After many years of several genres dominating the industry, like FPS or RPGs, one game changed it all and introduced its own new experience, and those games are Elden Ring and Dark Souls. FromSoftware, a Japanese studio, released the Dark Souls games, creating a fandom that keeps growing every year while also creating a whole new genre.
Hidetaka Miyazaki was the director behind this game, and he brought these IPs with no possibility of any difficulty setting; you can only play what the game offers. This was also in the latest popular studio game, Elden Ring, which added other new features, but the difficulty stayed the same.
Elden Ring Is the Latest Entry in a Kind of Game That Makes FromSoftware Successful
Since Soulslike was created, whether these games should allow players to select their difficulty has been a constant topic of discussion. The answer continues to resonate with fans—just git gud.
The first few Dark Souls games and even other titles developed by FromSoftware won various GOTY awards, proving that the essence of these IPs shouldn’t change, the formula is the same, and it just works after more than 10 years.
The man behind these titles, Hidetaka Miyazaki, always mentions this as a way to make it clear that the level of difficulty will always be the same in these kinds of games. With every new IP, more gamers won’t complain about the fact that you can’t choose difficulty and just play the game.
Many video games just need to be difficult and not help the player in every step of the way; it expands the range of options for any kind of gamer.
Elden Ring Really Changed the Soulslike Genre, but the Essence Is Still the Same
In a past interview With IGN, Miyazaki talked about how the most-sold game in FromSoftware history made enormous changes that no other IP had. He mentioned a very asked feature, Fast Travel, saying the following:
Yes, fast travel is present. Of course, we do want users to enjoy the aspect of exploration and uncover the map for themselves, but we also wanted to take into account that level of comfort and ease of play.
Regarding the fast travel that this game has, making it easy to move around the map, the studio and Miyazaki were very clear, and the difficulty selection was also not part of this title.
Staying true to what made this game so popular, Elden Ring changed how players select the way of completing the game in a non-linear path. This IP’s open world really expanded the studio’s reach, selling millions of copies.
As for the studio’s future, FromSoftware is preparing the last DLC of the game, saying that is the biggest additional content that FromSoftware has ever created. Fans have no clue what will come next for this popular company that is making one hit after the other.
Miyazaki has not revealed anything about what could be the IP that FromSoftware is working on now; he said that several new directors will be the heads of more projects in the future.
What are your thoughts about the difficulty of these games? Let us know in the comments!