When does the game get challenging?

[Astrix]

Not complaining, love this game so far but I just hit level 20 and I am getting bored. I've been one shotting almost everything since level 5 or so. Does this trend continue into the rest of the game?

[Skyly]

I would say challenge mode, ultimate quest, or solo extreme quest.

[Z-0]

It does extend into the rest of the game.

[Poyonche]

One day you will do XH TD2/3/4 with horribad pugs. At this moment you will face challenge itself. Or not.

[Maninbluejumpsuit]

Game only gets easier.

Only things that may qualify as a challenge is CM, mining base defense EQs, and solo XQs.

[Totori]

Depends on what you do and who you run as, I'm fairly sure you would fail your rank of TD4. So there are some challenging things out there.

[Skornedemon]

Pre-Nerf Loser and Magatsu days. But people complained and now everything is stupid easy.

[Kondibon]

Pre-Nerf Loser and Magatsu days. But people complained and now everything is stupid easy.They never got any easier, just less damage spongey.

[Astrix]

This is disapointing. Oh well I'll continue to play since it's free after all.

[Keilyn]

Only way to make this game hard is if you make it hard for yourself.

[BWS-1]

Only way to make this game hard is if you make it hard for yourself.

Funny you should say that, I can't wait to try my Br/Hu and Bo/Hu setup once I get this game running... well, ok this might not sound like completely challenging, but I aim to see how far I can keep getting things done with nothing but an agito and/or niren agito. Oh yeah, might need to acquire those too first.

[Sacrificial]

sega pretty much nerfed everything to the ground so new players and new characters could get to the endgame much much faster than it used to be. Because of that it doesnt get harder until you hit SHAQ+X risk or ultimate.

[milranduil]

sega pretty much nerfed everything to the ground so new players and new characters could get to the endgame much much faster than it used to be. Because of that it doesnt get harder until you hit SHAQ+X risk or ultimate.

SHAQ is not even that hard... mobs have nerfed HP compared to their XH counterparts by a considerable percentage.

[Sacrificial]

SHAQ is not even that hard...

Well true, but +50 is at least something.

[dr apocalipsis]

Make yourself a XQ units set, with only 15pp base and basically no def stats.

Anything SH or above will one shot you at the slighest fail, without reducing your damage output.

[Totori]

Yeppers, just get more further it'll get harder.

[Tunga]

I don't see how gimping yourself and using horrible class combos does anything to improve difficulty.

[ArcaneTechs]

I don't see how gimping yourself and using horrible class combos does anything to improve difficulty.
It's for the sake of "fun" and "challenge" remember?

[Great Pan]

Try playing with *1 weapons and units with no augment for the whole game. That should work.

[otakun]

Donno why someone at level 20 is commenting on the difficulty of the game yet anyway. You just got into the 2nd difficulty bracket at best which takes like 20 mins to get to and is meant to ease people into the game. People here on the forums commenting have probably been playing the game for a while and have good gear already. While Sega has made it much easier to get decent gear not all players can instantly get what they need as they progress and might be in late SH or XH before they get a good unit set. I know of players who still struggle on certain bosses cause they have bad luck with gear.

[[Ayumi]]

I don't see how gimping yourself and using horrible class combos does anything to improve difficulty.

Same as I don't get people doing those Nuzleaf or whatever runs in Pokémon.
IF you want a challenge... you can do it.
One of my most challenging bosses (actually... the only one I ever found challenging) was Bal Rodos. Yeah... Rodos. Everything else was a cakewalk except Rodos as I didn't have the right equipment.
Now he's a cakewalk too.

It matters on how you play, what you got, where you play, and whether you play with others all the time or yourself all the time or a mixture of two.

[Zeroem]

Still too early to comment about how challenging game is when you're still scratching the surface. Just saying.

That aside, unfortunately, the game only grows a little in difficulty. Notable when VH-SH transition, and on certain EQs. Other than that, the only thing that grow is numbers....in a nutshell.

[Tunga]

Try playing with *1 weapons and units with no augment for the whole game. That should work.

