Elden Ring Director Defends the Difficulty, the "Souls Games Need an Easy Mode" Crowd Gets Mad 

I always make the argument that removing the difficulty from Souls games is like removing the scary parts of a horror game.

I remember when my ex tried Dark Souls 3, non-gamer. She told me killing Gundyr is impossible after few tries. I asked: Why did you die? He is too strong. No, why did you die? I couldn't roll away. Why is that? I had no stamina. What did I tell you about stamina? Don't panic roll nor attack until I am out of stamina. There is your problem. It took her like 45 minutes to beat him but she felt so accomplished. She beat Vordt on her second try. She doesn't remember Vordt but she remembers Iudex Gundyr to this day.

Casuals: "I keep mashing the buttons but I am not winning. Add easy mode."

A game for everyone is a game for no one

One of the people I enjoy talking to about Elden Ring the most, because he loves soulslike games, plays with his mouth. Yes, he literally plays with his mouth using a QuadStick. His nickname is BigMouthDylan. He can not use his hands and he's on a wheelchair. He can only barely move one or two fingers so he has switches for those. He is better than 99% of the people who play these games and the only type of accessibility he wants is the type of accessibility PlayStation doesn't offer. "People who need accessibility" my balls. You just want an easier game.

I've always lived by a simple saying "Anyone can get into gaming, but not every game should be made for everyone. We don't expect it of music, art or movies so why do some people think video games should be any different".

FromSoft doesn’t make “Souls-likes” they makes Souls games. All other developers of the genre make “Souls-likes.”

Int + faith + death magic + onion rings = easy mode

There is an easy mode. Spirit ashes. Hell even after it was nerfed if you find the mimic tear you've basically beaten the game as long as you don't suck too much.

When a disabled gamer which can't use his hands and plays only with his feet, can play and beat Sekiro, YOU DON'T HAVE ANY EXCUSE THAT YOU NEED AN EASY MODE! The real barrier of the fromsoftware games is having a little bit of PATIENCE, which a lot of gamers don't have.

My poor steam deck has basically been my Elden ring machine for 2 years. I’m hoping the hotfix is out soon. People don’t understand the feeling you get from successfully beating a boss after dying 90 times. Feels good man.

These bad dodging, under leveled, maidenless haters refuse to raise their skill, and it's crazy

Anyone asking for the game to be easier just needs to accept that these games aren’t for them.

Also i hate how often those demanding the difficulty settings use those with disabilities and such as a shield to try and make them change things or to hide behind if called out.

based miyazaki

"Easy Mode" is already in the game, use (the good) Spirit Ashes, Level Vigor to 60, use the Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman, eat some Boiled Crab, use the Crimson Seed Talisman, don't wear any gear that lowers your defensive values like Negation or Vigor, wear the lightest set you can that gives you 51 Poise and level Endurance until you can Light Roll, the Great Jar's Arsenal and Erdtree's Favor can help you out with that, use smaller weapons with Status Effects like an Antspur Rapier or Scavenger's Curved Sword, get a Cold Weapon with the Chilling Mist Ash of War, you get the point by now.

I love it that they stay faithful to their core identity and customers, games that want to reach wider audiences often do this by gradually censoring, altering/hosing down gradually the game; removing all the elements that made it so special in the first place.

it took me almost 6 hours to beat Mohg in order to access the dlc (solo, no summons/mimic tear), and the level of satisfaction I felt afterwards cannot be compared. Miyazaki is right, the hit of dopamine you get after overcoming a difficult challenge will always be superior to breezing through a game with little to no issue.

I'm not good with Souls games, but damn, that Miyazaki quote makes me want to get Elden Ring for the support.

There are no good reasons for adding an easy mode into souls-likes.

i bet these are the same people that look up the puzzles in zelda games

My niece saw me play Tekken, she wanted to join. I explained how the game works, let her play, she was winning by mashing buttons, then she wanted to play against me. Suddenly she was upset she is not winning. She was convincing to let her win, after a while I let her win, she was happy. I told her to play again and I let her win again and again. After a while she was bored and she didn't want to play anymore. I was asking her why? What is wrong because she is winning. Hollow victory means nothing, playing games with cheats is boring. If you download easy mod for Elden Ring, congratulation, you are winner, you are THE Elden Lord. Really.

there is an easy mode, it's called fine tuning your build, which is also the fun part ngl

One of the BEST gatekeepers! Lol these mfs who hop on every trend getting shut down is incredible that’s what they get 🤡

There's this comedy video that I think explains "git gud" perfectly. There's no single weapon that's gonna one shot bosses and there's no armor that's gonna make you take no damage. You just have to practice and "git gud"

if you can see rainbowcolored flags in their profile you already know they are just NPCs riding a hate wave xD

I just wished fromsoft would fix how the camera works. I’m not sure if they need an fov slider but once any enemy is flying above me it’s over I can’t see anything. Or like divine beast where he just puts you in a corner and does his beyblade move you can’t see anything. The bosses aren’t too bad for me but the camera angle is my main boss.

