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STOP begging for Easy Mode in Elden Ring!

Putonahappyface

Gold Member
The opportunity to customize our genitals is far more important than easy mode! 😤
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sankt-Antonio

:^)--?-<
You just need to plan the route and get into the high level areas earlier. The only enemy you need to fight is the boss giving Moonveil but there are many easy cheese for that. Plenty YouTube video guides for this route.


Okay. Thanks. But man, this seems like a convoluted way o make the game easier XD
 

BossLackey

Gold Member
I'm a newbie player and I'd say it isn't so much the difficulty, it is the insane difficulty spikes or perhaps just unbalanced enemies early in the game that is the problem. The knights in stormveil are more difficult than virtually any of the mini bosses that I have fought so far. It makes me not want to play the game and honestly I'm falling off hard now due to this. Probably a 99% chance that I never finish this game cause of this unbalanced shit.

I've been playing these games since Demon's Souls, and I will say that the difficult spikes feel very random compared to past games. They definitely existed before, but while they were more a "alright, here's a true challenge" type of skill check, some of these feel like level checks and are sometimes so different in difficulty from the surrounding enemies that it's baffling. I think the size and completely open nature of the game makes it very difficult to balance. You may get to an area that while it feels difficult, it's doable, but the devs might have expected you to be quite a bit higher in level. So then the boss comes and it's insane. Levels matter so much more in this than before (I mean, they were always important). But yeah, it's a strange thing.

I will say, don't be afraid to grind levels.
 
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ZywyPL

Banned
Tunic has a literal god-mode and people still praise the game and enjoy its exploration and puzzles, while those who like challenging combat play it normally, so I don't know anymore, seems like similar solution couldn be implemented into From's games as well and no one would cry.
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
Tunic has a literal god-mode and people still praise the game and enjoy its exploration and puzzles, while those who like challenging combat play it normally, so I don't know anymore, seems like similar solution couldn be implemented into From's games as well and no one would cry.
One of the biggest elements though is that Miyazaki at From Software doesn't want an easy mode. The developers of Tunic don't care if someone turns on God mode. Totally fine of them to feel that way. From Software doesn't feel that way though and that's fine too.

"Still, for every vanquisher of Miyazaki’s monsters, there’s another who glumly sets down the controller. “I do feel apologetic toward anyone who feels there’s just too much to overcome in my games,” Miyazaki told me. He held his head in his hands, then smiled. I just want as many players as possible to experience the joy that comes from overcoming hardship.”"

"Miyazaki’s work is often invoked by the latter camp, as it suggests that challenge, not escapism or uplift, is the medium’s crucial quality. “It’s an interesting question,” Miyazaki told me. “We are always looking to improve, but, in our games specifically, hardship is what gives meaning to the experience. So it’s not something we’re willing to abandon at the moment. It’s our identity.”"


New Yorker Article w/ Miyazaki
 

Majukun

Member
not really something that hs not been already expressed multiple times

also like he himself said, game has already an easy mode built in in the form of the multiple mechanics you can use to chip down an opponent

have upgraded my knigh olaf and use it to mow down bosses and never looked back
 

Talonz

Member
One of the biggest elements though is that Miyazaki at From Software doesn't want an easy mode. The developers of Tunic don't care if someone turns on God mode. Totally fine of them to feel that way. From Software doesn't feel that way though and that's fine too.

"Still, for every vanquisher of Miyazaki’s monsters, there’s another who glumly sets down the controller. “I do feel apologetic toward anyone who feels there’s just too much to overcome in my games,” Miyazaki told me. He held his head in his hands, then smiled. I just want as many players as possible to experience the joy that comes from overcoming hardship.”"

"Miyazaki’s work is often invoked by the latter camp, as it suggests that challenge, not escapism or uplift, is the medium’s crucial quality. “It’s an interesting question,” Miyazaki told me. “We are always looking to improve, but, in our games specifically, hardship is what gives meaning to the experience. So it’s not something we’re willing to abandon at the moment. It’s our identity.”"


