{"id":46891,"date":"2025-04-09T18:44:51","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T09:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=46891"},"modified":"2025-04-09T18:49:33","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T09:49:33","slug":"saga-series-creator-would-rather-players-give-up-on-his-games-for-being-too-hard-than-risk-being-boring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/saga-series-creator-would-rather-players-give-up-on-his-games-for-being-too-hard-than-risk-being-boring\/","title":{"rendered":"SaGa series creator would rather players give up on his games for being too hard than risk being boring"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Square Enix\u2019s long-running SaGa<\/strong> series is known for having a relatively high difficulty level compared to other JRPG series. This is owed not only to its balancing, but to its complex (at times even borderline cryptic) game systems that take time to get the hang of. In a recent interview with Denfaminicogamer<\/a>, SaGa series\u2019 creator Akitoshi Kawazu talked about his views on balancing difficulty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether establishing SaGa as a high-difficulty series was intentional, Kawazu comments that he bases his approach on educational theory, going beyond game design. \u201cI believe that to help a person grow, you have to provide them with challenges that fall somewhere between making them give up and making them bored. That way, their achievements keep growing.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Romancing<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, Kawazu\u2019s answer is not <\/em>to aim for a game that\u2019s right in the middle of these two extremes, as this will result in having \u201cboth players who give up on your game because it\u2019s too hard and those who drop it because they\u2019re bored.\u201d While the SaGa creator is fine with people finding his games too difficult to continue playing, he feels strongly about not wanting to bore them. As such \u2013 he errs on the side of making things challenging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want people saying \u2018This game\u2019s too easy and boring, I\u2019m done,\u2019 so I play up the challenges to avoid that kind of reaction. That\u2019s probably why so many people give up. But personally, I\u2019d prefer someone to give up than say they\u2019re bored. If it\u2019s so hard they quit, that\u2019s fine.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kawazu is conscious of this even when designing difficulty levels, as he is against adding \u201ceasy\u201d difficulty settings to his games and shows dislike for them even as a gamer. \u201cI\u2019d never choose to play easy mode. I would feel like the developers are calling me out like \u2018Oh, you picked the easy mode, huh?\u2019 I hate that. I think normal and hard modes are enough.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"SaGa<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, while Kawazu acknowledges that SaGa games tend to make players stop and go \u201cWait, what\u2019s going on here?\u201d at first, he notes that the difficulty revolves around understanding the systems and using the right formations and techniques. Thus, bosses are, in principle, designed to be beatable and fair (although the same can\u2019t be said of random enemies, which can wipe you out in a beat). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related Articles: Square Enix\u2019s SaGa series won\u2019t be getting new releases for some time, according to creator Akitoshi Kawazu <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven will keep its powerful enemies, but running away won\u2019t make them progressively stronger, producer says <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Akitoshi Kawazu, creator of Square Enix’s SaGa series, shares insights about his approach to balancing difficulty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":46894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64,3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-46891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-development","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nSaGa series creator would rather players give up on his games for being too hard than risk being boring - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Akitoshi Kawazu, creator of Square Enix's SaGa series, shares insights about his approach to balancing difficulty.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/saga-series-creator-would-rather-players-give-up-on-his-games-for-being-too-hard-than-risk-being-boring\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SaGa series creator would rather players give up on his games for being too hard than risk being boring - 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