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Discussion Nintendo's avoidance of harder difficulty options

Truno

Truno

Koopa
Pronouns
He/Him
Nintendo EPD had a fantastic year with the release of software of differing genres, including:
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
  • Everybody 1-2-Switch!
  • Pikmin 4
  • Super Mario Bros. Wonder
  • Super Mario RPG (Switch)*
*Although the game was developed by ArtePiazza, the director for the game was Ayako Moriwaki, an employee of Nintendo EPD.

Something that I've noticed though, is that most of these games lack difficulty options that make the overall experience more challenging. In fact, some of these titles add gameplay elements that make the game even easier without rebalancing the experience to accommodate to these changes:
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - No inclusion of Master Mode despite it being available for BotW. Although BotW received the option through a DLC update, Aonuma has stated multiple times that there won't be DLC updates for TotK.
  • Pikmin 4 - The game introduces mechanics such as Oatchi and time rewinding in order to make the experience more breezy for new-time players without including more options for veterans.
  • Super Mario Bros. Wonder - Although difficulty is subjective, many players, including reviewers, have criticized Wonder for being too easy throughout its entirety. Additionally, in my opinion, although the special worlds provide a challenge, only a few of them actually gave me issues. More special worlds for veteran players would've been great. I'm still hopeful for DLC for this game and Pikmin 4.
  • Super Mario RPG (Switch) - Changes to Action Commands, Timed Hits, the implementation of Triple Attacks, and mid-battle party swapping have made the game easier than ever. This is a special case as SMRPG does offer difficulty settings with Normal mode (which is the same difficulty level as the original game) and Breezy. Unfortunately, the game offers no balancing changes or an added difficulty option to adapt to these changes. The inclusion of special enemies and post game bosses are welcome, but the overall experience still feels much easier.
  • Everybody 1-2 Switch! - The exception to the OP as I don't have 100 friends to truly experience this masterpiece. Might be the most difficult game ever released by Nintendo.

It seems that Nintendo is attempting to make their games appealing to a wider audience without providing the same care to more veteran players. What do you think of this? Is it an issue for you?
 
Never has been an issue for me.

If you want harder games from Nintendo but not specifically from EPD, you can get Metroid Fusion in Japanese with the exclusive Hard mode.
You can also try Metroid Zero Mission's Hard mode that doubles damage and makes health upgrades only give you 50 HP instead of 100 and missiles only gives 2 instead of 5. Also, if you 100% all the items, the final boss will have twice HP AND will deal even more damage. Basically any hit deals 300 HP, so three hits and you're dead. And you only have so many missiles this time.

Or you can also try Metroid Prime 3: Corruption on Hypermode, you're gonna love redo all of Phaze each time you reload your save at the final boss and try so hard to get to the boss without getting too much corruption because you'll have to deal with it for the whole boss, with very, VERY few anti-phazon here and there for the first two parts and then ZERO for the final part.

Hm, even if I did finish Metroid Dread in Hard mode with a low% to get the completion bonus images, it was still pretty hard. There's also the one hit death mode if you want more challenge.

Metroid Prime 2 in Hard mode was also very, very, V-E-R-Y difficult. Speedball boss, anyone ?
 
Mario Wonder is a good example of Nintendo giving players tools to adjust the difficulty up and down according to their preference without selecting an easy / normal / hard mode in an options menu.

The obvious cases are badges like the Parachute Cap or the Safety Bounce which afford players a lot more room to make errors. Less obvious is that players can always challenge themselves to beat levels start to finish in tiny non-mushroom form or collect all the big purple coins in one go without dying.
 
