Not once in the entire video did you ever block, dodge, parry, or use magic. You didnt even lockon to any enemies. Just mashing attacks. I don't usually tell someone they are "playing the game wrong" but never parrying, dodging, using magic, or even locking on to the enemy means you are actually playing the game wrong. The game isn't bullshit because you forgot basic controls
Yah he's fake news lol. Doesn't even realize the Extra Mode there in his video. He says he doesn't have a lot of time in the day but I mean... he can surely read
I can not comprehend making a game that has multiple difficulty levels and then making players PAY for extra content, just to say it can only be played on the highest difficulty settings.
Honestly, it makes you dive back into the game and chaos mode is pretty fun in its own way. But it definitely pretty shit at first knowing I was locked out of the dlc -_-
So the community overreacted pretty hard. There is a powerup mode to make it way easier and then you just use the "you lose mp instead of health" command and then you literally can not die unless you are abysmal at the game.
I came here wondering if I should get the Season Pass or not only to find someone ranting/raving that based on many other comments doesn't use some of the most basic commands in the game. Zero blocking, guarding, parrying, and not even a simple lock-on so yeah it's really no wonder you were having such a hard time when it's not the fault of the game or the creators but your own basic skills. Personally I would strongly suggest using more of the games mechanics instead of just button mashing.
I've only been playing for an hour, but after watching your gamplay, I think the issue is that you aren't engaging with the game's combat system at all. It looks like you never lock on, never use either of the two block abilities, nor the dodge, and are just R1 spamming everything. This would be like if you did nothing but attack in a turn based game, and then got annoyed you struggled with end-game content where bosses have high physical defence. I think taking the time to learn the mechanics in the tutorial would allow you to get a lot more out of the game, because from what I've seen so far, it has a great combat system!
The one thing that is failed to be mentioned is that you can use anima crystals to raise your item level. Just raise the level about 10 levels higher than the stage and content is a lot easier. Also, you can use the Extra Mode option to be in Chaos Bringer status the whole level.
I just finished this game yesterday, and felt Chaos Mode was nothing more than a chore of learning when to Soul Break. Hard isn't bad, but Chaos and I'm assuming Bahumat Mode are nothing more than Soul Break, and Skill city. When you said that the ENTIRE DLC has to be played on Bahumat mode only, is was what broke me from even wanting to spend a cent on the DLC as a whole.
You essentially have to find a broken build. You can just use whatever and actually have to use something strong or you will suffer since everyone two shots or auto breaks you. And you should be encouraged to soul guard, since it’s brand new to this game. It makes sense it would force you to use this new mechanic
@@Ritsu362 agreed the game is actually very easy when you use everything they teach you to use soul guarding is so underated but is really effing good and pretty easy to catch enemies with the timing isnt super bad or anything.
@@zaydenblu266 and even tho it’s super busted, the game also teaches you not to use it too much because if you miss the timing once, you’ll get auto broken since soul guarding, even successfully, still takes some of your break gauge. And a lot of enemy attacks aren’t even meant to be soul guarded since they’re multi hit, which makes this mechanic a bit deep too. Definitely a nice concept for a parry system
for everyone who didn't know you can play the new difficulty via extra mode which makes it easier to farm anima crystal and rats tail might as well level up your char to 99-150, I didn't have any problem doing the dlc probably because most of my job is at lvl 99 and a decent gear
You're a hero 😀. I'm gonna get the main game for $15, bug fixes to present day and season pass for upcoming dlc with emperor/moogle (I will check if I have to finish or play on hard mode before buying). It was pretty bad at launch but seems better now.
@danieldennis2098 it was patched very heavily should you decide to look it up. I completely forgot about this game after posting. Had terrible load times if you used last gen, and I got bored to tears killing bats after the first dungeon difficulty spike. DLC is postgame on harder mode only for jobs and they still didn't want to make immediately available. Team ninja is prone to do bs like that (marvel ultimate alliance 3 dlc in high level gauntlets that needs postgame to be finished for the last one, phoenix, even with thanos 40 level higher at level 80).
This feels like the old arcade games, where the developers would make the games super hard to make up for the games being super short. The length of the dlc on a sensible difficulty will probably not even come close to being 60% of the original game time despite costing 60% of the actual game (I know it's not exactly that but that's beside the point). Hopefully like you said they introduce a patch to make it so those not skilled players can enjoy the content
It's a soulslike, I love final fantasy just as much as anyone else but at least I know what I'm buying, and buying this game means your playing a final fantasy soulslike so it's probably going to be difficult, not a problem for me since I love both final fantasy and soulslikes, and it being developed by team ninja told me that while the game was going to be set before the events of FF1, it was probably going to play more like nioh 2 which was team ninjas previous game to this, of course it was going to be difficult, did you really buy a soulslike thinking it was going to be easy? I had no problem, I 100%Ed the base game so I was already leveled up and prepared for the DLC when it came out because I actually play soulslikes and I know how most soulslike DLCs work, it's not rocket science, why are so many JRPG fans this dense when it comes to actual RPG mechanics, JRPGs are still RPGs, they have RPG mechanics, you couldn't really be this ignorant coming into a soulslike RPG unless you only play through the main story of a JRPG and never interact with the actual RPG mechanics because JRPG developers have gotten soft and simplified their games and made them so accessible that anyone could play through the story without interacting with the mechanics of their games
Most likely. When you do finish the DLC, you get a message in-game that congratulates you and lets you know the next DLC is planned to be releases this fall. Guessing the idea on paper was to get players to keep seeking increasingly better equipment pieces so they can tackle the ridiculous difficulty spike of Bahamut mode, but the execution was meh at best.
@@Bahamut998 Its not about inclusivity and I don't know where that came from so explain that part to me. I'm talking about how long it takes to beat a game and some games are a load of bull when it comes to some padding the like Crystal Tower in Final Fantasy 3. That road block is straight up unforgivable.
@@beeniecat9411 What you are saying makes sense. Useless padding is annoying. However OP's video is more about inclusivity since the DLC is made for people who have reached level cap and needs to be played on the hardest difficulty. To be honest I dislike this too, but Team Ninja does this with their previous games like Nioh and Nioh 2, so I get why they do it again. Basically they intend for the DLC to be played by hardcore players. But yeah, there should probably be an easy DLC mode too just to experience the story.
@@Bahamut998 I see where you're coming from now but I would use the word accessibility over inclusivity. I remember the issue with Pokemon games and some overseas games but the difficulty was either overwhelming or underwhelming that when the games get localized they add in a new difficulty or fix some coding that makes the game more accessible for people who want a different difficulty or more balance learning curb. Inclusivity I'd reference an I think it was overwatch ad where they were doing a quick character bio showcasing them as non binary. My take was why would that matter in a shooter game, if this was a romance visual novel ok but I'm pretty sure the guys I'm shooting at have more priorities to worry about over wondering if the characters that's shooting at them I choose has preferred pronouns.
I had a very similar experience and was extremely frustrated for hours until I figured out (maybe?) the intended path for players like me. Hitting Triangle on the mission start button lets you select Extra Mode, which gives you permanent chaos mode and infinite MP. This, paired with the Runic Protection skill makes you literally invincible, allowing you to farm even ilvl400 missions with no problems. Extra Mode doesn't drop artifact gear or bahamut tokens, but it does allow you to quickly bump up your gear, as well as play through the DLC story. Is playing this was "fun?" Eh. It's relaxing if you're listening to a podcast or something, and it at least lets you see the content, or boost your preparedness.
That's exactly how i played the entire DLC: Selected a mission, Activate Extra Mode and abused the hell out of the fact that i had unlimited MP. I quickly discovered while using the Sage job (works with any of the magic caster jobs that uses black magic), if you spam cast Water or Quake you can stun lock and air juggle the vast majority of the trash mobs, making you virtually untouchable. Can't juggle the bosses, but playing keep away and letting your allies get the boss's attention while spamming magic attacks from a safe distance got the job done quickly enough
I agree with you David. Ultimately playing games should be done because it's fun. There's no fun if you're constantly getting knocked back, despite trying to work on your skills and gameplay of whatever game it is. I can understand if there's a trophy for playing on a certain difficulty mode but forcing the hardest mode onto players is not fun or cool.
You can launch all the new missions in extra mode which gives you unlimited guard and my then just equip the ability that makes your mp take damage instead of your health and voila you are immortal but keep an eye out for warrior of lights attack called radiant slashes that will get rid of your buff to stop that from happening just hold circle when he uses it this is how I beat the dlc hope it helps everyone and yes I agree forcing players to go to these extremes is still BS
Instead of saying "git gud" like anyone else (which is a dumb excuse usually), I would just like to point out that Cuphead's DLC is only $8 despite them working really hard on it. It adds more difficult bosses along with other perks. Even people who don't like overly difficult games enjoy it. Square made this shit overpriced for less effort, there really is no excuse. I know it seems irrelevant, but it just came out a month ago and is fresh in my mind on how to do difficulty and DLC right. Hard games are fun, but they shouldn't eat into both your wallet and your time.
Thanks for this video. I just finished the main story on Story difficulty, and I thought it was a reasonable level of challenge without ever feeling overly frustrating. Except for the final boss. That one took me a while. I was thinking about getting the DLC, but if it locks you into an insane difficulty mode, that's not for me.
Bahamut mode is not that hard if you have the right build. At first, yeah, it is brutal. For me, the Summoner job made the game like a walk in the park. I’m 35 yrs old, have FT job, drives and pick up my wife to/from work, but still managed to conquer Bahamut mode. If you just want to finish the story, there’s an option where chaosbringer is always active, then use sentinel, and the ability that reduces your mp instead of hp when taking damage. That way you will not die as chaosbringer doesn’t use mp. And also, maybe try to learn some of the basics like target locking as you don’t seem to be not doing it based on your footage. And also soul shield, this mechanic is a must especially against warrior of light. This game is not a typical hack and slash game.
This was exactly my experience at first! Also, my previous build was broken and nerfed by some patch 😓 In other words I was lost… I didn’t even know what to do. So I found this place where you can find lots of bahamut treasures. In the water shrine there’s a side quest named “The Rebel”. Activate Bahamut mode, unlock lvl 400 and max every Bahamut trial option to get the largest multiplier… this way the mission will give you over 1200 Bahamut treasures. Start the mission, you don’t need to kill anything, just run like crazy all the way to the save point. Once saved, return and go to the room with the mind flyers below, there’s a chest with the key there. Open the chest fast before the mobs kill you. Once it’s done, let them kill you anyway… you will respawn next to the hallway were a malboro and the gigas is, use the key to face them. First face the hill gigas, walk towards him, forcing him to walk backwards to the edge. Do an attack that pushes him from the plataform and he will be dead. The malboro must be lured, stay next to the edge, it will use bite, make sure to dodge that and after you cam push it out of the plataform as well. Mission complete. Obs. Staff is awesome for pushing them, “hit + hit + hit + special” and they fall.
Yeah the people who say "Git Gud" in regards to Souls-like games usually say it to deflect criticism about the games flaws and don't like it when other gamers bitch about accessibility. Also the fact that the DLC forces you to play on the hardest difficulty is a dick move on SE's part and in some ways makes the DLC unplayable.
The "Git Gud" crowd also cannot comprehend that My Gameplay Experience != Their Gameplay Experience and that My Gameplay Experience has nothing at all to do with them, and their gameplay experience has nothing at all to do with me. Me being able to play a Soulslike on Easy Mode has absolutely nothing to do with them, so long as multiplayer is disabled (which I would be 1,000,000% fine with). They are just entirely unable to grasp the concept, and they act like *nobody* should play a Soulslike if they aren't good enough, period. Because "DURRR IT'S THE WAY IT WAS DESIGNED TO BE DURRRRRR"
There are a 100 games that come out a year, people who wants accessible games for everyone (cause of whom developers have to nerf the enemy Ai so that casuals don't whine) have no shortage of options cause 90% of games coming out especially from western developers have dumb enemies for casual players while the 10% of games coming out are catered to players like me who want the enemy Ai to not hold back so that I can have that feeling of satisfaction when I beat a boss in a souls game, MHW, winning a battle royale. That said I hate games where developers make the bosses and enemies damage sponge instead of coding them with better combat Ai. I don't like bosses that take an hour just cause they have a ton of health instead of being a smart enemy with good combat Ai.
@@kavishhurbungs3152 Here's a clue for you: It's called a _Difficulty Slider_ which most games have. If you like hard games, then awesome. That's what "Hard", "Nightmare" etc are for. And besides, very rarely do these "hard" games have actually hard enemy AI -- most of them are simple as crap, this game included. It's just the difference between "Story" and "Chaos" is simply "Enemy does more damage when they hit" and "You do less damage when you hit them" and "It takes more to break their defenses" and other stuff. Just "Bigger Number is Harder Than Smaller Number" and that's just lame Artificial Difficulty. Yes, sure, it's "harder" to perfect dodge for 10 minutes instead of 30 seconds and you get to make fewer mistakes because it simply does more damage, but it's also boring as frick when it takes so darn long to kill anything because of inflated numbers. Also, I'd like you to point out an easier, more casual game that has similar gameplay, exploration, and aesthetic that the Souls franchise has. Oh wait, there isn't one. Apparently "3D Exploration ARPG that isn't a button masher" automatically means it has to be difficult ontop of that.
@@Dhalin Most games that have difficulty slider rely on cheap tactics like enemies being damage sponge with tons of health that takes forever to beat, that's why I am not the biggest fan of SOP but you were talking negatively about the ''git gud'' crowd, git gud is a sacred phrase in the soulsborne community, it's more of a playful expression rather than something used to attack other players. Btw I agree with you that SOP is taking the cheap and artificial way of enhancing difficulty rather than coding/programming the enemy AI with better combat Ai. It's just that everytime something is hard in a game, oh it's trying to be dark souls. Dark souls and fromsoft games don't rely on cheap tactics like buffing enemies and bosses health so that they take forever to beat like SOP, that's why Fromsoftware made sekiro which does not rely on loot and armor/weapon stats to artificially give a sense of difficulty, instead player skill is the determining factor.
Personally I'm playing it on Hard, so I don't mind. I play all turn-based &/or action-based Jrpgs on the highest Difficulty I'm able, otherwise the reward of the story and cutscenes is Too Easy and not as enjoyable. However, I agree, that as a whole accessibility should be a thing. If the Regular FF:O had Story, Normal and Hard, then I honestly don't know why'd they'd Skill Wall block certain ppl who played on the EZ Mode difficulties, sound dumb as fuck💯
Thank you so much for the review. After beating the game myself, I learned about how the endgame is all about grinding on Chaos for higher gear levels. I gave it an hour or two before I realized it was absolutely no fun at all (way too hard, and I consider myself an above-average action game veteran). If this DLC makes you play where the enemies are HP sponges and can one-shot you in return, I have no interest. Best part of the game was leveling up jobs and unlocking new ones. I love a good skill tree, so most of the game gave me that rewarding gameplay loop.
