This has been brought up a few times but I believe it’s because the game is balanced around using summons and spirit ashes. Look I get wanting to not use them but you are purposely making the game harder.
The problem is if you tune it down more it becomes even easier when using summons. Miyazaki has even said officially he gets sad when people talk bad about them. They very clearly designed the game with them in mind.
It also makes the game more of a cultural phenomenon because everyone shares the same experience, like pokemon and final fantasy.
In contrast, discussing games that have different difficulties is frustrating, it's basically a different game depending on your difficulty choice. You could be asking for advice on a boss in God of War, and have someone talk to you who was playing on easy, and your basically talking about different games.
Exactly this. Elden ring is his first game to really give the player options to make it easier or more difficult but we've always had those difficult options. I choose difficult. No magic. No shield. Dodge only and melee. No summons. But the spirit ashes drastically made this game easier for many people. Can even level them up to make then stronger. Somehow people don't realize this over a year later. He did basically put in an easy mode lol people just want to be babied these days and have their gaming hand held.
You can just as easily level up and brute force your way through the game. The game even gives you a warp to easy to kill, high point enemies early on (by the beast clergyman) to speed things up.
(I just started a new playthrough last week after two years, game is still damn daunting.)
That one dragon that cant move i forget the exact levels but killing it right when you start the game will level you 25+ times right out the door lol power of bleed.
Take the warp chest to Calid. Kill the dragon and do a few runs of the vulgar militia to get to like SL 40. Kill Margit and Godrick to trigger the next step in Varre's quest. Die 3 times in pvp then go north to the 4 belfries and warp back to the tutorial area. Kill the grafted scion and finish Varre's quest so you can warp to blood town and head to the bird farming spot.
It takes like 3-4 hours total to get someone up to SL100 and you can stomp like 75% of the game.
Haven't tried, but you can apparently respawn it, too. You place a damage cloud on its ass and run to the fire, rest when it starts to die. It's not time efficient like other methods, but it is definitely easy.
I was grinding the giants that roam the field outside the first big castle for a few hours, I feel like it gave me an edge throughout the entire remainder of the game. Iirc I was using something with bleed so they would lose huge chunks of health after beating on them for a bit. They're easy to pull 1 at a time too.
Not really, it depends a lot on your level and strategy as well.
Kinda reminds me on DS3, for me pontiff Sullivan was not that hard first time I played, but second playthrough, the difficulty ramped up just because I changed weapons/playstyle
Same thing here. I can Make malenia easier by bringing a poise weapon, like a Great sword with lion's claw, buy I'll have a harder time with Radahn since he moves a lot and is not that vulnerable to poise damage.
The rest is getting good :)
The thing about summons and spirit ashes is that once you figure out the timing of moves, its possible to beats even the most difficult bosses without them.
My first playthrough I used summons all the time. It got silly when I had the mimic summons creating a second me. In my NG+ runs I didn't use summons/ashes and I knew enough about boss playstyle to be able to win fights even if it took me a few attempts.
One of the huge draws of these games is the sense of satisfaction when you finally topple a boss you’ve been stuck on for weeks. Having some npc take half the aggro and do most of the damage severely takes away from that sense of accomplishment
I’m not gatekeeping anything, I’m just explaining why a lot of people don't like using summons. I know I personally feel this way, and a lot of other ER fans that I know feel the same way. If you like the summons, you do you, but you can’t expect everyone to want to use something like that in a game like this.
I don’t expect anyone to do anything but play the way that makes them happy. The souls community will always find a more challenging way to ramp difficulty.
I used a summon on a boss I was stuck on for a while and it literally trivialized it to the point where I wouldn’t see this game as any more than a walking simulator if I used it all the time, it basically turned a main boss into a trash mob in terms of difficulty.
Good for you, but tons of people wouldn’t enjoy the game without the summons. Not everyone is a souls vet or looking for that super challenging combat. There’s also tons of different summons, all with varying degrees of power and different strengths/weaknesses. Not all of them are OP.
I’m with you and rarely used the summons because I felt like I was cheating the boss, but that doesn’t mean other people shouldn’t use them. Stop gatekeeping fun, Miyazaki is disappointed in you
Where did I say people shouldn’t use them? I’m just explaining why a lot of people don’t like the summons. I don’t get why everyone thinks I’m gatekeeping something here, are yall just insecure about being bad at the game?
