All difficult games should have an easy mode for accessibility.
Signed, a Dark Souls enjoyer.
For mechanically difficult games, definitely agree. Celeste is an example I usually bring up - it’s a platformer that can get pretty tough at times, especially in the after-story optional levels. But it also has one of the most flexible and useful accessibility modes I’ve ever seen. It allows you to adjust basically every aspect of the game a player might struggle with (game speed, additional jumps, timed mechanics, you name it). And the game itself is very good as well.
I’ve never had vitriol spewed at me quite like when I argue in favor of easy mode for soulslike games. I’m at a point where I hate soulslike games, half because I don’t want to spend ten hours on a boss that I can’t beat, and half because I don’t want to associate with soulsborne players
For anyone interested, shameless plug: !soulslike@lemmy.zip
Easy mode ftw. I’ve only got so much free time. I wanna chill when I’m gaming.
You don’t want to spend twenty hours trying to beat one boss, and being told to git gud whenever you ask for advice on the internet? But think of the sense of pride and accomplishment you’ll feel when you finally beat it! The best part is you get to go through this like 10 times
/s
Counterpoint: not every game needs to be chill
It’s a choice. You don’t have to take it
I am playing Sekiro with a easy mode mod.
Even with being able to kill everything with 1-4 hits, I was getting TRASHED by bosses. People play this without the mod? 😭
It’s a difficult game for sure. Probably the most difficult out of the FromSoft games. Not to feed into the meme but the game does click once you get to a certain boss in the game. The combat feels natural, you know what to do and how to do it usually etc. It’s a really difficult game and the final boss might just be the most difficult I’ve ever had the displeasure of fighting against (they get a lot easier once you know what you’re doing)
Git gud casul?
Otherwise…
Finger but, whole.
I just started playing Stellar Blade.
It’s really nice to go through the checklist of which soulslike attributes games are now inheriting, and which they decide to throw away. SB happens to have a set that I really jive with. No “lose currency on death”, clean and clear tutorials, but still has lots of secrets hidden around the world. And, it has an easy mode - which I’m not using, because as much as the bosses challenge and frustrate me, they’re very satisfying to learn.
I love how all the comments insist on discussing the difficulty, despite OP literally pointing it out as bait.
That’s good bait.
I know it’s bait. I’m just looking for an opportunity to unload.
The circle of “just want to feel something” wraps round and round.
I’ve never touched any game of this series. If I need to replay a section or fight in a game more than 3 times it annoys me so much, I need to take a break. This often led to me never playing that game again, because only thinking about being stuck at that spot again kills all the fun for me.
In Cyberpunk for example my car got stuck in the middle of nowhere by a glitch and I would have needed to walk for god knows how long to find another vehicle. Needless to say I never played that game again, even though I was not nearly even half way through and liked it up until that point.
I’m willing to replay a section as many times as it takes, as long as I consistently feel a sense of progression and improvement. The problem is that it can take dozens of attempts before I realize I’m plateauing, and I have to give up.
I cannot tell you how much I want to play Remnant: From the Ashes. In between boss fights, I’m in love with the game. The story is deeply fascinating, and I love the gameplay. There is exactly one boss in that game that I was able to beat without going online and waiting for some random to join and carry. Eventually I got to a point where in order to upgrade gear, I had to kill bosses, and in order to kill bosses, I had to upgrade gear. Uninstalled it after I made no story progress for like 10 hours.
Contrast that with Outriders. Considered by many to be an awful game, it was my favorite game that I’ve played this year. The story is deeply fascinating, I love the gameplay, and there is exactly one boss in that game that I couldn’t beat at the highest available difficulty. So I turned the difficulty down, breezed through it, and turned it back up afterward, and there was no penalty for doing that.
Did you not just hit the “summon a vehicle” button that the game gives you to summon one of the many cars the game gives out for free? Cause it’s there. I believe they tell you about it during the prologue and it’s enabled before then.
Did you just skip all tutorials or something? I’m struggling to understand how on earth you got stuck so bad you ended up quitting the game. Plus, if you’re half way through, you have a minimum of 2 vehicles, the starting car and Jackie’s bike, if not even more. Wtf were you even doing?
Can’t you just summon a new vehicle?
Lmao yeah. I’m kinda like him but even I knew you could summon your rides in Cyberpunk. I stopped playing that game because it was getting repetitive af.
