CBU3. Please respect your players.

[DiaDeem]

I'm a forum troll because I think Hard mode should be available from the very beginning instead of being locked behind a however many hours long story

Apologies for calling you a troll, but here's the thing about unlockable difficulties:

Do you care about it in Doom 2016 where Ultra-Nightmare difficulty requires you to beat the game in Nightmare mode?
Do you care about it in Resident Evil 4 (both) where Professional difficulty required you to beat the game in Normal mode?
Do you care about it in Metal Gear Solid 2 where Extreme difficulty required you to beat the game in Normal mode?
Do you care about it in Soul Calibur 6 where where Legendary difficulty required you to beat the game in Very Hard with a Gold Rating?
Do you care about it in Cuphead where Expert Difficulty required you to beat the game in its Normal mode?
Do you care about it in Dead Space where Impossible difficulty requires you to beat the game in its Normal mode?
Do you care about it in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption where Hypernode requires you to beat the game in the Normal setting?
Do you care about it in Diddy Kong Racing where Adventure 2 requires you to beat the Adventure mode?
Do you care about it in StarFox 64 where Expert difficulty required you to beat all stages of the normal mode with a medal?
Do you care about it in Megaman Zero where all of them require you to find collectibles to unlock Ultimate difficulty?
Do you care about it in Diablo 3 where Master Difficulty requires you to beat the game once, and then Torment difficulty which requires one of your characters to reach level 60?
Do you care about it in Pokemon Black 2 where Challenge mode requires you to beat the game once?
Do you care about it in Mass Effect where Hardcore Difficulty requires you yo beat the game once, and then Insanity difficulty requires you to beat Hardcore mode?
Do you care about it in KH 3D Dream Drop Distance where Critical mode requires you to beat the game once?
Do you care about it in Bayonetta where Hard difficulty requires you to beat the game once?
Do you care about it in GoldenEye 64 where 007 difficulty requires you to beat every mission in 00 difficulty to?

Difficulty modes being locked behind completing a game for the first time is a feature that has been part of gaming for decades. It encourages replayability and in many cases changes how the whole game feels. I believe you're trolling because anyone that has been gaming for the last 10 - 30 years understands the value behind unlockable difficulties. If you're not trolling and you're serious, then I'm a bit baffled about such a closed mind about game design, but if that's the case, then you're entitled to your opinion, and I then hope you mean all games and not just XVI because CBU3 made it and you're angry at them for whatever reason.

*Edit: Making Normal Mode more challenging is reasonable. I can get behind that, but it has nothing to do with unlockable difficulties.

[R041]

Very well, answer the following questions:

Difficulty modes being locked behind completing a game for the first time is a feature that has been part of gaming for decades. It encourages replayability and in many cases changes how the whole game feels. I believe you're trolling because anyone that has been gaming for the last 10 - 30 years understands the value behind unlockable difficulties. If you're not trolling and you're serious, then I'm a bit baffled about such a closed mind about game design, but if that's the case, then you're entitled to your opinion, and I then hope you mean all games and not just XVI because CBU3 made it and you're angry at them for whatever reason.

I don't think that's the problem actually. I think the problem is the Normal Mode is basically the Easy Mode, while they also gave us an Easier Mode AND play-the-game-for-you rings. So it's all pretty crazy easy at that point. Don't really need to have the Hard Mode unlocked, but it sure would be nice if I didn't 1-shot everything on Normal Mode.

Like when I was 20 hours in, I legitimately had to check my settings because I thought I accidentally switched it to Story Mode. The balance is that whack. lol

[DiaDeem]

I think the problem is the Normal Mode is basically the Easy Mode

Sure, that's fair. That's separate from complaining about a decades old tradition about locking other difficulties behind completing a game.
The complaint should be about re balancing the difficulty of Normal Mode to make it more of a proper challenge, regardless of what you unlock afterwards, and I can actually get behind that.

Saying "REE UNLOCKABLE DIFFICULTIES BAD" has nothing to do with it.

[R041]

Sure, that's fair. That's separate from complaining about a decades old tradition about locking other difficulties behind completing a game.
The complaint should be about re balancing the difficulty of Normal Mode, regardless of what you unlock afterwards, and I can actually get behind that.

Saying "REE UNLOCKABLE DIFFICULTIES BAD" has nothing to do with it.

Yeah, the only reason I wanted to unlock the 'Final Fantasy Mode' because I thought it'd have better story pacing with the enemies actually not being instant-kill dummies.

Like check this out - This is basically every encounter that isn't a boss. They all die instantly for me, and it's not just Ignition. It's every AoE ability.
Spoilers at about the 50% game mark? Story mobs: https://old.reddit.com/r/FFXVI/comme..._is_nutty_bro/

Like, the enemies always die before they even finish their dialog. I usually stand there for a few seconds and wait for them to finish so I can instant-wipe the room. Then bam, story event finished.