Truno said:
Everybody 1-2 Switch! - The exception to the OP as I don't have 100 friends to truly experience this masterpiece. Might be the most difficult game ever released by Nintendo.
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I know you’re joking with this but you don’t need 100 players for the “true” Everybody 1-2-Switch! experience. Even just a group of around 8 or 10 or so should be enough to see what this game truly has to offer. I’ve hosted multiple sessions with around 20–30 players and while having more players certainly adds to the chaos and fun, the core experience is gonna be more or less the same even with less players, as long as you’ve got at least six players, or maybe even just four. I mean, technically you can play with as little as two, but ideally you’ll want no less than four or more for the true team experience. The great part about the game is that finding players isn’t nearly as difficult as with other games, because it’s a much more casual experience so anyone can jump in and play. Plus you have the option of streaming it online, though that approach doesn’t work quite as well with lag and all—but some mini games work even better online with everyone in different locations, like Color Shoot!

Anyway, in regards to the thread topic, I’m not really bothered by the lack of higher difficulty options in Nintendo games. If anything, providing easier difficulty modes is much more important for accessibility reasons, and Nintendo generally does a great job on that front. I’m more concerned with the game being a fun experience than a difficult experience, personally. As long as it makes me smile, I’m good—and I believe that’s what Nintendo’s going for, too.
 
Doesn't hugely affect me as I don't tend to play games on higher difficulties. The option would be nice, though. If they reintroduced Challenge Mode from Pokemon BW2 (and didn't gate it behind a ridiculous unlock), I'd go for that for sure in Pokemon games.
 
Mario RPG definitely needed something. I love the original and was very excited for the remake but I'm having trouble getting motivated to finish it because the game is so gratuitously easy (even on its normal mode) that the gameplay is not engaging at all. Even boss encounters I remember being a little bit trickier are blazed through in 5-6 turns with my party never threatened.
 
Doesn't really affect me that much at all honestly let newer games enjoy it without having to deal with the hassle if you ask me.
 
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It just doesn't seem like those are the types of games that Nintendo internal, themselves, want to make. Or have attached to their biggest brands. Nintendo makes and produces games for general audiences, first and foremost. And so, it's a roll of the die if I'll get something from them that caters to the kind of challenge I want. Or just make my own, and hope it's still fun.

All the more reason I hope Retro gets to keep doing what they're doing. I'm hoping Metroid Prime 4 can either offer a good challenge out the box, or will have difficulty modes like its predecessors.
 
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I think most of these games wouldn't do well with different difficulty modes.
I prefer examples of Mario Wonder's difficulty than games that just resort to changing enemies' damage and health to make everything artificially easier or harder.
Although I miss a Master Mode in TotK.
 
Master Mode in BotW was a kind of tacked on mess that seemed to mostly just exist to justify the small first batch of its DLC so it makes sense to me why they wouldn't want to revisit it.

Wonder is definitely the easiest Mario game on paper if the player chooses to use all the options presented to them, which most people won't. It essentially has cheat codes and it's on you if you want to use them. I agree the game was too easy but to me that's mostly because it needed a few more 5 star levels
 
Most of the time I don't really think about it but Pikmin 4 not having difficulty modes when 3 DX did was pretty lame. For TotK I was mainly hoping that they would fix the bad one from BotW. I had a whole laundry list of changes I'd have liked to see, like no eating or teleporting while enemies are near, different enemy placement in dungeons etc. but alas it wasn't meant to be.
 
One of the things with difficulty options in games is that a player, without depending on the game for "direct" options, has many ways to make a game harder for themselves if they ever want to. It's why challenge runs are a thing for almost any game that has at least a handful of fans - they can impose a bunch of limitations on themselves however they want, and make a game harder that way.

Whereas to make a game easier, there aren't really many things someone can do as a player without depending on the game to offer options for it. So if you don't offer those options yourself, you're losing out on a bunch of people who either find the base game too hard to be fun, or too hard to even be playable/completable. Meanwhile, the people who find the game too easy aren't ever hardwalled like that.

So unless there's large enough demand for harder difficulties, I can't say it's super surprising for Nintendo (or many other devs that don't aim for games where the difficulty is part of the appeal) to take this approach for a number of games, especially when adding harder difficulty options costs more dev resources that they might prefer to spend on something else.
 
