Basic Trope: Difficulty levels labelled other than standard variations of "easy" "medium" and "hard".
- Straight: From the easiest to hardest, the game has difficulty levels "safe" "questionable" and "explicit".
- Exaggerated:
- From easiest to hardest, there are 12 different modes, each a paragraph explaining how the opponents react and play.
- The difficulty levels are named after fruits with no other distinction on the menu other than being listed from easiest to hardest.
- Not only do the difficulty levels have quirky and non-standard names, the descriptions are also very unclear and vague to the point it enters Non-Indicative Difficulty territory.
- There are multiple dimensions of difficulty levels, one pertaining to puzzle complexity, another to melee combat, a third to firearms. All of them have their own unique labels of difficulty.
- Downplayed: Only one of the difficulty levels has a quirky name.
- Justified:
- Each difficulty mode has some change that only that mode has, so naming them "gun to a knife fight", "shootout" and "bullet hell" give hints about how tough it is.
- The names are related to the setting or the plot of the game.
- Inverted: The easiest mode is called "Mind-crushingly difficult", the medium mode is called "Not so bad" and the hardest mode is called "Laughably easy".
- Subverted: The difficulty levels look odd but are actually a different language for "easy" "medium" "hard".
- Double Subverted: They look like a different language, but when translated is "safe" "questionable" "explicit".
- Parodied:
- From the easiest to hardest, the game has difficulty levels "lamprey", "hatred", "müluääder", "gigaminx", "summoning" and "foisejkeqwpdocmowije".
- One of the difficulties is called impossible. They aren't kidding.
- Zig Zagged: From the easiest to hardest, the game has difficulty levels "child", "easy", "simple", "hard", "hellish"
- Averted: The game has difficulty levels of "easy", "normal" and "difficult"
- Enforced: The makers wanted to maintain player immersion into the game's atmosphere, even down to the erstwhile bureaucratic aspects of selecting difficulty levels of gameplay.
- Lampshaded:Buddy: Welcome to the "Nightmare" Mode, brave adventurer. In this playthrough, monsters will deal 20% more damage than the "Bad Dream" Mode, and your health will not regenerate after Boss battles. Please proceed only if you have a high confidence in your abilities.
- Invoked:
- Various Self Imposed Challenges are made by the community, each with it's own odd name.
- You can adjust your own difficulty and give it the name of your choice.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: "The difficulty levels are called easy, mediums and hard... because they're easy, medium and hard. No need to complicate things."
- Discussed: "Oh, it's like one of those difficulty cookup things where it goes from "rare" to "medium rare" to "well done" to "currently on fire."
- Conversed: "Wait a minute! Aren't these supposed to be "easy", "normal" and "difficult"?"
Back to Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels
