@ Some-Mist
I'm not saying it correlates with difficulty I'm saying it skewers the the actuall difficulty, accuracy is hard to determine if the variables keep changing.
And yeah I know about the "other" progressions, try introducing them into an RPG and watch the fans yell how thats not "true" role playing.
As for Dark Souls its my understanding that its got two types of progression, you can level up the character itself or just upgrade the equipment the character uses, its all the same, better stats is better stats, why it makes a difference to other people I just don't know, also Dark/Demon Souls legendary difficulty is artificial, its more punishing than it is difficult, its a simple game really much like any other, it was just "optimized" for masochists so yeah, no amount of leveling/upgrades is gona make a cheap design easier to circumvent. But you must admit having better stats will make an already good Dark Souls player more proficent and conflicts will be resolved much faster, it may not be easier but damn its a whole lot simpler and convenient. I had a similuar experience in Final Fantasy fighting two of those Shield shaped cie'ths simultaneously, my Party was severely underleveled but I decided to take them on anyway, it was by far the most repetitive, tedius 47 minutes of my life, but I beat'em, got some exp, leveled up and faught them again and beat them in 20 minutes, then again in 15 minutes and on and on until I reached reached to 2 minutes, In Artificial Difficulty leveling up only affects duration and your patience.
Oh yeah you mentioned strategy: let me see if I can explain my "cognitive reinforcement" theory with out making a total ass of myself (its still in the early stages).
Since proficency/skill in RPGs is determined by numbers instead of player skill, I use the exact same strategy for damn near everything, overwhelming force, or sheer persistance (like I did with Final Fantasy), and heres why, RPGs are complex for the sake of being complex, in Mass Effect theres no practical/mechanical reason why you need to use warp on Barriers and Overload and shields, the lore of the game (codex) does a great job of explaining the difference between Shields, Barriers, Armor and Health, they used narrative reinforcement to explain their differences , but in practice/gameplay, they're all basicly 2nd versions of health that can only be efficiently damaged by using the correspondind matching attack to inflict maximum damage. My cognitive process is literally the same for each one "use (insert attack with high statistic) against target with (lowest amount of resistance to that specific type of attack)" that fact that they have matching colours only makes things worse, I encountered a simular conundrum in a Tabletop RPG when it came to looting , a thief, a mage and a knight all have different methods of opening chests, respectively: lockpicking, a spell and smashing it open. Narratively speaking it made sense but in excution, the player was doing the same bloody thing with all three characters because profiency in all three scenarios is determined by a number, the cognitive process doesn't change " match the highest rated ability to the the target with the least amount of resistance to it." it was simple maths, the complexity comes from jumping through arbitrary hoops just to accomplish the task because the entire concept is reinforced by the lore and thats my strategy for everysingle RPG, 100% success rate, and its so mind numbingly redundant I can't believe I fell for it for 5 whole years. Actually the game was practically playing itself, They could've added actual lock picking like in Splinter Cell but they didn't, they hardly ever do, smashing a chest open isn't that hard to impliment so no cookie there even if they get that part right, and magic is either cheating or stupid, usually the latter. However The difference is in table top RPGs, although impractical, it was still the best way of determining failure or success or measuring proficiency for abilities, however Modern video game RPGs can't use that same excuse, theres far more practical, player oriented, not cognititvely redundant ways of getting things done and showing variety, they just opted not to use them. Take Arkham Asylum for example, proficiency is determined by the player, and even though theres no narrative reason why you have to attack different types of thugs in different ways, the gameplay mechanics do an excellent job of reinforcing the difference between each thug and why have to attack them in different ways, more importantly, since combat is action oriented (combat in RPGs is like calculating taxes), the cognitive process you execute for each strategy genuinely different and unique. Another way of reinforcing differences in gameplay is to have one feature do multiple things and have different effects, Bioshock's Plasmids absolutely nailed this concept, the powers weren't just differen types of damage like they usually are in RPGs and in Bioshock Infinite, Elctricty Stuns and amplifies damage but can only deal damage its self when used in water, its also used to activate broken swiches. Incinerate deals damage over time but its really party trick is how it makes splicers run to the nearest puddle of water to dous the flames, it also melts ice covering hidden paths, and conceiling items, ect. Each one is different and is properly reinforced both in lore and gameplay, and it sure as hell isn't complex for the sake of being complex, its very practical and promotes a dynamic cognitive process. Oh My God I sound like an breakfast infomercial :O !
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