Dark Souls III Shouldn't Get An Easy Mode

Developers don't need to find a way to make every game appeal to everyone. It's an impossible task and besides, we're talking about the very core of this IP.

[PaleMoonDeath]

Git Gud, these aren't games for the average joe and I'd be pretty angry if they bent over for the lesser gamer.

[Testfire]

On another note, this topic is starting to get a bit old.

[KesMonkey]

If DS3 were to get an easy mode, you could just not play easy mode.

[RufustheKing]

Hold on. I never completed Ds1 but major kudos to those who have plats for ds games. Ds is a hard game and it should be kept as that. If we keep lowering the bar so everyone can play, we will never have games like ds in the first place. Young people today are so weak, they come across something difficult or hurts their feelings and need someone grown up to dumb it down or take it away for them. Infantilism of the masses:(

[SpinalRemains138]

That is exactly what this is.

You put it well. If something is too hard, make it not so hard. How about you practice the game? Life doesn't get easy mode, so why should the game?

Every other game has an easy mode. Why cant we just have our one hard franchise to enjoy?

[Hellsvacancy]

I'd happily ask for a harder mode, something like you only get X amount of lives....

[JohnnyPremo]

I don't understand what people are getting mad about. Who cares if they put an easy mode in. Don't play easy if you dont like easy difficulty. WHy shouldnt the developer try to appeal to everyone? More money for them and it doesn't affect anyone who chooses not to play on easy. Gamers are getting crazy up in here.

[Rachel_Alucard]

The problem is the people asking for an easy mode are generally not interested in the game itself but more invested into everything around it like the characters, world, etc. Otherwise, they'd have no problem becoming skilled at the game. One important factor everyone leaves out when arguing that its optional, is the fact that the frustration of dying to a boss 15 times is part of the games design and killing said boss after going through those deaths is the feeling that can't be had on an easy mode. The developers want everyone to experience that feeling the same way so that is why there is only one difficulty. It means everyone will experience the difficulty the same way and how they deal with it is dependent on the person playing.

The Story and Characters are not what sells the souls series, its this design idea of feeling good after tense moments. The people arguing for an easy mode are missing the entire point of the games.

[SkolarVisari]

So an option that won't affect you or the artistic vision by existing shouldn't exist because only your reasons for playing these games are valid? Right.

[KesMonkey]

But, many people don't have the time or the patience to persevere, and will quit long before their 15th death to the same boss, and won't experience "that feeling" anyway.

[Oreic]

Praise the sun, brother! \[T]/

[Rachel_Alucard]

@Skolar

No it's not about limiting player options. One could argue that point over an endless line of games like saying, "Why doesn't a game like Shadow of the Colossus have any other modes/content outside of the 16 boss fights?" because the developers want players to experience the game "this" way. The artistic vision would be spit on because the "vision" is the adversity in the face of overwhelming odds, adding an easy mode moots that point even if its optional. The appeal of the game is lost if its core purpose was removed. If anything you should argue for a change to how playing with friends works. That should take priority over difficulty options.

@Kesmonkey

Then adding an easy mode wont change anything in that case. Manhours gone, playerbase alienated, and general appeal scrapped with no benefit. Do you believe that everyone that fails will set the difficulty to easy? Do you think they're ego will prevent them from setting it to easy? The souls series already has a reputation for being difficult so changing things at this stage won't suddenly attract more people then it would lose. One problem with the mindset of making things easier = more people is that it fails to consider the fact that most people don't play the souls games for the simple fact of what they are, how they play, the controls, etc. I mean, you can't expect a lot of people to want to get into a game where jump button is tied to sprint or the fact you can be killed by other players in the middle of a mob fight. Things like that are a huge turnoff for a vast majority of the people this talk of difficulty change is targeting.

@Khalina
Now how would you go about changing the difficulty? Would you reduce enemy attack? Would you remove whole enemy/boss attacks? The sad part is the latter was already in bloodborne but was built into the game through the insight system, where having more insight gave certain enemies new moves and made their attacks more deadly, among many other things. If they did decide to add an easy mode this would be the best way to do it. Built into the game as part of the system, yet not so subtle that it doesn't alienate anyone. One problem with adding a straight easy mode is that you would have to remove whole attacks, enemy placements, etc. in addition to the attack values and such. Just downgrading attack and other stats wouldn't be enough to pass off as easy. The whole progression through the game is to "learn". It might be difficult to teach that aspect to somebody whos playing on "easy." I mean, everyone started out the same when first playing the souls games. The more you played the better you got at it. The people who stopped playing cause they died too much have a general problem that can't be fixed by one difficulty option and like I stated in my point above most of these people's ego will prevent them from playing on easy, like even people who've never touched a video game before are less likely to pick easy just for the sake of ego.