This is what you get when tryhards get too vocal and they go "OMG ITS TOO EZ!!!!!!" and the rest of us normal players are going "eh wtf?". I hate that. You see this BS in nearly every RPG game on Steam, you'll get some idiots popping up in the comments whining about how the game is "too easy". And of course, developers hear these comments and they somehow think that this is the average person who thinks stuff is just too darn easy. We also see this a lot in FF14, the Savage Raiding crowd tends to be the loudest, even though they are vastly out-numbered by the casuals. Thankfully, Yoshi-P seems to be a bit more reasonable about stuff in general. Too bad they couldn't have taken that same philosophy here. Too bad this wasn't a PC game, you could probably mod it to let you use the easier difficulty lol.
*cough* sorry im not a try hard but the game is easy if you give the game the respect it deserves and actually take into account all the fully well introduced mechanics they teach you to USE in the tutorial. And grind your way up gear lvl properly and patiently LIKE ANY souls game until you make a build that fully revolves around your class of choice and utilizing your sub class as well as the weapon type and then meshing that altogether with proper enemy awareness combat positioning combat button timing. None of this REQUIRES a try hard to understand but a person who truly loves the Hack and slash genre of games like DMC, God of war etc.. etc.. when you sit down and you play the game pressing the same god damn button over and over again expecting different results well don’t expect to look like us when WE play the game at our level, But don’t bash us players who respect the developers creation and use the tools they have given us to fully utilize to then slap these enemies in full finesse glory with relative ease at that. It is a sham to be calling us try hards on a game thats mostly a single player and non pvp experience, Instead if you want to visually watch the game be played in beautiful motion picture and cant do it your god damn selves then go watch pro gamers who do spend their damn time appreciating games like this and others for YOUR entertainment purposes. Don’t be a lousy prick and bash on pro gamers and blame us for the developers giving us something to challenge our skill. If you dont have the skill and then dont have the time to learn the skill but want to atleast view the game in that said skill gameplay style but you suck to damn bad to do it yourself, well then look no further go on twitch and find some pro gamers like myself and many others who will gladly oblige your lust to watch such good skillmanship of a game of your choice and yes i just made that word up fk off! Let this be the last time you or anyone calls us actually good players out of context and bash us for the sake of your incompetence to play the game the WAY it was meant to be played you want to play a game your way THEN MAKE ONE YOUR DAMN SELF! With your own mechanics! *drops the mic*
@@zaydenblu266 Wow, someone's a tryhard lol. A triggered one, at that. You somehow completely missed the whole point of the video. You typed paragraphs upon paragraphs looking down your Seattle Space Needle Nose at everybody else, but failed to understand what the video is about. The game gives you difficulty sliders so that everybody, including people who just wanna see the content and have a relaxed time, see the game. Oh, but here's the DLC. And it absolutely must be played on not a _higher_ difficulty, but the *hardest* difficulty at that. It makes no flippin' sense whatsoever. And again -- regardless of what kind of tactics you use, or don't use, it still slows the pace of combat and the game in general down to a snail's crawl. Not everybody likes killing the same sh*t over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again just to grind up some level or item level just so you can survive in battle. very few RPGs ask that of you, and even some of the grindiest JRPGs of yore, even the likes of 7th Saga, don't even take anywhere near that long to grind up and it's probably one of the grindier SNES Old School JRPGs out there, the one everybody says is oh-so-hard (the original NA version I mean). Heck even Lufia 1 which can also be grindy, isn't as grindy as some of this crap. No, I don't want to spend 5 minutes attacking the same enemy, and end up getting killed in one or two hits if I make a mistake only to have to do all of that all over again. No fricken thanks. Games should be _fun_ and that simply isn't fun. If *YOU* think it's fun, then fine, you crank that difficulty up. You do you. But the game devs shouldn't be forcing _everybody_ to do that just to experience a DLC that they paid $$$$$$ for.
if u play the game on story or even action n actually pay attention to the tutorials n learn how to play, a child can beat this game. as an adult, u rly must hav a learnin disability if u cant make it thru this game.
@@teh0wnz0r76 Or maybe you are older and have slower reaction times. It's not knowing what to do, it's being able to react to the tiny windows and margins of error. I tend to HATE games with perfect block mechanics that want you to block 0.1s before the hit lands every single time, for example. No thanks. Also, screen clutter is getting to be a real problem in some of these games. Older peoples' eyes can have trouble keeping track of a million projectiles and other graphical effects to focus on the important stuff, and/or games that are too highly detailed can sometimes be difficult to pick out what you really want to pay attention to on the screen. Also, I tend to dislike games that throw a ton of mechanics at you all at once. You'll have mechanics inside of mechanics inside of mechanics. It ain't enough to just have a magic system with spell elements. Oh no, you have to also have each enemy having a different resistance against each element, and inside of that, each character can cast each element at some set effectiveness on different days of the week, what type of battlefield matters as far as power of spells, and then whether or not you said a prayer before you cast the spell, and how many times you mashed the confirm button before the animation went off, and then after all of that, hopefully you timed it to the drum beats of the background music or the spell will only land at half power... (being sarcastic here, but half jokingly so as some games really do get ridiculous). I miss the olden days when you just had just normal mechanics that didn't need an encyclopedia to figure out how to make a competent build.
There's an "infinite chaos mode" which allows you to remain in chaosbringer mode like in the final mission. It's literally easy mode for hard difficulties. Maybe it wasn't there 3 months ago, but it's there now, a huge popup message will let you know, all you have to do is start the mission and press Y on an xbox or triangle on a playstation (dunno which for pc).
I still can't believe that in a game all about "warriors of light" they don't let you have a four person party lol why do new FF games just HATE four people parties? When that is what the franchise was built on?
FF has had a bit of a time experimenting on what works best on party size. It indeed started with 4 people, went up to 5 people in FF4, but went back down to 4 in 5 and 6... then went down to 3 for 7 and 8, and I think 9? Actually, 10 as well... to be honest, 5 is too many: SOMEONE always ends up feeling like the "extra 5th wheel" in the group. I've played quite a few JRPGs outside of Final Fantasy, and I can tell you that 5 person groups typically don't work. Four person groups can be good, but the party needs to be built in such a way that you don't end up with a "meh" character taking up the 4th slot on the roster. Some games do this, others.... don't. In 3 person games, each person feels vastly more important, especially if they were designed well. Many JRPGs go with 3 for this reason: each feels more important. With 4 people, you start running into the risk of revive item spam to cheese the harder bosses, since that is very difficult to do with a 3 person party, but yet more manageable with a 4 person party in many cases.
I dont want developers straying from their artistic intent. If they want to make a hard game, make a hard game. I don’t want a Dark Souls “easy mode” that caters to casuals in everything, its perfectly fine IMO for games to present a rigid challenge level that not everyone can meet if that’s what a studio wants to do. There’s plenty of classic NES games I know I cant beat and will never be able too, Im OK with that, It’s just not for me. That said this seems like a bait and switch which isn’t cool if they let you play the base game at an easier “story” setting and then charge you $30 only to take away that option for their ridiculously overpriced story DLC, that’s pretty shitty. The DLC blueprint for this game alone is the reason I didnt buy it, seems like I made the right choice.
@@johnnyjets2343 that’s fine and if its not clearly stated to people before buying the $30 DLC that theyre locked into a hard mode before purchase, that’s a bait and switch. Which is why David is right to take issue with it.
@@ethanhunt3242 oh I agree with you there. They should preface the fact that the dlc is hard. But they also have the right to make an expansion for the hardcore challenge if that is what the devs want to do.
@@johnnyjets2343 No I think the devs wanted to treat this dlc as endgame content similar to how destiny 2 and other MMOs raid content can't be played on easier difficulties but other activities in destiny 2 can be played on lower difficulties. If this game wanted to be soulslike, it would not have difficulty options in the 1st place. This dlc is a page straight outta MMOs endgame content.
Please do some research. $30 for the season pass, which is 3 dlcs. In Bahamut mode, there is also an Extra Mode that makes Bahamut mode even easier than the story mode. It's literally in his video at 3:46 And idk if you have watched his gameplay. No lock on. No dodging. No soul breaks/shield. He's ignoring half the game because he wants to. He admits it being souls like, yet wants to play hack n slash. Guess what, Extra Mode let's you hack n slash through all endgame content. So idk what he's talking about
I don't see the point of making games artificially difficult by giving every single enemy a ton of health and massive damage. At the end, even if you have good reflexes, makes the game painful to play.
Yeah, that's the thing I don't understand either. Okay so it takes you 100 hits to kill something instead of 5 hits. All you're doing is proven you can block/dodge 100 times instead of 5 to kill that one enemy. It turns a battle from 30 seconds into 5 minutes+ and it just makes the game insanely repetitive.
For a comparison, this would be like making it so you could only play the Nioh 2's Tengu Disciple, Darkness In The Capital, and The First Samurai on Dream Of The Demon, Dream Of The Wise, and Dream Of The Nioh, respectively (these were the highest NG+ difficulties when each respective DLC released).
I mean, ignoring the "git good" comments and stuff, knowing that someone played mostly rpgs, there seems to be a feature a lot of people ignore. I know that usually people just stick with one weapon, but after clearing the game, I believe they were expecting players to know some weapon or elemental weaknesses on some enemies, how the stat system works and depending on that, which attacks are affected or what abilities to unlock depending on the weapon or base job. I hit the difficulty wall on the dlc, but after actually reading how the system works... Some builds are just broken... Others like agility (specially with daggers) are garbage and I can't seem to make it work. For example, katana breaker with garo spam with strength builds is pretty much a 1 hit kill on every trash mob. In terms of grinding, you could also cheese it unlocking a higher level stage like 300, kill the 1st trash mob, get a drop, reset. Weirdly enough, most of the difficulty on this game could actually be lowered not by getting but but theory crafting instead, since a lot of builds are simply broken.
I like added difficulty. When it's optional, so we can play as we like it. Forcing people to grind to have a minimal shot at paid DLC is a great disconnection with your players at best, scummy at worst. I'll eventually play this game, probably at the end of the current generation lifetime, when it's in the bargain bin on a sale, but that's probably it.
This is the very definition of being out of touch with your customer base. Sorry you had to learn a $30 lesson, David. Speaking of playing games with RPG-ish mechanics on Story Mode, have you ever played God of War? Not the original one for PS2, the re-released one for PS4 and then PC.
I noticed the Sea Shrine in this game is not same one in the original Final Fantasy. Since the Sea Shrine in original, had stone pillars like it did in ancient Greece and Rome. The Sea Shrine in Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy, by contrast. Has a laboratory area, and robots. Instead of the ancient greek and roman motif.
This is explained. The bad guys designed the areas based on other ff games. The sea shrine is based on a moko reactor. The sky temple is actually pretty close to how it was in the original game where it was meant to be a satellite base in orbit
Maybe it's more about that the dlc isn't targeted to your interests, like cosmetics to your characters, those aren't for everyone. The story in it this expansion is almost null (so story difficulty has no place) and is more about creating builds, getting trashed, adjusting your build and try again. More info on the content of DLC would be welcome to avoid this kind of nasty surprises.
Sorry but if you went into the game hoping for a fun casual experience, team ninja isnt exactly known for that. You can defintely break the game but its from the same developers for nioh so honestly expecting any dlc from them to be casual is setting yourself up for failure. Either you learn the mechanics and intricacies which tbh isnt that complicated or get rekt. Getting gud may be unjustified in alot games but for these types of games, its a geniune suggestion
No offense intended but I do think a couple pieces of important context are missing here. 1) yes it’s silly you have to pay $30 for the DLC but it does include the 2 upcoming DLC packs as well. They should allow players to buy them individually but $30 for just this isn’t the full truth. 2) Extra mode is the DLCs easy mode. I want to give you a pass and say you never noticed it but you literally show it in your video at the 3:46 mark. Combined with the Sentinal ability you are essentially invincible and can play through all the story content just fine. That being said the lack of individual DLC purchases (instead forcing people to buy the pass) is a valid criticism. I also agree that the story content should’ve had the other difficulty levels outright. All that said, I have nothing but respect that you finished the game on any difficulty given your game preferences. So kudos there. I just feel your point could’ve still been made while being more fair to what the game actually offered.
You bring up a very fair point about lack of lower difficulties on the DLC being an extremely odd oversight, but I don't think that's the whole issue here. I don't think this fair review, and it almost seems disingenuous at worst. I'm not a "hardcore" gamer but even I can see a lack of game mechanics being utilised here - your battle footage is very telling. I don't know if you've done this deliberately to emphasis your point. The complaints here can clearly be linked to "skill issue" based on footage. It looks like you've ignored several core game mechanics entirely. You aren't using key skills like soul shield, parrying, dodging (which doesn't even cost stamina BTW!), job switching/chain cancelling, lightbringer or even building up MP for action abilities? Not even pressing R3 for camera lock-on or basic crowd control in mobs (you're missing a ton of your close range attacks). Nor are you respecting the enemy's attacks: eg against the skeletons you're rushing in with moves that have long animations and expecting a win by simply spamming and zero dodging? You say you're a turn based JRPG guy but you've also ignored enemy weaknesses and tried strong-arming your way through enemy resistances as well (against the robot soldiers for example)? These are all basics which are drilled into you in the base tutorial levels at the wheat field btw, they aren't obfuscated mechanics that require looking into external resources (you can even soul shield unblockable attacks in story difficulty!). In higher difficulty, the enemies are obviously going to be spongier and more aggressive, especially relative to your gear on first instances. FYI, You can quickly equip better loot on chaos difficulty in the base game at level 300 with minimal grinding. Its hard at first jumping from level 150 to 300, but after a few dry runs at the hardest difficulty and equipping loot from, say, the first 6 or so defeated enemies you'll be well on your way (you can just use auto optimise in battle settings, no shame in initially doing this on a difficulty spike). Inclusion of higher difficulty along with an increased level cap + matching gear and new class options is more than welcome. The game's story was never where it shined (the memes from last year was evidence of that). Its a "Nioh" game known for its excellent combat mechanics with unique twists like soul shielding and mid-combo job switching (which gets tested fairly in this game on higher difficulties for the most part. Again, you have to respect the enemy encounters and mechanics) and it seems you've missed that. Pre-emptively throwing ad hominems and lashing out against hypothetical Souls-like gamers whilst trying to hide behind supposedly noble causes like accessibility is also a strange coping strategy and not the graceful look you might think it is. To conclude, the higher difficilty and increased level cap is a great idea for inclusion especially for a challenging game that throws a lot of easy upgrades and loot that can be acquired on a decent playthrough. But I do agree that the lack of lower difficulties is an odd ommision as it won't just be megafans that are interested. You're overselling the difficulty aspect though, and you've clearly missed key game mechanics. Please, I'm sure you could make a better review in future.
