The Best Reason Why Some Games Shouldn't Have An Easy Mode 

I misremembered the Hypogean Gaol thing. You're stuck until you find the lantern but the lantern is not broken until later.

I think another problem with difficulty settings is how poorly a lot of games handle it. A lot of times its just making enemies damage sponges and you die in two hits. For players that want challenge, that's not really interesting and very quickly becomes a chore.

This is the last one for a while. The point is to focus on a single topic and elaborate on it as much as it deserves. This is the topic that I explained most poorly in the past and I hope this video is more clear.

The Noah Caldwell-Gervais video really crystallized it for me. It's not that Souls games don't have an easy mode. It's that the *obstacle* stays the same, but you decide how to overcome it on your own terms. With friends, with a +5 Black Knight Halberd, with some Magic Missiles in the corner-it's all cool and all righteous. You still beat it, and what "it" is didn't have to change for you to do it.

The most crisp writing advice I've ever read: "Entertainment is just emotional experiences."

One part of the argument regarding intended experience that people who rebuke it often forget is that even people who give up on a difficult game with no difficulty settings have an experience with the game that they then share with others. If you quit DS1 on the gargoyles or O&S, there are others who have done the same with whom you share that experience. They talk about it with each other. That's part of the shared experience too.

I think arguments of the form, "I don't want easy mode because I might be tempted to switch" frankly aren't going to be very compelling, even if there is truth in it. It's not the temptation per se that is bad, it's that an easier version of the experience is a vastly different experience, and the game creators don't want you to have that experience. To me the more convincing arguments are: 1. Any art you consume is going to be a curated experience. You're buying something that you hope will make you feel a certain way - the way the creator intended. I don't go to the theater and demand alternate movie endings that I think I'd enjoy more. I don't call up my favorite musicians and demand an extra chorus at the end of a song. 2. Difficulty is an important component of the experience From wants you to have, the two are not separable. The marketplace for games, like other forms of art, is vast. I don't argue that From games should have more kart racing elements, and easy mode aficionados should leave difficulty in games well enough alone. Always enjoy these, keep 'em coming

Pathologic 2 is a great example of selectable difficulty ruining a game. It released without one, everyone I’ve ever heard who played easier mode says it completely ruined the game. The difficulty is part of the story, you’re suppose to be hanging by a thread all the time. I had to restart twice because I locked myself into a death loop I couldn’t get out of. I loved it. I felt so stressed the entire time playing. Truly a unique and experience

Another way to view the more options vs fewer options dichotomy is from a Toy vs Game perspective. Video games are practically always some part toy and some part game (and some third part content). How much varies from game to game and so does personal preference. Players who want every option available so that they can have the experience they think they want - they want a toy. Players in the other camp that value a lack of difficulty settings are wanting a game. No judgement either way, but this perspective has helped me personally piece more of this topic together.

I can get behind most of these arguments somewhat, but the one that always bothered me was that last one where they should be able to experience the game however they want because they bought it. That's like me buying Elden ring and saying that I deserve for it to be a turn based card game because I paid $60 for it and that's how I want to experience the game. I also want to be able to fly cuz that would be pretty neat. See it just doesn't work like that and it has never worked like that ever. Yes some games bend over backwards to make sure everybody and their Grandma can play it, but people these days expect every game to cater to their every need and criticism

The shared experience is something I noticed a couple times over the last few years. A friend of mine generally likes the worlds and animations of Souls and Souls like games, but she often enables mods or cheats if she really can't get past something. She has less time to play, so I understand why she does it, but whenever we'd talk about our experiences with certain bosses and I'd gush how I finally beat one (Enma something from Nioh 2 was a big one, the fire guy) she'd usually say that she enabled invincibility after a couple tries. It kinda stifled the discussion because at that point, she didn't really engage while I couldn't help but talk about how I engaged the boss. It was a bit sad everytime.

I do find it highly amusing that in an interview, Miyazaki freely admits that while he is very good at making games he is very, very bad at playing them. He has no talent for it what so ever. So when he plays a game, even 'easy' ones, he struggles. A lot. So he decided to share that suffering with his players, because he knew from personal experience just how good it felt to finally get over that wall. He also enjoys watching people suffer as they try to beat what he has built. lol.

I love the tonal heel turn at the end outright stating, “If I haven’t convinced you at this point, then I have nothing left to say to you.” This is an appreciated deliberate attempt at reaching out to those that have issue with this message.

Very well said, and a good improvement on the original video! (as a minor thing relating to the Bloodborne example, wouldn't Ash Lake be the first time they had music in a non-hub or boss area?)

