Gatekeeping Hodor-style

People don't want games for everyone. They want games for themselves.
A step towards a broader community is a step away from them.

Much like you right now.
You don't want most people to enjoy a game. You want you to enjoy it.
Same logic.

The most ironic part is that there wil be a harder difficulty setting as well.
So everyone "should" be happy.

Do yourself a favor.
Don't get angry reading other people's stuff. You only have yourself with that.

From what I understand from this and other discussions about difficulty changes, it goes like this:

Soulslikes are just attack mechanics mashed together and masked with slightly darker, prettier art, and a rough draft of the story to justify why all these mechanics are mashed together in a single game (from what I've heard from these players, Soulslikes aren't even a genre of game).

So memorizing and mastering each of these mechanics - which is the only thing this genre has going for it - apparently gives players some sort of superior status over others, making them feel special and unique.

In short, it's a matter of ego, all about trophies and achievements.

Seeing someone finish the same game they struggled to finish on a lower difficulty level makes them angry, as if somehow "easy mode" is calling them a fool for doing all that, when there's a way to get the same result without all the suffering involved.

And I don't even believe that's true, it's just a summary of everything I've heard coming out of these players' mouths.

Diverts time, resources, direction, and vision away from the game's original design philosophy.
That's it. Nothing else.

The people that are complaining are just stupid since it just adds 2 difficulty settings, the normal setting will be the game as it is right now so why care?

Soulslike does not mean "you need to learn movement patterns", that would make almost every game a "soulslike".

But yes LiP is an actual soulslike and if you figure out how these games work you don't need to learn that many things other then how to make it easy for you.
Soulslike always have a build in easy mode that you just need to figure out (or find it on the internet)

Because of the "gamerz" energy. When the sole thing you can achieve in life is a random relatively hard game, you don't want this one to be devaluated. At the very end, the sole cure for them is to touch grass, but it's too much to ask for

Originally posted by ZeldaGrossmeister:

What's wrong with you people? Why do you love getting your ass kicked by super overpowered bosses 24/7

Because they don't understand the genre and think it's a fighting game.

Originally posted by ZeldaGrossmeister:

I don't have the skill and patience to learn the movements of every single boss in such a game, only to get my ass beaten a hundred times! What is even enjoyable about this? I don't get it! Why can't developers just make a story focused game that everyone can play?

Goo play zelda kirdo.

I just completed the game on the original "hard" difficulty & it was my first ever souls type game. Going into it I thought it was going to be really hard but it wasn't that difficult.

I played the entire game with summons for the bosses. I was able to defeat most of the bosses first try. If I didn't get them on the first try it only took a couple of tries.

There was only one boss that I struggled on because it didn't allow the use of summons. That one took me around 15 tries.

I think the game was easily beatable on the original difficulty for those of use that aren't experienced with these types of games.

Originally posted by John Hunter:

I just completed the game on the original "hard" difficulty & it was my first ever souls type game. Going into it I thought it was going to be really hard but it wasn't that difficult.

I played the entire game with summons for the bosses. I was able to defeat most of the bosses first try. If I didn't get them on the first try it only took a couple of tries.

There was only one boss that I struggled on because it didn't allow the use of summons. That one took me around 15 tries.

I think the game was easily beatable on the original difficulty for those of use that aren't experienced with these types of games.

Proud of you, yo.

A lot of people these days are afraid of a challenge it seems.

No idea. How other people play their game has no effect on them or there experience, yet they scream blood and murder. Just keep playing on the original difficulty, problem solved.

Originally posted by Kaizen:

Diverts time, resources, direction, and vision away from the game's original design philosophy.
That's it. Nothing else.

I disagree with the vision part. And what you said is true for every single other game out there. Do you also get mad that Devil May Cry or Bayonetta have difficulty settings? Or that I can play Halo on Normal without any Skulls active?

Originally posted by Nino_Chaosdrache:

Originally posted by Kaizen:

Diverts time, resources, direction, and vision away from the game's original design philosophy.
That's it. Nothing else.

I disagree with the vision part. And what you said is true for every single other game out there. Do you also get mad that Devil May Cry or Bayonetta have difficulty settings? Or that I can play Halo on Normal without any Skulls active?

After playing the game & researching how other people play souls type games, I think the game already had a difficulty setting.

The unique thing about souls type games is that there's a consensus about using summons as an assist.

When you use a summon, that's an active choice on the player to make the game easier.

This makes souls type games unique compared to any other genre. The consensus around summons is what allows for this implicit difficulty selection.

The difficulty is implied by the restrictions the player imposes on themselves. This is different to all other games where the difficulty is explicit & you select the difficulty from a menu.

Most other games don't have a shared consensus about what mechanics make the game easy & what mechanics make the game hard. This is why they need the developer to clearly define the difficulties

I think it's cool how the culture has created its own implied difficulty levels.

Most souls games had in built 100% optional assist options.

Eg.Summon help,use an item made againts that boss. Eg.Music box,Malcontent,Storm ruler.
On some of them magic was the easy mode.
Summon your ultra powerful friend and his friend.
So souls could be made very easy.

Lies of P has auto parry buff,many throwables and summon help.
And likely many more assist options.

Some ppl used specific challenges to make the game harder eg.no lvl up.

All souls games are balanced enough to be completed with zero hits taken that is kinda neat.Very few games are balanced enough to allow no hits taken even if the game is easy.

Also most soul likes have online function.

So difficulty means you could play on very easy and farm gear very fast compared to "hard" would not be fair.So they are fixed difficulty.

Some of them have optional extra difficulty eg.Demon Bell,calamity ring,Champion Covenant in DS2 and likely more.
You can increase the difficulty usually for a slight reward but sometimes just for extra challenge.....

And lets say you kill boss with a certain combo on easy and that it no longer works on hard and more difficulty types need more game balance.

So you can not make a video and tell this is how to kill the boss guide.
Easy likely allows more brute forcing....

Also Human ego bragging rights I finished Dark Souls!!!! I Finished Doom Eternal on ultra Nightmare!!!! etc.

Now in Doom Dark ages if you finish Ultra nightmare!!!! some ppl can just say yeah so what you lowered sliders to baby mode and it is not an achievement.

So if you Finish Lies of P it is suddenly might look much less an achievement but yes it also open game up for Casuals.

So the game losses bragging right.Some ppl did not touch grass in decades and they want to bragging rights.

Do not underestimate human ego some ppl pay premimum money so their stuff works 2% better than the neighbourgsss....

That said Lies of P does not have online function so difficulty has much less of an effect on the whole of the game.

Originally posted by ZeldaGrossmeister:

What's wrong with you people? Why do you love getting your ass kicked by super overpowered bosses 24/7 and why would I enjoy something like this? If difficulty settings piss you off that much, then just play the game on hard mode and shut up!

I was interested in this game, but when I read it's yet another Soulslike I was out! That's just a red flag! This needs to stop! Why do devs have to turn everything into a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ soulslike these days?! It's the same with Black Myth Wukong who pretends not to be a soulslike, but I am 100% sure it is!

I don't have the skill and patience to learn the movements of every single boss in such a game, only to get my ass beaten a hundred times! What is even enjoyable about this? I don't get it! Why can't developers just make a story focused game that everyone can play?

I like the setting, I like the characters and I like the story and atmosphere Lies of P offers. But for it to be a soulslike, it's a red flag. And then people are mad when they implement difficulty settings? Why is that a problem? Just play your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game!

If you don't like this genre of game, why do you want to play this game? Find another game catered to you, you are not the center of the universe.