I agree that it’s ridiculous to require players to play on the hardest difficulty. Kind of defeats the purpose of having difficulty options. However, from watching your gameplay footage I don’t see any attempt to lock on or dodge or otherwise engage with the game’s base gameplay mechanics. Again, if you want to plow through the story mode, swinging your sword without worrying about playing defensively, that is totally fine and you should be given that option in this DLC as it was available as a strategy in the base game. But I think it mischaracterizes how difficult the game truly is if you just watch the footage here. Not saying it’s not difficult (it is, and is often unfair in my opinion). I’m just saying there are ways to mitigate the challenge not being shown here. (I’ll backtrack slightly by saying it’s been months since I last played this game so maybe I’m too far removed from the gameplay to see those mechanics are being use and I’m just not seeing it for whatever reason).
I am not going to tell you to get good, thats just your own choice. But I don't believe making a game easier is a matter of accessibility, if a game is made deliberately hard, thats just a choice for the devs only to decide. I am not a teenager, I am a adult that doesn't have time too and I enjoy and play mostly challenging, difficult games, I am not saying anyone can or should do it, but playing or buying a game you know is difficult is mostly your own choice, not something to complain to the devs for, unless the game is really unbalanced (If it is the case for this game, then it would be understandable) Also, I don't like this conflation of how people that want to play easier games and people with actual psychomotor illnesses are put under the same umbrella of accessibility, I think its infantalizing people that are crippled, like they can't play difficult games when many of them find their own ways to play, and it should be an entire sepatated discussion of how devs can accomodate them without understimating them. David, I know we probably will have to agree to disagree on this topic, I don't know how this comment is going to come out for you because english is a 2nd language and i am still learning so for some final clarification: I want to say that either way I respect your opinion and that you are a cool guy, so i hope i don't come off like i hold some ill will towards you. Cheers.
I ONE HUNDRED PERCENT agree with conflating difficulty and accessibility options (which are for actual disabled people) is a bullshit thing. If a game is made a certain way to fit an artists vision that should be acceptable. Obviously it’s a little problematic here due to other difficulties being available in the base game but i digress.
We're going to have to disagree on that inane "artistic design" argument. If you want Hard Soulslike, then have at it. If I want easy Soulslike, my gaming experience does not in any way interfere with your gaming experience. If I sit down with a RAM editor and give myself infinite HP in Dark Souls to cheese O&S, this does not affect your own experience of playing Dark Souls (just using an example). I mean, you could add an Easy mode to Dark Souls and it would not detract from your gaming experience in any way unless you somehow accidentally started the game with that option (then just start again on the default one). As for accessibility and disability... well, many disabilities make it very difficult for said disabled person to play harder games. SOME people are able to overcome -- with insane amounts of time and effort put into a game. MOST people do not have that luxury. If you only have the use of one hand, or maybe you have half the reaction time than a healthy individual, you are not going to be as effective in games as a person who does not have such handicaps without some insane work-arounds, practice, etc. Which, again, not everybody has. A game that has an easier difficulty mode could let said people enjoy games that would be otherwise too difficult or not worth the monumental effort to overcome, especially when it comes to RPGs. RPGs typically feature a lot of story, cutscenes, etc. Is it such a crime to want to be able to see a game's story, explore the game's world, and see how it goes without having to constantly fight with the difficulty, especially if you have some sort of disability? It has nothing to do with "underestimating" them, it's a simple fact that, for example, adding a difficulty mode that makes you take 50% less damage and deal 50% more damage is going to make it twice as easy so that someone who has a disability can make twice the mistakes and still pass. Or maybe someone else who just lacks the skill, that easier difficulty is the difference between enjoying the game, and quitting in frustration. And again.... where in the frick does someone else enjoying a single-player experience hurt you? How does that detract from your experience? Absolutely nobody can answer that, because it doesn't.
@@Dhalin If you want to mod a game to make it easier for you to play, thats not my problem and I am not going to laugh at you, and also not my argument, but if a game is difficult and has no difficulty slider, thats the choice of the devs, who they want to market the game too. I don't think anything has to appeal to everyone, everytime, thats just feels souless (pardon the obvious pun). And I am sorry but if you want to enjoy the lore or story of a game that much, I am sure a lets play on youtube would suffice, I mean, you still get the story and details right? Like I said, accomodating people with disabilities is an entire different discussion from "I'm too old to play this game, I am probably not even the actual target audience of the game but I will complain anyway just because i can" it just turns into a old man screaming at clouds moment like in the Simpsons. Yes, Its true that you having fun your own way doesn't affect me and I am not against you, more power to you. But I respect more the devs intent than people that buy a game they know they don't like just so they can complain about it, because its popular, the market has tons of options of easy, relaxing games and you can even mod games, so why are you acting so miserable? You don't even need to play a game to enjoy its story, when you have dedicated channels on yt that post story content and lore discussion, It seems to me you want to be included into something you don't actually like and change it for your convenience and I don't understand that. It would be like me getting into barbie dolls and complaining about why Ken doesn't look like more like a Jojo character for my enjoyment, Its ridiculous.
@@edfmed1080 Sure, that's a dev decision, but it's still a stupid one, and needs to be called out for being a stupid design decision so we can get devs to stop making stupid design decisions. A difficulty slider _does not_ hurt a game in any way. And he's not saying "I'm too old" he's saying "me being older makes it harder for me" which is a valid complaint: _most_ older people feel a loss in motor skills over the years, especially the 35+ crowd. I, myself, am in this boat. I'm a guy who cleared Battletoads back during the NES 2.0 days (I usually used a game genie, but the GG would not fit in the top-loading NES) but these days, my motor skills just aren't as fast, snappy, or accurate as they once were. This happens to nearly everybody whether they like to admit or not, and games should very much take that into consideration. There's no excuse behind locking large bits of content behind difficulty levels, or not offering some sort of method to make the game easier, especially in a game with RPG mechanics. Even Dark Souls allows you to grind, an SL200+ character can kill just about anything in the first playthrough with little difficulty. But this game? Not only does it give you a difficulty slider, it asks you to plunk money down for a DLC and then says "nope, Bahumat or nothing". And while many other games lock optional bosses behind harder difficulties, I tend to dislike large portions of story content getting the same treatment, too. For example, in World of Warcraft, the past couple expansions, they locked story heavy dungeons behind Mythic (the hardest 5-man dungeon difficulty that you cannot queue up for) which was just asinine.
I am a big fan of games like Nioh, but this one is a weird bargain. If the game originally had accesibility built in, they should've respected that for the DLC.
The option is at the purchase point. I don't think it's reasonable to expect developers to cater to every type of player all the time, it's up to the individual to determine whether or not a game or piece of content is suitable to them before purchasing it.
But it doesn’t make sense for the base game you play on easy but then dlc make it locked through the hard difficulty I think it unfair And plus it’s was paid dlc, the devs coulda said in a blog post or something that ‘this only going be playable on the newly added difficulty, pls be aware before buying’ But they didn’t I don’t feel that asking for a option to play it on easier difficulties would be too much to ask
That's not the point. The point is that the whole base game had difficulty options. And for no reason both dlc's took this option away. Therefore non-skilled non-ds-vets spend money on dlc's they can never finish in the first place. False advertising I guess. That's why soulslikes NEVER should have any difficulty options! The balance is complete garbage if you put in those settings. So either way it's a proper FF game with difficulty settings, OR it's a proper soulslike without any. Like Nioh and Wo Long. But not this half-half bs. That's why it's only a 6/10 game. FF players hate the dlc's and for soulsvets the base game is too easy.
I feel you on this, 100%. I've pretty much stayed far, far away from any game described as souls-like. This isn't fun to me, and I don't have the time or patience anymore. I'm 40 years old, and I have a house, a husband, my family, a full time job, and a huge backlog. I love to play games for the story, and I don't mind a little bit of a challenge. I prefer a mental challenge more so than a muscle memory challenge, and then beyond that, if it's too difficult, I'm just not going to keep playing. Gamers are a spectrum, and some people really enjoy learning and mastering difficult games, and some people just want to relax and farm or enjoy an engrossing story, and I personally like it when a game can cater to both. Especially a Final Fantasy game. It's really too bad they locked the DLC in this manner. Such a shame as it's my favorite franchise.
Two things, the dlc is 25 dollars, you likely bought the digital upgrade for 30. Number two, the being locked to a single difficulty is bull, but your comment on those of us that like hard games like dark souls needing “a year and a half” is just plain wrong. This is NOT tekken, it’s nowhere near that hard. Once you get passed the frustration of dying and seek to improve, you will. But again, i get the frustration with a single difficulty mode being available with this dlc, it likely should be in a disclaimer if this was their intended way of playing it. Just fyi and the ageist stuff for who can get good, a lot of souls players are older…I’m 33 for instance and work at least 8 hours of overtime a week.
"Ageist" ... can you guys stop inventing new "ist" words? FFS. Also, Age affects different people in different ways. I know someone about my age (I'm 42) and he has hands that shake so bad that he can barely pull a dollar bill out of his wallet, but yet I am reasonably competent at a variety of games and I have rather good motor control.
@@morriganrenfield8240 And how long exactly has it been around? Was it invented roughly the same time as all the newer "ism" and "ist" words 5-10 years ago when all this crap started? /shrug I don't really care, but I'm tired of everything being an "ist" or an "ism" these days. People need to grow a spine and stop being offended by every little thing.
Ironic, that I was thinking of picking up this game today. I figured "Maybe 40 is enough for me to put money into a game made by Square Enix" I said to myself, on my break at work. Nah, I think I'm gonna wait even longer, until this game becomes cheap. I wanna support them, but I just have a hard time supporting their lack of expansive console releases, and this... When will the chaos end, where they can become a respectable game company again? Only time will tell.
You are welcome to have your opinion, and I won't tell you to git gud, or whatever, but I'm 33 and a father with a full-time job and it really doesn't bother me when games do this. I do my research and decide ahead of time what to spend my money on, and sometimes I want something to really test me, sometimes I want to chill so I buy and play what is appropriate for each feeling. It sounds like this kind of game just isn't really for you, which is fine and isn't meant to be a dig at you or anything of that nature, but I don't agree at all with this argument for accessibility by removing the need for skill in order to access all content. This is not the way games were built when I was younger and isn't the way games should be made today. Developers should tune their games the way that they intend them to be played and players should do the proper research and decide what games are appropriate for them.
Did you know? I noticed the original Final Fantasy is connected to Final Fantasy 2, 3, 4, 4 The After Years, 5, and 6. These 7 games along the original Final Fantasy are interconnected this entire time. A theory I discussed here, is these games are part of one timeline through the timeloops of death and rebirth. I might the original 6 Final Fantasy games including The After Years, as the classic timeline.
Unfortunately, I saw this coming. I'm no pro at Souls-like games or anything, but I have beaten all Souls games, Bloodborne and Elden Ring, and all DLCs (at least for the games that have them), and I've also beaten the first Nioh from the same dev as this game. The thing is, the first DLC for Nioh tore me a new one in a way nothing else I've ever played in this genre had done before, to the point where I eventually just gave up on it. So, knowing this game was by the same dev, I somewhat expected this same thing to happen, so I bought the base game (which I agree was a ton of fun, and exceeded my expectations), but I took a wait and see approach in regards to the Season Pass. And, yeah, as soon as I saw someone who's considerably better at these games than me get burnt out quickly on the DLC, I knew I made the right call, LOL Obviously, the counter argument here is that Souls-like games aren't meant to be accessible, and that people who can't handle them should simply stay away, or just watch others play. For FromSoft games, I understand that, even if I'm not fully onboard with it, but considering this game already had difficulty settings for its base game, taking all of that away for the DLC is indeed "BULLSHIT", as our friend Jack himself would say, lol
Also this is still marketed as a FF game (FF as a franchise isn't known for being incredibly difficult or challenging unlike something like SMT) so having fixed difficulty lore/gameplay locked behind paid DLC on top of an already niche game kinda just throws the cat among the pigeons. Honestly FF SoP is giving me some Dissidia NT vibes and not in a good way, where only a few FF fans will truly enjoy it while most FF fans will either skip it or straight up hate it for being too inaccessible/different while the causal audience won't even know about the game existing. A shame really the game had some legitimately interesting mechanics but I can definitely see it becoming the black sheep of the non-numbered games kinda like how FF2 is to the numbered mainline games.
I'm with you about difficulty in games in general. Not all of us have the time and energy to devote. Some of us (like me) have learning, cognitive, and motor coordination/muscle memory impairments that prevent us from "getting good" no matter how hard or how intelligently we work at it. Heightened difficulty has its place: that thrills and rewards some people. Some games should be designed and marketed for their demanding challenges, catering specifically to those players. But many of the rest of us just want to explore and enjoy the gameplay, setting, characters, and see the story play out. I think it's fair if certain challenges within a game are super difficult: with achievements or other unlockables as an extra reward for those capable of surmounting those challenges. But paying for an entire DLC that only elite players stand a chance at, when that upends expectations set by the base game, is just so maddening.
Yeah, even as someone who didn't play through the game on the story difficulty, I still don't understand the stupid reasoning behind forcing the hardest difficulty for a paid DLC
I made it all the way to Gilgamesh mode got all level 500 gear and I get one shot by nearly everything still, I beat Bahomoth and warrior of light and just unlocked the labyrinth and I just can’t with this game anymore EVERY SINGLE BUILD I look up would require a fuck ton of grinding to get just the right amount of affinity so you can just one shot everything which is also just not fun. I’m fairly certain they did not do any play testing for these new missions it’s rather play a super meta one shot build or eat shit and die.
I am 27. But I don't enjoy the get good tip from Dark Souls. Actually King's Field did it first. Not Dark Souls. I am 27, I may still have my youth boyish appearance. But, I can't enjoy games like King's Field and Dark Souls hard difficulty. It took me two or three weeks to beat King's Field 2 on ps1. But that was like back in 2018.