I’m always so relieved when a game isn’t difficult to complete these days…

…BUT even I agree SMRPG could use something. I truly adored every minute with it, but I would love to revisit it with higher stakes.
 
Yes, it is an issue for me.
Nintendo designs are definetly good enough to make, at least partially, up for it but yes, I would definetly get more enjoyment out of them if they made more challanges tailored to more experienced players.
 
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only titles i beg for a hard mode are Pokemon and Zelda, and well we know how thats been going.
 
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LinkURL said:
I think most of these games wouldn't do well with different difficulty modes.
I prefer examples of Mario Wonder's difficulty than games that just resort to changing enemies' damage and health to make everything artificially easier or harder.
Although I miss a Master Mode in TotK.
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Pikmin 4 would absolutely be a better game with more difficulty, even without abusing the massive stock of help items you accumulate, Oatchi trivializes the main gameplay a little bit too hard and enemies are just completely non-threatening. Going back to Pikmin 1 right after, it's such a different game along with everything else when every Wollyhop or Fiery Blowhog is something you need to calculate for rather than something you're obligated to mop up
 
If you want some Nintendo games with some pretty hard difficulty options you could start by playing fire emblem, not the most balanced difficulty settings but they’re still there and actually hard.
 
One of the best difficulty systems I've ever seen was in Kid Icarus Uprising. balancing was perfect and harder difficulties were super rewarding. Sakurai knows how to implement difficulty. I wish such system was in modern Kirby games, they really could use similar difficulty options. Kirby games are such a joy when difficulty cranked up a notch.
 
Kartina said:
If you want some Nintendo games with some pretty hard difficulty options you could start by playing fire emblem, not the most balanced difficulty settings but they’re still there and actually hard.
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OP seems to be speaking about EPD specifically (except for SMRPG).
 
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On one hand, I’m all for games allowing the freedom for players to self-impose custom difficulty (like Nuzlockes in Pokemon or badge challenges in Mario Wonder), and. Nintendo games tend to be ripe for this.

On the other hand, as an experienced gamer, I would also be in favor of more Nintendo games having developer-curated challenge modes or options. IMO, Sakurai’s games like Kid Icarus Uprising handle this well.
 
paranoodle said:
One of the things with difficulty options in games is that a player, without depending on the game for "direct" options, has many ways to make a game harder for themselves if they ever want to
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This is pretty much where I'm at. I make things harder for myself if I'm finding a game too easy. I do understand not everyone can self-impose challenges, and more options are always appreciated.

9-Volt said:
One of the best difficulty systems I've ever seen was in Kid Icarus Uprising
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Definitely would like to see more of these types of difficulty sliders, though. Loved it in KI:U, loved it in TWEWY.
 
If you want a harder SMRPG, just learn to speedrun it. Or play it low level. You have plenty of options. Or just like, stop fighting random battles, bosses do plenty of damage when you aren't level 25+ at the end of the game with a super suit and lazy shell.

And really that's gone for any Nintendo game for me. They're all a joy to speedrun as their mechanics aren't fully enforced during standard gameplay which actually gives the player room to utilize them to play them in other unique ways rather than the difficulty pushing you to use them all at all times.
 
I would really appreciate it. I think Nintendo makes some of the best games in the world, but I really wish their games came with at least the option to raise the difficulty in some capacity. I get wanting standard mode to be what it is, but I would definitely appreciate more options.
 
It isn't even just about difficulty options, but options in general. Many games don't let you remap buttons, or offer any good accessibility options (not easy mode). There are also some games that don't let you rename characters like ACNH. Imagine forcing someone to use a deadname in that situation unless they delete their own save file. IMO they should stick to making games as is, but get some external consulting for accessibility options for differently abled folks. Sorry to go off on a tangent about this, but I hate that some of the best games are not as playable for many folks around the world.
 
