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Daniel Brooke Talks about Knack's Hard Difficulty

farisr

Member
Sorry if it's been posted, I searched and didn't see anything. Just posting the parts about Knack's Hard difficulty:

Daniel Brooke Talks PS4, Gamers and Knack Entering Sony's Pantheon of Character Action Titles

If you complete the game on hard, what do you get?

I don’t know, I’ve never managed it.

What I liked about the hard setting on Knack was that it did feel like a different game. It irritates me when it’s just slightly different.

Yeah exactly, it’s not the same. Not just health, but the way enemies shoot. The behavior is different: where they shoot is different, there are so many things working in concert… Take the ice level. You slide round the corner of some cliffs, and on hard there’s no barrier and you can fall off, but on easy there is a barrier and you can’t. There are lots of subtle differences like that. We know there’s a different audience playing those different levels of difficulty. We take it seriously – we want something that will appeal to everybody. There’s a phenomenal amount of detail; certainly when I was demoing it to people I could see that they had a lot to talk to each other about, because it was different between the different levels of difficulty.

There’s so much to talk about.

At gamescom.

Haha.
 
That sounds awesome! Cerny wasn't lying when he said this was for everyone! Kids will play on easy, while people who want a challenge can play on Hard.

Will play on hard.
 
I really hope this game turns out good. I love platformers, but there seem to be fewer and fewer as time goes on.
 
This is excellent news. Easy difficulty for kids and folks new to gaming (Mark Cerny talked about wanting to appeal to those folks) and Hard for experienced gamers who want a challenge. Maybe there is even an Extra Hard level hidden away...
 
I got to play knack at comic Con last weekend, it was way better than what I expected. Anyway, the guy next to me started the demo on hard and kept getting his ass handed to him. Easily died about 8 times in the first section before he asked the rep to reset the difficulty.
 
The terrain/environment changing gives hope that if there are platforming sections there could be a more harder design on hard difficulty, or in the case of that crash bandicoot-style chase, rather than just reducing the leeway/increasing the speed of the guy who's chasing you (which is what most games would do), they can actually make it more difficult by changing up the layout.
 
Knack's the only game I'm interested in at launch (after that, The Witness) on PS4 atm. :3 Can't wait to play it! I have to figure out where I'm getting a PS4 from though....

The site's banned?

NeoGAF replaces the link to it with ************************s.
 
Sounds cool. For some reason Knack seems like a smaller game than other next gen games. Even Cerny himself said that. I think if it had a smaller price tag more people would be open to try it.

As of now, for me, i need to see some positive reviews before getting it. But it's definitely on my radar.
 
The barrier thing is a particularly cool idea. I like higher difficulties like this. It makes them feel different and not just like you're trudging through the game but it's more annoying than before.
 
Give me that Crash Bandicoot level of difficulty. Always have a soft spot for challenging and fun platformers. Hopefully Gamescom reveals a side of Knack we haven't seen yet.
 
Sounds cool. For some reason Knack seems like a smaller game than other next gen games. Even Cerny himself said that. I think if it had a smaller price tag more people would be open to try it.

As of now, for me, i need to see some positive reviews before getting it. But it's definitely on my radar.

If the game was like £25, maybe even £30 I would have picked it up day 1 just cause it's a great change to the typical games coming.

But for the price and what we have seen, £40 is pushing it.
 
Sounds cool. For some reason Knack seems like a smaller game than other next gen games. Even Cerny himself said that. I think if it had a smaller price tag more people would be open to try it.

As of now, for me, i need to see some positive reviews before getting it. But it's definitely on my radar.

I really do wonder if it will be at a lower price point since Cerny has even said it's a smaller title... 49.99 is probably the lowest it'd be though for the US. Announce official prices already! Honestly though, I wouldn't have an issue if it were the standard 59.99. Are there usually launch games that are priced under the normal MSRP?
 
I really do wonder if it will be at a lower price point since Cerny has even said it's a smaller title... 49.99 is probably the lowest it'd be though for the US. Announce official prices already! Honestly though, I wouldn't have an issue if it were the standard 59.99. Are there usually launch games that are priced under the normal MSRP?

Not really. Sly 4 and Puppeteer both retailed/will retail for $39.99.
 
Not really. Sly 4 and Puppeteer both retailed/will retail for $39.99.

