Itagaki was a pretty big bastard if I remember right, or was that someone else I’m thinking of.
As someone who’s done Video game QA, working with Tomonobu Itagaki doesn’t sound pleasant. Those campaign sprints are hard enough as is
I’m not paying for a game that doesn’t allow changing difficulty if I want/need. I work two jobs and have to do most home cleaning and maintenance. I used to game competitively back in the early 2000s, but I don’t have time for that shit nor gatekeeping.
Good news: Dwarf fortress is free.
Strike the earth!
Is it still available for free? I kinda assumed once it went up on steam it wouldn’t be.
Doesn’t the Steam version just give you different graphics?
It does add a lot of quality of life stuff you would have to mod the original to get access to, though as I understand it, the Lazy Newb Pack mods include most of those QoL changes. Though, them being integrated into the game itself will almost always be smoother than requiring the installation of a mod.
let’s be real here, the steam version is mostly a tax on people who find technology scary and can’t install a few things on their own
It’s also a way to support two stellar devs
I suppose you could think of it that way, though buying it on Steam, even if you’re not going to play that version, does help support the continued development of the game overall. Their Patreon donation stream was apparently waning before the Steam version released, plus there was the family health scare Tarn revealed at the time of the announcement too. I’d prefer the entire project not get put on a long hiatus because the devs got unexpectedly bankrupted by the absurd healthcare costs prevalent here in the US. And the fact that they didn’t take down the free version after the Steam release on its own shows that they didn’t make that version for the sake of greed.
… or mostly a cool way to support two guys who have poured their LIFE into what has become one of the most notorious computer games of all time. Exhibited by museums, beloved by million, and distributed for free. Best 30 bucks spend I’ve spendt in a while. If anyone deserves that money, it’s the Adams brothers.
But sure think of it as a mean spirited idiot-tax if you want
The steam version is the nice graphical one. The original is still free.
Oh that’s cool I didn’t know there was a difference between them
The original is capable of pretty nice graphics too.
Yeah I wasted money on 2 soulslikes before I realized it. Now I avoid them like the plague.
Which 2?
Dark souls I and Elden Ring
With Elden Ring, were you expecting a more “living” open world, like The Witcher 3 or RDR2?
Basically I met the first advirsary and spent 2 hours falling to defeat him. I looked around for another couple hours for something to make defeating him possible. Encountered other creatures I couldn’t defeat. Never opened it again.
I’m a middle aged guy with a family. If Im gonna “git good” at something, it will be something useful I need in my life, not a soulslike. I play games to relax not to add to my very long list of problems in life.
Was it a big golden dude?
This guy?
You’re not supposed to be able to defeat him until much later in the game. In the beginning, you just have to avoid him. He patrols a small area in your path, and there are easier enemies just beyond him.It was a guy in a kind of valley going into a cave. Regardless, if I can’t make something happen in the first 4 hours of a game, it ain’t for me.
I think difficulty settings are nice for letting more people play how they want without having to use mods.
I don’t care for the gatekeeping b.s.
I played RE Village with an unlimited-bullets-mod cause otherwise I couldn’t get past choke points.
I play with a controller and shooting is just not great with a joystick unless there is aim assist. Can’t recall if this game had it or not but either way I kept dying when swarmed by werewolves.
I like horror games and I get that the point is to make you anxious about ammo or health. To build tension. But I just find it frustrating sometimes.
Itagaki’s comment here reminds me of Malmsteen’s “more is more”
Aw little ying weeeeeeblebleblbledoodlesedledoodlewedleedleweereeeeeeeiiiiiii
I like the video games with a difficulty selector having a joke difficulty
Stick of Truth.
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Dark souls games start off in easy mode. You can make it harder by your gear/stat decisions or by going into NG+.
All souls have player difficulty adjustment. Just find better gear, grind XP etc
I don’t mind any of these approaches. Personally I’d want a single difficulty that is made challenging but with specific accessibility options. Like disable quick time events, loose lock on, and other things to make the interface more bearable if you have a physical or mental disability.
While I don’t care if a game has an easy mode, a lot of the “easy mode is accessibility” arguments feel similar to the “AI art is accessibility” arguments. Unless you can’t properly interface with the game, having low skill is not a disability or something needing accessibility support. If you practice you’ll get better at it.
