Good. I want to be rewared with something worth when i decide to play the entire game again in a higher difficulty.
Please tell me what game is this so i can check it out.
Please tell me what game is this so i can check it out.
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Endings locked behind difficulty are bullshit
- Thread starter JuicyPlayer
- Start date
Yeah it's 100% always bad, should never be done and quite frankly it's just yet another ableist remnant of old design that doesn't need to exist anymore.
But it used to annoy me even in stuff like Sparkster and other Konami games back in the day. Felt like a waste of time when I'm trying to just play games I rented within the time limit.
But it used to annoy me even in stuff like Sparkster and other Konami games back in the day. Felt like a waste of time when I'm trying to just play games I rented within the time limit.
I don't mind if it's something small, like the Easter egg from Halo 1 on legendary.
What's really awful is Jet Force Gemini, which waits until the seeming end of the game to let you know you need to go back through the entire thing and save hundreds of teddy bear creatures to actually see the ending. I was a poor teenager at the time who could barely afford games, and I still quit playing it in protest. Outrageous.
What's really awful is Jet Force Gemini, which waits until the seeming end of the game to let you know you need to go back through the entire thing and save hundreds of teddy bear creatures to actually see the ending. I was a poor teenager at the time who could barely afford games, and I still quit playing it in protest. Outrageous.
It was in the European version (maybe the Japanese one too?) - there were 5 options to pick from when you started the game for the first time:
-I've cleared the previous game multiple times, so bring on the action!
-I managed to clear the previous game, but action isn't my strong point!
-I didn't clear the previous game myself, but I watched everything!
-I didn't clear the previous game and action isn't my strong point!
-I didn't clear the previous game, but bring on the action!
The first three start you at the tanker, the last two start you at the plant and they also determine which difficulty options you are offered. After you beat the game you can choose either section or them both.
There were some other changes too like a European Extreme difficulty and a boss survival mode. We also got a making of DVD included as an apology for the delay meaning everything got spoiled.
Understandable (though I wouldn't frame it as "disrespecting time"). I similarly hate when difficulty levels are locked behind playthroughs, as there's no good reason to deny a new player from the hardest difficulty options your game has to offer.
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I think it's worth noting that back then, games were designed not just to be played a lot but also to be very, very difficult to beat in the course of a single rental period, so you'd need to rent it a ton of times
I don't mind it if the game is either not super long or just has a generally good reply value. Lots of us grew up on this so it was fairly normal. I'm not sure if I could get myself back to being able to no-hit Super Ghouls n Ghosts on professional, though.
Sure, you don't "need" it, but it's a fun little extra. Like I said, having a small reward with an extra fight or cutscene isn't taking anything away from those who play on lower difficulties but rather just showing appreciation to those who played the game at the harder ones. It's nice to have some sort acknowledgment of your accomplishment even if it's just a video game.
A lot of people in here really seem to think "please don't gate story content behind difficulty" means "no rewards for hardcore players."
Y'all can just get new weapons or bonus levels or some shit. There is literally no reason to block certain people from seeing the full narrative just so you can feel vindicated for playing on Nightmare Mode.
Y'all can just get new weapons or bonus levels or some shit. There is literally no reason to block certain people from seeing the full narrative just so you can feel vindicated for playing on Nightmare Mode.
Oh man, I went through the Double Dragon games for the first time last week, and yeah...DD2's ending shenanigans were quite something.
It's not just a "true ending" situation - it's an actual cliffhanger. And, for me, the question being answered there was going to affect how I perceived the entire game. Went straight to YouTube.
I've never liked the "It rewards players" and "Just watch it on YouTube" arguments
The former implies people who can't play on those difficulties because of disabilities etc shouldn't be rewarded or inheeriantly lesser in their eyes (or more likely they don't care or didn't think of them usually).
The latter doesn't speak highly of the game in question if its more rewarding to watch it elsewhere. You should want people to play the game, not go elsewhere... Plus I doubt the company and devs appreciate it when their fans tell people to just go watch their games rather then play/buy them.