Difficulty gates are totally valid gates. Some people just don't like other people having fun that they themselves aren't able to have, so they whine because they feel excluded and it's not fair WAH. But Miyazaki is right, the achievement from beating a hard boss is a feeling like no other and cheapening that so "everyone can ride" would be a disservice to that experience. I saw a video where a dude beat Melania with no hits with poke attacks and no dodging. There's no way he did that in one try, but he did it eventually and it was awesome. These people that don't make or play games need to stop being such whiny busybodies. At the end of the day, it's Miyazaki's game and artistic choice is also a valid answer and I'm glad he's not the type to let fragile egos move him.

I say no to difficulty settings in souls style games. The "easy" mode in these games comes from summoning phantoms. The very easy mode in Elden Ring comes from summon mimic tear or Blackknife Tiche, and then going ham with a big bonk. That is the beauty of these games, you can make them as hard or as easy as you want. With that said I am not against balance patches to fine tune the difficulty. Difficulty should be progressional and if something is overtuned early in the game compared to things after it, then it needs to be addressed. The hardcore souls fans take offense to this and I have no idea why. Some sort of badge of honor just gets taken away the moment a balance patch hits.

That's what people don't seem to understand. Souls games are not difficult, they are tough but fair. There are games with unreasonable difficulty, but Souls games aren't it.

There is already a mod for that, sheesh. Chances of someone making a easy mod is a lot higher than FromSoft adding easy mode

People have two colossal swords, they start panicking when the boss doesn’t stagger after the second jump attack. So that means bosses are unfair!

I've never tried a FromSoftware game before, but if a game is a "hand the victory to me in a silver platter" level of easy, like Crystal Dynamics' Rise of the Tomb Raider, then it's absolutely soul suckingly boring

You can literally run ahead and sneak better items and spells, then nuke everything on the map. There’s actual guides on how to do this. The game is as hard or easy as your build and items allow, and you can get some of the best stuff barely killing anything. I take the moderate approach. I farm low levels to level up, then slightly outpace the next few bosses by enough to compensate for a bad mistake or 2.

Protect Miyazaki people, he is one of the good ones

“Miyazaki doesn’t play his own games!” He went on record saying he’s absolutely dogshit at Elden Ring. What an absolute chad

Problem is they add "easy mode" options with things like summons yet still design the game around using these options which means sometimes means there is some random goofy difficulty spikes or objectively cheap things like absurd button reading. Many of these things are surmountable by alot of players but it doesnt make it not poor design. It is his choice as if he wants to add difficulty options but if done correctly with good effort and thought it does nothing but let more people experience the game. I think the unified experience is also much less of a thing in elden ring already because of the wide variety of what levels u can approach content and how all over the place weapon and spell strengths are.

Mfers still asking for a difficulty slider when four separate difficulty sliders already exist: summoning players/npcs, using spirit ashes, using strong builds, and finally skibidi fragments. They literally added a new mechanic to ease difficulty. I swear, you could have a setting that turns off all enemy AI and people would still find a way to complain its too hard.

Arent there those items that increase your stats? Im at +11 just killed the dragon and got so so so close beating mes well im on ng+ but im loving some of these fights Camera could be its own boss

Elden Ring literally so easy if you let it be

My little brother who never played a game in his life until last year platinum eden ring so anyone can beat it with time

I love how only no challenge and exceedingly challenging exists for people, as opposed to reasonably hard like every other game in Soulsborne

The funny thing with elden ring... is that a lot of its players actually hold themselves back from summoning, using ashes or certain weapons... If anything the game is so easy that the players are refusing to use certain tools and are imposing extra challenge on themselves. But I wanna ask... would halving Malenia's HP and damage save you from some of her attacks if you can't dodge them in the first place? How would they make the crucible knights easier? half their health? their damage? would you make the AI less aggressive? The difficulty with them is their moveset and that annoying af tail swing after certain attacks so simply tweaking numbers wouldnt do much. It would take a metric fuck ton of work to create a difficulty option because they would have to tweak a LOT of numbers and try to change things that change the way things behave.