New Yorker Article w/ Miyazaki

It's exactly why I love these games. I spent two days(about 10 hours) on Radahn, and when I finally won it was such a great feeling.
 
I eventually got past that part but at the cost of making me absolutely hate the game and therefore I will drop it. I'm about 15 hours in and I'm likely done. I had a full free day yesterday and couldn't bring myself to even turn it on. So whether you think it is perfectly balanced or not, for me the game design is bad enough that I regret my purchase.
The game design is great - you're just bad at the game and you don't enjoy the process of training yourself to be better. That's a core component of Souls.
 
To be fair, the Input buffer sometimes is straight up broken, I've had many many examples of where a roll didn't work and then suddenly I'd roll, its rare though but does happen

In all honesty my only real gripe on difficulty is Caelid being so early in the game, its very hostile with a lot of hard hitting enemies with massive HP pools, it feels like an end game area and with the main boss of that area almost confirming it, its almost like FS ripped it out of a later part of the game and placed it here.
Caelid IS an endgame area - or at least late midgame. You're not supposed to go there early.
 
As someone who just today completed the game and got all the achievements, Elden Ring is by far the easiest game in the entire Souls series. I've never finished a Souls game prior to this because I found the challenge too stiff and simply couldn't overcome it or struggled with mechanics of certain fights.

Spirit summons ARE the answer to the easy mode problem, the game pushes you toward using them too with the way some of the bosses are presented and it's certainly not a "cheese" or a lesser way of playing by using the tools presented to you.

It's an incredible experience top to bottom, but by no means their most difficult experience. Sekiro or Bloodborne are definitely both more of a challenge.
 

deeptech

Member
more than a half of what makes the game good is its challenge, just like *surprise* ANY game out there, make it easier and it's just another ubisoft trash nobody cares about
 

PaintTinJr

Member
As someone that's only just managed to dent Demon's souls on my 4th attempt - beat Flamelurker as my 7th or 8th Demon at a Soul level above 50, yesterday - I would say the games are just misrepresented, which makes them largely impenetrable to the average gamer playing cinematic AAA games that are self contained puzzles/solutions.

Had someone told me Demon's Souls was the modern day action RPG equivalent of the 1982 ZX Spectrum game The Hobbit - with Minecraft farming - I would have immediately known that reading and research in abundance was going to be required, along with grinding - the Hobbit game was sold with and without the book IIRC, where the inner cover was a needed map and reading the book was a minimum requirement, still never finished that game at our house.

Had these games launched in the era of premium rate help lines, FromSoftware would have been the wealthiest developer of all time, I suspect. Modern games - even something as obtuse as Ocarina of Time's worst puzzles - demand so little from us compared to the pre-knowledge needed to overcome these challenging From game problems.

Maybe From should just put a premium rated phone number on the box and say, phone to get your easy mode patch, Obviously a knowledge patch for the player, not the game.
 

ANDS

King of Gaslighting
Because your comment was something about people preventing others from their "Sacred" experience, which to me implies that you think people are gate keeping and get off on others failing at the game.

My comment was literally a one sentence bit of snark in response to another poster. There was nothing ambiguous about it (certainly nothing requiring you to infer intent or meaning).

No one is gate keeping and the baseline experience is worth keeping intact.

The topic of this thread, which you seem to agree with, is a literal instance of gatekeeping. Further, there would be nothing stopping the "baseline experience" that FROM envisions from existing. Why? Because it would be obvious - just like it is in every single game with difficulty options - which was the "baseline experience."

They themselves are the biggest hurdle they face cause they're hung up on their own insecurities.

There's a good undergrad behavioral studies thesis in there somewhere.

There's definitely some interesting insight to be had here, but it's not in the direction you think (now see, this comment is - intentionally - ambiguous and allows for inference).
 

ahtlas7

Member
Why would anyone pay money for the opportunity to blast through a game designEd around difficulty. Why does autocorrect keep adding a capital E in designEd
 

FunkMiller

Gold Member
Boy. You can tell Elden Ring has brought in more non-Souls players, can’t you?

