Hard Mode (How do you feel about it?)

[Plas Durock]

Well this game has a hard mode, and being able to skip cutscenes makes second play throughs a bit more bearable (I'm impatient) but for those who have tried hard mode, win or lose, how do you feel about it?


My thoughts: "What is a hard mode? Just a miserable pile of lies!"

Now, typically in a videogame hard mode becoem my new "normal" This applies to to metroid series as well.
Zero Mission, All three Primes, 1 and low% Fusion and Low% Super Metroid but Other M is a whole other story.

I'm halfway through my second hard mode run of other M, and I'm reminded of why I hated it so much.

There's really nothing enjoyable about it, it's just for forced 0% run, something I'm sure a lot of us already on on our own with metroids games.

Zero Mission's hard mode is my favorite, not only is the damage done to you greatly increased, but you can still collect all the items, however, items collected are only worth have of their normal value.

Other M's hard mode just feels like fake difficulty to me, it also doesn't feel very rewarding when you complete it. Not only does it not record your final time, but you can't continue after the credits like in normal mode.

How you you people feel?


Also, I meant to post this in game play, could somebody move it please? Thanks!

[Reggie]

Just started it. Don't really like it but meh.

[CapCom]

Hard mode is obnoxious. There's a LOT of try-try-try-try again. The lift will be what causes most people to give up.

It's not really THAT much fun either. It's really more frustrating. I have more fun playing Normal mode.

You also get jack-all for beating it.

I will say though that I still enjoy some of the bosses. I think Ridley is a pretty fun fight, but hard mode makes it cheap - it's no fun if I get killed in one hit by one of Ridley's normal attacks that he spams all the time. In fact, any one-hit kill is too much.

Basically, it's a game for masochists. It's Team Ninja's way of making you cry like a little girl.

That's why Samus was crying - she tried to play a Team Ninja game on hard mode.

[Zeroº]

I like Other M's hard mode, though I do wish it was more rewarding in the end. It's more satisfying to play a low % run on Normal mode so you can fight against Phantoon with little resources.

But this game's hard mode has influenced me to start a new game of Fusion and attempt a minimum % run for the first time. ...I actually miss the concentration ability for restocking missiles... And the Overblasts...

[Infinity's End]

Hard Mode would be slightly more fun if any of the following were true:

• run and use Concentration at the same time
• enemies actually dropped health/missiles
• auto-aim shots worked 100% of the time
• skip the "Samus? RESPOND RESSPOOOOOOOOND" every time you die, which you will be doing a bazillion times.
• actually had an incentive to finishing it, other than "bragging rights."
• a full charge beam didn't take a bajillion years to charge up

Suffice it to say, Hard Mode has left me very annoyed and I am definitely not going to try to finish it. To me, it's little more than save point > DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE > save point > DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE > boss > DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE etc. ...

[Emperor Ing]

On the plus side, Zero, you'll have all the power bombs you'll ever need.

[Shadow Wolf75]

Suffice it to say, Hard Mode has left me very annoyed and I am definitely not going to try to finish it. To me, it's little more than save point > DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE > save point > DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE > boss > DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE etc. ...

Yeah, that right there, that makes me completely uninterested in slogging my way through Hard Mode. Even if there was a reward, there's only so much frustration I can take. That's why it took me forever to finish Echoes, and even then I only did that once.

[Gamer-e]

Can't say that I've actually begun my second run of the game, which will be on Hard Mode, yet, but I already figured that the amount of insta-deaths would increase a hundred-fold.

Will be doing this run sometime in the near future, though.

Suffice it to say, Hard Mode has left me very annoyed and I am definitely not going to try to finish it. To me, it's little more than save point > DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE > save point > DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE > boss > DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE etc. ...

Yeah, that right there, that makes me completely uninterested in slogging my way through Hard Mode. Even if there was a reward, there's only so much frustration I can take. That's why it took me forever to finish Echoes, and even then I only did that once.

Outside of the Boost Guardian, Echoes isn't that frustrating to me, even on Hard Mode, and I've only played the game on that difficulty since finishing my first playthrough...

[Zeruel21]

Surprisingly, easier than I expected. The only thing that happens to me is I would die on a boss a few times before I honed a strategy that worked. I think I've only died two or three times between bosses. Finding time for reloading is the one thing I had to learn, given how obsessive I was on my normal mode playthrough in learning to not take hits and finish encounters quickly. There's a bit more tension as perfection is mandatory, and I'm more careful about clearing my path before I barrel through a corridor, but nothing that feels truly hard. It's just a higher level of play for normal mode.

Ridley, El Pollo Loco (first-person dodging doesn't work on large TVs very well), and Goyagma were the only encounters that took more than three or four tries.

If enemies were faster, did more damage, had new attacks...then it would feel like a real hard mode. I also would have preferred earning something from it, but my competitive spirit has me running this gauntlet anyway.

[Mewtwo]

I'm actually having a lot of fun playing hard mode. Its kinda like I'm streamlining my play, not being as clumsy as I was on normal when I'm just running into things because I know I have enough health to deal with it. Granted some parts are a bit frustrating, but I haven't gotten incredibly stuck on anything so far.

[Smoking Spoon]

Uh oh ...!

In the end, do you recommend playing normal? On normal mode, will there still be some tough moment ? I want to maximize my fun playing other: M , because the delay between metroid game is long !


The toughest I did was Zero mission, doing 15% on Hard

I'm actually having a lot of fun playing hard mode. Its kinda like I'm streamlining my play, not being as clumsy as I was on normal when I'm just running into things because I know I have enough health to deal with it. Granted some parts are a bit frustrating, but I haven't gotten incredibly stuck on anything so far.

So you recommend playing normal first ?

[Mewtwo]

You have to play normal to unlock hard mode xP
In any case, normal is definitely better to play first, because you get the full 'metroid experience' of collecting items, exploring, etc etc.

[Darkus Triforce]

i havn't unlocked hard mode yet. and why does everyone find el pollo loco so hard? i beat him on my first attempt with no hits!

[Mewtwo]

Yeah I beat pollo loco easy on hard mode. I had problems with the griptians, because if they grab you they deal 99 damage >>
The lava boss thing was also kind of annoying, because he could kill you in three hits, but after two you weren't low enough to concentrate. It didn't take me too long though, compared to the fight versus three griptians.

[Plas Durock]

Because El Pollo Loco can kill you in two hits. He's not hard, he's just annoying because the lock-on sucks and particularly in that cut scene. If he does hityou, you can say "goodnight" he's also faster on hard mode giving you barely any time to lock on and fire.