tmyakal

I used Elden Ring as an example, but all of Fromsoft’s Souls games have had similar ways of adjusting difficulty. Bloodborne still had summons, still had tons of optional areas and alternate paths, and even had the cum dungeon if you want to cheese it on levels and skip the grind.

And it’s not like From is the only company doing difficulty this way. Most Mario games are pretty straightforward for casual players, but advanced players who master the controls can often find secret levels or alternate collectibles. It’s an added, optional challenge a player self-imposes to make the game harder. Or Celeste and the optional strawberries and post-game levels.

I was all-in on Hollow Knight. Beat it multiple times, including Path of Pain and the Nightmare King. But I’m struggling with Silksong.

I went back and started up Hollow Knight again just to sanity-check myself, and, yes, it’s definitely an easier game. Many fewer enemies can hit for 2 health; there’s more variety in paths in the early game, so if you hit a wall in one direction you can try another; and you get access to upgrades that actually feel impactful relatively early instead of skills that use up my magic pool that I can’t spare because I need them because I’m always one hit away from dying.

My pet theory is that Silksong is actually just exactly what they originally pitched: DLC for players that have mastered the highest skill points in Hollow Knight. And maybe that would be fine if I were coming straight into it off of the back of Godhome. But it’s been years since I was playing those areas, and my skills have atrophied. It’s okay for a DLC to expect mastery from the start, but a standalone game should have more of a curve.

Celeste is a game about reflexes and dexterity. They implemented tons of accessibility features, including ways to make platforming easier.

There doesn’t need to be sliders or options menu settings. Elden Ring handles difficulty settings beautifully: upgrading your flask is optional and increases both the frequency and amount of healing that can be received. Using summons is optional and can make some fights an absolute cakewalk. Same with all the different crafting items. If you want, almost every dungeon in the game can be skipped or revisited if it’s too hard.

All Team Cherry had to do was change the timing or location for access to certain tools in the game.

Every day, the future looks a little bit darker. But the past… even the grimy parts of it… keep on getting brighter.

What do we think about Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture for this? There is a plot, there is a story, but you as the player have no active role in it. You don’t even see it play out in real time. You’re just there, after, looking at the holes left behind. Nothing changes from the start of the game until the end.

I absolutely loved it, but typing that out, I suddenly realize why most people thought it was really boring.