LogFAQs > #975112954

Extremely uneven. Some games I could claim to be a 4 at, while most I settle for living at the 2 level. I think this needs to be approached on a game-by-game basis, which is something I've given a fair bit of thought to.

See, my theory, which lines up fairly well with the poll options, is that it should be on a 10-point scale. And learning/advancing only really takes place with proper motivation. It's very easy to coast on your current level until you feel compelled to improve, because most games can be beaten as a 5/10 gamer.

So my thought is that just for picking up a controller and learning what jumps and what shoots, you become in most cases a 3/10 gamer. With games with a high degree of complexity, maybe that's only a 2, but for a typical game, I'm going to call that a 3. So let's say we're talking about Hollow Knight. Getting to Dirtmouth shows basic understanding of the controls, and you can get around the first area as a 3/10 gamer. The enemies are basic, the room layouts aren't meant to challenge. Even the first boss is extremely simple.

But here's the thing: I died to that first boss. Twice. If I replay HK now, I look at False Knight and wonder how in the world could anybody die to him, and yet I did. Because at the time I was a 3/10 gamer. As one continues in HK, the difficulty slowly increases, but even in Greenpath and Fungal Wastes and City of Tears, 3/10 is sufficient.

Then you get to the Soul Sanctum, which is the first difficulty spike. The enemies there are hard to reckon with. You need to know what you're doing. And although Hornet wasn't exactly easy for you, to get through this area, you need to genuinely step up your game to reach and beat the Soul Master. By the time you've completed that area, you've reached 4/10. Because you have to.

4/10 gets you by for a large chunk of the game's content. You can rove the sewers, explore crystal mines, sneak up into howling cliffs on 4/10 np. The content's not brain-dead because you don't know it yet, but you don't have to git gud. You just have to experience it and maybe die once or twice along the way. But then you hit a couple areas that are tougher. Kingdom's Edge, Deepnest, Queen's Gardens...they push you. And even though it's not a single specific challenge, by the time you stumble across The Hive or try to finish the first Colosseum, you're forced to step it up to a 5/10.

And this would be where most games stop. Indeed, most of the basic content in HK is complete-able as a 5/10 gamer. There are, however, a few difficulty spikes. They're going to vary based on style -- I play very defensively, so Watcher Knights and Traitor Lord were incredibly tough for me. I died over and over on those two. I'm going to argue that those are 6/10 bosses. Even THK isn't as bad imo, but you need to be a 6/10 gamer to finish Hollow Knight.

And this is why people call it a "hard" game. Because 6/10 is not 5/10.

But obviously, that's not where the scale ends. Getting the true ending requires doing extra stuff. White Palace, dream bosses, Radiance, Grimm. That's 7/10 content. Some of it borders on 8. You've got to be good to finish third colosseum, let alone Path of Pain. Between that and Godhome, you're looking at 8/10. This goes beyond the level I've engaged with the game, so I'm not going to say where the line for 9/10 is, but there's no mistaking that the top speedrunners transcend even this and reach 10/10 status.

I have 100 hours in HK from replaying it, but because I've only engaged with a subset of the content and never 112%'ed it, at best, I can maybe call myself a 7/10 gamer and I think that's being generous. It's not a matter of physical dexterity, and it's not a matter of time spent with the game. I just don't feel compelled to try the really hard stuff. So I don't. And then I don't improve.

But 5/10, which I think correlates decently with 2.5 on the poll, is what an average game expects of you on a normal difficulty. That can take different forms, of course. A JRPG isn't about skillz, but in some you do need to display a mastery of the game in terms of party set-up and how you approach battles, etc.

TLDR: I should probably vote for 2 since I usually settle and don't push myself to what the poll describes as a 3, though I'm certainly capable of it and occasionally do.