Jump to content

Opinion piece regarding difficulty / "cheesing"


that_dude_cam_ps

Recommended Posts

Just now, DaivRules said:

Aren’t guides just one big way to cheese a whole game?

 

If that's your take, then maybe you're part of the problem........ :)

Game guides have existed since the NES in one form or another. They're meant to "guide" you through a game, not "cheese" a game. A guide could literally just state "you have to beat this boss to progress" and still constitute a guide, albeit a shitty and useless one. Going into strats and details obvisouly makes a guide better and actually worth writing / reading.

 

I just fundamentally disagree with the term "cheesing" in the context of using mechanics your're meant to use. And it's thrown around a lot regarding this game.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, DaivRules said:


That might be true because it sounds like this is just your problem with the word cheese and how you’re interpreting it. 
 

Cheese, the way I read it, just means simplify. You seem to be taking it as a personal insult.

 

No, I'm not personally insulted. I think we both know that the connotations of the term "cheese" are indisputably inherently negative.

The guide writer literally calls the strat "the cheesy way". I don't think there's much room for interpretation, as to say its diminishing the way you beat the boss, even thought you're literally just playing the game as intended. In general I think the word is a problematic part of the larger "git gud" mentality ingrained in Soulsborne culture that seeks undermine non-purist accomplishments.

 

But we can just agree to disagree.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Alayaes said:

Essentially, the way you enjoy a video game you purchased does not need validation from anyone other than yourself. I used to play GTA as a kid by just driving around causing mayhem. I never did a single mission; just input the cheats and wreak havoc. There was no internet forum easily available to me back then to tell me I was doing it "wrong" but it didn't matter anyway; my game, my fun.

 

The online metaverse of today has caused people to put way too much emphasis on the opinion of perfect strangers across the globe. While it's never a bad thing to evaluate your actions via the respected opinions of others, there comes a point in time where you just have to completely quit giving a shit.

I completely agree. But I'd still also like to see / hear less condenscending terminology and elitist mentality in general.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, craig_obviously said:

If you are using a legitimate mechanic or combination of mechanics provided by the designers within the game... well.. then people can say whatever they want, who gives a fuck.. the less weight you give to someones opinion other than your own the better off you will be.... opinions are like assholes....everybody's got one.

100% agree. Just stating my opinion on the matter. Like you / I already said: making the game easier on yourself by using the mechanics in the inteded way is completely legit.

1 minute ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

That would be the equivalent of someone saying:

 

"Poker is a fun game, but if you win with a flush or a straight... well, that's cheesing. Git gud and win with a jack high, Scrub!".

looooool this thank you. and no, I'm not worried about what other people say, I'm just tired of the pseudo elitist terminolgy and attitudes out there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I get what you're saying, though I'm not personally offended by the term. I think the topic ties it to the new acceptance of easy mode: it certainly seems like every media outlet is publishing something along the line that playing on the easiest difficulty setting is fine. The average gamer is getting older, has less time/a family/more commitments, and shorter games that don't force you to pour hundreds of hours in to "git gud" are seeing a (critical) renaissance. Call it being more time-efficient, call it cheese. As long as you're having fun! (speaking as someone who poured in 40h in Elden Ring adlib-ing a bit on the 100% walkthrough here and still getting my ass handed to me by random mobs).

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wut lol. Cheesing is sometimes half the fun. Exploiting the AI or trying to get the AI stuck on the scenery so you can poke them in the back, isn't that the best bit?

 

On Elden Ring. There was a dark horse battle in the heavy snow area region and I had fun shooting at him from on top of a highish stone bridge, until he was dead.

Granted, I had to use about 300 arrows and I almost died several times since he can still get at you, unless you retreat back at the last moment as he jumping attacks.


Watching him run around with Rot draining away his health for 25% of it or so. Whether that was cheese or not I don't know, but I had bloody good fun anyway. I look forward to doing it again on NG+

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the term "cheese" has been lost in translation in these games. Apparently if you don't finish the game while tap dancing and having hammers thrown at you, you "didn't do it legit".

Yeah Souls community is fun like that xD 

 

Using a mechanic given by the game is not cheese. Lord and Savior Miyazaki himself encourages co-op and stuff. If the entire game can be done via Rivers of Blood, why not using it?Plus the weapon looks sick so...