To me, a large part of the debate around this issue is that people are so entitled and have crippling FOMO that even entertainment options need to be shoehorned to their sensibilities. Games are a form of entertainment. Like other forms of entertainment (books, movies, etc.), games should not, are not, and cannot cater to everyone. It is impossible. So if a game has certain innate qualities that are a turn off for you, then DON'T PLAY IT. "But I spent $60 or $70 for this!" Yeah, and I also spent around $10 to watch Prometheus in a movie theater, and it really sucked. But I don't demand to have aspects of it to change to suit my tastes; I accepted that the movie really was not for me and moved on. So people who are interested in playing Elden Ring, for example, and find it too difficult, that is akin to people not liking certain books, movies, etc. that are too deep, too high-faluting, etc. This is why reviews exist - to inform people of what they are potentially getting into. Games are not obligated to be enjoyed by everyone. Their makers may aspire to be enjoyed by a large portion of the population, or just segments of it, but really, they cannot please everyone. And this is why I liked the video, because you really focused on the importance of developer intentions. It is because games, I think, are also a form of art (an issue for another day?). The developers have a creative vision for a certain work they want to put out to the world - who is anyone to say that they are wrong for that vision? If Miyazaki says that his vision will be ruined by including difficulty options, then that is his prerogative to not include them in his game. If people do not like that, then they are welcome to enjoy other games. Simple as that. If Miyazaki says that the next Armored Core will have difficulty options, then I'll see if that is OK or not. I may or may not like it. But I won't demand that it be changed to no difficulty options because it is his intention. I won't demand a Taylor Swift album to have distorted guitars and guttural singing, because obviously that is not her intention with her music. So why did I say something about entitlement and FOMO earlier? It is simply because the issue is not brought up for difficult games that are not so famous or mainstream. Some people just badly want to become part of the conversation that it translates to demanding difficulty options for FOMO. Part of the appeal of Souls-like games is their inherent relative difficulty, and that is what drew people in. Like it or not, the difficulty is treasured by its fans. So for people that want to play these games but want them to be easier, why play in the first place? Because of the art, music, story, etc.? Anyone can enjoy these aspects by watching videos or streams. There are other medieval or dark fantasy action games. The real reason is that they just want to enjoy something mainstream or "cool", to be part of something big. Games that are difficult, have no difficulty options and are more obscure are not brought up in this difficulty issue, but for some reason the Souls-like games always are. Sorry for the long comment. TLDR: great video Ratatoskr!

I want an easy mode for recognizing Ratatoskr's easy mode videos based on the thumbnail

For maybe the first time ever - the statement "don't like it don't play it" actually works. if you can't figure out how to play these games within the confines of the rules the devs imposed, the game is not for you, and you don't have to play it. Doesn't mean the game should change for you. Ridiculous narcissistic world we are living in.

To me the whole discussion boils down to two major points: 1) Difficulty and game balance should be considered on the same level as the art style: we don't police how a game should look and sound, you shouldn't require a game dev to appease to your gameplay preferences. Specifically because the challenge and difficulty level is a crucial part of the experience, as well as of the design, that responsibility should rest on the developer's shoulder, instead of being a choice of each player. 2) People wrongly believe that because they have spent money on a product, they have a RIGHT to reach the credits, whatever their level of competence with the game they are playing. It's wrong because you shouldn't play a game to reaach the credits. you should play it to entertain yourself, to have an experience whether you win or lose, to appreciate the vision of a developer, and as Miyazaki said, to find joy in overcoming the obstacles. Reaching the credits is a collateral effect of you being able to navigate through the challenges, to "play the game" in the most literal sense (which is accepting the rules of a given context and find answers to the problems you encounter). not a given right everyone can claim.

For me the answer is quite simple: Expecting the developer to cater to your wishes at the expense of their artistic vision as well as their intended audience is selfish.

Something I'd be interested in hearing you talk about is the effect of the the mind set of "play the game the intended way" has on accessibility options. To be clear this is for true accessibility for people with actual disabilities, I don't think difficulty is an accessibility option. For example Elden Ring doesn't have color blind settings or even something as simple as support for Sony Button UI on PC. Adding these things has no impact on the artists vision so why would it be omitted?

It's so interesting to me HOW Elden Ring managed to maintain some of what made the series challenging, while still being more welcoming of new players. Some of my friends for whom ER was their first Fromsoft game held nothing sacred, looked stuff up, used builds that were being discussed and plowed through certain parts of the game. Meanwhile, I had a much harder time as an experienced player because I trusted the devs to make every challenge one that I could overcome whenever I wanted. Banged my head against a bunch of stuff and kind of ignored the open world for a bit! I think there are some balancing issues that prevent ER from being the perfect version of this vision, but the LIMITLESS freedom to tackle challenges in any order, at any power level and with any amount of help is essentially an immersive difficulty slider. I don't understand why this fact keeps being overlooked, but I'm glad you get to keep making videos because of that :p

I love difficult games like the ones fromsoft makes. I also love cozy games like stardew valley. I'm glad both games have committed so much to their experience because as a player that means I have a wider variety of things to enjoy depending on my mood. I love pizza, but some days I'd rather have roast beef.