I remember playing Elden Ring for the first time. It was amazing experience, but the truly fulfilling playthrough was at SL15 with no upgrades. It forced me to use every available tool at my disposal and it was glorious.

"if souls games were easy people would definitely not rate them so highly" For me this is actually true. If the game was easier I would lose interest in the gameplay. The gameplay works because of the challenge, it's what makes it more engaging. A game like Super Meat Boy would be a whole lot worse if it had only easy levels. Pushing the game's design to the limit is what creates that difficulty and usually when things are pushed to an extreme you get to witness the best the game has to offer.

So I got the DLC and when I started game shadows started flickering even in base game. After I did everything I could the problem is still there. So what I did is uninstall DLC only having Base game and it works just fine. So I haven't been able to try it out

As someone who tasted ds2 as the first game when i was grade 8... Weak

Through my own experience through the DLC, there IS an Elden Ring easy mode literally available to everyone. It's called Magic, Greatshield, Mimic Tear. Block everything, Dump damage with your twin, boss melts. Will take you from 80 attempts to 8 real quick.

Could you imagine how much trouble it would be to add more enemies to all the places in the game world based on the difficulty the player chooses. Plus situations in the game are handcrafted meticulously, the difficulty of encounters are set up intentionally based on enemy types, number of enemies and position of enemies especially in relativity to one another is important. If you add more enemies because of a higher difficulty or remove enemies based on a lower difficulty it changes the experience and challenge that was intended. Ambushes for example only work the first time you play the game and never again. Once you experience that you will always know where they are. Other encounters are only a problem until you figure out how to avoid getting ganged up on while simultaneously learning where your opportunities to attack are.

The challenge is fundamentally built into the game. I suck at games, I play every game on normal. I bounced off of souls games many times and thought they were too hard for me. Then one day it clicked and I started to learn what the game was asking of me. Beating my first souls boss was so gratifying because I knew I did it. It wasn’t the game coming down to my level, it was me overcoming the challenges before me. I’m in love with these games now and I wouldn’t be here if there was as easy mode. An easy mode would’ve of robbed me of that experience and I’m sure many others can relate.

Difficulty settings =/= accessibility. A game can be difficult while still being accessible to anyone. Why people still use them together is beyond me

If you want an easier game just play an easier game, is that simple 💀 like why tf do people get so mad that the game is hard, if you don’t like it you could be playing any other game, but yet you choose to continue wasting time on a game that you don’t enjoy? Some people are just straight up stupid

It's not the difficulty that's the issue. It's the mechanics that are not on par. Poor camera can't track appropriately and other technical issues.

I don't understand why people need the satisfaction of criticism for a game they're never going to enjoy. Isn't it easier to just not talk about things you don't like? It would save a lot of time.

They don’t need any easy mode but they need a way not to lock yourself out of fucking NPC quests and not even realize it till it’s way too late.

Buying eldin ring and complaining about difficulty is like buying call of duty when you don't like FPS games. I can understand saying a FEW bosses in the game have one bs move or combo but to say rank down the games difficulty?

"Complains about difficulty in Fromsofrware games" Ah, classic, a tradition, who could have guess? No?

Difficulty is a non-issue. I love playing difficult games especially Fromsoftware titles, however, there is a point where hard becomes unfun and unsatisfying when accomplished. There is a few bosses in the dlc that just feel straight up unfair and not fun to fight against. Even after beating them, it didn't feel good, and i was still pissed off. The souls like games have always had the idea of being hard, but fair, and there is several instances in the dlc where it crosses that line by a large margin.

Miyazaki has talked about breaking controllers over his own difficult encounters. So no, he does play his own games and still wants to make them harder. Don’t know what that guy is talking about. Never mind the fact I’ve gotten through most of dlc with a character that doesn’t even have maxed out weapons. Something like that would get me screwed in earlier games dlcs (not to mention those who’ve done it no hit with a broken ladel at ng+7 lvl 1). That’s like crying over a workout regimen being too hard when you’ve only done the warmup.

casuals got filtered by the tutorial boss in armored core 6. That is how bad they are.

