Does hard mode uncap the enemy AI so that it can use all of its moves, and allow it to attack from offscreen so that you need to be more aware of positioning, like Ninja Gaiden? Does hard mode add additional objectives so that you need to interact with the levels more, like the Thief series? Does hard mode increase certain kinds of damage, so that you have to engage with the systems more, like alchemy in the Witcher series? These are ‘good’ hard modes, that make the game much more interesting.
Does hard mode simply make all the enemies spongier, so that everything just takes longer? Well, that’s a lot less interesting. Might as well play those games on ‘normal’.
There’s hard mode, and then there’s hard mode.
Does hard mode uncap the enemy AI so that it can use all of its moves, and allow it to attack from offscreen so that you need to be more aware of positioning, like Ninja Gaiden? Does hard mode add additional objectives so that you need to interact with the levels more, like the Thief series? Does hard mode increase certain kinds of damage, so that you have to engage with the systems more, like alchemy in the Witcher series? These are ‘good’ hard modes, that make the game much more interesting.
Does hard mode simply make all the enemies spongier, so that everything just takes longer? Well, that’s a lot less interesting. Might as well play those games on ‘normal’.