How do you feel about the difficulty of Side Order?

[mossyquartz]

I've seen many people say that the game looks way too easy, other say it seems way too hard. What do you think?

 

[MandatoryCatalyst]

Personally I really hope it's the most challenging thing in the entire series lol. I really love a good challenge, and one of my worries with Side Order is that it won't be challenging. That said, I'm not too worried about it. My guess is that, similar to Octo Expansion, Side Order will be pretty hard, but won't be punishing with its difficulty. The fact that levels are listed with difficulty gives me hope that it'll be a good mix of ease and challenge, and that it'll still be fun for people like me who want really difficult levels, without being completely awful for people who don't.

Honestly, I'm more worried about level design than I am difficulty. Nothing we've seen so far really looks like any of the story mode levels, and while I'm okay with them going in a different direction, I'm a tad worried that the levels will be boring and repetitive if they're not being designed in the same mindset as ROTM and OE. But who knows! We'll see, and I'm excited to find out regardless. Plus, given how it's a roguelike, I'm sure there'll be PLENTY of room to do weird challenge runs outside of what the game expects

 

[Cephalobro]

As long as every single difficulty in Side Order is beatable to make it possible for a 100% completion, then it's all good for me. I have already 100% Return of the Mammalians in its entirety and I intend to do the same thing for Side Order.

 

[Bubbsart]

I've seen many people say that the game looks way too easy, other say it seems way too hard. What do you think?

Definitely gonna be octo expansion 2.0. I saw your video analyzing the splatoon 3 single player campaign and it gave me a look at the single player story from a different viewpoint :)

 

[Alphine_Agnitio]

If it goes all out on the usual roguelike tropes its going to be brutal but enjoyable

 

[blu_aaa]

I've seen many people say that the game looks way too easy, other say it seems way too hard. What do you think?

I'm kinda worried it'll be too easy, since the recent gameplay tweets shows a higher floor (floor 26 if I remembered) and whoever was playing swept through the whole thing at around 30 seconds. Really hoping that was the easy difficulty for that floor bc if side order is too easy its gonna get stale fast I fear

 

[missingno]

My biggest concern is that I'm a grumpy old man who likes old school Roguelikes but sees modern Rogue'lites' as a bastardization of what Rogue (1980) stood for. I don't want a game that I just grind until the unlocks carry me. I'd like to try playing it without using persistent upgrades at all, but I don't know if that will even be doable when the game is obviously going to be designed and balanced around grinding.

Best case scenario, maybe there's an unlockable Hard Mode after you've won a normal run, one that has true permadeath and is designed around it?

 

[Cephalobro]

My biggest concern is that I'm a grumpy old man who likes old school Roguelikes but sees modern Rogue'lites' as a bastardization of what Rogue (1980) stood for. I don't want a game that I just grind until the unlocks carry me. I'd like to try playing it without using persistent upgrades at all, but I don't know if that will even be doable when the game is obviously going to be designed and balanced around grinding.

Best case scenario, maybe there's an unlockable Hard Mode after you've won a normal run, one that has true permadeath and is designed around it?

Getting the upgrades will be optional, and even if you unlocked them, there will most likely be an option to reset the upgrades to 0 anyway, this was definitely the case for the previous single-player modes.

 

[missingno]

But is the game designed and balanced in a way where that's actually doable? That's my concern.

 

[Driftwood]

I hope that it has way to vary or extend the difficulty along with good motivations for doing so. I figure that since there is story content they won't want it to be too difficult to complete a basic run, but there are ways satisfy people looking for a more of a challenge (like me).

I'm really curious if there is a way to extend a run past 30 levels. There are 36 slots on the color pallete after all. My dearest wish is that they have something like a daily challenge (where everyone gets the same starting options and the same map/mode sequence except it's only available for limited time window you can only play it once) along with leaderboards. I love having those in roguelikes since you can hop in once a day, play a run, and then see how you did compared to your friends as well as the community as a whole.

 

[Alphine_Agnitio]

But is the game designed and balanced in a way where that's actually doable? That's my concern.

I don't see how self inflicted challenge runs to spike the difficulty won't be possible, theres people out there that make a living on yt making vids like "can you beat octo expansion without firing your main weapon sunglass emoji"

 

[Grushi]

I'm... actually pretty worried. I feel like roguelikes live or die on their difficulty and considering how wide the skill gaps between players can be I'm worried nintendo will make it too easy. Like the stronger players will just be able to beat it in one go without enough challenge.
Especially if you can become stronger than usual with upgrades, the enemies will really need to pack a punch. Hope I'm wrong though!

 

[Alphine_Agnitio]

I hope that it has way to vary or extend the difficulty along with good motivations for doing so. I figure that since there is story content they won't want it to be too difficult to complete a basic run, but there are ways satisfy people looking for a more of a challenge (like me).

I'm really curious if there is a way to extend a run past 30 levels. There are 36 slots on the color pallete after all. My dearest wish is that they have something like a daily challenge (where everyone gets the same starting options and the same map/mode sequence except it's only available for limited time window you can only play it once) along with leaderboards. I love having those in roguelikes since you can hop in once a day, play a run, and then see how you did compared to your friends as well as the community as a whole.