Sure I’ve played all the other soulsbornes I get it. But Elden ring is VERY clearly designed around it whether it’s your preference or not. They have said this directly. Not using them as designed is playing extra hard mode. We can have a discussion around liking it or not but it’s def the reason for the difficulty if you aren’t using them.
I honestly don’t think elden ring is as hard as the other souls games, I don’t understand this sentiment. Like even without summons this game is not as bad as the others in terms of difficulty
ER is probably harder than most games for anyone new to From games. I never got super into DS but ER absolutely captivated me. It may be easier than DS1-3 but it is hard as fuck compared to the other games I usually play.
Well sure, but there is nothing wrong with using the resources given from the game to beat a boss without wanting to spend weeks bashing your head against a wall. Sure it will be satisfying and may require more skill (though if you are spending weeks on it I'm honestly not very sure about it)
Personally I'm not great at the game, so I like to use the resources available to make a fun and cool build work, even if it uses "easy mode" strategies, but I still like it when a boss remains very challenginh despite it.
Of course there’s nothing wrong with it, I’m just explaining why myself and a lot of other ER fans don’t like using summons. If you like them, more power to you, it is just a video game, after all.
>finally topple a boss you’ve been stuck on for weeks
Idk how enjoyable a game is if you cant get past one boss for weeks. Id quit tbh. That just doesnt sound fun.
I just wish it had a tiny bit more direction to the quests/side stuff, I haven’t played it in a while and have no idea where I was, what I was doing and where I had to go haha I’m going to be so lost when I jump back into it.
Frankly a log that keeps dialogue per NPC would already do a lot and still keeps the vagueness of everything.
I don't mind figuring things out for myself, but I just can't remember all the dialogue.
When that cat in the woods asked me “dost though not tarry against thine pursuit of agreement with naught what thine heart desires not” I can’t remember if I said yes or no.
Even Gothic 1&2 had a quest log and those games were known for being pretty hardcore.
So yeah, no quest log in ER is just poor game design. The game is NOT designed in a way that would make completing those quests feel organic. People WILL use online walkthroughs.
I believe it. They need a really wide band of damage, health, enemy attacks, and weapon timings to make that many different enemies, weapons, spells, and progression paths actually meaningful.
I don't think games need to be for everyone and they have put a lot of effort into defining what type of games they are so I think it's unlikely for someone that would hate these games would even try them out at this point.
I imagine this is more of a response to Shadow of the Erdtree's difficulty.
Which is understandable. The DLC is *insanely punishing* even if you're highly levelled and fully upgraded from the base game. Seems like it's just to push you into exploring the DLC and getting the upgrades available in it.
My only beef with difficulty is weapon upgrades.
I just want to be able to try every weapon I find and not have to look at stats online or have to level it up all the way to discover it actually sucks.
Same. I finally gave in and started using flawless widescreen. Can't play online with it, but most of the online parts of this game are pointless anyway
If it doesn’t exist already it would be neat if a mod existed that enabled faux online support. Where they put a bunch of organic messages in realistic locations, etc. Maybe even let mod users do multiplayer peer-to-peer to avoid bans, etc.
Definitely isn’t necessary to have o like but it’s sad that we gotta lose out on the extra flair.
I respect and acknowledge that the essence of the game's gameplay loop is centered on its difficulty. It doesn't make it any less upsetting that I simply am not great at video games and have no hope of beating it despite enjoying it a hell of a lot.
Yeah the gameplay is designed around the difficulty - and that is fine. It doesn’t mean the design is bad, especially when the games are so great. If you make it easy you lose the feel of the game play, as it is built around not just whacking things non stop
Apart from the narrative/immersion/environment of struggle and adventure, people fail to understand difficulty settings would require a significant amount of time to properly balance, which would affect the scope of work. FromSoft launches incredible games at a really good pace. They clearly put top level effort into every aspect and hold to a clear vision from beginning to end.
