Easy mode for Dark Souls was a ‘mistranslation’

Recently, game director Hidetaka Miyazaki proposed adding an easy mode to Dark Souls, a game whose tagline reads, "Prepare to die."

His argument made sense: "I suppose gamers do not particularly prefer easy games," he told Metro. "What they want is interesting and worthwhile games to play, so I think it is natural that hindrance or stress that does not attribute to such interesting and worthwhile elements will be removed in the end."

He also said, "‘It is true that Dark Souls is rather difficult and a number of people may hesitate to play. This fact is really sad to me, and I am thinking about whether I should prepare another difficulty that everyone can complete or carefully send all gamers the messages behind our difficult games."

But publisher Namco Bandai is claiming a translation error:

"This fact is really sad to me, and I am thinking about how to make everyone complete the game while maintaining the current difficulty and carefully send all gamers the messages behind it," is what Miyazaki actually meant, according to the company.

Do you think this was a "mistranslation," or is Miyazaki on to something here? Is difficulty a barrier to a bigger audience?

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