The “but I don’t have much time” argument feels especially weird, like would you demand a cliff notes version of a book or TV show because you don’t have the time otherwise? If you just want the story just find a playthrough online.
If a game has an easy mode, great, it appeals to a wider audience. If it doesn’t, great, it’s catering to a specific audience. A game’s not worse for having an easy mode and a game’s not inaccessible for asking you to practice its mechanics.
If I buy a game for €50 and the game is too difficult for me to get past the tutorial, even with practice, I cannot access 90% of the game I paid for. You could call it catering to a small audience but it is different than a game like “pc building simulator” which also caters to a small audience that can at least be fully accessed by everyone (not considering impairments)
If there is no way of scaling down the difficulty then I would like a refund of the money I spent on content I could not access.
The ‘just watch a playthrough for the story’ argument doesn’t work for me. Games are a unique medium in a sense that the story is shaped by player decisions. Even if there is not a branching story, giving the player agency over small decisions like cosmetics makes the player more invested in the character and allow for roleplaying. That’s all lost when you watch someone else play the game.
I agree that if the difficulty is too high you ought to return it. Typically games are balanced for a sizable enough audience, if a game’s tutorial is impossibly difficult then it’s probably not a good tutorial or the game’s for a hyper niche audience.
I guess I can understand the appeal of easy modes just for experiencing the story. This does hit a wall though when a game’s story is dependent on its gameplay. Like Fromsoft games demand a lot of attention to understand the story beyond a basic level, they clearly want to gatekeep that and it’s part of their games’ identity.
My point is basically, difficulty is one of the tools a developer can use to craft their experience. While most games want to appeal to as many people as possible, it should be just as valid for a game to decide their experience requires inherent skill requirements, at the risk of people returning it if they aren’t the target audience.
The “but I don’t have much time” argument feels especially weird, like would you demand a cliff notes version of a book or TV show because you don’t have the time otherwise?
Sweet Summer child…
Yes, there are dummies like that. I remember reading about someone actually bragging about “reading more” by asking for book summaries via AI.
Souls ganes has easy modes. Usually there’s an OP build or archetype which makes the game much easier
I think Souls games went too far tho. If we stayed at DS1 level that’d be one thing, but the Elden Ring DLC just went stupid with it.
I think that is what Miyazaki’s philosophy is. Not everybody needs to be a parry god, nor do you need to defeat the boss naked with a broken sword in order for it to “count”. The souls games and their contemporaries are as difficult as you want to make them. If a boss is too hard, come back when you are overleveled and stomp it. Or use some cheesy build to trivialize it. That’s what he means by “fac[ing] that challenge” and “overcom[ing] it in some way that suits them as a player”.
“…to first face that challenge and to overcome it in some way that suits them as a player.”
Honestly when that player is me, this is just going to mean playing a different game. I’m old and busy, I really don’t have the time or energy for hard games.
There’s a lot of “you made your art wrong” in here. If you don’t have legs, you’re not going to be able to play soccer. You can make your own no-leg soccer if you want, but I’m just going to make an “ew” face at you if you say that soccer needs to change for you. Try arm wrestling!
The best argument against games (or any software) that don’t work for you is that you often can’t get refunds, and that’s a valid concern, but it has nothing to do with the content itself.
A nonverbal person joined one of hubs Delta green games on discord and he accommodated it but was confused as to why they didn’t just join one of the text chat based games on the same server. His theory is they were just used to getting whatever they wanted because they then proceeded to insist on playing a shadowrun character until they just kind of broke down that it wasn’t working with the game and ghosted.
I had to double check that Tomonobu wasn’t responsible for steel battalion. (A game that deleted your save if you didn’t press the eject button in time)
I mean, lots of games have “iron man” modes wherein you cannot save scum.
I think Terraria has a really good approach to this.
Your first playthrough is on “normal” mode. Boss fights aren’t about skill, you don’t have to be on your toes constantly, etc. — except, that doesn’t matter. Because your first playthrough is hopefully blind and without the wiki, meaning you’ll have really bad, inefficient gear, and most of the challenge will come from finding and understanding good gear and how the world works before you can even find and beat bosses. Normal mode on your first playthrough has its own kind of challenge.