I think all games have an "intended experience" in mind, it's just that the vast majority have a more broad one in mind. It's a different intended experience to what From intend, we saw that when many devs were complaining about Elden Ring's HUD, quest design etc. Their intended experience was often just player engagement with content. How they did that and how they felt about it was irrelevant, just that they experienced it. That's why their games lead players to everything, handholding and not gating content behind skill.

If everyone faces an objective experience such as running into Mohg, the fun part is how you solve it. Did you grind 50 levels for comet azur and azur staff? Did you get the tear? Did you master jumping? Did you get a summon? How about a friend? Or what about missing him entirely? This is what I love about intended experience difficulty. I loved gimmick bosses with multiple ways of beating them such as Executioner's Chariot, Duke's Dear Freja, Phalanx, O and S, and Tower Knight. I like longer runbacks and limited heals in Ds1 and Ds3 to the point of where you could adjust your healing. I liked the slower healing of ds2 rather than the input reading of Elden Ring. All these little things contribute to a more personal journey, not just in souls, but in other video games that I have not played yet.

The frustration of lowering the difficulty at a moment of weakness is real. I went through the whole Eldem Ring basically solo, except when summoning jelly on some fights just for fun, but after being stuck at Radagon for days, I changed my build to use rivers of blood and summoned the mimic. Result: I first tried Radagon and Elden Beast without any struggle. The feeling of guilt was real, for robbing myself of overcoming a fight that I was actually enjoying, but the frustration and availability of an "easy mode" made me do what I don't like. I immediately started NG+, rushed through the game and when I got to Radagon I even unleveled myself to replicate my level in the original fight. When I finally killed them on my terms it was one of the best feelings I had playing games.

You know what for a while I did hold the sentiment of who cares if they add an easy mode, i won’t use it so it won’t affect me so it doesn’t matter. But your argument of taking away the “Intended experience” really made a lot of sense to me and I gotta say I agree with that a lot actually. I know myself and tons of others that have experience that sense of confidence and accomplishment when finally defeating a tough boss after countless deaths and those moments are a huge part of why I love the souls games

I come back to this video on occasion because I agree with it so heavily and would argue that mimic tear and summoning is an easy mode in and of itself that seperates the player bases joint experience and divides the community.

I think the intended experience in these games is to overcome a wall/boss in your own way. And it is only possible if you have many tools to try out. I would say in Eldenring you have more tools to change your difficulty and experience than in the most AAA-Games. My first was dark souls 2. I used every tool I could find to beat the next boss or I chose to go a different way. I had always options in the game to change my difficulty without changing a difficulty-option. And it was always my choice and my experience.

I used to think implementing an easy mode was a good idea. Until I played and beat Bloodborne. It was so satisfying and that feeling has only been matched by Soulslike games. I was never so happy and relieved to beat a game I liked before then. If it had an easy mode, while I still would’ve loved the game, it’s impact would’ve been reduced dramatically. Bloodborne is my favorite game of all time and if I switched it to an easy mode (which I definitely would’ve done) then it still would be a favorite of mine but it wouldn’t be number 1. Anyone that struggles with these games, please keep trying. It literally took me like 6 hours to get down the first street in Bloodborne. After some time of grinding you will get better and the grinding will make you stronger. It’s worth the pain and struggle to beat a FromSoftware soulslike.

Ultimately it's just so important to have developers who don't cater to the masses. All the people who hate hard games have so many options available to them. While those of us who enjoy a specific experience have very little. I don't understand why people have to complain about fromsoft games being hard when they have so many easy games to play. It's like if I was lactose intolerant and got mad if somebody else liked milk.

I'm glad you included the carbot and NCH. Both really great animators

Something that many designers have missed out, emotions. You can mimic the best UIs and push for the best user experience, but at the end of the day the question lies whether the players could feel. Emotions can never be replaced by machines.

When a game is challenging it creates an aura of mystery. When I was a little kid, the very first difficult game I played was Ghosts n' Goblins at the arcade. When I started, I could maybe get to the second level, but seeing all those potentially cool areas when the map scrolled on the screen made me want to persevere. Eventually I beat it after many, many attempts. Dark Souls and Elden Ring provided a similar experience. I bet a lot of people could beat a difficult game if they fell in love with the experience enough and didn't take their failures personally, but even if they didn't beat it, the experience could still be great. I loved Ninja Gaiden for the NES but I never got past those damned birds on the last level.

Coming from someone who trended towards the easy mode side, I think this is such a fantastic video with a beautiful argument. I love that you are earnest in responding to the critiques. I learned a lot about myself from this because I think it was my personal insecurity that made me want a lower difficulty. I was insecure that I couldn't have that "intended experience". Therefore, the need for the easy mode comes from a place of shame in a way. Great video.

Glad you said “some” games. Holy smokes am I grateful the new Wolfenstein games have multiple difficulties. Those games are incredibly hard, even at default difficulty, especially your first time through. The most fun way to play through The New Order and The New Collossus your first time through is to turn the difficulty way down and just mow down Nazis and enjoy the crazy set pieces and plot. I can’t even imagine playing the games on hard the first time through; the higher difficulties basically expect you to already know the level layouts.

