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Hard or Normal?


Sir_Bee

Hard or Normal?  

55 members have voted

  1. 1. Which difficulty did you choose?

    • Hard
      19
    • Normal
      36


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Just as the title says, I am curious what difficulty people are choosing to play on. As far as I could tell, difficulty did not affect any of the trophies, and according to the developers none are missable. Knowing that, do people tend to choose normal, or hard and why?

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Without any trophies being "difficulty locked", I'm the type of fellow who will at least consider playing on Normal instead of Hard. That being said, I'll probably play on Hard anyhow for the challenge and experience, because "Hard" these days is "Normal" for games from my youth, and because I don't believe it would make that much of a difference for me unlike other types of games where such a thing matters (e.g. Baroque for the PS2 was substantially more difficult for me on "Hard").

I also don't want to shorten Rainbow Moon to the point where I leave my PS3 on overnight just to run off the time necessary to hit the 100 hour trophy if everything else is already done.

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Without any trophies being "difficulty locked", I'm the type of fellow who will at least consider playing on Normal instead of Hard. That being said, I'll probably play on Hard anyhow for the challenge and experience, because "Hard" these days is "Normal" for games from my youth, and because I don't believe it would make that much of a difference for me unlike other types of games where such a thing matters (e.g. Baroque for the PS2 was substantially more difficult for me on "Hard").

I also don't want to shorten Rainbow Moon to the point where I leave my PS3 on overnight just to run off the time necessary to hit the 100 hour trophy if everything else is already done.

At the beginning you can select either normal or hard difficulties. Personally, I wanted the challenge so I chose hard (the game warns you that it requires a lot of grinding). Not only will you get your butt kicked in the first few hours of the game but you will have to constantly grind just to survive the first dungeon.

That excerpt is from a review by gaming illustrated. http://gamingillustr...oon-ps3-review/

It looks like hard is very different than normal. That being said, I have a tendency to agree with you. Many current games don't really have a true "hard" mode anymore.

Also, if you are going for the platinum, I bet you will hit 100 hours before you hit level 500, so you shouldn't need to worry about needing to leave it on overnight.

Edited by Sir_Bee
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I'll probably play this on Hard when I get it. I usually prefer Normal mode on a first playthrough since I assume Normal means that's the difficulty the developers "wanted" it to be at, then crank it up to higher difficulties later. But since this game requres reaching level 500, the extra grinding to survive dungeons will spread this out nicely.

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Everything I have read says Hard mode is pretty........Hard. The developers recommended to reviewers to play it on Normal. I can just see a lot more grinding at the beginning of the game on Hard, and with that being said I will be playing it on Normal.

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I prefer my first playthrough of games to be on Normal. Like another person said, generally Normal is the difficulty developers choose as the "main" difficulty setting and I'd prefer to enjoy the combat AND story instead of just being frustrated to hell.

Parker

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I started playing on normal. Hard would require more grinding, which I surely would have accepted if a trophy depended on it. But as it doesn't ... :)

Doesn't an obligation to reach Level 500 with one character (for a trophy) qualify as grinding to you?

I believe he said "more grinding", haha

Anywho, spending that much time on a game/trophy would only be grinding if you were doing it simply for the trophy. If you are enjoying the game and end up putting that much time into it anyway then I would say it isn't "grinding" per se ... though it could boil down to semantics :P

EDIT: I should probably post on topic :o I, personally, when given the option, will play on the lower difficulty as I enjoy stress-free gaming experiences much more than dying every 5 seconds and relying on checkpoints to make it through a game. I don't mind a challenge from time to time however, I find it much more enjoyable when the game is easier.

Edited by bmj14772
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I think the main difference is HARD will require grinding throughout the game just to beat it, whereas NORMAL will let you get through the game with a lower final level, meaning you would have a lot more work cut out for you at the end to get to level 500.

I am actually going to start tonight, and I will likely play on NORMAL.

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I believe he said "more grinding", haha

Anywho, spending that much time on a game/trophy would only be grinding if you were doing it simply for the trophy. If you are enjoying the game and end up putting that much time into it anyway then I would say it isn't "grinding" per se ... though it could boil down to semantics :P

Has anyone seen a review saying what level they were when they finished the main game? I'm still curious how much time will need to be devoted to just getting to level 500 after all the sidequest/etc. is over. I'll probably grab that double xp ring at least to speed up this challenge.

