What are you even trying to say here? If you read my previous posts you'll see that I said games that were too easy and too hard were BOTH hallmarks of bad developers. So, are you agreeing with me, or what?

Yeah, devs usually take the lazy way of giving the player and/or AI cheats rather than actually creating better/worse versions of the AI. Can't really blame them for that though since actually making different/better AI would likely just lose them money. Those that can't be arsed to even use the lazy way of offering different difficulty options though... just aren't doing their job very well.

So we had only bad developpers for almost 2 generations, since ALL games were too easy.

Again, if you find a game too difficult for you, just skip it. The only reason why these games exist today is because the difficulty disappeared. Why? Slippery slope, the developpers are not punished (in sales) if they don't implement a hard difficulty.

again, and again: if you find Sekiro too hard, don't buy it. But the difficulty was a reason of the good sales.

The problem is difficulty is relative, what's too easy for you may be perfectly fine for somebody else. That's exactly why difficulty options should be a thing in all games.

And FYI I have no interest in Sekiro, or any Souls like games for that matter. They just don't interest me. Easy modes wouldn't change that either, I mean I don't know if they even are "that" difficult since I've never played onie, I'm just not interested.

My motivation for participating in this thread is actually the opposite. I'm annoyed at franchises I like (specifically Pokemon) being too easy. It wouldn't be that difficult for the devs to add harder difficulty levels for those games, just like it wouldn't be difficulty to add easier difficulty options for other games too, so why don't they? Because they're lazy and couldn't care less whether people fully enjoy their game or not as long as they still get paid.

Cheat codes don't impact any of this.

Yep, I don't like the style of the game but acknowledge the need of it existing to serve the more than 1M fans of it.

But it certainly could have some tweaks on difficult setting to increase the number of people that would try it and probably love.

If I hate griding, fetch and several open world features =p

On the last comment you made, I was just pointing that some people will threat a game as bad because they decided to play it easy (and won't change the difficult), some people aren't very bright.

Since all games for these 2 gens were so easy would you mind showing your playstation profile with all the platinum you have for crushing these easy games?

Having played the Dark Souls Switch version over the past summer....and being strangely addicted to it. I actually felt that the game was brilliant in every aspect of its design. I didn't really find it hard, it was a game designed for repetitive play in which you would learn enemy patterns and get stronger yourself via grinding (or farming souls). I died many times, but it never felt cheap, and even in the face of what seemed insurmountable odds in some boss battles, some times a quick change in strategy paid dividends, sometimes just leaving that particular boss alone and venturing in another direction led to character progression and better equipment which eventually made the former boss battle an easier one.

The thing that I loved the most about DS, is the fact that it didn't hold my hand. It trusted me to figured it out, and I did. It was the most satisfying gaming experience that I had played in years. Breath of the Wild (a more 'mainstream' game ) might have been influenced somewhat by DS, in the sense that there was less hand holding than before, and the first few hours really had you on survival mode. The DLC has that Master Sword Quest, which really tests your patience, creative thinking and skill, in order to get through the 3 stages.

I really believe that as long as it is expertly designed, if a game is meant to be challenging, it should be developed that way. To be honest DS wasn't more difficult than the old school NES, GEN, SNES games like Ninja Gaiden, and even Sonic 2 ( run out of lives in the last boss battle and it is back to square one as there was no saving) it just didn't feature any hand holding, and presented a genuine challenge which is something missing in many AAA games in modern times.

When it comes to games there's difficult, and then there's difficult. I can enjoy a good challenge, but not all challenges are good ones. Some are just plain unfair. I don't mind it when a game legitimately tests my skills. I do mind it when a game tests my patience.

One example from my adult life that springs to mind is Halo. The original game is still a good challenge on Legendary. I still manage to die quite a bit. But none of the deaths ever feel cheap. It's a fair challenge. The game allows for a good amount of flexibility, while at the same time requiring you to be cautious, attentive, and most importantly good in a straight-up gunfight. You can go toe-to-toe with a blue Elite and come out in good shape if your footwork, positioning, and accuracy is good, while Red Elites will be a tougher challenge. But if you're not on your A-game, you can find yourself in a world of hurt even against a blue Elite or even weaker enemies. Even if you manage to survive, if you're down to the last couple of bars of health and the next health pack is three rooms away, things will get even tougher, but, if you're experienced and skilled enough and have your wits about you, you can prevail. The Flood are individually weaker than in later games, but attack in larger numbers, which makes effective population control and use of the environment to negate their numerical superiority essential. If you let them surround you, you're in trouble. The one thing that's too easy, however, are Hunters: a single pistol round in the back and that's it for them.

