De release van Elden Ring nadert en wereldwijd bereiden spelers zich al mentaal voor op talloze sterfgevallen en eventuele gebroken controllers. De games van FromSoftware staan er nu eenmaal om bekend bikkelhard te zijn, iets wat de masochisten onder ons wel aantrekkelijk vinden.

Volgens maker Hidetaka Miyazaki zal Elden Ring opnieuw een stevige uitdaging vormen, maar tegelijk ook toegankelijker zijn dankzij de nieuwigheden die de game met zich meebrengt.

“In Elden Ring, we have not intentionally tried to lower the game’s difficulty, but I think more players will finish it this time. As I mentioned, the player’s level of freedom to progress through the world or return to a challenge later are all elements that I feel will help people get through the game at a more leisurely pace. Also, there isn’t a focus on pure action. The player has more agency to dictate their approach against, for example, the field bosses in the overworld and how they utilize stealth in various situations. We’ve even reduced the number of hoops that you have to jump through to enjoy it in multiplayer. So we hope the players embrace that idea of receiving help from others. And we feel like the overall clear rate will go up this time because of these things.”

Over de moeilijkheidsgraad in games is inmiddels ook al heel wat gezegd en geschreven en ook Miyazaki wou hierover zijn mening kwijt:

“It’s a valid discussion. I feel like our approach to these games, not just Elden Ring, is to design them to encourage the player to overcome adversity. We don’t try to force difficulty or make things hard for the sake of it. We want players to use their cunning, study the game, memorize what’s happening, and learn from their mistakes. We don’t want players to feel like the game is unfairly punishing, but rather that there’s a chance to win a difficult encounter and make progress. We understand that Souls-like games are regularly associated with impossible levels of difficulty with high barriers to entry. But we try to design the games to make the cycle of repeatedly trying to overcome these challenges enjoyable in itself. So we hope that with Elden Ring and the new options it provides, it will be a success in that respect.”

Elden Ring verschijnt op 25 februari, lees meer over de game in onze preview.