FromSoftware has created what is known to be some of the most difficult games imagined. The infamous Dark Souls Trilogy is known to be bone-crushing difficult and upsetting. Just recently, the DLC for Elden Ring came out and many found it to be to the point of unfair. Even so, some were able to defeat it (and I bet those .000000001% are envied lol). This feeling among gamers brings back a debate that I have thought about for some time: Are FromSoftware games really difficult or just artificially difficult?
Bloodborne is my first and only FromSoftware game I have beaten and truly enjoyed. I think Bloodborne is the perfect mix of FromSoftware’s difficult difficulty obsession and somewhat accessibility to gamers. If you get hit, you can hit back and regain your health. The game taught you to move forward without fear; it rewarded you for fighting back. Of course there were some crazy bosses, but you could also level up you weaponry and stats. I became a FromSoftware fan after Bloodborne….and then I met Sekiro.
Sekiro was the next game I was excited to play. I watched the trailer multiple times until I could buy the game; I even bought the collector’s edition. I knew from Bloodborne that it was going to be difficult, but I figured I had earned my stripes from playing (and beating, of course with the help of a few friends) the game and knew what was to come. Unfortunately, I found out that I was still not aware of FromSoftware’s difficulty…or trickery I should say…
Sekiro gives you limited health and a small number of health portions; wayyyy different than Bloodborne. You don’t even get any of your health back for being aggressive! I was used to saving up health potions but in Sekiro I was limited to…3! Instead of being awarded for aggression, you were rewarded for deflecting at the right time. If you did not, you were punished; a 1/3 of your life force was taken away. I was killed many times in Sekiro but I persevered until I got to the boss on the horse. With just 3 little health portions I had a severe issues. And that is when I stopped. It wasn’t fun. I had died so many times and it wasn’t because it was difficult, it was because I didn’t have the stuff I need.
Now some of you are might think, “You just sucked at it.” but hear me out. Bloodborne was difficult even with the ability to save up on health potions. I was not forced any difficulty. The difficulty came from my ability to defend and attack. Sekiro was difficult from the limited health given. I haven’t played Elden Ring, but I heard that their DLC brought hell not just to their fans, but back to them too lol.
Sekiro is a fun game to play but I stopped because of the artificial difficulty. Cutting off a players resources does not make things naturally difficult. When you make sure a boss can kill you in seconds with just one or two blows, that is also artificially difficult. If players had an equal chance to use as many health potions as they chose, that would allow the game equality. It would allow the game a true difficulty. Gamers should have the chance to make the game more difficult; we could call this accessibility.
Making a game difficult should not be about cutting one’s supply of health aid; it should be about the battle with the boss. There should be multiple patterns and action timed environments like God of War, mixed with multiple bars of health for the boss. Boss battles should be fun, scary, and a test of skill without stripping someone of their ability to keep their health. I think there should be a punishing level of difficulty for the fun of it; a level obtainable after all other levels have been beaten or the level before that one.
Game developers need to stop making ‘Soulborne’ games and make truly difficult games; including FromSoftware.