There's a certain player that got to lvl 75 Hu/no-sub using nothing but a shitty gunslash. He's considered the greatest leech in PS history.

[TehCubey]

Still too early to comment about how challenging game is when you're still scratching the surface. Just saying.


Donno why someone at level 20 is commenting on the difficulty of the game yet anyway. You just got into the 2nd difficulty bracket at best which takes like 20 mins to get to and is meant to ease people into the game.

Does everyone in this thread have reading comprehension problems?

OP isn't complaining about game difficulty, but asking when will the game get harder. Believe it or not but you can ask a question without it being a hidden jab.

Normal and Hard difficulty quests are really easy these days. The game picks up in difficulty on VH - in that enemies deal more than 1 HP and bosses do not melt instantly anymore. Normal mobs still will if you have a decent weapon grinded to +10 and units with decent affixes though.

Don't expect the game to be a hardcore challenge for hardcore players though. Even in endgame it's pretty easy.

[Touka]

Game is pretty much designed for casuals(regardless what people may think).Stuff that actually are dfficult are either removed or nerfed much like Aculpus in episode 2,they could actually kill you.

[otakun]

Does everyone in this thread have reading comprehension problems?

OP isn't complaining about game difficulty, but asking when will the game get harder. Believe it or not but you can ask a question without it being a hidden jab.


OP clearly stated he is bored with the game cause he is one shotting everything. By the dictionary definition of complain is : express dissatisfaction or annoyance about a state of affairs or an event. Clearly if you are bored with the game then you are not satisfied with it. So, my reading comprehension seems quite fine.

[Keilyn]

SHAQ is not even that hard... mobs have nerfed HP compared to their XH counterparts by a considerable percentage.

I always wondered if Monster Health was determined by both, Level and Difficulty. I started wondering when I started recording all my runs in the XH Forest EQs as well as running SHAQ Forest w/ +50 Risk. Interesting though how SHAQ w/ +50 Risk has 13* drops even if the difficulty still is considered to be SH w/ Level 80 enemies. I do wonder at times if enemies have more health in MPAs as well due to the intention being 12 players on the map.

I run SHAQ because I feel its the only thing that is decent that I can play outside of an EQ thanks to the 13* drops and being able to at least fight against level 80 monsters. XQ bores me to death...

I consider myself a casual player compared to how I am in other games.

[TaigaUC]

PSO2 is officially designed so that both newbies and veterans can play together. The producer himself said that.
So the game has been increasingly watered down for that reason.

The stuff that's challenging tends to be plagued by people who don't realize they're dragging everyone else down. Or leechers intentionally slacking/idling.
The difficulty of that content relies heavily on how well everyone else plays.
Doesn't matter if you're the best player ever. If the rest of the multiparty sucks, you will fail.

It also doesn't help that SEGA makes people do the same old content, over and over for months to years on end.
That burns a lot of people out to the point that they just want the rewards and don't want to play the game properly.

I think challenge really depends on the context. You can always create your own challenges.
I've met people who just mess around, trying to solo XH emergency quests, stuff like that.

[otakun]

I would be more inclined to believe everyones claims of how easy the game is if I didn't see people getting constantly killed by EQ bosses every day. So many people focus on DPS and get one shot by end game bosses then complain that the fights were too easy cause someone else is around to pick their asses back up. What do you want Sega to do, remove all rez items from the game?

[ArcaneTechs]

There's a certain player that got to lvl 75 Hu/no-sub using nothing but a shitty gunslash. He's considered the greatest leech in PS history.
Would explain why my old team shot his request to join us down because his reason was "this game is too easy, you dont need a sublcass"

[milranduil]

Would explain why my old team shot his request to join us down because his reason was "this game is too easy, you dont need a sublcass"

i've played with the aforementioned. wb lv 46 mobs and uses flame bullet for dark ragne :D

[ArcaneTechs]

i've played with the aforementioned. wb lv 46 mobs and uses flame bullet for dark ragne :D
:wacko:

[Zeroem]

Does everyone in this thread have reading comprehension problems?