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That depends on several factors but I would say on normal mode 100-130 hours. On hard mode just add 20-50 hours but that also depends on how fast you are playing.

The level 500 trophy is not that hard, because after beating the game, there are ways to level up much much faster. It's however one of the trophies that requires some time.

http://www.eastasiasoft.com/index.php/forum/11-rainbow-moon/2958-platinum-trophy#2961

It looks like it won't be too bad. It is nice to know that leveling after the story is completed can be accelerated.

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Well, I went for Hard/Adventuresome.... perhaps because I'm a bit of a masochist when it comes to my (genuine, old-school, non-action) RPGs. There's definitely some grinding involved, because the lack of early resources made the start more difficult than it otherwise would be. Not that I consider this an outright negative -- to me, having to work harder early just to stay alive and thrive a little bit forces me to start learning nuances of the system sooner than I otherwise would because I can't simply brute-force my way through things.

Based on the poll results up top, I'm probably the only clown who decided "Hard" was the way to go. :pimp:

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Well, I went for Hard/Adventuresome.... perhaps because I'm a bit of a masochist when it comes to my (genuine, old-school, non-action) RPGs. There's definitely some grinding involved, because the lack of early resources made the start more difficult than it otherwise would be. Not that I consider this an outright negative -- to me, having to work harder early just to stay alive and thrive a little bit forces me to start learning nuances of the system sooner than I otherwise would because I can't simply brute-force my way through things.

Based on the poll results up top, I'm probably the only clown who decided "Hard" was the way to go. :pimp:

How much extra grinding did you need to do per section? Still debating which way to play based on the above comments.

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How much extra grinding did you need to do per section? Still debating which way to play based on the above comments.

I'm only in the second dungeon right now, because I've only put in about four hours (roughly) in gameplay through two days -- I've got three other games I'm currently working on and won't single-mindedly devote myself to just this title. So long as I haven't been overwhelmed by sheer numbers of the high-level monsters, I'm hanging in there alright. My two characters are at level 6 and level 5 respectively, and I haven't really gone out of my way to do extra grinding unless I was really close to the next level or needed a few rainbow pearls for an attribute power-up (Strength, Speed, and Defense.... the others can wait and come along in their own time).

I did take the time to knock out two of the early-game side "fetch quests" which sufficed to duplicate the benefits of "grinding", but my aim there was the superior equipment that was the reward for the quest and not the XP/etc that was the side benefit of all the extra fighting.

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I chose Normal. Personally, i'm rather inexperienced with this kind of RPG, so I didn't want to set the bar too high for myself. I already struggle a little bit so i probably made the right decision. I prefer not to have to grind early on too. Save THAT for when I have higher level characters. (currently, i'm on 2nd island)

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Well, I went for Hard/Adventuresome....

Based on the poll results up top, I'm probably the only clown who decided "Hard" was the way to go. :pimp:

Props for trailblazing on the difficulty level. I defaulted to normal like many others but I did take the Adventuresome option. Now if only I knew what the hell that means I'm sure I'd be real proud of myself.

I know it starts you off with jack and I heard there's a secret thing/bonus later for Adventuresome players but does it affect the actual realtime gameplay or fighting difficulty level? Don't think so...

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Props for trailblazing on the difficulty level. I defaulted to normal like many others but I did take the Adventuresome option. Now if only I knew what the hell that means I'm sure I'd be real proud of myself.

I know it starts you off with jack and I heard there's a secret thing/bonus later for Adventuresome players but does it affect the actual realtime gameplay or fighting difficulty level? Don't think so...

I have noticed that a few NPC's have mentioned the fact that I started on adventuresome, and have given me a bonus (so far just gold), but I am not sure if that is all it will do, maybe more?

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

How did you find it? I never got stuck or was forced to grind on normal. Also, using adventuresome didn't make much of a difference at all.

It was hard. I had to grind things out before each boss as every enemy deals big damage- unless you're at least 10 levels above them and upgraded the best possible armor.

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  • 1 year later...

hard pretty much equal more grind... but that 100 hours trophy make it feel more useful anyway.

 

I would go on normal if i had to choose again.


plus... tip for anyone reading this... the last story boss is kind of a pain at hard even at max possible lvl (at that time) if you did not take the time to upgrade your items...

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