History Main / EasyModeMockery

** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'' has Rookie & Normal difficulties. The former has you start with a load of spare ammo for your handgun, everything is less resilient, and an extra file that gives you a few hints to some of the early puzzles. However, you cannot access any of the unlockable content this way i.e. The infinite ammo weapons, the extra costumes or Hunk & Tofu. Rookie save files appear on the menu as white, Normals are ColorCodedForYourConvenience. You cannot change a save file's difficulty when changing scenarios.

** In ''VideoGame/TouhouKoumakyouTheEmbodimentOfScarletDevil'', if you beat the Stage 5 boss on Easy mode, she essentially mocks you(r character) for playing Easy mode. Your character then leaves. Bad End. [[EarnYourFun No final boss for you]].[[note]]There ''is'' a story reason for this -- the fight was so easy Sakuya was able to [[TimeStandsStill bend time]] around your entire duel and it's way too late to stop the BigBad, but it's buried behind her [[BreakingTheFourthWall blatantly saying]] she wouldn't have been able to do so on a higher difficulty.[[/note]]

* ''VideoGame/DevilEngine'' has randomly-chosen one-liners for the Hard (default) difficulty and Easy difficulty, with most of the Easy descriptions being mocking in tone ("For cowards", "Why don't you challenge yourself for once in your life?", etc.). Furthermore, Very Easy mode will append a bright purple ''EASY MODE'' text to the top left corner of the screen (whereas Hard and Expert do not display any difficulty indicator). Aside from the humilation elements, Easy has less enemies and bullets, which may seem like an obvious advantage but also makes it harder to score points, which are much-needed as [[EveryTenThousandPoints you earn bombs and extra lives at point thresholds]].

* The home ports of ''VideoGame/AkaiKatana'' have a Novice toggle for Origin (Arcade in JP ver.) and Slash (Shin in JP ver.) modes, which mainly increase the amount of resources you gain from items so that it's easier to go into Guardian mode to defend yourself and make enemies fire fewer revenge bullets. However, scores gained in these modes are considerably lower, and since [[EveryTenThousandPoints the thresholds for extra lives]] are not adjusted, it can be harder to gain extra lives.

* In ''VideoGame/FZero GP Legend'', if you play through the Gold Cup in Grand Prix Mode on Novice difficulty, your last race will be at Red Canyon: Peak Jump. In Standard and Expert difficulty you will instead race in the much harder true final circuit[[note]] excluding the hidden Platinum Cup)[[/note]], Illusion: Abyss Drop.

* ''VideoGame/SpookysJumpScareMansion'' introduced options in the HD Renovation to disable specimens or jumpscares. If you disable both, you get a ''really'' lame ending where a rather unamused Spooky "congratulates" you for your achievement of... going through 1000 empty rooms. Granted, [[spoiler:this is the only ending where your character doesn't die…]]

* With the ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo'' titles, there is the recurring Easy (sometimes called [=RunRun=]) course, which zigzags this trope. On one hand, these courses often offer a unique set of opponents to fight that aren't in the main course, but at the same time mocks you once they're completed. For example in the first arcade game and several ports of ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyoTsu'', the Dark Prince will mock you and coax you to play the main course to challenge him, while for Draco's course in ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyoSun'' the credits are played so fast that you cannot read them. Even when you do play the main course however, the game actively encourages you to play at a higher difficulty, all for the sake of earning a "[[AWinnerIsYou Thank you for playing]]" message.

* ''VideoGame/FridayNightFunkin'' [[GameMod Game Mods]]

* You can't unlock a new disease type in ''[[VideoGame/{{PlagueInc}} Plague Inc.]]'' if you are playing on Casual Difficulty. In ''Evolved'' there is a "Pity Mode" option that allows you to do this, but its existence still suggests that you ''are'' supposed to beat a disease type on at least Normal Difficulty to make progress.

* ''Videogame/MySummerCar'' has a permadeath game mode that erases your save file if the player character dies. If you choose to start a game with permadeath turned off, you'll get an achievement named [[AchievementMockery "I Am Coward"]].

* ''VideoGame/ArtifactsAndAntiquity'': If you're performing poorly, the game will start giving you more direct hints on where treasures are. However, the definition of "performing poorly" is getting two of your three playable characters killed, which for a ''Creator/ZedTechnician'' game means that you'll get the worst possible ending.