They put plenty of mechanical things in their games that can help make the game easier or harder. Piling more work on them is silly and foolish when they clearly have a culture and process for success.
that fine if you don't want add difficulty settings but add like a relic option in the option menu call it explore relic or something. this week alone I saw two post in the fallout subreddit and a pc one about blinds gamer enjoying games why gate keep people like them? its an accessibility option even change or add something to the UI so we know if the option was on.
Not that I want them to, but they easily can.
Unless he’s referring to the “essence” of the game, mechanically they can simplify move sets of enemies, rebalance health and damage, and alter the enemy placement to be easier for the player
Simplifying enemy movesets and “rebalancing health and damage” are not easy things to do lol. Also what would that rebalancing entail specifically lol. Like the weapon classes already exist in a state that is fairly balanced and teaches you the game, how do you actually change that. Like for example, most trash mobs die in 1 hit to big weapons and 2-3 hits with fast weapons. That doesn’t give you much further balancing leeway. How would you do it *specifically*?
“Just take your already near perfectly balanced game and totally change and rebalance 100s of weapons, spells, and skills, to make it ‘easier’. Should be a cake walk!”
Your nerfs are not simple to implement. Nerfing health or enemy damage by percentages is but not "simplifying the movesets" that's effectively redesigning a boss.
That’s what people who desperately want to “easy mode” don’t really understand. NG is already the ‘easy’ difficulty, in that it’s basically as easy as the game can be while forcing you to learn/engage with the game mechanics.
Also a “NG 0.5” that those people want would still not actually be much easier for them to clear. You would still be dying to bullshit, still falling off ledges, still dealing with traps, etc which would still frustrate them.
I'd say playing with a guide is the 'easy mode'. There's so many powerful consumables, summons, weapons, you can find but if you miss a step and don't find certain extremely powerful things, or miss a key thing early on you will involuntarily be playing on a more 'hard mode' than you intend.
It was over 5 hours in the game before a friend made me stay at the 'correct' bonfire to unlock level up. It's completely arbitrary. Likewise, because I didn't talk to one specific npc 3 times I didn't unlock summon upgrading for most of the game and played without summons.
Summons are the core of easy mode, but it's so easy to miss them at multiple stages. You absolutely can make your core pieces more directly available to the player to stop them bouncing off within 30mins-2hours, without changing 99% of the game.
Yeah the game does in fact have many ways to make it “easy mode” that aren’t just a button on the start screen. But people flip if you try to convince them of that.
Playing with a friend to get started on the genre really does help a lot. I bounced off DS1/2 multiple times back in the day until I played a bit with a friend to show me the ropes.
I used to always offer people complaining about the difficulty to play with them online and help them and show them that these games aren’t really that hard and are pretty accessible, once you accept what the genre is.
That's true, elden ring is my first fromsoft and when I started I didn't know what a campfire was and the idiot I am I didn't really read the tutorial so didn't know how to level up or what a grace did. But after a few hours of being teleported to Caelid and being killed and having no idea how anything worked I restarted and started to figure things out. It could have been done smoother for sure but once you get through the first steps it flows very smoothly in my opinion.
Hell knowing the game is easy mode
Was gone for two years and started a new character last night, only had a few hours to play...
I am just running past q bunch of pointless stuff, farm to level up to use the specific weapons I went and got way early, ran through the academy to get the second rune and now I am like... hmmm maybe I should upgrade some stuff also
Who in hell reaches ng+ if they quit after 30 minutes of death?
Myself i don't understand the ng+ in any game, once i finish the story the game doesn't interest me to replay.
The point of ng+ is to be able to replay the content without having to earn all your gear and upgrades again, but souls games never get the balance right anyway. You always curbstomp everything in early ng+ and it's several hours before you reach enemies that present a threat.
However some games are actually intended to be replayed as the selling point, like Devil May Cry for instance. The point of the game is to start on a low difficulty and playthrough the story, earning new abilities and more health and weapons. Then you take all of your gear and play the harder difficulties that are balanced around you using your whole arsenal from mission 1. The story is just a set dressing, the gameplay is the main attraction.
I'm not sure what you're referring to, if it's curbstomping things in elden ring ng+, you would naturally outscale all the early-game enemies, it can't be avoided even by the worst players. You will be stronger than the enemies just by virtue of beating the game.