The saga continues... it´s year 2066, Ratatoskr is at it again.

There are times I like to play easy games. Then there are times I like to play fromsoft games. You go into it knowing whatever you get done is an accomplishment. It's a piece of art made by the artist. No one is required to buy or view said art.

Challenge accepted, still here waiting to be alienated. Great video at the very right time for me. I was just having an unironically fantastic discussion over on the Outward subreddit touching the topic of developer intentions. It was more revolving around the topic of exploits and what we can understand as such, but it was nice having your video to link to as some more additional food for thought for everyone.

As you described, both Ash Lake and the Gaol were so impactful to me personally due to the environmental dissonance the music provided. They were both outliers among dozens of other environments, so it made you stop, appreciate, and ponder their significance moreso than other locales.

I've been thinking a lot about the things you talk about in this video and the first one about univeral easy modes. It's a fascinating topic and you covered it better than anyone I've encountered here on YT. Years ago I tried beating Kos from Bloodborne. I wanted to beat him before completing the main game. It probably took 80-100 tries and I tried to summon muliple times but nobody ever came to help. I can't tell you how happy I am that it turned out the way it did. Had there been an easy mode I definitely would've used it.

It took me 53 tries over two weeks to beat Sword Saint Isshin. It was a tough and unforgiving experience where a single mistake meant back to phase one. You know what though, I loved every second of the struggle, when I took him down I felt like a god who perfected every in game system! If I could of put on an easy mode it would of felt cheapened, that's why fromsoft games should not have an easy mode. If you can't beat these games that's fair but severely disabled people have and your admitting your will is weaker than theirs if you refuse to adapt...

ah yes, the more you tenderize the horse flesh, the easier it is to digest.

In many ways, Light No Fire reminds me of these dev diaries of Outward. Less intense, even less challanging certainly based on No Mans Sky, but similar in focus , being just one person not so special from any other in a fantasy world, and even similar in aesthetic, colorful and intense, threatening and mystifying.

I think it's also important to note that from my experience, a lot of people who want an easy mode believe that every game should be for everyone. Of course this is a deeply flawed view as no game can truly be for everyone, I simply hope that everyone can find a game they can enjoy.

A shame that Miyazaki kinda forgot about his quote when designing elden rings difficulty and spirit ashes.

The best option is to have just a single "intended experience" and have accessibility options *and* optional handicaps on the side. With trophies/achievements only available on the "intended experience" mode. That would give everyone the option to adapt the game to their abilities, but without excluding any type of player.

Entertainment is not essential to living. Paying money for entertainment does not entitle you to x amount of entertainment. When you go to a movie theater and see something you've never experienced, you take a risk of liking or not liking it. Even if you pay $60 for a game, that's a choice YOU make. You're responsible for spending x amount of time and effort researching what you're paying for. You 100% have the option to wait for a price drop or decide against the purchase altogether. When you hand someone money for entertainment, you're making the conscious decision that the purchase is worth the price.

Games with multiple difficulty options are less accessible to me because I never know which difficulty to choose. The question of which difficulty to choose is too difficult for me. Fixed difficulty makes it more accessible to me.

This reminds me of the early 2000s when games had text cheat codes you could just type in the console. As soon I did that I had fun for an hour but lost interest in the game hereafter entirely.

Could you credit Wolfheart FPS somewhere for using his footage of the interview? Great work as always btw, very entertaining.

People need to understand that changing the difficulty to satisfy their taste can be something like changing the plot of a novel or a movie. As this great video says, difficulty is a central part of a game, and changing it coul lead to a complete different game. If you don't want to play a hard game, try anything else, nowadays we have a huge catalog of games to choose, and let the other people to have fun with that game.

This is why I always go back to souls games. They target me as a 35 year old who’s been playing for 30 years. Experiencing a souls game the 3rd time is better than most games the first time

i just wanna expand on the idea of "the intended experience" by saying that in subtle and not so subtle ways, difficulty sliders having varying degrees of affect on the actual design of the entire game, maybe in some good ways, but id argue mostly bad ways and im not just saying that because i enjoy "hard" games, there are plenty of games that arent dark souls and elden ring that dont have difficulty sliders and are better for it and on the other hand, there are games that have difficulty sliders that suffer because of it at the end of the day i think fromsoftware is an incredibly talented team when it comes to getting players to engage with their games in a deeper way than just button mashing all the way to the end just watching cutscenes, and maybe thats not everyones cup of tea but it doesnt need to be

You didn't alienate me. I play the soulsborne games as a vacation from my real life. Using binoculars as a camera to take screenshots feels like making a scrapbook, and I draw scenarios of my journey after cause of the fun I'm having with my character/traveling companion. I only defeat the bosses so I can get a good look at the arena after, it's almost like being Indiana Jones/Alan Quartermaine in a way.

The worst part of this video is that you convinced me.

