Does that mean that I, in fact, got this point despite what compendium says? And I am missing the 3rd point of 124/127 from elsewhere? In that case I would have no idea what else I could've missed. Or am I misinterpreting what you are saying?
Also, can you comment on point #2?
The design goals may be good but they not necessarily invoke good behaviors in players. Quote that comes in mind here “Given the opportunity players will optimize fun out of the game”. It's also important to discern if those that enjoy the game enjoy it because or despite said design choices.
I’ve never approached a game with intention of doing pure run, got bunch of corruption on the way and be like “I guess I’m gonna whore out”. Once you are in mindset getting lewded is losing and we don't like losing, and that's why people ask for walkthrough. Also for most people lowering difficulty under normal is losing, and if I recall right research said more people said they will rather quit the game than lower difficulty.
Getting lewded is only losing if you don't do anything with the power granted by it so you get the corrupt end. More than almost any other game I can think of, doing corrupt stuff in SKA confers a lot of stuff to you, it just also puts you on a clock.
smkey21
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- Nov 15, 2017
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Actually, quite a bit of walkthrough interest is in the max lewdness walkthrough because people want to see all the scenes. Several of the things you said in this were claimed as broad generalizations when, as far as I can tell, they are personal decisions/behaviors that you're presuming other people have as well. Why did you approach an unknown game fully set on a particular playstyle? Why are you so certain that design decisions you've not tested out are so terrible? Why is finding out that the design of the game isn't what you expect not worth examining to see if the new knowledge make the game more enjoyable?
I can tell you that many of your problems are due to you locking yourself into a particular playstyle that was seemingly a decision you made based off of your previous experiences with games. Aura isn't the "invulnerable heroine" that you get in a bunch of JRPGs, she's a close to average person who has a costly "I win button" she can use. You don't have to continually save scum if you're ok spending corruption. You can gain significant advantage by tactically gaining lewdness. Heck, you can also gain the "invulnerable heroine" feel I mentioned and keep Aura totally pure by lowering the difficulty. Also, unless you're going to replay the game there's no benefit to attempting a full purity run and no penalty for lowering the difficulty.
As for the research statements... I don't see why the vaguely citing 'research' matters. Most people have never played a game with difficulty settings. Even if it only included people who regularly play games, the vast majority of people who regularly play games exclusively play their favorite FPS which uses some form of online matchmaking rather than difficulty settings. Modern games have trended toward having default presets with individually adjustable gameplay elements that allow the player to customize their experience rather that hard-set difficulties. As far as I'm concerned, anybody who isn't willing to adjust a game setting to improve their gameplay experience is being childish. Put another way... “Given the opportunity players will
gothdoctorenjoyer
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- Jun 6, 2024
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As smkey21 said, that just means the game is not for you.
You can't be entitled to wanting to "optimize" and not wanting to make use of the difficulty options but still be frustrated when the game is more challenging and frustrated than you expected.
The lewd content is part of the core design of the game. You are supposed to consistently weigh the benefits of lewd content and their disadvantages, juggle corruption and the various curses, and so on. It's about making decisions throughout your playthrough, not just out right rejecting anything lewd just because you want to play pure or rejecting anything pure just because you want to play corrupt - there are more than 2 ways to play this game. You can lean into the extremes of corruption/pure content like the walkthroughs do, but they are the most challenging ones by default (too much lewd content is difficult as well as the disadvantages pile up). It also makes sense conceptually and in terms of the story. The gameplay actually makes it believable why Aura would lean into doing things she doesn't want to, because everything is stacked against her. And at the same time, indulging the corrupt portion too much will inevitably slow her down and bring her further from her initial goal of defeating Richard.
SKA leans into min-maxing of course. The limited resources, the fact you can't grind loot or enemies - For those who really enjoy the optimization process, it's a unique challenge, but it should still be understood as such. It's a challenge. You can't voluntarily play the game in a particular difficult way and be surprised it's difficult.
And this is not objectively bad game design. If you don't like that, it means you don't like it, and that's fine. But there are many people who enjoy this game, have supported this game on various platforms, and are still looking forward for the game to receive updates.
The issue is not that it's difficult imo, it's that purposefully engaging with the gameplay as well as you can is likely to end up with a Aura that finishes the game in the first chapter.
A lot of the game relies either on the player purposefully putting sticks in Aura's ways so she messes up, or on a new player experience that misunderstand how the game works and gets into a difficult state where they have to make sacrifices.
There is a solid argument the latter is supposed to be how Aura will end up going as she under estimate stuff, but OTOH Aura is also insanely talented and has a divine blessing geared to be better at tackling the quest than the players are at playing the game.
Well I was particularly referring to play SKA pure - Which means without any mental changes and lewdness. How difficult it actually is, is subjective of course, but we wouldn't have so many complaints in the first place if pure would be easier. My personal impression of the game is also that it just gets more difficult as you progress (unlike other games I've played which were very static or declined in difficulty after the first section) so that can trip people up I think. The demand to rely on some lewd stuff rises as you progress. And Alicia is also a paid actor as we control her. Any pure run is non-canon per default because Alicia just wouldn't simply sit on corruption after opening 3 rooms.
