I thought souls- like fans love tough bosses. Enjoy it then. I think they should git gud. /s
For full disclosure, I suck at souls-like and I beat Elden Ring by cheating(completely offline). I have been called Mentally removed for wanting an easy mode. I don’t like souls like fans, not all, just some of the more hardcore ones.
You really need to be zealously masochistic and self-flagellant to enjoy that kind of shit. I don’t know how people do it.
Have you tried being zealously masochistic and self-flagellant? Gitting gud is another option.
But really though there’s something endearing about a game being ruthlessly difficult with no easy mode slider. I’m normally the type of guy to crank everything down to easy to have a relaxing time, but when I’m in the mood for it Souls games scratch that itch juuuuust right.
Some people like developing an artistic skill. This is that. Fuck up on the piano? Start that part over and get it right this time. Fuck up in elden ring? Start that part over and get it right this time. Both have acceptable amounts of variation that lead to success. Elden ring is in fact easier, because things can change that aren’t solely your skill level (stats/gear). There’s a lot of reasons the souls series and similar games are conducive to speedrunning, this loop of self-improvement is a major one.
When I read comments like yours, they come across as saying “practicing anything is stupid and I do not see the benefit”. It’s easy: practicing anything is fun and you only get to see the benefit after you fail, then succeed. If there’s some mental disconnect you have where you can’t envision success for yourself, or you think succeeding won’t be fun, it certainly isn’t the fault of the game or the community.
And some people don’t want to deal with the difficulty and just want to explore. Sure, it’s not rewarding for you, but it is for them. So yeah, I think a separate easy mode would be fine as long as you still get to choose it and it’s not forced on you.
Once you’ve played enough, the fact that it’s hard makes it better. I remember the first time I played dark souls, (dark souls III) I beat the 2nd boss months after the first try (i didn’t play continuously for those months obviously). I was just unable to beat it. I looked at the wiki for builds, for that specific boss starts and so on.
Once I beat it, though, I kinda knew how to play, and the fact that the bosses were hard made it better, since now I got a big dopamine hit after I finally killed them after tens of tries.
Now, most games I play I beat them on the first try. Not because I’m good, but because the games are easy. I watch other people play and they kill them first try too. I don’t get that same sense of “oh this is a boss, it’s gonna be hard but fun.” Instead I think “oh no, I was having fun oneshotting everyone and now here comes the bullet sponge”.
Look, I personally consider myself a “hardcore” fan, but I don’t have a problem with legitimate criticisms. Things like the need for optimizations, bug fixes, etc. The criticisms of the DLC by other so-called “hardcore” fans, are not legitimate. The problem is, these people are straight fucking morons that can’t bother to learn the game in the first place. They think they can just run to the bosses with their over-leveled, NG+17 character and expect to use the same methods they used for the base game and beat it the first day it’s out. IT IS NOT THE SAME. The DLC is like playing a “sequel” that let’s you load your character and equipment from the previous game so you can look cool, but your still starting from essentially zero. You HAVE to level up the new stuff to get back to where you were power-wise, which means you HAVE to explore, and you HAVE to change up how you approach things. You cannot just rush through the bosses to see the ending. You HAVE to play the game to be able to play the game, and the pissy babies can’t fucking grasp that.
The real problem with the “community” is that a huge, huge amount of its members are shitty, asshole children with shitty, asshole parents that buy them these games, which they shouldn’t be playing in the first place. The other big part of the community are the shitty neckbeards that are still children mentally.
All that said, if you genuinely suck at a game, that game isn’t for you. That’s why I quit playing Balatro. Not everyone is good at everything they try to do- like how my birth-giver was a home ec major (yes, that was actually a thing), but she can’t cook for shit. She can fuck up Kraft Dinner. But damn can she sew, and craft, and all the rest. (She’s still a narcissistic sociopath, so she can fuck right off.) So if you like the game, but can’t play it, maybe just watch a streamer or something so you can still enjoy it. Hell, my wife was so into Elden Ring just from watching me play that I bought it for her so she could play it. She tried. She really, really tried. But she just couldn’t do it. So we got a refund and she still loves watching me play so she can get to experience it. Not everything is, or needs to be, for everyone.
Agreed. I’m glad there’s so many difficulty sliders built into this game: big variety of guns, NPC summons, spirit summons.
Honestly, it was not enough. With Easy Mode mod, I could actually explore the game world and immerse myself more than I would ever have. One of my favourite moments is when I was fighting Dragonkin boss in front a giant throne occupied by a massive skeleton in first underground city. It was amazing. I could never experience it without that mod. I am too easily frustrated.
As someone who has never used story mode/easy mode options, I agree with you completely.
Nine Sols, Celeste, Hades. Some of my favorite ‘hardcore’ games with great stories and great difficulty options. The only result of their presence is letting more people play the games who wouldn’t have otherwise. I don’t feel like my experience is cheapened in any way if others use the options.
And even if I don’t use them now, maybe there comes a day when my hands can’t keep up anymore, and I’ll be very grateful to be able to keep participating in my favorite hobby. Just an unambiguous good imo
To clarify: I support easy mode. I am curious: Would it be more rewarding for you to explore and deep dive into the world, or to beat a boss on the normal difficulty? I totally see the appeal of both honestly lol
I play them offline because no way am I playing with that mostly asshole fanbase
I’ve been playing video games my whole life and I’ve never been able to “git gud” at any game. I’m not going to put a significant amount of time and effort getting good at a game to figure out if I even like it
I don’t do difficult games cause of physical issues. I tried Elden Ring and was very impressed, but ultimately it was unplayable for me even trying to go easy.
What do you recommend cheat wise? I’m running on Linux and I really don’t care about online.
