Why are you saying it's unchanged when it's obviously changed ? I get the choices part but not the dichotomy between the game and the marketing. If you add an option you change the nature of the game, whether or not the normal mode remains the same, nothing to do with marketing that's a fact.When you talk about difficulty, what you're actually talking about is the lack of an optional "easy mode". The regular difficulty itself remains unchanged. FromSoft games not having easier difficulty isn't because of the director intent, it's because the games are marketed to go viral as "Difficult games". A marketing tactic that worked brilliantly.
It's simplistic to think that From Software just want to have their games labeled as difficult or elitist. The truth is it changes how the game is approachable, how people are going to play it and talk about it. Those games go viral not because they are labeled difficult but because being difficult has consequences. Players share their hardships, their tips, they help each other, the coop is even made for that and the community was born from that. The fact that everyone is going down the same path but with a set of tools of their own is really a huge part in the success of those games, it's so obvious to me. They have to unify the experience while giving a lot of freedom at the same time to overcome it.
How many players were truly prevented from enjoying those games because of the difficulty versus How many players fell into that collective experience that they would probably have missed completely otherwise ? So yeah i think it's a DESIGN choice that's very thoughtful.
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