Nothing wrong with adding difficulty options to a genre that’s been notoriously inaccessible to a wide swathe of players. It doesn’t take anything away from the accomplishments of players who want to play on higher difficulties and only gives options to those who need or want to have difficulty options.
I’m hugely in favour of new soulslikes adding difficulty options and welcome them with open arms. Having options is always good. :)
That just something people say who want to be part of the discourse and are not really interested in playing the games.
Why though? You do end up not playing the game at all if you’re barred from it because of imposed arbitrary difficulty settings
Because the different difficulties are build into the game in the form of items, weaknesses and coop.
You have to invest time in the game to figure it out though. And that is what people don’t want. And that is why I say people just want to be part of the discourse and don’t really want to play the game. They don’t want to engage with the mechanics.
And the mechanics are the message. Under the lense of videogames as an art form and not just a product to make money.
if you change a mechanic without an in universe explanation that weaves in the greater themes, the whole piece loses Integrity.
At this point I hesitate because, do you mean soulslike as a genre or just the fromsoftware catalog?
Because if you mean as a genre I think its fine. It is just that I don’t want it for the ones fromsoftware makes.
Those are the only games I played that weaves it’s themes into so many layeres and delivers it all in a way that just a video game can.
And being in a unforgiving world where all you can do to overcome is be persistent, be aware and sometimes ask strangers for help is a powerful message.
Something you will never experience when the world isn’t that unforgiving in the first place.
Which is the irony in it all, that through changing the thing, the thing ceases to exist so you would not experience it anyway. Just some distorted version of it.
And thats kinda the thing that gets me mad when I see the debate. Because I fear that this will be taken away from me. That all the people who are not interested in playing the game, they are more interested in beating the game, will be louder.
I get all of your points and agree with most. However, your experience is entirely unchanged if people who want to have difficulty settings play with them and you don’t. It’s a single-player game - their decisions to do not affect you in the slightest.
Imagine if DS3 was the exact same game it is right now, but you have the option of choosing a difficulty options that reduces the damage you take and increases the damage you deal, for people who want that kind of experience. Would that change anything about the experience you had with the game?
At the of the day, as long developers have the freedom to do as they please and communicate what they feel like is the “preferred” experience, there is no harm in catering to more people outside the inner circle of most dedicated players who have the luxury of putting as much time into the game as they are able to. Like, why would that bother you?
The more people get to experience the game, the better in my opinion. I don’t gain anything from gating people from playing the game other than an already negative rap the genre and its player base gets from elitist opinions on their game. Not saying you’re an elitist for having the opinions you outlined - it’s just something to consider.
And yea, I firmly believe that the entire genre - including FS games - would profit from that.
And thanks for sharing your opinion in a respectful manner; I feel like this can get lost on people in these debates quite often.
I agree.
I believe it’s up to the devs to decide if they want to, or to not include it as a statement.
But I don’t think that there should be any kind of stigma with having (or using) difficulty options.
There’s a bunch of mods available for dark souls to make it easier e.g. not losing souls when dying etc. Haven’t tested them though.
Good. Don’t test them at all, and enjoy the cruel shared struggle that united men and women from ages past!
Don’t go hollow!
Yeah I’m playing unmodded dark souls. Still didn’t beat it, but I’m making (very slow) progress.
Earn that progress my friend, Dark Souls is intended to be hard!
Some of my fondest memories Dark Souls are:
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Me IRL watching my buddy play, spending hours in Undead Burgh, me talking mad shit about the Tarus Demon only to see it instantly backoff suicide off the cliff 10s into the boss fight
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Sunbroing equipped as Soloaire outside a rough boss fight, and gitting gud enough to carry anyone who wasnt suicidal
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Literally grinding my head against a boss until I WON Die, die, die, and eventually win is what makes Dark Souls the game.
My favorite memories came from when I finally got fed up with the low level griefers and built my own to fight them while engaged in jolly cooperation
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Literally, the difficulty is why I didn’t get past the first area. I don’t have time or want to get sweaty. If anyone can recommend some for casual players it’d be divine. Something I can learn on them go back if I want to and try it harder. I want to like it.
You can try WeMod. That’s what usually allows me to complete games, especially since I don’t have a lot of time and just want to have fun in the game after a very long work day!
I didn’t get past the first area
Are you deadass allergic to trying? You couldn’t manage the tutorial level? If you can find the time, watch someone stream as you prolly won’t enjoy playing the game.
Elden ring is balanced, lets you avoid bosses, gives you tons of tools to deal with them and nonlinearity lets you level as much as you want before facing the real threats. You can pretty much make it through the game without having to get too good.
Of course, some bosses are quite difficult, but they are either avoidable or ver late game.
Also, you can always go for the Cheese Master 9000 of lances + shield.
Me beating the first boss before I figure out the game had a leveling system…
I think it’s Bloodborne that doesn’t even let you access the levelling system until you’ve encountered a boss.
Dark Souls 1 + Zweihander = pancakes everything
Elden ring + spirit summons* = 2v1 everything. *(its in the game. You’re allowed to use it. Its not cheating)
My cheese for DS1 was just getting up close to enemies with your shield up and getting round the back of them. You seemed to be able to shuffle faster than they could turn. Then backstab away.
