Dragon Fantasy: Heroes of Tsufana

I just had a thought. Maybe it could work, maybe not.
You could release a "Hard Mode patch", and all it is is the *.ldt file containing enemies with higher numbers. The player could simply drop it in the main project folder, overwriting the old one.

Otherwise, I agree with Clareain. Too high a difficulty and players will quit the game, never bothering to really enjoy it.

author=Shoobinator
Difficulty should be determined not by enemy statistics but how you design the monster groups and bosses themselves and the options available to the player to win. Numbers/statistics should come last (or at least not first) when designing the enemies. It is possible to make a moderately difficult game where you actually have to think to win without requiring intense grinding. If people don't want to be clever when fighting battles, the option exists to grind to power through, but the difficulty should never be at the point where grinding is required.

Oh, I forgot about that. Yeah, it's the most important part, lol.

I like looking at world of warcraft raiding for my designs. When I think of a boss with 2 difficulties, I think of normal and heroic. Some skills on normal can easily be dealt with... but on heroic either you die due to not paying attention, or you grind.
Then it's just a matter of making sure the information is clear.
Otherwise, people will think it's unbalanced right off the bat. This can be pretty hard to do.

While I grew up with NES games, I prefer easier difficulty mainly because I just don't have the time anymore to sit through lengthy hours of grinding. There's way too many RM games at my disposal, and if one takes too long to grasp my interest, it's at risk of being set aside and ultimately forgotten.

That said, perhaps keep the main storyline in its simple form, but spike the difficulty in some of the optional content, as long as the player feels justified in the rewards. Rewards can come in the way of skills, loot, gold, powerful weapons, armor, mini games, but also adding storyline that the player may otherwise not receive.

author=Shoobinator
imo adding level caps would take an option away from the player. Difficulty should not be made by taking options away from the player, but instead by forcing them to use what they already have in a different way.

Those are... the same thing. Difficulty is inherently ALL ABOUT taking options away from the player. Like, if you think about it, that's all difficulty is. Removing some of the valid options, so some of the options that would have resulted in success now result in failure. I mean, "win without even trying" and "win by mashing the A button" are options that you want to remove, right?

It's true that old RPGs were really grindy. I don't think that's something you want to replicate. However, you can replicate the feeling they produced: stuff is too powerful for you right now and you need to become stronger before you stand a chance. Instead of grinding, you could do this via some other type of powerup: equipment, for example. Put powerful equipment in chests that require thorough exploration, battles, even minibosses. Stick them in seperate, totally optional areas instead of one screen away from the main path. And then balance the enemies with the assumption that the player got every single one of these items.

Finding new spells is also another way of getting a similar effect. Equipment and spells are both very basic things that could be found hidden throughout the game in the oldest RPGs, so this wouldn't interfere with your old-schoolness. They're tools you can use without feeling like you're cheating. But yeah, if you don't want the difficulty to be based as heavily on grinding, then simply move more of the player's growth from their level to things they find in treasure chests. And if you want the game to be harder, then make them work for those chests.

Edit: I do think two difficulty modes would be better than just making it this hard for everyone. One mode that's balanced with the expectation that the player will hunt down and work for all the out-of-the-way treasures, and one mode that's balanced with the expectation that he'll skip them.

When I first released my game (Night of the Living Noobyas) for testing, I had played through it multiple times and thought the difficulty curve was just right. However, my testers came back and told me that it was too tedious. So I adjusted the stats, the drops, the EXP, the damage output on my skills and weapons, and I thought the game became way too easy. However, the comments I've received state they feel the game is very well balanced.

So... it goes to show that the developer will almost always believe their game is easier than it may actually be. That and the fact that gamers don't want to grind anymore. I'm not saying a player should stand around and grind for an hour just to traverse a four-room dungeon, but some bit of extra grind should be expected, be it a touch encounter and the player must revisit a room or two for extra combat, or random encounter and the player must walk around to find a few extra battles... at least when the game mimics older rpg's.

However, when you see the comments over at other sites (such as RMW), the top three things most gamers hate and consider the worst mistakes of older NES games are:

1. The inability to save anywhere - required to use save points in a dungeon, can only save on the world map, etc.
2. Random Encounters - everything has to be touch encounter.
3. Level Grinding.

The end result is to either:

A. Make a game you want at the difficulty you want, but expect that it will only appeal to a certain audience, and even then may cause for people to quit and complain or...

B. Make a game that will appeal to the masses, even if you feel it's not very challenging. At least then you will know more people will download and play through it.

Edit: I've heard people say to offer options (easy or difficult). The problem is, unless there is a reward, most people will just take the easy route. If you do offer an option of difficulty, I recommend including extra loot, mini games, unique skills, or even story content on the difficulty setting just to encourage more people to try that options.

And of course, there is always the New Game +, which offers even more opportunities.

For example, let's say the normal path to get a certain type of ending (we'll just call it Ending A) is easy. However, a lot of the side quests and maybe even the path to get the real ending (we'll call it Ending B) is hard. The player can try for the harder path first, but if they can't, they can always play the easy path first and then reload with their EXP/GOld, etc., upon finishing the game and then take on the harder path, which would then be easier for them.