Difficulty in rpgs

by starry wishes kirby

A common trait among Rpgamers seems to be that they are very critical of the games they love. Perhaps this is because, more so than any other genre, a great RPG is a masterpeice where the many aspects (art, music, gameplay etc...) come together to create a beautiful synergy. But that really isn't the point of this editorial...the point is to address the idea of difficulty in RPGs. This is where the critisism comes in: a common complaint with various games is that they are too easy.

But what makes an RPG easy? Ignoring games that actually contain challenging puzzles (ie. Lufia 2), it must be battles that provide no challenge. But are any RPG battles really that hard? The inevitable answer to a "difficult" fight (ie. monster has powerful attack...) is to level up so you become more powerful and may in turn deal with this more powerful enemy. Where is the difficulty? It's not hard to level up, you don't need any skill, all you need is the patience to fight for hours against weaker monsters.

Nick Rox, writing in GameFan, September 1997, states that "Anyone who can actually defeat the Ruby and Emerald Weapons deserves to be known as a supreme gaming master." I've defeated both the extra weapons (as I'm sure many others have...), but I don't think it entitles me, or anyone else the right to be identified as a "gaming master". It wasn't difficult, it just took a long time to do; again, all it required was patience. Once you have the necessary items, and spend hours upon hours leveling up in the sunken Shinra submarine - neither weapon will be a problem.

A real challenge requires a masterful ability of some kind. Again, I'll use the example of a fight with a monster. An obvious example of this (using FFVII...) occurs after Aeris dies, and a fight ensues against a form of Jenova who uses a stron water element attack; but, if for instance Cloud is equipped with the water ring (which, as i recall, is found minutes after entering the Forgotten Capital, where this fight is taking place...) Jenova's attacks will increase his HP, even as the others are killed, allowing him to win the fight. This hasn't required a masterful ability; it is a victory of common sense!

A similar challenge (ie. a boss fight) in a game like Dynamite Headdy or Mishchief Makers requires a high level of skill to complete. If you aren't very good at games, then you won't be able to complete the challenge...which gives the completion of it some meaning.

RPGs don't require any real skill to play, the ease of play is inherant to the genre. But this doesn't mean RPGs aren't great...they just aren't especially challenging. While most are time consuming - this doesn't directly translate to difficulty. But obviously something doesn't have to be difficult to be relevant...or fun.