I feel like the responses just stating that they don't care about harder difficulty options or that you can inflict self-imposed challenges are missing the point. Tons of games are better when you use every mechanic at your disposal, that doesn't mean you don't want the game to be more challenging. And tons of things are better when handcrafted by the developers themselves, rather than just forcing yourself to play the game in a cumbersome way.

Anyways, I'm glad that Nintendo generally lets developers make difficult games when they want to - Metroid Dread is probably one of the hardest games they've made in decades, and personally I think the Zelda duology offers more challenge than any mainline Zelda game since ALTTP. I just wish they did it more often or at least gave the option, especially since most of the challenge gauntlets in their endgames are very uninteresting (looking at you Dark Side) and the handicaps are very gimmicky (looking at you Invsibility badge). I understand the appeal of a singular handcrafted difficulty, but then I'd just say I want more grit to be added into it then, which would immediately be shot down due to accessibility complaints, so options it is.
 
I totally get it with Pikmin and stuff honestly, cause they want to make it as inviting as possible to newcomers to get the series to sell better. IIRC, wasn't Pikmin 3 Deluxe's Normal mode easier than the WiiU's sole difficulty?
For Mario RPG and Wonder, it feels pretty clear that they see the post game content as enough, even though personally I disagree with those, I wanted more challenges, especially with Mario RPG cause I've played the original a couple of times.

I don't really mind either way honestly, a game can either crush my very soul (pfp related) or be a breeze, and depending on how well it's designed I can still walk away loving the game.
It was very funny seeing HAL put an easy mode in Forgotten Land though.
 
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Branduil said:
Given how bad the Hard Mode in BotW was I don't miss it in TotK. Regenerating extra-health enemies is not interesting or fun.
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I kinda wanted one back so they could make an actually good Master Mode, but yeah. I miss the idea of Master Mode more than I actually miss the one in BotW. Trial of the Sword was basically impossible in Master Mode with that one room that was mostly water with a bunch of Lizalfos cause the regen.
 
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Sheldon said:
Mario Wonder is a good example of Nintendo giving players tools to adjust the difficulty up and down according to their preference without selecting an easy / normal / hard mode in an options menu.

The obvious cases are badges like the Parachute Cap or the Safety Bounce which afford players a lot more room to make errors. Less obvious is that players can always challenge themselves to beat levels start to finish in tiny non-mushroom form or collect all the big purple coins in one go without dying.
Click to expand...

I loved Wonder but Mario games really need to get better at pacing. They go from cakewalk until Bowser and then some hard levels after that. Would be better to have a buildup of challenge throughout the game.
 
It's really a problem for me. I wasn't invested at all in past year's Nintendo games because all have the same problem for me: the lack of any challenge makes them boring. There is not "push and pull" tension at all, being Mario Wonder the worst offender for how easy it is but Pikmin 4 and TOTK having similar problems also. In fact, TOTK was the most fun for me in the first hours were traversal wasn't broken and you needed to think a bit (similar to BOTW Plateau being the best area of the game).

I am also tired of difficulty settings being not existent or even existing but only offering easier modes, not harder ones.

Finally, I don't like the argument that implies that if you want a harder difficulty you shouldn't engage with the game's mechanics. If a core part of a game is the use of badges to change your moveset, not using it for the sake of making it a liiiiitle bit harder (which is a lot to say), is a bad design solution.
 
meatbag said:
This is pretty much where I'm at. I make things harder for myself if I'm finding a game too easy. I do understand not everyone can self-impose challenges, and more options are always appreciated.
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Oh, yeah, extra difficulty options are always good, there's definitely something fun about making it feel like a tug-of-war with the game itself rather than only depending on self-limitations.

