Recently I finished playing Mario and Luigi: Dream Team. It was relatively enjoyable throughout the entirety of my playthrough, and though it did drag near the end, it wasn’t too bad.
Until, that is, I reached the final boss.
I won’t spoil who or what it is, but I can tell you it was a massive pain in my behind. Note to game developers everywhere – do not give your final boss the ability to regenerate more health than you have time to counter against. At least, don’t do that if you actually want your players to enjoy the final battle without feeling cheated.
In any case, I tried defeating the boss three times, to no avail. After a few minutes of deliberation, I did what many gamers would deem unthinkable:
I set the game to easy mode.
And then I beat the final boss in one hit.
I know what a lot of people may be thinking: didn’t you feel cheated? You had to rig the game to finish it! And the answer is: honestly, not really. I experienced every attack the final boss had thrown at me before I had switched to Easy Mode. At a certain point I was just going through the same motions over and over again, hoping I’d get lucky and win. More importantly, I wasn’t enjoying myself anymore. I play games for fun, not for the competition, or even for the challenge, minus the odd Platinum game here or there. It’s why I avoid Online Shooters, or games like League of Legend or Starcraft.
That being said, I feel that if I’m not enjoying myself, then I shouldn’t be putting myself through the pain of that experience. I have precious little time for gaming, and I’d rather not spend it banging my head against an unbeatable obstacle. If that ends up being the case, I’ll either try and figure out how to bypass it, or leave the game entirely. As I said, there are exceptions to this rule – Bayonetta and Persona Q come to mind – but if the difficulty feels artificial, then I’m not going to waste time on it.
Fun anecdote: Another experience that reminds me of this is when my sister and I were playing Tales of Xillia. We were up against a boss, and simply could not defeat it. So we devised a trick where we let our characters be played by the CPU. Because the CPU was inhumanely fast in terms of reaction time, it easily decimated the boss, knowing exactly when to defend, attack, and heal. That done, we were able to move on and continue playing – though, not for long, because honestly Xillia sucked.
So, readers: when do you realize it’s finally time to quit? This could be within the context of gaming, or outside it. Let me know in the comments below!
Eight-Bit Samurai 