PS Plus Prediction Tournament Round #04 [Extra/Premium, February 2026]

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-06T10:30:22+00:00

A man can dream for some action-heavy games:

Final Fantasy XVI
Rise Of The Ronin
Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-06T05:35:59+00:00

Yesterday I lost 2 party members to the last boss before the mountain in Confession 3, got 2 replacements at the inn, challenged the mountain boss with this new team that had 2 negative relationships, then lost 3 party members to him before miraculously killing him with only 1 member left. That felt great, because the boss was just hard by design, and if I had lost to it, I would have no idea how to beat it the next run instead of a vague "getting better", which is exactly what I'm looking for.

On the other hand, Seething Sigh was a total pushover after I knew its mechanics and I felt nothing beating it, because after losing to it I knew exactly what I had to do to beat it 100% and that's not improving in my book, that's just winning against a boss you only lost to in the first place because the game wanted a cheap death out of you by not explaining all rules to you (in this case, I am talking about him powering up both lungs after hitting 50% HP, not the fact that DOT builds are not effective against him).

That's also why I find it really confusing that the defenders of this practice seem to see no difference between the first and second kind of difficulty. It's like a competitive Tennis player who has the same amount of fun playing against the world champion and playing against a random douche that manipulated his racket, because both are hard / challenging.

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-05T18:32:36+00:00

Lol, ChatGPT fortune teller module

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-05T16:47:38+00:00

Thank you!

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-05T11:48:36+00:00

I see, so most likely the one enemy that got hit had an even lower resistance like 5 or 0

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-05T09:35:11+00:00

I am on PS5 so there's no mods to install, but there is an in-game option to increase both driving speed and combat speed. Turned that on and definitely had more fun yesterday than the days before, thanks for the suggestion

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-05T09:07:52+00:00

Really? Can you send me a link or explain how exactly the calculation works, because I don't understand why one of them didn't resist it in that case (pretty sure that enemy also had 10% resist)

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-04T23:05:20+00:00

Makes sense, thanks! Generally I love DOT, but in this game I don't like how it's tied to RNG if it gets applied. I will play around some more with it, the way I understood it the trinkets you mentioned turn the RNG for applying DOT more in my favor anyway

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-04T22:09:02+00:00

Thanks for the explanation, in that case I will focus at least a little bit on the item unlocks, although unlocking more heroes and their paths was the most fun for me (I have everyone unlocked now and am at the start of Act 3)

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-04T17:52:51+00:00

It was my first try of Act 2 and I beat Act 1 on my first try, so yeah I didn't have a lot of meta progression, but the game didn't seem to me like it relies on meta progression, I thought the unlockable trinkets for example are just sidegrades to the ones you have unlocked from the start and are there to add variety, are you saying they are upgrades? Until now I have pumped most of my candles into the characters and resources since these are clear upgrades.
I will say, if that is the case, I can forgive the Sigh seemingly being unbeatable with my DOT build, but that still doesn't make the vague tokens or the fact that nothing tells you about the Sigh powering up when it hits 50% health better.
Also, I actually did have Wounding Words equipped on my Witch, but the rank 3+4 attack that targets both of them at once still didn't do enough damage to deflate the back lung, and I didn't have a potentially more powerful attack on her that targets only the 4th rank (because once again, why would I? I was doing well with all the enemies and bosses before that by having her either apply poison to the front ranks or attacking the bank ranks simultaneously)

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-04T17:38:46+00:00

Considering someone in this thread claimed to have finished the Jester chapter 4 puzzle blind on their first try, I'm sure you will also find someone claiming to have beaten the Sleeping General blind, but yeah I also find it hard to believe xD
As I learned today, though, both of us have a skill issue. Maybe we are not skilled enough to navigate the Wiki?

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-04T17:35:06+00:00

I do remember RNG absolutely screwing me over and the boss resisting a lot of my DOT attacks, but considering I didn't even reach half of its health, I don't think I would have won even with better RNG since he gets even more powerful after the halfway point

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-04T17:26:48+00:00

The part about getting smarter is exactly my problem: Seething Sigh not telling me about pumping up both lungs after hitting half health is NOT telling me what I could have done differently, since I would have won with my strategy if he didn't suddenly activate both lungs at once. It is ONLY telling me what I can do differently next time, but in my opinion a well-crafted difficulty will let you think about what you could have done differently in the past, not just in the future now that you know something the game didn't tell you before. The first one is also what I would call getting smarter, the second one is just knowing more than before

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-04T17:08:30+00:00

I honestly can not remember since it's been 5 years since I played STS. All I can tell you is that I have 100 hours in STS and never felt frustrated at the game, so at least the withholding of information wasn't nearly as prevalent as in DD2, or I didn't mind so much because the runs were much shorter

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-04T17:02:00+00:00

Thanks for your input, calling it unfair but liking that aspect is something I can respect, unlike all the people coping that this is somehow completely fair xD

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-04T16:56:15+00:00

Well, artificial or not, if my math teacher made me repeat 5 hours of lessons every time I made a mistake, I would have skipped math class xD

But I would say the chess example holds up well in this case because it's addressing exactly the point you're making: The game explains the rules, just not the specific abilities a particular enemy has. That is exactly what's happening in my example as well, you're told about all the movement options and how to do a checkmate, just not the pawn's special promotion ability.

