Comment on Please can we make Soulslikes easier????? I can't handle the levels but want to feel leik a gamer.
dontbelievethis@sh.itjust.works 6 hours agoThat just something people say who want to be part of the discourse and are not really interested in playing the games.
v4ld1z@lemmy.zip 5 hours ago
Why though? You do end up not playing the game at all if you’re barred from it because of imposed arbitrary difficulty settings
dontbelievethis@sh.itjust.works 3 hours ago
Because the different difficulties are build into the game in the form of items, weaknesses and coop.
You have to invest time in the game to figure it out though. And that is what people don’t want. And that is why I say people just want to be part of the discourse and don’t really want to play the game. They don’t want to engage with the mechanics.
And the mechanics are the message. Under the lense of videogames as an art form and not just a product to make money.
if you change a mechanic without an in universe explanation that weaves in the greater themes, the whole peace loses Integrity.
At this point I hesitate because, do you mean soulslike as a genre or just the fromsoftware catalog?
Because if you mean as a genre I think its fine. It is just that I don’t want it for the ones fromsoftware makes.
Those are the only games I played that weaves it’s themes into so many layeres and delivers it all in a way that just a video game can.
And being in a unforgiving world where all you can do to overcome is be persistent, be aware and sometimes ask strangers for help is a powerful message.
Something you will never experience when the world isn’t that unforgiving in the first place.
Which is the irony in it all, that through changing the thing, the thing ceases to exist so you would not experience it anyway. Just some distorted version of it.
And thats kinda the thing that gets me mad when I see the debate. Because I fear that this will be taken away from me. That all the people who are not interested in playing the game, they are more interested in beating the game, will be louder.
v4ld1z@lemmy.zip 2 hours ago
I get all of your points and agree with most. However, your experience is entirely unchanged if people who want to have difficulty settings play with them and you don’t. It’s a single-player game - their decisions to do not affect you in the slightest.
Imagine if DS3 was the exact same game it is right now, but you have the option of choosing a difficulty options that reduces the damage you take and increases the damage you deal, for people who want that kind of experience. Would that change anything about the experience you had with the game?
At the of the day, as long developers have the freedom to do as they please and communicate what they feel like is the “preferred” experience, there is no harm in catering to more people outside the inner circle of most dedicated players who have the luxury of putting as much time into the game as they are able to. Like, why would that bother you?
The more people get to experience the game, the better in my opinion. I don’t gain anything from gating people from playing the game other than an already negative rap the genre and its player base gets from elitist opinions on their game. Not saying you’re an elitist for having the opinions you outlined - it’s just something to consider.
And yea, I firmly believe that the entire genre - including FS games - would profit from that.
dontbelievethis@sh.itjust.works 1 hour ago
Yes, it is a single player game but this does not mean it all happens in a vacuum.
There are still resources in development that have to be allocated to that. Those will be missing in other places. Which in turn could affect my enjoyment.
And after I want to talk to people about the game it could also make a difference.
“Dude, that boss was fucking crazy. He kicked my ass for two hours straight until I thought of switching my approach.
I had this item that slowed him and this other item that made me take less damage from his element. Beat him in 5 mins after that. And the crazy thing is that item that slowed him I found in that castle where the kings was missing. That could mean he is THAT KING which was said to have abandoned the throne because of the challenges associated with it
Anyway how was the boss for you?”
"Oh, I played on easy and had no problems. Already finished it. "
“Oh… And did you like the game?”
“It was finde but I don’t get why people call it a masterpiece.”
*dramatic reenactment to bring the point across.
It also affecs me in the sense that it makes me said that those people got robbed of the experience.
I’m talking especially fromsoftware games here. Hardship and overcoming them is a core theme of the whole series.
So if they make it more easy without in game justification it is a betrayal of that core identity. It would lose integrity and its profundity.
Imaging someone would say "Schindler’s list is just to sad and long. They really should change that so everyone can enjoy the movie. "
Then some one makes a Schindler’s list with more jokes, it’s shorter and everything is in color the whole time.
Then that person from before goes to see that movie, comes out and sais “I just experienced Schindler’s list”
Did they?
And now that this version of Schindler’s list exists it will color the discourse of Schindler list, how people perceive it and what form a potential Schindler’s list 2 will look like.
Okay. Kinda going of the rails here. The point is that it affects other things besides that person choosing easy in that moment. It’s not world ending but it is there.
No it wouldn’t change my experience in the moment of playing but this isn’t the point. I want people to have THE experience.
It bothers me with the fromsoftware games because it is the core identity. It is the artistic vision, it is the whole point of the thing.
If there are other souls likes who have difficulty selection that’s good. There should be diversity. I think I have a problem when people try to force something to change to fit their want, without wasting a thought on the question if it makes the thing better.
I think here is our fundamental underlying difference in how we come to our conclusions.
I don’t think it is possible for people to experience it the intended way when they don’t use the intended setting. So the argument, that people want to experience the game and thus put it on easy, falls completely apart for me.
You are welcome ;D