OP isn't complaining about game difficulty, but asking when will the game get harder. Believe it or not but you can ask a question without it being a hidden jab.

Bored = not satisfied. And complain exist because someone's not satisfied.
Besides, I did gave the guy a proper answer in the same post.


......That aside, unfortunately, the game only grows a little in difficulty. Notable when VH-SH transition, and on certain EQs. Other than that, the only thing that grow is numbers....in a nutshell.

So yeah, I'll stick with my words. And even with glasses, my reading comprehension is good.

[SteveCZ]

For new players, SH is usually the mark of the next difficulty cause the enemy's behavior is changed. May wanna get to that difficulty first.

Solo XQ is the next challenging thing to deal with. Unless you have full HP gear with automate halfline and whatevs though.

You can also solo the ultimate quests. They are fun to play it for a while (again, for new players).
I remember the time when the UQ first came out (and when the Nab UQ was harder), and my friends asked if it's normal to keep dying in this quest.
People were using 11*s back then, with harder Nab UQ, and 12* was still a thing, and Ares 13* was a godly thing to have.

Usually in the end people find the challenge on optimizing the time spent on the quests, like TA or TD. But that can only go as far. This next new TA should also be challenging.

[SPOILER-BOX]If you like fashion star online 2, it's another difficulty on your in-game pocket. :-P[/SPOILER-BOX]

[AnikaSteinberg]

Not complaining, love this game so far but I just hit level 20 and I am getting bored. I've been one shotting almost everything since level 5 or so. Does this trend continue into the rest of the game?

Level 20.... pretty much everything is still very, very squishy at that point even when using uber trash weps, or uber trash class combinations.
Enemy AI at lower difficulties (VH-) are also typically yawn-inducing, and doesn't get more aggressive until SH (60+). Endgame challenge(?) content doesn't even really start until you get to XH (70+)


So yeah, level up more first.

[TaigaUC]

See, the game is "easy" because it's rare to actually fail.
Dying all the time doesn't matter when other people can easily revive you.

Stuff like getting S rank in a tiny time limit used to be super tight and random could screw you over.
They relaxed all that, which is good, but that wasn't so much a matter of challenge, but luck.
It didn't matter how good you are if the game kept locking you behind walls and then failing to spawn enemies.
Glad that's not a problem anymore, because it sucked.

PSO2's content focuses heavily on incentives, and large group related stuff that trivializes everything.
So you don't really need to do anything or improve. Just spend the time, and eventually you'll get the goodies.
Even if you do put the effort in, the rest of the multi's competency will make your break your efficiency.

I think the fun part of a challenge is requiring some skill and improvement on your own part.
And sometimes it's more fun to just mess around instead of rush rush rushing for incentives.
PSO2 doesn't have enough content along those lines.

[SolRiver]

i personally like to run around with limit break at all time just for fun.

[SteveCZ]

i personally like to run around with limit break at all time just for fun.

Looking at your avatar, I misread "run" as "jump". :???:

[SilkaN]

If you tackle content with a party / mpa, it's usually easy and all you need to do is know how to dodge occasionally.

All the people in this thread telling you to "make the game harder yourself" are a sign of really bad game design. And let's be honest, most people keep playing because they already invested so much time and/or money and not because the game is so incredibly well crafted.

[Raujinn]

I had a longer post, maybe I'll blog about it later I dont fuckin know. OP while PSO2 never gets truly challenging you're still judging the difficulty way too early. As you're new to the game, I feel fairly confident in saying that some bosses you'll come across on your journey will put up a decent fight if you're on your own. How much this will satiate your desire for a challenge is literally impossible to say.

As people say, PSO2 is not designed with challenge as its primary component and as a result finding the challenges in this game is itself a challenge (for all the wrong reasons).

[Selphea]

I still remember playing when it was new and quitting because of one license quest. You were supposed to kill machines under a time limit in one Lilipa mission but the only things I kept running into were Darkers so i ragequit.

The only thing hard about that was probably the difficulty Sega had in retaining players at that point though.

[otakun]

If you tackle content with a party / mpa, it's usually easy and all you need to do is know how to dodge occasionally.

