this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2024
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I should say that I appreciate the candid discussion, nice to have a civilized chat on the internet. Also - in the end it wouldn't really bother me if Fromsoft did implement a simple difficulty slider. I think it'd be a bit more difficult than you are assuming however since it is also a multiplayer game. I guess they could limit the difficulty options to offline players only.
But as a very long time fan, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that they have actually gone a long way to addressing the difficulty complaints of their games. ER is their most accessible game and there are a lot of in-game opportunities to customize the amount of difficulty one faces. I could go on and on about it but I'll leave it at that for now.
I believe a difficulty slider in a game specifically Elden Ring would destroy the game design. Biggest example is my own experience after walking out the starting area seeing and having that horse fella as the first thing I saw and tried to kill for longer than I would like to admit (before going to Google) if there was just a slider to slide down so I could kill that guy I would have never learned how to play the game and explore and kill bosses to level up. Not saying sliders don't work in ANY game but I just think it would ruin the experience of elden ring.
I mean you could just not use the difficulty slider. I've never turned down the difficulty in any game even if I could have, but I don't begrudge people that do if they're struggling.
Oh yeah I 100% agree with you! I always try to make sure to point out all the other options available to people if they're frustrated with difficulty. I think people don't understand that a lot of the 'options' in Fromsoft games are not in menus - they're baked into the gameplay itself with in-world/lore reasons for doing them. Like how co-op uses a sign instead of a multiplayer interface 'room' like most other games.
It is the best thing about Fromsoft games IMO, that everything is a vessel to help tell the story and create more immersion, and a difficulty slider is game-y and creates less immersion (as well as what you said - would ruin the opportunities the difficulty affords in directing pleayers).
All that being said, if they added a slider that would only affect others, the only way it affects me is that I'd be bummed that they didn't get the great experience that I love about the game. I mean the other person mentioned Celeste which I also really enjoyed and I wasn't even aware that it had difficulty sliders. So that's how much they'd affect my enjoyment of the game.
For online play, you can just match people who are using the same difficulty, and perhaps disable PVP entirely for Easy difficulty. For everything but PVP, it's not that big a deal. Seamless Co-Op Mod works with the Easy Mode mod. If modders can make a coherent experience, I'm sure From could. If they wanted to. Which they don't.
I think ER had a great difficulty design since you could go to other areas to overlevel. But I haven't played it or the DLC so I can't really give a specific opinion on the implementation in fromsoft games, I just think that general anti-accessibility statement like the original quote are uninformed and ableist opinions. And you're welcome for the discussion!
Yeah I see where you're coming from. I know as a creator it's really hard to strike a balance between achieving an artistic vision and separating their pride in that from real accessibiliy concerns.
And like I said in my other comment, I cherish the way Fromsoft uses difficulty to direct players and tell stories and I hesitate to want to do anything to water that down. Too many games take the route of making that game for everyone and Fromsoft games are for me that gaming oasis I can escape to.