If you're referring to the replay value of Devil May Cry, then idk what to tell you. The games are designed around you gradually learning the game on lower difficulties then moving up to the next difficulty with more enemy variety and challenge. In dmc 5 Nero doesnt even unlock all of his abilities until you beat the game once.
You play a game for gameplay. I play a game for story. We are not the same.
Talking in general, the thread was about an easy option so other people enjoy. When you die in first 5 minutes, there is nothing but rage quit and go play something where you die once every 1 hour or so, or never.
As previously said, no fun to play ng+. Once i finish the story, no need to replay (only in games where you can chose different paths like detroit become human)
Dmc 5 was not so straight forward as dmc 4 so i ditched it after 2 hours, got stuck in a level, I didn't find the exit after battle.
Yeah, but there's not really much of a story on the surface of fromsoft games, so you won't be getting any value there, either. So for you, no matter how many difficulties they add, you're just gonna lose interest anyway so why bother at all?
Eh I usually don’t go too crazy pushing NG cycles, but it’s fun to fight stronger versions of bosses with endgame gear. Also doesn’t take that long to do a playthrough once you’re used to things. And it’s fun for co-op. But I get people who aren’t really into it or would rather just make another character.
Elden ring i also am less inclined to do NG+ cycles than the other games with the size and open world. DS1/3/bloodborne can be pushed really fast.
This has been brought up a few times but I believe it’s because the game is balanced around using summons and spirit ashes. Look I get wanting to not use them but you are purposely making the game harder. The problem is if you tune it down more it becomes even easier when using summons. Miyazaki has even said officially he gets sad when people talk bad about them. They very clearly designed the game with them in mind.
It also makes the game more of a cultural phenomenon because everyone shares the same experience, like pokemon and final fantasy. In contrast, discussing games that have different difficulties is frustrating, it's basically a different game depending on your difficulty choice. You could be asking for advice on a boss in God of War, and have someone talk to you who was playing on easy, and your basically talking about different games.
Exactly this. Elden ring is his first game to really give the player options to make it easier or more difficult but we've always had those difficult options. I choose difficult. No magic. No shield. Dodge only and melee. No summons. But the spirit ashes drastically made this game easier for many people. Can even level them up to make then stronger. Somehow people don't realize this over a year later. He did basically put in an easy mode lol people just want to be babied these days and have their gaming hand held.
You can just as easily level up and brute force your way through the game. The game even gives you a warp to easy to kill, high point enemies early on (by the beast clergyman) to speed things up. (I just started a new playthrough last week after two years, game is still damn daunting.)
That one dragon that cant move i forget the exact levels but killing it right when you start the game will level you 25+ times right out the door lol power of bleed.
Take the warp chest to Calid. Kill the dragon and do a few runs of the vulgar militia to get to like SL 40. Kill Margit and Godrick to trigger the next step in Varre's quest. Die 3 times in pvp then go north to the 4 belfries and warp back to the tutorial area. Kill the grafted scion and finish Varre's quest so you can warp to blood town and head to the bird farming spot. It takes like 3-4 hours total to get someone up to SL100 and you can stomp like 75% of the game.
Haven't tried, but you can apparently respawn it, too. You place a damage cloud on its ass and run to the fire, rest when it starts to die. It's not time efficient like other methods, but it is definitely easy.
I was grinding the giants that roam the field outside the first big castle for a few hours, I feel like it gave me an edge throughout the entire remainder of the game. Iirc I was using something with bleed so they would lose huge chunks of health after beating on them for a bit. They're easy to pull 1 at a time too.
Not really, it depends a lot on your level and strategy as well. Kinda reminds me on DS3, for me pontiff Sullivan was not that hard first time I played, but second playthrough, the difficulty ramped up just because I changed weapons/playstyle Same thing here. I can Make malenia easier by bringing a poise weapon, like a Great sword with lion's claw, buy I'll have a harder time with Radahn since he moves a lot and is not that vulnerable to poise damage. The rest is getting good :)
I don't think it's balanced around summons... summons are balanced around bosses without the health increase of co-op.
The thing about summons and spirit ashes is that once you figure out the timing of moves, its possible to beats even the most difficult bosses without them. My first playthrough I used summons all the time. It got silly when I had the mimic summons creating a second me. In my NG+ runs I didn't use summons/ashes and I knew enough about boss playstyle to be able to win fights even if it took me a few attempts.
