190 replies to this topic

[MeleeWizard]

Part 45
 
There are some things that are best left alone.  Then again, as a video game protagonist, I am morally obligated to do every stupid thing under the sun.

[Evan20000]

Woah, this thread absolutely exploded while I was away.

@ Adam: The reason I made it so that you had to die 5 or so times to change difficulties instead of putting in a selector on a menu is because I wanted the player to be able to get a feel for what the game was like at its Normal pace and then decide if they were okay with it or adjust up or down. If I gave you all 4 difficulties on the title screen, you don't know what the game defines as normal or hard. Hard in one game might be hair-pullingly difficult in one game and barely challenging in another.
IoR's difficulty as a whole was primarilly designed around what I was comfortable with as a quest player. You can't really accomodate everyone with a single difficulty, which is why I added the easy/very easy modes at the last minute. Because of this, as Russ said, enemy AI isn't adjusted at all (with a single exception: on Very Easy, Medusa stuns you for half as long).

[pixcalibur]

Just curious, how is damage adjusted from normal? Hero I think is 2x, easy maybe 1/2x, very easy not sure (maybe1/4x)?

[Evan20000]

Hero is x2, Easy is x.66, Very Easy is x.5

During the lategame, I use 1.5 hearts of damage as my "base damage" for enemies, then scale up or down from there depending on the enemy. Easy reduces that base to 1 heart, which is standard for normal Zelda titles (also consider most Zeldas have a cap of 20 hearts whereas we have 30 here) and very easy reduces that base damage to 3/4 of a heart. Coupled with the high health drops from the most dangerous enemies on very easy, you can more or less facetank the entire game, Medusa and final boss notwithstanding. Both of those bosses were designed to have mechanics that stop you from just sitting on top of them swinging your sword.

[KingPridenia]

Woah, this thread absolutely exploded while I was away.

@ Adam: The reason I made it so that you had to die 5 or so times to change difficulties instead of putting in a selector on a menu is because I wanted the player to be able to get a feel for what the game was like at its Normal pace and then decide if they were okay with it or adjust up or down. If I gave you all 4 difficulties on the title screen, you don't know what the game defines as normal or hard. Hard in one game might be hair-pullingly difficult in one game and barely challenging in another.
IoR's difficulty as a whole was primarilly designed around what I was comfortable with as a quest player. You can't really accomodate everyone with a single difficulty, which is why I added the easy/very easy modes at the last minute. Because of this, as Russ said, enemy AI isn't adjusted at all (with a single exception: on Very Easy, Medusa stuns you for half as long).

 

True, but at least for me, I would assume that Normal is the baseline difficulty. And sure, difficulty is subjective. One game's Hard mode may be a joke while another game's Easy mode makes even a skilled gamer cry. It's a better manner than with say God of War where if you die enough times the game asks if you'd like to downgrade to Easy mode (even if you're on Very Hard). It's just my opinion though. I typically assume Normal is the intended difficulty. I kind of run into that trap myself sometimes where I think difficulty is okay but others are like "OMG nerf the enemies they're too hard!". Granted, I never played IoR before, but judging by Melee's LP, it seems Normal Mode is balanced well enough in my opinion where I think I could handle it, save for the that one boss or two testing my patience.

 

Just curious, what color does the gem turn if you're playing Easy or Very Easy? I know on Normal it's green and on Hero it's red.

[Evan20000]

Hero is red, normal is green, easy is blue and very easy is purple.

[CyberGamer1539]

What gem?

[Avaro]

What gem?

 

In the top right corner of the subscreen.

[MeleeWizard]

Part 46
 
A jumping enemy that can only be killed with the hammer and wand.  Sounds like a great idea, right?

[MeleeWizard]

Part 47
 
At some point, all those arrows start to become a blur.

[Eppy]

Not only do I like Level 10 as a level itself, but I enjoy watching people get horrendously lost in it.

[KingPridenia]

At least now I'm seeing why level 10 is on a lot of people's hate lists. The two main gimmicks, the oil pits and the "zip tiles" as I call them, are really annoying, especially with the former being paired up with those line of sight flamethrowers. Doesn't help getting knocked onto the zip tiles could mean a lot of backtracking. But on top of everything, you have the Candlehead 2s, Goriya 3s and Metal Pols Voices that can't be hit while in the air and love dropping fire on your head. Seeing how little progress was made in that part kind of makes me worry to see what else is in store for Melee in level 10. I mean the Hugbos / Bubble combination didn't seem as bad.

[Evan20000]

This is still one of my favorite rooms in the entire quest. It took forever to design it, but I'm really happy with how it ended up.

Spoiler

[MeleeWizard]

Part 48
 
Despite what you might have been told, what you can't see can, in fact, hurt you.

[Evan20000]

Dunno if you finished recording yet, but I pooped out an update.