Dark Souls 3: The Hardcore vs. Easy Mode

Recently, Dark Souls 3 caught some flack for the lack of an Easy Mode. This attitude seems to have rolled over into the reception of the recent Nioh Alpha Demo. You can already hear the cries of "it's too hard" from the hoards of players who are quick to judge a game they have no idea how to play, so I want to talk about Souls games, Easy Mode, and why hardcore gamers hate the idea.

The Souls franchise is near and dear to my big fat, greasy heart. It stands as a bastion of skill in an era when games are being streamlined and dumbed-down, making it so that the general public believes absolutely every game must be accessible to them with no real effort whatsoever. Dark Souls, and all members of the SoulsBorne family, is a series about learning and perseverance. It's a beautiful example of a game's perceived difficulty being not only an aspect of gameplay, but part of the world's narrative theme. That's why the mere thought of implementing an(other) easy mode sickens me.

Dark Souls' story is built around the concept of struggling to accomplish something great. It's a world where a player's only outstanding power is being undead, able to fall and keep returning to the fight until they win. Players become inexorably linked to the fate of their avatar as his or her determination to finish the quest is all that stands between relief from the undead curse and becoming a hollow.

You deserved that. Now don't do it again.

These cries for easy mode are all the more grating when you realize every single trap or trick is signposted by great design and inventive multiplayer.The difficulty of Dark Souls doesn't come from being hard, for the most part, but from punishing inattentiveness and behaviors that are prevalent in today's coddled gamers. If a player doesn't notice all the blood on the elevator, indicating something is horribly wrong, then they probably deserve to be crushed into the spiked trap at the top. If it doesn't strike a player as odd that the normally aggressive enemies started fleeing on sight, only for a giant skeleton to kick them off the ledge when they followed in blind pursuit, perhaps they'll learn their lesson for the next time it happens. Suggesting that these things be toned down destroys the entire purpose of a series like this.

Let me give you an example from my recent experience at Arch Dragon Peak: I entered a straight walkway with obvious enemies down the path. I realized that was bait, they clearly wanted me to focus on the obvious enemies. Keeping my head on a swivel, I noticed an empty offshoot from the main path. After looking at the architecture, I anticipated a few more at regular intervals. With this knowledge, I began corner checking instead of blindly running down the path. Lo and behold, there was a creepy lizard man waiting to ambush me in the next offshoot, so I lead with a bit of cold steel. Trap avoided. Again, there is not a single situation in the entire Dark Souls series that cannot be made trivial by patience and a cool head.

Additionally, the aforementioned multiplayer can ease the need for attention to detail. Messages are all over the place, most often providing some guidance as to how to approach situations, warnings about traps, or revealing illusionary walls. Bloodstains also provide information: Their mere presence indicates nearby danger, but players can examine them to see exactly how their owners died. Finally, summoning assistance is easy mode.

Easy mode engaged.

Dark Souls is a game that absolutely does not need a new “easy mode.” You must “git gud” or it defeats the purpose of the game. This isn't hurting the game's popularity either, as Dark Souls 3 is a high point for the series. It has gone from niche hardcore game, to mainstream success by sticking to its guns and creating an expectation that it lives up to marvelously.

This attitude that every game needs to be tailored to your specific tastes; that you don't like something so nobody must be allowed to enjoy it, needs to die. It's one of the single greatest cancers in gaming today. These games catered to a specific audience, an audience that has standards you don't meet if you're crying for an easy mode. Either “git gud” or fucking leave, because these types of game aren't for you.

The hardcore gamers see things like Dark Souls, Nioh, Devil May Cry, and the good Ninja Gaiden games as something akin to “safe spaces.” Communities where they can be with like-minded individuals, without having to bear the constant bitching and unwelcome changes brought about by those that don't appreciate the challenge. Hardcore gamers have the desire for, right to, and providers of games without easy mode. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be part of an exclusive, somewhat meritocratic, community, only accepting of those that put in effort.

From childhood, we're told that we should surround ourselves with friends we want to be like: Well I want to be friends with people that don't start crying when the going gets rough.