[sullynathan]

Dark souls doesn't work the same way people think. Multiplayer is intertwined with single player. Imagine someone playing hard invading someone playing easy?

[SkolarVisari]

Not an issue, you just make the connection algorithms filter people based on difficulty settings.

[Sovereign59]

The game's brutal difficulty when compared to nearly all other modern titles is its defining feature. The difficulty exists as it has always been meant to, the back of the box to the original Dark Souls reads "PREPARE TO DIE." These games are meant to provide players with a challenge. Stripping the challenge away removes the (dark) soul of the franchise.

Nobody is being excluded from being able to play this game with the current state of its difficulty. Nothing about the difficulty is unfair. Every death a player incurs is avoidable. Anyone can conquer any enemy in this game, it's only a matter of two things: Patience and Practice. Anyone refusing to play because of "difficulty" is simply unwilling to exhibit those two behaviors.

[jerethdagryphon]

Im going o compare dks to dead space2 here.

On hard core in dead space 2 the difficul was set to hard and ou only got 3 saves. Dead space managed difficulty by reducing ammo health packs and in creasing enemy health slightly.

Hard cores only challenge was surviving far enough to warrent a save.

You master that game by playi g on normal and memorizing enemy placment patterns and such much like dks.

Dks has frequent ish bonfires . enemys that are predictable and telegrap attacks nicly.

Dks difficulty is onl there if you rush in blind expecting to chop your way through

But with wach failure you learn and progress farther ascyou know the guy wih he crossbow will shoot ou from the parapet. But only if you kill the guy b the barrel first.

Its a modern old school game and it has been made easier bonfires repair gear. Fast travel. Single quicker healing less stats less upgrade routes.
Its fine as it is zand i hope for a dks and demons souls remaster

[sullynathan]

It's almost like the people complaining that DS is too hard keep forgetting that there are ways around that.
Pick a class that you're comfortable with and play the game slowly, when it comes to bosses, summon sometime to help. You can even summon up to 5 npcs and humans to help you throughout the game.

This topic should not be brought up again. The difficulty in this game is a design choice, dark souls was not the first game to be hard nor was it the first game to not have a difficulty option. The devs don't have to change that.

[firelogic]

Why is there even a debate about this? Having an Easy option doesn't change the way "hardcore" Souls players experience the game. You know what you can do if they put in an Easy mode? You can not play the Easy mode. Problem(?) solved!

Expanding the player base, selling more games, making more money. Cultivating more "hardcore" Souls players. How is that a bad thing? You're going to get people who were interested in the game but too intimdated to buy it. They play it. They like it. They move up a difficulty level. They're in for the next Souls game.

You really can't make a good argument as to why Souls games shouldn't have an easy mode. You can write a novel about why it shouldn't exist and I can refute every single point you're about to make by saying one thing, "it's optional."

As for the "soul" of the game being lost by having an easy mode, LOL. You can play it like you played every other game and retain 100% of the "soul." People who play on easy can test the waters and if they like it, play on normal to experience 100% "soul." Why do you care what the easy players are doing? It's none of your business.

You're probably concerned about the Souls series not being considered "hardcore" as a result even though it doesn't change your experience in any way. Newsflash, no one's impressed when you tell them you beat a Souls game.

[sullynathan]

this does change things. The devs don't want additional difficulty options and you still haven't posed a reason why they should add ones.

Remember one big reason why this series broke into the mainstream was the viral "Prepare to Die" marketing. If the whole "Dark souls is hard" shit wasn't pushed into peoples faces, this game series would have been as obscure as Demon's souls was. They wouldn't have attracted as many people in the first place.
There are games (Ninja Gaiden and so on) that are as difficult or more than DS that aren't even as popular as Dark Souls is today.

A good argument is that having no difficulty setting makes for a very even and consistent difficulty all throughout the whole game. Dark Souls wasn't the first video game to have this design either. Asking the devs to implement different difficulty options is like asking an intelligent show to dumb down its content so everyone can experience it. It isn't needed.

[jambola]

There's a debate because many people feel differently,
no it wouldn't change most peoples experience, but the game has it's reputation for being such a hard game, it would lost that if it was only harder on higher difficulties.

