Return to Monkey Island has two difficulty modes, casual and hard. However, it doesn’t clarify just how severely this setting affects the game. Is hard that much tougher than casual, and where is normal mode? Here’s what changes between the two settings:
What’s the difference between Casual and Hard mode in Return to Monkey Island?
The descriptions for both difficulty modes in Return to Monkey Island are:
“Casual mode
All the story and all the fun but with casual puzzles for the busy on-the-go player.
Hard mode
More puzzles! Harder puzzles! The full monkey! For the pro-adventure gamer who wants it all.”
However, these would be better explained as easy and normal. The casual setting gives the player abridged puzzles that can be completed in as few as one or two steps. In Hard mode, puzzles take a bit more time but aren’t exceptionally difficult. As someone familiar with the genre, on Hard mode, the game is nowhere near as tough as classic adventure titles. In fact, I’d go as far as to call the game easy.
I highly recommend that everyone play the game on Hard mode (and with the Writer’s Cut turned on). These puzzles are straightforward, and they help with the pacing. Otherwise, you’re just chucking an item at someone to progress and hitting wall after wall of text.
