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The balancing problem - Kena

Swift_Star

Banned
So, I've been playing Kena the last few weeks and the game is amazing except for one thing: the difficult. Granted, the game is relatively hard and that's not actually a problem... The issue is that normal mode is too hard sometimes and easy mode is too easy. See, in normal the enemies hit you really hard whereas in easy they barely scratch you. Why isn't there a middle ground one can find comfortable? The game is either too punishing or brain dead. The same happened with F.I.S.T.. yeah, both are indie games and even so, I never got frustrated with, say, Hollow Knight... There needs to have a middle ground here.
 

Max_Po

Banned
I am fighting
Corrupt Taro

Probably died like 25 times already... always get close but then booom !!!!
 
So, I've been playing Kena the last few weeks and the game is amazing except for one thing: the difficult. Granted, the game is relatively hard and that's not actually a problem... The issue is that normal mode is too hard sometimes and easy mode is too easy. See, in normal the enemies hit you really hard whereas in easy they barely scratch you. Why isn't there a middle ground one can find comfortable? The game is either too punishing or brain dead. The same happened with F.I.S.T.. yeah, both are indie games and even so, I never got frustrated with, say, Hollow Knight... There needs to have a middle ground here.
Haven't played Kena myself, but I know exactly the problem that you're describing. When one difficulty is no problem at all, but turning it up a notch makes the game difficult to the point where it's not much fun to play anymore. It's one argument in favor of having only one difficulty for all, I guess. Some developers really seem to struggle with the balance.
 

GHG

Gold Member
This might come across as blunt but... You aren't meant to get hit. You have 3 options to avoid getting hit:
  • Dodge roll
  • Shield
  • Parry
Use them.

If you are struggling even on normal difficulty then you are most likely being careless in your approach. If you can learn to parry consistently and pick up the appropriate perks the game becomes laughably easy even on the highest difficulty.

 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
I personally played the game on expert from get go, it had tough moments but not to the point of being frustrating or anything.

I think is not that bosses are tough but rather the normal enemies are brain dead easy.
 
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Swift_Star

Banned
This might come across as blunt but... You aren't meant to get hit. You have 3 options to avoid getting hit:
  • Dodge roll
  • Shield
  • Parry
Use them.

If you are struggling even on normal difficulty then you are most likely being careless in your approach. If you can learn to parry consistently and pick up the appropriate perks the game becomes laughably easy even on the highest difficulty.


This thread is not to discuss game tactics.
 
I am fighting
Corrupt Taro

Probably died like 25 times already... always get close but then booom !!!!
I put the game down there. Playing on expert. Been doing fine up until that point. I'll go back to it soon and watch some hint videos. There's just lots of weird calls in terms of hit range, tracking and how long enemies are open after they perform long combos. The parry also has a very unsatisfying long delay after you miss it.
 

N30RYU

Member
Marvel Balance GIF



OP, if easy is too easy and normal is too hard as some already told you... you aren't playing correctly the game on normal using all the tools the game give you.
 
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Batiman

Banned
This might come across as blunt but... You aren't meant to get hit. You have 3 options to avoid getting hit:
  • Dodge roll
  • Shield
  • Parry
Use them.

If you are struggling even on normal difficulty then you are most likely being careless in your approach. If you can learn to parry consistently and pick up the appropriate perks the game becomes laughably easy even on the highest difficulty.


That parry camera switch looks pretty jarring. Don’t like that at all. Haven’t played this yet but interested in one day playing it
 
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Quasicat

Member
The reason why the game is difficult is the glitchy camera, it just wants to continuously look up. It I didn’t have to babysit the camera all of the time, it would be a lot easier to play the game. There have been a few updates, hopefully it fixes the problems I’m having. Here’s my favorite:
 

GHG

Gold Member
That parry camera switch looks pretty jarring. Don’t like that at all. Haven’t played this yet but interested in one day playing it

I think it's there for "confirmation" purposes more than anything since there's a special parry follow up attack available that has very tight timing.

But yeh, I agree they could have chosen a more elegant solution. For example in Dark Souls the successful parry feedback is mostly based around sound design.
 

Kokoloko85

Member
Apart from the last boss I didnt find it hard, the last boss was long winded and annoyingly hard. Plus if you die you have to start again which is long.
The bosses before that were pretty cool I thought, but I died on the last boss close to 10 times… it sucked

Can you change the game on the same play through?
 

Omnipunctual Godot

Gold Member
Haven't played Kena myself, but I know exactly the problem that you're describing. When one difficulty is no problem at all, but turning it up a notch makes the game difficult to the point where it's not much fun to play anymore. It's one argument in favor of having only one difficulty for all, I guess. Some developers really seem to struggle with the balance.
This kind of ruined my experience with God of War. I platinumed GoW III and beat it on the highest settings. I started GoW on a higher difficulty and everything just takes an absurd amount of time to kill, and you just have to cheese, cheese, cheese. Haven't really picked it up since.
 

Bartski

Gold Member
It's totally subjective. I thought combat was spot on, well-tuned for just the right amount of challenge and I only played on expert.

Parry window is tight but you can i-frame dodge through everything and there is no stamina to worry about.

Last phase of the final boss was a bit much but figuring out a fight by failing is to me big part of the fun.
 
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