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08-05-2009: Difficulty

...or rather, contemplation thereof.

From the sounds of things, players are getting a grasp on the basics (utility of weakness, avoid most fights, etc.)by the first boss, with a pattern established by the time they get to their second. The demo ends with the third, at the approximate level of 27~30. This is about where most movesets mature, aquiring their first status effects, elemental barriers, and revives. The player isn't likely to be without five figures of AP, and the high-end Perks like the various flavors of Half SP Cost are 20,000 AP a pop.

I intend, now that the introduction of gameplay is complete, to elaborate on the characters. I feel learning of characters necessary, but I don't want it layered with the learning of gameplay, lest pacing suffer.

However, I am strongly tempted to ramp up difficulty. I'm seeking opinions on how steeply I should ramp up difficulty, and by how much, and by what means. "Experiences" with the current model are helpful and welcome.

Posts

Pages: 1
Silviera
2891
08/08/2009 05:46 AM
Not sure if this is the kind of feedback you're looking for, but I'd like to see difficulty ramped up in a way that doesn't require various forms of grinding.

I guess I'd like to see enemies hitting with more status effects, or doing strange things that the player needs to notice and react to. Kind of vague advice, but I think it's a lot more fun than running into a boss who can one shot your party and then spending 30 minutes bringing your characters to a state where they can survive. Especially in a game that is encouraging you to run from most encounters.

I felt the pacing of the difficulty curve has been pretty solid thus far, but I wouldn't mind things going up a little bit as the game goes on. There may be some room to increase difficulty outside of the battle screen as well.

And here's a random thought, but how about rewarding players with exp/AP for getting through an area without getting into X number of battles? Obviously not including the enemies that block passages, and never making it 0 to guard against bad luck with the random movement of enemies.
Pages: 1