I'm fine with unlockables as long as their doable for all and in multiplayer, aren't intrusive (IE ones tied to achievements so people end up playing for those and don't help their teams on the actual game or end up being disruptive or achievements that encourage bad teamwork).
Of course doable and accessible doesn't mean it can't be hard, I think Smash Ultimate does a good job balancing the game's single player so it's doable for all while still balancing out the easy and hard stuff. Nintendo overall after the ableism and non-caring they displayed during the Wii and DS era have heavily improved in this department.
Also no, story content shouldn't be gated.
The former implies people who can't play on those difficulties because of disabilities etc shouldn't be rewarded or inheeriantly lesser in their eyes (or more likely they don't care or didn't think of them usually).
The latter doesn't speak highly of the game in question if its more rewarding to watch it elsewhere. You should want people to play the game, not go elsewhere... Plus I doubt the company and devs appreciate it when their fans tell people to just go watch their games rather then play/buy them.
I'm fine with unlockables as long as their doable for all and in multiplayer, aren't intrusive (IE ones tied to achievements so people end up playing for those and don't help their teams on the actual game or end up being disruptive or achievements that encourage bad teamwork).
Of course doable and accessible doesn't mean it can't be hard, I think Smash Ultimate does a good job balancing the game's single player so it's doable for all while still balancing out the easy and hard stuff. Nintendo overall after the ableism and non-caring they displayed during the Wii and DS era have heavily improved in this department.
Also no, story content shouldn't be gated.
In my eyes at least, there's a difference between a bonus little boss fight/scene, or what the OP is about and what happens in games like Cuphead, where you literally can't finish the game if you need to play on an easier difficulty.
Yeah should have specified. Contra 3 I meant. Castlevania Bloodlines also had the same. With difficulty options.
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I don't consider the full story a "reward", a trophy or secret boss would be a reward.
I play many games for the story, so if part of it is locked I won't even bother (hi, Arkham Knight).
I thought this was about secret endings and bosses such. Someone even brought up the Bloodborne ending locked behind the umbilical cords thing, which is something I definitely missed the first time, but it's not, like, "the" canon ending necessarily.
Story content is already gated since you have to play through the game in sequence anyway. I don't think there's much separation between that and the difficulty modes in a game like Double Dragon 2, where the lower two difficulty levels cut and / or heavily simplify content anyway (so the only "real" mode is Supreme Master, the other two are just training wheel modes).
I like my kick ass gaming skills being rewarded. Totally cool with me to lock endings behind challenging feats. But hey I grew up in the 8bit era.
I'm fine with this stuff on NES/SNES-era games (and modern games built around these mechanics) since they're usually short games.
One huge offender is Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. While you can do it on any difficulty, the best possible (and canonical) ending is locked behind a lot of obscure BS, like triggering fights between characters that you normally wouldn't do when playing casually, but you also have to be on a second playthrough (and this is a 40-60 hour game we're talking about!).
One huge offender is Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. While you can do it on any difficulty, the best possible (and canonical) ending is locked behind a lot of obscure BS, like triggering fights between characters that you normally wouldn't do when playing casually, but you also have to be on a second playthrough (and this is a 40-60 hour game we're talking about!).
That series is literally the opposite of what the OP is saying.
You can beat those games on any difficulty and get the true ending, you're not locked out of the second loop because you picked a lower difficulty (unless the PSP version pulled something I don't know about).
They mean something like Mickey's Wild Adventure for PS1 where if you pick a lower difficulty, the game proceeds as normal until a point where it suddenly stops and tells you to restart on a higher difficulty to be allowed to see the later levels and the actual ending of the game.
OP's about a game where they don't get the ending because they're not playing on the hardest difficulty, the game tells them they can't beat the game unless they play the hardest difficulty, so, the conversation has kind of tracked away from that origin.
This is actually what I came in here to mention. But it's egregious for a different reason. Playing on the hardest difficulty ends the game at chapter 4. You have to play on an easier difficulty to see any of the last levels. I played on hardest and just flat out didn't get to see a bunch of stuff because they gave me a non-canon good ending. It's the inverse of this thread's premise and it threw me for a loop.
