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Silvard

Resettlement Advisor
Member
Oct 25, 2017
411
What if they don't want to because the want their game to be a specific experience?
Then people will still ask them to.

From is free to make the games however they want.
People are free to ask whatever they want of them, and/or state their opinion.

It's not that hard of a notion.
 

Minamu

Member
Nov 18, 2017
1,900
Sweden
Serious question: If I have multiple plats in most of the soulsborne games, will Sekiro still be hard for me? I never felt the urge to buy it when it came out :/
 

HK-47

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,595
At some point I fully expect From to capitulate and add difficulty levels. I don't expect a large company to resist the siren call of a bigger audience forever. So until then I'll treasure the tight design of a single difficulty.
 

SunBroDave

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,164
I love it when there's no difficulty options, it makes the game feel so much more precise in its design
Whether something "feels more precise" to you absolutely in no way guarantees that it actually is more precise

Sekiro is the easiest from game?
Depends how you look at it. The removal of a lot of the RPG elements in Sekiro compared to prior From games means that success is based primarily on player performance. So it's up to you what you would consider "easier":
  • the fact that once you "learn" a boss, you can practically beat them in your sleep because that knowledge is the only real factor, stats are not part of the equation
  • the fact that even if you never "learn" a boss, you can still grind your way to higher stats and beat the boss anyway
 

Deleted member 49535

User requested account closure
Banned
Nov 10, 2018
2,825
As an example, I was just watching Angryjoe's livestreams of the Game Award and one of his reviewers said he docked points off the game because the game's difficulty and how it was too demanding from him and other people, because it "forced him to play perfect' (which isn't true at all)

I think there's two groups. People who want accessibility, and people who genuinely think hard games are a problem.
lmao entitled gamer right there. "I'm not good at this game, so that makes it bad". Jesus...
 

Deleted member 227

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
852
Serious question: If I have multiple plats in most of the soulsborne games, will Sekiro still be hard for me? I never felt the urge to buy it when it came out :/
Different type of difficulty so there's no real answer. How good are you at Dance Dance Revolution? Have you played Metal Gear Rising before?
 

ZeroX

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
21,266
Speed Force
literally no one say difficulty is bad, they just said accessibility options are good
This. It really isn't hard to understand. Adding an easier difficulty or letting players pause in Offline Souls doesn't hurt the core experience in any way.

Serious question: If I have multiple plats in most of the soulsborne games, will Sekiro still be hard for me? I never felt the urge to buy it when it came out :/
You'll be fine. The level up grind for the plat is the more annoying part but if you've done Souls you won't have an issue there.
 

Agent 47

Banned
Jun 24, 2018
1,840
So what are the accessibility options people want that have nothing to do with altering the difficulty?
 

LossAversion

The Merchant of ERA
Member
Oct 28, 2017
10,715
Accessibility options are never a bad thing.

At the same time, developers should be able to make whatever kind of game that they want to make. If they don't want to give the player multiple difficulty options then they shouldn't be lambasted for it. I also think that there's a pretty big difference between changing the balance of gameplay systems and things like subtitles or color blind options. Developer's should be encouraged to incorporate the latter but at the end of the day... "difficulty" is extremely subjective. It's pretty much impossible for a game to cater to everyone in this regard. You also have to consider that developers are on limited budgets and under strict time limits. Completely rebalancing a game can take a lot of time, especially if you want those difficulty settings to have any thought put into them. And it can potentially double or triple the amount of playtesting needed.
 

RedMercury

Blue Venus
Member
Dec 24, 2017
17,665
Only if you agree it should have won, I think there are fairly valid reasons to believe it should not have, namely how few people were seemingly able to finish it.
 

Deleted member 227

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
852
So what are the accessibility options people want that have nothing to do with altering the difficulty?

Not a part of the usual debate here, but personally I'd love the option to turn the perilous attack cue off (the red kanji and popup sound). I beat most of the bosses with audio off because of it.
 

tulpa

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
3,878
You talk as if this is a fact, and an obvious one at that at, which it is not. Even if you, and the people you associate with, did not say this, saying that "literally no one" said this is literally you talking out of your ass.
way to be extremely hostile and toxic over a super mild remark
 

SunBroDave

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,164
way to be extremely hostile and toxic over a super mild remark
relax. i'm just saying you shouldn't be overly dismissive. don't act like you know everything, because even if you're right, other people see things differently than you do.

i'd hardly consider that "extremely hostile and toxic", but if you do, then apologies
 

Escaflow

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 29, 2017
1,317
It's because of the quality of the game itself, nothing to do with difficulties. There's a magic from FromSoft touch that made it different from other games.
 