2 minutes ago, enaysoft said:

Wut lol. Cheesing is sometimes half the fun. Exploiting the AI or trying to get the AI stuck on the scenery so you can poke them in the back, isn't that the best bit?

 

Precisely that xD it's so damn fun to see the unga bunga boss that ass blasted your runes to oblivion to die from smelly arrows x200.

 

But regardless, I think that cheesing is when you use an exploit that the devs did not intend, via a bug most of the time.

Example 1 - in Demon's Souls, the original PS3 game, you could shoot one of the Maneaters through the fog gate and kill him before you even started the fight.

Example 2 - in Dark Souls, instead of fighting the dreaded Capra Demon, you could throw poop over the archway and kill him via poisoning.

Example 3 - Dark Souls again, Manus can be cheesed via arrows by shooting him in the Abyss (both literally and figuratively speaking xD )

Example 4 - Elden Ring, the Fire Giant has a "I've fallen and I can't get up" moment if you lure him off the cliff.

 

The list can go on ? that's the cheddar of the highest quality in Souls games.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, DaivRules said:


That might be true because it sounds like this is just your problem with the word cheese and how you’re interpreting it. 
 

Cheese, the way I read it, just means simplify. You seem to be taking it as a personal insult.

 

 

Honestly probably not worth the time to debate. Too many people see things only one way.

 

cheese in gaming definition:

Cheesing is video-game slang for beating tasks or enemies through tactics that while not exactly cheating, are certainly not following Queensbury rules. When you cheese a game, you're exploiting systemic quirks or apparent design oversights to gain maximum advantage for minimum skill or effort.

 

So in Elden Ring, when i let one of the evergaol bosses get stuck in a corner doing backflips while i whacked away till he did, i cheesed it but i didnt cheat.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You see the term cheesing is as old as time. As someone who cheats in a game such as say contra to get the 30 life code could be seen as cheesing. Another form of cheesing is using guides or knowing before hand info of something or getting help from others.

 

For me I don't care I try to enjoy myself as much as I can with any game I trophy hunt. Take for example 7 days to die. there was once a glitch that let you dup any time in the game. the first thing I duped was the rarest item in the game at the time not sure now but that being the army vest and the hazmat suit I found the parts of.

 

Also used said glitch on dupping vit pills to get the trophies a lot easier. the bug was removed afew patches later but still was a good glitch and helped and people can call that cheesing or the fact I had to basically get another player for the last part of dead space 3s final boss as I have a bug that basically kills me making getting the hardcore mode trophy impossible but due to having a friend they got me to bypass the bug and do the trophy.

 

For me I say do what you want with any game only time I say it is a no go is if your planning to use trophy unlockers to get trophies to just get onto a higher up point on the leaderboards and or use aimbot/ turbo controllers for online pvp modes as it is in my eyes the only time any action is a kick in the head to people who went and done them things normally/ using in game ways and so on. but that is my view point on the matter.

 

 

Edit: Forgot to put in that another way of cheeseing I have been bashed for is using the poor ai or path finding of a game to beat it for example. If you play White day you can use trigger points to make the janitor disappear like in school building 2 if you have the code to the office all the code types and so on you can just use it and bypass having to open a door that is meant to pop in the janitor in that part of the game so you can use that trigger point/ cutscene to basically make him disappear if you need a breather or fast getaway.

 

Things like that can also be done in other games I mean I even done the same with kingdom come. basically ran around the starting part of the game and farmed the guy you need to beat up in his house for stealth and hand to hand skill and the cows in the field for weapon levels yes it is boring but it helped me in the long run but it took 100 plus hours to do this.

Edited by Lonemankane
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think when a lot of people use the term "cheesing, " it underminds the idea that, in a lot of cases, a lot of effort was put into the game to be able to beat bosses easily and efficiently. To me, killing powerful bosses quickly after spending hours getting the ideal weapons, armor, and upgrades is just the fruits of your labor. That's not cheesing to me. Cheesing to me would be getting stuck under the map and being able to kill a boss because that probably wasn't put there on purpose.