Remastered exclusively for playstation 5

I know you said it'll be a while, but I hope you'll return to this topic for a broader look. Talking only about whether games like Dark Souls, Monster Hunter and Outward should have selectable easy _modes_ is just a small part of the discussion, and focusing on it does a disservice to both sides of the debate. The reality is these Action RPGs all do let the player control the difficulty of their experiences, and they (usually) do it in ways that give the best of both worlds. All three of these games have intended experiences beyond mastery of real-time combat. They are Action RPGs, and the RPG side is part of the experience too. By letting players change how difficult their encounters are with the RPG and multiplayer mechanics instead of a menu they avoid giving the player freebies just as Guillaume said. Players have to engage with the diegetic game systems to overcome their obstacles, ensuring the shared experience like Miyazaki wants. Some games are better at this balance than others. Like you, Outward is my darling for this because it has such a focused intended experience and it's very tightly designed around that. Its difficulty is great at forcing you to think outside the box and explore early on while rewarding you with a power fantasy once you've acquired more abilities and equipment. Traps are the only mechanic that borders on being so easy it can compromise your odyssean self control, but the prohibitive costs prevent them from being abusable early on except for the very determined. Monster Hunter does just as good a job with a broader intended experience: it doesn't have such a traditional power fantasy approach, but the armor skill system and the balance between weapon types makes for difficulty adjustment driven entirely by player preference and experimentation. You don't have to use Blast Resistance to beat Raging Brachy, but you don't feel like you took the easy way out if you did, and if you don't you have a cool and impressive experience to share that even the players who did will still relate to! Palicoes are the weakest link in MonHun's difficulty suite, since many players don't realize the difference it would make if they dismissed their cute companion, and they actually make some fights less fun. Unfortunately, I think Fromsoft's games go about diegetic difficulty selection with the least grace. They've been doing it for the longest, since King's Field had many of the Action RPG elements that survive to this day in Elden Ring, and they've used multiplayer co-op since Demon's Souls. However they have the most mechanics that are able to compromise odyssean self control (spirit summons) or unintentionally make fights too easy (levelling up). Sekiro made me think that Fromsoft is the most in its element when they emphasize pure combat mastery and a more focused intended experience. I should reiterate none of this refutes the arguments you've used in general, only how they apply to these games specifically. There is absolutely demand for uncompromisingly difficult games, especially in the action and strategy genres. Even if there wasn't high demand, I would want to see developers make difficult games anyways because games should be explored as an artistic medium, not just as a marketable product. However, discussing Souls and Monster Hunter games in the context of difficulty selection without including the diegetic mechanics they use is a disservice to both the players and the developers, and if anybody thinks these games should forego such mechanics and be uncompromisingly difficult then I believe they have misinterpreted the true intended experience of these games. Of course, there is _absolutely nothing wrong_ with playing any game for the player's preferred experience (death of the author, yadda yadda) but arguing that the actual design of the games should reflect your preferred experience is just narrow minded and flies in the face of your final, most important point: artists should be free.

I think that the minimum difficulty in a game still mandates the mechanics of the game being understood and used properly. For instance, I HATED XBC2 on my first playthrough due to not understanding any of it. On replaying and learning the different mechanics of the game, its a lot of fun and I was able to enjoy the game without issue.

Another reason is because game development doesn’t grow on trees. Game budget is finite. Adding another game mode requires it to be coded, for that code to tested, and recoded when errors appear. Anyone who has coded anything knows how time consuming it is. Spending time on one thing means you can’t spend it on another. There is always the road you never traveled.

I feel like summons/farming/certain spells and weapons kind of make the "not wanting difficulty option" point completely inapplicable to FromSoft games. In my playthroughs of ds, ds3, and elden ring I could always just obliterate any boss if i summoned and got a decent guy to help. The biggest reason I like not having an easy mode like you and others have said, is I dont have that pervasive feeling of "i could turn on easy mode to beat this guy" when I keep losing to a hard boss, but i feel like the summons/etc. do exactly that. Summons and certain builds can make From games genuinely not challenging very quickly. I think this made my experience somewhat significantly worse in those games, and also one of many reasons I love Sekiro and think its their best game.

I always liken it to chess. If I am paired against a really tough opponent, I either have to fight to win or lose. If I resign I lose. I can’t handicap them. They want to win just as much as I do. It’s war without blood. That’s how I see these games. The enemy wants to survive, too. It’s more realistic to the experience of life where you can’t always choose the challenges you want to overcome. But when you do it’s sooooo much more powerful. Thanks!

It doesn't bother me at all if I am talking to someone who cheated in a single player game. I only care if they cheat in multiplayer, as that can make my experience worse. People can do whatever they want with single player games. There is something wrong with someone who gets angry with people using mods that make a game more accessible (color blind and others) or just plain easier.