An action RPG with as many build combinations shouldn't make "getting gud" the only way to clear content. Good ARPG's allow the player to either strategize a build effectively to make combat easier, or allow them to still clear content with average setup if they are skilled enough. If they wanted to go down the "get gud" route then what is even the point of having RPG elements?
I can perfectly understand your problems and such (SoP was my 1st souls like game as well) but I spend a lot of time learning about the systems and thinking to myself how I can twist/break it in my favor...yes the pain of going from the 'any difficulty allowed' base game story to the post game 'must play chaos' really pushes you to take advantage of EVERYTHING to even face basic mobs. Affinity bonuses, customizing gear skills, earning the limit releases from high chaos lvl mission clears to use the mastery point system, etc. To make actual builds around certain jobs for their unique action ability (I did most of the game as a tyrant/assassin combo, but swapped to a breaker/berserker set up for post game). It comes down to learning all the gimmicks and making them work for you. Yes I can understand the hate for being forced into max difficulty to even access the DLC (but they did technically give some accessibility with the extra mode option even if that prevents you from earning the dragon treasures needed to progress the bahamut story)
Thank you David. Once again, you have saved me from a purchase that it looks like I didn’t need to make. You are right. Some of us are not young anymore and cannot spend all of our time grinding for levels or becoming experts at RPGS, though I did that plenty back in the day. Thank you for taking another one for the team. I will leave this to those who really enjoy the game and want to play more of it.
yea 50$ for LiveALive on nintendo switch just for digital version. what a rip off. they clearly have become all about money and taking advantage of their fans obsessions
Jesus that difficulty spike is nutz to ask of anyone this isn't just complaining u not only need the best equipment and skills in the game u also need the reaction times of professionals like it's almost impossible
Everyone’s different of course, but I enjoy actually grinding every aspect, not just speed running for loot, but leveling the classes to prep for Bahamut. Guess what peeps if you think 300 gear is all you need you’re sorely mistaken.
I donno I like the difficulty in souls like but I do understand not being able play it bcs of the skill check bcs they lock it behind the new difficulty the best I can say is have you tried it on extra mode I tend to play sage and spam spells hope this helps relieve some stress when playing
No way! I was about to buy this and then I stopped and found this video. I do not need this in my life at all. I barely have time to commit to gaming already. I have to use my lunch hour at work to play and grind. For now, I will stick with playing the Pixel Remasters on PC and enjoying something I can actually win at. Also, FF7 Crisis Core Reunion just came out and it is really nice! I recommend over this game too.
Lame. I'm in a similar situation with working full time and having other responsibilities. Not having a story mode difficulty for the DLC is going to be a hard pass for me.
To be fair there was something you could do. You could have parried. But anyway, the fact that they locked DLC behind a difficulty is kind of ridiculous. I’m fine with it but it’s a pretty lousy move. I think it’s pretty grind based in general and I don’t love that. The “git gud” argument only works if you are criticizing a game for solely being hard and acting like it’s a bad game for that reason. This ain’t that. This is a game with an established difficulty slider that pulled a fast one. And this is why souls games shouldn’t have difficulty options! To be totally honest I’m still trying to figure out how this DLC actually works. It’s confusing and weird.
Stupid question but why did you try to lvl the swordman's skill up this early? The weapons slow combos are non-existent plus you weren't able to finish it so that makes your point mute. Good try but you didn't even get the new class plus you need to use your party taping left or right on your dpad will force them to use a skill allowing you to get free hits in
I dont believe anyones gonna see this but after reading some of the comments i just have to say. I understand an see where people are coming from when a game is to difficult for them to play. But the truth is games are only as hard as you the player make them to be especially souls game. Personally i dont agree with this creator's review because he obviously dosent understand the game an coming from story difficulty is the reason why. An jumping from the easiest to the hardest difficulty at the press of a couple buttons will do that. Id like hin to replay the story again on higher difficulties an read what the game tells him to do so he can have a full understanding of the mechanics an try the dlc again an give a "fair" review. But it really scares me that a sizeable chunk of the older guys are complaining about something being to hard when im sure life in the 80's 70's was less accessible an there for harder. Compared to just about everything you need to know is a Google search away now.
David, I think you are a little confused. This crappy game is not a soul-like game. Dark Souls is not a mindless difficult game, it's challenging and the combat is deliberate. Once you press the attack button, you are committed to it, you need to wait until the attack animation ends before you can make another action. Combat is weighty, each hit counts, it's not a mindless combat where you can spam attack buttons and cancel animations. Being difficult is not the main feature of souls-likes. It's the combat design. There are easy souls-likes, like Nioh and Elden Ring. I'm 42, I can play these games no problem. This Square game is nothing like that.
Extra mode + spam the fuck out of runic protection…….that’s literally how you have to play these dlc. I can see what they were going for with these dlcs making it a VERY slow natural progression for your iLevel frankly this absurd level progression would have been great if you only had 1 game and no online capabilities, it’s a very SNES era mentality. This progression could keep a person occupied for weeks maybe even months……..unfortunately the vast majority of us do not have that amount of time or the attention span for this. For those people you have Extra Mode and just span the hell out of runic protection for invincibility (honestly they should have just made extra mode just be god mode and a built in invincibility not having to juggle a buff)
I've given up on Squeenix. They won't see a dime from me for a full priced product ever again. It wasn't a single event or product, but the culmination of their behavior, and just seeing it in front of me. It started with FFXV Universe, which ended up NOT being greater, or even equal to the sum of its parts. Matsuda saying "NFTs are the future" or whatever is another example. And while there are others, this right here means 3 strikes and you're out. Also I agree with you David, developers are what they are _because of us._ Our kids will be gamers because they will see us playing, and if developers want lifelong customers they shouldn't leave their core customers out in the cold. Plus, 15 year olds don't have money ffs.
I'll just watch the cutscenes on RUclips, I can't even beat Chaos Advent, lol. I probably could if I took my time, but even with Mighty Strikes and Bravery, and other stacks, I just don't do enough damage. I'm not about to grind on this game, I play perfectly well, until both teammates die, then it's only a matter of time before I'm staggered from overuse of Soul Break, and then get one shot by either of two insta-kills moves. Most tedious shit I've ever done. Totally regretting the DLC, at least the base game was fun.
I recommend trying extra mode, press triangle when selecting chaos and above missions to get infinite MP and stamina this game has weird difficulty options, it's intended to be played on hard on first playthrough and then go on chaos for ng+ and then do the DLC, but there's three difficulties below hard, which makes the DLC very jarring for almost everyone makes it weirder that ff16 is an action rpg, we already have the nioh devs make a whole ARPG so why make the final fantasy devs (when turn based JRPGs are more popular than ever) make an ARPG the worst part for me is that nioh 2's DLC's are a third of the price, can be played on any difficulty, and I'm pretty sure they have more content, squeenix fucked up (also please lock on)
"Intended to be played on hard on first playthrough" ... that sounds like some of the most stupid game design decisions I have ever heard of. Who the frick sits down and goes "hmm. Okay we have Story Mode, Normal Mode, Hard Mode, and CHAOS Mode... I know, let's design the game so that you're supposed to start on Hard!" Whatever happened to NORMAL being, you know, NORMAL and how the game was originally intended to be, balance-wise? Literally every other game out there has a Normal Mode that the game defaults to, some kind of Easy mode for people who need a leg up (older folk, people with slow reactions, people who aren't particularly good at JRPG mechanics), and a Hard/Nightmare/Chaos/Whatever for people looking for a higher challenge. Some games have even higher challenges than that. But to lock an entire DLC behind the super-hard difficulty? wtf? That makes zero sense whatsoever.
@@Dhalin Oh that's nothing new, one of my favourite JRPGs of all time, Valkryrie Profile; Lenneth (another Square Enix IP) locks the best ending and post-game content behind higher difficulties plus playing on easy mode is actually the hardest playthrough since all the best items/equipment are difficulty locked meaning by the time you reach the endgame you're grossly underpowered to the point each battle takes forever to get through. Ofc games like that were products of the times (90s) but seeing newer games make similar decisions but with paid DLC is pretty strange. Nothing wrong with difficult games but taking control and difficulty from the player while expecting them to pay extra for it, it quite ridiculous tbh.
@@lynxfresh5214 Lots of games lock a "true ending" behind harder difficulties. Sure, absolutely. But ... you don't pay *THIRTY DOLLARS* for it ahead of time.
@@Dhalin many games are intended to be played at it's harder difficulties, I am not trying to excuse this, I'm merely trying to explain it I'm pretty sure at chaos mode there's an easy mission where you can just reflect fireballs back at bombs, if you unlock the level 300 version of that mission, playing it will get gear a hundred levels above bahamut mode's minimum lv.200 difficulty
@@jgn So basically the answer is to just abuse game mechanics until the game says "sure, ok, we'll give you a reasonable challenge" ... /eyeroll That sounds like even worse game design, TBH.
I’m debating if I want to bother with the effort. I have level 397 Gear currently (I farmed gear on the second to the last mission on Bahamut mode maxed level). I just want to do the Bahamut story line. I don’t want to replay levels over and over at a super hard difficulty just to start the DLC story line. Locking the DLC behind Chaos and Bahamut mode (which is even harder than Chaos) is just crap.
I'm already of the opinion that DLC shouldn't be a thing - just include it with the base game instead of raking customers over the coals for double, triple, or even more - but $30 for one expansion is inexcusable. I'm also completely with you on the difficulty thing; like you, as soon as Playstation hit town, I was playing RPGs almost exclusively. Now, I did get back into Action titles when Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne twisted my arm into getting into the Devil May Cry series, and I started to gravitate more toward action-oriented games, but not everyone did that. I do applaud Final Fantasy for branching out and trying new things with an action-oriented game like this - if game franchises didn't do this, we never would've had Symphony of the Night - BUT it IS still Final Fantasy; have action, and have hardcore difficulty modes, but don't alienate your core fanbase in the process. I'm even someone who will play through Devil May Cry on every difficulty, and I still don't like when content is locked behind a difficulty mode like this; what is this: the '90s? I also wouldn't be surprised to find out later that Squenix is only doing this to sell you experience boosters to "skip the grind" that they manufactured, ether; they're very quickly becoming one of those kinds of companies. Good on you for warning people about this.
I think they should have made gameplay for all difficulty, but give more "access" at the Bahamut. The exchange shop is a good example of this. A wondrous trove of gear to build yourself as bloated as the difficulty, but only if you earn it. That way you cater to players who want gameplays and "memes" while allowing more competitive players to be challenged and rewarded. I am a fierce advocate of the reward matching your worth btw.
While I may not agree with you completely, I get where you’re coming from. These souls game have only ever had one difficulty, so to see SoP have differing ones and even a story difficulty to boot actually makes the base game really accessible. That’s a really good thing for a lot of people that may not be able to put so much time to learn and do well in these games. However, there is a market for these difficult, time sinks, as evidenced by how well other souls games sell Even playing this game on the hardest difficulty and slowly learning attack patterns, it still only took about 30 hours to beat which is relatively short. It’s definitely not an after-work relaxing game at its core. Chaos mode is essentially how the developers forcing you to make actual builds and actually experiment and find things that really work. It’s essentially there for people who want more from SoP. You can play any game how you like and it’s not anyones place to tell you how to enjoy said game. But you have to understand that these souls games are meant more for those people who have more time on hand. It’s why I legitimately couldn’t get into to most souls games. too much But it definitely is extremely baffling that they made an entire dlc locked behind an extra mode of difficulty. It’s not that much harder than chaos, mind you, but it’s interesting to see DLC completely dedicated to the more hardcore fanbase instead of making the new story easier to access. They definitely the dropped the ball in that way
David use the skill Runic Protection it let's you take Mp damage instead of Hp damage . If you use that with extra mode which gives you unlimited MP you invincible. You just have to reapply the skill every now and then. That's how I completed it. I suck at hard games and this made it doable. You get runic protection from Void Knight job
Yeah, but the thing is, if it takes a million hits to kill anything, and if you're constantly getting knocked on your ass every three seconds, _it's just not fun_ to play. The footage of him getting bowled over by the WoL every few seconds is just eye-roll. Why would anybody enjoy that kind of gameplay?
Come and join me on a fun filled playthrough of Final Fantasy IX! www.twitch.tv/davidvincstreams
Not once in the entire video did you ever block, dodge, parry, or use magic. You didnt even lockon to any enemies. Just mashing attacks. I don't usually tell someone they are "playing the game wrong" but never parrying, dodging, using magic, or even locking on to the enemy means you are actually playing the game wrong. The game isn't bullshit because you forgot basic controls
Like seriously, do people even do tutorials anymore or pay attention to tips in the game.
Yeah I was looking at this video and going so this guy doesn't really know how to play huh....can I even trust this?
Yeah it's true, he haven't even played the absolute basic tutorials it seems.
@@azzo3449 He played through the game in Story mode, that's all you really need to know for your answer.
This DLC doesn't cost 30 bucks.It's the entire Season Pass(3 DLC's total).
Yah he's fake news lol. Doesn't even realize the Extra Mode there in his video. He says he doesn't have a lot of time in the day but I mean... he can surely read
I can not comprehend making a game that has multiple difficulty levels and then making players PAY for extra content, just to say it can only be played on the highest difficulty settings.
The worst offender was Samus Returns, which locked the highest difficulty behind an Amiibo.
Honestly, it makes you dive back into the game and chaos mode is pretty fun in its own way. But it definitely pretty shit at first knowing I was locked out of the dlc -_-
So the community overreacted pretty hard. There is a powerup mode to make it way easier and then you just use the "you lose mp instead of health" command and then you literally can not die unless you are abysmal at the game.
Exactly make it one difficulty if that was their plan. It wasn't even in the marketing for season pass.
they put a mechanic in the game that made it so players literally could not die, n yet u STILL found it too hard???
Kinda hard to take your opinion on difficulty seriously when you apparently played the entire game without using target lock.
I came here wondering if I should get the Season Pass or not only to find someone ranting/raving that based on many other comments doesn't use some of the most basic commands in the game. Zero blocking, guarding, parrying, and not even a simple lock-on so yeah it's really no wonder you were having such a hard time when it's not the fault of the game or the creators but your own basic skills. Personally I would strongly suggest using more of the games mechanics instead of just button mashing.
I've only been playing for an hour, but after watching your gamplay, I think the issue is that you aren't engaging with the game's combat system at all. It looks like you never lock on, never use either of the two block abilities, nor the dodge, and are just R1 spamming everything. This would be like if you did nothing but attack in a turn based game, and then got annoyed you struggled with end-game content where bosses have high physical defence. I think taking the time to learn the mechanics in the tutorial would allow you to get a lot more out of the game, because from what I've seen so far, it has a great combat system!
