Reply to Re: Dink Smallwood - Improvement Project
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You may want to make sure it's possible to even beat Seth on the hardest difficulty. With no potions, golden hearts (!), and only one bonus per level up, you would probably have a hard time getting enough health to even survive a couple hits from him, and that would come at the great cost of dealing any damage to him.
On another note, Peasant, Knight, and Hero difficulties all sound almost the same. There's so many golden hearts in the game that I don't see why you'd want to choose health at a level up when you can just get more defense. I think you get 3 HP points normally per level up in the original game? Even at level 11 that will only add up to the equivalent of 3 golden hearts. I'd probably pump all those extra points into attack and get the herb boots and be even more powerful than ever before (even on hero mode). Perhaps you could change a couple/few golden hearts into a different treasure, and make the health level-up bonus about 5 points? That would make choosing health at level-up feel valuable. Enemies targeting you on hero mode hardly makes it that much harder. I often purposely hit all enemies once so they will target me so I can kill them all at once while they clump together. For Slayers it makes it possible to make them kill each other. Hero mode would make doing that even easier.
Basically, it sounds like Peasant/Knight/Hero are all easier than the original game, mostly due to the fact that you get two stat choices at level up, AND you start with more stats than the original game, even on Hero. On the other hand, Legend (Nightmare?) mode sounds too hard to be fun and maybe not even possible to beat. There should be a bit more distribution there. I'd love to play the original game at a higher challenge level, just not THAT much higher. Consider making Knight mode start with the same stats as the original game (3,0,0) and making Hero mode only give one choice per level without getting rid of powerups. And perhaps, certain enemies could be faster on Hero mode like you've planned for Nightmare mode, though I'm not sure how someone would deal with the really fast pillbugs (especially the ones in the Darklands!) if they were even faster. These suggestions are all assuming you haven't altered the vanilla enemies too much.
As for Nightmare mode, instead of taking all the powerups out of the game and ruining the sense of exploration, perhaps you could change regular potions into "half-potions" which get you one stat per two potions you find. To make things interesting and unique, maybe these half-potions can even be made into any potion you want. It would still be harder since you need two to get one stat. And golden hearts could give 5 hp instead of 10. That would severely increase the difficulty without making it impossible. Regarding raising the prices of all the items in Dink Smallwood, that's probably not a good idea. They are already priced pretty well, and playing higher difficulties will make it harder to get gold anyways. There could definitely be some exceptions, such as maybe herb boots could cost more, since they are pretty cheap in the original game. But I wouldn't make everything cost more.
One last note: for Legend mode, you may have to lower the magic requirements for acid rain, especially if there's no magic potions. Otherwise, the first level ups will all be going into magic.
Phew...I know I made a lot of suggestions there but you can take them or leave them, it's your project after all! Just wanted to point out some of the potential problems you may run into, but there is always different ways you can alleviate these problems, if you are creative. Take Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix for example. The hardest difficulty actually gives you EXTRA abilities and makes you deal MORE damage compared to the difficulty under it. But it also roughly halves your max hp, making it very easy to die if you are careless. It makes it harder, but it also makes it more fun. It's good to consider that making EVERYTHING harder may not always be the best course of action.
On another note, Peasant, Knight, and Hero difficulties all sound almost the same. There's so many golden hearts in the game that I don't see why you'd want to choose health at a level up when you can just get more defense. I think you get 3 HP points normally per level up in the original game? Even at level 11 that will only add up to the equivalent of 3 golden hearts. I'd probably pump all those extra points into attack and get the herb boots and be even more powerful than ever before (even on hero mode). Perhaps you could change a couple/few golden hearts into a different treasure, and make the health level-up bonus about 5 points? That would make choosing health at level-up feel valuable. Enemies targeting you on hero mode hardly makes it that much harder. I often purposely hit all enemies once so they will target me so I can kill them all at once while they clump together. For Slayers it makes it possible to make them kill each other. Hero mode would make doing that even easier.
Basically, it sounds like Peasant/Knight/Hero are all easier than the original game, mostly due to the fact that you get two stat choices at level up, AND you start with more stats than the original game, even on Hero. On the other hand, Legend (Nightmare?) mode sounds too hard to be fun and maybe not even possible to beat. There should be a bit more distribution there. I'd love to play the original game at a higher challenge level, just not THAT much higher. Consider making Knight mode start with the same stats as the original game (3,0,0) and making Hero mode only give one choice per level without getting rid of powerups. And perhaps, certain enemies could be faster on Hero mode like you've planned for Nightmare mode, though I'm not sure how someone would deal with the really fast pillbugs (especially the ones in the Darklands!) if they were even faster. These suggestions are all assuming you haven't altered the vanilla enemies too much.
As for Nightmare mode, instead of taking all the powerups out of the game and ruining the sense of exploration, perhaps you could change regular potions into "half-potions" which get you one stat per two potions you find. To make things interesting and unique, maybe these half-potions can even be made into any potion you want. It would still be harder since you need two to get one stat. And golden hearts could give 5 hp instead of 10. That would severely increase the difficulty without making it impossible. Regarding raising the prices of all the items in Dink Smallwood, that's probably not a good idea. They are already priced pretty well, and playing higher difficulties will make it harder to get gold anyways. There could definitely be some exceptions, such as maybe herb boots could cost more, since they are pretty cheap in the original game. But I wouldn't make everything cost more.
One last note: for Legend mode, you may have to lower the magic requirements for acid rain, especially if there's no magic potions. Otherwise, the first level ups will all be going into magic.
Phew...I know I made a lot of suggestions there but you can take them or leave them, it's your project after all! Just wanted to point out some of the potential problems you may run into, but there is always different ways you can alleviate these problems, if you are creative. Take Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix for example. The hardest difficulty actually gives you EXTRA abilities and makes you deal MORE damage compared to the difficulty under it. But it also roughly halves your max hp, making it very easy to die if you are careless. It makes it harder, but it also makes it more fun. It's good to consider that making EVERYTHING harder may not always be the best course of action.