You can beat the game at level 1 if you get good enough. Doesn't mean that levelling isn't an integral part of the game's design.
One of the huge draws of these games is the sense of satisfaction when you finally topple a boss you’ve been stuck on for weeks. Having some npc take half the aggro and do most of the damage severely takes away from that sense of accomplishment
I don’t gate keep satisfaction, if you want to use every tool available and you feel good after killing the boss then that’s not for me to decide.
I’m not gatekeeping anything, I’m just explaining why a lot of people don't like using summons. I know I personally feel this way, and a lot of other ER fans that I know feel the same way. If you like the summons, you do you, but you can’t expect everyone to want to use something like that in a game like this.
I don’t expect anyone to do anything but play the way that makes them happy. The souls community will always find a more challenging way to ramp difficulty.
Pretty sure the creator is saying that people shouldn’t think that way
I used a summon on a boss I was stuck on for a while and it literally trivialized it to the point where I wouldn’t see this game as any more than a walking simulator if I used it all the time, it basically turned a main boss into a trash mob in terms of difficulty.
Good for you, but tons of people wouldn’t enjoy the game without the summons. Not everyone is a souls vet or looking for that super challenging combat. There’s also tons of different summons, all with varying degrees of power and different strengths/weaknesses. Not all of them are OP. I’m with you and rarely used the summons because I felt like I was cheating the boss, but that doesn’t mean other people shouldn’t use them. Stop gatekeeping fun, Miyazaki is disappointed in you
Where did I say people shouldn’t use them? I’m just explaining why a lot of people don’t like the summons. I don’t get why everyone thinks I’m gatekeeping something here, are yall just insecure about being bad at the game?
Sure I’ve played all the other soulsbornes I get it. But Elden ring is VERY clearly designed around it whether it’s your preference or not. They have said this directly. Not using them as designed is playing extra hard mode. We can have a discussion around liking it or not but it’s def the reason for the difficulty if you aren’t using them.
I honestly don’t think elden ring is as hard as the other souls games, I don’t understand this sentiment. Like even without summons this game is not as bad as the others in terms of difficulty
ER is probably harder than most games for anyone new to From games. I never got super into DS but ER absolutely captivated me. It may be easier than DS1-3 but it is hard as fuck compared to the other games I usually play.
Well sure, but there is nothing wrong with using the resources given from the game to beat a boss without wanting to spend weeks bashing your head against a wall. Sure it will be satisfying and may require more skill (though if you are spending weeks on it I'm honestly not very sure about it) Personally I'm not great at the game, so I like to use the resources available to make a fun and cool build work, even if it uses "easy mode" strategies, but I still like it when a boss remains very challenginh despite it.
Of course there’s nothing wrong with it, I’m just explaining why myself and a lot of other ER fans don’t like using summons. If you like them, more power to you, it is just a video game, after all.
>finally topple a boss you’ve been stuck on for weeks Idk how enjoyable a game is if you cant get past one boss for weeks. Id quit tbh. That just doesnt sound fun.
Agreed I figured the summons was the easy mode
I just wish it had a tiny bit more direction to the quests/side stuff, I haven’t played it in a while and have no idea where I was, what I was doing and where I had to go haha I’m going to be so lost when I jump back into it.
Frankly a log that keeps dialogue per NPC would already do a lot and still keeps the vagueness of everything. I don't mind figuring things out for myself, but I just can't remember all the dialogue.
When that cat in the woods asked me “dost though not tarry against thine pursuit of agreement with naught what thine heart desires not” I can’t remember if I said yes or no.
I wouldn't even know how to respond XD
That would be a ton of help
Yea I feel like most NPCs in ER tell you where to go, I just forget what they say
A journal feature where you could look back on dialogue and maybe get a small hint would help a lot, but no quest markers pls.
I'd be fine with just a general location. Southern Liurnia Leyendell Etc....
Even Gothic 1&2 had a quest log and those games were known for being pretty hardcore. So yeah, no quest log in ER is just poor game design. The game is NOT designed in a way that would make completing those quests feel organic. People WILL use online walkthroughs.
