What are your thoughts on hard videogames?

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

Games that are "difficult but fair" are my personal preference, with stuff like modern Ninja Gaiden, Nioh/Soulsborne, Metal Slug, Shmups/Danmaku, tough-as-nails Doom Wads etc. being among my favorite action games, alongside competitive fighting games. Nothing is more fun or satisfying to me then overcoming a tough challenge and feeling yourself improve over the course of your time with a game.

That being said, I have a very low tolerance for artificial difficulty, whether that be overinflated damage numbers, button reading ai, luck-based difficulty, or just bad challenge design. When I fail at something, I want to feel as though I lost due to my own fault, not be left confused wondering what just happened.

 

[FTLOTG]

Games need to be challenging.

 

[chufflord]

I'm gonna echo a lot of the same sentiment in the thread, hard but fair etc etc..

Separate from that though, I sometimes get into games because the controls are more obtuse? Midgard, AC2, VOOT, things of that nature. Controlling yourself doesn't feel intuitive in those games, and having to learn that as a skill will sometimes scratch this weird itch in my feline brain.

 

[Den MDM Den MDM]

Challenging games are good! When you need to really understand mechanics and think before your steps, it's most likely a well designed videogame. I don't have many examples of UNFAIR games, but I'll say; if it keeps throwing new rules at you, always prepares the worst outcome for you despite anything, and lack qol features, it's not good. Some well-known Yu-gi-oh games go to the unfair list!