AngryAlchemist said:
I feel like the responses just stating that they don't care about harder difficulty options or that you can inflict self-imposed challenges are missing the point. Tons of games are better when you use every mechanic at your disposal, that doesn't mean you don't want the game to be more challenging. And tons of things are better when handcrafted by the developers themselves, rather than just forcing yourself to play the game in a cumbersome way.
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I think I was kind of unclear with my post, but I wasn't saying there's no benefit to extra difficulty options, just chiming in with some commentary on the "why would they appeal to people who want easier games more than to people who want harder games" part of the OP. Modular difficulty options especially can be so good in a game where they're set up and balanced properly and you can slowly make the game harder for yourself the longer you play it.
 
Sheldon said:
Mario Wonder is a good example of Nintendo giving players tools to adjust the difficulty up and down according to their preference without selecting an easy / normal / hard mode in an options menu.

The obvious cases are badges like the Parachute Cap or the Safety Bounce which afford players a lot more room to make errors. Less obvious is that players can always challenge themselves to beat levels start to finish in tiny non-mushroom form or collect all the big purple coins in one go without dying.
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Unfortunately this never quite hits for me. The game never requires me to do a challenge run of any kind. It doesn't have achievements, nor are purple coins deleted when you die. Playing the game without power-ups also seems less fun, and I would prefer it to have specific challenges with regards to said power-ups.
While I'm all for assist options and I think Wonder does a good job with them, I'd also like to see actual hardcore level design that isn't just DIY gameplay style. Quite a few players don't have intrinsic motivation required to do the level but using only one hand or while being invisible because why.

That said, I've only felt this with Mario Wonder. Zelda does have an open formula that can benefit many playstyles, and Pikmin has quite a few optional challenges. However no level from Wonder pushed its design to the limit to accomodate experienced players. Granted, I think I have one more level to unlock, but even then, is it going to be just one level?
 
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Metroid being in general some of the hardest Nintendo games is a cunning strategy to make the series sell more.

(Perhaps)
 
Truno said:
.

It seems that Nintendo is attempting to make their games appealing to a wider audience without providing the same care to more veteran players. What do you think of this? Is it an issue for you?
Click to expand...
Generally I think providing specific ‘master mode’ content for veteran players who have been playing for decades is way, way less important than providing mechanics for young players in games aimed at them, when older players already have tons of major games aimed squarely at them through content and thus age ratings that lock younger players out. As such, I don’t really view it as a ‘equal attention required by Nintendo’ thing as games development gets longer and costlier. Beginner modes/mechanics might be the thing that lets a new player access the whole game, that’s wildly more important than someone like me getting a super tough new game+ mode or an extra Special+ world once having beaten the whole game.

It’s like, I’ve been playing games for a very long time, if I want games to be more difficult I just restrict stuff myself, like deathless runs, avoiding power ups and check points etc. It’s much easier to challenge yourself than to make the game easier.
 
Yeah, lately I've been feeling the lack of harder modes in a few Nintendo games, especially those from long-running series. Part of it is because Nintendo games have gotten easier, but maybe another part of it is also due to how I've gotten so accustomed to their gameplay that the normal mode rarely truly challenges me. Metroid Dread was a pleasant exception.

It's also particularly frustrating that when such a mode exists, it's usually only unlocked after you've beaten the game once. Considering I rarely replay games, I wish the option were there from the start.
 
dyle said:
Master Mode in BotW was a kind of tacked on mess that seemed to mostly just exist to justify the small first batch of its DLC so it makes sense to me why they wouldn't want to revisit it.

Wonder is definitely the easiest Mario game on paper if the player chooses to use all the options presented to them, which most people won't. It essentially has cheat codes and it's on you if you want to use them. I agree the game was too easy but to me that's mostly because it needed a few more 5 star levels
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I had a great time with master mode in BotW. It gave me an entirely new playthrough of the game and made me think more carefully about how to approach combat specifically. Completing the trial of the sword on master mode was also just one of the most satisfying gaming challenges I can remember on Switch.

