• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.

Endings locked behind difficulty are bullshit

JuicyPlayer

JuicyPlayer

Member
Feb 8, 2018
7,297
I was playing Double Dragon 2 on NES on Warrior difficulty and the game lets you get all the way to mission 8. Once you clear the level it tells you to try again on Supreme Master if you want to fight the final boss.

What a lack of respect for people's time.

Also do other games do this kind of stuff? Even today?
 
Weiss

Weiss

User requested ban
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
64,265
There's this game by Suda51 called Black Knight Sword. It sucks, and when you beat the game the final boss kills you and makes you replay it on Hard to actually see the ending.
 
Urfe

Urfe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
779
Games back then were all about playing multiple times. I didn't see any issue with it then.

Would care more today with a game that's tens of hours long, and is not meant for multiple play throughs.
 
Era of not Yakuza

Era of not Yakuza

Banned
Dec 4, 2017
11,481
Brazil
Fear Effect had the best ending behind the hard difficulty, it wasn't a problem because I was a kid (that should have played it) and used cheats
 

Deleted member 17210

User-requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
11,569
8-bit/16-bit games that don't let you play the whole game on the easy or practice settings seem fair to me. Playing on default or harder should let you see the proper ending, though.
 
Sioul

Sioul

Hero of Bowerstone
Member
Oct 27, 2017
524
Max Payne 2 have a special ending if you play on Dead on Arrival difficulty

Mona survives
 
Vyse

Vyse

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,388
Casuals can enjoy credits in Youtube at their leisure, hardcore gamers must subject themselves to repetitive tasks and pointless struggles.
 
joffocakes

joffocakes

Member
Nov 15, 2017
1,375
I'm sure a fair few 8 and 16-bit games stopped early and denied you their later stages on easier difficulties too. Super Probotector was an example of that iirc.

If a game is longer that 10 hours then having multiple endings, especially when it's decided by some trivial choice or trinket, is frustrating, especially if you're locked out of earning the other endings unless you play though the whole thing again.

I can't recall a game with multiple endings where any were worth earning though, to be fair. There's always YouTube for the curious.
 
jfkgoblue

jfkgoblue

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,650
Games have multiple enemies, Bloodborne has a final boss locked behind some random consumables.

I don't get why people care if a game has stuff locked behind higher difficulties, it's a reward for playing through the game on its highest difficulty.
 
BassForever

BassForever

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
29,915
CT
Even worse then just the true final boss is when games don't even let you play the final few levels unless you're on a harder difficulty. I don't mind hard mode having an extra bonus ending like



Please try this post again on hard mode to see the true ending
 
My Blue Heaven

My Blue Heaven

Banned
May 19, 2020
4,828
this is what youtube is for. before youtube you just looked on those old school game websites that screencapped game endings. it's really not a big deal
 
Mindfreak191

Mindfreak191

Member
Dec 2, 2017
4,764
JuicyPlayer said:
One of the Batman games had a true ending locked until finding all the collectibles right?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yup, it's especially bad in Arkham Knight, which makes it worse cause you're in the middle of a boss fight with Riddler and then all of a sudden "nope you gotta find 500 collectibles in order to be able to fight me to the end lol". Closed the game, uninstalled and watched the ending on yt.
 
Mr. Gold

Mr. Gold

Member
Jul 1, 2019
725
I think it's one of those things that is bullshit but isn't a problem. You can just Youtube it.

Fuck you Hollow Knight
 
Tuorom

Tuorom

Member
Oct 30, 2017
10,900
Yes it's stupid. Story shouldn't be gated.

The only good use of difficulty gates is for alternate fan stuff like how Halo gives you an extra bit on Legendary that isn't plot related, eg. Halo 1 shows Johnson and an Elite hugging it out. Just fun little snipits to reward people who take the extra challenge.
 
TSM

TSM

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,821
You have to remember that a lot of nes/snes era games had content locked behind harder difficulties in part because of the rental market. They assumed people would be more likely to buy games if they couldn't beat them within a rental window.
 