After that you will know how to progress and want more challenge and excitement for your second playthrough. Enter “expert” mode. New loot, new super powerful cool accessories, everything is way harder, even basic mobs hit twice as hard. Now everything is about staying on your toes, showing your skills in boss fights, meticulously crafting plans — but you’re rewarded for it by a new experience and what feels like a new, more exciting Terraria. If you get tired of expert mode (I’m gonna say 200–300 hours of playtime later), there’s the ridiculous “hard” mode. And “hardcore.” Endless possibilities.
But everyone is given a chance with normal mode, which is really extremely easy. Everyone gets a chance to get to know the game. But you are rewarded with the full game, in a sense, for playing the proper difficulty.
Match the type of a game, sheesh.
Bethesda like open world? Gimmie difficulty levels - nothing will change with them except that people will be able to tailor the experience more.
Narrative and/or choice heavy game? Leave difficulty choice off to let the original vision of the author speak for itself - havimg parts too easy or hard due to watered down or pumped up difficulty can ruin the story.
Arcade/Dark Souls games? I…don’t really see reasons for difficulty settings here except for harder than baselines ones? Like new game +. In these games, learning patterns and gettimg good is the game, there is no way around it.
All in all - not every game is for everyone, we have genres for a reason. Having difficulty tailored for arcades in open world exploration game makes no sense just as much as having watered down difficulty levels in narrative heavy games.
Some have limited time and want to enjoy a good game without being one-shot or learning patterns for 5 hours to beat a single boss.
Lol yes, I dropped High On Life at the first boss because after trying to pass it ten times, I just couldn’t be bothered.
That’s just not a game to me. It’s just packaged frustration, and I’d rather do something else. So that got uninstalled rather fast.Sounds like you’ll need to play a different game then.
Sounds like you need to learn to respect the boundaries of others.
What? I am not interacting with your boundaries at all. I’m not forcing you to play anything that doesn’t suit you. You are complaining that you want to play a game that doesn’t suit you. Maybe you’ll just have to get over the fact that it doesn’t suit you and play something else?
Sounds like you’ll need to play a different game then.
Sounds like you are telling me what my taste is supposed to be
Maybe you’ll just have to get over the fact that it doesn’t suit you and play something else?
I am aware of it and have already decided it not being my cup of tea.
I am talking about those that like a moderate challenge but do not enjoy being stuck for 10hours at a stage without any meaningful progress to achieve.I am talking about those that like a moderate challenge but do not enjoy being stuck for 10hours at a stage without any meaningful progress to achieve.
Maybe they should pick a game that provides a moderate challenge and not one that provides “being stuck for 10h at a stage without any meaningful progress”?
You: “I don’t like the characteristic elements of Souls games.”
Them: “You may want to play a different game then.”
You: “Stop telling me my taste!”
Can’t be real.
You’re way overblowing the difficulty of the Souls games.
I’ve beaten most of them, and my reactions are shit. 90% of the difficulty is from not knowing how it differs from other games.
Some
I never said all, have I?
So…. Play a different game? Not everything is for you? Does this actually need to be said?
learning patterns and gettimg good is the game
Otherwise it’s fruit ninja lmao which is a fun game you should get if you want an easy sword slashing experience
This is really such an weird argument. Like arguing that you want to be able to drive a nail with any tool you find, so no matter if these are scissors, a spoon or an actual hammer, all need to be usable as a hammer.
We have genres for a reason. If you do not like soulslikes, pick another game. If you have no time to play arcade style games, pick another genre. There are thousands of games available, and genre overlap is huge - don’t play games that aren’t meant to align with your requirements and then complain they don’t.
Like, this is borderline egoistical of you.
I think it’s a valid argument. For example, if someone wants to read Shakespeare but they aren’t a strong reader, you could provide a simpler version, while acknowledging it isn’t as originally intended. It allows for accessibility for a larger audience while not changing the experience for others. You wouldn’t tell someone to read a different story genre instead. This isn’t tools, where we have to bend the laws of physics, it’s changing some numbers in a database, and something already done for higher level difficulty settings, so just allow a version that is easier. No one is forcing anyone to play it that way.
Kojima:
We added Very Easy Mode
Also Kojima:
Get good or wear the chicken hat
