Kyuu said:
There are multiple ways to increase difficulty meaningfully without anything so sophisticated as improving AI.
Touhou 11:
In TH11 (a Shmup), you have two playable characters each with 3 selectable setups. I noticed that Satori (Stage 4 Boss) used different spell cards depending on the character I was playing. Later I watched videos on Youtube where Satori casts different spells from either of my playthroughs. It turns out that the "setups" was what triggers the change in her spell cards. On top of that, the 4 difficulty settings have an affect on the number, speed, and patterns of projectiles. The variety is just sweet.
Resident Evil Remake:
You had a mode where each Safe Room was assigned with its own item box rather than one box shared between all rooms. This made inventory management a lot more challenging, and I for one loved that. Then there is also Invisible Mode and the epic Bomb Zombie :D
Devil May Cry:
In the highest difficulty setting, enemies begin to transform if you don't kill them fast enough which doesn't only increase their stats (boring) but also increases their resistance to launchers and being staggered or knockdowned. It just changes the combat dynamics and sense of emergency.
Onimusha 3:
I don't know if Devilish difficulty had an impact on enemy behavior, but Critical Mode (an unlockable toggle separate from difficulty) made the 2nd walkthrough feel quite fresh and challenging on Hard.
Parasite Eve:
I'll never forget the mini hearattack I had when an invisible GOLEM (mid-late enemy) grabbed me by the neck at the beginning of PE2's Bounty Mode. Every mode you unlock makes exciting changes that encourage replaying. Facing highlevel enemies at earlier stages felt amazing. Unfortunately, school and time constraints meant that I didn't get around to playing "the highest" difficulty settings. But I liked what each had to offer.
NieR Automata:
Finally, a modern game with an excellent difficulty implementation that resembles an AI improvement! It's immediately noticeable upon a 2nd walkthrough that the hardest difficulty impacts the BEHAVIOR of enemies itself! It literally took seconds for me to notice it "Those motherfuckers shouldn't be dodging me like that! What's going on?! xD" Sounds amazing, right? Well... it isn't. Because the same difficulty setting force disables lock-on, which feels like an artificial increase in difficulty that compromises control and the system the game is designed around. It should have had the option to change enemy behavior without forcibly disabling lock-on.
NieR Automata was a frustrating experience. Normal difficulty was too easy, the hardest difficult is nice but enabling/disabling lock-on should have been a separate toggle. If they did that, and assigned a dedicated dodge button separate from the dashing/running button (so you wouldn't just button mash your way through), it would have been one hell of a game. Simple changes can make a huge difference.
From my limited experience, new games utterly fail at implementing a rewarding "hard mode". I'd much rather have game lengths shortened by 10%-20% if it means 2nd playthroughs and higher difficulty settings are more meaningful and inviting. A shame even From Software fails to recreate this feeling. |
Oh I know there's plenty of smaller examples (none really done as a wholesome entire thing versus smaller tweaks, as your examples mostly prove, too), and the prime example was already brought up in this thread: Smash Bros amiibo CPU fighters. Without any metadata tweaks, they're simply "unlocking" more move sets and complex responses/reactions as the amiibo CPU levels up. Sure, there might be SOME metadata tweaks like decreased response time or button read frequency, but it's a great example of how something can be more difficult without going the lazy "difficulty sliders" route. A level 10 amiibo CPU fighter simply fights much better than a level 1. There's no complex AI involved, just good coding on the AI routines and subroutines based on conditions (mostly the level). I just want AI to do this on its own, you know what I mean?
But yes, complete agreeance that the vast majority of games (new and old if you ask me!) don't really make difficulty more difficult, just more annoying lol
