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Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion has stirred controversy far and wide. Its difficulty led to a few critical reviews from journalists, reviving the ‘games journalists are bad at video games’ discourse, and then after it’s release – lo-and-behold, players were also critical in light of its difficulty. We’ve heard audiences enough already, so it’s refreshing we have a new voice entering the discussion.
Helldivers 2’s CCO, Johan Pilestedt, is the games master behind Arrowhead’s gargantuan title. Gaming discourse spreads fast, and it wasn’t long before he had his say on Elden Ring’s difficulty. For context, there are two tweets that inform this particular thread – one from a streamer finally beating an extremely difficult boss, and another quoting that tweet stating that From Software don’t intentionally design difficulty bosses for difficulty’s sake, but instead “the game is challenging because they want you to feel [victorious]. But you can’t feel this without being challenged.”
Pilestedt finally has his say, that “good game design is evoking emotion more than anything.” Despite this, he also continues to say that “the games industry is big enough for there to be so many exciting experiences for all audiences.” It’s hard to disagree with Pilestedt here, whether it’s a driving sim roguelike, a Commodore 64-style horror game, or an MMO, there really is a game for everyone. Despite this, he then goes on to say that “a game for everyone is a game for no-one.” The slogan for Arrowhead Studios, too.
In the run up to the Elden Ring expansion – Hidetaka Miyazaki was being very vocal with his thoughts on FromSoftware games’ difficulty. He sais that “if we really wanted the whole world to play the game, we could just crank the difficlty down more and more … Had we taken that approach, I don’t think the game would have done what it did … which, in my eyes, would break the game itself.”
It’s interesting that both Miyazaki and Pilestedt both subscribe to the same philosophy of finding a niche audience for your game, and making that formula so good that it makes that niche audience grow more and more. The successes of Elden Ring and Helldivers 2 do not come around often, and perhaps that’s because the creators behind them both agree on this.
From Software’s difficulty has always been tied down to the achievements, at least for me. My first experience beating the Cleric Beast in Bloodborne is one I can’t ever forget. My hands were sticky – I couldn’t think straight. My parents were calling me down for dinner, but something inside me (desperation or obsession) was keeping me rooted to my chair. When I finally felled that disgusting beast, I was the most accomplished and proud in my entire adolescent life. And, that was only the first boss.