** In ''VideoGame/EmbodimentOfScarletDevil'', if you beat the Stage 5 boss on Easy mode, she essentially mocks you(r character) for playing Easy mode. Your character then leaves. Bad End. [[EarnYourFun No final boss for you]].[[note]]There IS a story reason for this - the fight was so easy Sakuya was able to [[TimeStandsStill bend time]] around your entire duel and it's way too late to stop the BigBad, but it's buried behind her [[BreakingTheFourthWall blatantly saying]] she wouldn't have been able to do so on a higher difficulty.[[/note]]
** More specific to the trope, some older ''Touhou'' games (''Ten Desires'' and older) won't let you get the good ending and unlock the Extra Stage if you complete the game on Easy. In fact, ''Subterranean Animism'' has a bug that if you already have the Extra Stage unlocked and then complete the game on Easy, it will lock the stage right back up. Considering that the Extra Stage is somewhere between Hard and Lunatic in terms of difficulty, if you can only clear the game on Easy, you are probably not prepared for the Extra Stage anyway.

** Easy mode's description in ''VideoGame/SubterraneanAnimism'' is essentially "please train more so your friends won't make fun of you".

* ''VideoGame/ShadowWarrior2'': Inverted. Easy mode is portrayed as simply a different way to play the game.

** It's generally averted in the franchise. Sure, you'll never get the top-ranking codenames on the end-of-game screens if you don't play on the harder difficulty levels, but that has no effect on the storyline progression. In fact, in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', there are certain special codenames that are only given based on certain achievements, which can be accomplished at any difficulty level, and in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'', you have to play through the Plant level five times - once on each difficulty level (excluding the unlockable European Extreme level) - in order to [[GottaCatchEmAll collect enough dog tags]] to unlock the [[SuperNotDrowningSkills Wig A item]]. That includes the Easy and Very Easy modes.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/Hitman2''. The blurb for casual difficulty outright encourages using it to experiment and do dumb, loud stuff you'd never get away with otherwise to learn the missions before attempting them on a stricter difficulty.

* ''VideoGame/JustShapesAndBeats'':
** Averted with the Casual toggle in Story Mode, which doubles your HitPoints. The description for the toggle explains that the developers do not judge you for using it and just want you to have fun with the game.
** Played straight with the Party difficulty in Playlist Mode, which prevents you from being booted back to the last checkpoint every time you die (you'll just respawn in place), but also prevents you from earning any Beat Points.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fPSTJGe-3o Beating the game on Hard]] [[AWinnerIsYou gets you a very different speech]] [[BraggingRightsReward giving you the right to state "I'm the best"]] [[TakeThatAudience even if everybody else hates you]].

* ''VideoGame/Pikmin4'': If you ever fail [[ProtectionMission a night expedition]], instead of simply retrying, you can "get help" in the form of your coworker Dingo, who beats the level for you in a blacked-out cutscene. While you still get the medicine you'd normally get for clearing the level, the level isn't considered as being cleared. In addition, you get no glow seeds for its completion; justified as the rest of the Rescue Corps noting that while he ''did'' complete the objective of protecting the Lumiknoll... he did so by just spamming a seemingly endless supply of bomb rocks everywhere as opposed to working alongside the Glow Pikmin, who equally ignored him in turn.

** In [[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii all]] ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' [[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros2 games]] after the first and ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DLand'', if you use any Super Guides while playing, the stars on your save file sheet will stop glowing. In the case of ''3D Land'' and ''NSMB Wii'', Your glowing stars will be removed if you are ever '''offered''' use of the easy mode. Simply dying too many times on one level makes your glowing stars [[PermanentlyMissableContent lost forever]] after you see the block and save.

* In ''VideoGame/WillYouSnail'', Squid, the game's [[BreakingTheFourthWall fourth wall-breaking]] AI antagonist, will often mock the player for manually lowering the game's difficulty. [[{{Parody}} Parodied]] in that ''all'' the difficulties are different variants of easy (Inifitely Easy, Extremely Easy, Very Easy, and Easy), with higher difficulties being "reserved for more intelligent species."

* ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal2'': When played on Easy, the game ends just after the first boss with a big stop sign featuring the message "No losers allowed beyond this point".

* In the first ''VideoGame/SailorMoon1993'' game for the UsefulNotes/SuperFamicom, a sidescroller released only in Japan and France, you can only complete the first two levels in easy mode before the game ends.

* The LemonyNarrator offers you a choice of difficulties at the beginning of ''VideoGame/PennyArcadeAdventures: [[LongTitle On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness]]: [[ColonCancer Episode 2]]'', and taunts you if you choose Easy.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'': ''Cold Steel II'' actually locks you out of the last two training levels on the training rooms onboard the Courageous if you are playing Easy mode, meaning you can only ever get to Close Combat III, Ranged Combat III and Arts III, denying you of three desirable master quartzes.

** In the greater sense, however, the game inverts the trope by having hard mode be the obsolete difficulty option. It's supposed to be a balancing act of having easy mode get the funny dialogue while competing the levels on hard mode rewards the player with gold files containing extra lore. However, the passcodes for the safes, which the player has immediate access to, are the same on both difficulties. Meaning one can just play the level on easy, get the code, and go back and get the gold file right away.