Gothic

[Cuyir]

But this is a signal that a game is not made to fight something primarly.

If - if - that is what they were going for it is still not good design. The controls are not horrible once you get used to them, but they are badly designed. You probably also realize how badly designed the keyboard you use to type is - it is extremely unergonomic and nonsensical, and yet none of us (usually) has a problem typing with it even despite its bad design. However, the fact will always remain that it is not the fastest and not the most comfortable system for this type of concept and no amount of practice will be able to compensate for that. If the combat is difficult for other reasons than the enemies deal a lot of damage or it ties into the story (your character isn't suited for combat), then it's bad design. Instead of fooling yourself by saying it's good design because it artificially places the player at a disadvantage and therefore it is more hardcore and less mainstream, just examine the facts. There are plenty of great games with horrible controls (some of my favorites).

I agree and I will add to your point:

Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are heralded as the toughest games ever. This is just journalistic exaggeration (though there are a few bosses that drove me up a wall) but the controls are butter. Not once did I curse at my controller or did I use the layout as an excuse for the game being hard.

The challenge comes from the design, personal preparation (do I risk it and keep moving on or back away and level up?) and personal risks (I died more times than I would like to mention thanks to my poor risk taking).

That's good design. Oftentimes I was the one to blame because of my dying. Not that the game was cheap, not that the controls were retarded, nothing else. Just me.

A game, regardless of genre, design, focus, goals, etc. should ALWAYS make the user forget he/she's using a controller/keyboard. Not only would that mean that greater immersion is found because players aren't going ''WAIT WHAT THE HELL? I PRESSED THE KEY AND NOTHING HAPPENED AND DIED!" but that also means a more enjoyable experience.

And on another note: I loved Kotor 2. Sure, it was unfinished. Sure the ending needed work. Sure it was buggy (though I can't remember it being buggy for me). But I loved it. It found a natural explanation as to why you level up by killing people and such and how the relationships with the crew somehow shifted to you side, regardless of that person's force alignment. I loved that revelation. But yeah, needed a lot of work.