"You Will Die" Difficulty... Can I Have It?

[fusional]

But, unless you have a dedicated static/group you do everything with AND play together often (like 4-5+nights a week), you stand little chance of being able to clear this, regardless of your actual skill.

which may be true for NAs, but i've never understood why it *is* true when the JP community has no problem pugging the stuff all the time. and trust me- it's not due to any skill gap.

Besides, 'hardmode' sliders are really just a cheap way of re-using existing content over and over. "Hey guys we just beat Iffy Easy-mode. Lets try Normal...cool beat that, lets try Hard...beat that....lets do extreeme..." Instead of 'Woot we beat Ifrit! Lets go work on clearing Garuda!'

ehhh. yes and no. in THAT GAME WHICH SHALL NOT BE MENTIONED, hardmodes almost categorically changed how fights worked, to the extent that if you were working on the hardmode you were essentially learning an almost entirely new fight. yeah the boss is the same, and it's in the same zone, but the behavior was very different, the strategy was very different and the loot was either different or upgraded versions of the normal loot.

if all they're doing is increasing HP/defense/regen/attack and making environmental hazards cover more ground or hit harder, then it is a bit gimmicky and definitely qualifies as recycling content. but it can absolutely be done right, where you're only fighting the same boss in name alone.