Not really too sure why it'd be considered a tacked on mess tbh? I was pretty disappointed it didn't return in TotK.
 
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Irene said:
Metroid being in general some of the hardest Nintendo games is a cunning strategy to make the series sell more.

(Perhaps)
Click to expand...
*a cunning strategy to make the series sell less

Fixed it for you.
 
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The truth is everyone needs to realize that Nintendo isn't catering to you as a long time gamer. Just because I played Super Mario Bros back in 1990 doesn't mean that Super Mario Bros Wonder should be much more challenging just because I have decades of gaming experience now. They still want it to be accessible to gamers of all ages and skill levels. Nintendo wants that six year old today to enjoy it just as much as I enjoyed a Mario game from years ago when I was that age.

A common complaint for Zelda OoT and going forward is that it was too easy, but that is a very easy problem to rectify. If you want a good challenge, do not acquire extra hearts. Both Zelda BotW and TotK will be very very challenging with only three hearts. There are ways to make Nintendo games more challenging without having it be a menu option.

Super Mario Sunshine is one of the least popular 3D Mario games and it was also one of the more challenging 3D Mario games. In more recent years Nintendo has decided to make their Mario games fairly easy to get through the main quest, but there are plenty of challenges if you go looking. Super Mario Wonder has the Special World and Mario Odyssey has dozens of moons that offer additional challenge.
 
I really don't agree with the premise of this thread. First of all I don't think Nintendo games have gotten easier, you've just gotten more experienced at games. I'd argue that on their default difficulties, games like Zelda BotW/TotK and Metroid Dread are the hardest entries in their respective series. What's changed is that games are more forgiving of failure. When you die in BotW or Dread, you respawn right before the spot you died to get another attempt. Challenge shouldn't be "make the trek back tedious/force the player regrind their supplies".

Secondly some of Nintendo's IP do have difficulty options. Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, and Metroid Dread all had hard modes either from the start or unlockable. Not all of course, but I'd rather have a well balanced hard mode then some "enemies deal 2x damage you deal 1/2 damage" option applied like we've gotten in the past. I'd much rather have things like Mario Wonder's final and final final challenges which absolutely pushed me to the limit then "you die in one hit and we added instead death spikes all over the levels"

Do I wish more games had more options for tweaking difficulty? Absolutely, it's an accessibility feature and I wish more games let you fine tune your experience. However I think some of the post here missing the forest for the trees.
 
BassForever said:
I really don't agree with the premise of this thread. First of all I don't think Nintendo games have gotten easier, you've just gotten more experienced at games. I'd argue that on their default difficulties, games like Zelda BotW/TotK and Metroid Dread are the hardest entries in their respective series.
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Never stated otherwise

BassForever said:
Secondly some of Nintendo's IP do have difficulty options. Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, and Metroid Dread all had hard modes either from the start or unlockable.
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None of which are EPD games

BassForever said:
I'd much rather have things like Mario Wonder's final and final final challenges which absolutely pushed me to the limit then "you die in one hit and we added instead death spikes all over the levels"
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Absolutely, and I want more of that from EPD teams!
 
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I think Nintendo has provided more options for challenges and testing yourself rather than providing sliders. You have to be intrinsically motivated like that, but the option is there to make the games harder through challenges.
 
It's also because most people are getting older and more experienced. For example, I've been playing Metroid for my entire life, so not even Dread was super hard except for Dread Mode.

Or people still ended up doing cheese strategies all the time back then to remove challenge that way. See: bringing like ten million purple Pikmin in Pikmin 2.

This is the risk with a lot of long-running series, where you'd be super in tune with the series that you know exactly how to work around all the tricks and tropes the series would use.
 