I agree that playing the game normally is not as difficult. Alchemist discount, ATK book, or just the extra gold can go a long way. And Victory A is probably the canon ending? I don't know.
I mean you could also regard Nightmare Pure without NG+ as the canon difficulty if you want Aura to have a really hard time.
On that note, it might not even be necessarily underestimating stuff but Aura being naive. Enrolling in the Magic Academy through special study falls into that category. I'm personally looking forward to future features like Hidden Alicia (she makes the Mental Changes automatically and you don't know what she did) as that makes role-playing easier in that regard
Yellowie The Goldie
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- May 8, 2022
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I did a full playthrough on nightmare (admittedly on NG+) and completed it. It was a headache but by this point I already knew what to expect from the game, so it wasn't a big deal to me. Finished it with 0 lewdness, 0 vice, no mind stuff either. As you can imagine, that would be the definition of hell.
Compared to Nightmare, Normal is pretty much easy mode. In many ways I would consider it to be too easy lol. Once you figure out the enemies and their tactics...It's pretty much over. I mean c'mon Luciela & Aura have a discussion about this very early in the game, about how Aura would have to figure out the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of her foes if she wants to win since she can't use her Divine Gift more than once per day.
All the people whining about how the game is too hard on "Normal"...Like c'mon, if you can't even beat a Demon General in it's weakest form how do you expect to go through EVERY SINGLE DEMON REALM at the end of the game, without stopping or pausing? It's a classic JRPG game where you need to prepare to beat the bosses and mini-bosses, using the right spells, stances and abilities. Prep time is half the battle honestly.
If people put as much effort into exploring and experimenting as they did complaining they wouldn't have a problem in game on NORMAL difficulty.
how the hell do I beat the lake level? I run out of oxygen way too fast, I can barely get to the end of the first location... can anybody help me?
Except it's the same thing. When you are doing a lewd run missing scenes is exact same thing as getting lewd scenes on pure run. Most people do not want replay the game because they made some wrong choices and they miss scenes/ are forced into lewd scenes. I mean people that waited for the game to be complete before playing it, if you are playing it from patch to patch you need to accept that your experience is vastly different.
Do you really believe that approaching a game with intention to play “pure route” is rare? Why would that even be an issue ? But to answer your question : I actually didn’t, It is something that the setup convinced me into – I found myself liking some characters and disliking others…
What do you mean I’ve not tested? I literally earlier gave examples of my frustrations.
I mentioned difficulty as part of general game design approach as the other poster talked about what SKA design goals and mentioned how SKA difficulty compares to other games. Lowering difficulty would not change anything for me, the same things would happen just earlier.
The part about “most people don’t even engage in difficulty setting because they play online with matchmaking” is simply disingenuous. You pick representative sample to find behavioral patterns and you may think they are ridiculous but no less they are true. Sorry I can’t put finger on the research, I follow game news for years and certain information just get stuck with you.
Like the above, difficulty is not the problem and stop with the you are playing the game wrong rhetoric. I enjoy it the way I like it but that doesn't mean I can't have criticism. And since when providing critique is being "entitled" ?? The way fans rabid attack anyone that dares to criticize anything about "their" game is honestly so tiring.
Okay, that's just strawmanning. You aren't doing yourself a favor by claiming people (or specifically, me) attack you rabidly when at least I have responded multiple times to your comments without any personal attack whatsover.
But I get it. My usage of the word entitled isn't nice and not constructive either. So my bad, I'm sorry. Got lost in the sauce for a while.
What made me use this term is this weird and consistent implication of your comments that the game design choices you have a problem with are objectively bad. It doesn't seem like you are willing to understand or come to terms with the intention and also the merit of said design choices.
Lastly, I didn't say you play the game wrong. That's also a strawman. I outlined playing the game pure is a valid option, I said the game is designed to play it in multiple ways. But you have to accept playing it pure for what it is: a challenge. And with a challenge comes a learning process to deal with the obstacles and frustrations that you deal with. You didn't seem to enjoy the game that much as that sort of challenge, so it was important for me to highlight that there are other ways to approach the game.
And on that note, I can assure you a good amount of people who enjoy the game enjoy it precisely because of these design choices.
Anyway I hope you have a good day and you can either enjoy the game nonetheless, or find something else for you to enjoy. I don't think there is much else for me to say unless a new point is brought up.
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Discovering tactics and solving problems is the fun part. But what really allows you to complete game on Nightmare is foreknowledge. Knowing where and how to get more and better tools for your toolbox is the crucial difference.
I believe that player should be able to finish pure run on normal difficulty without foreknowledge.
I did no such thing, as any feedback from people outside of your support circle it needs to be weighted against desires of your existing audience. Hence the part you quoted. Also your post only reads one way for me, but let's move on.
Getting that will be expensive, do you have +50 air from book and +100 from artifact workshop ?
Not sure if that is enough but that is my plan anyway.
But first I need Fire II.... how do you get Charlotte to lv 6 ?
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I was also talking about pure tbh. Non-pure is probably much much easier there.
As for it being non canon because of Alicia, keep in mind that as long as you win within 88 days or so you can make it so that Alicia never even enters the mind of Aura (just make sure you never get to 4 corruption so she can never pay the initial cost). Even when she does enter it would take a few days for her to do anything.