Punishing titles such as Dark Souls are extremely popular these days, but it seems that PlayStation Vita exclusive Freedom Wars has taken things a little too far. Despite being the biggest release on Sony’s portable platform for quite some time in Japan, early adopters are currently up in arms over the Monster Hunter-esque adventure’s outrageous difficulty.
In fact, the complaints have gotten so vocal that producer Junichi Yoshizawa has been forced to publish a statement about the problems. “It has come to my attention that the current players find the degree of difficulty to be too hard,” he wrote on the title’s official blog. “In regard to the matter, we’ll be looking at countermeasures in the next few days.”
The issues seem to start about halfway through the game, where the title’s difficulty spikes significantly. A YouTube video focusing on the flaws shows how it’s possible to get killed in a matter of seconds by lowly ground grunts, which suggests that the balance may be out of whack – especially seeing as these aren’t the big Abductor bosses that we’re referring to.
The platform holder will want to solve the problem quickly, as the title has already proven to be a big success for the publisher, selling almost 200,000 units in the Land of the Rising Sun during its first week available. It’s likely that these flaws will be fixed by the time that it deploys in the West – though Europeans may still need to import the portable hit, as the game won’t be getting a retail release in these parts.
[source freedomwars-yoshizawa.tumblr.com, via siliconera.com, siliconera.com]
Comments 15
At first I was thinking a bit of challenge wouldn't hurt but a lot of the deaths in that video were really cheap.
@Tsurii897 Agreed, they need to patch it pronto.
Let me play it first, whats frustrating for the lot of you may not be for me. A lot of games over the years prepared me for this.
Wait correction give me the chance to own a physical release to play it first and yes i'm still bitter about that. I can't go through the hassle of importing.
Yeah enemy damage seems to be out of whack in that video at points. Can't stand cheap difficulty, but it's what many games resort to when they need to increase the challenge.
Okay I watched the video again and the hitstun on the flamethrower is broken.
Juicy numbers.
Yeah, this time I'd happily go along if they reduced the difficulty a bit. Thankfully, patching can solve this easily.
The guy is rushing head on into groups of armed enemies with a knife and is surprised he's getting killed? Still, making the damage less severe for the purposes of single player is something I can get behind. I just hope they don't neuter the difficulty.
In general: if the Japanese are complaining about the difficulty, don't even think about releasing it unpatched in the west!
I'm with Punished_Boss I grew up in the 80's when playing video games was basically masochist training. Give me a crack at it.
@Ralizah
Well, dying from one or two hits from an enemy isn't exactly my idea of a fun time. I'm all for a solid, challenging difficulty level (Monster Hunter is a great example), but this would just make me rage.
Unfortunately, they may have resorted to higher damage as a cheap way of increasing difficulty, rather using techniques such as more enemies, smarter AI, more strategic placement, increased movesets, etc. And as such, lowering the damage might eliminate the desired difficulty. But from what I'm seeing in the video, they don't have a choice. The status quo is unacceptable and must be changed, even if it does counter the difficulty progression.
@Boerewors
Very well said. The Japanese are accustomed to a much higher standard of difficulty than western gamers. If THEY are complaining it's too hard, then western gamers won't stand a chance.
Is there a leveling system for the game (like Kingdom Hearts or Xenoblade) or is it a armor set system (like Monster Hunter).
@JaxonH - Remember when you asked me if I would be getting this? Well I think you have your answer now
For those who want the game in Europe
Complain here http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2014/06/30/new-freedom-wars-trailer-offers-story-details/
And sign here http://chn.ge/1mf0pu3
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