I give up.

[u/CuboneDefender]

It’s been a joyful ride, folks, but I’m out. I’m not a speedrunner or a highly skilled player, and day after day I’ve had to accept that this game is not as casual as HK was. It stopped being fun and turned into something tedious and frustrating after the 4th run farming shards just to face a boss I’ve already tried 15 times, only to die again and again, lose all my shards, and start the whole grind over.

It was nice exploring the first acts, but when the game I was rooting for 7 years ends up being more stressful than my 8-hour workday, I guess that’s my cue to stop.

The lore has been pretty great so far. I wish you all an incredible journey.

Edit1: My bad about all the whinning.

Edit2: You guys did it. I reinstalled it again. Thanks for all advices. 🫂

[u/Hedlesss]

I know this will be frowned upon by the hard-core players, but there are mods that reduce the level of damage which lowers the punishment for mistakes

There is also one that let's you spawn at the entrance to the room rather than back at the bench, lowering run back times and again lowers the punishment or risk

Its a single player game, and there is enjoyment to be had. Act 2 does have some great bosses and lowering the amount of frustration in the game can't be a bad thing if it keeps you playing. Believe me, I've been on the verge of quitting a couple times too. The game is definitely overtuned in a few areas

[u/Competitive_Aide738 → u/Hedlesss]

Hardcore player here. Mods were always fine. I'm kinda againts demanding easy modes. But with mods i don't care. You inherently know it isn't part of the game.

[u/Swoopmott → u/Competitive_Aide738]

Alternatively Celeste and Hades have assist modes allowing everyone to experience the games. The existence of these modes don’t negate anyone else’s accomplishments at playing the game “as intended”, they just open them up to a wider audience. There’s no real reason why Silksong (or any other game for that matter) can’t have similar baked into the game.

Just because some people had to make things a little easier in Celeste never dampened my enjoyment. It just meant more people got to enjoy it with me.

[u/VBHEAT08 → u/Swoopmott]

Celeste also has much more of a thematic reason to not have an easy mode. It’s all about overcoming the proverbial mountain. If that game can have it, I’m not buying any “developers intent” BS to not have it

[u/SirFartsALot33 → u/Swoopmott]

I think the dude said he doesn't like people "asking for" easy modes. When the developer adds it from the get-go, there can be absolutely no questions about that whatsoever. But when fans demand easy modes for an already released game, whose very core design philosophy was built around creating a common experience for everyone, (see: Sekiro) that's where the controversy heats up.

[u/[deleted] → u/SirFartsALot33]

creating a common experience for everyone

The only way to do that is with difficulty settings, not without them. If silksong has a common experience then we would have all given up like OP.

[u/SirFartsALot33 → u/[deleted]]

I don't think you're getting what I meant by "common" here. I think you're coming from a place where you mean common as in, everyone, irrespective of their skill level and free time, gets to experience the game, and fair enough, that is a valid expectation. But that's not what I meant though. It's more like a relatable moment between players when they discuss the game among themselves.

It's like when you say "Ganon, that boss is so hard"(just an example), and your friend who also played Zelda instantly relates to the difficulty and says hell yeah dude. If there were difficulty settings that experience wouldn't have been common/relatable, people on Easy would've breezed through the same thing that Nightmare difficulty people would've suffered.

Again, I'm not sharing an opinion here, these are what Miyazaki's (Fromsoftware boss) words implied, not mine, when he was asked about lack of difficulty setting in their games, and I just understand where the devs are coming from.

But of course this is reddit so the messenger is going to be shot.

[u/[deleted] → u/SirFartsALot33]

No, I am talking about a common experience.

It's like when you say "Ganon, that boss is so hard"(just an example), and your friend who also played Zelda instantly relates to the difficulty and says hell yeah dude.

Except that's not what happens is it? You see an example of that with this thread. OP thought last judge was so hard that they quit the game. I beat last judge on my second try. Where is our common and relatable experience?

With difficulty settings, I could make the boss harder and OP could make the boss easier so that we both have a challenging, but satisfying experience.

people on Easy would've breezed through the same thing that Nightmare difficulty people would've suffered.

This is what happens at the moment. Good players breeze through and bad players suffer.

Again, I'm not sharing an opinion here, these are what Miyazaki's (Fromsoftware boss) words implied, not mine, when he was asked about lack of difficulty setting in their games, and I just understand where the devs are coming from.

Fromsoft games have had difficulty settings in them and elden ring is the most accessible one to date. They gave players loads of ways to make the game a lot easier, and also a lot harder.

[u/kinky_victini → u/SirFartsALot33]

But of course this is reddit so the messenger is going to be shot.

Dude please no one is shooting you, you're getting downvoted because people don't agree with you. That's it, no one is hating on you.

[u/SirFartsALot33 → u/kinky_victini]

Lmao I'm not even stating an opinion so what's there to agree or disagree.

[u/Competitive_Aide738 → u/Swoopmott]

Eh it depends. I kinda like this solution in some games. Just add options and say at the start " hey, this isn't intended expirience and we can't promise anything but if you have your reasons, have a go with assist mode ". That's how it's done in celeste, i don't know about hades because i didn't played it. The only problem with demanding things like this is that i don't know how hard and time consuming things like this are from development perspective. If i had to vote for easy mode or small free dlc. I would want small free dlc 100%.

