Quote:The idea itself actually isn't bad at all. It's no secret that Elite difficulty is way too easy, and gets even easier the more PLs you get. A higher difficulty mode beyond elite was always a good idea.
This is actually true. EE had effectively become the default and while there were still challenging moments, by and large it was a cake walk. The basic concept of "hey, let's make a higher difficulty level" was great until...
Quote:It's just that everything about Reaper was retarded from the start.
In addition to your other well-made points, let's also add that the only reward for tackling that high difficulty is... making the difficulty easier. That's ultimately my biggest complaint. Its not that Reaper is too hard, its just pointless. If I go to all the trouble to grind out 156 reaper points it doesn't add anything interesting to my gameplay. At least racial past lives give us some more build points.
Quote:but the complete and utter reliance upon RNG was the exact wrong way to go about designing one.
This is the core problem with all of SSG's design philosophy. They literally don't know how to design something that's not based entirely on RNG, and their RNG is always broken. Just look at Strikethruough: arguably one of the best improvements to the game in recent memory... and its STILL a chance-based mechanic. And yes, despite what the wiki says, it is possible to *somehow* fail even with 200% strikethrough chance. Go fucking figure.
Quote:For another thing, Reaper occupies this weird uncanny valley where it's 1) the best mode for leveling because of the exp bonus compared to elite and 2) it's also the "endgame challenge mode."
I would like to add the other irritating point to it that because of the stupid way they set up RXP decay grinding is only viable if you're TRing constantly. You can't be like "Ok, finished all my lives, time to start grinding Rxp". Fuck that.
Quote:But I'm probably preaching to the choir.
Amen.