Meanwhile, Halo 2 is a much harder game on Legendary, and for all the wrong reasons. Bungie accomplished this by greatly increasing the amount of damage enemies can inflict. And then there were those fucking sniper Jackals with their 99.9% accuracy rate, insane reaction, and one-shot kills. The whole game just came across as cheap. As a result, the options you had that would allow you to win any given encounter were severely reduced, and more often than not you're reduced to hiding behind cover most of the time and having to resort to a handful of optimal tactics (e.g., if you don't have a power weapon, you pretty much need a plasma pistol + battle rifle combo to fight Elites, or just spam plasma grenades at them). Later games in the series aren't quite as cheap on Legendary, but have many of the same fundamental problems, which derive from the damage scaling combined with other issues.

There are all sorts of things that have gone into making Halo (and other games in the genre) challenging on hard mode, including but not limited to:

• Overall resilience of the enemy (i.e., how much health they have, and if they have any other defenses like shields).
• The performance of the enemy AI.
• The general effectiveness of friendly AI, if present.
• Overall effectiveness/performance of the player’s weapons (damage, accuracy, etc.).
• Whether or not the player has regenerating health.
• Level design.
• Encounter design, i.e., number, placement, and rank distribution of the enemies, as well as the weapons and other gear the enemies are equipped with; also, whether or not the player has friendly AI units backing them up.
• Availability of ammo, weapons, and other supplies (example: The lack of the pistol on the level "The Truth & Reconciliation" in Halo CE makes the level more challenging as you can't easily headshot every enemy).
• The presence, nature, and frequency of cheap, annoying enemies (e.g., the aforementioned sniper Jackals in Halo 2).
• Gameplay elements that could qualify as “Fake Difficulty.”

To use another, older series as an example, there's Mega Man. It's a series known for its challenge, and they usually have not had difficulty levels (MM2, MM10, and MM11 are the only ones from the classic series with "easy" modes). They are not easy games. But they are fair. The game is easy to learn, with simple and intuitive controls as well as a reasonably generous health bar, but it's hard to actually beat. The platforming challenges often require precision and, in the case of the disappearing block portions in some levels throughout the series, memorization as well. You need to learn the attack patterns and positions of the regular enemies, and the best ways of dealing with them (sometimes the Mega Buster isn't always ideal), as well as timing your shots to actually hit them. With the bosses as well, you need to learn their attack patterns, as well as figuring out what boss weapons they are weak against, and what boss you can most easily beat with the Mega Buster as your first choice. With enough practice, these are games that can be beaten and even mastered. The first time I played Mega Man 9, it took me something like three hours to beat. Now I can beat it in only one hour.

With that being said, developers are not obligated to provide a lower-difficulty mode, and I do think there's plenty of merit in having a good challenge in a game. I personally don't want to simply breeze through a game. However, the existence of an "easy" mode (or other optional assists) shouldn't be viewed as a negative. Multiple difficulty levels does not inherently detract from the experience, and a game is not all the lesser for having them. There's nothing wrong with someone wanting to start off on a lower difficulty so they can practice and "git gud" without things getting too frustrating, or even being able to (heaven forbid!) have a more casual experience. There's too many elitist gamers that want their hobby to be as exclusive as possible. If there are difficulty levels, then the "hardcore" players can play on the harder difficulty level, simple as that. And I do think more games with multiple difficulty levels would be nice. I'm days away from turning 40. I don't have the time I used to have, and honestly my reaction time isn't what it was (my muscular dystrophy may be contributing to that as well). But even if a hard game doesn't have an easier mode, I'll still try to practice, assuming it's not too frustrating.

And that's all I have to say about that.

So you consider quantity instead of quality? Wonderful, I understand why you struggle to understand why we consider that games are easier today.

I am 38, so we are from the same generation. I don't have an issue with games having different level of difficulty, I have issues with crybabies complaining that Dark Souls or Sekiro don't have an eay mode. And the crybabies will write pages and pages on why most games, in general, should have an easy mode but never explain why a specific game must have an easy mode. I can also explain why books in general should be translated, but that doesn't explain why the book "la disparition" (a french book) should be. And the whole idea is stupid: the book with written with the letter e, translating the story would defeat the purpose of the book itself.

I just finished Hollow Knight. The difficulty of the game can be cut in 2 categories

1) Lack of direction

2) Boss fights

Let's talk about the game pre-DLCs.

Giving more "hints" would defeat the purpose of the game. A big part of the game is exploring areas, finding new powers to get acess to new areas. For the boss fights, having more health/doing more damage wouldn't help much, and you can do that by getting the upgrades. So what would an easy mode achieve? Giving you the ability to face tank the bosses earlier in the game?

warned pi-guy for flaming

The last dungeons of BoF 2 were a walk in the park with my characters that had 255's and 511's across the board. Git gud.

Speaking of difficulty and all that jazz, a modder on PC just released a mod for REmake 2, in that it allows for head-shots to be instant, permanent kills for zombies. They've also offered two variants of the mod, where one just goes with the insta kill head-shots, while the other does the former, but also makes ammo/first aid way more scarce, giving players options of difficulty.