No, Elden Ring Doesn’t Need an ‘Easy’ Mode – Opinion

It’s an established pattern that anytime FROM Software releases a game, journalists can be heard screaming from the top of Mt. Cryhard claims that the game’s too complicated and is against the rights of casual gamers and those with disabilities.

Software games are known for being difficult especially for beginners. Even veteran players of From Soft’s Dark Souls and Bloodbourne series will find themselves challenged, but this is a good thing. FROM Soft wouldn’t have half the fanbase it does if it the games were easy.

Its latest game, “Elden Ring,” is not easy.

The game is huge in every way, from the maps you use to the story. George R.R. was the writer who joined FROM. Martin, to build a world so deep and rich that it is easy to get lost. The world is beautifully crafted and what’s more, it’s alive. The landscape is dominated by fauna and flora, but the enemy also dominates it. They can be powerful looking knights riding on horses, or they could be huge ursine animals as tall as trees.

Don’t forget about the dragons.

It’s a world that’s not friendly to you at all. Most of everything wants you to die.

It will.

Elden Ring is true to its word and follows the FROM Software tradition by being cruel to players. From the outset you’re confronted by enemies you cannot defeat and you must seek out weaker enemies to fight and win against in order to make your character strong enough to finally pose a threat to the larger foes. When you do finally defeat these enemies in notoriously difficult battles, you’re left with a sense of accomplishment. Elden Ring boasts of beating bosses in FROM Soft games.

The FROM Soft game will help you learn patience, how to overcome mistakes and what strategy is best. You will fail and fail and fail until you’ve learned enough to win.

Enter the journalists and their complaints about FROM Soft’s notorious difficulty. As blogger and streamer, Sophia Narwitz highlighted, one journalist complained that FROM Soft’s habit of tossing new players into the pool and telling them to swim without teaching them to first isn’t good design and the game shouldn’t be getting the praise it is.

This whole article is a blogger crying cuz they don’t have the capacity to learn a game.

It also tells how statistics work. The bottom of this status menu contains literal text that tells you which button to press to view descriptions. pic.twitter.com/6WErNIGV7e

— Sophia ‘Dimensional Merger’ Narwitz (@SophNar0747) February 28, 2022

It’s a position that sums up the entirety of the journalists who are complaining. This might make you wonder why it matters.

Two reasons are why it is important.

Firstly, FROM Soft games teach you that difficulty and failure aren’t the end, they’re merely stepping stones to being greater. Sure, you can level your character up and get stronger, but it’s not enough to beat the tougher bosses. Learn about yourself, your environment, and your enemies. Although it sounds silly, these lessons are very important. Many have said that FROM Soft games helped them overcome deep depressions. The difficulty along with the feel of FROM Software worlds resonates with people and despite many of these worlds being dark, dreary, and hostile, there’s a strange sense of determination that comes with it.

However, secondly these journalists do not wish things could be easier.

They’re being harmful by demanding things cater to as many groups as possible and that everything has to be able to be made easier for people at the drop of a hat. If something is difficult or has a steep learning curve, it must be ratcheted down so that it can cater to people who don’t want to play the game as it was meant to be played.

They want it to be less valuable. They are trying to reduce the value of their experience. They expect success to be handed to them. They don’t want to strive for it. Like every other thing, they want it to be simple.

We live in a sea of easy, and it’s created a culture of softness. It’s created a world where everything is worth less as it comes so easy.

Although it may seem like a simple game, Elden Ring makes the experience far more rewarding. It’s not for everyone, and it doesn’t have to be. You don’t need to make everything accessible to everyone. If they want an easier game they can move on, but the attempts to push this sameness and ease on everything is killing art and culture, and it’s making us soft, whiney, and useless.