Right? No one should care how someone else might be playing an optional setting in a single-player game! But not too long ago, I was advocating for ways to make getting back into boss fights in Soulsborne games (Bloodborne, in that comment) faster. Not making the boss fight easier, just easier to walk back to and…

You’re welcome to think an addictive game can’t be good, but you should at least look into why it can be addictive to so many people. For me, this game offers a lot of variety of card combinations so it’s a lot of fun constructing decks with potential synergy. But wait, it’s no fun if everyone just uses the same…

It’s from the 90's Spider-Man the Animated Series when they did their Secret Wars/Spider-Verse event! This one was a version of Peter Parker that went on to become basically Tony Stark but never learned the responsibility lesson because Uncle Ben lived, so he’s a big jerk.

Man, I would love if they brought back this Spider-Jerk with the Uncle Ben that survived!

I was curious about this as well, so I looked it up and it seems that most users are saying that you get mostly matched with AI opponents at lower ranks to help you practice and feel really good about winning a lot, and as you win more and collect a greater variety of cards and effects, you start seeing more human…

Agreed, this game is super addicting! I love that feeling of seeing my strategy fall apart due to the effect of a random location and improvising a new one to pull off a really close victory like, “Oh no, this is bad... wait, I can salvage this... they did what!?!? Oh, that played out perfectly actually!”

For sure, it would take some incredible hoop jumping to make happen.

Same. It was difficult to get through Xenoblade 1 because there was much less of a focus on the story and more on just running around doing whatever. I kinda liked the linear nature of Xenosaga and how it was paced like you were watching a movie.

I hear you. Structurally, Saga and Blade are dramatically different. Saga is so much more of a movie first and a game second, while Blade is so much more about freedom to explore and do whatever. I prefer story-focus, so I lean towards the Saga way, where it was purposefully paced to be like a movie, while I was…

REMAKE XENOGEARS AND XENOSAGA!

Buddy, I beat Bloodborne multiple times, got every ending, and beat the DLC without any co-op and using my starter weapon. It’s not hard. And I’m not complaining it’s hard. I’m just saying it’s super tedious and lacking what many consider to be quality of life design elements, that for some reason a lot of people are…

Well apparently the developers feel differently because they made the run back less tedious in Elden Ring, widely regarded as the best one. So maybe just being frustrated by a boss fight is enough. Defeating the One Reborn was extremely unsatisfying for me because the walk back was such a waste of time AND it wasn’t…

I have actually not played any others besides Bloodborne, though someone gifted me Dark Souls 1, so I will be starting up that journey soon, haha

Yeah, it really feels like the developer is going back on this idea of a long run back. Maybe if they were more outright with what their intentions are for it and continue to justify it, than I would cut them some more slack.

Not really true for fighting games - the same rules apply. Learning how the opponent thinks, the reach and hitbox of certain moves, what moves leave you vulnerable, etc. You need to figure out the exact same things. It’s often why competitive players will go back to the character select screen and linger, only to pick…

It is an interesting viewpoint and I suppose a lot of people do learn better when they’re under pressure or feel the stakes are high! I still think it would be good to have options for people that still want to tackle the challenge but don’t learn well under that specific teaching style.

Celeste is an excellent example of game design being focused on not just being difficult, but actively encouraging the player to engage with the difficulty!

And I think the argument for negative reinforcement can be made for what Bloodborne does when it takes time away from being allowed to focus your efforts on the real challenge, and instead you’re wasting your time on a very easy but tedious obstacle in the form of the run back. But hey, if you find the long load…

Exactly! The best roguelikes are punishingly difficult but they are addicting because they make it easy to think, "Okay, just one more!" and jump right back into it. Hades would be a slog if they made you clear the tutorial every time you failed a run. Instead, you have the choice of either chilling out with some cool…

So what does the run back accomplish that a simple pause screen couldn’t do? I stop to think a lot when up against a difficult challenge, but I often pause whenever I need a breather and because I know I need to logic out the problem. I’m also never going to get the hang of the wacky hitboxes if I never jump in to…