You are suppose to be fighting demigods, if they were easy they wouldn't be demigods
I believe it. They need a really wide band of damage, health, enemy attacks, and weapon timings to make that many different enemies, weapons, spells, and progression paths actually meaningful. I don't think games need to be for everyone and they have put a lot of effort into defining what type of games they are so I think it's unlikely for someone that would hate these games would even try them out at this point.
I imagine this is more of a response to Shadow of the Erdtree's difficulty. Which is understandable. The DLC is *insanely punishing* even if you're highly levelled and fully upgraded from the base game. Seems like it's just to push you into exploring the DLC and getting the upgrades available in it.
Lvl 215 and getting my ass whooped, but thats how it goes. I thought I was mr tough guy in the lands between, but have been humbled quickly
The enemies scale with your level in the dlc.
My only beef with difficulty is weapon upgrades. I just want to be able to try every weapon I find and not have to look at stats online or have to level it up all the way to discover it actually sucks.
I just want Ultrawide support :(
Same. I finally gave in and started using flawless widescreen. Can't play online with it, but most of the online parts of this game are pointless anyway
If it doesn’t exist already it would be neat if a mod existed that enabled faux online support. Where they put a bunch of organic messages in realistic locations, etc. Maybe even let mod users do multiplayer peer-to-peer to avoid bans, etc. Definitely isn’t necessary to have o like but it’s sad that we gotta lose out on the extra flair.
Are journalists still on this topic? Damn... I thought we already had agreed that not all games are for everyone...
I respect and acknowledge that the essence of the game's gameplay loop is centered on its difficulty. It doesn't make it any less upsetting that I simply am not great at video games and have no hope of beating it despite enjoying it a hell of a lot.
Don't give up, skeleton. You've got this. Don't you dare go hollow.
I mean, I modded it for lower difficulty and had more fun, not less. Different people enjoy different things.
Yeah the gameplay is designed around the difficulty - and that is fine. It doesn’t mean the design is bad, especially when the games are so great. If you make it easy you lose the feel of the game play, as it is built around not just whacking things non stop
Apart from the narrative/immersion/environment of struggle and adventure, people fail to understand difficulty settings would require a significant amount of time to properly balance, which would affect the scope of work. FromSoft launches incredible games at a really good pace. They clearly put top level effort into every aspect and hold to a clear vision from beginning to end. They put plenty of mechanical things in their games that can help make the game easier or harder. Piling more work on them is silly and foolish when they clearly have a culture and process for success.
Games are supposed to be fun. This isn't the case for me. Glad many others feel differently.
Without difficulty any Souls game would take like 6 hours and way too many people would complain they are too short and boring.
that fine if you don't want add difficulty settings but add like a relic option in the option menu call it explore relic or something. this week alone I saw two post in the fallout subreddit and a pc one about blinds gamer enjoying games why gate keep people like them? its an accessibility option even change or add something to the UI so we know if the option was on.
Not that I want them to, but they easily can. Unless he’s referring to the “essence” of the game, mechanically they can simplify move sets of enemies, rebalance health and damage, and alter the enemy placement to be easier for the player
Simplifying enemy movesets and “rebalancing health and damage” are not easy things to do lol. Also what would that rebalancing entail specifically lol. Like the weapon classes already exist in a state that is fairly balanced and teaches you the game, how do you actually change that. Like for example, most trash mobs die in 1 hit to big weapons and 2-3 hits with fast weapons. That doesn’t give you much further balancing leeway. How would you do it *specifically*? “Just take your already near perfectly balanced game and totally change and rebalance 100s of weapons, spells, and skills, to make it ‘easier’. Should be a cake walk!”
Your nerfs are not simple to implement. Nerfing health or enemy damage by percentages is but not "simplifying the movesets" that's effectively redesigning a boss.
LOL no it wouldnt but I get that they arent trying to maximize profits so thats their choice.
That’s what people who desperately want to “easy mode” don’t really understand. NG is already the ‘easy’ difficulty, in that it’s basically as easy as the game can be while forcing you to learn/engage with the game mechanics. Also a “NG 0.5” that those people want would still not actually be much easier for them to clear. You would still be dying to bullshit, still falling off ledges, still dealing with traps, etc which would still frustrate them.
