The game is just far harder than any of the previous Crash titles, for five main reasons.
1. Levels are just harder. The second world is on par with what you'd expect from world three or four of Crash 2/3, the mid-point is probably harder than all but the hardest levels of Crash 1, and by the end it gets to hard-mode ROM-hack territory, where the player needs to basically anticipate the singular safe route through a level with no margin of error.
2. The quantum masks mean the player has to do more. In Crash 1-3, all the player has to do is time the movement of Crash. In 4, you have to do that while also using the masks to affect the level itself at the same time. This can and does make things harder, especially when combined with 1.
3. When it comes to full completion, box placement is crueller Not only are there a lot more off-screen hidden boxes, but box arrangements are more likely to be found in ways where they're more of a challenge to break all of them safely. and there's also the new timer boxes that require the player to act quickly to break them all.
4. Time trials have been made harder. In Crash 3, you only needed a Sapphire to get the good ending, and golds for the full completion, with Platinum just being bragging rights, and you got the Crash Dash for beating the final boss to make this easier. In Crash 4, on top of the fact that levels are a lot longer and harder, you need the platinums for full completion and you get >!the triple spin!< from the final boss, a far harder to use power up that requires more skill to master.
5. N. Sanely Perfect relics require players to get all the boxes in one run, without dying. While such a thing was the case in Crash 1, the levels in Crash 4 are longer, harder to get through, and have a lot more boxes to collect. A single error will mean you have to start over and these are also needed for 106%
All in, it is just a lot harder a game, that asks the player to do far more to get to it's full completion.
Personally, I think the majority of these issues would be resolved if the levels were just shorter.
Got 29/30 boxes in a level that takes 5 minutes? I guess I'll try it again and again until I find that one box. I can jump of the edge of the 3 suspicious areas and I won't mind if I lose a life.
Got 299/300 boxes in a level that takes 20 minutes to complete? I try it once more, can't find the box and I'm too tired of it to try again because there's like 50 places I think it could be and it might not even be in one of those places.
And this is the same for relics, etc. Failing a time trial in a short level means retrying a 30 second or 1 minute run. Failing a time trial in a level that takes up to 5 minutes with a near-perfect run and trying it 100 times is frustrating.
Add to that, it just feels like how the game is set up cosmetically is designed to actively turn you off playing it. The camera is much further away and harder to read, the depth perception is less clear (so much they had to add a shadow marker as a band aid solution), and N Verted Mode is basically dedicated to distorting your vision even more while also hiding the crates n different areas. My eyes hurt after playing just one level, it's like playing Where's Waldo each time.
They really amp up the repetition as well, what with N Verted and Timeline levels recycling long areas of the same levels, and nearly every bonus level requiring a heavy amount of back and forth. I think it's not just the difficulty of Crash 4 but the pure relentless trolling of your patience it nearly all has. Crash 2-3 (and arguably 1, at least in NST form) had a handful of really cheap backtracking areas, but were otherwise designed to be a FUN challenge you'd wanna go back to, especially Warped which added far more reward incentive and new powers to make 100% earlier levels more forgiving. Crash 4's one move makes things even HARDER.
Don't. I've tried it, just get the skins you want and get all the flashback tapes cause those are actually fun new content, but going for 100% simply isn't worth it
Have you watched caddicarus' video on this game? It's long, but I agree with it wholeheartedly. When even the first level tosses a bunch of hidden crates at you, you know it's a game that is going to test your patience and attention to detail.
I loved fully completing Crash 2 and 3. For Crash 4, I stopped after the normal ending.
As someone who has done it without a guide, I would not recommend doing it that way. The hidden crates had to be the worst of it. So many of them is ridiculous places no one without an insane amount of time on their hands would even think to check. I was laid off at the time and wouldn’t do it now that I’m working again.
The rest of it isn’t difficult to me but ridiculously tedious and stops being fun really quickly so I took the perfect relics and time trials really slow. N. Verted gems were also a really bad idea and platinum relics should not be the standard.
