Difficulty Options

[godot_was_here]

I'm sorry if this has some crossover with the New Game+ discussion, I don't mean to clutter things up.

As far as difficulty options go, I'm wondering what's currently planned. In terms of unlocks, I really can't stand it when higher difficulties are only available upon completing the game, even though it might encourage replay value. You could certainly do increasing difficulty by NG+ levels and have a constant flat difficulty for everyone at start, but if you do opt to go for actual difficulty selections such as Easy, Normal, Hard, etc., I'd love to see them be more than "Oh, all the enemies have more health and do more damage now." Things like additional enemy spawns, maybe even some minor enemies spawning in boss fights, would be amazing in my opinion, although more health and damage on enemies would be good too.

[MetalShadowOverlord]

Actually, this doesn't really coincide with my thread. I was suggesting difficulty raise for every NG+ you play, but you're asking if there will be difficulty selection right off. I actually think this would be pretty cool too, as not many RPGs (at least to my knowledge) do this. In fact, the only ones I can think of are Kingdom Hearts, some of the more recent Final Fantasy titles and Pokemon Black 2 and White 2, but even then they don't really do what you're suggesting, which is do something more than make enemies stronger.

[Maximz]

actually one thing that annoys me is that the only thing that changes in most games lately when difficulty is increased is that they have more health, take less damage, and hit harder... instead of that can it be more of additional moves/attacks are executed...if i played the game on normal i already know the enemies attack pattern and what to expect so when i move onto hard and they have the same move pattern i barely if ever get hit by it...if you throw in new attack patterns then i'll have to relearn how to fight the enemy thus its harder because now there is more stuff i have to fight against and easy should actually have less moves than normal simply cuz...well its easy its the mode where monsters pull their punches lol

[Bodie]

Oh these are fun ideas I personally liked how Order of Ecclesia handled difficulty:
- Beating the game would unlock New Game+, but difficulty only went up if you selected Hard on your next playthrough.
- Hard mode enemies hit harder and had more health, but the areas also had additional monster placements, some of which were pretty cool. Same thing was done in DS2's NG+, lots of new enemies that would show up when you least expected it.
- You could also cap yourself at Level 1 in OoE. Beating the game on Hard while capped at Level 1 gave you a cool hat

I haven't though about updating enemy AI in new difficulties, we'll have to wait and see what happens

[SHODANFreeman]

I've always been partial to new/cooler sprites for all the enemies in new game+, as well as a different map layout.

[Nathan]

Maybe a cool alternate dimension opens up after you beat the first game? Perhaps the events of the first playthrough even flip around (Lunais dies and you play as her mom instead). Which maybe makes the game harder, because her mom's a bit more rusty with the powerz.

Don't know if that's feasible, because that would probably change the story a lot too, but it could be a nice starting point.

I've always been partial to new/cooler sprites for all the enemies in new game+, as well as a different map layout.

And as addition to SHODANFreeman's idea, playing as a different character the second time around maybe that character takes a slightly different route/path.

[SHODANFreeman]

And as addition to SHODANFreeman's idea, playing as a different character the second time around maybe that character takes a slightly different route/path.

He said that's basically what familiar mode will be, if he is able to include it. Comparisons to Richter Mode were made at one point.

[godot_was_here]

Oh these are fun ideas I personally liked how Order of Ecclesia handled difficulty:
- Beating the game would unlock New Game+, but difficulty only went up if you selected Hard on your next playthrough.
- Hard mode enemies hit harder and had more health, but the areas also had additional monster placements, some of which were pretty cool. Same thing was done in DS2's NG+, lots of new enemies that would show up when you least expected it.
- You could also cap yourself at Level 1 in OoE. Beating the game on Hard while capped at Level 1 gave you a cool hat

I haven't though about updating enemy AI in new difficulties, we'll have to wait and see what happens

I think updating the AI might be a bit much to ask, but additional enemy placements would be a really neat thing to see. I was trying to avoid spoiling DS2, but yeah, exactly like that. An NG+ function like that could definitely work, but I'm not super keen on difficulty levels being locked off behind beating the game. You could do it like La-Mulana did it, and have a trigger in-game that activates hard mode, although that might not work for you. Beating the game on a harder mode could totally reward something unique, though, that would be neat to see.

[Nathan]

He said that's basically what familiar mode will be, if he is able to include it. Comparisons to Richter Mode were made at one point.

That would be very nice indeed.

[MetalShadowOverlord]

He said that's basically what familiar mode will be, if he is able to include it. Comparisons to Richter Mode were made at one point.

That would be very nice indeed.

Here's to hoping it happens!