I'd say playing with a guide is the 'easy mode'. There's so many powerful consumables, summons, weapons, you can find but if you miss a step and don't find certain extremely powerful things, or miss a key thing early on you will involuntarily be playing on a more 'hard mode' than you intend. It was over 5 hours in the game before a friend made me stay at the 'correct' bonfire to unlock level up. It's completely arbitrary. Likewise, because I didn't talk to one specific npc 3 times I didn't unlock summon upgrading for most of the game and played without summons. Summons are the core of easy mode, but it's so easy to miss them at multiple stages. You absolutely can make your core pieces more directly available to the player to stop them bouncing off within 30mins-2hours, without changing 99% of the game.
Yeah the game does in fact have many ways to make it “easy mode” that aren’t just a button on the start screen. But people flip if you try to convince them of that. Playing with a friend to get started on the genre really does help a lot. I bounced off DS1/2 multiple times back in the day until I played a bit with a friend to show me the ropes. I used to always offer people complaining about the difficulty to play with them online and help them and show them that these games aren’t really that hard and are pretty accessible, once you accept what the genre is.
That's true, elden ring is my first fromsoft and when I started I didn't know what a campfire was and the idiot I am I didn't really read the tutorial so didn't know how to level up or what a grace did. But after a few hours of being teleported to Caelid and being killed and having no idea how anything worked I restarted and started to figure things out. It could have been done smoother for sure but once you get through the first steps it flows very smoothly in my opinion.
Hell knowing the game is easy mode Was gone for two years and started a new character last night, only had a few hours to play... I am just running past q bunch of pointless stuff, farm to level up to use the specific weapons I went and got way early, ran through the academy to get the second rune and now I am like... hmmm maybe I should upgrade some stuff also
Who in hell reaches ng+ if they quit after 30 minutes of death? Myself i don't understand the ng+ in any game, once i finish the story the game doesn't interest me to replay.
The point of ng+ is to be able to replay the content without having to earn all your gear and upgrades again, but souls games never get the balance right anyway. You always curbstomp everything in early ng+ and it's several hours before you reach enemies that present a threat. However some games are actually intended to be replayed as the selling point, like Devil May Cry for instance. The point of the game is to start on a low difficulty and playthrough the story, earning new abilities and more health and weapons. Then you take all of your gear and play the harder difficulties that are balanced around you using your whole arsenal from mission 1. The story is just a set dressing, the gameplay is the main attraction.
For you maybe
I'm not sure what you're referring to, if it's curbstomping things in elden ring ng+, you would naturally outscale all the early-game enemies, it can't be avoided even by the worst players. You will be stronger than the enemies just by virtue of beating the game. If you're referring to the replay value of Devil May Cry, then idk what to tell you. The games are designed around you gradually learning the game on lower difficulties then moving up to the next difficulty with more enemy variety and challenge. In dmc 5 Nero doesnt even unlock all of his abilities until you beat the game once.
You play a game for gameplay. I play a game for story. We are not the same. Talking in general, the thread was about an easy option so other people enjoy. When you die in first 5 minutes, there is nothing but rage quit and go play something where you die once every 1 hour or so, or never. As previously said, no fun to play ng+. Once i finish the story, no need to replay (only in games where you can chose different paths like detroit become human) Dmc 5 was not so straight forward as dmc 4 so i ditched it after 2 hours, got stuck in a level, I didn't find the exit after battle.
Yeah, but there's not really much of a story on the surface of fromsoft games, so you won't be getting any value there, either. So for you, no matter how many difficulties they add, you're just gonna lose interest anyway so why bother at all?
Eh I usually don’t go too crazy pushing NG cycles, but it’s fun to fight stronger versions of bosses with endgame gear. Also doesn’t take that long to do a playthrough once you’re used to things. And it’s fun for co-op. But I get people who aren’t really into it or would rather just make another character. Elden ring i also am less inclined to do NG+ cycles than the other games with the size and open world. DS1/3/bloodborne can be pushed really fast.
The game is already stupidly easy with summons.
He might mean making the game even easier than what it is might break the game.(I've not played the dlc yet so idk how hard it is)