Losermagnet

@AverageGamer ah I was unaware of any discourse; that's too bad.

I'd love for them to do something with Magic the Gathering. Give them the keys Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro!

This. Damn. Game. Damn.

@Dom_31 oh man everytime I'd start the fight with Gaius it was a mad rush to summon torrent, dash, then double jump over Gaius. That was the only way I knew to dodge that rush attack.

@Michael2008ish I politely disagree. I mean, Dark Souls literally had a 'Prepare to Die' edition. People know these games as difficult for good or ill. I think thats something that the publisher leans into. If anything they're more at fault for fostering that elitism that certain fans have.

Edit: it occured to me after the fact that you could've meant Nintendo advertises to everybody (my bad). And that I agree with.

@jrt87 Sometimes you'd beat a game on easy just for it to tell you "try on harder difficulty". And sometimes they didnt have difficulty options either. I struggle to think of a single Super Mario game with a difficulty option.

But you're right that it will just continue this way. Gamers are a group too large and reflexive to do otherwise.

Difficulty options are great; however, I find it really narrow-minded of people to hold a grudge against Fromsoftware for not having difficulty options. It's not hurting anyone for one game series to design itself around challenge and not include difficulty options. It's okay if you don't like those games - I'd respect that perspective more than "they dont include a thing I want so they're morally wrong".

As others have already commented, the DLC was almost guaranteed to get balance patches post-launch. It will probably get more in the future. I don't really see this as being indicative of anything (e.g. "FS caved to the casuals", "casuals got what they wanted"). I suppose it could be...but it seems just as likely to be a coincidence. I just hope FS don't issue a statement or give this subject anymore oxygen than it already gets (I'm really tired of the "easy mode" conversation).

I'm finding the DLC to be pretty challenging, but when I encountered a roadblock I just wandered around. Eventually I found a path around the boss I was stuck on.

Fwiw Miyazaki has already been sharing directing responsibilities with others. On most Fromsoft games there are usually several co-directors (including Elden Ring). I'm optimistic about it too; New people means new ideas.

What I really would like is for Fromsoft to step away from the "souls-like" formula and make more games like Déraciné. They have a knack for world-building and i would love to explore that in a more peaceful way.

I really like Elden Ring but by the end of it I was kind of over the whole thing. Loved the open world, loved the NPCs, loved the lore of the dysfunctional demi god family. For me it was the bosses that dragged it down. WAY too much boss repetition. Looking through the trophy list there are very few unique boss encounters and that really bums me out. That some bosses seemed designed around using a summon (ganks, fast combos, and/or AOE attacks) really irked me too since I was stubbornly trying to fight each one solo. After awhile I realized I wasnt having much fun that way and started using summons and it actually made the experience better. I think Elden Ring will go down as one of the more divisive Fromsoft games.

Well that's a minor disappointment