| SvennoJ said: I totally disagree. There are other ways to reduce difficulty and give the player options. The game can still be fun at lower difficulty levels. It has higher difficulty levels as NG+ and you still enjoyed it the first time around on easy mode! Some people don't care for boss battles, let them skip them or turn the difficulty down temporarily. Some people just want to explore the world without getting killed all the time, let them. Some people don't care about grinding for upgrades. I skipped most of the story mission segments in RDR2 and enjoyed the game my way. Had it forced me to keep replaying the same corridor shoot out sequences over and over I would not have enjoyed it as much. |
You outlined a comparison between NG+ and regular difficulty in the Souls games while simultaneously missing what makes them different even though you just explained it to yourself. Do you want to know the difference between NG+ and the ability to choose a difficulty mode in the beginning of the game? Well ... you should already know, it's right there for you to see!
That's one of many great things about the Souls games - you start with one difficulty mode. Everything in the game is specifically designed to be very deliberate. The game's difficulty does not change based on some stupid labels you see at the start of the game. It changes based on how the designers meticulously crafted enemies, how they put a level together, and how the world is connected.
All I can say is that your point ultimately fails because it caters to the idea that every piece of media is for everybody. It isn't. I don't go to racing games so I can play the game as an on-rails shooter. I don't go to Smash Brothers to play Mario Kart. I don't go to Blade Runner to see a lightsaber duel. And unfortunately what people can't accept is that difficulty can be as much a deciding factor on how a game is crafted or how the product ultimately turns out as the genre itself. You see this in games of various quality. Shitty flash games are often made to be obsessively difficult, but that's their main gimmick and no one would play them if that gimmick didn't exist. Now Souls games are a bit different because they have more to offer than being hard, but the fact is that being difficult is a very core component to the feeling of fun and accomplishment that the games provide.
For example, in your last paragraph you say:
|
Games are there for your enjoyment. They are not a skill test. There is no prize at the end. You do not graduate game school. Let people enjoy games the way they want. I finished God of War on easy, which was damn hard for me against the final Valkyrie boss. Game of the year for me. Freely changing difficulty on the fly reduced any frustration and kept the game fun from beginning to end. |
I can't help but feel this is very disingenuous, because it isn't in line with the enjoyment of entertainment as a whole. Entertainment by it's very nature is getting something out of something that holds no real objective value. Just because you don't graduate from school for finishing Dark Souls doesn't mean that feeling of accomplishment can't exist. Just because an option doesn't affect certain people doesn't mean it isn't an important part of the game's point. In fact it's not even a good argument when used by your own standards. If games have no real importance, then why even go to the lengths of buying a game you know you probably won't enjoy? And if they aren't important than what's the point of arguing about whether there should be a difficulty mode on an obscure gaming forum? Of course you didn't say that games aren't important - but you did make a comparison to objective benchmarks that somehow trivialize those of video games. Even though that would fly in the face of the point of entertainment as a whole.
Souls games are mostly about learning. And one of those methods of teaching in a Souls game is the difficulty. If you don't want to learn the game, then why play it? Because that's the thing about most easy modes. They are mostly there so that players don't have to learn anything about the game. People act like difficulty isn't a mechanic of a game, but of course it is. It has as much importance as any other - and that is proved by both people who dislike the difficulty in a game or by those who like it.
I've seen your posts around this forum and honestly I don't think the Souls games are for your demographic. Most people who get into them have a lot of free time on their hands. Most people who get into them like a challenge. That doesn't mean they should change, it just means it isn't for you. And that's fine.
Anyways, this is my last post in this thread. I don't want to keep repeating what I've repeated a million times before. Other people are free to disagree or talk. It is obnoxious for me to take up most of the thread. Plus I just remembered that I think one of my first moderations had to do with difficulty in games. So yeah ... not going to get trapped into that again 
