, you simply grind a few more experience points until you feel ready for the challenge. While this is a relatively low difficulty level, it still leaves plenty of room for challenges that you can influence yourself. In my view, the Bloodborne principle is rather “cheap” to make a short game feel longer. If 80% of the gameplay consists of collecting the experience points in the form of lost souls (or “blood echoes”), I find it neither exciting nor difficult, but simply frustratingly boring.
What do you think? Should games be pure relaxation and not present real hurdles? Or do you prefer it extremely challenging with harsh penalties, as in Dark Souls/Bloodborne?