All the people in this thread telling you to "make the game harder yourself" are a sign of really bad game design. And let's be honest, most people keep playing because they already invested so much time and/or money and not because the game is so incredibly well crafted.

Not going to argue about the idea of well crafted cause that is opinionated but PSO2 being poorly designed I have to disagree with on certain points. The goal of an MMO is to keep you logging in everyday for whatever reason which doesn't really require one aspect to do so. This is something that PSO2 does accomplish in various ways.

If a challenge is what you seek then there are options to make the game harder for yourself. This doesn't mean that is a sign of bad design cause people do it all the time with good games. You see people play Dark Souls who breeze through the original game then redo it soul level 1 with no armor and no blocking/parrying/dodging challenges. Then there are the vast amount of pokemon nuzlockes done yet those games are still popular. People find the game to be fun and want a bigger challenge. Don't see why its bad design in one game and not another.

A game, especially an MMO, requires a lot of people to constantly play to be considered good unlike a single player game which you buy and that's it for as far as the developer cares. This requires you to have to be open to a bigger audience. There are options for those who want to do other things and some of those options aren't going to be desirable for everyone. Though IMO PSO2, being an MMO, does it's job to incentivize people to log in which is what an MMO is designed to do.

Inb4 TL;DR.

[[Ayumi]]

If you tackle content with a party / mpa, it's usually easy and all you need to do is know how to dodge occasionally.

All the people in this thread telling you to "make the game harder yourself" are a sign of really bad game design. And let's be honest, most people keep playing because they already invested so much time and/or money and not because the game is so incredibly well crafted.


Not going to argue about the idea of well crafted cause that is opinionated but PSO2 being poorly designed I have to disagree with on certain points. The goal of an MMO is to keep you logging in everyday for whatever reason which doesn't really require one aspect to do so. This is something that PSO2 does accomplish in various ways.

If a challenge is what you seek then there are options to make the game harder for yourself. This doesn't mean that is a sign of bad design cause people do it all the time with good games. You see people play Dark Souls who breeze through the original game then redo it soul level 1 with no armor and no blocking/parrying/dodging challenges. Then there are the vast amount of pokemon nuzlockes done yet those games are still popular. People find the game to be fun and want a bigger challenge. Don't see why its bad design in one game and not another.

A game, especially an MMO, requires a lot of people to constantly play to be considered good unlike a single player game which you buy and that's it for as far as the developer cares. This requires you to have to be open to a bigger audience. There are options for those who want to do other things and some of those options aren't going to be desirable for everyone. Though IMO PSO2, being an MMO, does it's job to incentivize people to log in which is what an MMO is designed to do.

Inb4 TL;DR.

I guess I'm the only one that probably play PSO2 like I played PSO1.
Aka, half of the time playing "offline mode" (by myself) and then 25% of it hanging around with others and the last 25% playing missions with other people.

[BWS-1]

I mean, not all games can be Dark Souls... but it isn't bad game design in my opinion if you have the OPTION to make it hard on yourself with your own imagination.

Like what I did with Skyrim: played a level 1 character until the end of vanilla skyrim staying level 1. On Legendary difficulty. No achievements for that, but I felt like seeing if it could be done. I raged a lot, but it ended up being done. You end up playing it in a way that you might never even THINK of having to play it in other - still challenging - times if one wouldn't play it like that, but that didn't end up meaning lower difficulty was poorly designed if it could be aced. If anything, unless you are expecting - or making - a Dark Souls game... I wouldn't expect to have to struggle to go through it.

Maybe if we're talking MMO, SOME difficulty could be "designed" with teamplay in mind, but if the game itself ends up being a game played mostly by solo people or players with AI partners, you can't force it too much, but I keep on reading how PSO2 STILL has those places where you will have to either have a good team or not suck... it's just that until then, ok, maybe the game MIGHT be a little on the easy-side. I always found with PSO that if you try to hit harder areas or difficulties earlier, you'll get your challenge. That's mostly it, part of the way it's designed. Going offline at level 75 in Ultimate with PSO ver2 on Dreamcast is probably pointless, time-spent-to-exp-gained, but if you really wanna spend the time, you could clear Forest if you have the patience and consistence of gameplay.

