FromSoftware's Soulsborne games are almost universally praised. Fans love them for their immersive settings, deep character customization opportunities, and legendary challenge, but that last bit is something of a controversial topic. There are a subset of fans that think the upcoming Elden Ring should include an easy mode, thereby making it more accessible to a wider audience of players, while another group thinks an easy mode would jeopardize the integrity of the game and genre. It's not an easy question to answer, but FromSoftware may have done just that with the open world mechanics in its upcoming game.
Elden Ring is going to be FromSoftware's first open-world Soulsborne game, a prospect that has many players very excited. While open world games come with their own challenges, they also provide players a way to customize their experience with the game without needing some kind of artificial easy mode added in. There are still plenty of valid arguments for why an easy mode should be included, but it's worth taking a look at Elden Ring's open world and understanding that it will likely alleviate many of the problems that casual players had with the other Soulsborne games in the past.
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Traditionally speaking, there are no difficulty settings in Soulsborne games. Whether players boot up Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, or Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, they will be playing on the same level of difficulty as everyone else that's playing the game. While these games are often cited as being "difficult," it helps to define what that means exactly. A key factor of difficulty in Soulsborne games is fairness. A given challenge might be difficult to overcome, but it should never feel unfair. Soulsborne games accomplish this by giving the player adequate warning about most threats.
For example, the rolling boulders in Sen's Fortress of Dark Souls 1 shouldn't catch players off guard if they are paying attention. Not only have the sound effects of these rolling boulders been playing since the player entered the fortress, but they should also see at least one roll by before they head into a corridor with boulders in it. Likewise, enemies in Demon's Souls frequently jump out from behind cover to attack the player. While this may catch the player off guard the first time, it conditions them to be prepared and approach blind corners more carefully. In other words, every challenge can be overcome if players are careful and learn from their mistakes.
Another form of difficulty in games is simply how powerful the enemies are in terms of numbers. An enemy that has more HP, damage, and armor than another is clearly the more difficult of the two. Many games use difficulty settings to adjust these numbers so that players of lower skill can have a chance at games that would otherwise be too hard for them. More often than not, these difficulty settings artificially change the difficulty of the game with these numbers rather than organically changing difficulty with level or enemy design.
For example, a goblin on easy mode will have less hit points and deal less damage to the player than the same goblin on normal mode. There isn't anything wrong with this necessarily, but it does seem like it might be a strange inclusion for a franchise that became popular for being challenging and unforgiving. At the same time, fans that love the Soulsborne games will undoubtedly want to share it with other players, and it's unfortunate when those other players are excluded from the experience because they are less skilled at video games in general.
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Elden Ring may have found the perfect solution to both maintain its reputation as a difficult game and provide a more accessible experience for players of all skill levels. The answer to this conundrum lies in its open world design, as well as a few other key things about the game's most challenging aspect, bosses. As with any open world game, the player organically sets the difficulty by deciding how much they'd like to explore and which areas they try to clear. Players that want to have an easier time can make this happen by powering up their character with a ton of exploration.
On the same note, many of Elden Ring's bosses are optional, so if there's a boss that players are struggling on, they can always skip it and come back later when they are more powerful. This will help prevent the burnout that many casual players experience when they find themselves stuck on a tough boss for days on end. Going to the other extreme, this also provides a way for skilled players to make the game even harder, as limiting exploration and optional content will drastically increase the difficulty of the game.
All of these concepts are very similar to a game that is very familiar to most players, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Although it isn't talked about much, there are no difficulty settings in Breath of the Wild, and much like a Soulsborne game, all players get the same experience. That said, players can customize that experience to their liking, either following the path laid out for them and exploring the vast open world or forging their own path forward instead.
Elden Ring could apply many of these ideas to its own gameplay, creating an accessible yet still challenging experience that casual players and skilled players alike can enjoy. It also helps to avoid any complications that come from players having different difficulty settings, meaning PVP and Co-op aspects of the game can still function normally. For those players wanting to see an easy mode in Elden Ring, it may be best to hold out and see how the open world gameplay affects the game's difficulty first.
Elden Ring releases on January 21, 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.