Ok but bosses like Commander Gaius are literally impossible

Its like going to a painter and saying "but why isnt your painting a sculpture, i like sculptures. You should make your painting a sculpture" "Im a painter, i make paintings not scultpures" "Oh well thats because you hate people that like sculptures, you should make your painting more accessible to people who like scupltures because thats what i like" "You could just go see some sculptures then" "Fuck you"

so the easy mode argument is, if a giant swings a building at me i should nt feel the impact. is this how casuals see these souls games?

i killed the first dlc boss first try actually. + I like how cheeky and op some enemies are. They always make me question my build's strength when I'm unlucky

Crowd needs to GTFO

"There are many ways to make the game easier without modding it but i dont want to do that so the game is designed poorly" is a hilarious take. These people are unhinged

9:23 there’s a cutscene that explains everything in the beginning of the game That makes no sense

We all know to expect a wave of articles and tweets talking about the difficulty, everytime there's a new FromSoft game, and I'm not just talking about Souls-Like games from FromSoft, cause we had this discourse when Armored Core 6 came out. But I think one thing we haven't caught on to is there is always a Souls-like content creator, who is always somewhat respected within the Souls community, that inevitability ends up asking "Have they gone too far with the difficulty?", which of course, after a few months, the answer is always revealed to be "No". So I wonder which sonewhat respected Souls content creator will have a bad day and end up asking this?

I bet the FromSoft team can’t even be excited during the release of their Souls games because they know there will be a deluge of “it’s too hard” shit during the first weeks after launch

No need for accessibility. The world, the items, the clues throughout the world can make life easier for the player. I cleared the game using the opposite of my build needs by accident. Dex/INT/Faith (was the build) STR/DEX/Vigor (i went with).

The quest mechanics DEFINITELY need a whole lotr of work. It sucks on your first play through you miss so much storyline and then you gotta be overly focused not to do anything to mess up the next one. Like taking one step too far, it's bs.

I will never forget my first playthrough when I played dark souls 1 for the first time and beat it. Took me a year but I refused to put the game down and let it defeat me. Best experience I've ever had in gaming and with this elden ring dlc I am feeling that same feeling of overcoming what seems like impossible obstacles. The dopamine is worth it.

4:42 - That's like suggesting removing all the body horror from The Thing (1982) so that squeamish people can enjoy it too. Even if they did end up enjoying the resulting movie, it would no longer be Carpenter's creation, his vision. Elder Ring was made with a specific vision for a specific audience. Artistic intent is _not_ crap.

Its something i've said for years, these games just don't work on lower difficulties. Just run through Undead Burg in the original Dark Souls with a high level, then its just a bunch of mobs which stand around waiting to be downed, enemy placement then doesn't matter anymore. It would be very boring if the entire game would be like this. The difficulty also helps with immersion, when you have to consistently pay attention, then you are "in the game" if you know what i mean. Also the people who demand lower diffiiculty settings were not interested in these games in the first place and are salty because they are FOMO addicts and can't play this popular thing a lot of people like because its too hard for them.

i haven't played mario in a long time. does mario have a difficulty setting?

Fromsoft games are insanely easy. There are dozens of ways to make the game easier for yourself. Summons. Cooperative play. Leveling up. Learning enemy patterns. Finding exploits for boss fights or other mechanics. Picking up a secondary play style alongside your primary. Using consumables. The list is vast. Most “difficulty” in these games typically just stems from players being too stubborn to do one or all of these things. Leveling up a bunch tends to solve most of my problems in the game. Or, upgrading gear. Or using consumables and ranged attacks. I don’t often summon in these games,but since trying a Pure Mage build in Elden Ring (first time I ever tried such a build) meant that I was also reliant on summoning quite a lot so that I could get spells off. The DLC has reaffirmed my need to summon since my actual damage output was nerfed into the ground and I am back to only being able taking 1 hit from most enemies despite having 40 vigor. The summons became necessary for me to use again… and, the more I explore, the more powerful I’m getting again… so I am less reliant on summons. But, there are dozens of options for reducing difficulty. Which is why these games are some of the easiest I’ve ever played. And, no, I do not try to skill my way through them. I just use every mechanic and feature the game tells me about. I die most often to falling in these games. And, honestly, that’s all I would change about them. Can we please have less “die from falling” nonsense in these games? I am rather tired, bored, and annoyed at having to navigate so many narrow and precarious edges. These are the least interesting and fun parts of these games.

Dosent need an easy mode but turn down the damage recieved or make me do more. 2 hits is all I can take at 60 vigor. My damage output is a joke ended up switching to a bleed build.

