Why giving Elden Ring an easy mode is an insulting concept – Reader’s Feature

metro.co.uk:

A reader is glad that Elden Ring doesn’t have an easy mode and asks why gamers are always trying to get developers to change their games.

It’s Thursday as I write this and I’m almost giddy with excitement about the prospect of Elden Ring coming out. The reviews have been fantastic, exactly as I thought they’d be, and frankly I’m amazed anyone was ever betting against FromSoftware. Especially as everything from the network test was already super positive. The only really common negative in any of the reviews is a little disclaimer most of them put in, to remind people that this is a really difficult game and that you can’t go in thinking this is just Call Of Duty or something, and you’re going to blitz through the whole thing without even really trying.

That’s not only not the FromSoftware way it’s the exact opposite of everything they’ve ever been about. The game is meant to be difficult, you’re meant to fail and you’re meant to find the mental fortitude to carry on. As has been pointed out by many other people it’s not that it’s literally that hard in terms of you having to be really good at the game, but that you have to be on the ball 100% of the time because a single mistake can mean failure.

Despite this, many people still insist that Elden Ring should have a difficultly mode for those that aren’t as good as games, but I am fundamentally opposed to that and I am very glad to see that, beyond a few quality of life changes, FromSoftware hasn’t listened to them at all.

This is a completely different argument to making the game accessible to people with disabilities, which I am all for. But in terms of the challenge of the game itself? That has to be the same for everyone or there’s no point the game even existing.

I’ve