I think the whole “Elden Ring is hard” is overrated.
I’m a garbage player. And I manage to cheese my way through the game. It has classic NES/SNES energy where you can absolutely leave and come back when you’re way stronger. The game is so massive, you will always find something else to do.
Then again, if cyberpunk made you rage quit, maybe you won’t like Elden Ring. I found that game to be really straightforward.
EZ mode in Elden Ring is to play Scadow of the Erdtree for a bit. That hands out fifty level-ups for shitting yourself hiding in the bushes, just to mock you for how you still ain’t got gud. Go back and beat up Malenia and Placidusax all you want, you’re still going to die to the very first expansion boss like you’ve never played a Souls game before.
Its called cheating. Download some mods or something; the game is the game they made. If you want something different, there are plenty of options.
Look, it’s the dudes from the meme
Can’t download mods on console. Any other advice for getting my $60 worth out of a game I can’t refund anymore?
I dislike how people use game completion as a method to gloat
Like bro, don’t we all play games to have fun?
I separate people into two camps.
People who beat THE Sega Genesis classic Sonic 3 with lock-on Technology with Sonic and Knuckles and achieved all 12 Chaos Emeralds, and LOSERS.
I’m currently playing Elden Ring for the first time and I’m note sure if I’m not just doing it for self-flagellation instead of fun
You’ve found one your kink.
How am I supposed to have fun if I’m not better than you???
Edit: ???
Absolutely not! I play games to be the best! To dunk on those losers who can’t defeat evey boss with only their fists and a dream. This is what it means to be a real gamer, ignoring my family, friends, and calls from my boss.
All you can do is look up at me on my pedestal from your lowly lesser-gamer chair.
I never understood the obsession with stupid difficult games at all. It’s like, let me bang my head on a coffee table for 3 hours trying to make 5 minutes of progress. No thanks
Edit: Wow, this blew up, quite a controversial take, and not a hint of irony from all the people commenting about how I don’t get it.
Edit 2: For what it’s worth, I have played Dark Souls 1 all the way through, some of Dark Souls 2, got to the end of Bloodborne, played about 3 hours of Elden Ring, and a bit of Lies of P. These games just aren’t for me. I played them bcz my friend loves them, and I was trying to make a soulslike bcz that seems to be all the rage right now.
On the flip side, I don’t understand why people like playing video games that just tell a story and pretty much spoon feed every victory to the player. It feels hollow and incredibly boring.
You know there’s a middle ground, right? There exist games that manage to balance difficulty in a way that gives players a consistent challenge that they’re just able to overcome. The best games have these things called “difficulty settings” that let you customize that challenge so that you can decide how hard you want it to be
like movies?
I will agree with that sentiment somewhat. I don’t play games on easy either, that’s boring. I don’t mind dying a few times to a boss. It’s the soul crushing difficulty of Souls games I don’t enjoy. 17 deaths in, and i still have barely cracked half health of some bosses. Not my cup of tea.
ER is not even difficult unless you specifically want it to be
I played it for 3 hours. Unless I’m missing something, it’s incredibly difficult.
Did you spend that time trying to fight the Tree Sentinal (mounted knight boss) just in front of where you start? You don’t have to, and you shouldn’t unless you’re extremely skilled or masochistic. You can go around and find less dangerous enemies.
I think you’re missing something.
You don’t have to engage with the angry strong monsters.
Video games have made us believe we are the heroes. In Elden Ring, we are specks.
Here’s 2 tips:
-
Level up Vigor. Health is how you make early game easier.
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Skip bosses. There isn’t a hard linear progression path and different builds struggle with different parts of the game.
Counter-point: No.
I rather play something fun.
Everyone experiences fun in their own ways. You’re allowed to not want to play hard games just like other people are allowed to want to play hard games. It doesn’t have to be an argument about which is “better.”
Fun is subjective. For me, challenge is fun.
That’s fair, maybe I’ll give it another shot one of these days. A friend of mine also suggested running from some of the enemies.