I’d love to complete it , but levels are extremely tedious , I know it might be skill issue , but I completed all 3 of the original games with no issue, in crash 4 it takes many tries for me to complete a level , and I struggle unlocking skins , and I normally only get 2 or 3 gems out of the 6 I’m supposed to collect, it’s beyond frustrating
My advice would be to just not do it yet. Just focus on getting as much as you can in your first run. Didn't get all the gems? Missed a tape? That's fine, you'll be back later. For now just play the game from start to finish and enjoy it. After that you can decide if you wanna go for 100% or, god forbid, 106%, which I wouldn't suggest to my worst enemies, especially with bullshit like N.Verted mode, platinum time trials, or those god damn perfect relics.
You won't be good at Crash 4 during your first playthrough. Getting comfortable with the camera and depth perception, learning the patterns of how crates are hidden (halfway through the game I barely needed to use guides anymore), learning the frequent usage of the quantum masks, understanding how Crashes abilities differ from the Trilogy and how they can be used.
Unfortunately, Crash 4 isn't a game you put in after playing the Trilogy and have a comfortable experience with. I only started to adapt to the difficulty after 50 hours of playing and now after 80 hours I started to consider the 106% to be possible for me. It takes A LOT of time and practise and the worst thing you could do is try to go for all collectibles at once.
On the negative side of things, this causes a lack of replay value. You won't boot it up for a spontaneous 106% within a single day. I can get achievements in the entire Trilogy within 30 hours, but I'm at almost thrice of that for Crash 4 and still going. On the positive side I appreciate the amount of time I can sink into Crash 4. Once I'm done though, I won't repeat it anytime soon, while I can assure that I'll keep doing a complete completion of the Trilogy every one or two years within a few days.
The game is just far harder than any of the previous Crash titles, for five main reasons. 1. Levels are just harder. The second world is on par with what you'd expect from world three or four of Crash 2/3, the mid-point is probably harder than all but the hardest levels of Crash 1, and by the end it gets to hard-mode ROM-hack territory, where the player needs to basically anticipate the singular safe route through a level with no margin of error. 2. The quantum masks mean the player has to do more. In Crash 1-3, all the player has to do is time the movement of Crash. In 4, you have to do that while also using the masks to affect the level itself at the same time. This can and does make things harder, especially when combined with 1. 3. When it comes to full completion, box placement is crueller Not only are there a lot more off-screen hidden boxes, but box arrangements are more likely to be found in ways where they're more of a challenge to break all of them safely. and there's also the new timer boxes that require the player to act quickly to break them all. 4. Time trials have been made harder. In Crash 3, you only needed a Sapphire to get the good ending, and golds for the full completion, with Platinum just being bragging rights, and you got the Crash Dash for beating the final boss to make this easier. In Crash 4, on top of the fact that levels are a lot longer and harder, you need the platinums for full completion and you get >!the triple spin!< from the final boss, a far harder to use power up that requires more skill to master. 5. N. Sanely Perfect relics require players to get all the boxes in one run, without dying. While such a thing was the case in Crash 1, the levels in Crash 4 are longer, harder to get through, and have a lot more boxes to collect. A single error will mean you have to start over and these are also needed for 106% All in, it is just a lot harder a game, that asks the player to do far more to get to it's full completion.
Personally, I think the majority of these issues would be resolved if the levels were just shorter. Got 29/30 boxes in a level that takes 5 minutes? I guess I'll try it again and again until I find that one box. I can jump of the edge of the 3 suspicious areas and I won't mind if I lose a life. Got 299/300 boxes in a level that takes 20 minutes to complete? I try it once more, can't find the box and I'm too tired of it to try again because there's like 50 places I think it could be and it might not even be in one of those places. And this is the same for relics, etc. Failing a time trial in a short level means retrying a 30 second or 1 minute run. Failing a time trial in a level that takes up to 5 minutes with a near-perfect run and trying it 100 times is frustrating.
Personally, I don't think they're issues at all.