If people are too intimidated then it's not a game for them.

even if it's optional it still has impacts on it's reputation, call of duty games can be really hard on the highest difficulty, as can many others, yet they don't have a reputyaion for being difficult games.
Optional things can change a games reputation, a rep that draws a lot of people in, i know i'm not the only one who hears about a hard game and wants to try it out because of that

No, that ust seems like a cheap and dishonest way to downplay other people who disagree with you.

[uth11]

There's a very good reason why Souls games shouldn't have easy mode. Developers are the ones who get to decide what goes into their game, and this was From's vision for the game.

[one2thr]

Never understood why people keep going on about the Souls series having to cater to a wider audience by adding an "easy mode", when the set difficulty is what sales the game(s).

If FromSoftware hasn't added an easy mode in DS3, better yet since Demons Souls what makes some of you think they need the money from those that can't adapt to the brutal gameplay offered within the souls series?

Maybe just maybe this particular title isnt meant to cater to the lacking few that can't handle the difficulty within these titles.

The soul purpose of this series is meant to be challenging, unforgiving, and rewarding.

I agree, this series DOES NOT need an easy mode, yeah that sounds selfish, but Souls titles and Easy mode in the same sentence sounds like cheating.

[Imalwaysright]

Souls games are already in easy mode. Their "difficulty" is inherent to how they are designed. They are not "difficult" because you have to fight 20 enemies coming at you from all sides or because bosses have insane ammount of health like you see in other games. Souls games are not unfair and don't artificially bump up the difficulty.

Souls games"difficulty" comes from learning its mechanics and patterns. Once you learn them they're fairly easy when compared to games that are truly difficult and unfair (looking at you 16 bit era).

[pyroxxx]

It already has an easy mode ,.. It is an RPG,.. so,.. you can LVL up to Obscene levels,.. and since meta for PVP for now is 120,.. you probably will have to anyway,.. there is no way in hell to get stuck for very long at any part,.. Except when you re playing SL1 and basically have to have a really lucky boss run,.. Well maybe in DKS2 you could possibly run out of enemies to farm,.. and also die before getting your souls back a lot ,.. but would have to be very very unlucky/bad at the game ,.. only thing in Souls that is really hard is playing Soul level 1 (not because you die a lot ),.. but because your equipment sucks entire game,.. and you have to be perfect all the time on boss fights ,..

[Rachel_Alucard]

Leveling to the max (SL 792) doesn't actually stop certain enemies from one shotting you, because most of the attacks are percentage based. So even with 99 Vitality, any enemy that can grab you can kill you for example. You still need to learn dodging/attacks and be patient, not greedy like too many games allow.

[Antifan]

Exactly.If it did, It'll be like every other game out there. Besides the game isn't that hard, since enemies spawn in the same level and locations, with the same patterns.

[Zichu]

I keep seeing these articles pop up. I dont bother reading them, I prefer to read the comments to gauge what people want.

This series is difficult. When it was first released, people were hooked.

Why can't people leave the game as it is. Its not broken and it's not missing content. The developers wanted the game to be like this.

The developers cant cater to everyones needs.

[Bladesfist]

I'm glad they didn't have one when I started the series. In those early hours with my first Souls game (Bloodborne) I may have been tempted to reduce the difficulty and in doing so I would have lost out on one of the most rewarding learning experiences I have had in gaming. It feels so great whenever you overcome a huge challenge. It's that feeling that made me go back and beat Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2 after playing through Bloodborne 3 times.

Everything in these games is about learning how to overcome challenge through failure. Remove the failure and you remove the whole reason I loved the games. The challenge has to be great to drive you to overcome it.

[uth11]

It's kinda moot now, the game is finished, and it's the last game of the series. It's not getting an easy mode

[OutcastMosquito]

Every game should have multiple difficulties. What pathetic articles these days. If you want to play on the hardest difficulty then do it, if you want to play on easy modes then it shouldn't be such a huge problem. Appeal to everyone not just try hards that think games need one difficulty. Makes no damn sense.

[xtheblackparade]

I don't like the games but I like the discussion. I'd say the only reason to add easy mode is when it's that or dumbing it down for everyone lol.

[JBryant0619]

Coming from a Non-Souls Player, There really shouldn't be an easy mode or even a normal mode. I don't know how to phrase it but I feel as if the Souls players share some special bond as a community or a family. Like they have all been through the ringer and its something they can relate with each other. Something they can be proud of and be able to look upon each other with respect. If there was an easy mode and people beat it, they could claim they defeated souls games but it would diminish the achievement of beating a game with a high difficulty such as the Souls games.

[SpinalRemains138]

Some things are difficult and only the worthy persevere.