Comment on Anon is looking for a new video game
ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 1 week agoMechanical difficulty is how difficult it is to play it
Number difficulty is how easily you die or how hard it is to kill enemies
Dark Souls is mechanically easy (just learn patterns and dodge) but it has high number difficulty because you can die in 1 hit
Mechanically difficult would be those fighting games where you have a list of 100 different button combos
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
I see it as the opposite.
Dark Souls is mechanically difficult because you need to get good at the mechanics to succeed in the game, gaining levels really won’t help.
In short:
ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 4 days ago
Maybe players view it differently because we’ve moved away from making games mechanically difficult
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
There are still plenty of mechanically difficult games, such as:
There are plenty more, but each of those is mechanically difficult and there’s no way to grind to make up for lack of skill. Dark Souls is an honorable mention here because you can make up for some lack of skill by finding better gear, but it’s still more on the end of “mechanically difficult” than “numbers difficult.”
ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
Finding better gear isn’t number difficulty
Mechanical difficulty is your entry barrier
You want low mechanical difficulty because it’s easy for the player to pick up and start learning
If that’s what makes it hard then it’s a number difficulty - a clue is that you used a number. If gave the player god mode then would it still be as hard? If so then it’s mechanically difficult