So, the only time that doesn't happen, is when an enemy has a stagger bar, or it's an actual boss. But that means all of the story fluff? It's an FF game.. Tons of story fluff. Instantly dead, basically just watching a movie unless I'm fighting an actual boss, or Hunt.

I can see that for Story Mode sure, who cares. But Normal Mode with no help rings or anything? No grinding? No upgraded weapons? lol.. That's commonplace. All dead, instantly. I do a whole questline and it takes me 10x as long to do the quest itself than to do the fight. So the pacing is really weird, especially when Clive himself is like "Yo, we should be careful, yada, yada." then he instantly 1-shots them? lool

If I'm asking for anything, it's that the pacing just be fixed. I have a few ideas for that - Most notably, don't give us free Eikon abilities at the very start of every fight. I should have to do some combos to build up a meter to do those things. But I just get everything powerful for free. Like I said before, it's like starting a fight in any FF game in the franchise with a free 1s instacast AoE Summon. It just breaks pacing and makes the flow of the whole story seem really strange. It basically makes everything but bosses nonexistent.

[TheDecay]

I don't think that's the problem actually. I think the problem is the Normal Mode is basically the Easy Mode, while they also gave us an Easier Mode AND play-the-game-for-you rings. So it's all pretty crazy easy at that point. Don't really need to have the Hard Mode unlocked, but it sure would be nice if I didn't 1-shot everything on Normal Mode.

Like when I was 20 hours in, I legitimately had to check my settings because I thought I accidentally switched it to Story Mode. The balance is that whack. lol

They mentioned games like Cuphead and Mass Effect as if that's a gotcha.

Cuphead is already a difficult game at its normal base difficulty. And Mass Effect has Veteran mode at the start which is its equivalent of Hard mode. Hardcore and Insanity are just Very Hard and above.

The problem isn't just that the hard mode is locked behind a playthrough. It's that the first playthrough is extremely easy, AND full of cutscenes and little gameplay, AND the hard mode is locked behind a playthrough, AND hard mode itself is piss easy still (40% in so far). It's the combined effect of these multiple decisions the game devs made that makes it horrible design.

[DiaDeem]

They mentioned games like Cuphead and Mass Effect as if that's a gotcha

You're missing the point.

I argued in favor of unlockable difficulties, not the current state of XVI's Normal (Or Hard) Mode(s).

If you missed it, then... there, I spelled it out for you. Read my post again.
If you ignored the point intentionally in bad faith, then I've got nothing... I can't take a conversation with you involved seriously.

[Boblawblah]

You're missing the point.

I argued in favor of unlockable difficulties, not the current state of XVI's Normal (Or Hard) Mode(s).

If you missed it, then... there, I spelled it out for you. Read my post again.
If you ignored the point intentionally in bad faith, then I've got nothing... I can't take a conversation with you involved seriously.

I agree, unlockable difficulties aren't a bad thing, but I do think that have an initial difficulty option that isn't just 'the game plays itself' or 'easy' is a good option either.

Those are two separate issues I think that people are combining.

[DiaDeem]

I agree, unlockable difficulties aren't a bad thing, but I do think that have an initial difficulty option that isn't just 'the game plays itself' or 'easy' is a good option either.

I'll admit I jumped the gun calling the other person a troll. I just found it ridiculous to say unlocking difficulties in "all of gaming" was a bad thing.
But yes, even those whom are saying the best things about XVI agree that it's way too easy, and yeah: I agree that Normal mode is too soft.

It's also just a little hard for me to take some statements in the forums in good faith.

[IkaraGreydancer]

They mentioned games like Cuphead and Mass Effect as if that's a gotcha.

Cuphead is already a difficult game at its normal base difficulty. And Mass Effect has Veteran mode at the start which is its equivalent of Hard mode. Hardcore and Insanity are just Very Hard and above.

The problem isn't just that the hard mode is locked behind a playthrough. It's that the first playthrough is extremely easy, AND full of cutscenes and little gameplay, AND the hard mode is locked behind a playthrough, AND hard mode itself is piss easy still (40% in so far). It's the combined effect of these multiple decisions the game devs made that makes it horrible design.

Even then though...anyone with any 3rd person shooter chops can get through normal or veteran with ease. Hell imo I'd say Insanity isn't even insane. I can't objectively claim an easy game is bad design. It's just not what I'd personally want. What I consider easy may not be for the next person. Same for XIV. Btw a game not winning GOTY doesn't mean it's bad. Nor does GOTY even matter lol Normies care about that crap

But I have to ask...why not take XVI talk to a XVI dedicated space?

[TheDecay]

Even then though...anyone with any 3rd person shooter chops can get through normal or veteran with ease. Hell imo I'd say Insanity isn't even insane. I can't objectively claim an easy game is bad design. It's just not what I'd personally want. What I consider easy may not be for the next person. Same for XIV. Btw a game not winning GOTY doesn't mean it's bad. Nor does GOTY even matter lol Normies care about that crap

But I have to ask...why not take XVI talk to a XVI dedicated space?

Because this is a CBU3-wide issue at this point.