Quite a lot of sparks have been flying in the community about the idea of having skippable combat in games. I'm amazed at just how much backlash it has created for the woman who brought the idea to the table as it digs at an important issue: battle fatigue.

We've all been there, right? If you've played games long enough, you have encountered sections in titles that drag on. This happens a lot in RPGs; you are invested in the story and want to see the progression but are tired of grinding dungeons. Maybe you have been playing and encountered an egregiously difficult battle. Up until that point, the game was sane but suddenly a boss decides to go aggro and relentlessly decorate his lawn with your body parts. Uh-oh! You didn't keep multiple save files and can't go back to grind out some levels to compensate? Have fun starting a new file.

Game developers are getting smarter and smarter at crafting the experience to be accessible. Certainly these sorts of issues appear less frequently and the easy answer is to say that it's up to a developer to ensure the combat is engaging and interesting throughout. Sure. But that is a very difficult line to walk and if the developer isn't spot on, then they will be alienating players that would have otherwise enjoyed their game.

I'm not a huge fan of nerfing; I personally love my games to have some bite. In multiplayer games this creates a whole other set of issues because competition is a critical component of what makes the game fun for some. But you know what? We solved this a long time ago with having difficulty levels and we've already seen games with story modes meant for players with this in mind. Hell, in the modern Tales games, you can even switch the difficulty whenever you want in the option screen.

It's funny because Pie and I are playing Earthbound right now and you know what? That game had a pretty elegant solution for battle fatigue: if you are more powerful than the encountered enemy, you auto-win the battle without ever seeing the battle screen. I thought that was a great idea then and at an age where game time is fleeting its especially great now.

The bottom line is this: Let the developers make smart difficulty modes and let the players choose what is right for them.