What kind of difficulty curve do you like in a JRPG?
What kind of difficulty curve do you like in a JRPG?
The question of difficulty came to mind while playing Metaphor. It was pretty challenging early on when resources were very limited and I was also learning the gameplay systems, but I'm starting to feel powerful now mid-game (while still being challenged a bit). That's where I like to end up, typically. It has a nice ludonarrative feel for the games that typically have you killing god.
What do you like?
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Difficulty towards the end game should be about using the mechanics in complex ways as opposed to building stats.
Persona 5 Royal was easy towards the end stat-wise but as you came up against enemies that didn't have weaknesses, you had to rely on technicals. That sort of shift in tactics is welcome.
The top of the fanatic's tower in FF6 comes to mind as well. You have only magic. There's multiple non-stat based solutions to it including reraise or endless rasps.
I feel like the Fanatics' Tower needed to be a bit more obvious...or at least give you a save point near the end.
End-game stuff should be about having mastered the mechanics, imo. Not about knowing a specific type of cheese for an optional boss, haha
There's almost no reason to ever use Rasp (you could generally go through the game thinking enemies have infinite MP) or Re-Raise (the game isn't that hard, and this boss doesn't really indicate that the attack it uses is a death attack).
Yeah, that's true about the end of the tower. Bosses where knowing the trick is the challenge aren't great. The rest of the tower is a good and optional twist of the mechanics.
Having to learn the trick during the battle or based on other cues is great. Having to know the trick before you start the battle is lame.
But you're right, the rest of the tower is well-designed (aside from the lack of anywhere to save the game). It was a great way to mix things up!