16:00 There was music in Ash Lake in DS1, if I remember rightly? But yeah it's still super rare

The point about the intended experience being an emotional reaction, rather than the gameplay itself, doesn’t actually rebut the argument that different people will experience the same game differently. People can and do have wildly different emotional reactions to the exact same events. If the intended experience is narrow, then by definition only a narrow range of people will be able to have that experience. And it’s absolutely the developers’ right to make their games to appeal to a narrow range of players, but to someone who values board accessibility over narrow appeal, this is never going to be a compelling argument against multiple difficulties.

15:55 Ash Lake in DS1. Probably actually strengthens your argument because it was also chanting in a place meant to awe you

I don't really think you understand the other side of the argument. It has less to do with whether or not an easy mode has detrimental effects to their experience or anyone elses, and more about not being locked out of anything; it's comparable to the feeling of people who dont want a paywall to content. Their time is worth something too. I personally agree that dark souls, monster hunter etc... should not have an easy mode and there is something to be gained from the experience, and it is up to the developer to decide what experience they want their game to have.

I would say, that there's a difference between "difficult" and "challenging" in my mind. Challenges are fun, difficulty is not, because it often is merely the absence of balance. An inherently unfair boss fight isn't fun. It's annoying. It makes me want to move on and forget about it. Another example: often hard mode merely means that enemies are hp-sponges now and all hit like trucks, rather than a more realistic approach like increasing the number of enemies or giving them new moves. Fairness and credibility are important. That said, it is simply wrong to assume that Fromsoftware games have no way to reduce the difficulty. Levelling exists. This is merely a different way to put the work in, but it does make the game easier (also summons etc.). As long as a game gives the player options to deal with a situation in a clever way, a challenge will be fun. Bashing one's head against a wall until the wall breaks ... not so much.

"No souls had ever put music outside of boss rooms and hub areas" There is one exception to that: Ash Lake. That's why that location is so awesome.

Action Button Reviews once said "No, Dark Souls shouldn't have an easy mode, no game should." I agree with the sentiment, but not the statement. I feel like some games/genres should pretty much always have difficulty settings, stuff like rhythm games or shmups. The skill sets you need for those are very specific and the basics are hard for most people to pick up if they're just getting ass blasted right off rip, at the same time cultivating those skills would feel unfulfilling if there was no way to ramp things up and you were stuck playing an easy or middling challenge forever.

Completely agree. As someone that thought I would never get into souls games, I’m amazed by how much I’m enjoying them now despite how challenging they can be. Not too long ago I beat Dark Souls 1. Now I’m in the middle of playing Elden Ring, Demon’s Souls, and Bloodbourne. Elden Ring has proven one of the most challenging for me so far with fighting the Crucible Knight which took me well over 10, maybe 15 tries to finally beat. It felt good to finally nail him. Challenging games for sure but definitely not insurmountable, and there are advantages you can exploit in some circumstances if you know to look for them.

Excellent video. And it briefly touches upon one thing that few people who claim to want an easy mode in games never really seem to address: there already are "easy modes" in pretty much every game like this (especially in every FromSoft game). The thing is those "Easy Modes" come in the form of particularly powerful weapons and gear, particularly strong skills or builds, easily accessible farming spots, proven strategies for encounters with high success rates, the ability to cooperate with other players to take on challenges together, the community willing to help with guides and instructions, etc. You are more than free to choose the "Easy Mode" in, say, Elden Ring BUT to "activate" that mode you still have to actually engage with the game (and you still have to operate within the experience the developers intend you to have). It's no accident that, for example, bleed builds are very strong. It's also no accident that some of the summons, including ones you can get early/easily, are also very strong (and coincidentally you can summon for almost every mini/boss in the entire game). The difficulty selection is already there, but it's intentionally baked into the design of the game in an organic way that every player can choose to take advantage of (or specifically choose not to).

Good analysis my man. Love the channel. Hope you are well

Babe wake up

5:05 you covering his face is appreciated... glad to see ur a fan of his games. :)

If someone wants an easy mode from a From game, then From games are not for them. I would sound very stupid if I asked that FPS also have third person shooting. FPS aren’t for me and I must accept that.

without difficulty sliders, devs are forced to actually balance their games to deliver an intended experience. but you’re right. 7:35. it is a gamble. the audience may not like your intended experience and wish for options to alter difficulty in either direction to get the intended experience you want.

Is this a Re-upload? I swear I remember watching this video months ago...

Well said. More games ( big budgeted i mean ) should have that particular focus of brand. This is why we dont really see them making strategy games, Visual novels, turn based games or roguelites and why those genres never reach their true potential since not even AA have the kind of resources to put that effort into their game in a reasonable amount of time to reach that potential. Or at least this is true of the West. Capcom making Ace Attorneys ( visual novel ), Atlus making Megaten games ( turn based ) must seem insane to the big Western companies or they do not care. Also i would add that: Not creating more difficulty modes just makes sense anyway. People chastize companies making horribly unbalanced difficulty mods where on higher difficulties some strategies, skills maybe even classes just become almost if not entirely useless. Might as well save some money and not implement a difficulty since they already have the intended experience and not want to spend energy into more creatively increasing difficulty ( new boss moves for example )