 

However, I could not care less what someone else calls it. And I don't care what someone else says either about a particular strategy. Whether I beat the game using the beginning weapons and armor, find the most efficient method possible, or shoot arrows into an enemy under the map through a glitch, it doesn't matter. It's not like I have to explain to anyone how I play the games and if I do and someone gets judgy about it, so what?.

 

And I think that would be my advice here. Don't focus too much on one word or what someone calls a particular strategy and play games how you want. There's no reason to be outraged over what some guide says.

Edited by Beyondthegrave07
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Beyondthegrave07 said:

I think when a lot of people use the term "cheesing, " it underminds the idea that, in a lot of cases, a lot of effort was put into the game to be able to beat bosses easily and efficiently. To me, killing powerful bosses quickly after spending hours getting the ideal weapons, armor, and upgrades is just the fruits of your labor. That's not cheesing to me. Cheesing to me would be getting stuck under the map and being able to kill a boss because that probably wasn't put there on purpose.

The latter actually sounds fun to me. That little high you get when you seemingly get a little wind in your sails that was unintended is addicting.

 

Especially on NG+ runs, I'll rawdog that cow until it simply can't produce another drop of milk for the cheese factory.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are pockets of weirdos who seem to find the joy in keyboard gatekeeping and elitism, like they actually felt like they played the game 'better' or something. ER gives player a ton of options and people are going to find what works for them for maximum enjoyment. You can even change your stats 7 times in a play through if you want, you are introduced at the concept early in the game for that matter. What about the fact they designed more fights with multiple bosses, hence summons available. If you bring real players into your game, the bosses are beefier to make up for the extra hands. There is more mobs with magic resistance in this game than any previous FromSoft title.

 

My favorite non-sense are those who keep saying you have to put a ton of points in VIgor like it's gospel. No, it just adds more threshold for getting hit or PvP antics. If you are a quick learner, you'll get by with much less and can do more damage early. The best mitigation is killing the darn thing faster. Sure, eventually you'll reach stat soft caps in this game and then it's better to then toss more in Vigor and other stats.

 

The tide is changing as Elden Ring is a mainstream game, their games are no longer niche when it sells more copies than CoD Vanguard.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, Alayaes said:

The latter actually sounds fun to me. That little high you get when you seemingly get a little wind in your sails that was unintended is addicting.

 

Especially on NG+ runs, I'll rawdog that cow until it simply can't produce another drop of milk for the cheese factory.

And to me, there's nothing, NOTHING wrong with it. If you have fun, who cares how you do it? Play games however you want.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are always going to be people who don't agree with another person's way of overcoming challenges.  No real reason to try to convince anyone that your method is worthwhile or not.  Most of the people who gatekeep are just doing it because they need to feel superior to other people who are accomplishing the same things as them.  They need to invalidate other people's achievements so that theirs still seems worthy of bragging rights or aren't that common.  A lot of people in the gaming community place significant value in beating or getting all trophies in From Software games for some reason so they tend to be among the worst for this.  These games give so many options to the player to make the content easy.. and that doesn't even get into the actual "cheese" like duplication exploits, having people drop items for you in MP, having people do content for you in MP, abusing the AI so that it gets stuck or can't fight properly or whatever else.  There is an easy way to do everything in every From Software game in their post Demon's Souls era.  I place pretty much no "bragging rights" value in achieving plat or completing any of these games as they are on the low end in difficulty in the action game genre.  Kena Bridge of Spirits is harder on master difficulty just to give an example of what I mean.

 

I think the most reasonable response is to just not pay any mind to people who don't think you're as good as them at any given game.  I got people calling me out for being bad at Nioh because I posted a video showing a very OP build I made shortly after the game released tearing through the hardest mission in the game with ease.  It didn't matter to me at all as I only posted that because I wanted people to see that the game wasn't as hard as its reputation would have people believe.  Ultimately, a lot of people just don't like it when others find ways to do things more easily than they did.

 

Edited by Elegy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Simply put using using anything the game offers can’t be considered cheesing. Cheesing is when you circumvent the fog gate and the boss just stands still while you whack away or when you force the boss to jump to his own death like Demon of Hatred in Sekiro. 
 

 

Edited by Quink666
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...