SirNinja

SirNinja

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 17, 2017
8,218
Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States
I remember that in the original Panzer Dragoon, the game would end after Episode 4 (of 7) if you "only" played on Easy (and these games are no cakewalks, so a lot of people do). Thankfully, the recent remake does away with that.
 
thisismadness

thisismadness

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,444
Agreed, I very rarely ever replay any game.

Similarly, Harder Difficulties locked behind beating the game also stink.
 
PLASTICA-MAN

PLASTICA-MAN

Member
Oct 26, 2017
23,560
The first game that did strike me back then was Hercules on PS1/PC so after I reached level 8, the game told me to access next levels you need to replay the game in higher difficulties. All those efforts lost in vain. I think it was the same with Tarzan.
 

Deleted member 79517

User requested account closure
Banned
Aug 31, 2020
472
Mr. Gold said:
I think it's one of those things that is bullshit but isn't a problem. You can just Youtube it.

Fuck you Hollow Knight
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That's a little different, though, isn't it? The ending isn't locked behind your difficulty choice. There are just two endings: A "bad" ending you get if you skip some extra content and a "good" ending you get for completing said extra content.

To respond to OP, I consider what Cuphead does to be similar. I believe Tetris Effect also doesn't allow all of its courses to be played on the easiest difficulty.
 
Slayven

Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
93,025
good endings locked behind doing some super obscure bullshit are worse
 
Tokyo_Funk

Tokyo_Funk

Banned
Dec 10, 2018
10,053
Killzone 2s final run on the hardest difficulty is no joke.

Edit - Now that I'm thinking about it, Ninja Gaiden NES kicked you back a few levels if you failed the last boss.
 
Violence Jack

Violence Jack

Drive-in Mutant
Member
Oct 25, 2017
41,674
Yep, I remember those days. Painkiller was the last one I remember where you have to go through it's absolute hardest mode to get it's true ending.
 
Charpunk

Charpunk

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,616
Any game that you need look up a guide on how to get the best ending because if you don't you're going to miss shit is absolutely the worst.
 
Dary

Dary

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,404
The English Wilderness
jfkgoblue said:
I don't get why people care if a game has stuff locked behind higher difficulties, it's a reward for playing through the game on its highest difficulty.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Some of us struggle with higher difficulties because of disabilities. I know some people hate to hear that, or roll their eyes when it gets brought up in conversations on difficulty levels, but, frankly, they can fuck off.
 
snausages

snausages

Member
Feb 12, 2018
10,336
What about prologues locked behind difficulty, I didn't see the tanker mission on my first playthrough of MGS2. Was super confused lol
 
RedMercury

RedMercury

Blue Venus
Member
Dec 24, 2017
17,648
Maybe worse are extras locked behind speedrunning like in the RE games. Not everyone want to be a speedrunner, everyone wants infinite ammo, there is a disconnect there. If I beat your game, if I spent time and money just unlock the shit, make it 2 playthroughs if you have to.
 
snausages

snausages

Member
Feb 12, 2018
10,336
giancarlo123x said:
It's not locked behind it though. The game allows you to jump straight to the plant if you choose so. Or the tank even on very easy.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It appears I remembered wrong, what the PAL version of the game does is it skips the tanker if you say you never played MGS1 before.

I had watched MGS1 but hadnt played it then so it just skipped that whole section entirely until the 2nd playthrough. Tho I'm sure difficulty selection must also have been a factor
 
giancarlo123x

giancarlo123x

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
25,359
snausages said:
It appears I remembered wrong, what the PAL version of the game does is it skips the tanker if you say you never played MGS1 before.

I had watched MGS1 but hadnt played it then so it just skipped that whole section entirely until the 2nd playthrough. Tho I'm sure difficulty selection must also have been a factor
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I've never heard of such a thing. Sounds like mgs3 where it asks you what your favorite metal gear was. If pal mgs2 had that question then today I learned something new.
 
Rbz

Rbz

Unshakable Resolve
Member
Oct 27, 2017
675
I remember being pretty pissed off with Valkyrie Profile when I found out about the true ending being unlocked only on the harder difficulty, especially since I discovered that at the literal end of the game.

At this point I don't think I'm finishing enough games to have an opinion on it
 
You must log in or register to reply here.