Agent 47

Banned
Jun 24, 2018
1,840
Not a part of the usual debate here, but personally I'd love the option to turn the perilous attack cue off (the red kanji and popup sound). I beat most of the bosses with audio off because of it.
That's a good one, I'd turn off the sound that plays when you get a backstab or finishing blow. That sound got super repetitive.
 

jett

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,663
Serious question: If I have multiple plats in most of the soulsborne games, will Sekiro still be hard for me? I never felt the urge to buy it when it came out :/
They don't play anything alike.

It's because of the quality of the game itself, nothing to do with difficulties. There's a magic from FromSoft touch that made it different from other games.

The enjoyment you get out of Sekiro is directly related to overcoming the challenge in the game.
 

Giever

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,756
Not a part of the usual debate here, but personally I'd love the option to turn the perilous attack cue off (the red kanji and popup sound). I beat most of the bosses with audio off because of it.
If you have it on PC, I'm pretty sure there's a mod for adjusting (and removing?) the perilous attack cues. Then again, if you had it on PC you'd have probably already checked for that, but just in case I thought I'd let you know.
 

Palazzo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,007
I don't like the "artistic freedom" argument in general because that could theoretically be argued for developers doing problematic content.

Of course, this isn't the case with difficulty options, but just something to be mindful of.

As for the topic at hand, if FROM Software was interested in adding accessibility options, it would in no way hurt the difficulty because they'd be just options. When Celeste added those settings, no one stopped saying it was a difficult game or started saying it was easier. The only outcome of that was that more people were able to play it. I can't see any argument that convinces me that more people playing a game they want to is a bad thing.

Options are part of the game too. I think the fact that From Software hasn't added a discrete easy mode to their big action games from the last decade shows they recognize that. Not having any options (aside from the various builds and multiplayer system from the Souls games) means that everyone who plays the game has to go through the same type of experiences, roughly - everyone who reaches Anor Londo or the lordvessel beyond that in Dark Souls has shared similarly triumphant moments.

I think this is a big part of From's design ethos, and it's what their diehard fans are in love with - the strong mechanics, relatively high difficulty, and strong art design come together to make their games feel like cohesive, believable, dangerous adventures. Giving the player a menu option that simplifies the game would take away from that, and the fact that no such option is there gives their games character.

It's also worth mentioning that creating an easy mode so that people who wouldn't or perhaps physically couldn't play the game otherwise isn't really "letting them play it". Games are mostly made up of their mechanics, and the way learning to interface and interact with them sparks your brain into action. Creating a simplified, less-potentially-engaging alternate mode for your game isn't necessarily letting more people play your game; it's just creating a subgame on the side.
 

fireflame

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,275
An easy difficulty mode doesn't taint the Soul of a game. I understand game being criticized for lack of difficulty mode, even if in general I try to ebat games in normal or hard when there are such options.
 

Jawmuncher

Crisis Dino
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
38,525
Ibis Island
If your take from the argument was "Difficulty is bad" as being the main point of discussion. It shows how little you were looking at the conversation to begin with.
 

LumberPanda

Member
Feb 3, 2019
6,365
Gotta love how this game has brought to the forefront who here believes in gatekeeping accessibility.

Visual impairment? We should demand larger subtitles and colour blindness options. Hard of hearing? We demand subtitles, including for things like important sounds offscreen and passive npc dialogue, and UI informing you the direction of bullets.
Motor impairment? Whelp, not every game is for everyone.

(We should be demanding accessibility for all)
 

Deleted member 227

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
852
If you have it on PC, I'm pretty sure there's a mod for adjusting (and removing?) the perilous attack cues. Then again, if you had it on PC you'd have probably already checked for that, but just in case I thought I'd let you know.
I played it on a base PS4, much to my dismay. 😭
The input lag and frame rate is so bad on that at times.
 

Wamb0wneD

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
18,735
From shouldn't be doing it for the balancing aspects alone. And I'm not talking about easier modes being unbalanced. Look at the crapshoots that result more often than not when devs put in multiple difficulties. God of War's hard difficulty for example was balanced so badly. Every normal enemy a wall to climb earlygame and later on everything becomes a joke. Let's not even start on "Give me God of War".

I'm really glad I can play a challenging game that's actually balanced around that difficulty without becoming an unfun mess where "you die in one hit, isn't this hard??!" is the baseline for games that aren't designed around it.
 

Crayon

Member
Oct 26, 2017
15,580
Alot of people were mad they couldn't "experience" it and move on to the next game. Seemed to do fine, tho.
 

BrunOz

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,259
Brazil
I've just finished the game this week and as a player who finished and played all the previous Souls game, I think it's not that difficult in general as people say on the internet. Bloodborne DLC, DS2 and DS3 felt way harder to me.

However I think Sekiro is the most punishable of those games, you take A LOT of damage for a mistake (Death penalty and Dragonrot are overrated tho, playing a psychological aspect of the punishment) and honestly I think none would lose anything if they've added a item to reduce damage and make the game easier for more people to enjoy it.

