Interesting. I've heard good things about this game from a friend who is way better at games than I am.

Accessibility options are good. Not everyone is a god gamer with the reflexes of a 14-year old hopped up on Adderall and Red Bull. Some people just want to enjoy the story and the atmosphere of a game and it should be normal for us to let them.

It's difficult, but good. I'd advise trying to play with the default settings for a bit - you need to engage with the parry mechanic to have a chance, but if you don't, you lose out on lots of fun. But if you can't make it work, lowering the difficulty is definitely a good option!

Miyazaki wept.
Edit: lol people love to complain about gatekeepers and then they gatekeep comment sections about difficulty. Its ok guys, youre safe. The video games cant hurt you.

Absolutely amazing decision. Difficulty settings make games more accessible - period. And gating accessibility behind "artistic intent" and "vision" is just stupid. Sure, not every game has to meet everyone's idea of a good time, but come on - it can't be that hard, and it would only be a net positive for everyone.

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So much this! I love a challenging game but sometimes you just want to experience the game without the frustration, and lowering the difficulty for yourself has zero impact on people who prefer the original or higher difficulty

Oh yeah reflex is a huge skill gate. I could basically never land a parry in Demon's Souls, so hopefully there are some nice settings to dial that in.

Tell me you never played a soulslike for more than two hours without telling me.

Boss’s weapon moves forward -> press roll, covers about 70% of the souls series.

I haven't played Demon Souls, but the timing feels more forgiving than it does in Elden Ring. Interestingly, Sekiro feels even more forgiving.

There‘s a potential discussion to be had about how much of the Soulsborne/-like experience is about overcoming difficulty - and let’s be honest, the vast majority of people won‘t finetune difficulty but just go as easymode as possible - but on the other hand I strongly dislike elitism in games and in the end it should be on the player if they wanna potentially ruin their own experience or not, as such I agree with you.

Would Dark Souls have ever become the iconic game it is and FROM/Miyazaki the iconic devs they are with an easymode (in their games)? Hard to say.

I‘m always happy to see these options especially in indie games, which so often go crazy hard on difficulty towards the end (Celeste endgame for example).

Black myth wukong would be so great with some difficulty options. I'm sure the rest of it story is great, but if I get stuck for a week on a boss I'm going to stop caring about that story.

It's true I haven't played the Elden Ring expansion, and I guess that's the most difficult one now so it's required to have played it to be able to parade around your gamer credentials? Whatever that's supposed to mean? To me gaming is about enjoying a medium of culture, not a dick measuring contest. I've played Dark Souls, I've played Elden Ring. I've beaten Sister Friede, I've beaten Malenia.

I still think accessibility options are good.

Agreed, it's a great idea. I don't even think I would have been good at soulslike games when I was 14. I just don't have the patience for those sorts of constant boss battles where it takes so many hits to kill the boss but you die in 1 or 2.

So that doesn't apply to Sekiro...

Yeah, is a double edged sword. But if it makes more people to stick to the game rather than abandoning it, is nice.

My brother has Elden Ring for PS5 sitting on the shelf. The only serious playtime he’s had was a year ago when I visited him and made some character progress. Now, he keeps asking if I’ll play it again during my next visit. I always tell him, ‘No, I’m good-it’s a great game, but I’m coming over for peace and relaxation, not to get frustrated.

I stopped playing, and until they patch in an easier mode… I won’t get to experience the rest of the story. It’s been a great story, so far, too.

I appreciate difficulty options for other people and I think everyone should agree it's a good thing to make games more accessible or more challenging depending on what a player is seeking.

My only caution is maintaining the vision for the expected experience. I imagine we've all played games where the normal difficulty or the default experience feels bad or improperly tuned. Multiple difficulty options can, I imagine, lead to less tuning on the default experience. I have no doubt I disliked games I would have liked if they'd encouraged me to play at a different difficulty or spent more time tuning their preferred difficulty. I have no doubt I liked games that if they'd provided difficulty options I may have changed the default experience to my detriment without realizing it.

In this one you can get away with blocking too. You take some damage but you have a short time to regain health by attacking right after. I think it makes it a little more forgiving when you are learning enemy moves and fine tuning your reaction.

Gotta make the stories good for me. The story in all these games is all drawn out dog water trash.