Dark Souls Director discusses difficulty and popularity

Dark Souls Director Hidetaka Miyazaki recently spoke with Metro, discussing From Software's brutal and incredibly popular game. The entire interview is well worth reading, with Miyazaki talking about the PC version (which Junglist checked out last week on the 5 Inch Floppy, DLC and the amazing success of Dark Souls and Demon's Souls.

One part in particular however, has sparked waves of discussion across social media, forums and sites like Kotaku the world over. When asked about Dark Souls' much discussed difficulty, Miyazaki said:

I personally want my games to be described as satisfying rather than difficult. As a matter of fact, I am aiming at giving players sense of accomplishment in the use of difficulty. Having said that however, it is true that Dark Souls is rather difficult and a number of people may hesitate to play. This fact is really sad to me and I am thinking about whether I should prepare another difficulty that everyone can complete or carefully send all gamers the messages behind our difficult games.

However, I suppose gamers do not particularly prefer easy games. What they want is interesting and worthwhile games to play, so I think it is natural that hindrance or stress that does not attribute to such interesting and worthwhile elements will be removed in the end. If the number of easy games is increasing nowadays, I guess it is because difficulty is not related to interesting and worthwhile game elements in many games among players.

A surprising number of people - most people in fact, believe an easier difficulty for Dark Souls would in effect destroy the universe. They didn't say exactly that, I've toned it down a bit. Even people like Alex Hutchinson - the Australian-born Creative Director of Assassin's Creed III told Edge that "Easy mode often ruins games." The main argument people have against this is that the difficulty is intrinsic to Dark Souls' nature - and if you take that away you ruin what makes the game special. That is certainly true - as Junglist notes in his reviews, Dark Souls isn't about being difficult for the sake of it, instead it punishes you for your mistakes - and in doing so teaches you to take more care.

The argument follows that Dark Souls' greatest strength lies in the feeling of satisfaction you get, the feeling of achievement you feel when you defeat an enemy which previously kicked your ass. Without that feeling, without the challenge and sense of accomplishment, what have you got? It's why (as Joaby recently mentioned in his Need For Speed: Most Wanted Hands On) cheats can ruin your love for a game - it's fun to be an omnipotent deity for a while, but ultimately, without a challenge, what's the point?

I am confused however, as to why people feel that is all Dark Souls can be. Miyazaki doesn't talk about stripping away Dark Souls' guts and making it easy for everyone, he specifically mentions preparing another difficulty - another implying more than one difficulty - for a game (Dark Souls or a future project, he doesn't specify.) If an additional difficulty setting is added for those who either can't or don't want to play it the right way, then so be it, let them play it incorrectly. Maybe they want to explore the scenery or learn the story or let their infant son play, what does it matter? This is Fast Travel all over again.

Back before Oblivion came out, the developers announced it would have Fast Travel - click on a point on the map and you travel to that point, without having to do it all yourself. The internet did what it does best, screaming in anguish and boycotting Oblivion for daring to tamper with the Morrowind Holy Grail. Then, of course, Oblivion came out and everyone realised Fast Travel was awesome. Can you imagine playing Oblivion without it? If not, that's ok - you don't have to imagine such a thing. You can just as easily do exactly that by playing Oblivion and not using Fast Travel. Todd Howard is not standing behind your computer whipping you every time you walk somewhere on foot, Ken Rolston won't hunt you down and punch you in the throat. It's optional. Why does anybody else give a **** how you play your game?

But maybe I'm wrong. It has happened before. What do you think about easy modes, do you think Dark Souls should have one? Let us know in the comments below!