Timing in Sekiro I couldn't master.  Reminds me of punch out.

I don't think games are harder but I do think hard games have gained popularity.  

7th gen by far. I got out of touch with gaming in the 8th gen because I had way lees time for gaming because of work, family and all that stuff. So I'm by no means objective. But while I have countless great memories from my PS3, I barely know what I played on the PS4.

But I also liked the hardware a lot more. The PS3 was a monster that could run Linux and do all kinds of crazy stuff. It just felt like something from the future. The PS4 was cool and all, but it never really got me excited. Which is also because a lot of the stuff that was new in the 7th gen is stuff that I was getting used to. It didn't have that sense of wonder anymore. Yes, I do know that is also very subjective.

Haven't touched my PS5 in months. 9th gen is by far the weakest ever if you ask me. The hardware is ok, but either I'm getting old and picky, or there just aren't releasing that many great games as in the past anymore. But whatever, I'm still looking forward to GTA 6 which is the sole reason I haven't sold my PS5 yet, lol.

I don't know if games became easier because devs seek mass appeal, I mean some do but this does not represent all of them. If this were the case, party games would be dominating the market. Nintendo is the big dev who follows that philosophy the most, that's why they keep releasing Pokemon and Animal Crossing

Remember many of the best-selling games in the world and/or games with the biggest userbase are competitive multiplayer games, which are inherently harder than single-player games. 

The games became easier because modern development removed artificial difficulty from some old games (whether created purposefully to make games last longer, or simply because the devs didn't know how to make something better). Quality of life updates, better camera, better control input, and better UI can make a game much easier even if the map design and enemy moveset still as hard as in the older games

I remember how many times I've died from falling playing DS1 LOL, it's simply not the case with DS3 and even less so with Elden Ring

Some QoL are tested in some games since gen 6, and after extensive positive feedback they are incorporated in the gameplay of future games, which all makes things easier and easier

If you think for a moment, many of the difficulties in the original Demon Souls were created because FromSoftware removed some already standardized QoL. You can't pause, you don't have maps, the save points are few (you only have one per section of the map wich means if you die you have to play the level again), you can only recover your estus there, and you can't save and reload to a safe spot, if you did some stupid decision like killing NPCs, engaging stronger boss and losing souls or even leveling up wrong you're fucked and will need to live by the consequences of your actions

Exactly people mention these older games but the difficulty is just artificial by making you start over from the beginning so how many hours are we really getting engaging  challenging gameplay maybe 2-3 hours at most. An average player can get 2-4 hours on one boss from  fromsoftware  games. As you mention as well gamers are way more skilled cause of online play and we are really running out  of fresh new experiences so if you been playing mario since the nes  days you are gonna be good at mario or platformers in general and understand how secrets work, same  for fromsoftware games to a much lesser extent cause bosses have a massive move set. Combat in games  has gotten much better since GC and ps2 days i think we can agree on that.

Seventh.

The sixth was the last gen where I enjoyed it more than the prior one. After that, I've enjoyed each generation less. So by default, it's gotta be the seventh for me.

100% agreed.  Are bosses harder in Souls than God of War?  I personally don't think so.  The difference in GoW you start over right at the boss if you die.  Souls you have to make it back to the boss. 

In the newer GoW games the bosses have check points within the fight.  Odin has multiple phases and the player can continue at the 2nd phase....  Malenia, die on her second phase and start over, no boss check points. 

Souls simply removed QoL and went old school in design.  Harder than old games, nah.  If anything Souls is taking a page out of old school games.

I would argue souls inherently has clunky old school controls.  Not modern super smooth.  

Souls is an old soul.  

Initially was going to vote for the 8th gen, but thinking about it some more and lining up each console, the 7th generation had the better library overall. The only exception for me would be the PS4 over the PS3.

Going from the Wii to the Wii U, or Xbox 360 to Xbox One, the drop off is tremendous.

Yeah I really loved that about the 7th gen too, that sense of wonder and excitement. Whether it was the HD blockbusters of PS3/360 or the motion controls of the Wii, there was this feeling that we were in uncharted territory and anything was possible; that barriers were constantly being pushed and broken.

The 8th gen was more iterative, focusing mostly on polishing old concepts than pioneering new ones. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with that; many great games are iterations on established norms, but it didn't quite have the same wow factor, for me at least.

@italics: love it

@bold: to this day, I still think this is the best action/shooter ever made. I played it so, so much I could go on hard any time and beat it without dying, even with the excruciating difficulty. But then one night, on a Saturday in 92 or 93 (probably the latter), my folks were travelling and I had three friends come home for a full night of gaming (one of them a dear cousin that sadly passed away a few years ago). We played lots of Street Fighter, Top Gear and other multiplayer games, rotating the four according to wins (only two controllers could be used by then, for those who did not live those times), but at one time one of the other friends said: why don't we try to beat Contra III in two player hard mode? (way harder than in single, since the actions of one player affect the moving of the screen and can screw the other's movement, which usually renders lots of friendly kills). He used to play pretty much as well as I did, and I said: "but the guys will be left out of the rotation". The two other ones said we should go for it, as it was very late at night and they were already tired. I remember we played the first three stages very, very well, even without previous co-op training between us. Then came the air battle and things really started to heat! We managed to clear that and the 5th stage, going very confidently into the Final Boss. IIRC, the first form went, ahm, ok, I guess, but we started getting destroyed by the two final forms. We died. A LOT! That pesky sound/noise of losing a life being more constant and getting to our nerves! But no continue was allowed in our "rules". Two much adrenaline was on it that we did not know who lost the most lives, but we kept going, pushing, shooting, and trying to avoid the incoming attacks. We ended up doing it, in our first try, and could not believe our eyes. Probably Midnight and a bunch of 15-16 year olds were screaming like crazy, so the neighbors probably felt that was weird. I remember it vividly and it's one of the best memories of my (long) gaming life, ever. It was a blast lol.

Ever played Gunstar Hereos or Alien Soldier? Worth checking out. Also, try the remake on Steam/PS4 or Assault Suit Leynos then play on classic mode. Recently Assault Suit Leynos 2 released on consoles and that is one tough game.