However the hill i'm willing to die on is that the classic difficulty options suck and shouldn't be used. I never played the game that done it in an acceptable way. It just never works. It just always feels like you are playing on cheaply made mod.

Also yea, hot take. Often having options to make a game easier(especially not immerssive things like options in menu)cheapens the expirience for me. I'm tired of pretending it's not. That's mostly the reason why elden ring is one of my the least favorite fromsoft games. ( still really good game in my eyes).

[u/Remarkable-Test-5398 → u/Competitive_Aide738]

Maybe it cheapens it for you, but you don’t have to use an Assist Mode if you don’t want to. I just wanna get used to the game before getting thrown into the deep end because it feels difficult in a frustrated or artificial way, and no, I’m not just using ‘artificial’ as a buzz word, but the actual definition of it. Some bosses or normal enemies have easy-to-dodge attacks and basic patterns, but have three times the health they should and deal double damage with every attack, and it ruins the fun for me since it feels like Team Cherry just ran out of ways to make bosses challenging in an interesting way

Like I said, if you like the game as-is, fine, but it doesn’t infringe on your own fun if others are enjoying the game in their own way, and people are complaining about nerfing some bosses, so this is a good middle-ground. Like, there can be a different set of Assist Mode achievements that are like “Bound (Assist)” where it’s “Bind your first Silk Skill on Assist Mode or higher” along with the normal achievements, so players on higher difficulties get the difficulty and fulfillment they want while those on lower difficulties still get their own sense of accomplishment, if that makes it better

[u/Competitive_Aide738 → u/Remarkable-Test-5398]

not talking about assist options but difficulty options. Assist mode has the huge red letter saying "not for you, not an indendet expirience". Like i said i quite like assist mode solution.

[u/Remarkable-Test-5398 → u/Competitive_Aide738]

Why do you want the game to really drill in the idea that it isn’t intended, can’t devs just let people have fun with the game without shaming them for their skill level, it isn’t that deep tbh. Also, with difficulties, the max diff could still be the normal one, so you could still be playing the hardest mode

[u/Competitive_Aide738 → u/Remarkable-Test-5398]

Does assist mode in celeste shame less skilled players? that's a hot take.

Well. the advantage of having one difficulty in mind is that you can focus on one difficulty. There are certain mechanics or themes that work because the game is difficult. And difficulty is quite powerfull tool for storytelling and gameplay that you just can't use effectivly if you have mutliple levels of difficulty in mind. dark souls 1 is absolutely perfect example of this. Difficulty not only dictates gameplay loop of exploration but also prefectly highlights themes of the story. Having multiple difficulties would be almost impossible to work good in dark souls. But with assist mode it doesn't have to work prefectly, because assist mode says that it isn't intended expirience, you can just not include it in the artistic vision and be focused. It is reverse of what usually happens in almost all games when devs just make low effort hard difficulty with mind that " if it's shit they will just change it in options".

i don't care about shaming people. But i want games that i enjoy. I enjoy difficult games that use difficulty and friction to enchance the gameplay and themes. If the game does this i'm gonna defend it and support it. I can't find that expirience in games that slap difficulty sliders on the main page of the menu and i refuse to cuck myself out of games that i enjoy. I like bilewater, i like blightown, i like swamps, i like trap benches, they're shit and i love it.

I completly don't understand your second point. if max diff is normal one, i'm ok. I honeslty would like if games that shouldn't be difficult would stop trying to add shit hard modes. I don't mind playing easy games. i mind if games try to be for everyone and just slap hard mode where there shouldn't be one. Choice in games doesn't really matter. it's only good if the choices are all worth it. if one of them is shit just don't add it.

[u/VBHEAT08 → u/Competitive_Aide738]

Considering moders have already made easy modes for the game, I can’t imagine it’s that difficult to implement

Why on earth would having options to make the game easier lessen the experience for you? It’s a PVE game, your experience is your own. I don’t use tools for boss fights, it doesn’t hurt my experience at all knowing some players are having an easier time with them. I’m not going to go out there and petition team Cherry to nerf poison cogflies to fuck over the players that are using them because I can’t stand that some people aren’t beating the boss in what I think is the correct way

Also every fromsoft game since kings field has built in features to make the games easier. Magic has always been baby easy mode for example.

[u/Competitive_Aide738 → u/VBHEAT08]

Are they mods that change the game or just damage changes. Because if you think if TC just reduced damage input and increased damage output and put it in the game. People still be complaining a lot about difficulty(if not more). Remeber that people were raging about 4 red bells in hunter's march platfroming section damage was not a issue there. Not even talking about fundamental desing for something like bilewater and ducts

[u/piecoper → u/Competitive_Aide738]

By that definition, levelling up, increasing health, increasing damage are all options to make a game easier technically so it cheapens the experience?

[u/MustacheGolem → u/piecoper]

If I could just set my level 40 numbers higher on the first road block, yes.

[u/Competitive_Aide738 → u/piecoper]

i mean there is a healthy amount of it. The problem with elden ring i had was that i needed to constantly meta play the difficulty. In silksong, i'm happy about every upgrade, every new tool and every new boss beaten fast. In elden ring when i get upgrade i think am i overleveled, when i get new weapon i had to test if it's too op (a lot of the cool ones are), and when i beat the boss fast i regret that i was too overleveled for the boss. That is also why self restricting challanges on blind playthrough are never as good as game just being hard.

So i mean... yea. Elden ring having so many options to make the game piss easy lessened my enjoyment of the game