So literally the same tired complaints that were proffered up when the base game released. 😂

Elden ring is my first from soft game and I just played it for the first time a few days ago. I'm 15 hours in and yes the game is not easy but it's difficulty is overstated by all those who are maidenless

My buddy gave up multiple times when we first started playing last year(easily hates any sort of difficulty) now refuses to play anything else because he loves the gratification of beating these bosses. It took us literally 6 hours to beat a beefed up rellana and we refind our technique and beat her. I had fun the whole time. I never play single player games but this is an exception. I can play for hours then group with my friends to help them out. Very well thought RPG. Wish they told the story better but this community has the best lore teller in history so they don't even need to honestly lol

People hate it but fr just get gut, start reading and boost yourself with given resources and you see the difference

Tbf I work 40+ hours a week and have 2 kids so I don’t get as much time for gaming as I used to so I’m not ashamed to say I use easy difficulty on some games just so I can get through them and move onto another one. The exception is Fromsoft games. I know they’re going to be hard but that’s the thrill for me and also why I take forever to beat them. I still haven’t beaten Elden Ring lol, but I have platinumed BB, DS3, and Sekiro and enjoyed every minute of suffering because when I finally beat them I felt like a god for a brief second and am genuinely proud that I did it on the games terms, not my own and I still came out ahead

The thing people don’t realize it that, one the tough difficulty harkens back to older games that actually require “git gud”, no one complained about og super Mario for not having an easy mode Also the fact the difficulty reflect the world these games are set, and series that is heavily influenced by berserk it’s reinforced, slapping an easy mode would feel getting back to an bonfire less stress full and not at all satisfying, And accessibility does Not mean easy mode

If fromsoftware souls like games have difficulty slide on the go like Bethesda games, all of the levels, enemy placements, all of it crumbles😂

It’s fine if u want easy casual games , what I can’t stand everyone wanting everything to be for everybody, I like apples I don’t need to turn steak into crappy apples incase vegetarians won’t eat it .

10:03 my favorite broken cheese strat in ER is what I called “the Cheese Wheel” lol

My one complaint is that the scadutree fragment thingies don't feel like they do much.

The easy mode is called getting overleved and using +10 mimic tear

Keep the difficulty 🔥🔥🔥 Fromsoft games are for their devoted fans not one and some players who can't be bothered to play the game

Souls games have intrinsic difficulty settings instead of extrinsic ones. You don't choose a difficulty the beginning but by the way you approach the game. You can approach all enemies and bosses underlevelled, with bad weapons and without support or you can level up, get better gear and use NPC/ashes summons or any combination thereof. Like using only certain summons, or only summoning for certain parts of the battle. That's your "difficulty level". The game still requires the player to show a modicum of investment and competence, but if they can't even be arsed to deliver that, why did they buy the game at all?

Elden Ring has an Easy Mode, it's called Mimic Tear. Alternatively, any other niche Spirit ash summon.

There is an easy mode, it's called high poise and guard counters

These people probably played tee ball when they didn't keep the score and everybody was a winner gets a trophy and ribbon and a pizza hut after the "game"

Rellana altered my brain chemistry for a total of 2 days

As a long time fan and player of Fromsoft's games, if Miyazaki ever added difficulty options to their games..i'd quit.

Just wanted to thank you, gave me a hella good laugh there at the end of your video!

Rellana really needs 50k health on ng, guys.

Skumnut is a crazy streamer finishing the game with various hard challenges. Like enemies moving at 400% speed or finishing with 1 HP, 1 stam and 1 FP. He has great content.

There are issues on console as well, the Dancing Lion fight had frame-drops, loading into the world caused me to fall to my death in the void (losing 800k Runes, not as big of a loss). One thung that i liked about Another Crab's Treasure was being able to trun off damage when galling into the void, I don't play many platformers and find some of FromSoftware's platforming sections (looking at you frenzy flame pit) miserable to pmay through, it was the only assist I used for most of the game. However there are some bossess in the DLC with issues: 1. I've heard that the final boss is too bright and has some questionable attacks 2. Commander Giaus apparently has some atrocious hitboxes 3. The Elder Inquistor summons s bit too much and spams too much 4. Golden Hippo is a poorly designed fight in an arena that's too small for the fight (the boss one). 5. Dancing Lion has frame drops on sone platforms

There already is an easy mode, it's called guard counters and ash of summons.