Me too. I propose from now on, every game should start with the difficulty of Dark Souls/Demon's Souls New Game+ and you couldn't change it no matter what. 

This trend is nothing new and it's not exclusive to nintendo games. And it's different from people to people, some want everything unlocked from the beginning, some want to unlock things as they go, because they adapt to the game and what would have been a pretty tough challenge for them, becomes more doable because they've acquired experience with the game. 

Personally, I believe the unlocking system to be the best, since it gives you a chance to experiment with both systems and giving you an actual chance to complete the game, for those who don't have the skills, patience or mental fortitude to deal wth a harder difficulty set. If you find normal mode to be passable to you and you've unlocked hard mode, then you could give it a try, but if you don't like the challenge of hard mode, at least you've already beat the game and have done the primary goals of it. 

Unlocking things doesn't = forcing you to play. Being a completionist is your own personal choice (I'm a completionist myself) and game design shouldn't revolve around those who want to finish everything 100%, but around being accessible to just about everyone.

* This is a general thread about this issue but it was Nintendo games that inspired this thread. specifically Kirby

Im annoyed...really annoyed.  I cant stand nintendo at the moment. I beat both kirby and Mario 3D land this past week and at first i was proud both times...untill unlock happened. Mario I got every star coin and Gold fal for every level.. Kirby I found every one of 120 eneryy spheres( last 2 zones were frustrating beyound belief), beat all the copy challenes( pain in the ass) and the the Arena.

Both games were alot of fun, but u think after puttin you through all that they would at least reward u with something decent.. no..they dont.

The reward for both games ...is to do it again under slightly different circumstances.

When u get all 120 spheres, beat the arena aand copy challange, beat all levels the reward in kirby is to do it all over again in EX mode( basically the same thing but alittle more challenging)

get all gold flags, star coins, and optional levels and your reward is to do it again but with Luigi.few modes cosmic, normal, time race.some altered levels/items but virtually the same* havent gotten to deep in this yet so how great the changes are - subject to change)

without the sugar coating.. you unlock hard mode

so lame on many levels:

1. Cheap, lazy way to increase replay value.

2. unlocking difficulties is stupid..period, we should be able to decide the level of challenge from the get go

Both galaxies did this too..equally as annoying( not as much had bro do luigi)

but this really bothers me beuase  though I love collect-a-thons,I have a unspoken rule about them. I only them once in a fews years. I 100% the file and thats it.. I probally wont look at it again for at least a year. I wont be really 100% these games though I idid 100% just not by the actual ame standards..which is annoying because it makes the the 1st run seem like it doesnt matter

think about like this: My enlish teacher had us write 1 paper  per a week for 16 weeks.. one was a 10 page research paper. He then tells us that the last paper is the one that hes really going to look at as proof of improvement and not to worry about the other papers...   so why the hell did u make us write them?  if he would of just said that to begin with( had hard mode unlock from the get go) then this would have been a issue but nooo in order to extend the class work(increase replay value) makes us go through all the pre work 1st( first game beat)

How do you guys feel about this in general when games do this?

unlocking difficulties or another character who is virtual the same as the original to play the same game.

I would rather not rewarded with anything

* for people who have started the special worlds..is it worth it to track through the game  again?

How many PS3 games apart from Demon's Souls and Dark Souls have you platinumed?

So far? Dark Souls, Demon's Souls, FFXII, Uncharted 2 and Dante's Inferno. I'm at 99% on GT5, I just haven't had the patience nor the time required to get the last gold trophy (level 40 for A-Spec).

Platinum trophies, at least to me, doesn't equal 100% completion, since most require to do things that you wouldn't normally do in a single playthrough. I've much rather spend my time on a RPG getting 100% items, side-quests, bestiary, etc. Than to get to the top 1% of an online FPS just for a trophy which means nothing in terms of how much you've completed a game. 

I've had a couple of 1000/1000s in 360 RPGs such as Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey and Eternal Sonata. Sadly, didn't manage to finish PSU properly, it always kept up ending to the bottom of my backlog pile.

Yes, it indeed is a big difference between Platinum and 100%. That's what makes Platinum hunting annoying. (I dont have even one Plat. Closest is Assassin's Creed II but I couldnt force myself to pick all of the 100 feathers).

Why do you have Platinum on Dante's Inferno if I may ask? I personally love that game.

What is PSU?

Both because I loved the game (it's my second favourite Hack and Slash game this gen, behind Bayonetta) and because it was pretty straightforward. Most of it involved finishing the game on the hardest difficulty available from the start of the game (which I did my first playthrough on), collecting everything and the gates of hell arena. Only had to beat the game twice for the different outcomes between saving or punishing lost souls.

Phantasy Star Universe was a RPG that had a very strong online component.