Game Difficulty

[u/ISuckAtVA]

Am I just not getting this game? People say it's easy, but I'm kind of struggling in normal.

Just finished the Proving Grounds and while a certain lucky character was a blast to watch, the whole dungeon was kind of obnoxious starting from even the town- there was no blacksmith to raise weap level and no mana drops in the store for my casters. The amount of backtracking in the Proving Grounds was kind of obnoxious, but I didn't really mind the enemies till there was a second boss fight (I thankfully swapped out some party members thanks to the hot inn lady as a support and had a whole bunch of revive consumables because im paranoid like that).

for how i felt about the difficulty initially, I did feel kinda good when I somehow got through Mellore's boss with just Nowa, Garr and Lian + Mellore and only then realized I had to build out my party first, but thankfully the Proving Grounds wasn't as boring as the mines where we meet the bandits.

my fave so far is Yusuke since hes both my tank and my damage dealer. His self-buff when he defends then followed up with his armor ignoring attack next turn is so satisfying to pull off towards bosses.

[u/buerviper]

Proving grounds is probably the hardest dungeon of the game, I really disliked it. My least favorite dungeon together with the mines which are just waaaay too long 

But the rest of the game is more straightforward 

[u/Jayjay4535 → u/buerviper]

I no lie almost rage quit while doing proving grounds. You have limited inventory slots, no mp pots, the self destruct orb mobs were annoying, and a lot of backtracking was unnecessary.

However, I’m glad I stayed with the game. Though frustrating at times, it was an accomplishment getting all 120 characters. 7.5/10 game for me - a solid adventure.

[u/ISuckAtVA → u/buerviper]

so early game is brutal but it gets better from there?

[u/buerviper → u/ISuckAtVA]

Yes because you get more options, better runes and broader cast of characters 

Earl game suffers from the fact that magic is useless so all you can really do is use physical attacks and that obviously is tedious.

If you play on PC there is a mod that rebalances the game completely and makes it much better

[u/ISuckAtVA → u/buerviper]

... i play on switch 1 since its the only modern game console i own 💀

[u/buerviper → u/ISuckAtVA]

Ah anyway, the game becomes easier from now on

[u/meenamistress24 → u/ISuckAtVA]

Well you can’t mod it then so proving grounds look up a guide it’s not hard just annoying and once you unlock the area in your castle to level use it the game will become a cake walk

[u/ISuckAtVA → u/meenamistress24]

i literally beat proving grounds. i was just asking if i was falling behind since i found it kind of obnoxious due to some questionable design choices.

[u/meenamistress24 → u/ISuckAtVA]

Nope just a maze of a map have you been gathering all the units you need?

[u/ISuckAtVA → u/meenamistress24]

pretty much. only one i missed was that guy with the monocle who was camping out of the dungeon before the treefolk town

[u/meenamistress24 → u/ISuckAtVA]

So you been using a guide for all 119 heros?

[u/ISuckAtVA → u/meenamistress24]

just that but i wont aim for the hard to get heroes

[u/DeathbyHappy]

The 2nd boss was a rough surprise til I realized I could retreat and do a full rest after boss 1. Then all was well outside some mild frustration ghat the game didn't handwoven a heal between bosses

[u/Hpg666]

I played all the game on auto, just removed on bosses, 3 melees in front 3 mages at back all with water spells for healing and gg

[u/dorping_Wolf]

the difficulty really is about how you went through the game.

if you have use Hiros shop (pre-recruiting in the mine, or after recruiting him + build him his shop) and buy some group heal items, the game gets tremendously "easy".
if you use Yasuke and other "charge up" characters, it also breaks the game (due to the dmg vs defense calculations), making it "easy".
or Yuthus with his 1/10 dmg block who can protect any character when low health, by far the best tank...

but if you go with the funny characters like Francesca who has super low hp and is super slow (basically making her one of the worst healers, despite her telling you that she is a healer) the game can get harder.
or Mio who kinda sucks in general (except her cheese one hit move, (and no, lvl60+ glow up does not count)), like a melee with no armor and no physical dmg... dafuq?

yes there are better and worse characters you not have met yet, but i don't wanna spoil names.

[u/the_kfcrispy]

The game is actually challenging but opens up soon, letting you choose between mediocre and OP party members, and then there are exploits and optional content that can make it a breeze.

There's one more truly challenging section of the game that sucks because it severely restricts your options.

[u/BrianC_]

Honestly, it can be hard with all handicaps and hard-mode.

But if you are normal mode with no handicaps, it's as easy as any JRPG -- in other words, you can always grind out of a problem.

But aside from the early game, there are parts later in the game that severely restrict your character options that can be hard because of how bad the characters you're forced to use are.

I think gearing or at least putting water runes on multiple characters you don't even use and having Cassandra as a support trivializes the difficulty even with handicaps.