I honestly hate when people say shit about how the game should be for everyone to justify difficulty options. Almost every game released has difficulty options, and the few that don’t get attacked by these people

I kind of don’t believe Miyazaki actually feels apologetic about anything. I think he was just trying to be nice, and represent the company in a polite way. And not sound like a jerk.

very nice video as always, I'll continue to be baffled that you don't have more subs

At the end of your video you touch on something that I think ends up missing from this discussion. I think that at the core the opposite sides are arguing about whether or not video games are products or art. I think it's clear to most that games are both art and consumer products. From the "games as art" perspective: Miyazaki should make whatever he pleases as long as it falls within the law and basic morality. If we start imposing restrictions on artists so the sake of "accessibility" that's called censorship. Viewing games as a product: FromSoft has cornered the market of a growing niche much in the same way that Nine Dots' developer expressed. If games are a product, Miyazaki is just making a smart business move by continuing to get free publicity from people arguing about the difficulty and sticking to his guns. I thought I could never get into the Souls series because of their reputation as tough as nails games. I finally gave them a shot and now I've played DS1 countless times, beaten every major boss in Elden Ring melee-only, platinumed Sekiro, and while listening to this video I took down Sister Friede and I'll finish the other games shortly. Struggling through these games, having my heartrate skyrocket as I'm one hit away from taking down Malenia just to die to her anyway has been some of the most thrilling fun I've had in my life. Asking for this on a lower difficulty is like asking a roller coaster to be redesigned to feel less scary but wanting the same thrill as the people willing to face their fear of heights. You can't get the rush without paying the price of the heightened anxiety beforehand. It's just not how it works.

I never play games on the easy setting. Not because I'm good, but for the reason you stated: it's not satisfying. I can think of only one exception. I played Alan Wake on easy because very early in the game I realized I liked the story, but I hated the combat and got no satisfaction from overcoming its challenges.

Ahhhhh it was nice to resub for this video, I was starting to miss your content; will def sub again for your next Elden Ring video 😎💯

Again, no. I'm all for intended experiences, but devs can communicate that to players while still including difficulty settings. For example, most modern games don't just name their difficulties, they describe them, they include informative text to help players choose the difficulty best suited to that player's wants and needs, and one of the pieces of info they can and do provide is a notation as to which difficulty is the "intended" default. Heck, even without such descriptors, devs can still communicate which difficulty is the intended experience just by having it be the one the cursor starts on, thus being the option, the player will receive if they make no inputs other than to start the game. Having said, that, I'm all for artists having some measure of control over how their art is experienced, If Miyazaki wants to create games without an easy mode, that is his prerogative, but that doesn't make his choice to do so immune from criticism. ... Also, the existence of mods is absolutely no excuse, considering that option only exists on PC and so doesn't apply to anyone whose only option for playing a game PlayStation or Xbox.

18:00 -> thats *exactly* why i think spirit summons were a mistake, in Elden Ring. They divided and fragmented the playerbase in an unprecedented way. And im not even arguing for or against using summons, mind you. What i'm saying is this: using them gives one experience, not using them gives another, completely different one.

Man , I could listen to your videos all day

Another case for the Intended Experience™ and Shared Experience™ is something like the Dead Money DLC. It wouldn't have been the same if your equipment and items weren't taken away from you at the start, and without those Ghost People, as well as the hazardous environment and traps like the radios and speakers, it just wouldn't be the same. Most important here: wouldn't be the same.

a good example of a shared experience is the deer in etrian odyssey, everyone that has played the game knows to fear the deer

I think the real issue is, a lot of gamers might not know how to express their actual grievances with a game, or just don't care to. In the Souls' series case, that basically means all the complaints get boiled down to "why isn't there an easy mode?" because it's a "good enough" shorthand to get the larger idea across. As such, I would guess that in many of these cases, the real problem isn't the general difficulty level, it's some specific mechanic, or way the difficulty is implemented. Like, how many players critical of the difficulty might've felt differently if runbacks to bosses weren't ridiculous at times? Or if they knew what s were? Or maybe they just don't like losing souls upon death? And it's not always the player's fault they can't express this either. For example, one of my gripes in Elden Ring is that I'm not fond of how bosses sometimes input read you and basically force you into damage AFTER you've started an attack... but I also wouldn't realistically expect the majority of gamers to even know what "input reading" is. It's such an invisible, behind the scenes process that isn't directly mentioned or pointed out by the games themselves that many people might not even know it's a thing that actually exists. And well... I guess that's something all sides of this debate need to work on. Devs could stand to make a lot of their mechanics more transparent. And the pro/anti sides of this "only one difficulty" argument could stand to try and meet each other halfway a bit more, the former by asking WHY the latter have such complaints, and the latter maybe trying to be more nuanced with their complaints than "it needs easy mode."

