Dark Souls Director Considers an Easier Option

[PatrickXD]

Dark Souls is super hard and super fun.
If people are really having that hard a time with it, and the director of the game is recognising this potential fanbase and wants to invite them in to experience the game as much as possible, then why not?
I will never play on this 'easier' mode. I would hope that it isn't so easy as to prevent people from dying those first few times. I also hope it brings as many people as possible in to share this awesome game together.
And that's a nice thing to think.

 

[Mr Dizazta]

Dark Souls is super hard and super fun.
If people are really having that hard a time with it, and the director of the game is recognising this potential fanbase and wants to invite them in to experience the game as much as possible, then why not?
I will never play on this 'easier' mode. I would hope that it isn't so easy as to prevent people from dying those first few times. I also hope it brings as many people as possible in to share this awesome game together.
And that's a nice thing to think.

Finally somebody who gets this.

As for the Easier mode, just turn off invasions and summons unless they are for NPCs like Maneater Mildred.

 

[Yeager942]

The difficulty of Dark Souls is vastly exaggerated by the media, as the game is only difficult if you enter it with the wrong mindset. Dark Souls quickly trains to play its style of gameplay, and a player who is active in learning his/her mistakes will quickly find that the game becomes a lot easier than people give it credit for.

 

[duchaked]

ignoring the conversation regarding to PC gaming (which I usually try to), having an easier option...sounds interesting. wouldn't mind it since the challenge is still available to those who want it (like my friend who loves Dark Souls' challenge factor!). personallyl I tend to play new games on a normal setting and then bump it up the second or so playthroughs (unless it's a series I'm already familiar with and well-versed in), but playing a game for the challenge alone isn't something I have the time for :[

 

[Thoric485]

But the PC version of Dark Souls even has an extra layer of difficulty - wrong key prompts and hints, horrible mouse acceleration, fucked up targeting.

Dark Souls with a keyboard and mouse is as hardcore as it gets.

 

[Neonit]

when in history of mankind was having more options bad?
adding a couple of "+30% to health, +20% damage protection" modifiers doesnt seem like it would hamper game development....

i do enjoy DS mostly because of the challenge. it is really fun the first play-trough for me, because im used to games holding you by the hand. its nice to have an option to go to an area that is WAY over your head. i also like how it rewards you for completing something that you really shouldnt (see killing the first boss before you are supposed to)

i think that they should add the option, even if i am afraid that most people will resort to lowering difficulty rather than say, learning the moveset of the boss or finding different ways of beating them.

....I'm not trying to be rude here and we all know how pc gamers do think they are the 'pc super race' and know better than your average joe who plays on console....

why yes, we have meetings at Fridays, at our local "evil overlord" club. i for one always keep my satchel of "peasant-be-gone" spray, you know, just in case one of those peasants approaches me.

we also have this thing called hivemind, which causes all of us to be exactly the same, in every possible way. it is implanted after the so called "assimilation".

really, if anything, i see more of console people bashing pc's that the other way around.
its like this, we get angry at devs because of bad port, and then in turn SOME RANDOM console players claim the "master race" card.
i have no f****** idea why, oh why, do people who have nothing to do with the issue get involved. seems pointless to me.

 

[6SteW6]

It really just sounds like corporate greed to me which is a shame. They've clearly found their audience, one that was much larger than anticipated so cater to them! Why do they want to bring in the casual players? Why? This game isn't a great RPG. The combat systems clunky. It doesn't have a great Story. The dark world, characters and graphics are cool but the real selling point is it's notorious difficulty it sets the tone of the entire game it's what makes it memorable! Take that away and what do you have? another sub par JRPG.

It's like fans of shooters complaining about the intrusive story in a mass effect game, if you don't like the style of play or the challenges presented go play one of the thousands of other games out there!

For the Record I love this like I loved Demons Souls and if you want to get on board just play it the way it was intended.

 

[TrevHead]

I think alot of PC gamers do like hard games but in different way, they many tend to go for deep thinking games but suck when it comes to twitch skills outside of Quake.

There's also the problem of quicksaving and save scumming that it's almost an expected feature in PC games.

As for if DS should make an easy mode? nope it'll most likely dilute the game as a whole since the From will start making increasingly bigger compromises to game design especially the level design. Too many game series have gone down the shitter by trying to be mainstream

If you were to make this game easier, the best way to do it would be by including a proper tutorial. Explain bonfires, humanity, weapon upgrading, kindling, equipment load all that stuff, to us properly, and the game would still be exactly as satisfying but a fair bit easier. Because as is, you just have to look that stuff up on the wiki or guess if you want to get anywhere.

I think the lack of tutorials its a good part of the charm of DS, they don't need to explain anything more. Imo it would be best to just include all the basics in an instruction manual like in the old days.

 

[Mandalore_15]

"Are PC gamers soft"? You know they're generally considered to be the most hardcore of the hardcore, right? Author doesn't know what he's fucking talking about.

 

[Tradjus]

Well, I think that making it easier in the sense of, "Instead of 100 points of damage, the skeleton now does 50 points of damage" would be missing the point of the whole game.
However, and this is a big however, if there were a mode that popped up with some helpful hints, tips, extra journal entries, and stuff like that for people who had never played the game, that'd be the proper direction too take it in my opinion personally.

What people really need is more direction, more information, not easier too kill enemies, because in Dark Souls and Demon Souls the solution often is almost never "Just run up and hack and slash it a bit" but the actual solutions themselves are often difficult to discern.

 

[Olrod]

There's a difference between making something "challenging" and making it Nintendo Hard [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NintendoHard].

Frustrating =/= fun. The complete opposite of fun, in fact.

 

[Jmp_man]

I don't believe that he meant that there would be an easier mode. In the interview he mentioned that people wouldn't like an easier game. Rather he mentioned focusing in on reducing the frustration that the game conveyed, and that adding an easy mode would be one means to that end.

You think PC gamers, the ones who have 'I wanna be the guy' are afraid of repetition in gaming?

IWBTG: Die = 2 minutes
DS: Die = 30 minutes

Huge difference there... in IWBTG checkpoints are spaced literally minutes apart if you know what you need to do to get past all the traps in an area. DS has you repeating the same sections over and over again but the difference is that it's much longer, and this is what causes players to get frustrated.

 

[Jaythulhu]

*snip*

It came with a mouse?!

Hahahahahahaha, yuppers.

Spoiler

I thought everyone was talking about how unplayable it was with a mouse and that a gamepad was like, mandatory

I didn't get past the first 10 minutes, but that was pretty bad fucking awful control wise. I don't own (or want) a gamepad for my pc though, so can't really compare it.

 

[antipunt]

*snip*

It came with a mouse?!

Hahahahahahaha, yuppers.

Spoiler

I thought everyone was talking about how unplayable it was with a mouse and that a gamepad was like, mandatory

I didn't get past the first 10 minutes, but that was pretty bad fucking awful control wise. I don't own (or want) a gamepad for my pc though, so can't really compare it.

Well let's just say by now, I finally know why Dark Souls is considered such an insanely difficult game. It took me TWO days to get the thing working with my powerful ATI card. TWO. FREAKING. DAYS. One of the hardest games to run...EVER..

edit: and yeah, also figuring out the mouse/keyboard control scheme. It's more of an emulator than a port >_>

 

[Monsterfurby]

This guy and the Assassin's Creed developer [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/119409-Assassins-Creed-III-Dev-Says-Easy-Mode-Ruins-Games]. At noon. Ten steps, one bullet.

Fight.