Yeah, that’s what my 2nd point is about also. It is natural to hit roadblocks, and in ER usually the correct move is to pursue a different path and come back once you’re stronger. It can be a fun game, but forcing yourself to play it is not right either
-
I’ve refused to play it cause I’m bad at video games and I don’t feel like playing something punishingly difficult cause that isn’t fun for me. This is the first time I’m hearing someone claim it’s not difficult
I mean, it’s a valid point. I won’t claim soulslikes are all easy and it’s easy to play them all the time - they definitely have a difficulty curve, and not everyone is comfortable with the kind of difficulty this genre has. But to claim they’re all so difficult as to be unplayable and it never changes is equally fallacious
Agreed for the most part. That final DLC boss on release was pretty tough, even considering the other games. No orphan though. F that thing.
That final DLC boss on release was pretty tough
Yeah he was way overtuned. The last patch has nerfed him heavily though, and finally made the cross-slash attack dodgeable.
Nice. I played through a couple times near release on a high level character. Started a new character and haven’t attempted him again yet. Maybe I’ll go and do that.
That was overtuned, I’ll give you that. Tho you still have to play through the other 99% of the game to get to it
Definitely agree.
Overcoming adversity, or maybe they just want to be the guy
It definitely was a nice distraction while shit in my life was going down. That and the gym…now only if I could get back into the gym.
For me it was great challenge. Sure it was not easy but it’s doable and the feeling of overcoming a fight you thought to be impossible gives a great feeling of growth and succes.
I get that, that’s what my friend says too. He really enjoys Souls games. I just don’t feel the same way.
The draw of elder ring and soulsborne games in general is the challenge. Taking the time, failing, learning and getting good, finally beating that challenging boss, the thrill and rush of seeing the big “You Defeated” text across the screen is truly unmatched by most other games.
I also totally get not wanting to go through that. The low moments in the game can hit really hard on the motivation to play. Hitting a difficulty wall and just not having the ability to progress, dying a second time and losing a ton of souls/currency you were going to use to level up.
I’ve actually gotten to the point that I can stomach playing Soulslikes, I just don’t care to play them. My friend loves games like this, so I’ll once in a while give them a try. I played some of the classics, DS1, DS2, and Bloodborne with him. But by myself, I’m pretty meh about these games.
Totally understandable, not trying to say you need to play the genre if its not your cup ofntea, I’m just highlighting what draws people to these games.
Oh and beyond the “it’s a challenge to overcome” crowd, Soulsborne games also draw in the lore nerds too. There’s a lot of stories about the world and it’s inhabitants to discover though the flavor text on items and through the environmental storytelling.
What I like about ER compared to the other games is that if I find a section too challenging, I have the option to go explore somewhere else and come back better leveled.
Maybe stop and think that it isn’t that difficult to everyone? I don’t want to sound elitist, but people have different level of skills at video games (or anything really).
Saying no games should be hard is like saying no books should be difficult to read. To take the book analogy further, at some point after reading a lot of books you want to read more and more complex books. To say we shouldn’t have difficult books would be a disservice to those who want them.
Both easy and hard games should exist. And everything in between. Not every game needs to be played by everyone, which I think really is the issue. People feeling left out or pressured into games that aren’t their play style.
Complaining that the game is too hard , or the opposite, that the player is too bad. Both of these are the wrong approach. The best approach is “I’m not the intended audience for this game”
But what if I want to play ER for the story that everyone keeps gushing about?
See, there are many soulslike games that have attempted this; make the base game play normally, but also add invincibility options or low-difficulty modes for those who prefer it. BUT, those games don’t work, and utterly fail, because --TODO: INSERT BULLSHIT MADE UP REASON BEFORE POSTING–
I’d recommend looking up guides to help griding up to level 150 and do a guided build. Then you can take on every boss pretty easily with 20min of practice.
And here is the problem with elden ring.
Grinding.
Since when is grinding fun? The word itself, grinding isn’t even fun.
Elden ring is my most played most hated game. I come back for the vistas, the art. But there is no story and if there is it’s stupidly well hidden. Some story quests are so very easily missed and other things just impossible to do without a guide. Also the fact that there is no quest log (do this for that guy) makes returning to elden ring after a hiatus almost impossible.
Choosing a fighter class makes the game way too hard. But if you choose a caster the difficulty drops like 400% or even more.
No guidance. Nothing. Fuck you if you chose a samurai because he looked cool on your first playthrough.
Everything is hidden behind a grind wall. And so many quests are so very buggy. In my current playthrough I should meet blaidd the half wolf down below looking up to whats the cities name. But he isnt there. Doesn’t spawn. Apparently i went of on another quest and it conflicts or something. Now im stuck.
