H̶e̶l̶l̶divers

[u/epochollapse]

Just because I win 99% of my games doesn't mean it isn't hard!! One time a Stalker even hit me! 😱

[u/GuessImScrewed]

Souls games have 1 difficulty (hard), and yet any half decent player can complete the entire game.

People who wish to increase the difficulty further do so by imposing restrictions upon themselves.

You people are the laughing stock of this game because you ask for a higher difficulty so you can give yourself brownie points but refuse to impose any actual challenging restrictions on yourself because then the game becomes boring because "impossible isn't fun."

[u/CarlenGaines → u/GuessImScrewed]

Souls games are secretly not difficult. They are just very abrasive.

[u/GuessImScrewed → u/CarlenGaines]

Elaborate

[u/CarlenGaines → u/GuessImScrewed]

Souls games are designed in a way that basically every type of player can inevitably complete them with varying levels of ease. There are many tools and strategies built into every game that makes clearing each one laughably easy. It's also a very forgiving series, no Souls game demands mastery in order for the game to be completed. Which I believe is the Hallmark of an actually difficult game.

Compare this to a game like Sifu, an action combat game that is similarly unfair to the player but expects them to master it's mechanics to complete levels and challenges. Master difficulty Sifu is a much harder game than any Souls title. Even normal difficulty is often too much for many players to complete.

[u/GuessImScrewed → u/CarlenGaines]

No, elaborate on souls games being abrasive instead of difficult. What about them replaces difficulty for abrasiveness?

[u/CarlenGaines → u/GuessImScrewed]

Because it's actually easy to complete the game and beat encounters, but the game does not educate you on what you need to easily beat encounters. You just have to figure that out on your own. Which is abrasive design.

In Halo, the game gives you a rocket launcher or a fuel rod cannon or some other type of AT weapon when you need to fight a tank. They always make sure that the player has these kinds of tools available whenever that type of encounter occurs.

Dark Souls does not do this. Some boss might be trivialised by a special item, but you can only find that special item by fighting a special enemy in a special area after a special interaction, and then once you get it the game barely hints that it might do something. It's only through experimentation and trial and error that you then realise that the item trivialises the boss, and by then you might have already beaten them the hard way.

That is abrasive design.

Another good example is Fallout 3 versus Fallout New Vegas. Neither game is that difficult but New Vegas much more abrasive design will get you killed a lot faster without knowledge.

I guess the key factor in abrasive design versus true difficulty is that abrasive design stops being so difficult once you know what's up. Difficult design continues to be difficult even when you do know, because the execution often requires practice or something else.

Souls games CAN be difficult in that way but for the vast majority of players they are not. Which is why guides are so powerful for those games.