Hell you even got options like de Demon Bell and going charmless to increase difficulty, why not put in something to aliviate it for those who just want to chill and enjoy the story / world / characters? You had that option with the summoning on previous Miyazaki titles, so it would be nothing new or to be 'ashamed of'.

The fact that it won an award doesn't mean that it couldn't do better as a more accessible single player experience imo.
 

fireflame

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,275
That brings a side question, would people be fine if refunds requests were motivated by difficulty?I don't think people hate difficulty. They may feel frustrated when the learning curve is too long, or that games do not give them ways to progress.. And sometimes this is subjective and depend on people. I will never enjoy bullet hells because I feel even with efforts I will only improve so far, and not enough to make the experience enjoyable.
 

Wamb0wneD

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
18,735
It's because of the quality of the game itself, nothing to do with difficulties. There's a magic from FromSoft touch that made it different from other games.
And difficulty is part of that. The way every enemy you come across can easily kill you if you're not paying attention, the wagering of whether to return to the last checkpoint or push on into unknown territory and find the next, even when low on health and out of healing items.. all that ads to the opressive and bleak atmosphere. I feel like people underestimate this a lot.
 

OmegaDL50

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,696
Philadelphia, PA
I don't like the "artistic freedom" argument in general because that could theoretically be argued for developers doing problematic content.

Of course, this isn't the case with difficulty options, but just something to be mindful of.

As for the topic at hand, if FROM Software was interested in adding accessibility options, it would in no way hurt the difficulty because they'd be just options. When Celeste added those settings, no one stopped saying it was a difficult game or started saying it was easier. The only outcome of that was that more people were able to play it. I can't see any argument that convinces me that more people playing a game they want to is a bad thing.

I think this is a solid point that some FROM diehards will completely gloss over and ignore.

There has never been a case of someone having access to more options ruining someone elses experience with the game. What one individual does with their own personal experience and enjoyment of the game doesn't have a negative impact for anyone else. There are folks that seem to speak on behalf of the development team in a myopic fashion and not consider the benefit of more folks being able to enjoy the game.
 
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Cyberclops

Member
Mar 15, 2019
1,444
I would've liked Sekiro more on an easier difficulty and more options is always good. The easy mode 'campaign' wasn't even a real thing until the people vehemently against it got their panties in a twist (it's still not really a thing and pretty much everyone except OP moved on).
 

Deleted member 1120

user requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,511
Gotta love how this game has brought to the forefront who here believes in gatekeeping accessibility.

Visual impairment? We should demand larger subtitles and colour blindness options. Hard of hearing? We demand subtitles, including for things like important sounds offscreen and passive npc dialogue, and UI informing you the direction of bullets.
Motor impairment? Whelp, not every game is for everyone.

(We should be demanding accessibility for all)
No one speaks out against larger subtitles or color blind options.
BTW There is a audio and visual cue for when you're spotted by enemies. Even the ones who have guns.
 

Wamb0wneD

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
18,735
I think this is a solid point that some FROM diehards will completely gloss over and ignore.

There has never been a case of someone having access options ruining someone elses experience with the game and there are folks that seem to speak on behalf of the development team in a myopic fashion and not consider the benefit of more folks being able to enjoy the game.
People aren't speaking on behalf of the devs in a myopic fashion, the very fact they didn't put in multiple difficulties in 6 games now, spanning an entire decade, speaks for itself. People don't have to speak for the devs, the devs make their intention and way of game design very, very clear. It's the people that still can't come to terms with that after 10 freaking years that start this discussion every single time a new game releases and come across as if they know better than the actual devs of the games lol.
 

Zacmortar

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
7,383
User Banned (1 Week): Hostility, multiple past infractions for hostility.
I don't think From Software owes anyone multiple difficulties. They should stick to doing their thing.
fuck off with this. everyone is owed what they pay for, especially when its only a goddamn OPTION

god i despise the soulsborne community

artistic vision can eat my ass
 

Servbot24

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
43,161
Gotta love how this game has brought to the forefront who here believes in gatekeeping accessibility.

Visual impairment? We should demand larger subtitles and colour blindness options. Hard of hearing? We demand subtitles, including for things like important sounds offscreen and passive npc dialogue, and UI informing you the direction of bullets.
Motor impairment? Whelp, not every game is for everyone.

(We should be demanding accessibility for all)
Demanding what you want is fine and I encourage you to do so.

But are you saying that "not every game is for everyone" is invalid? Because it seems incredibly self evident to me that not every game is for everyone, nor should they be.
 

Zacmortar

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
7,383
No one speaks out against larger subtitles or color blind options.
BTW There is a audio and visual cue for when you're spotted by enemies. Even the ones who have guns.
Motor impairment does not give a single goddamn shit about audio visual clues

what do you people not understand about it not being about whether you can "learn" the game or not.