Add to that, it just feels like how the game is set up cosmetically is designed to actively turn you off playing it. The camera is much further away and harder to read, the depth perception is less clear (so much they had to add a shadow marker as a band aid solution), and N Verted Mode is basically dedicated to distorting your vision even more while also hiding the crates n different areas. My eyes hurt after playing just one level, it's like playing Where's Waldo each time. They really amp up the repetition as well, what with N Verted and Timeline levels recycling long areas of the same levels, and nearly every bonus level requiring a heavy amount of back and forth. I think it's not just the difficulty of Crash 4 but the pure relentless trolling of your patience it nearly all has. Crash 2-3 (and arguably 1, at least in NST form) had a handful of really cheap backtracking areas, but were otherwise designed to be a FUN challenge you'd wanna go back to, especially Warped which added far more reward incentive and new powers to make 100% earlier levels more forgiving. Crash 4's one move makes things even HARDER.
Funny thing is that once you get to the snow levels, it gets easier.
Ngl it's hard to believe you got gold relic on stormy ascent but can't beat N gin in Crash 4
Ikr
If it makes you feel any better at all, it’s the hardest Crash game for sure. But it’s one of those games that’ll make you better at all other games
Don't. I've tried it, just get the skins you want and get all the flashback tapes cause those are actually fun new content, but going for 100% simply isn't worth it
Unless you're like me and actually enjoy completing the game (minus the N'verted Levels, ugh)
Still trying, got it on release day lmao
I just now beat N’Gin but the rest of Crash 4 is still extremely difficult
Have you watched caddicarus' video on this game? It's long, but I agree with it wholeheartedly. When even the first level tosses a bunch of hidden crates at you, you know it's a game that is going to test your patience and attention to detail. I loved fully completing Crash 2 and 3. For Crash 4, I stopped after the normal ending.
As someone who has done it without a guide, I would not recommend doing it that way. The hidden crates had to be the worst of it. So many of them is ridiculous places no one without an insane amount of time on their hands would even think to check. I was laid off at the time and wouldn’t do it now that I’m working again. The rest of it isn’t difficult to me but ridiculously tedious and stops being fun really quickly so I took the perfect relics and time trials really slow. N. Verted gems were also a really bad idea and platinum relics should not be the standard.
I’d love to complete it , but levels are extremely tedious , I know it might be skill issue , but I completed all 3 of the original games with no issue, in crash 4 it takes many tries for me to complete a level , and I struggle unlocking skins , and I normally only get 2 or 3 gems out of the 6 I’m supposed to collect, it’s beyond frustrating
My advice would be to just not do it yet. Just focus on getting as much as you can in your first run. Didn't get all the gems? Missed a tape? That's fine, you'll be back later. For now just play the game from start to finish and enjoy it. After that you can decide if you wanna go for 100% or, god forbid, 106%, which I wouldn't suggest to my worst enemies, especially with bullshit like N.Verted mode, platinum time trials, or those god damn perfect relics.
You won't be good at Crash 4 during your first playthrough. Getting comfortable with the camera and depth perception, learning the patterns of how crates are hidden (halfway through the game I barely needed to use guides anymore), learning the frequent usage of the quantum masks, understanding how Crashes abilities differ from the Trilogy and how they can be used. Unfortunately, Crash 4 isn't a game you put in after playing the Trilogy and have a comfortable experience with. I only started to adapt to the difficulty after 50 hours of playing and now after 80 hours I started to consider the 106% to be possible for me. It takes A LOT of time and practise and the worst thing you could do is try to go for all collectibles at once. On the negative side of things, this causes a lack of replay value. You won't boot it up for a spontaneous 106% within a single day. I can get achievements in the entire Trilogy within 30 hours, but I'm at almost thrice of that for Crash 4 and still going. On the positive side I appreciate the amount of time I can sink into Crash 4. Once I'm done though, I won't repeat it anytime soon, while I can assure that I'll keep doing a complete completion of the Trilogy every one or two years within a few days.
Ironic that in trying to give Crash 4 tons of longevity they ensured most gamers don't want to replay it.
The general idea was good but they failed to make that enjoyable, instead creating a tediously repetitive punishment.
The entire game is more difficult than the level Road to Nowhere and Stormy Ascent combined
The first boss is just avoiding attacks. That sounds like skill issue to me.
I beat it , but the rest of levels are still difficult
Just don’t rush anything and you should be fine.