[Stormwalker]

;3356290']I guess I'm the only one that probably play PSO2 like I played PSO1.
Aka, half of the time playing "offline mode" (by myself) and then 25% of it hanging around with others and the last 25% playing missions with other people.

I play PSO2 exactly like I played PSO1. I solo ~50% oof the time, team up with a RL friend 40% of the time, and play with other players on the occasion that I feel like doing an EQ.

The biggest problem with challenge in this game is that 12 players concentrating fire will trivialize any encounter in the game. I really wish Sega would implement some difficult content tuned for 4 rather than 12. A 4-man Challenge or Ult would be great.

That said, there is a lot to do in this game that is still challenging enough to be fun at the solo and duo level. SH AQ's can be fairly difficult if you ramp up the risk. Duo'ing Challenge Mode is very difficult, but it's fun (except for the frustration of having to reset until we get at least one katana and Gurren-tessen at the start of Decision).

[[Ayumi]]

I do enjoy soloing Ultimate Forest in PSO2 as much as I did in PSO1... except for Anga.
Anga for me is the only thing not fun in ultimate while the rest is a lot of fun. Especially those... um... never will remember their names. Piogranites? Those mammoths that get all soaking in magma when you fully pop his zits.

[Saffran]

> (except for the frustration of having to reset until we get at least one katana and Gurren-tessen at the start of Decision).
Use what you find or GTFO...

As for difficulty in general, affixing non-attack stuffs on your protective gear can ramp it up quite a bit. If you solo. Funny how much difference 500 ATK on your base values can make.

[Stormwalker]

I'm 2-manning a 12-man Challenge Mode. And I'm not doing it just to do it, I'm trying to unlock the shop. So you GTFO.

On a pretty high percentage of our starts, we don't even get one PA that can be used with either of our weapons. It's not like in 12-man where you have 12 people's drops to trade. We get two weapons and four PA discs. I have lost count of the times we've gotten jet boots, a rifle, three Quake Howling discs, and a Gurren-tessen disc, or some equally useless combination.

Generally if one of us gets a good setup (Katana/Gurren-tessen or Knuckles/Quake Howling), we'll run with it. If we both get usable sets, even if that means JB and a rifle as long as we both have usable PA's. But running a useless setup doesn't help us toward out goal.

[Tunga]

> (except for the frustration of having to reset until we get at least one katana and Gurren-tessen at the start of Decision).
Use what you find or GTFO...

Seems like someone has never tried 2-man CM2.

[Astrix]

OP here. I understand making the game accessible to many people, but no one will stick around being bored. I am currently playing psobb and having more fun. The contrast between the 2 games difficulties is night and day. PSO1 was perfect in that regard. I want to group with people in pso 2 but I find myself fighting to get a hit in before everything dies. Like I said I am going to stick around regardless because I'm a big pso fan, but I am disapointed with sonic team for making the game a breeze because everything else is great. I am using the alva wired lance and as much as I want to upgrade the weapon, I fear things will get even easier when I do. I want the incentive to upgrade my character's gear and grow my mag. Hope sonic team addresses this issue if the game ever comes out in the states because this could be a really fun game.

[Saffran]

The challenge thing is to get through using only what you drop, not resetting until you drop something OP that will allow you to do the quest.
If you're only in to unlock the shop, join a beginner room and wait until it fills, just like everybody else.
(also, I have tried multiple times to actually solo CM2, to no avail)

As for the OP, PSO1 is a cornerstone in game design. I understand why they changed the formula for PSO2, but even ignoring the fact that people cried when the new content was too hard, they really dumbed it down too much.

[otakun]

OP here. I understand making the game accessible to many people, but no one will stick around being bored. I am currently playing psobb and having more fun. The contrast between the 2 games difficulties is night and day. PSO1 was perfect in that regard. I want to group with people in pso 2 but I find myself fighting to get a hit in before everything dies. Like I said I am going to stick around regardless because I'm a big pso fan, but I am disapointed with sonic team for making the game a breeze because everything else is great. I am using the alva wired lance and as much as I want to upgrade the weapon, I fear things will get even easier when I do. I want the incentive to upgrade my character's gear and grow my mag. Hope sonic team addresses this issue if the game ever comes out in the states because this could be a really fun game.

Game has been around for almost 4 years now and just hit its highest concurrent player connection in its history. Pretty sure your opinion is in the minority in this case. Also, this game will never come to the states, nor should it.

[Z-0]

I dunno about that, the only reason it just hit its highest concurrent player connection is because its a new game on PS4, not because of quality or anything.

[[Ayumi]]

OP here. I understand making the game accessible to many people, but no one will stick around being bored. I am currently playing psobb and having more fun. The contrast between the 2 games difficulties is night and day. PSO1 was perfect in that regard. I want to group with people in pso 2 but I find myself fighting to get a hit in before everything dies. Like I said I am going to stick around regardless because I'm a big pso fan, but I am disapointed with sonic team for making the game a breeze because everything else is great. I am using the alva wired lance and as much as I want to upgrade the weapon, I fear things will get even easier when I do. I want the incentive to upgrade my character's gear and grow my mag. Hope sonic team addresses this issue if the game ever comes out in the states because this could be a really fun game.

I've been play the "PSO" games (I'm of course including crap like PSU/PSP2/PSP2i in this) since Sonic Adventure 2 Trial demo and I can understand what you're coming from... but...

Well you said you just hit hard mode right? I remember when I 1st hit Hard Mode of PSO that other than the enemies taking a lot my bullets, they weren't much of a challenge compared to Normal Mode.
In PSO2, I say it's pretty much the same except that the enemies aren't walking around just taking those shots and taking a while to die.

I remember in Very Hard of PSO was when I noticed the game getting challenging around the areas and was somewhat of a feat for me to go through solo.
Now, while PSO2 VH is nothing like PSO2... I might categories SH as PSO's VH.
The very 1st time I ever got into SH mode when I came back to PSO2 like 2 years ago (which I heard SH was around for a while before I even got back on), they were very troublesome to get around.
With just my main items, it was not easy until I got better equipment and of course leveled up.

NOW yes... if I make a new character or level a new class and head into SH mode right when I hit level 50, SH isn't as hard as it used to be... but this is after I got all of my level 75 account stat boosts, and of course units that a level 50 can wear and so on and so forth so the newer characters got it on easy-streak.
The way I would compare SH for my new characters/levels with units and whatever they can use right from the get-go, would be like taking off a level 100/200 Mag from a high level character from PSO and putting it on a lowere level character so they could have the earlier levels as a cake-walk.



Also, if you think that Alva Wired Lance will help you in Super Hard, Extra Hard, Ultimate or maybe even the later levels in Very Hard... unless you maybe add affixes, extend it, and... wait is Alva a low rarity weapon? I don't have one on me so I don't know if you can just +10 it or if it can get to +40... BUT EITHER way it mightt be okay on VH... but not the rest.
Also leveling mags more or less help yes in the damage but mainly (to me at least) help me use certain weapons where my base stats don't meet the requirement.
Random thought, but I just remembered I have a level 30 Bouncer that could wear my best 13* Quartz boots... but only because of the stuff I mentioned above.

[otakun]

I dunno about that, the only reason it just hit its highest concurrent player connection is because its a new game on PS4, not because of quality or anything.

The PS4 release was a month ago, and the game just recently hit the concurrent player connection record. Most people who first start an MMO that arent interested in it don't last a month and yet there are people who have stayed and adding onto the current player base. So, it's obvious that there is more then that for a game which is almost 4 years old.

[Gama]

challendge yourself. run x mission in x time.

