parksungjoon
08.01.21 | The addition of an easy mode, so long as it is optional, doesn't violate the game's vision or core principles. Those who play a game like Dark Souls for its difficulty can still play the game on the default difficulty. Hell, include a message in the game saying "This is how the game is meant to be played" when hovering over the normal difficulty on the select screen. Lots of games already do that.
Dark Souls does a uniquely poor job among video games of explaining how its mechanics work, and I personally don't think it's reasonable to expect a completely new player to be able to figure out how to summon, or how to make a build, without turning to the internet for help. And if you have to turn to the internet for help with something, the game has either a) failed to properly explain itself, or b) failed to design itself intuitively enough for the player to figure something out without an explanation.
An easy mode in a Souls game would be laughably easy to implement. The bosses could have reduced health, kills could wield more souls, checkpoints could be more numerous, enemy attacks could be slowed down or removed entirely if they're too difficult to avoid, the possibilities are literally endless.
Going back to the "violating the core principle" thing, quite frankly who gives a fuck? I don't sit around seething every day in contempt for people who turn on auto-drive in Mario Kart or use the Exp Share in Pokemon. It really isn't that hard to just not care how other people want to play a video game. |
