Dark Souls Easy Mode?! Oh noes?

DragoonPK

3259 Posts

October 06 2012 00:04 GMT

About a month ago there was a news story about Dark Souls possibly getting an "Easy Mode" that would help bring in new people to the game.(Link here) At first I didn't exactly like the idea, especially with a game like Dark Souls. However the more I thought about it, the more I realized it could be plausible if done correctly.

So I put a video summing up my thoughts on the matter:

Quick Summary:
- I think an Easy Mode might actually bring in a ton of people to the game and slowly turn them into fans of the series.
- Rather than messing with the difficulty of the AI or things like health and damage, an Easy Mode should work around those core structures to ease people in rather than take away all the difficulty the game is known for.
- An idea I had was for Souls not to go away once you die. This might make progression seem a lot easier than normal to a new player.

What do you guys think about a possible easy mode? Yay or nay?

PUPATREE

340 Posts

October 06 2012 00:23 GMT

Nay. Accomplishment and frustration are tied together in Dark Souls. Repeatedly getting fucked, and learning slowly each time is part of why the game's so satisfying to play. If I didn't lose my souls, I'd slowly be getting stronger every time I died, and none of those deaths would even bother me. Keeping it difficult and punishing keeps it satisfying. I'm fucking garbage at the game, and I've only had the chance to play it on two weekends. The only reason I'm able to hold the game in such high regards with just a few memories of it is because of the intense frustration/accomplishment I felt when playing.

Edit: also, you took a nice chunk of (my) time before talking about the subject at hand in your video.

DragoonPK

3259 Posts

October 06 2012 00:40 GMT

On October 06 2012 09:23 PUPATREE wrote:
Nay. Accomplishment and frustration are tied together in Dark Souls. Repeatedly getting fucked, and learning slowly each time is part of why the game's so satisfying to play. If I didn't lose my souls, I'd slowly be getting stronger every time I died, and none of those deaths would even bother me. Keeping it difficult and punishing keeps it satisfying. I'm fucking garbage at the game, and I've only had the chance to play it on two weekends. The only reason I'm able to hold the game in such high regards with just a few memories of it is because of the intense frustration/accomplishment I felt when playing.

Edit: also, you took a nice chunk of (my) time before talking about the subject at hand in your video.

I totally understand that. But I think that if the developers are smart enough they might be able to tweak something into easy mode that makes the game easier without ruining that feeling of frustration and sense of accomplishment. I love the gruesome difficulty of the game and I think its certainly one of the best things about it. But I think if an easy mode can easy players through the game, especially for first timers it might just allow the game to expands to more people.

Oh and sorry for taking away some of your precious time. It's just that I haven't made a video in a while and was just explaining where was I during that time. I usually just jump to topic.

jalstar

United States8198 Posts

October 06 2012 03:55 GMT

Sums up my thoughts as well but for different reasons. I think games should be social experiences, even single player games, and I think adding different difficulty modes to games is one of the big reasons it's much less fun to talk about single player games than 10 years ago (the other big difference is choice, telling your friends about cool little things based on choice in say, Planescape: Torment isn't possible with today's games.)

DragoonPK

3259 Posts

October 14 2012 02:05 GMT

On October 06 2012 12:55 jalstar wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b91BWzLigs

Sums up my thoughts as well but for different reasons. I think games should be social experiences, even single player games, and I think adding different difficulty modes to games is one of the big reasons it's much less fun to talk about single player games than 10 years ago (the other big difference is choice, telling your friends about cool little things based on choice in say, Planescape: Torment isn't possible with today's games.)

I know that an Easy mode in the normal sense is bad. But I do think that there might be a small thing the developers can do into the feature to ease people into the game well. Maybe offer a lengthened prologue to new players where it guides them through the game and gradually shows them the ropes. Or something more drastic can be, as I mentioned in my video, allowing people who choose to, the ability to not lose souls upon death or heck even half the Souls are only gone. Just small things that won't shift the game's difficulty as a whole but rather entice new players to spend more than an hour or two with the game to full understand it.

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