Putting in easy mode, retry mode or pause in game doesn't fit this game at all.
Putting these in means changing the core of the game. For the people who don't like it. its easy don't play it. This game isn't meant for everybody. Its just that simple.

I know you all may say, "Oh well you're a smug guy enjoying his self torture," but trust me it wouldn't make sense to make it any easier...splitting the online to cope with new difficulty settings wouldn't make sense, but it would make co-op/invasions harder as people wouldn't be able to play with others on a different difficulty setting. The whole point of the series is the difficulty and online with the huge amount of people, thus changing that fact would in fact make it a completely DIFFERENT GAME!

Can we just drop this debate alltogether? Its not getting anywhere and Since its already confirmed not to happen In DS2.
And according to how strongly the directors/creators/ fromsoft and core base in general is against it prob never will happen in a souls game( options suggested and multiple modes)

Lets just hope that the accessiblty will make for a better, improved game and that everyone can get very knowledgeable without having to resort to online/other people.

Seems a stale mate all right, I just hope you can understand that for a lot of people sense of accomplishment and suspense are not heightened by harsher punishments on failure. For a lot of people it only adds frustration which turns the final victory into a hollow feeling of wasted time. (If they don't turn it off before then)

Simple options can alleviate the frustration without changing the experience.
Splitting the online base by options surely is still better then getting disconnected on regularly?

Anyway I'll be reading the reviews first.

Dark souls is in my top 10 best games of all time, despite the bad game design in a lot of places. The fully interconnected truly 3-dimensional world, atmosphere and mysterious characters are amazing.
I hope the next game doesn't go out of its way again to try to stop me from enjoying the amazing world. It put me off enough not to bother with the DLC.

But why would you care if it doesn't effect your gameplay? Honestly I think I know what I want more than other people who think they know what I want.

My last comment lol

Changing the difficulty isn't as easy as you think. Environmental hazards such as the ones in Sen's Fortress, the Anor Londo roof beams and archers, darkness in the Tomb of Giants and countless ledges in the different areas all add to the difficulty of the game. The developers are not going to remove traps/ ledges or add invisible wall to prevent you from falling. So that difficult aspect of the game will remain.

Also, enemy placement is done very purposefully; to punish players who rush in unaware of their surroundings.  Having extra health wouldn't matter much too much when u get stunned by a mob of enemies.  Would u want them to remove enemies and compromise the original design of the game?

Another aspect of the game that makes it difficult is the lack of map and obvious direction. You won't find arrows on the screen telling you where to go. Lots of players have a hard time with the game because they don't know where to go, again this is how the game is supposed to be. You have to use trial and error and listen carefully to npc to discover where you need to go.

Boss battles are essentially puzzles as described in earlier posts.  If u have difficulty with a boss maybe that's because u are under leveled or your weapons not strong enough.  Also, there are unlockable shortcuts or bonfires before each boss fight u just have to look for them.  This significantly reduces the amount of backtracking to get to each fight so no "retries" are necessary.

Not being able to pause was talked about earlier as well.  You are safe to stand in place in just about the entire game assuming u are in hollow form and haven agroed any enemies.

In my opionion changing the damage you give and receive wouldn't be enough for most players who dislike the difficulty of the game.

Well said, here you go. You earned it.

at bare minimum they'd have to change their marketing from "prepare to die" to "prepare for your pleasent journey down a mildly unsafe dungen"..

agree with blkfish92.. very well stated.  exactly what i was trying to say.  changing damage ratios would do very little to actually make the game any easier.

Not necessarily. The difficulty would still be there so the "prepare to die" marketing scheme would still work just fine. 

@mtu: The points you bring up are not the problems. Nothing would get changed for you. The main thing that I really wanted changed is just a mode where you don't have to go over the same area time and time again. You're acting like an easy mode would drastically change everything but in truth, it would not. First off, you act like From Software is a company that couldn't handle doing that. Why do you have such a small amount of faith in an a company that obviously has the ability to make such changes without changing anything you like about the game. Your gameplay would be just the same so why do you care?

I just want you guys to understand that From Software obviously knows what their doing and they wouldn't change your gaming experience. There isn't any logical reason to get fussy over the notion of a well implemented, easier difficulty.