Can you make a dice roll harder?


Role-playing survival game is willing to take risks

A short one today, in previous entries I talked about difficulty levels in games. I like to play games on the hardest skill levels as I like that challenge, but I do draw the line at RPGs. The problem with having difficulty levels in RPGs is the fact that for the most part RPGs aren’t testing the player’s skill at the game, they’re testing the stats of the character. Making every enemy at the start level 10 instead of level 2 isn’t making the game challenging, it’s kicking the player when they’re down. Case in point I was replaying the latest CastleVania game which for those that don’t know is an action RPG, and decided for the hell of it to try it on hard. The first enemy in the game hit me for 56 points with my max health at 150. For comparison on normal that same enemy hits you for about 5 points. I don’t even want to know how much the first boss hits for.

That’s not to say it’s impossible to introduce difficulty levels to RPGs. Look at Diablo and hack and slash RPGs, they provide different levels, but not from the start. Meaning that the player will have a good set of skills and abilities before going up in difficulty. The other difference which I would like to see in all games that have difficulty levels is that it rewards the player for playing at the harder levels with better equipment. The old carrot on a stick is a useful model for how difficulty should work. There should be some tangible (within the game world) benefit for making the game harder in RPGs. For action gamers it’s just because we’re masochists, which is why we like to play Ninja Gaiden Black.

Josh