This is probably the only way the majority of players will ever “beat” Celeste. That game takes both twitch reflexes and memory to new heights. I’m lucky in that I’ve played games since I was four years old and fourty years later I still have enough reflexes to beat Celeste legit, includine its B and C side levels.
I definitely agree that removing paragon would make D3 better.
But not the same. You were talking about making it easier and faster to get. Just like D3 has done with paragon. Which did not make paragon better, or the game more enjoyable. Arguably the opposite.
Progressing through Hades is the game. Making it easier through God Mode, is basically skipping the gameplay. If the game is good (and to reiterate, I do think it is a decent game), why would you recommend people to skip the gameplay.
Sure, but will they enjoy it more? Or does it just become a checklist completion; ‘wohoo, I got through this game, by removing the gameplay!’.
I’m not arguing people are bad if they cant finish the game. I have never played Celeste, I probably never will, and I might not be able to finish it if I tried. It reminds me of SuperMeatBoy which I quit after like 5 minutes - definitely not a fan of twitch-based games, and even less of memory-based ones.
Just saying, if you turn down the difficulty to nothing, are you really playing and enjoying the game anymore? And does it make sense to praise the game for having amazing design, if you had to remove the gameplay challenge (as Skelos seemingly recommends for Hades). Might as well have watched someone else play instead.
(Now, if you play through a game for its story, it can make perfect sense to turn down the difficulty. Still doesn’t make sense to then praise its gameplay though)
Skipping the grind part, not the gameplay. It’s like adjusting the D2 runes drop rates - you just reduce the grind for these.
People have different tolerance about how grindy a game should be - some would enjoy ZoD to have higher drop chance, others the opposite.
“God mode” in Hades is a very good idea by their developer team since it allows for faster progression if the player wants it. They just have to implement it in a different way - making the game a lot easier at start, when the player is still learning, and progressively harder with time.
If you make a poll whether players in D3 like the leveling to 70, you’ll see that the majority doesn’t. People prefer to reach the endgame faster.
And I would say that is exactly because they removed the gameplay. D3 lvling is pointless, so might as well get through it.
That is not Hades though. Quite the opposite.
Nor is it D2. if you skip the part of the game that comes before “Zod runes”, you are skipping the game, what comes after Zod runes is basically the game at its worst (as in, being over-geared for the content).
Turning on easy mode, grinding until you have acquired even more easy mode, then turning easy mode off, still leaves you without the actual game experience.
Nor does it have anything to do with grind. Hades is indeed too grindy. Primary reason I stopped played quite early on, after my first clear, since it felt so pointless.
Keeping the grind, but allowing the players to grind on easy mode is not solving the grind. Just adding one bad idea on top of another.
No. You are reaching faster the endgame, which in D2 might be PvP for the player in question. You are mixing grinding with progression here. You can have one without the other and it’s fine.
With “God mode” on you significantly reduce the number of runs needed to reach the endgame thus most players won’t consider this a grind. It might still feel grindy to some players, but as already said above every player has a different grind tolerance.
I’ve spent thousands of hours grinding in D3 and gave up on Hades after 20 hours. The difference is whether the grind is fun or not.
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This is of course a factor too. If you can make super grindy game that delivers super fun you’ll profit hard from it. But “fun” is subjective too. Just as you don’t like Hades grind, others don’t like D3 grind.
Optimally, a game should offer those players that don’t enjoy the grind part in it a substitute. That would be improved Challenge Rifts in D3. Sadly, they never touched these since their release.
My point was, I don’t find grinding an inherent problem.
I find playing a game I’m not enjoying a problem.
For me, Hades is such a game.
Then you are one of those players with very high grind tolerance. If you like the game you are ready to spend thousands of hours to grind whatever is needed in it. But not everyone is like that. The modern generation of players detach from the grind more and more, and look for games that offer quick play and instant gratification.
I wrote many times I see D3 as much more successful game if Seasons are reduced to a fixed month. One reason for that would be the reduced grind.
Luckily for humankind, the modern generation of players like different things, the same way previous generations did.
Not luckily for D2 where the grind is epic.
Huh? How is that not lucky for D2.
Straight up the worst movement of any WASD game I have played. If it was a point and click like Diablo I would have most likely enjoyed it. As it is the camera angle and WASD gave me a headache. I uninstalled about 2 hours after the download completed.
Beyond that, I can’t comment on anything else you’ve stated, since I really did not get far enough into it have a valid opinion.
D2R will fail hard since players won’t be ready for the grind there.
Remaster was the bad choice, it has no future. D2R is doomed from now. It isn’t adequate as of 2021.
That makes no sense. You commented on the fact that these “modern generations” like different things. Aka. some of them will like an epic grind. That seems quite positive for D2R compared to your claim that modern generations did not like epic grinds.
Would be fun if D2R outsold Hades 
apples to oranges. Hades is a different genre.
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If Diablo 5 comes 10 year after Diablo 4, it most definitely survives. Im at least considering playing them both.
I played hades too. Compared to D3 I miss that i can’t keep the items I got for other runs. You reset all you gear/gifts max. every hour and start new all over (exept a few things from the mirror).
That’s the allure of Rogue-likes.
Technically a rogue-lite since you carry over some progression. But yeah, some stuff has to reset.