I'd be willing to bet they structure it as a "bad ending = you picked only easy floors neutral ending = you picked easy/medium floors only good ending = you picked mostly hard floors" and the last 6 slots are a final rush at the end leading up to the final boss(similar to how Slay the Spire structures it, in order to get the true ending you have to have beaten runs with each 3 character and then in a fourth run go out of your way to get 3 keys by doing 3 different tasks to unlock Act 4)

it would give additional replayability value for a side mode that otherwise would be very story light in contrast to how much they're hyping up the mysteries of the mode(how did inkopolis square lose color? what happened to Marina? etc), in a genre where putting narrative cohesion is already difficult because of how the genre is structured(and replayability is something they keep bringing up as a selling point, idt they'd highlight it so much just because its made in a roguelike structure)

 

[missingno]

I could see them doing something like Slay the Spire's Ascension system where winning one run is just the beginning, now do it again on the next difficulty level. That could be how the story advances as well.

 

[DChachouke]

Idk how hard it'll be but I hope it's more difficult than octo expansion ! There's nothing better than a challenge with a lot of replayability.

 

[sydeorder]

I've seen many people say that the game looks way too easy, other say it seems way too hard. What do you think?

i’m really excited for its rougelike gameplay!! from what we’ve seen it seems just a biiit too easy, but you never know until you try!! im more interested in how strong you can make agent 8 by floor 30

 

[Aiko.Octo]

I am not especially skilled at these sorts of games, so personally I am hoping it's challenging enough to feel satisfying to grow into as well as having options for more extreme difficulties, without too much of the spoiler-able plot stuff gated behind near-insurmountable skill-checks. I just want to be able to experience it as spoiler-free as possible without having to isolate myself from the internet for too long, and then be able to tackle the most difficult challenges at my own pace.

 

[jeffthesquid]

I don't know. I just played through the story mode of Splatoon 3. I haven't even played Splatoon 2 or anything like that but I did not like all those "tests". I wants levels that I can play through like in Super Mario World or Mario 3. I hope it is a bunch of levels and why can't they make this more open world. Was watching Nintendo videos on Mario Odyssey that I never played and it is open world... Anyways, I'm one to talk that I have not been in the gaming world before. Please don't hate Jeff The Squid!

 

[Driftwood]

I'd be willing to bet they structure it as a "bad ending = you picked only easy floors neutral ending = you picked easy/medium floors only good ending = you picked mostly hard floors" and the last 6 slots are a final rush at the end leading up to the final boss(similar to how Slay the Spire structures it, in order to get the true ending you have to have beaten runs with each 3 character and then in a fourth run go out of your way to get 3 keys by doing 3 different tasks to unlock Act 4)

it would give additional replayability value for a side mode that otherwise would be very story light in contrast to how much they're hyping up the mysteries of the mode(how did inkopolis square lose color? what happened to Marina? etc), in a genre where putting narrative cohesion is already difficult because of how the genre is structured(and replayability is something they keep bringing up as a selling point, idt they'd highlight it so much just because its made in a roguelike structure)

I honestly don't think they will have a bad/good ending structure. That's not been something they've had in any Splatoon game as far as I'm aware and so far they have had a single cohesive narrative, with the exception being that you can change how the player character looks (ok technically there are "bad endings" if you fail the final bosses of Octo Expansion and the S3 campaign but I consider that more of an fail screen than a proper end).

That said I agree they might have a "true" ending...or perhaps a "final" ending might be better word for it. I think (hope?) that they will have ways to unlock new secret levels or areas which I think is kind of what you are talking about (if I understand you correctly). And I'm thinking the whole virtual world they appear to be establishing will allow them to do that easily without really messing to much with the lore. If you "beat Side Order" you probably can escape to the real world, but you can also, not escape and do other things in the virtual world.

I haven't played Slay the Spire (though I probably should, especially given how much it's being referenced in this thread), but I've played the hell out of Spelunky and Nuclear Throne and one of the best aspects of those two games were how they had multiple secret areas to discover, unlock and challenge yourself with (given your comments I'm guessing this also exists in Slay the Spire). These could include both side areas as well as "the real final areas after the final area."

You and someone else (I think) mentioned a final rush at the end of Slay the Spire but I want to offer an alternative possibility from Nuclear Throne...looping. The game ends if you reach and beat the throne but there is a way to open a portal after you beat it. You then have to beat second version of the throne and after that the game spits you back at level 1, except it has way more and harder enemies. You can keep going on indefinitely going for a higher and higher score until you eventually die (since the game still gets progressively harder). After you loop the first time the game has new bosses that weren't in the first loop and the third loop includes a couple new variant enemies as well (I've only watch up to loop 3 and only made it to loop 2 myself).

 

[mossyquartz]

As long as every single difficulty in Side Order is beatable to make it possible for a 100% completion, then it's all good for me. I have already 100% Return of the Mammalians in its entirety and I intend to do the same thing for Side Order.

I really hope there's something to 100% too!! I love completing everything :3