The one thing that is failed to be mentioned is that you can use anima crystals to raise your item level. Just raise the level about 10 levels higher than the stage and content is a lot easier. Also, you can use the Extra Mode option to be in Chaos Bringer status the whole level.
Or use them to raise the mission level and farm gear that is way higher lv than the mission you intend to complete.
I just finished this game yesterday, and felt Chaos Mode was nothing more than a chore of learning when to Soul Break. Hard isn't bad, but Chaos and I'm assuming Bahumat Mode are nothing more than Soul Break, and Skill city. When you said that the ENTIRE DLC has to be played on Bahumat mode only, is was what broke me from even wanting to spend a cent on the DLC as a whole.
*oh no, the game had me use a core mechanic...*
You essentially have to find a broken build. You can just use whatever and actually have to use something strong or you will suffer since everyone two shots or auto breaks you. And you should be encouraged to soul guard, since it’s brand new to this game. It makes sense it would force you to use this new mechanic
@@Ritsu362 agreed the game is actually very easy when you use everything they teach you to use soul guarding is so underated but is really effing good and pretty easy to catch enemies with the timing isnt super bad or anything.
@@zaydenblu266 and even tho it’s super busted, the game also teaches you not to use it too much because if you miss the timing once, you’ll get auto broken since soul guarding, even successfully, still takes some of your break gauge. And a lot of enemy attacks aren’t even meant to be soul guarded since they’re multi hit, which makes this mechanic a bit deep too. Definitely a nice concept for a parry system
for everyone who didn't know you can play the new difficulty via extra mode which makes it easier to farm anima crystal and rats tail might as well level up your char to 99-150, I didn't have any problem doing the dlc probably because most of my job is at lvl 99 and a decent gear
You're a hero 😀. I'm gonna get the main game for $15, bug fixes to present day and season pass for upcoming dlc with emperor/moogle (I will check if I have to finish or play on hard mode before buying). It was pretty bad at launch but seems better now.
@danieldennis2098 it was patched very heavily should you decide to look it up. I completely forgot about this game after posting. Had terrible load times if you used last gen, and I got bored to tears killing bats after the first dungeon difficulty spike.
DLC is postgame on harder mode only for jobs and they still didn't want to make immediately available. Team ninja is prone to do bs like that (marvel ultimate alliance 3 dlc in high level gauntlets that needs postgame to be finished for the last one, phoenix, even with thanos 40 level higher at level 80).
This feels like the old arcade games, where the developers would make the games super hard to make up for the games being super short. The length of the dlc on a sensible difficulty will probably not even come close to being 60% of the original game time despite costing 60% of the actual game (I know it's not exactly that but that's beside the point). Hopefully like you said they introduce a patch to make it so those not skilled players can enjoy the content
It's a soulslike, I love final fantasy just as much as anyone else but at least I know what I'm buying, and buying this game means your playing a final fantasy soulslike so it's probably going to be difficult, not a problem for me since I love both final fantasy and soulslikes, and it being developed by team ninja told me that while the game was going to be set before the events of FF1, it was probably going to play more like nioh 2 which was team ninjas previous game to this, of course it was going to be difficult, did you really buy a soulslike thinking it was going to be easy? I had no problem, I 100%Ed the base game so I was already leveled up and prepared for the DLC when it came out because I actually play soulslikes and I know how most soulslike DLCs work, it's not rocket science, why are so many JRPG fans this dense when it comes to actual RPG mechanics, JRPGs are still RPGs, they have RPG mechanics, you couldn't really be this ignorant coming into a soulslike RPG unless you only play through the main story of a JRPG and never interact with the actual RPG mechanics because JRPG developers have gotten soft and simplified their games and made them so accessible that anyone could play through the story without interacting with the mechanics of their games
I wonder if they made the dlc hard mode only in order to pad the length of the dlc.
Most likely. When you do finish the DLC, you get a message in-game that congratulates you and lets you know the next DLC is planned to be releases this fall. Guessing the idea on paper was to get players to keep seeking increasingly better equipment pieces so they can tackle the ridiculous difficulty spike of Bahamut mode, but the execution was meh at best.
I like how David was saying something that's relatable to a lot of us gamers today who are grown ups or people who value their time.
Not all games need to be inclusive. Just don't buy it if its not your cup of tea.
@@Bahamut998 Its not about inclusivity and I don't know where that came from so explain that part to me. I'm talking about how long it takes to beat a game and some games are a load of bull when it comes to some padding the like Crystal Tower in Final Fantasy 3. That road block is straight up unforgivable.
@@beeniecat9411 What you are saying makes sense. Useless padding is annoying. However OP's video is more about inclusivity since the DLC is made for people who have reached level cap and needs to be played on the hardest difficulty. To be honest I dislike this too, but Team Ninja does this with their previous games like Nioh and Nioh 2, so I get why they do it again. Basically they intend for the DLC to be played by hardcore players. But yeah, there should probably be an easy DLC mode too just to experience the story.
@@Bahamut998 I see where you're coming from now but I would use the word accessibility over inclusivity. I remember the issue with Pokemon games and some overseas games but the difficulty was either overwhelming or underwhelming that when the games get localized they add in a new difficulty or fix some coding that makes the game more accessible for people who want a different difficulty or more balance learning curb. Inclusivity I'd reference an I think it was overwatch ad where they were doing a quick character bio showcasing them as non binary. My take was why would that matter in a shooter game, if this was a romance visual novel ok but I'm pretty sure the guys I'm shooting at have more priorities to worry about over wondering if the characters that's shooting at them I choose has preferred pronouns.
Why are you implying that people who like this game aren't grown ups or value their time?
I had a very similar experience and was extremely frustrated for hours until I figured out (maybe?) the intended path for players like me.
Hitting Triangle on the mission start button lets you select Extra Mode, which gives you permanent chaos mode and infinite MP. This, paired with the Runic Protection skill makes you literally invincible, allowing you to farm even ilvl400 missions with no problems. Extra Mode doesn't drop artifact gear or bahamut tokens, but it does allow you to quickly bump up your gear, as well as play through the DLC story.
Is playing this was "fun?" Eh. It's relaxing if you're listening to a podcast or something, and it at least lets you see the content, or boost your preparedness.
That's exactly how i played the entire DLC: Selected a mission, Activate Extra Mode and abused the hell out of the fact that i had unlimited MP. I quickly discovered while using the Sage job (works with any of the magic caster jobs that uses black magic), if you spam cast Water or Quake you can stun lock and air juggle the vast majority of the trash mobs, making you virtually untouchable. Can't juggle the bosses, but playing keep away and letting your allies get the boss's attention while spamming magic attacks from a safe distance got the job done quickly enough
Using aero on tomberries is also a good stun lock strat
I agree with you David. Ultimately playing games should be done because it's fun. There's no fun if you're constantly getting knocked back, despite trying to work on your skills and gameplay of whatever game it is. I can understand if there's a trophy for playing on a certain difficulty mode but forcing the hardest mode onto players is not fun or cool.
You can launch all the new missions in extra mode which gives you unlimited guard and my then just equip the ability that makes your mp take damage instead of your health and voila you are immortal but keep an eye out for warrior of lights attack called radiant slashes that will get rid of your buff to stop that from happening just hold circle when he uses it this is how I beat the dlc hope it helps everyone and yes I agree forcing players to go to these extremes is still BS
I understand your situation. But tbh you just convinced me to get it. Thanks for the review.
Instead of saying "git gud" like anyone else (which is a dumb excuse usually), I would just like to point out that Cuphead's DLC is only $8 despite them working really hard on it. It adds more difficult bosses along with other perks. Even people who don't like overly difficult games enjoy it. Square made this shit overpriced for less effort, there really is no excuse.
I know it seems irrelevant, but it just came out a month ago and is fresh in my mind on how to do difficulty and DLC right. Hard games are fun, but they shouldn't eat into both your wallet and your time.
Thanks for this video. I just finished the main story on Story difficulty, and I thought it was a reasonable level of challenge without ever feeling overly frustrating. Except for the final boss. That one took me a while.
I was thinking about getting the DLC, but if it locks you into an insane difficulty mode, that's not for me.
Bahamut mode is not that hard if you have the right build. At first, yeah, it is brutal. For me, the Summoner job made the game like a walk in the park. I’m 35 yrs old, have FT job, drives and pick up my wife to/from work, but still managed to conquer Bahamut mode.
If you just want to finish the story, there’s an option where chaosbringer is always active, then use sentinel, and the ability that reduces your mp instead of hp when taking damage. That way you will not die as chaosbringer doesn’t use mp.
And also, maybe try to learn some of the basics like target locking as you don’t seem to be not doing it based on your footage. And also soul shield, this mechanic is a must especially against warrior of light. This game is not a typical hack and slash game.
This was exactly my experience at first!
Also, my previous build was broken and nerfed by some patch 😓
In other words I was lost… I didn’t even know what to do.
So I found this place where you can find lots of bahamut treasures.
In the water shrine there’s a side quest named “The Rebel”.
Activate Bahamut mode, unlock lvl 400 and max every Bahamut trial option to get the largest multiplier… this way the mission will give you over 1200 Bahamut treasures.
Start the mission, you don’t need to kill anything, just run like crazy all the way to the save point.
Once saved, return and go to the room with the mind flyers below, there’s a chest with the key there. Open the chest fast before the mobs kill you. Once it’s done, let them kill you anyway… you will respawn next to the hallway were a malboro and the gigas is, use the key to face them.
First face the hill gigas, walk towards him, forcing him to walk backwards to the edge. Do an attack that pushes him from the plataform and he will be dead.
The malboro must be lured, stay next to the edge, it will use bite, make sure to dodge that and after you cam push it out of the plataform as well. Mission complete.
Obs. Staff is awesome for pushing them, “hit + hit + hit + special” and they fall.
Yeah the people who say "Git Gud" in regards to Souls-like games usually say it to deflect criticism about the games flaws and don't like it when other gamers bitch about accessibility.
Also the fact that the DLC forces you to play on the hardest difficulty is a dick move on SE's part and in some ways makes the DLC unplayable.
The "Git Gud" crowd also cannot comprehend that My Gameplay Experience != Their Gameplay Experience and that My Gameplay Experience has nothing at all to do with them, and their gameplay experience has nothing at all to do with me. Me being able to play a Soulslike on Easy Mode has absolutely nothing to do with them, so long as multiplayer is disabled (which I would be 1,000,000% fine with). They are just entirely unable to grasp the concept, and they act like *nobody* should play a Soulslike if they aren't good enough, period. Because "DURRR IT'S THE WAY IT WAS DESIGNED TO BE DURRRRRR"
There are a 100 games that come out a year, people who wants accessible games for everyone (cause of whom developers have to nerf the enemy Ai so that casuals don't whine) have no shortage of options cause 90% of games coming out especially from western developers have dumb enemies for casual players while the 10% of games coming out are catered to players like me who want the enemy Ai to not hold back so that I can have that feeling of satisfaction when I beat a boss in a souls game, MHW, winning a battle royale. That said I hate games where developers make the bosses and enemies damage sponge instead of coding them with better combat Ai. I don't like bosses that take an hour just cause they have a ton of health instead of being a smart enemy with good combat Ai.
@@kavishhurbungs3152 Here's a clue for you: It's called a _Difficulty Slider_ which most games have. If you like hard games, then awesome. That's what "Hard", "Nightmare" etc are for. And besides, very rarely do these "hard" games have actually hard enemy AI -- most of them are simple as crap, this game included. It's just the difference between "Story" and "Chaos" is simply "Enemy does more damage when they hit" and "You do less damage when you hit them" and "It takes more to break their defenses" and other stuff. Just "Bigger Number is Harder Than Smaller Number" and that's just lame Artificial Difficulty.
Yes, sure, it's "harder" to perfect dodge for 10 minutes instead of 30 seconds and you get to make fewer mistakes because it simply does more damage, but it's also boring as frick when it takes so darn long to kill anything because of inflated numbers.
Also, I'd like you to point out an easier, more casual game that has similar gameplay, exploration, and aesthetic that the Souls franchise has. Oh wait, there isn't one. Apparently "3D Exploration ARPG that isn't a button masher" automatically means it has to be difficult ontop of that.
@@Dhalin Most games that have difficulty slider rely on cheap tactics like enemies being damage sponge with tons of health that takes forever to beat, that's why I am not the biggest fan of SOP but you were talking negatively about the ''git gud'' crowd, git gud is a sacred phrase in the soulsborne community, it's more of a playful expression rather than something used to attack other players. Btw I agree with you that SOP is taking the cheap and artificial way of enhancing difficulty rather than coding/programming the enemy AI with better combat Ai. It's just that everytime something is hard in a game, oh it's trying to be dark souls. Dark souls and fromsoft games don't rely on cheap tactics like buffing enemies and bosses health so that they take forever to beat like SOP, that's why Fromsoftware made sekiro which does not rely on loot and armor/weapon stats to artificially give a sense of difficulty, instead player skill is the determining factor.
Personally I'm playing it on Hard, so I don't mind. I play all turn-based &/or action-based Jrpgs on the highest Difficulty I'm able, otherwise the reward of the story and cutscenes is Too Easy and not as enjoyable.
However, I agree, that as a whole accessibility should be a thing. If the Regular FF:O had Story, Normal and Hard, then I honestly don't know why'd they'd Skill Wall block certain ppl who played on the EZ Mode difficulties, sound dumb as fuck💯
My brother in Christ, use the lock on
Great video thou
Thank you so much for the review. After beating the game myself, I learned about how the endgame is all about grinding on Chaos for higher gear levels. I gave it an hour or two before I realized it was absolutely no fun at all (way too hard, and I consider myself an above-average action game veteran). If this DLC makes you play where the enemies are HP sponges and can one-shot you in return, I have no interest.
Best part of the game was leveling up jobs and unlocking new ones. I love a good skill tree, so most of the game gave me that rewarding gameplay loop.
This is what you get when tryhards get too vocal and they go "OMG ITS TOO EZ!!!!!!" and the rest of us normal players are going "eh wtf?". I hate that. You see this BS in nearly every RPG game on Steam, you'll get some idiots popping up in the comments whining about how the game is "too easy". And of course, developers hear these comments and they somehow think that this is the average person who thinks stuff is just too darn easy. We also see this a lot in FF14, the Savage Raiding crowd tends to be the loudest, even though they are vastly out-numbered by the casuals. Thankfully, Yoshi-P seems to be a bit more reasonable about stuff in general. Too bad they couldn't have taken that same philosophy here. Too bad this wasn't a PC game, you could probably mod it to let you use the easier difficulty lol.
