First of all, thanks for calling me illiterate because you saw the word “demand” once in my entire response and just assumed I meant “demand” in the most literal way and ran away with it. Very cool. Take a step back and see what I’m trying to convey with a calm head.
“but seriously theres really no reason not to have the game have an easy mode for peopel that need it” is hardly a kind little suggestion. You are essentially implying that the devs are being inconsiderate for not making their vision accessible to everyone.
My “they don’t have to” isn’t my only counter argument, I have multiple. I just didn’t feel like typing out more than what I felt was necessary to end this tired conversation I see every time a FromSoft game comes out. And for someone so obsessed with responding to arguments, you haven’t really confronted the argument of “They don’t have to”. Honestly, answer it. Why does this conversation show up every time FromSoft releases a game? Why does FromSoft have ANY obligation OR expectation to make their games have an easy mode? I’m not making the argument that they have to legally change how their game is designed, I’m making the argument that it’s silly to ask of the dev team who’s identity was essentially founded on uncompromising game design to compromise on their vision. Not all forms of art/entertainment have to be accessible to everyone, and that’s fine. I would like to go on about why they SHOULDN’T add an easy mode, but I’ll hold off on that for now. Because if we want to talk counter arguments, let’s talk:
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“they made the game for people to have fun and to make money, that is what literally every game is made for, nothing is sacrificed because there original vision is still 100% in tact”
your argument here assumes that
1) they made this game for people to have fun and make money
2) by adding an easy mode, their original vision is still 100% in tact
These statements assume that they have no artistic goals in their design. You think a director like Miyazaki that touches literally every single aspect of this game from sound design to lore, is just about fun and money? It’s very clear he has a very artistic and specific approach to his directing. This also assumes that the difficulty and struggle is not part of the core theme that these games communicate. Every single story is about experiencing death and pain countless times, and being reborn to do it again whether you’re an undead trying to rekindle the flame, or a hunter returning to the dream. These games are purposely difficult not just for shits and giggles. Miyazaki himself has said that the games are meant to be “difficult, but not unreasonable”. The high difficulty is there to represent the character’s struggles and insurmountable odds. Miyazaki takes video elements such as death, respawning, and new game+ a context within the lore. I can go on and on about why difficulty is an important piece of storytelling and atmosphere building but let’s move on to the next argument.
“seriously there are no downsides other then a bit of time investment to add it(which would mainly just be upping the players stats and lowering some enemy stats, maybe remove one or two enemy’s from areas and increase the number of frames you have to counter attacks)”
Wow that is quite the oversimplification of how game design works, how a gaming company works, and how much time and money and work it costs to create a secondary mode. ESPECIALLY with a director like Miyazaki at the helm. Do you genuinely believe that someone as insanely meticulous would let a secondary game mode just be a numbers adjustment? And there are plenty of other factors that decide how a game is designed. The marketing team would ask “Would adding an easy mode make our diehard player base upset? What is the cost-benefit analysis on this move to add this mode?”, investors would worry if adding another mode is worth the time and money in additional sales and guaranteed backlash to justify adding this mode? There’s a lot of moving pieces. It’s not just Miyazaki in a room with a laptop changing some numbers on a spreadsheet to unlock easy mode.
“and importantly: more people buying these games, which means more money for fromsoft, increase likelihood of a sequel/dlc and the likelihood other devs will make games in this niche, so looky there now theres more games in the genre you enjoy, and it cost you quite literally nothing”
I don’t think FromSoft is having any trouble getting people to buy these games. On release, Sekiro was the fourth most played game on Steam, and handily beat RE2′s and DMC5′ release days.
This argument also assumes that adding an easy mode to a game from a studio that is synonymous with difficulty (e.g. the Dark Souls of [insert genre here] marketing strategies]) wouldn’t diminish their brand. Uncompromising difficulty is what people immediately think of when they think of a Souls game. You think the company would want to diminish that kind of brand strength? When they released Dark Souls, it wasn’t called the “Prepare To Die, Unless You Selected Easy Mode Then It’s Not That Bad Edition”. Difficulty is strongly intertwined with their marketing and brand recognition.
Also, other devs are already following suit and creating games within this niche category and seeing success. Where do you think games like Salt & Sanctuary, Nioh, and the mega-succesful Cuphead found their traction? And look, Cuphead included an easy mode without FromSoft ever having to compromise. We’re all winning here!
“also are you on the dev team? no? then you dont really know who they made the game for do you? your assumption that they intended it only for hardcore tryhards is completely baseless”
Your assumption that they didn’t design this game for the tryhards in mind is also baseless. Has FromSoft made ANY moves to appeal to gamers that aren’t here for the punishing gameplay? Actually I’ll do you one better, here’s a quote from Miyazaki saying how he would like to maintain the difficulty because there is a message behind that struggle that he would like to convey:
“…and I am thinking about how to make everyone complete the game while maintaining the current difficulty and carefully send all gamers the messages behind it.“
Now back to your main argument that there is no reason for FromSoft to include an easy mode. I’ll just give one for now: There is no way to satisfy both the player’s desire for easiness and the dev team’s artistic interpretation of how difficulty should be intertwined with the story. If a dev team’s vision sees difficulty as an important factor in the storytelling and gaming experience, then how can they trust the player to balance out the difficulty for their own preferences? If difficulty is a part of their world building, giving the player control over difficulty takes the story out of the dev’s team hands.
Here’s what I think of your position on this. I think you are disregarding how much time and effort it takes to create a game. I think you are disregarding how many moving parts are involved in game development. I think you are disregarding the artistic vision of the dev team. I think you should read this interview from Miyazaki himself then think over your past criticisms.
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