For those of you who are complaining about the difficulty level, I have to remind you that some gamers have the opposite problem: most games are too easy and casual for us. With a difference: the 90% of games are casual and only the 10% are hardcore titles.

Each year I can only find about 4-5 games that I both like and find challenging enough. So keep in mind that Volgarr being too difficult for you is much less of a problem than everything else being too easy for some of us.

Some gamers and reviewers have more ego than skills, but often think of themselves as "pro". So, unable to handle the high difficulty titles, they label them as "bad design choices". That's stupid. There's nothing wrong with being a casual player, so if you think you can't handle Volgarr, just pass on it and move on. You won't be a better or worse person for that.

However, you can still buy Volgarr, invest a lot of time in it, endure the frustration, get better at it, and discover a whole Valhalla of satisfaction through skillful play. Old school titles were designed that way not only because they had to milk coins from the consumer, but also because beating them can make you literally shout of pure satisfaction.

For me, this game is mana from heavens. I haven't beaten yet the Valkyrie Path but some day I will, and it will be awesome. Thanks a lot to the designers for putting together this title, and thanks a lot to GOG for bringing us this gem.

Hi guys,
So I decided to start making some videos on this game cause I found no proper tutorual nor walkthrough on the youtubes, so I decided to make my own with the currently limited knowledge I have about the game. Currently I am at world 3, still waiting for feedback on my first video to see how I should edit the second video or what I could improve.
You can check this out at www.youtube.com/user/Anthera1 or the video directly at youtu.be/buIU1ordFYs
I'm open for any possible questions and feedback

Well i agree, lot of current games are way too easy. But as it is with Volgarr when you have enemies just basically jumping in to you, let it happen two times and its back to the start. It's more annoying then difficult.

Which is why difficulty levels are so important for everyone.

The idea that people who don't like games that are wrong-difficulty for them are somehow misunderstanding their own skill is silly. Obviously they DO understand their own skill which is why they don't like games that don't match.

It's only silly gamer culture that insists that everyone talk like they are macho macho that muddies the message.

I'm not complaining about not liking them. If you dismiss a game for not having enough skill, that's OK. If you tell other people "I couldn't beat it, high difficulty warning, casuals beware", that's OK. But if you negatively review a difficult game for the same reason ("1/10, bad gameplay, horrible design"), that's silly, and totally false. And we everyday see "professional" reviewers bashing games that they find too difficult, only because of that difficulty. What would you think of people who only drive with automatic gearboxes, as reviewers of Formula-1 cars, telling us that "these cars are horribly designed" ?

Anyway, skills can be improved. If you find a difficult game, you can still try it, and improve. If we call ourselves gamers, where's our competitive spirit of accepting challenges? I also play games too difficult for my skills, maybe I will never beat them, but it is satisfactory to reach a bit further than the last try (mostly old arcades and modern japanese shmups).

Volgarr can be very satisfactory too. It works like a clock, it's totally fair, and has great level design. It's what we usually call "a good game".

Enemies keep running and especially jumping into you which kill you every 2 times is a horrible design.
There would be a saying for it if you just cleverly kill them and move on to the next screen but it is impossible when
they keep respawning.

Except that's not true, they respawn yes but if you keep moving then you won't have to deal with too many. Sounds like you are stuck in the mentality of other games, stay in one spot, kill all enemies, then move on. That's not a viable strategy in this game, the point is to only kill enemies that block your path, if a monster is behind you just keep moving.

Saying it's "horrible design" is flat out wrong, it's just different design. It's a fast-paced game that isn't going to be forgiving if you hang around in one place.

Again, I've noted this before. The classic modern gamer refrain these days is "if game is hard, it's badly designed", as if any of these people even understand game design at all.

I actually love the respawn mechanic, it adds a semi-random element to the gameplay, you can't just 'push on and press buttons at the exact same time', because it usually doesn't work that well when enemies respawn. I just wish the game had more checkpoints so I could actually gather time to play the bloody thing.

"Game too difficult" is a valid criticism. The question is what set of people will find this criticism applies to themselves as well. Which is why reviews should have lots of other text giving you a clear idea what they mean.

Non-reviewers, that is players, have no such requirement. If it's too difficult *for them* it's valid to criticize the game for this fact. It isn't the job of the player to satisfy the game, but the reverse.

Some players enjoy being pushed by the game to improve. Many don't. It's valid the make a game that only serves this type of player, but it's also valid to criticize it for doing just that.

"Game too difficult" is also highly subjective. Game is difficult compared to modern games? Sure. Game is difficult compared to 80's and early 90's platformers? lol no

It matters a lot what kind of games you are regularly playing. If you have played old games in the platformer/action genre (through emulator or whatever) and then go to Volgarr, it won't seem as hard.

I notice you're using a Legend of Grimrock avatar, LoG was a pretty difficult game at times but if one came to it having played Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back and are familiar with DM gameplay, LoG is a lot easier to understand and play.

If Volgarr was released in 1993 on SNES/DOS/whatever, I'm sure it wouldn't have blown away players like it has in 2013. The thing being that standards in gaming have declined massively since then, and that is precisely what Volgarr was "marketed" as when it went to Kickstarter, games are too easy and handhold-y nowadays, we're making a game with some real meat.

I think we need more games like Volgarr, in all genres of game. Any game that shows a player their hubris and their limitations has my tick of approval.

Which makes me wonder why bother complaining about its difficulty in the first place? The developer set out to make a challenging game, which was made abundantly clear from the very start. Clearly the latter group you mentioned wasn't its intended audience then. All they need to do is to admit that this game wasn't meant for them and move on.

The problem with games like these is that they ignore the fact we've grown up since the 8-bit era. Games can be difficult while at least accommodating our lack of time. Rogue Legacy is a good example of that, as is FTL, Hotline: Miami and a number of other brutish games out these days. Volgarr has pretty much the same marketing as any of those games, but it doesn't really warn the consumer about the lack of time-sparing elements. It's possible to have your cake and eat it too with games like these. Let the hardcore people do the hardcore challenges, and let everyone else enjoy the difficulty while still progressing through the game. If this game was honestly marketed I bet it'd lose a ton of sales because the reality is not many adults have the time to commit to repetitious, trial-and-error type stuff anymore.

You suggest they state the game isn't for them. By complaining about the difficulty this is accomplished.
You just want them to state that this is a flaw with the person, rather than with the game.
Which you may feel is true, but they obviously won't. It is natural to view a game that is designed to be unfriendly to you as flawed.

You may not agree with that, but there's nothing wrong with the view, nor stating it.

I saw a commercial on TV (!) for this game, and they referred to it as "Adult Swim's Volgarr the Viking". Is there really a relationship with AS, or are they pulling a fast one?