In a new interview with Ghost of Tsushima director Nate Fox over on the PlayStation Blog, it's revealed that no matter which difficulty you play the game on -- easy, normal, or hard -- your opponents will never be shrugging off your attacks as if they're nothing. This is because the health of your enemies is never increased -- Jin's sword is just as deadly on hard as it is on easy.
"No matter which difficulty players choose we never increase the health of enemies; this is to maintain the lethality of the katana. Our combat is all about the player’s skill," says Fox.
Quite frankly, we love this approach. So many games simply pump up enemy health on hard difficulties, turning your foes into total bullet sponges. In Ghost of Tsushima, your opponents will act differently, Fox explains: "On hard, the game is fair, but very challenging. Mongols are more aggressive, and players must be precise to pull off extraordinary moves."
Do you prefer this over increased enemy health? Wipe the blood from your blade in the comments section below.
[source blog.playstation.com]
Comments 29
Yeah I read this Q&A, was what I expected the answers to be. Though it's a bit disappointing that you won't be able to swim.
Good! That’s the way difficulties should work.
This is a good approach. Most devs probably just can’t be bothered with the extra programming and just take the easy option of bumping up the AI’s health.
I prefer fixed difficulty, no need for selector.
But if your gonna have it without making Jin invincible on Easy or damage sponge enemies on Hard, maybe is ok.
I just hope they made "normal" challenging enough.
Oh man God of War on give me god of war was like the total example of enemies being bullet sponges, those guys were like there to stay and make sure you were having fun lmao. The best difficulty change I've experienced was in The Last of Us, grounded mode was out of this world, survival at its best.
@Makina if you want challenging play on hard... normal is, well, normal.
@MarcG420 Problem is devs tend to do a bad/lazy work with Hard or Easy difficulties.
God of War on Hard is not hard, is just boring, enemies has a ridiculous HP pool, feels like Kratos is using a stick, not a axe.
Same with BotW on master mode, minions just keep getting it's health back.
It make the game feels grindier not harder.
The only game that i remember that implement a difficult selector in a way as god as fixed difficulty is Cuphead.
Sounds great. This is probably one of my biggest criticisms in most games.
I'm absolutely sick of shooting enemies in games (as in a bullet physically getting fired in to their bodies) only for it to just stun them for a second before they're right back to normal.
Freaking YES, I love this. I mostly hate bullet sponges. You know what I mean.
I love development that comes out right in favor of the players.
Finally, someone get difficulty correct!
That´s very good news. This is how difficulties in videogames should all be like, just like the really good Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order. Now I know wich difficulty I´m gonna play in my Sanurai Cinema mode. Cheers and happy gaming to us all.
I'll only play on Hard Mode if there's a trophy, otherwise Easy/Normal for me lol ^^;.
@KidBoruto
Yep same for me aswell. I'm here for the story mainly but I would love to get the platinum for it ^.^/
Love it bullet sponges suck and are an indication of lazy/rushed gameplay, definitely be grabbing this game when it comes out and having a crack at hard
@Grimwood This is the dumbest thing I've seen today, but it's still early so you may be just top 5 by the end of the day.
Yes!! YES! A thousand times YEEEES!
BETTER AI NOT thicker AI!
So many devs do this so poorly. It's a damned tired meme at this point.
THANK YOU Sucker Punch!
@Kiro_Senpai Yeah platinums are nice, but if it's too much trouble for me I usually ignore them and move onto the next game.
At least I still try to 100% all in-game content...sometimes .
This is great. I played ACO on Easy with heavy level matching so the game felt right. Kill someone get slightly better gear and repeat. Also, I don't want to play a 60hour game and tack on another 10 hours just slashing at someone. It's like all Star Wars games. Padawan should be hard and Jedi Master should be easy. It's not like Darth Vader turns his light saber on stun just to have fun. No, he doesn't have time for that. He just slashes, and his enemy is dead. I'm also for more enemies on hard though. Keeps you on your toes.
If the game is inaccessible to any level of player, within age, then they have not done difficulty correct at all.
The "Git Gud" mentality of video gaming still hold strong and it makes me sick.
Hopefully it will remain mired in the world of PlayStation and Xbox... Dying forms...
@Real_Obsi from context, it appears you are suggesting a new player with limited experience should be able to tackle every challenge equally to that of an experienced player.
Experience and skill play a very real part in our real lives, and to achieve something is based upon our ability to overcome that challenge.
The game shouldn't do that for you because you simply do not want to have to learn.
On topic: good! I abhor that nonsense, and I'm hoping it becomes a more skill based game as a result.
@Makina I just started god of wsr a few weeks ago. I started it on hard but quickly turned it down to normal because it was tedious. This so called God of War whi needed a 100 punches to kill a basic enemy and died if he got hit twice.. later on I chamged it again to hard when I leveld up a bit and now it's fine. But yeah the beginning of the game on hard was crap
Nothing wrong with increasing enemy's health.
@Abdessgal no difficulty has been as good as grounded in the last of us. Best way to play the game i can't play it any other way
I'll probably play on normal, like I do with all my games, unless they don't have a selectable difficulty like Demon's Souls or Shin Megami Tensei. Nice to hear they're doing difficulty the right way.
Can't help but feel this game is getting a little too overhyped but I'm still looking forward to it.
That is fantastic. I hate games that think hard means Damage Sponge. Hype for this game is building a little higher for me!
@AdamNovice The question was whether you can swim to the Mongol ships that are off the shore. I think that swimming in a lake or river may still be possible. But making it impossible to swim out to distant ships in the ocean seems fair to me.
And apparently you are able to kill animals and loot them.
@AdamNovice I'm about 15hrs into the game and can confirm you can definitely swim. The game so far after 15hrs of it is already my personal Game of The Year.
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