Nine Sols x Hollow Knight game trade friction. (Games Playing Right Now #6)

Alright, this one is where we get into weird game design observations and opinions rather than just "do I like this game?". To give some context, my brother wanted me to play this game but I also recommended Hollow Knight back at them. We ended up deciding to give each other game's a try where I would play Nine Sols on my own while I backseat my brother playing Hollow Knight. However we have having trouble being on the same wavelength of understanding each other. For me, I tend to have some friction because the game feel like it has artificial difficulty in boring ways. Add on the augments and dialogue undermine player intelligence way too obviously and I start to think the game isn't actually hard at all. My brother on the other hand is struggling with getting down the basic mechanics even with my help of Hollow Knight and dislikes getting lost needing me to tell me what to do.

My problems in the game are a result of my experience with games and being and a less than amateur game designer. Even though I have never really played souls-likes at all, I noticed how the depth the first Sol boss doesn't really come from tough patterns requiring fast pattern recognition and reaction as much as how the patterns sort of "unfold" as you act upon them. Instead of the traditional bosses when hit either get stunned or take damage with minimal change besides dedicated counter moves, they often do another attack in a string of reactive moves that only get thrown when parried, blocked, or whatever. This means need to either react to any possible outcome when doing something that progresses the fight in a new way or guess on what could happen next in case the next move isn't reactable. This ends up create a more guaranteed but disingenuous trial and error that might be what the souls-like genre is known for. I am not really sure though. With Hollow Knight, you get to see that your mistakes are like your own that could have been avoided with better attention and action.

Despite the fake difficulty though, this kind of design is actually the right call for this kind of game. You see, this game actually has a story that the creators actually want the players to appreciate with little friction from lack of skill or ability while still feeling hard. By using industry standard mechanics and tricks, they can have many different kinds of players have a similar experience. It's not as great at making gameplay that is transformative, but it allows you to create the player transformation through the story fueled by the struggle from the gameplay.

Now let's get back to my brother. He can be a bi stubborn to his own detriment (partly my fault), he actually struggles with the most is actually how he learns and controls games. For some reason, he can't press more than one face button on his controller at a time unless he uses the claw grip. Add on that he's learning at a slower pace combined with bad habits from previous games and some simple platforming combat become 10x harder. 

To go into detail on the control issue. He always presses each face button with the tip of his thumb, pulling the thumb in or out or side to side to reach each one. I on the other hand rest my thumb on two or four face buttons so that I can curl, press back knuckle, or roll my thumb to press any one button. To press more than one button, I can push my whole thumb in or combine other physical actions to press two or more buttons at once.

This has been written for a really long time and might be outdated soon so to end it off, I hope to play more Nine Sols as I backseat my brother around Hollow Knight. They seem to want to play more so having something to make me have to play Nine Sols more will help me to clarify if I have a bad take.

P.S.

I'm probably gonna try and see if my bother can bind back buttons to some face buttons or other rebinds. I believe they actually use bumpers and triggers better than I can so that might get him further. (I don't press mine with middle fingers. I only use my pointers.)