The difficulty slider is intrinsic to the system and the world. The whole point is that you have to make it easier by engaging with it on its own terms, rather than by forcing a change upon the world to make it suit you. This is never made explicit; the creator just wants you to either dig deep or bounce off it because struggle is the whole point or something, which is why we have to talk about it forever. Blah

The difficulty slider in Souls games is how many levels you've invested into health

Why? Do Souls players not accept others not liking the games? Thats not my experience but maybe many are like that?

Also, usually Souls players dont lose for 150 hours straight. Most of the time its winning, but sometimes youre set back a bit and sometimes youre stuck. Some people like earning their wins. Some dont deal well with the difficulty and get frustrated, I get thats not fun for them. To each their own.

Most of us get that, but non souls player must also understand that dark souls on easy mode is just a bad game. There are no big cinematics, the story is scarce, there are only a few npcs. Those are games that puts you on your toes, you must be wary at all times, and learn to master the game bit by bit. It's not for everyone, or everytime (I think everyone can play souls game but they need to be in the right mindset) but they are my favorite games. But yeah gatekeepers suck

Idk if soul players need to learn anything. Not your style of game thats fine, but all fights in souls games are fair in the sense that anyone can eventually beat it with practice, or overleveling, or innate skill (those who have, ahem, gotten good), and any combination of the three.

Have known a lot of people who played dark souls at a time in their life where they needed the lesson of getting up after getting knocked down.

Why does everyone think every game has to be made for the lowest common denominator? If you don't like a game, don't play it. Besides, souls games can actually be quite forgiving, the difficulty adjustments just isnt in sliders. Especially in elden ring, you can beat every fight in a pretty brainless (i mean like not needing to dodge almost at all) way if you take the time to set up for it.

Gamers are so entitled they will argue with other gamers on matters of taste. “That game is not to my specifications! Instead of finding one that is I’ll complain until the game is changed! People that like it the old way need to know i have a job!”

I mean, lots of games have "iron man" modes wherein you cannot save scum.

For real, I've got shit to do. Old-school boss fights requiring a ridiculous degree of flawless repetition was an expression of hardware limitations at the time, not a fun feature to get nostalgic about. People can spend their time as they wish, but for my money the artificially ramped-up difficulty for its own sake is a cancer on game design, not something to develop a sense of elitism about.

It's not that I don't appreciate a challenge. I used to love difficult games. I grew up in the NES era when difficulty was the only thing that kept games from being completed in 30 minutes.

But life moves on and we get busy. If I get 2-3 hours in a week to game it's a miracle. I am not going to spend that time grinding a boss for hours.

But other difficult games may be fine. Specifically, rogelikes. Slay the Spire and Dead Cells are games that can be very difficult, but the games are designed to be taken on in short chunks with an entire run taking under an hour, whereas Souls-Like games expect a lot more time commitment.

I really enjoyed the Respawn Jedi games. They're Souls-likes with difficulty sliders that should appease anyone.

Souls have pretty hard bosses... but mostly, they are just optional content. Main story isn't that difficult in my experience.

The Souls games actually do have difficulty settings; they're just a bit esoteric. I think of it like the Mario games: almost anyone can "beat" a Mario, but there are secrets and collectibles all over those games that are only pursued by players who want more of a challenge. It's the same game, but the player is opting to increase difficulty.

Souls games start at a higher skill floor than the average Mario, but you can unlock tools to make the game easier if you choose. There's co-op summons, overpowered weapons and equipment, places to easily farm huge numbers of levels. Plus plenty of cheesy strategies for most of the toughest bosses. It's all optional in-game choices you can make to tweak the difficulty to your taste without the devs putting in a menu slider that just gives every enemy double-HP or something. And they've gotten better at implementing these tools every time they've iterated. The few people who dunked on Elden Ring often criticized how easy it was relative to earlier FromSoft games. It's not inherently easier, there are just many more ways to scale down the challenge if you want.

Yeah I wasted money on 2 soulslikes before I realized it. Now I avoid them like the plague.

Good news: Dwarf fortress is free.

Exactly. I love Souls games but I think having an option somewhere for people that need it wouldn't ruin the intended experience. Especially if there's a disclaimer before you choose it.

I'm not mad they don't have it or anything. But like, shouldn't there be a way to play if you literally can't otherwise?

That actually does sound perfect

Stick of Truth.

Sekiro was my first Souls-like and honestly, it's way too hard. There are moments in the game that lock you out UNTIL you defeat a boss. I even got the mod where it makes you near invincible, and I still struggled to fight bosses. Delivery and world was awesome, gameplay was impossible for people like me.

Then I played Elden Ring where you can literally be over-level. I was getting beat up in one zone, then moved to another area. When I returned, I was better equipped/more powerful/better as a player.

That to me is the perfect balance. Lemme go wander and git gud (by overleveling or finding useful items that make the bosses easier). Every game should allow the player to beat a boss with skill, or plow through them through cheesing/overleveling.

Making enemies soak up more damage and deal more damage is lazy difficulty. Giving enemies more tools to use against the player is the better way to handle game difficulty IMO

Balatro is one of the best examples of this. The game naturally gets easier as the player learns its systems and gains experience through playing.

Isn't this the case for most Roguelites? It's not even necessarily player skill, so much as unlocking permanent upgrades (Jokers in Balatro, abilities/cards in Across the Obelisk or Slay the Spire, stat boosts and weapon modifiers in Hades, etc.).