*cough* sorry im not a try hard but the game is easy if you give the game the respect it deserves and actually take into account all the fully well introduced mechanics they teach you to USE in the tutorial. And grind your way up gear lvl properly and patiently LIKE ANY souls game until you make a build that fully revolves around your class of choice and utilizing your sub class as well as the weapon type and then meshing that altogether with proper enemy awareness combat positioning combat button timing. None of this REQUIRES a try hard to understand but a person who truly loves the Hack and slash genre of games like DMC, God of war etc.. etc.. when you sit down and you play the game pressing the same god damn button over and over again expecting different results well don’t expect to look like us when WE play the game at our level, But don’t bash us players who respect the developers creation and use the tools they have given us to fully utilize to then slap these enemies in full finesse glory with relative ease at that. It is a sham to be calling us try hards on a game thats mostly a single player and non pvp experience, Instead if you want to visually watch the game be played in beautiful motion picture and cant do it your god damn selves then go watch pro gamers who do spend their damn time appreciating games like this and others for YOUR entertainment purposes. Don’t be a lousy prick and bash on pro gamers and blame us for the developers giving us something to challenge our skill. If you dont have the skill and then dont have the time to learn the skill but want to atleast view the game in that said skill gameplay style but you suck to damn bad to do it yourself, well then look no further go on twitch and find some pro gamers like myself and many others who will gladly oblige your lust to watch such good skillmanship of a game of your choice and yes i just made that word up fk off! Let this be the last time you or anyone calls us actually good players out of context and bash us for the sake of your incompetence to play the game the WAY it was meant to be played you want to play a game your way THEN MAKE ONE YOUR DAMN SELF! With your own mechanics!
*drops the mic*
@@zaydenblu266 Wow, someone's a tryhard lol.
A triggered one, at that.
You somehow completely missed the whole point of the video. You typed paragraphs upon paragraphs looking down your Seattle Space Needle Nose at everybody else, but failed to understand what the video is about.
The game gives you difficulty sliders so that everybody, including people who just wanna see the content and have a relaxed time, see the game.
Oh, but here's the DLC. And it absolutely must be played on not a _higher_ difficulty, but the *hardest* difficulty at that. It makes no flippin' sense whatsoever.
And again -- regardless of what kind of tactics you use, or don't use, it still slows the pace of combat and the game in general down to a snail's crawl. Not everybody likes killing the same sh*t over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again just to grind up some level or item level just so you can survive in battle. very few RPGs ask that of you, and even some of the grindiest JRPGs of yore, even the likes of 7th Saga, don't even take anywhere near that long to grind up and it's probably one of the grindier SNES Old School JRPGs out there, the one everybody says is oh-so-hard (the original NA version I mean). Heck even Lufia 1 which can also be grindy, isn't as grindy as some of this crap.
No, I don't want to spend 5 minutes attacking the same enemy, and end up getting killed in one or two hits if I make a mistake only to have to do all of that all over again. No fricken thanks. Games should be _fun_ and that simply isn't fun. If *YOU* think it's fun, then fine, you crank that difficulty up. You do you.
But the game devs shouldn't be forcing _everybody_ to do that just to experience a DLC that they paid $$$$$$ for.
if u play the game on story or even action n actually pay attention to the tutorials n learn how to play, a child can beat this game. as an adult, u rly must hav a learnin disability if u cant make it thru this game.
@@teh0wnz0r76 Or maybe you are older and have slower reaction times. It's not knowing what to do, it's being able to react to the tiny windows and margins of error. I tend to HATE games with perfect block mechanics that want you to block 0.1s before the hit lands every single time, for example. No thanks. Also, screen clutter is getting to be a real problem in some of these games. Older peoples' eyes can have trouble keeping track of a million projectiles and other graphical effects to focus on the important stuff, and/or games that are too highly detailed can sometimes be difficult to pick out what you really want to pay attention to on the screen.
Also, I tend to dislike games that throw a ton of mechanics at you all at once. You'll have mechanics inside of mechanics inside of mechanics. It ain't enough to just have a magic system with spell elements. Oh no, you have to also have each enemy having a different resistance against each element, and inside of that, each character can cast each element at some set effectiveness on different days of the week, what type of battlefield matters as far as power of spells, and then whether or not you said a prayer before you cast the spell, and how many times you mashed the confirm button before the animation went off, and then after all of that, hopefully you timed it to the drum beats of the background music or the spell will only land at half power... (being sarcastic here, but half jokingly so as some games really do get ridiculous).
I miss the olden days when you just had just normal mechanics that didn't need an encyclopedia to figure out how to make a competent build.
@@Dhalin u can literally make urself invincible
There's an "infinite chaos mode" which allows you to remain in chaosbringer mode like in the final mission.
It's literally easy mode for hard difficulties. Maybe it wasn't there 3 months ago, but it's there now, a huge popup message will let you know, all you have to do is start the mission and press Y on an xbox or triangle on a playstation (dunno which for pc).
I still can't believe that in a game all about "warriors of light" they don't let you have a four person party lol why do new FF games just HATE four people parties? When that is what the franchise was built on?
If you haven’t played the game then you will realize that was a misnomer all along
FF has had a bit of a time experimenting on what works best on party size. It indeed started with 4 people, went up to 5 people in FF4, but went back down to 4 in 5 and 6... then went down to 3 for 7 and 8, and I think 9? Actually, 10 as well... to be honest, 5 is too many: SOMEONE always ends up feeling like the "extra 5th wheel" in the group. I've played quite a few JRPGs outside of Final Fantasy, and I can tell you that 5 person groups typically don't work. Four person groups can be good, but the party needs to be built in such a way that you don't end up with a "meh" character taking up the 4th slot on the roster. Some games do this, others.... don't. In 3 person games, each person feels vastly more important, especially if they were designed well. Many JRPGs go with 3 for this reason: each feels more important. With 4 people, you start running into the risk of revive item spam to cheese the harder bosses, since that is very difficult to do with a 3 person party, but yet more manageable with a 4 person party in many cases.
I dont want developers straying from their artistic intent. If they want to make a hard game, make a hard game. I don’t want a Dark Souls “easy mode” that caters to casuals in everything, its perfectly fine IMO for games to present a rigid challenge level that not everyone can meet if that’s what a studio wants to do. There’s plenty of classic NES games I know I cant beat and will never be able too, Im OK with that, It’s just not for me. That said this seems like a bait and switch which isn’t cool if they let you play the base game at an easier “story” setting and then charge you $30 only to take away that option for their ridiculously overpriced story DLC, that’s pretty shitty. The DLC blueprint for this game alone is the reason I didnt buy it, seems like I made the right choice.
It would seem like the devs wanted their expansion to have that Nioh or Souls like difficulty.
@@johnnyjets2343 that’s fine and if its not clearly stated to people before buying the $30 DLC that theyre locked into a hard mode before purchase, that’s a bait and switch. Which is why David is right to take issue with it.
@@ethanhunt3242 oh I agree with you there. They should preface the fact that the dlc is hard. But they also have the right to make an expansion for the hardcore challenge if that is what the devs want to do.
@@johnnyjets2343 No I think the devs wanted to treat this dlc as endgame content similar to how destiny 2 and other MMOs raid content can't be played on easier difficulties but other activities in destiny 2 can be played on lower difficulties. If this game wanted to be soulslike, it would not have difficulty options in the 1st place. This dlc is a page straight outta MMOs endgame content.
Please do some research. $30 for the season pass, which is 3 dlcs. In Bahamut mode, there is also an Extra Mode that makes Bahamut mode even easier than the story mode. It's literally in his video at 3:46
And idk if you have watched his gameplay. No lock on. No dodging. No soul breaks/shield. He's ignoring half the game because he wants to. He admits it being souls like, yet wants to play hack n slash. Guess what, Extra Mode let's you hack n slash through all endgame content. So idk what he's talking about
I don't see the point of making games artificially difficult by giving every single enemy a ton of health and massive damage. At the end, even if you have good reflexes, makes the game painful to play.
Yeah, that's the thing I don't understand either. Okay so it takes you 100 hits to kill something instead of 5 hits. All you're doing is proven you can block/dodge 100 times instead of 5 to kill that one enemy. It turns a battle from 30 seconds into 5 minutes+ and it just makes the game insanely repetitive.
For a comparison, this would be like making it so you could only play the Nioh 2's Tengu Disciple, Darkness In The Capital, and The First Samurai on Dream Of The Demon, Dream Of The Wise, and Dream Of The Nioh, respectively (these were the highest NG+ difficulties when each respective DLC released).
I mean, ignoring the "git good" comments and stuff, knowing that someone played mostly rpgs, there seems to be a feature a lot of people ignore.
I know that usually people just stick with one weapon, but after clearing the game, I believe they were expecting players to know some weapon or elemental weaknesses on some enemies, how the stat system works and depending on that, which attacks are affected or what abilities to unlock depending on the weapon or base job.
I hit the difficulty wall on the dlc, but after actually reading how the system works... Some builds are just broken...
Others like agility (specially with daggers) are garbage and I can't seem to make it work.
For example, katana breaker with garo spam with strength builds is pretty much a 1 hit kill on every trash mob.
In terms of grinding, you could also cheese it unlocking a higher level stage like 300, kill the 1st trash mob, get a drop, reset.
Weirdly enough, most of the difficulty on this game could actually be lowered not by getting but but theory crafting instead, since a lot of builds are simply broken.
I like added difficulty. When it's optional, so we can play as we like it. Forcing people to grind to have a minimal shot at paid DLC is a great disconnection with your players at best, scummy at worst.
I'll eventually play this game, probably at the end of the current generation lifetime, when it's in the bargain bin on a sale, but that's probably it.
Have you tried learning the game? Letting your big brother complete the game for you isnt the same as playing
This is the very definition of being out of touch with your customer base. Sorry you had to learn a $30 lesson, David.
Speaking of playing games with RPG-ish mechanics on Story Mode, have you ever played God of War? Not the original one for PS2, the re-released one for PS4 and then PC.
Difficulty is NOT accessibility. If a disabled person can beat the game on Chaos and Bahamut, it isn't an issue of ability.
I hate when people use disability as an excuse for poor player skill.
I noticed the Sea Shrine in this game is not same one in the original Final Fantasy. Since the Sea Shrine in original, had stone pillars like it did in ancient Greece and Rome. The Sea Shrine in Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy, by contrast. Has a laboratory area, and robots. Instead of the ancient greek and roman motif.
This is explained. The bad guys designed the areas based on other ff games. The sea shrine is based on a moko reactor. The sky temple is actually pretty close to how it was in the original game where it was meant to be a satellite base in orbit
Maybe it's more about that the dlc isn't targeted to your interests, like cosmetics to your characters, those aren't for everyone. The story in it this expansion is almost null (so story difficulty has no place) and is more about creating builds, getting trashed, adjusting your build and try again.
More info on the content of DLC would be welcome to avoid this kind of nasty surprises.
I agree the solution is to put on equipment with 400 percent total knight affinity and play in extra mode (press triangle instead of x to start level)
Sorry but if you went into the game hoping for a fun casual experience, team ninja isnt exactly known for that. You can defintely break the game but its from the same developers for nioh so honestly expecting any dlc from them to be casual is setting yourself up for failure.
Either you learn the mechanics and intricacies which tbh isnt that complicated or get rekt. Getting gud may be unjustified in alot games but for these types of games, its a geniune suggestion
No offense intended but I do think a couple pieces of important context are missing here.
1) yes it’s silly you have to pay $30 for the DLC but it does include the 2 upcoming DLC packs as well. They should allow players to buy them individually but $30 for just this isn’t the full truth.
2) Extra mode is the DLCs easy mode. I want to give you a pass and say you never noticed it but you literally show it in your video at the 3:46 mark. Combined with the Sentinal ability you are essentially invincible and can play through all the story content just fine.
That being said the lack of individual DLC purchases (instead forcing people to buy the pass) is a valid criticism. I also agree that the story content should’ve had the other difficulty levels outright.
All that said, I have nothing but respect that you finished the game on any difficulty given your game preferences. So kudos there. I just feel your point could’ve still been made while being more fair to what the game actually offered.
You bring up a very fair point about lack of lower difficulties on the DLC being an extremely odd oversight, but I don't think that's the whole issue here. I don't think this fair review, and it almost seems disingenuous at worst.
I'm not a "hardcore" gamer but even I can see a lack of game mechanics being utilised here - your battle footage is very telling. I don't know if you've done this deliberately to emphasis your point.
The complaints here can clearly be linked to "skill issue" based on footage. It looks like you've ignored several core game mechanics entirely. You aren't using key skills like soul shield, parrying, dodging (which doesn't even cost stamina BTW!), job switching/chain cancelling, lightbringer or even building up MP for action abilities? Not even pressing R3 for camera lock-on or basic crowd control in mobs (you're missing a ton of your close range attacks). Nor are you respecting the enemy's attacks: eg against the skeletons you're rushing in with moves that have long animations and expecting a win by simply spamming and zero dodging? You say you're a turn based JRPG guy but you've also ignored enemy weaknesses and tried strong-arming your way through enemy resistances as well (against the robot soldiers for example)? These are all basics which are drilled into you in the base tutorial levels at the wheat field btw, they aren't obfuscated mechanics that require looking into external resources (you can even soul shield unblockable attacks in story difficulty!). In higher difficulty, the enemies are obviously going to be spongier and more aggressive, especially relative to your gear on first instances.
FYI, You can quickly equip better loot on chaos difficulty in the base game at level 300 with minimal grinding. Its hard at first jumping from level 150 to 300, but after a few dry runs at the hardest difficulty and equipping loot from, say, the first 6 or so defeated enemies you'll be well on your way (you can just use auto optimise in battle settings, no shame in initially doing this on a difficulty spike). Inclusion of higher difficulty along with an increased level cap + matching gear and new class options is more than welcome.
The game's story was never where it shined (the memes from last year was evidence of that). Its a "Nioh" game known for its excellent combat mechanics with unique twists like soul shielding and mid-combo job switching (which gets tested fairly in this game on higher difficulties for the most part. Again, you have to respect the enemy encounters and mechanics) and it seems you've missed that.
Pre-emptively throwing ad hominems and lashing out against hypothetical Souls-like gamers whilst trying to hide behind supposedly noble causes like accessibility is also a strange coping strategy and not the graceful look you might think it is.