[Keilyn]

OP here. I understand making the game accessible to many people, but no one will stick around being bored. I am currently playing psobb and having more fun. The contrast between the 2 games difficulties is night and day. PSO1 was perfect in that regard. I want to group with people in pso 2 but I find myself fighting to get a hit in before everything dies. Like I said I am going to stick around regardless because I'm a big pso fan, but I am disapointed with sonic team for making the game a breeze because everything else is great. I am using the alva wired lance and as much as I want to upgrade the weapon, I fear things will get even easier when I do. I want the incentive to upgrade my character's gear and grow my mag. Hope sonic team addresses this issue if the game ever comes out in the states because this could be a really fun game.

PSO-2 is a casual PvE Online RPG with a built-in Waifu/Husbando simulator. The idea is to give your money to SEGA through your characters, have a good time, and just play. There is no indication that PSO-2 gives me that should encourage me or force me to enter a hardcore mentality and give it my very best. The game has a lot that I like to retain itself what I like about casual play, but at the same lacks a lot of things that would make the game a hardcore game.

[Astrix]

PSO-2 is a casual PvE Online RPG with a built-in Waifu/Husbando simulator. The idea is to give your money to SEGA through your characters, have a good time, and just play. There is no indication that PSO-2 gives me that should encourage me or force me to enter a hardcore mentality and give it my very best. The game has a lot that I like to retain itself what I like about casual play, but at the same lacks a lot of things that would make the game a hardcore game.

I'm not saying I want hardcore. But one shotting mobs shouldn't be a thing for new characters. I don't even have good gear. I'm literally using one button to kill everything in one hit with seemingly unlimited PP. It feels broken. I literally thought my character was bugged.

[HeyItsTHK]

Difficulty and challenge is, and always will be, subjective. Tedium can be disguised as difficulty. And you have things that are hard because you have no information (Dark Souls) and simple once you do. There's also things that are considered hard cause they're cheap (Adventures of Bayou Billy). There's always things that can one or two shot you, and it just comes down to "Don't get hit by that", some might find such things an example of challenge, others might not.

It just comes down to you really.

I find soloing Falz Angel hard.

[Keilyn]

I'm not saying I want hardcore. But one shotting mobs shouldn't be a thing for new characters. I don't even have good gear. I'm literally using one button to kill everything in one hit with seemingly unlimited PP. It feels broken. I literally thought my character was bugged.

Same here.
Its not a difficulty issue
Its a Game Balance Issue on both ends (Normal Mode and XH for geared players)

[SteveCZ]

Dude, you're still in H/VH mode.
If your reason is enemies die easily, reach XH first and play some XH only quests available and come back here.

[Selphea]

A lot of it is mismanagement of power creep. Many features were originally designed to help casual players cope with XH, such as the 10% weapon boost and NT weapons that cap at significantly higher ATK values than their old counterparts. But they trickle down to lower difficulties where they are overkill.

It's a perennial problem with maturing MMOs though. On one hand you are whisked through early content. On the other most veteran players are capped so that's where the community and fun is at.

[Mega Ultra Chicken]

Solo content can still be a hassle on higher difficulties. For example, SH Quartz Dragon is really aggressive.

[Selphea]

SHAQ maybe i guess, but SH Quartz was already getting killed in seconds way before 13*s existed.

[Keilyn]

A lot of it is mismanagement of power creep. Many features were originally designed to help casual players cope with XH, such as the 10% weapon boost and NT weapons that cap at significantly higher ATK values than their old counterparts. But they trickle down to lower difficulties where they are overkill.

It's a perennial problem with maturing MMOs though. On one hand you are whisked through early content. On the other most veteran players are capped so that's where the community and fun is at.

I thought the 10% boost was made in order to stop players from achieving more damage through Limit Breaking and Critical Striking crafted weapons on the subclass accompanying the fighter main than the actual subclass as a main.

[Astrix]

OK I've unlocked hard. Things a little better now. Not one shotting everything and actually using dodge now. This is how normal should've been imo.

[sparab]

Long time ago, mobs in the first arks quest can 2-3 hit kill players.
Then sega lowered difficulty of earlier quests and made those hiei units that let players godmode until lv50.