Every complaint levelled at the game can be aimed at every other Soulsborne. It’s a From Soft game. These are the things that come with playing one. There’s jank. There’s huge, unexpected difficulty spikes. That’s the way these games are.

Plenty more out there if you don’t like it.
 

CZY

Member
This debate is popular bc FROM is popular, but reducing it to its core elements it’s simply a “can’t please everyone” situation. Plenty of things I’d change about these games before considering difficulty. Every game can’t be everything to everyone.
 

ANDS

King of Gaslighting
Why would anyone pay money for the opportunity to blast through a game designEd around difficulty. Why does autocorrect keep adding a capital E in designEd

This I don't understand. Why do you think this is the only way to design a game that opens itself up to more people being able to experience and, potentially, defeat it? That there isn't an ocean of design space between "impenetrable to most" and "autopilot of game activated."
 
Will probably get crucified for this but...
I really dont see the issue with an easier mode. As with most things in life having a choice is wonderful. The SoulsBorne series for most is about the lore anyway, making that more accessible seems like a good decision. The only downside here that i can see is you wont be able to stoke your ego on the internet as easily because you would have to add the caveat that you beat the game of hard mode... If the argument is it takes away form the experience, Then i ask for whom? The person who chose the easy mode? Cool let the game suck for them, they chose easy mode.. Live and let live or in this case Die and let live.
 

PaintTinJr

Member
Why would anyone pay money for the opportunity to blast through a game designEd around difficulty. Why does autocorrect keep adding a capital E in designEd
I think that's part of the problem in suggesting the games are difficult, as though an easy mode is a complimentary mode that has been left out. Which IMO it isn't and makes no sense. My recent adjusted view is that From games aren't difficult, and are positioned no harder than any AAA cinematic game, just so long as you've prepared yourself adequately for the game moments, and it is stumbling through the game doing things in the wrong order that gives the illusion of extreme difficulty, or impossibility.

I didn't realise, that unlike non-souls games, you need the endless time of youth to play by experimentation on a first souls exposure - if going in blind - or accept that wikis and online help videos are just part of the background research, it isn't cheating, which I would have said it was before. now.
The journey is the experience of the games IMHO, more than the actual skill of playing, so an easy mode would actually just nullify the journey and the experience, and make it a non-game, because of the way the games are designed.

The calls of "get good!" are part of the problem IMO in people thinking they need an easy mode . "Get good" is really just "get knowledgeable"; because no amount of skill "getting good" can turn a fat roll into a fast roll, etc.
 
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zeorhymer

Member
Will probably get crucified for this but...
I really dont see the issue with an easier mode. As with most things in life having a choice is wonderful. The SoulsBorne series for most is about the lore anyway, making that more accessible seems like a good decision. The only downside here that i can see is you wont be able to stoke your ego on the internet as easily because you would have to add the caveat that you beat the game of hard mode... If the argument is it takes away form the experience, Then i ask for whom? The person who chose the easy mode? Cool let the game suck for them, they chose easy mode.. Live and let live or in this case Die and let live.
The issue isn't having choice. The issue is "I want you to put in XXXXX." How is imposing on developers or whoever "Live and let live...?"
 
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The issue isn't having choice. The issue is "I want you to put in XXXXX." How is imposing on developers or whoever "Live and let live...?"
Ahh i see. Demanding it after the fact can be a slippery slope if the dev had a certain vision. I guess my stance is Soulsborne games wouldnt be worse if the option to play on an easy mode was included, it would literally be the same game that includes another option to play.
 

PaintTinJr

Member
Will probably get crucified for this but...
I really dont see the issue with an easier mode. As with most things in life having a choice is wonderful. The SoulsBorne series for most is about the lore anyway, making that more accessible seems like a good decision. The only downside here that i can see is you wont be able to stoke your ego on the internet as easily because you would have to add the caveat that you beat the game of hard mode... If the argument is it takes away form the experience, Then i ask for whom? The person who chose the easy mode? Cool let the game suck for them, they chose easy mode.. Live and let live or in this case Die and let live.
The issue I suspect is that the internet and wikis are a vital resource for most players - playing on regular difficulty - and having a mode that allowed players to bypass using easy mode - without needing amazing game knowledge and skill to succeed at lowly stat levels - would damage the quality of that vital resource.

