Greg Lobanov

yay wandersong ps4 reviews!

wandersong reviewers will say things like, the game is fun and engrossing for the entire length, "BUT," it's pretty easy, and dock points. I know numbers are silly to begin with, but when they write that, I have to wonder what perceived value was lost by making the game easy...

I'd love to see the conversation evolve beyond a linear rubric of "too easy," "too hard"... HOW games utilize difficulty, the dance of challenge and emotional tension and how it speaks to the themes of the game... idk... I think about this too much

games like wandersong (and celeste) are stories--the goal is to make you feel something, and difficulty is one knob we adjust to create that story. the difficulty itself is not the point. listen people you just don't understand my Art end of thread

this is my speculation but I feel like when reviewers call games easy it's bc something about the game has posed itself as an obstacle to but that the sense of struggle and expectations of struggle didn't line up? ofc expectations come from a lot of places incl. games culture

yeah generally i suspect that's the case, but I'd rather hear about that.

sometimes theyll just say they thoroughly enjoyed the game but players looking for a challenge may leave disappointed, or something like that... which is like reviewing a racing game and saying, RPG fans may leave disappointed. misalignment of our expectations i guess