To conclude, the higher difficilty and increased level cap is a great idea for inclusion especially for a challenging game that throws a lot of easy upgrades and loot that can be acquired on a decent playthrough. But I do agree that the lack of lower difficulties is an odd ommision as it won't just be megafans that are interested. You're overselling the difficulty aspect though, and you've clearly missed key game mechanics. Please, I'm sure you could make a better review in future.
I agree that it’s ridiculous to require players to play on the hardest difficulty. Kind of defeats the purpose of having difficulty options. However, from watching your gameplay footage I don’t see any attempt to lock on or dodge or otherwise engage with the game’s base gameplay mechanics. Again, if you want to plow through the story mode, swinging your sword without worrying about playing defensively, that is totally fine and you should be given that option in this DLC as it was available as a strategy in the base game. But I think it mischaracterizes how difficult the game truly is if you just watch the footage here. Not saying it’s not difficult (it is, and is often unfair in my opinion). I’m just saying there are ways to mitigate the challenge not being shown here. (I’ll backtrack slightly by saying it’s been months since I last played this game so maybe I’m too far removed from the gameplay to see those mechanics are being use and I’m just not seeing it for whatever reason).
$30 for this nonsense? Ridiculous!
It's SE what you expect?
I am not going to tell you to get good, thats just your own choice.
But I don't believe making a game easier is a matter of accessibility, if a game is made deliberately hard, thats just a choice for the devs only to decide. I am not a teenager, I am a adult that doesn't have time too and I enjoy and play mostly challenging, difficult games, I am not saying anyone can or should do it, but playing or buying a game you know is difficult is mostly your own choice, not something to complain to the devs for, unless the game is really unbalanced (If it is the case for this game, then it would be understandable)
Also, I don't like this conflation of how people that want to play easier games and people with actual psychomotor illnesses are put under the same umbrella of accessibility, I think its infantalizing people that are crippled, like they can't play difficult games when many of them find their own ways to play, and it should be an entire sepatated discussion of how devs can accomodate them without understimating them.
David, I know we probably will have to agree to disagree on this topic, I don't know how this comment is going to come out for you because english is a 2nd language and i am still learning so for some final clarification: I want to say that either way I respect your opinion and that you are a cool guy, so i hope i don't come off like i hold some ill will towards you.
Cheers.
I ONE HUNDRED PERCENT agree with conflating difficulty and accessibility options (which are for actual disabled people) is a bullshit thing. If a game is made a certain way to fit an artists vision that should be acceptable. Obviously it’s a little problematic here due to other difficulties being available in the base game but i digress.
We're going to have to disagree on that inane "artistic design" argument. If you want Hard Soulslike, then have at it. If I want easy Soulslike, my gaming experience does not in any way interfere with your gaming experience. If I sit down with a RAM editor and give myself infinite HP in Dark Souls to cheese O&S, this does not affect your own experience of playing Dark Souls (just using an example). I mean, you could add an Easy mode to Dark Souls and it would not detract from your gaming experience in any way unless you somehow accidentally started the game with that option (then just start again on the default one).
As for accessibility and disability... well, many disabilities make it very difficult for said disabled person to play harder games. SOME people are able to overcome -- with insane amounts of time and effort put into a game. MOST people do not have that luxury. If you only have the use of one hand, or maybe you have half the reaction time than a healthy individual, you are not going to be as effective in games as a person who does not have such handicaps without some insane work-arounds, practice, etc. Which, again, not everybody has.
A game that has an easier difficulty mode could let said people enjoy games that would be otherwise too difficult or not worth the monumental effort to overcome, especially when it comes to RPGs. RPGs typically feature a lot of story, cutscenes, etc. Is it such a crime to want to be able to see a game's story, explore the game's world, and see how it goes without having to constantly fight with the difficulty, especially if you have some sort of disability?
It has nothing to do with "underestimating" them, it's a simple fact that, for example, adding a difficulty mode that makes you take 50% less damage and deal 50% more damage is going to make it twice as easy so that someone who has a disability can make twice the mistakes and still pass. Or maybe someone else who just lacks the skill, that easier difficulty is the difference between enjoying the game, and quitting in frustration.
And again.... where in the frick does someone else enjoying a single-player experience hurt you? How does that detract from your experience? Absolutely nobody can answer that, because it doesn't.
@@Dhalin If you want to mod a game to make it easier for you to play, thats not my problem and I am not going to laugh at you, and also not my argument, but if a game is difficult and has no difficulty slider, thats the choice of the devs, who they want to market the game too.
I don't think anything has to appeal to everyone, everytime, thats just feels souless (pardon the obvious pun).
And I am sorry but if you want to enjoy the lore or story of a game that much, I am sure a lets play on youtube would suffice, I mean, you still get the story and details right?
Like I said, accomodating people with disabilities is an entire different discussion from "I'm too old to play this game, I am probably not even the actual target audience of the game but I will complain anyway just because i can" it just turns into a old man screaming at clouds moment like in the Simpsons.
Yes, Its true that you having fun your own way doesn't affect me and I am not against you, more power to you. But I respect more the devs intent than people that buy a game they know they don't like just so they can complain about it, because its popular, the market has tons of options of easy, relaxing games and you can even mod games, so why are you acting so miserable? You don't even need to play a game to enjoy its story, when you have dedicated channels on yt that post story content and lore discussion, It seems to me you want to be included into something you don't actually like and change it for your convenience and I don't understand that. It would be like me getting into barbie dolls and complaining about why Ken doesn't look like more like a Jojo character for my enjoyment, Its ridiculous.
@@edfmed1080 Sure, that's a dev decision, but it's still a stupid one, and needs to be called out for being a stupid design decision so we can get devs to stop making stupid design decisions. A difficulty slider _does not_ hurt a game in any way.
And he's not saying "I'm too old" he's saying "me being older makes it harder for me" which is a valid complaint: _most_ older people feel a loss in motor skills over the years, especially the 35+ crowd. I, myself, am in this boat. I'm a guy who cleared Battletoads back during the NES 2.0 days (I usually used a game genie, but the GG would not fit in the top-loading NES) but these days, my motor skills just aren't as fast, snappy, or accurate as they once were.
This happens to nearly everybody whether they like to admit or not, and games should very much take that into consideration. There's no excuse behind locking large bits of content behind difficulty levels, or not offering some sort of method to make the game easier, especially in a game with RPG mechanics. Even Dark Souls allows you to grind, an SL200+ character can kill just about anything in the first playthrough with little difficulty.
But this game? Not only does it give you a difficulty slider, it asks you to plunk money down for a DLC and then says "nope, Bahumat or nothing". And while many other games lock optional bosses behind harder difficulties, I tend to dislike large portions of story content getting the same treatment, too.
For example, in World of Warcraft, the past couple expansions, they locked story heavy dungeons behind Mythic (the hardest 5-man dungeon difficulty that you cannot queue up for) which was just asinine.
@@Dhalin I agree that what was implemented by this game in particular wasn't the best option honestly.
I am a big fan of games like Nioh, but this one is a weird bargain. If the game originally had accesibility built in, they should've respected that for the DLC.
maybe they changed their minds and wanted their dlc to be akin to Nioh or the Souls series of difficulty?
For $30?! They should at least warn you that you have to play on the hardest difficulty.
The season pass is $30
Thank you for avoiding spoilers 🙏
No offence but the way u fought the WOL was abysmal and you should have never even touched hard.
your completely right why should we raise our blood pressure to play a game I personally refuse
The option is at the purchase point. I don't think it's reasonable to expect developers to cater to every type of player all the time, it's up to the individual to determine whether or not a game or piece of content is suitable to them before purchasing it.
But it doesn’t make sense for the base game you play on easy but then dlc make it locked through the hard difficulty
I think it unfair
And plus it’s was paid dlc, the devs coulda said in a blog post or something that ‘this only going be playable on the newly added difficulty, pls be aware before buying’
But they didn’t
I don’t feel that asking for a option to play it on easier difficulties would be too much to ask
not everyone should be able to complete the hardest difficulties. Thats why its there, for a challenge.
That's not the point. The point is that the whole base game had difficulty options. And for no reason both dlc's took this option away. Therefore non-skilled non-ds-vets spend money on dlc's they can never finish in the first place. False advertising I guess. That's why soulslikes NEVER should have any difficulty options! The balance is complete garbage if you put in those settings. So either way it's a proper FF game with difficulty settings, OR it's a proper soulslike without any. Like Nioh and Wo Long. But not this half-half bs. That's why it's only a 6/10 game. FF players hate the dlc's and for soulsvets the base game is too easy.
@@sensoeirensen so because a few people cant do it, the rest of us who can need to "suck it up" lmfao literally GIT GOOD
David you explaining how painful this game is was hilarious. Im sorry it sucked to go through but im glad you turned it into humor!
I feel you on this, 100%. I've pretty much stayed far, far away from any game described as souls-like. This isn't fun to me, and I don't have the time or patience anymore. I'm 40 years old, and I have a house, a husband, my family, a full time job, and a huge backlog. I love to play games for the story, and I don't mind a little bit of a challenge. I prefer a mental challenge more so than a muscle memory challenge, and then beyond that, if it's too difficult, I'm just not going to keep playing. Gamers are a spectrum, and some people really enjoy learning and mastering difficult games, and some people just want to relax and farm or enjoy an engrossing story, and I personally like it when a game can cater to both. Especially a Final Fantasy game. It's really too bad they locked the DLC in this manner. Such a shame as it's my favorite franchise.
Two things, the dlc is 25 dollars, you likely bought the digital upgrade for 30. Number two, the being locked to a single difficulty is bull, but your comment on those of us that like hard games like dark souls needing “a year and a half” is just plain wrong. This is NOT tekken, it’s nowhere near that hard. Once you get passed the frustration of dying and seek to improve, you will. But again, i get the frustration with a single difficulty mode being available with this dlc, it likely should be in a disclaimer if this was their intended way of playing it. Just fyi and the ageist stuff for who can get good, a lot of souls players are older…I’m 33 for instance and work at least 8 hours of overtime a week.
"Ageist" ... can you guys stop inventing new "ist" words? FFS. Also, Age affects different people in different ways. I know someone about my age (I'm 42) and he has hands that shake so bad that he can barely pull a dollar bill out of his wallet, but yet I am reasonably competent at a variety of games and I have rather good motor control.
@Dawn Razor that’s a load of shit of I’ve ever heard one. As though any game is more of less worth your time
@@Dhalin it’s not a new word, you simply don’t know of it.
@@morriganrenfield8240 And how long exactly has it been around? Was it invented roughly the same time as all the newer "ism" and "ist" words 5-10 years ago when all this crap started? /shrug I don't really care, but I'm tired of everything being an "ist" or an "ism" these days. People need to grow a spine and stop being offended by every little thing.
to be fair, you at fighting trash mob is just you mashing the button like mad lol
Ironic, that I was thinking of picking up this game today. I figured "Maybe 40 is enough for me to put money into a game made by Square Enix" I said to myself, on my break at work. Nah, I think I'm gonna wait even longer, until this game becomes cheap. I wanna support them, but I just have a hard time supporting their lack of expansive console releases, and this... When will the chaos end, where they can become a respectable game company again? Only time will tell.
3:22 why arent you locking on?
You are welcome to have your opinion, and I won't tell you to git gud, or whatever, but I'm 33 and a father with a full-time job and it really doesn't bother me when games do this. I do my research and decide ahead of time what to spend my money on, and sometimes I want something to really test me, sometimes I want to chill so I buy and play what is appropriate for each feeling.
It sounds like this kind of game just isn't really for you, which is fine and isn't meant to be a dig at you or anything of that nature, but I don't agree at all with this argument for accessibility by removing the need for skill in order to access all content. This is not the way games were built when I was younger and isn't the way games should be made today. Developers should tune their games the way that they intend them to be played and players should do the proper research and decide what games are appropriate for them.
So you just decided not to block or should shield? It’s not the games fault if you don’t use it’s mechanics to succeed ….
Did you know? I noticed the original Final Fantasy is connected to Final Fantasy 2, 3, 4, 4 The After Years, 5, and 6. These 7 games along the original Final Fantasy are interconnected this entire time. A theory I discussed here, is these games are part of one timeline through the timeloops of death and rebirth. I might the original 6 Final Fantasy games including The After Years, as the classic timeline.
Unfortunately, I saw this coming. I'm no pro at Souls-like games or anything, but I have beaten all Souls games, Bloodborne and Elden Ring, and all DLCs (at least for the games that have them), and I've also beaten the first Nioh from the same dev as this game. The thing is, the first DLC for Nioh tore me a new one in a way nothing else I've ever played in this genre had done before, to the point where I eventually just gave up on it.
So, knowing this game was by the same dev, I somewhat expected this same thing to happen, so I bought the base game (which I agree was a ton of fun, and exceeded my expectations), but I took a wait and see approach in regards to the Season Pass. And, yeah, as soon as I saw someone who's considerably better at these games than me get burnt out quickly on the DLC, I knew I made the right call, LOL
Obviously, the counter argument here is that Souls-like games aren't meant to be accessible, and that people who can't handle them should simply stay away, or just watch others play. For FromSoft games, I understand that, even if I'm not fully onboard with it, but considering this game already had difficulty settings for its base game, taking all of that away for the DLC is indeed "BULLSHIT", as our friend Jack himself would say, lol
Also this is still marketed as a FF game (FF as a franchise isn't known for being incredibly difficult or challenging unlike something like SMT) so having fixed difficulty lore/gameplay locked behind paid DLC on top of an already niche game kinda just throws the cat among the pigeons.
Honestly FF SoP is giving me some Dissidia NT vibes and not in a good way, where only a few FF fans will truly enjoy it while most FF fans will either skip it or straight up hate it for being too inaccessible/different while the causal audience won't even know about the game existing.
A shame really the game had some legitimately interesting mechanics but I can definitely see it becoming the black sheep of the non-numbered games kinda like how FF2 is to the numbered mainline games.
I'm with you about difficulty in games in general. Not all of us have the time and energy to devote. Some of us (like me) have learning, cognitive, and motor coordination/muscle memory impairments that prevent us from "getting good" no matter how hard or how intelligently we work at it. Heightened difficulty has its place: that thrills and rewards some people. Some games should be designed and marketed for their demanding challenges, catering specifically to those players. But many of the rest of us just want to explore and enjoy the gameplay, setting, characters, and see the story play out. I think it's fair if certain challenges within a game are super difficult: with achievements or other unlockables as an extra reward for those capable of surmounting those challenges. But paying for an entire DLC that only elite players stand a chance at, when that upends expectations set by the base game, is just so maddening.