Do bushes talk? Here they do. Because one of them isn’t a bush. A voice says: over here! But what is that, exactly? Here? Where is here? Im on a computer, directional audio doesn’t really work. It took me hours to find that useless guy.
Jellyfish. Just kill them, they are inconsequential and do not really interact with the player. They cant talk. Untill… You’re far into the game and suddenly you hear a voice. Talking about his/her lost spouse. Who? Where? You just slay that jellyfish because they cant talk, that cant be it. Or… It could? Fuck it was. Important item forever locked to you.
If you like that kind of foolery in a game i seriously recommend the 80s/90s sierra online games. Police quest, kings quest, the larry games. But i thought we where way past those kind of stupid game mechanics. Ken sent me. Flush the toilet. But not too many times because then you drown. Go to the hooker but if you forgot to buy a condom you die. Dont give a too big tip to the cabbie. He will buy liquor, get drunk and kill you both. The dialog made that fun. The first time.
The difference was, in those ganes i could save scum. Here I can’t.
I fucking love AC6. that’s a masterpiece by from software. But ER? ER shouldn’t be easier, it should explain more. Not much but a little. I see you chose a fighter. Are you sure? We recommend a caster class for beginners. Give me a quest log. Unbug those quests. Give a warning if something breaks something else.
And thats the problem with ER. It could be fantastic
Then you gotta push through, beat it. Or decide it’s not worth it.
I’ve done that couple times with Silmarillion, decided that the story is not worth it.
I have played Dark Souls 1, Dark Souls 2, and Bloodborne. I just don’t like Souls games, but my friend does, so i played them with him.
It’s not for everyone, but there’s a subset of people who enjoy hitting their desk 10 hours straight just to beat a single boss. It’s very satisfying in the end, and often also repeating the fight perfectly just feels so damn good it’s worth the struggle.
It’s really not different than fighting hard battles with your other hobbies, learning that difficult technique or whatever
I found Elden Ring much easier than people said it was, but I did get some very good advice on grinding early so I was kinda overleveled through a lot of it. I had a blast, though! I’m finding the expansion extremely tough, but I need to explore for more buffs!
It feels like old 2-d shooters on NES. You’re just expected to memorize patterns in order to win. So you have to die a couple times to figure it out, but it’s just tedious to me. I enjoy things designed for you to figure out on the fly without requiring dying in your first try.
Sometime, I want to make a VR vs Action “Proof of Concept” game that shows how much modern game combat is memorization. The VR player can do as much extensive windup as he wants, essentially creating a new “attack animation” on each go, and the action player must desperately try to work out when to dodge for iframes or parry.
I have no experience in neither dark souls or the NES shooters, but used to do a lot of raiding in world of warcraft and I feel it’s kind of mix of both, memorizing patterns, thinking on your feet and on top of that coordination of the 25man raid group. Loved that shit
I spent like 3 days trying to beat Ornstein and Smough in Dark Souls 1. One of the hardest bosses in the game from what I’m told. Just not my taste, but I played it bcz one of my friends loves it, and I was trying to make a soulslike game at one point.
I remember that fight. It was my first souls game and I went in blind and didn’t summon. Took me like a week straight of trying in-between studying for exams in the last year of uni.
I remember my partner and I had a friend over for a study party and I decided to take a quick break for a try. Somehow I beat them, and proceeded to scare the others when they heard my yelling. Great times.
100 % my favorite moment in my gaming experience.
Do you like a 1000 piece puzzle or a 100 piece
I’m not a big puzzle person, but when I do them with my wife, I usually go for like 500ish piece puzzles.
Because finally conquering that boss and getting to explore further feels so good. It feels good to git gud
A sense of accomplishment.
Casuals don’t understand it.
Always someone in here who unironically comes in here with some weird elitist attitude assuming I haven’t played Souls games.
Casuals wouldn’t understand.
I agree. So, let me explain it to you:
People play video games for a large variety of different reasons. Some people appreciate the media as an art form, possibly for the story writing, and possibly for the unique and stylized graphics of certain games like Okami or the cel-shaded Zelda titles.
Other people appreciate the media as a way to scratch an itch, like the drive to optimize that comes with playing games like Satisfactory.