[Myobi]

Back then I thought SH was challenging then I tried UH for the first time and that was a mess

[Evangelion X.XX]

Yea, un-nerfed Ult Nab was a total mess; tons and tons of aggressive and beefy mobs that can cheap-freeze you and chase you forever, a hyper-turbo Bayari, and Diabo that shook the screen like hell.

I remember the good ol' days of fighting Bayari, Plosio, and Diabo all at once and people dying all over the place, it was a a mess but fun.

Many people hated un-nerfed Ult Nab because to them it was tedious and boring, but I'm one of the few who thought it was actually fun.

[[Ayumi]]

OK I've unlocked hard. Things a little better now. Not one shotting everything and actually using dodge now. This is how normal should've been imo.

Wait... I thought you was already on hard.
If you were only talking about normal mode... yeah normal most is pretty much "I don't want to do anything mode". Should never compare the difficulty on "normal" mode when it's literally "Easy mode" as there is no easy in PSO2.

[zandra117]

around the time you get into SH difficulty you will start to find it difficult to play solo and it starts becoming difficult to pull your own weight in a group too unless you start getting good at your class. That's around level 50.

[SiZ]

difficulty of this game should be changed.

N + H + VH = Easy mode
SH = Normal mode
XH = Normal mode (with high HP mobs)
ultimate = Hard mode

and super hard in future :3

[TaigaUC]

I still think they should remove all the difficulty brackets.
They just end up segregating people.
I'm sure they could come up with another way to ramp up the difficulty.

[otakun]

I still think they should remove all the difficulty brackets.
They just end up segregating people.
I'm sure they could come up with another way to ramp up the difficulty.

They definitely should remove the unlocking COs, at least. they are just a pointless hindrance for newer players.

[sparab]

They definitely should remove the unlocking COs, at least. they are just a pointless hindrance for newer players.

Unlocking CO should exist for high level content instead. Like clear solo XQ 1-5 once to access XH content.

[[Ayumi]]

Unlocking CO should exist for high level content instead. Like clear solo XQ 1-5 once to access XH content.

Fuck that. Got a character that never did XQ that I rather they be able to do EQs... which they do most of the time when another character is done playing and there's maybe 10 minutes left before the EQ ends.

[SteveCZ]

Suddenly, to get Aika's partner card requires new TA XH to be completed alone with her and must not fail, else you have to wait for a week.

[[Ayumi]]

Suddenly, to get Aika's partner card requires new TA XH to be completed alone with her and must not fail, else you have to wait for a week.

Nothing wrong with waiting a week.
She's just some anime character so there's no problem in waiting.

[Zysets]

I still remember playing when it was new and quitting because of one license quest. You were supposed to kill machines under a time limit in one Lilipa mission but the only things I kept running into were Darkers so i ragequit.

The only thing hard about that was probably the difficulty Sega had in retaining players at that point though.

I think I remember exactly what you're talking about, because I remember having a hard time with something like that way back when. Don't remember what mission, but boy do I remember being frustrated.

If anything, I prefer the more casual set up the game has now than endless frustration, that's just me.

[Petunia]

Challenge Missions, Solo Extreme Quest and Ultimates would like a word with anyone who thinks the game gets easier.
Not calling them hard, but they're harder than most other content.

[HeyItsTHK]

I think it's a fine stride to have general content everyone can do and tougher stuff for those that want tougher things. So far I think they're doing okay, it's not perfect, but nothing is.

[[Ayumi]]

You also need to take into account you're playing the levels in order... kinda like PSO.
Forest is so much easier than Caves, Mines, Ruins. And as you get further, while it gets challenging... it's not too challenging until the higher difficulties.

I'm sure if just like in PSO if someone tried to go into Ruins alone at level 1 and pretty much dying in 1 hit and unable to do any attack, that if someone go to.... I would guess Kuro (not looking at the quest counter so I can't confirm) which I think is considered one of the later/difficult unlocked missions, that if you went in there as level 1 alone in PSO2 that yeah...
You WON'T do 0 damage, but I think you will get your teeth knocked out.

[Raygaen]

Try fighting way overleveled monsters... I find that fun...