Watching someone's video on a section you might be struggling on tells you so much more than how-to, you also see lots of info about what and where that led them to that moment, which then maybe send you on more quests, first before trying and succeeding.
 
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The issue I suspect is that the internet and wikis are a vital resource for most players - playing on regular difficulty - and having a mode that allowed players to bypass using easy mode - without needing amazing game knowledge and skill - would damage the quality of that vital resource.

Watching someone's video on a section you might be struggling on tells you so much more than how-to, you also see lots of info about what and where that led them to that moment, which then maybe send you on more quests, first before trying and succeeding.
I would imagine folks that rely on that type of assistance could still get it undiluted for sources they have used in the past. What self respecting Soulsborne youtuber would post guides using easy mode?

I hope i havent missed your point.
 

PaintTinJr

Member
I would imagine folks that rely on that type of assistance could still get it undiluted for sources they have used in the past. What self respecting Soulsborne youtuber would post guides using easy mode?

I hope i havent missed your point.
Anyone with a console and a compatible streaming account can and would produce those videos. Even when people in forums state the play time of a game, they always take the easiest mode to measure it by.

And as you said previous, the games are about the lore, the lore is a result of the game's design that gates when and how milestones should be tackled - unless a souls champ. So it would be to the detriment of the developer, and even damage the reputation of the regular experience, because those people cheesing through on a misplaced feature to bypass the gating wouldn't get the designed experience, and probably undersell the experience to others, because they didn't have the intended experience.
 
Anyone with a console and a compatible streaming account can and would produce those videos. Even when people in forums state the play time of a game, they always take the easiest mode to measure it by.

And as you said previous, the games are about the lore, the lore is a result of the game's design that gates when and how milestones should be tackled - unless a souls champ. So it would be to the detriment of the developer, and even damage the reputation of the regular experience, because those people cheesing through on a misplaced feature to bypass the gating wouldn't get the designed experience, and probably undersell the experience to others, because they didn't have the intended experience.
I just dont think that a very strong argument. I could just as easily farm for a bit and stream roll the content. That actually naturally happened on my play through so i had to switch weapons a few times to keep the challenge up later in the game. As for folks not getting the true experience because of folks breezing through the content online, thats the fault of the people spoiling themselves. There was a speedrun 5 days after launch of a sub 40 min run ffs.
 
The game is easy when you fucking think before doing things. I've played but a few hours of Dark Souls 3 before coming into Elden Ring and I'm new to souls games.

Too many other games do the thinking part for you and all you need to do is mash a few buttons to progress.

Fucking kids nowadays conditioned to hand holding BS.

Start using your brain or GTFO

d64faaf68bf5fec6901e248a626f3e8e_w200.gif
 
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PaintTinJr

Member
I just dont think that a very strong argument. I could just as easily farm for a bit and stream roll the content. That actually naturally happened on my play through so i had to switch weapons a few times to keep the challenge up later in the game. As for folks not getting the true experience because of folks breezing through the content online, thats the fault of the people spoiling themselves. There was a speedrun 5 days after launch of a sub 40 min run ffs.
People search for genuine help and struggling to find quality help being drowned by easy runs feels like a legitimate issue IMO. If the speedrun was easily repeatable by anyone that watched then I take your point, but I suspect the speedrunner was a Souls champ-esq player, that your average gamer couldn't emulate easily, no?
 
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Chronicle

Member
It's called 'The Begging Beast'. The more souls fans cry about it begging for easy mode the more it begs!

Git Gud souls fans!
 
People search for genuine help and struggling to find quality help being drowned by easy runs feels like a legitimate issue IMO. If the speedrun was easily repeatable by anyone that watched then I take your point, but I suspect the speedrunner was a Souls champ-esq player, that your average gamer couldn't emulate easily, no?
I agree it could be a legitimate issue, just a minor one that i have trouble valuing higher than an option for lazy people to play haha.
 
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