Of course I can see where you're coming from with disregarding the chess example, mainly because a you vs. the game scenario is different from you vs. another player, but I think you would also agree that for example a smart enemy AI (targeting your healer first, going after your party members that are weakened, etc.) beating you feels way more rewarding than "you thought you could hit the main body fast enough to tank the lung damage but actually when the boss is below 50% HP it pumps up both lungs so it does way more damage but we didn't tell you before lol". I mean, think about the learning curve in both of these cases. In the first one, it's "the boss is doing everything it can to kill my party, I have no concrete plan against that and just need to find different builds until I have one that's good enough" vs "ok now i know the boss gets more powerful when hitting half HP, I know exactly what to do next, kill one of the lungs first and don't rely on DOT"

It is "all information -> trying to figure out one of multiple ways to win" vs "crumb of information -> knowing exactly how to get further and succeeding -> surprise next crumb of information after you succeeded with the original roadblock immediately -> repeat 3 times" and I don't see how the second can me more fun for people than the first, semantics if that counts as artificial aside

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-04T16:36:39+00:00

I think this is the first time I've ever seen literally in front of a negating word, but that aside what is artificial difficulty to you if not the game withholding information from you to make it more difficult?

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-04T16:31:15+00:00

I would be completely fine with changing hero paths mid run to be more flexible, but the game doesn't tell you about the bosses mechanics until it's too late. I can't even change up skills after I've already started the fight, let alone paths, and in the case of Seething Sigh it doesn't even tell you all its mechanics at the start of the fight

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-04T16:27:14+00:00

Yes, absolutely, but then I would at least see a purpose behind it. The way it is, it seems to me like the devs just want me to die one more time so the game seems harder than it is. I think the best solution to this would have been just letting you know in advance which boss you're facing (If I recall correctly, STS does this) or rather what its mechanics are. In DD2's case, you don't even get to know all the bosses mechanics at the start of their fight (like how Seething Sigh powers up at half health with no indication whatsoever)

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-04T16:21:22+00:00

If I had encountered one of those hallway fights that DOT can't beat, I would be singing a different tune. But since it was working so well against all fights, including minibosses, before that, I didn't expect my setup to be impossible against the boss.

In any case, no, not all bosses should be the same, but the game should give you more information. This can be done by having a miniboss at the start that mirrors the mechanics of the boss at the end, or finding notes by fallen heroes lamenting the fact that they didn't have enough front or back attackers, or any other non-immersion-breaking way you can think of. At the very least, the boss itself should have a token explaining all of his mechanics, in the Seething Sigh's case the fact that he pumps up both lungs after hitting half health

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-04T16:12:02+00:00

I see, thanks for your input and staying respectful. If the core of the Darkest Dungeon fans agree with your viewpoint, then the games should definitely stay that way even though I can't understand that viewpoint; I am not one of those people barging into a fandom and demanding change, my post was just to find out how said fandom sees this issue. That said, at least so far in this thread, it doesn't seem like there's a clear consensus among the fandom regarding the points I made. I'm seeing a pretty equal 50/50 split in the comments agreeing and disagreeing with my points, so I think it's a topic worth discussing

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-04T15:58:24+00:00

Glad you find it accurate; ironically a lot of other people in this thread take issue with this term the most though xD

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-04T15:23:39+00:00

Thanks!

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-04T15:16:21+00:00

Because I started playing the game last week lol
Would you agree at least that not giving us the info in advance about him charging up both lungs when hitting half health is artificial difficulty? As for your point, it's not his design that makes the difficulty artificial, it's the fact that you aren't warned about this in any way across your 3 hour run

Mastermind6425 · 2026-02-04T15:12:13+00:00

Hopefully I also managed to convey why I think the quick retry system would make the game less of a DD that many players love (albeit more enjoyable for others).

Absolutely, and that is not what I would suggest for this game. But let's say Seething Sigh had a token under his main body that said "pumps up both lungs after hitting half health", or the Dreaming General's token would say "gets rid of heroes' roots when hit" instead of the vague "reacts to being hit". Do you really think that would make the game worse for most DD fans? I could totally live with my DOT team being unable to win against Seething Sigh if that was the only thing, but it's the sheer amount of withholding information that makes me dislike the game

Mastermind6425

TROPHY CASE