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Anon is looking for a new video game (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 2 years ago by [M] to c/greentext@sh.itjust.works
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[–] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (5 children)

Mechanical difficulty is how difficult it is to play it

Number difficulty is how easily you die or how hard it is to kill enemies

Dark Souls is mechanically easy (just learn patterns and dodge) but it has high number difficulty because you can die in 1 hit and it takes more than 1 hit to kill enemies

Mechanically difficult would be those fighting games where you have a list of 100 different button combos

Edit: Note instead of kill/die I should say win/loss to apply to more genres

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (4 children)

    Dark Souls is mechanically easy (just learn patterns and dodge) but it has high number difficulty because you can die in 1 hit and it takes more than 1 hit to kill enemies

    I see it as the opposite.

    Dark Souls is mechanically difficult because you need to get good at the mechanics to succeed in the game, gaining levels really won't help.

    In short:

    • mechanics - player needs to get better
    • numbers - player needs to grind
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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (3 children)

    Maybe players view it differently because we’ve moved away from making games mechanically difficult

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    There are still plenty of mechanically difficult games, such as:

    • Titan Souls - you and bosses have 1HP
    • Cuphead
    • Celeste

    There are plenty more, but each of those is mechanically difficult and there's no way to grind to make up for lack of skill. Dark Souls is an honorable mention here because you can make up for some lack of skill by finding better gear, but it's still more on the end of "mechanically difficult" than "numbers difficult."

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago* (1 child)

    Finding better gear isn’t number difficulty

    Mechanical difficulty is your entry barrier

    You want low mechanical difficulty because it’s easy for the player to pick up and start learning

    Titan Souls - you and bosses have 1HP

    If that’s what makes it hard then it’s a number difficulty - a clue is that you used a number. If you gave the player god mode then would it still be as hard? If so then it’s mechanically difficult

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    If that’s what makes it hard then it’s a number difficulty

    I disagree. Giving both the player and bosses 1HP means there are no numbers because one hit kills you (and them). So the only way to adjust difficulty is through mechanics, as in boss movesets, constraints on controls, etc. It's quite literally the opposite of a "numbers" game.

    The opposite would be a typical JRPG. Bosses are more difficult if you're under-leveled, easier if you're over-leveled. Getting better stats, gear, etc makes the game easier because you have better numbers, so grinding is encouraged if you're having trouble.

    In short:

    • "numbers" - adjust difficulty by adjusting access to better numbers (XP, gear, abilities, etc); players improve by grinding XP, gold, etc
    • "mechanics" - adjust difficulty by adjusting mechanics (movesets, speed, variety of enemies on screen, etc); players improve by practicing
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