The latest update for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 introduces highly challenging boss battles in the Endless Tower, including a reimagined, more difficult version of Simon, leading to widespread player frustration and praise for its difficulty, alongside new content and expansions.
The upcoming Elden Ring Nightreign DLC, The Forsaken Hollows, is designed to be slightly more challenging than the main game, with a focus on balancing difficulty for both new and veteran players, influenced subtly by previous DLCs like Shadow of the Erdtree, and introduces new areas and enemies, launching on December 4th.
Bandai Namco announced an upcoming update for Shadow Labyrinth that will improve difficulty levels, checkpoints, and controls to enhance the overall player experience, making the game more accessible and enjoyable.
Baby Steps is a quirky, challenging physics-based walking game that combines hilariously frustrating controls with a bizarre story and charming characters, offering a unique and rewarding experience for players who enjoy humor and difficulty.
Team Cherry explains that the steep difficulty in Hollow Knight: Silksong is intentional, emphasizing player freedom and exploration to overcome challenges, with the game designed to allow players multiple ways to approach obstacles, making the experience both punishing and rewarding.
Team Cherry acknowledges that Hollow Knight: Silksong has moments of steep difficulty but encourages players to explore and learn to overcome challenges, emphasizing that there are multiple ways to approach the game, including circumventing tough sections through exploration.
Team Cherry's Hollow Knight: Silksong emphasizes player freedom and exploration to mitigate difficulty, allowing players to avoid getting stuck by choosing different routes and strategies, while also increasing enemy complexity to match Hornet’s agility.
The article discusses the challenging nature of Hollow Knight: Silksong and suggests alternative, less difficult Metroidvania games for players who find it too hard, emphasizing that game difficulty is a developer's choice and offering options for different skill levels.
The article discusses the controversial mechanic of boss runbacks in video games, particularly in Soulslike titles, examining their evolution, purpose, and whether they still hold value or are outdated. It highlights differing opinions from developers and players, noting that while some see them as useful for learning and mastery, others find them frustrating and time-consuming, especially in modern games like Silksong. The debate continues on whether runbacks are a vital part of challenging gameplay or an archaic design element that should be phased out.
The article discusses the ongoing debate in gaming about difficulty levels, highlighting that players play for different reasons—some for challenge and mastery, others for progress and story. It emphasizes that developer intent shapes game design, such as in Hollow Knight: Silksong, which is intentionally difficult. The piece advocates respecting both approaches, acknowledging that players should be free to enjoy games in their own way without being forced into a single perspective.
Hollow Knight: Silksong features a cheat code to unlock Steel Soul Mode, which makes the game extremely challenging by giving players only one life. The mode can be activated via the 'Extras' menu, and the game is receiving updates to ease early boss difficulty, with PC mods available for further customization. The game has been a huge success, with over 5 million players.
Originally Published 4 months ago — by Hacker News
The article discusses the challenging gameplay of Silksong, comparing it to other difficult games like Hollow Knight and Souls-like titles, and debates whether its punishing difficulty enhances or detracts from the fun and elegance of movement and game design.
Modders quickly released a fan-made fix for Hollow Knight: Silksong, addressing player frustrations over the game's high difficulty by reducing enemy damage, which has been well-received and may influence future official updates.
Bandai Namco announced a new high-difficulty mode called Deep of Night for Elden Ring's multiplayer mode, arriving on September 10, featuring randomized challenges, stronger enemies, and an endless mode for seasoned players, with new relics and build options to enhance gameplay.
Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford expressed some concern about the increased difficulty in Borderlands 4, noting that while challenges have been intensified, players can level up to overcome tougher enemies, balancing challenge with accessibility.