It’s hard to know how to take the multitude of gaming “journalists” that have already written pieces asking for an easy mode in Elden Ring. Although they tend to be couched in platitudes about accessibility and fun for all, these articles mostly boil down to “FromSoft games are too challenging for me”. Whether these articles are click-bait or genuine is hard to determine, and in a way it doesn’t matter, since they do bring up interesting concerns like accessibility, or enjoying an otherwise difficult game’s story. While I don’t think it’s as cut-and-dry as some die-hard fans make it out to be, I do feel strongly that Elden Ring should not have an easy mode.
Artistic vision is perhaps the most important piece of why Elden Ring should only have one difficulty. By curating a specific experience, it guarantees that all players will engage with the game the same way. Creator Hidetaka Miyazaki has said as much in an interview with Gamespot regarding difficulty settings in his games:
We want everyone to feel that sense of accomplishment. We want everyone to feel elated and to join that discussion on the same level. We feel if there’s different difficulties, that’s going to segment and fragment the user base. People will have different experiences based on that [differing difficulty level]. This is something we take to heart when we design games
It’s fair to wonder why it matters that everyone plays the exact same game, rather than a game curated for each individual’s specific ability and interest. But games are more than simple toys — they are art, in the same way a masterful painting or a well-cooked meal can be art — and are subject to the same basic rules as other art. You wouldn’t tell a chef at a world-class restaurant what herbs to put on the vegetables, and you wouldn’t ask why da Vinci didn’t make the Mona Lisa smile more.
It’s the same with Elden Ring: Miyazaki has a vision for how challenging the game should be, and so letting players alter that is allowing them to mess with the fundamental way in which the game is meant to be experienced.
There’s also already an easy mode present in most of the Soulsborne games (excluding Sekiro), and it’s called farming. With enough souls/blood echoes, you can overlevel your character to the point that you trivialize most or all of the combat encounters in the game. Sure, it takes some time, but you can eventually overcome any challenge in the game with relatively little skill or game knowledge if you level up enough. This still ties into one of the main themes of the series, namely perseverance, but allows essentially anyone to beat the game if they plug away at it.
In addition to farming, there’s yet another way to make Soulsborne games easier: co-op play. In Darksouls 1-3, and in Bloodborne, you can summon other players (or NPCs) to assist you in boss encounters. If your phantom is unskilled it can actually make the encounter harder, but most phantoms are experienced players who know all the tricks to defeat a boss. In fact, you can frequently let them take care of the boss for you.
The best argument I’ve seen for an easy mode in Soulsborne games is accessibility. Shouldn’t everyone be able to enjoy a product, no matter their physical or mental abilities? I’m not sure I disagree with that, yet someone has beaten Sekiro with their feet, while someone else beat arguably the toughest boss(es) in Dark Souls 1 on a Donkey Konga bongo drum controller, so clearly most physical disabilities shouldn’t prevent too many people from being able to play Elden Ring.
The old adage “An old dog can’t learn new tricks” has come under question in recent years, with more and more evidence that adults retain significant neuro-plasticity even late in life. I’m bringing this up because I firmly believe that anyone can beat Dark Souls, if they want to badly enough. Frankly, the Soulsborne games aren’t that hard, relatively speaking; they simply require a significant body of either game knowledge, or else necessitate twitch reflexes. Both of these are learnable — it’s easy to identify the attack patterns of enemies once you’ve died to them enough times, and a person can train themselves to react to stimuli with a specific response, given enough time.
There is also something to be said for forcing people to challenge themselves. If Elden Ring did have an easy mode, there’s no doubt many players would choose it. By removing the option to give up on a challenge (by lowering the difficulty), you force players to figure out why they are failing, and deal with it. Maybe it’s a lack of patience; the player isn’t waiting for an opening to strike. Perhaps it’s that they haven’t figured out what weapon does the most damage to the boss because they don’t pay attention to that sort of thing. There’s value in having games out there where, if people want to see the final boss on their own monitor, they need to better themselves in the process.
Soulsborne veteran: I bet that grab is dodgeable
But let’s say for the sake of argument someone really wants to play Elden Ring, but can’t use a controller at all. Shouldn’t they also be able to at least explore the game, learn the story, and enjoy seeing all the wondrous locations? Of course they should, and they can — they can watch Vaatvidya’s wonderful lore videos, or they can sit and watch someone else play IRL. If the game was made so easy that someone who is unable to use a controller can play it, all the things that make the actual playing of the game interesting would be gone. With the gameplay (and the challenge) removed, all that’s left is the visuals and plot, both of which can easily be experienced any number of ways besides simply playing the game.
Video games are like any other media — not every game is for everyone. For example, some people can’t watch certain movies, maybe because of past trauma, or simply a distaste for certain topics or images. That’s totally OK. But those movies shouldn’t be altered just because they don’t suit every taste, and neither should games. There are plenty of games for people who don’t want a challenge, and they don’t need to play Elden Ring.
Overcoming challenges is what being human is all about. We can learn, we can grow, we can improve ourselves. By taking the easy way out, nothing is learned, and nothing is gained. That’s why Elden Ring shouldn’t have an easy mode.