Whenever the "are videogames art?" question comes up, the best argument on the opposing side is that videogames *include* art but in separate chunks: a cutscene is one thing, a character design is another thing, etc. but they never come together into one vision the way that a movie does. And difficulty can be a big part of that. Let me give an example: I enjoy the game Child of Light (2014). Stylish visuals, fairy tale story, impressive music, a thoughtfully designed active-time battle system... and these elements all work with each other but they don't work with the difficulty. It's way too easy, which means the gnarled monsters lose their intimidation, the evil queen evokes zero feelings of hopelessness, the bombastic soundtrack feels out of place, the range of possible tempo tricks simply aren't needed when you can spam attack and do fine. When you get to the end the plot says you've been through an arduous journey, but it's incorrect. You haven't. If that game knocked me around a lot more, I would remember it as an incredible experience. Instead I remember as it separate things: hey, the music was nice, the rhyming dialogue was cool, the backgrounds looked pleasant.

It feels like going to a steak shop that has 5 stars and bitching that they don't have lobster

The main problem with people that want an easy mode in this kind of games is that they don't want to do anything to make the game easier for them (even when there are plenty of those in every Miyazaki game for example). They want the developer to make the game easier for them through a menu option.

Everyone else is preparing to have thoughtful discussion. Me: OOH! RATATOSKR SAID THE FUCK WORD!

My background is competitive FPS. There might be a video there comparing old (quake etc) and modern and how they differ. They can't add an easy mode as it is multiplayer competitive but mechanics and gamemodes have been tweaked over the decades in order to accmodate more player when in reality the original games with the current sized player bases would work fine - bad players would play with bad players and good players would play with good players.

nier automata did a good job in difficulty options as to me the plug in chip system served as a somewhat customisable difficulty and this game mechanic served a larger purpose for my partner who had only played minecraft prior to nier but due to the mechanic had the same experience I and many others seem to have had in the game. A good example of difficulty options in games but regardless still does not mean every game needs the choice.

I feel like Elden ring might be From’s first souls-like that doesn’t nail this shared experience nor an intended experience that is similar to the previous titles. I see the spirit summoning system as essentially the same thing as an in-menu easy mode. As a consequence of this and the general balancing issues that so much of the games equipment has I don’t find I’ve had a similar experience with the game as a whole lot of other people and the game certainly didn’t provide me with the same triumphant victories that previous instalments have. I don’t see any other way of viewing the spirit summoning system than simply as an easy mode given that it has little to no opportunity cost to use and, at the very least, provides extra bodies with which to distract the boss and depending on the summon used can even contribute a significant amount of damage to the fight. The only thing using a spirit summon costs the player over not using one is a bit of FP during the fight and some souls to upgrade the summon, with such little opportunity cost equipping a spirit summon comes down to a menu option that makes the game easier, and thus if I decide not to use it the challenge with which I am being presented is no longer something I am being faced with which I must learn to overcome but instead a self imposed restriction that I am dealing with out of stubbornness. This has detracted heavily from the experience of playing Elden ring both with and without spirit summons for me, when I use spirit summons the game is a breeze and I feel no sense of accomplishment having beaten any of the games obstacles, when I don’t use them I no longer feel accomplished in having persevered in the face of this challenge because the challenge is something I put in my own way. The games general lack of balancing player choices has also compounded the experience that the spirit summoning system has given me. For example I beat Malenia, Mohg, Maliketh and Godfrey all on my first try, and not out of any skill on my part mind you. My build was power stanced bleed rapiers with seppuku in the offhand and bhs in the main hand. I had relatively heavy armour and a lot of vigor. A chimpanzee could have swallowed my controller and it’s digestive tract would have had the skill necessary to beat the game in the fashion that I did with such a build. The fact that the game even allows you to create a character so ridiculously, hilariously overpowered so easily is insane. My first play through of the game is lost to that build but it’s not just that build that provides a similar issue. So many of the options in this game suffer from similar balancing issues, everything is spammable and everything does a ton of damage and it seems no matter what build I use, unless I go out of my way to equip deliberately sub-par equipment relative to my level, the game is incapable of presenting enemies who are capable of dealing with the over powered weapons that I’ve got. I cannot seem to find the same experience that the souls games have given me in Elden ring and these are the main two reasons I have come up with as to why. I am confused to not have heard more people speaking on a similar issue which does give me hesitancy in regard to the validity of my assessment so if you feel I’m wrong please let me know why.

Definitely made your point here. Great job! The part that I had been advocating is that developers are free to do what they please. They're making a product, and not rendering you service to make you happy.

if i could go a day without seeing a bad take from souls fans i would be a happy man

1:10 Yep, yep, yep. Freedom Unite Tigrex urgent took me weeks, before I decided to just take a break from the game entirely. A few months later I had another crack at it. Changed my weapon, left my palico at home. Prepared traps and bombs and such. It still took about a dozen tries but I managed to finally capture it. Unlike Sparrow, Cosmic and Jean, I didn't have anyone to show me the game. I knew nothing and managed to get to Tigrex and got thrashed, but in the end I overcame and it was glorious. I went on to 100% the village, even the final quest, Monster Hunter.