Tangentially related but regarding the whole relation between accessibility and difficulty, I'm reminded of Celeste, as in addition to it's excellent Assist mode, there is a second set of difficulty options: Variant mode. And it's interesting because it's sort of... Anti-Assist mode. It's only unlocked after beating the (pen?)-ultimate level, and I'm not entirely sure what to make of it in general, since it's also not a traditional hard mode either. Still it's an interesting approach, and is, at least, a funny contrast with Celeste's oft praised Assist mode.
 
WeegeeTime64 said:
and I'm not entirely sure what to make of it in general, since it's also not a traditional hard mode either
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It’s basically a set of modifiers you can toggle to make things harder for yourself, such as changing the speed, or making Madeline invisible. It’s pretty cool, and I hope more games get modular difficulty options.
 
I've always thought games would pretty much only improve from having difficulty options, whether that's a simple Easy/Normal/Hard, an array of sliders to adjust, percentage adjustments, whatever. If nothing else, optional tough content in an otherwise breezy game would be nice.

Pikmin 4 is actually an example of one I didn't mind too much, the optional Dandori challenges were super fun and could get pretty challenging. Would still love something to adjust the main story difficulty, but if we're not going to have actual difficulty options, I appreciate having challenging side content.
 
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Truno said:
Nintendo EPD had a fantastic year with the release of software of differing genres, including:
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
  • Everybody 1-2-Switch!
  • Pikmin 4
  • Super Mario Bros. Wonder
  • Super Mario RPG (Switch)*
*Although the game was developed by ArtePiazza, the director for the game was Ayako Moriwaki, an employee of Nintendo EPD.

Something that I've noticed though, is that most of these games lack difficulty options that make the overall experience more challenging. In fact, some of these titles add gameplay elements that make the game even easier without rebalancing the experience to accommodate to these changes:
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - No inclusion of Master Mode despite it being available for BotW. Although BotW received the option through a DLC update, Aonuma has stated multiple times that there won't be DLC updates for TotK.
  • Pikmin 4 - The game introduces mechanics such as Oatchi and time rewinding in order to make the experience more breezy for new-time players without including more options for veterans.
  • Super Mario Bros. Wonder - Although difficulty is subjective, many players, including reviewers, have criticized Wonder for being too easy throughout its entirety. Additionally, in my opinion, although the special worlds provide a challenge, only a few of them actually gave me issues. More special worlds for veteran players would've been great. I'm still hopeful for DLC for this game and Pikmin 4.
  • Super Mario RPG (Switch) - Changes to Action Commands, Timed Hits, the implementation of Triple Attacks, and mid-battle party swapping have made the game easier than ever. This is a special case as SMRPG does offer difficulty settings with Normal mode (which is the same difficulty level as the original game) and Breezy. Unfortunately, the game offers no balancing changes or an added difficulty option to adapt to these changes. The inclusion of special enemies and post game bosses are welcome, but the overall experience still feels much easier.
  • Everybody 1-2 Switch! - The exception to the OP as I don't have 100 friends to truly experience this masterpiece. Might be the most difficult game ever released by Nintendo.

It seems that Nintendo is attempting to make their games appealing to a wider audience without providing the same care to more veteran players. What do you think of this? Is it an issue for you?
Click to expand...

I have noticed this exact thing. It has definitely become a trend for Nintendo to neglect Veteran gamers, and being a veteran gamer myself it is definitely concerning.

I have no problem with Nintendo wanting to focus on it's biggest consumer base. That's understandable. But it's a problem when they decide to completely shun & neglect veteran gamers!

We are the ones who have been Nintendo fans from the beginning, so it's disheartening to see them completely neglecting those gamers. It doesn't seem like it would take that much effort to give us at least some sort of competent Hard difficulties...

Mario RPG is an example of a game where a Hard Mode is a complete no brainer. It's one of the easiest RPG's of all time.

It absolutely blew my mind when I heard that it got a "Breezy" Mode but not a Hard Mode! I cannot fathom why Nintendo thought this game needed an Easy Mode of all things... if there was ever a game that needed a Hard Mode, it's Mario RPG!
 
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