this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2024
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I don't really think this is a good argument. Other games offer enjoyable experiences on normal difficulties and then offer a serious challenge by scaling up in higher difficulties. I remember original God of War (ps1 or ps2) was stupid easy on default difficulty and quite hard on the highest difficulty.
Your point 2) is just your biased view of the world, really. You think other people can't enjoy something as much as you unless they do exactly as you. Different people like different things and it's nice to have a choice. I don't think gatekeeping game genres just because is a good thing.
Sure, lots of games offer high difficulties, but often, those aren't nearly as good as a game that's tailored from the ground up to make that experience good in the way Souls is. Scaling Health and Damage makes things hard, but frequently just turns enemies tanky and slow to kill, or forces you to play the game super cautiously. That's fine, and an easy to add option for diehard players, but it doesn't hold a candle to what a game designer can accomplish when creating a bespoke experience. That's what Souls is, and what has made it such a smashing success.
Also, I don't think it's just a biased worldview here. What you're suggesting is just subtracting mechanical depth and mastery from the experience. It's not like an easy mode would add anything to the game, it would only take my favourite things about it, and move you out of the carefully designed, bespoke experience into a crude imitation of it.
Your agency is taken away here for good reason, so that you don't make the experience worse for yourself. If From Soft didn't believe in the experience they've crafted, they would've added a simple scaling difficulty like you're suggesting years ago, but the artists who make these games have consistently decided to resist the pressure and make the game they want to make.