Downvotes arent gatekeeping. It’s just people not agreeing with you or disliking your tone. Also bitching about downvotes tends to attract more downvotes for your efforts.

I had a similar experience with the final boss of the Elden Ring DLC. Tried to beat him like 200 times and then quit playing for several months.

I want to appreciate the additions, but...this is also not a good way of doing it.

The difficulty is often the point in Soulslikes, but quite often it feels like these games are hard in 17 different ways, and a player may only have trouble with 1 of them.

Maybe that's navigation, and finding the next path forward. Maybe that's working out how to put together a functioning build, and realizing what each weapon does. Maybe it's that the parry window is just a few frames too tight because they're playing with an input delay.

That's why the games I've liked have varied accessibility options to let you change just one thing, like getting your souls back on dying, slowing down the game, slightly decreasing damage values - or increasing them on both sides.

I usually start on easy mode and then steadily increase difficulty as I go. Nothing will make me refund a game faster than being 20 minutes in and dying 74 times in an impossible encounter. LoP is one of those games.

If downvotes aren't gatekeeping, then neither is saying Dark Souls is perfect the way it is and doesn't need to be changed. Ultimately, I think we're all picking a side on this one, and dont want to hear what the other has to say. Voting me down is your way of saying "I don't want to see this kind of thing." It can't be hand-waved away as simple disagreement. There is an echo chamber at work here, it is somewhat nasty and honestly disheartening. Like when I make a joke about Miyazaki not wanting this (it is a joke after all) and everyone piles on the dislike; that's the community trying to send me a message. And yes, I know that calling out downvoters makes them pile on more; I am proud to spit in ya'lls face. The discourse around difficulty is toxic on both sides and I hate it. Can't even make a joke without bringing out the Defenders of the Casual or whatever. Vote me down some more, its exactly what I expect.

Sometimes difficulty is inextricable from the art, and Dark Souls is a good example of that. When people say they want it easier they are missing the message. You SHOULD have to struggle to get what you want, you SHOULD have to pay attention to the game you're playing instead of mindlessly hacking your way through only to forget bout it days later. If a game punishes impatience and hubris, you will be more immersed in an oppressive world, you will feel like a small part of a larger tragedy that transcends your typical hero fantasy. These are the things that make the game special, and Miyazaki and his team knew what they were doing. You are spitting on their vision and their talent when you say it should be different. Lies of P... I haven't played it, and the devs can do whatever they feel is right to make the game they want to make.

But you know, Starry Night is fine and all but its too dark and depressing. They should put some more yellow in there, really make it more accessible to the masses.

See, assuming someone calling out your bitching has downvoted you is part of your problem. I didn't downvote you before, now I have downvoted you because you sound whiny.

There are only two ways a difficulty setting has ever been used, and only one would be good for a game like this.

Either the health and damage (and possibly speed) is going to be adjusted so easier difficulty means you take less damage and deal more, while harder difficulties turn enemies into sponges that absolutely destroy you in 1 or 2 hits.

Or they re-do every encounter, 3 times, adding, removing, or re-arranging the mobs so they are easier or more difficult by actually tweaking the challenge and not the just the "numbers."

Almost every game chooses to do the former and not the latter because it's cheap and easy to do. Takes literally no effort to adjust some numbers by a percentage. It actually takes some thought and planning and time to actually present different tiers of challenge, naturally.

You sound whiny too

I hope it's clear which option is the original difficulty. I plan on playing it and honestly I'm worried how they'll implement it. Difficulty settings are great but hard to pull off

Better find a different term to use than "soulslike" if you're removing and reducing the skill requirement.

Edit: I invite the doonvootern to comment and fight (Soulslike) instead of whining cowardly (easy mode, afraid of confrontationlike)

Accessibility options are good.

Agreed.

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.

Not everyone just wants to enjoy the story. Some people want a challenge which requires the reflexes of a 14 year old hopped up on Adderall.

Why should every single game be changed to suit your specific play style?

Instead of demanding their games change, maybe you could just accept its okay some audiences have different likes than you and just play the ones that cater to your style?

The game doesn't really explain this, but you get different dodge animations when you are using an extra light build. To me, this made the game feel more like bloodborne, which made the combat easier to read. Eventually, I ended up parrying everything instead of dodging, but I really like how the game plays in this state. YMMV

I might actually give this a try now!

I love me some ambience and story, but I'm not masochist enough to grind through a souls-like.

Bloodborne almost got me though

I have to be honest here and say I don't understand where you're coming from at all.

Why should every single game be changed to suit your specific play style?

Literally nobody is asking for this. Accessibility options, not "permanently and irrevocably reduce the difficulty of all games". The good thing about options is that they're option-al. If you want the game to remain challenging, the presence of accessibility options does not affect you in the slightest. You can just ignore them and go on with your day, enjoying the game just as it was.

I have to be honest here and say I don't understand where you're coming from at all.

Thats okay! Thanks for asking. I'm coming from the place that video games are art.

If games are art, then I choose to support artists, even if they want to make weird or unconventional art. If an artist has a vision which clashes with my own I want them to be able to follow their vision that instead of always conforming to "general audiences".

As to the rest of your comment I already said first thing accessibility options are good so I'm not sure what got miscomminicated there.

A. The game is actually art and the artist vision includes an option making it playable for more people

B. The game is a product that they want to sell to more people, adding difficulties sells more

I don't see the issue either way. Why care what audience it's conforming to, you'll either enjoy the game or you won't?

while harder difficulties turn enemies into sponges that absolutely destroy you in 1 or 2 hits.

Sounds like a normal dark souls experience to me, I see no issue

I get where you're coming from.

B. The game is a product that they want to sell to more people, adding difficulties sells more

Sure. Not not necessarily untrue.

I don't see the issue either way

My stances is forced here. I support the artists.

Unfortunately, supporting artists means sometimes you have to disagree with the businessmen when the two groups disagree.

Selling microtransactions and skins and deluxe editions and pre-order exclusive content, etc, etc all "sells more" (or at least makes more money).

If the artists feel for whatever reason adding more difficulties is too much to manage or prevents them from making the experience they want to make, I have to take the side of the artist.

There's always going to be an argument the product needs to change to make more money, that's not the art I find super interesting.

Why care what audience it's conforming to, you'll either enjoy the game or you won't?

Because I think of the people who make games as artists and it pisses me off to think of some guy in a suit pressing his fingers into the Mona Lisa and pestering Da Vinci to make her smile and show cleavage so it can sell more.

I get that a business needs to make money, but those should be decisions the artists are in the room for at least.

If it's A I don't care, if it's B I do.

The dodging on this game was frustratingly buggy.

My favorite souls like.... Excited for more content!