Or, sometimes people play games because they want to be intellectually challenged. There’s nothing quite like figuring out the answer to a cryptic puzzle in FromSoft games.
Another reason people appreciate games is because they want something physically challenging in terms of reaction times and coordination. The Osu! community is an excellent example of this, with some truly impressive demonstrations of gamer skills.
Sometimes, people enjoy being frustrated so that they feel accomplished after failing repeatedly. I’m sure there’s some developer dedicated to this kind of game that I can’t quite remember, but I know Getting Over It is a good example of one such game.
Interestingly, some people play games for an adrenaline rush. Horror games like Amnesia and Outlast are excellent such titles for building up tension and adrenaline.
Video games can also be a wonderful social experience. Nintendo has always been good at offering couch co-op and party games, but we have a lot of other good offerings these day too, like with Jackbox games.
They’re also a good way to unwind after a day, like with a good couple levels of Candy Crush. In fact, the majority demographic of people who play video games are those who play games on their smartphones.
And, last and certainly least, some people play video games because they have nothing else going for them in life and want to feel superior over others.
They gotta make something their personality!
Sarcastic hilarity must be yours!
Not everyone’s content to be spoon fed their dopamine.
I guess…
Yes.
Also just generally better accommodation in general. If a paraplegic guy with control over one finger wants to play Elden Ring, there should be settings to accommodate that. That’s not even making it easier; they’re already facing much more difficulty in the first place. It’s just leveling the playing field.
How would you even expect the developers to accommodate every possible combination of disabilities?
Not the OP but i think these would still be “making it easier” settings but to their point it is just leveling the player field since people without disabilities already have an easier time playing.
You could adjust things like hitbox size (yours and enemies), the i-frame duration (amount of time invincible after rolling), a game speed setting, setting that adjusts the pacing of fights (such as delays between enemies moves are increased by this setting), damage multipler (yours and enemies), or straight up handicapping player level or attribute scores. Thats just off the top of my head, I’m sure there are plenty of other ways.
The bonus to this is that it could also make the game harder. A lot of people like doing challenge runs and this would add depth to that.
The damage multiplier is my favorite option. I don’t care if the opponents can kill me in one hit, I just don’t want a fight with a single enemy to take 15 minutes. I want to spend my time in a fight fighting, not dodging.
This is extra funny because Elden Ring’s diverse player build options means that it has the most adjustable difficulty curve of any FromSoftware game. Holding up Elden Ring completion specifically as any kind of bar to surpass is laughably naive.
That’s the key. If you:
- summoned
- used spirit ashes
- used ashes of war
- used sorceries
- used incantations
- levelled up
- drank a flask
- opened the map
- used a weapon
- used a controller or a mouse/keyboard
- opened the menu
- used your hands
You didn’t beat the game.
Thank god I play with my butt cheeks. The different tones of my farts get interpreted as input. To attack I have to fart in G#.
Oh please, that’s the easiest key to fart in. Casual.
I actually beat the game at level 1, no weapons, no items, controlling the character via brainwaves. And every time I died, I resetted the game.
So you didn’t even turn on the setting that kills you in real life when you die in the game? Casual.
yess harderrr
You must have misunderstood me. I’m saying Elden Ring SHOULD have an Easy Mode. Modern Souls games are designed to be accessible.
People who gatekeep FromSoftware difficulty have a fundamental misunderstanding of what the games are about
I think the point of the post is that one way or another, it’s a topic where everyone has an opinion and it can be exhausting to listen to the debate.
I thought the point of the post was ridiculing fragile masculinity, but okay
Hmmmmmmm what do you call a fish with no eye? A fsh
I used to disagree with this concept, but then I discovered how Control implements difficulty. The game is hard, and that cannot be changed, but at any time one can pause the game, turn on assist mode, and become unkillable. And the key to this is after one gets past that really frustrating section, they can turn off the “cheats”.
That would work for Elden Ring.
That’s basically what Another Crab’s Treasure does too, as with a few other hard games. Their accessibility modes let you basically become god, and skip the combat if the way it’s set up isn’t working - and that could just be something you do for a single particular encounter if needed. I’ve never used them, and don’t mind them being there, because a good hard game is satisfying to play without such things.
Every game should copy Another Crabs Treasures easy mode - just hand the player s gun!