Yeah, even as someone who didn't play through the game on the story difficulty, I still don't understand the stupid reasoning behind forcing the hardest difficulty for a paid DLC
"Im gunna call Bullsh*t on that too" HAHAH!
I made it all the way to Gilgamesh mode got all level 500 gear and I get one shot by nearly everything still, I beat Bahomoth and warrior of light and just unlocked the labyrinth and I just can’t with this game anymore EVERY SINGLE BUILD I look up would require a fuck ton of grinding to get just the right amount of affinity so you can just one shot everything which is also just not fun. I’m fairly certain they did not do any play testing for these new missions it’s rather play a super meta one shot build or eat shit and die.
I am 27. But I don't enjoy the get good tip from Dark Souls. Actually King's Field did it first. Not Dark Souls. I am 27, I may still have my youth boyish appearance. But, I can't enjoy games like King's Field and Dark Souls hard difficulty. It took me two or three weeks to beat King's Field 2 on ps1. But that was like back in 2018.
An action RPG with as many build combinations shouldn't make "getting gud" the only way to clear content. Good ARPG's allow the player to either strategize a build effectively to make combat easier, or allow them to still clear content with average setup if they are skilled enough. If they wanted to go down the "get gud" route then what is even the point of having RPG elements?
I can perfectly understand your problems and such (SoP was my 1st souls like game as well) but I spend a lot of time learning about the systems and thinking to myself how I can twist/break it in my favor...yes the pain of going from the 'any difficulty allowed' base game story to the post game 'must play chaos' really pushes you to take advantage of EVERYTHING to even face basic mobs. Affinity bonuses, customizing gear skills, earning the limit releases from high chaos lvl mission clears to use the mastery point system, etc. To make actual builds around certain jobs for their unique action ability (I did most of the game as a tyrant/assassin combo, but swapped to a breaker/berserker set up for post game). It comes down to learning all the gimmicks and making them work for you.
Yes I can understand the hate for being forced into max difficulty to even access the DLC (but they did technically give some accessibility with the extra mode option even if that prevents you from earning the dragon treasures needed to progress the bahamut story)
Thank you David. Once again, you have saved me from a purchase that it looks like I didn’t need to make. You are right. Some of us are not young anymore and cannot spend all of our time grinding for levels or becoming experts at RPGS, though I did that plenty back in the day. Thank you for taking another one for the team. I will leave this to those who really enjoy the game and want to play more of it.
SE loves it's price gouging. We need to start saying no
yea 50$ for LiveALive on nintendo switch just for digital version. what a rip off. they clearly have become all about money and taking advantage of their fans obsessions
Yo bro, what you should have done was play chaos mode until you uncap the enough levels to 250
Skillcheck dlc that's dope af
Jesus that difficulty spike is nutz to ask of anyone this isn't just complaining u not only need the best equipment and skills in the game u also need the reaction times of professionals like it's almost impossible
Everyone’s different of course, but I enjoy actually grinding every aspect, not just speed running for loot, but leveling the classes to prep for Bahamut. Guess what peeps if you think 300 gear is all you need you’re sorely mistaken.
I donno I like the difficulty in souls like but I do understand not being able play it bcs of the skill check bcs they lock it behind the new difficulty the best I can say is have you tried it on extra mode I tend to play sage and spam spells hope this helps relieve some stress when playing
No way! I was about to buy this and then I stopped and found this video. I do not need this in my life at all. I barely have time to commit to gaming already. I have to use my lunch hour at work to play and grind. For now, I will stick with playing the Pixel Remasters on PC and enjoying something I can actually win at. Also, FF7 Crisis Core Reunion just came out and it is really nice! I recommend over this game too.
Lame. I'm in a similar situation with working full time and having other responsibilities. Not having a story mode difficulty for the DLC is going to be a hard pass for me.
Do you ever find yourself randomly whistling the Final Fantasy Legend II overworld music.....like me?
To be fair there was something you could do. You could have parried. But anyway, the fact that they locked DLC behind a difficulty is kind of ridiculous. I’m fine with it but it’s a pretty lousy move. I think it’s pretty grind based in general and I don’t love that. The “git gud” argument only works if you are criticizing a game for solely being hard and acting like it’s a bad game for that reason. This ain’t that. This is a game with an established difficulty slider that pulled a fast one. And this is why souls games shouldn’t have difficulty options!
To be totally honest I’m still trying to figure out how this DLC actually works. It’s confusing and weird.
Stupid question but why did you try to lvl the swordman's skill up this early? The weapons slow combos are non-existent plus you weren't able to finish it so that makes your point mute. Good try but you didn't even get the new class plus you need to use your party taping left or right on your dpad will force them to use a skill allowing you to get free hits in
I dont believe anyones gonna see this but after reading some of the comments i just have to say. I understand an see where people are coming from when a game is to difficult for them to play. But the truth is games are only as hard as you the player make them to be especially souls game. Personally i dont agree with this creator's review because he obviously dosent understand the game an coming from story difficulty is the reason why. An jumping from the easiest to the hardest difficulty at the press of a couple buttons will do that. Id like hin to replay the story again on higher difficulties an read what the game tells him to do so he can have a full understanding of the mechanics an try the dlc again an give a "fair" review. But it really scares me that a sizeable chunk of the older guys are complaining about something being to hard when im sure life in the 80's 70's was less accessible an there for harder. Compared to just about everything you need to know is a Google search away now.
I don't have anything against this IF the developer makes the high difficulty clear before buying.
this game and the DLC are amazing and I can't believe how many people get filtered. it's not that difficult. also the entire dlc was like 7 dollars.
David, I think you are a little confused. This crappy game is not a soul-like game. Dark Souls is not a mindless difficult game, it's challenging and the combat is deliberate. Once you press the attack button, you are committed to it, you need to wait until the attack animation ends before you can make another action. Combat is weighty, each hit counts, it's not a mindless combat where you can spam attack buttons and cancel animations.
Being difficult is not the main feature of souls-likes. It's the combat design. There are easy souls-likes, like Nioh and Elden Ring. I'm 42, I can play these games no problem. This Square game is nothing like that.
Extra mode + spam the fuck out of runic protection…….that’s literally how you have to play these dlc. I can see what they were going for with these dlcs making it a VERY slow natural progression for your iLevel frankly this absurd level progression would have been great if you only had 1 game and no online capabilities, it’s a very SNES era mentality. This progression could keep a person occupied for weeks maybe even months……..unfortunately the vast majority of us do not have that amount of time or the attention span for this. For those people you have Extra Mode and just span the hell out of runic protection for invincibility (honestly they should have just made extra mode just be god mode and a built in invincibility not having to juggle a buff)
I've given up on Squeenix. They won't see a dime from me for a full priced product ever again. It wasn't a single event or product, but the culmination of their behavior, and just seeing it in front of me.
It started with FFXV Universe, which ended up NOT being greater, or even equal to the sum of its parts. Matsuda saying "NFTs are the future" or whatever is another example. And while there are others, this right here means 3 strikes and you're out.
Also I agree with you David, developers are what they are _because of us._ Our kids will be gamers because they will see us playing, and if developers want lifelong customers they shouldn't leave their core customers out in the cold. Plus, 15 year olds don't have money ffs.
FYI as I didn't see anyone post this, the dlc is going to be 3 pieces
I'll just watch the cutscenes on RUclips, I can't even beat Chaos Advent, lol. I probably could if I took my time, but even with Mighty Strikes and Bravery, and other stacks, I just don't do enough damage. I'm not about to grind on this game, I play perfectly well, until both teammates die, then it's only a matter of time before I'm staggered from overuse of Soul Break, and then get one shot by either of two insta-kills moves. Most tedious shit I've ever done. Totally regretting the DLC, at least the base game was fun.
I recommend trying extra mode, press triangle when selecting chaos and above missions to get infinite MP and stamina
this game has weird difficulty options, it's intended to be played on hard on first playthrough and then go on chaos for ng+ and then do the DLC, but there's three difficulties below hard, which makes the DLC very jarring for almost everyone
makes it weirder that ff16 is an action rpg, we already have the nioh devs make a whole ARPG so why make the final fantasy devs (when turn based JRPGs are more popular than ever) make an ARPG
the worst part for me is that nioh 2's DLC's are a third of the price, can be played on any difficulty, and I'm pretty sure they have more content, squeenix fucked up
(also please lock on)
"Intended to be played on hard on first playthrough" ... that sounds like some of the most stupid game design decisions I have ever heard of. Who the frick sits down and goes "hmm. Okay we have Story Mode, Normal Mode, Hard Mode, and CHAOS Mode... I know, let's design the game so that you're supposed to start on Hard!" Whatever happened to NORMAL being, you know, NORMAL and how the game was originally intended to be, balance-wise? Literally every other game out there has a Normal Mode that the game defaults to, some kind of Easy mode for people who need a leg up (older folk, people with slow reactions, people who aren't particularly good at JRPG mechanics), and a Hard/Nightmare/Chaos/Whatever for people looking for a higher challenge. Some games have even higher challenges than that. But to lock an entire DLC behind the super-hard difficulty? wtf? That makes zero sense whatsoever.
@@Dhalin Oh that's nothing new, one of my favourite JRPGs of all time, Valkryrie Profile; Lenneth (another Square Enix IP) locks the best ending and post-game content behind higher difficulties plus playing on easy mode is actually the hardest playthrough since all the best items/equipment are difficulty locked meaning by the time you reach the endgame you're grossly underpowered to the point each battle takes forever to get through.
Ofc games like that were products of the times (90s) but seeing newer games make similar decisions but with paid DLC is pretty strange. Nothing wrong with difficult games but taking control and difficulty from the player while expecting them to pay extra for it, it quite ridiculous tbh.
@@lynxfresh5214 Lots of games lock a "true ending" behind harder difficulties. Sure, absolutely. But ... you don't pay *THIRTY DOLLARS* for it ahead of time.
@@Dhalin many games are intended to be played at it's harder difficulties, I am not trying to excuse this, I'm merely trying to explain it
I'm pretty sure at chaos mode there's an easy mission where you can just reflect fireballs back at bombs, if you unlock the level 300 version of that mission, playing it will get gear a hundred levels above bahamut mode's minimum lv.200 difficulty
@@jgn So basically the answer is to just abuse game mechanics until the game says "sure, ok, we'll give you a reasonable challenge" ... /eyeroll That sounds like even worse game design, TBH.
The reason it's because its endgame content.
Again, they should've marketed this game as Nioh with FF skins.
Gatekeeping casuals, based team ninja
I’m debating if I want to bother with the effort. I have level 397 Gear currently (I farmed gear on the second to the last mission on Bahamut mode maxed level).
I just want to do the Bahamut story line. I don’t want to replay levels over and over at a super hard difficulty just to start the DLC story line. Locking the DLC behind Chaos and Bahamut mode (which is even harder than Chaos) is just crap.
Hey! Please dodge my guy!!!!!!!!...lol You just stood up and heal the whole fight against the Warrior of Light...lol
I'm already of the opinion that DLC shouldn't be a thing - just include it with the base game instead of raking customers over the coals for double, triple, or even more - but $30 for one expansion is inexcusable. I'm also completely with you on the difficulty thing; like you, as soon as Playstation hit town, I was playing RPGs almost exclusively. Now, I did get back into Action titles when Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne twisted my arm into getting into the Devil May Cry series, and I started to gravitate more toward action-oriented games, but not everyone did that. I do applaud Final Fantasy for branching out and trying new things with an action-oriented game like this - if game franchises didn't do this, we never would've had Symphony of the Night - BUT it IS still Final Fantasy; have action, and have hardcore difficulty modes, but don't alienate your core fanbase in the process. I'm even someone who will play through Devil May Cry on every difficulty, and I still don't like when content is locked behind a difficulty mode like this; what is this: the '90s? I also wouldn't be surprised to find out later that Squenix is only doing this to sell you experience boosters to "skip the grind" that they manufactured, ether; they're very quickly becoming one of those kinds of companies. Good on you for warning people about this.
I think they should have made gameplay for all difficulty, but give more "access" at the Bahamut. The exchange shop is a good example of this. A wondrous trove of gear to build yourself as bloated as the difficulty, but only if you earn it. That way you cater to players who want gameplays and "memes" while allowing more competitive players to be challenged and rewarded. I am a fierce advocate of the reward matching your worth btw.
While I may not agree with you completely, I get where you’re coming from. These souls game have only ever had one difficulty, so to see SoP have differing ones and even a story difficulty to boot actually makes the base game really accessible. That’s a really good thing for a lot of people that may not be able to put so much time to learn and do well in these games. However, there is a market for these difficult, time sinks, as evidenced by how well other souls games sell
Even playing this game on the hardest difficulty and slowly learning attack patterns, it still only took about 30 hours to beat which is relatively short. It’s definitely not an after-work relaxing game at its core. Chaos mode is essentially how the developers forcing you to make actual builds and actually experiment and find things that really work. It’s essentially there for people who want more from SoP. You can play any game how you like and it’s not anyones place to tell you how to enjoy said game. But you have to understand that these souls games are meant more for those people who have more time on hand. It’s why I legitimately couldn’t get into to most souls games. too much
But it definitely is extremely baffling that they made an entire dlc locked behind an extra mode of difficulty. It’s not that much harder than chaos, mind you, but it’s interesting to see DLC completely dedicated to the more hardcore fanbase instead of making the new story easier to access. They definitely the dropped the ball in that way
What do you mean, souls games only have one difficulty. Every souls-like game I’ve played has multiple difficulties.
Pretty lame that Square has no problem letting ANYONE spend money on this... but only a small percentage can play it. That's dishonest business.
David use the skill Runic Protection it let's you take Mp damage instead of Hp damage . If you use that with extra mode which gives you unlimited MP you invincible. You just have to reapply the skill every now and then. That's how I completed it. I suck at hard games and this made it doable. You get runic protection from Void Knight job
Yeah, but the thing is, if it takes a million hits to kill anything, and if you're constantly getting knocked on your ass every three seconds, _it's just not fun_ to play. The footage of him getting bowled over by the WoL every few seconds is just eye-roll. Why would anybody enjoy that kind of gameplay?
@@Dhalin in extra mode, you cant get staggered. No attacks phase you, even the red/unavoidable attacks.
You know what u talking about or what?
You didn't use any of the in game defences. Where was the parry? The dodge? Blocking? How easy was easy mode 😂😂😂😂😂😂