Here's a gameplay idea that kind of upends everything we're used to in the Git Gud era. Post-Gud? Hear me out on this:
We are all used to games with no difficulty levels; just one, which is hard.
Then think about all those games that are so rough on a first play through but then become much more fun playing through again all powered up. Whether there’s a NG+ with harder enemies or just the same game with a big unlock at the end, or just the rush of replaying and kicking ass this time, it’s a feature a lot of people love.
And I know we all know about games where you can have a very frail character with huge damage power, for some sort of perceived gameplay balancing.
So why not have a brutally challenging game but you can pick a super badass character build for a first play? You could maybe have a skill class that just wipes the floor with everything, a crazy powerful weapon or just a dude with a ton of hp and defense. Then replay the game with your knowledge of the world and enemies with a normal character next and see just how much of that first play was your own skill or not!
Seems like it’d be easier on the devs, not needing to rebalance a game for 3 or 4 difficulty levels. It’d be more inclusive of all kinds of players too. A player could see all the most advanced enemy AI or the most complex fight setups, rather than miss out by playing on a low setting. A git gud type could choose a different character or use the easy character first like everyone else and just approach it with a speed run mentality. It’d also make for some funny game stream, just obliterating everyone or ridiculous PvP situations, which would wind up getting more people interested in playing the game themselves. Seems win/win for everyone!
What do you think of this idea? I got this idea from a combo of an old Elden Ring rumor hinting that instead of difficulty levels or watering down the gameplay, there'd just be different character classes that might be more accessible, combined with just watching how so many people watch streamers who make very tough games look ridiculously easy and how much that builds hype and enlarges the community.
