Difficulty is a measure of how hard a video game is. Although highly subjective, many games have a "Difficulty Setting" that allows players to set the general level of challenge they will face. In the Epic Battle Fantasy series, there are four difficulty levels available: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Epic. The main differences are the enemies; as the difficulty level rises, they gain more HP, their attacks do more damage, their defenses become stronger, and they may gain new abilities or traits to make them even more threatening.
Epic Battle Fantasy
In the original game, Easy difficulty reduced enemy strength to 80% of their Normal difficulty level. Hard difficulty gave them a 20% power boost over Normal, and Epic raised it a further 20% (140% total).
Epic Battle Fantasy 2
The difficulties remained the same in EBF2, but their attributes had changed slightly. With Normal difficulty as the benchmark for enemy stats, the difficulties are as follows:
Easy
Enemy damage and HP is reduced by 20%.
Normal
Standard difficulty; enemies have no bonuses or penalties.
Hard
Enemy damage increased by 20%. Some enemies gain new attacks.
Epic
Enemy damage is 40% higher than normal. Many enemies have new attacks and stat bonuses.
Epic Battle Fantasy 3
Easy
Enemies have 70% of their normal HP and damage.
Normal
All stats are normal.
Hard
All enemies do 130% of their normal damage.
Epic
All enemies do 160% of their normal damage, and some foes gain new bonuses (e.g. Green Slimes begin battle with the Poison ailment, regenerating HP every turn).
Epic Battle Fantasy 4
Unlike the previous games, EBF4 introduced the ability to change the difficulty mid-game via the "Difficulty" option in the "Options" menu. This makes getting some Medals (specifically, the ones requiring players to defeat certain bosses on Epic difficulty) somewhat less of a pain - unfortunately, the changes between difficulty levels have also become more drastic than ever before.
Easy
All enemies are handicapped; their damage and HP are reduced by 50%.
Normal
All enemies do normal damage (100%) and have normal HP.
Hard
The enemies are enhanced. All enemies do 150% of their normal damage and their HP are increased by one-third. Some enemies also gain new traits.
- Enemies with elemental absorption often spawn with a status effect that regenerates them every turn (e.g. Flame Sprites have Burn, and Sludge Slimes have Poison).
- Thunder Sprites and Thunder Elementals come into battle with the Charged status, allowing them to use their most powerful attacks from the get-go.
- The Glitch appears with two smaller copies of itself, which it replaces every turn. The copies have low HP and no defensive ability (being Level 0), use the Glitch's instant-kill "overflow" attack.
- Godcat's battle forms will use Limit Breaks at low HP (Absolute Zero for The Creator, Supernova for The Destroyer).
- The Destroyer gains Berserk status after its biting attack.
Epic
All enemies do 200% of their normal damage, and their HP is doubled. Any bonuses gained by enemies in Hard Mode also apply in Epic Mode.
Some medals in EBF4 can only be achieved in Epic Mode:
- Lumberjack - Defeat the Mighty Oak on Epic Difficulty.
- Rock Miner - Defeat the Crystal Golem on Epic Difficulty.
- Electrical Engineer - Defeat the Praetorian on Epic Difficulty.
- Extreme Gardener - Defeat the Rafflesia on Epic Difficulty.
- Cat Person - Defeat Godcat on Epic Difficulty.