This is a PS4 launch title though. It's expected that Sly 4 and Puppeteer will be priced lower because they're on the PS3. I think even Ratchet and Clank: Into the Nexus is going to be 29.99.
 
I've been kind of indifferent to Knack, but I really like this. More games need difficulty like this, rather than having enemies become damage sponges and your health reduced to almost nothing.
 
Looks like there will be a metal Knack too in addition to the Vampire and Sunstone Knacks... then some other ones that they haven't revealed yet. I'm getting pretty psyched as more info comes out :)

This game is also getting localized in 13 different languages. @_@
 
After this interview my interest has piqued. I like story driven games and it seems like this game will have a great story. I just hope the gameplay holds up. I hope it's not just a button masher and there's a good incentive to play smart.

The Arkham games and Guacamelee come to mind when thinking of fun combat. Like I said, I'll give it a shot if it reviews well and especially if it launches at a "smaller" price point.
 
Impressions from E3 made it sound like the hard difficulty sucked so I guess we'll see how it turns out.

Really? I remember the only things I read about the hard difficulty were when people weren't even aware that it was on hard... most other people played on easy. Someone here mentioned the person before him kept dying because they couldn't hit the enemies and eventually gave up... and then that's about it.
 
I wonder if people would be excited about this game if they saw the gameplay without knowing it was made by Mark Cerny. I just don't get why people are excited for this.
 
If I recall weren't they saying the game has been designed with kids in mind and that the difficulty would reflect that???

I was hyped for the game too until I heard it
 
I wonder if people would be excited about this game if they saw the gameplay without knowing it was made by Mark Cerny. I just don't get why people are excited for this.

I'd personally be into this game whether or not Cerny was attached to it. It looks fun and lighthearted.

If I recall weren't they saying the game has been designed with kids in mind and that the difficulty would reflect that???

I was hyped for the game too until I heard it

The easy difficulty is designed for new gamers. However, hard mode is a challenge. "Kids" were never the main audience for the easy difficulty, but people who are new to console gaming are.

Apparently, there's easy/normal/hard, but I don't really know how the first two are different from each other.

Rathgor from PS3trophies' impressions:
Knack has three different difficulty settings starting with Easy, Normal and Hard. I've tested out both Normal and Hard and there is a huge difference between the two. If you're playing on Normal its pretty standard to get through the game. However, the hard difficulty is actually challenging and I died many many times to a group of 2 or more enemies.

On hard difficulty enemies hit you for way more damage and you have to be extremely careful with how you move and where you go and when to strike. Playing on Hard will force you to master Knack's movement and dodging techniques.

If you can't master his dodge move and reaction time then you will not get very far. I had to actually switch from Hard to Normal due to me being stuck at one part of the level with 3 goblins.

The demo consisted of 4 different sections. Two different parts from the street level where Knack gets bigger and bigger. One level in an Ice cave which was the hardest by far and where I died a lot due to sliding on the ice-floor + hard difficulty.

And from Edge:
He also noted how game controls had become more complex over the years, describing the gulf in experience between playing Fruit Ninja on iPad and playing a triple-A console game. Knack, therefore, was conceived as “A game that could act as an ‘on-ramp’ to the world of console gaming,” which could also be played on hard mode and still represent a challenge for more experienced players.
 
Sounds like a legit hard mode then.

This might end up being my launch title. I'm not really sold on any of the others and I could use a platformer.
 
I wonder if people would be excited about this game if they saw the gameplay without knowing it was made by Mark Cerny. I just don't get why people are excited for this.

I honestly didn't even know who Mark Cerny was when the game was revealed, and I was interested in it from the getgo. (Of course a week or two later, when I got decently active on neogaf, I learned who mark cerny was and how important he was)
 
Its a shame what knack is doing is so uncommon these days when it should be the only way to approach higher difficulties. It shouldn't just be adding hp to the bad guys and turning up their damage, nor should it be just weakening the player. The game itself should change and warrant a second play through and not just use trophies/achievements as a crutch to get people to play through the game again.
 
Wasn't interested in Knack before, but now I kinda am. I had a plan to hopefully wait until it was free on Ps+, but who knows console launches make you buy games you normally wouldn't.
 
Glad I'm not pre-ordering any games. A lot of these launch purchases are gonna be 11th hour decisions. Definitely really interested in Knack and if it gets good reviews or impressions close to launch I'll bite.
 
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