To be honest I'm ok with it. I like to have motivation to tackle that difficulty, actually it is better since nowadays I do hard modes solely for the achievements/trophies. Doing it for a new ending or any cool in game rewards seems great.
Also, Konami specially made me used of this in the 8/16 bit era so no problems at all.
If you don't feel like playing in hard mode you can always use YouTube.
Also, Konami specially made me used of this in the 8/16 bit era so no problems at all.
If you don't feel like playing in hard mode you can always use YouTube.
The very first Rayman game has its final boss locked until you free the 6 things in every level if I remember correctly
one of the reasons why I was never able to finish it when I was younger
one of the reasons why I was never able to finish it when I was younger
Eh, those "true endings" were post credit sequences at best.
But there were optional bosses hidden behind riddler trophies.
Lol what. This is like my favorite feature in games, assuming the game in question is actually fun to play of course.
I like when developers add incentives to play on higher difficulties. Just like in real life you often get rewarded for doing things of higher difficulty/require more skill.
Musha Aleste has maybe 3 endings depending on difficulties, each ending shows more scenes than the last one.
Used to beat the game on the hardest difficulty when i was 14 years old. Now i am not able to beat it on normal, Dat final level and Boss.
Honestly i like this feature, even if it sucks, gives you incentive to try to beat the game on harder modes.
Used to beat the game on the hardest difficulty when i was 14 years old. Now i am not able to beat it on normal, Dat final level and Boss.
Honestly i like this feature, even if it sucks, gives you incentive to try to beat the game on harder modes.
I think this largely depends on how complete the game feels without the additional endings. If you still get a complete consistent story on any play through then it's hard to be upset about.
It's never fun if the player doesn't have enough skill.
I'm glad developers are thinking more about that nowadays.
I find the concept of 'good' endings much more objectionable. Regardless of how you get them.
If I played your damn game, whatever ending I get better be satisfying and thematically approapriate.
Egregious examples I can think of:
Gunstar Future Heroes changes not just the ending but the whole story based on the difficulty. On easy it's little more than "we're under attack, shoot them!" while on medium and hard you get progressively more details about what's going on, what the backstory is, etc.
Tiny Toons: Buster Busts Loose skips boss fights and any chunk of a level deemed difficult (including the whole sky level) on easy. The story makes absolutely no sense that way. You go through a door and get the level ending cutscene where everybody talks to the boss character and whatnot.
Jamestown: The game has like 4 difficulty levels and each one cuts off at a different level so you have to gradually increase the difficulty up to the maximum to get to the final stage.
Contra 4 also has that "can't get the final stages on easy" thing, the difference between easy (9 lives per continue, all weapons immediately at level 2) and normal (3 lives, weapons at level 1) is a massive spike.
Gunstar Future Heroes changes not just the ending but the whole story based on the difficulty. On easy it's little more than "we're under attack, shoot them!" while on medium and hard you get progressively more details about what's going on, what the backstory is, etc.
Tiny Toons: Buster Busts Loose skips boss fights and any chunk of a level deemed difficult (including the whole sky level) on easy. The story makes absolutely no sense that way. You go through a door and get the level ending cutscene where everybody talks to the boss character and whatnot.
Jamestown: The game has like 4 difficulty levels and each one cuts off at a different level so you have to gradually increase the difficulty up to the maximum to get to the final stage.
Contra 4 also has that "can't get the final stages on easy" thing, the difference between easy (9 lives per continue, all weapons immediately at level 2) and normal (3 lives, weapons at level 1) is a massive spike.
I mean, the question is why the player is playing the game in the first place, no? Is it just to "see all the content"? Then yes, of course you would feel robbed. If I'm playing Uncharted or whatever you bet your ass I will agree with OP. But if I'm playing a bullet hell shmup I sure as hell have no business fighting the true last boss without mastering everything else in the game first.
Also can we please stop conflating skill/mastery requirements with accessibility? Accessibility means making it possible for everyone to reach mastery by breaking down interface barriers between the player and the game. It does not mean letting anyone breeze through any sort of game.
meh. YouTube has covered if you don't have the time/patience required.
And it's nice to have an incentive to try the harder difficulty.
And it's nice to have an incentive to try the harder difficulty.