Disabled quadriplegic shows why Sekiro doesn't need an easy mode - Videos for the 97.4%

Difficulty is not the whole of accessibility its like books some are hard reads thats a personal issue even if you are illiterate you can still pick up the book and manipulate the pages and read it but if you are blind and need brail that's accessibility if you dont have fingers to turn the pages or ears for the audiobook or a guide dog to read for you those are accessibility

This is literally "git gud". You act like the only thing a games journalist can contribute is by being good at the game. Nice move of the goalposts, you haven't used the term game reviewers in this entire thread until now. Not that it changes my point much. The fact this conversation is as contentious as it is shows the problem. People should be able to chose the difficulty for the game they're playing. Not have to grind 4 hours to get a bigger health-bar, not look up on a wiki for a trick, or exploit.

Not only that, but why has this argument never come about before, despite "notoriously" hard games existing in the past? Like where were these people when Demon Souls came out, or when Super Meat Boy was the new hotness? No one rallied behind an easy mode option for those, all the Dark Souls games, Bloodbourne, and many many others.

i'm pretty good at games but after 40+ attempts at sekiro's final boss i'm ready to turn on easy mode

It's almost like awareness about difficulty and disability options in videogames is a recent occurrence that is actively being brought up.

or maybe because of the fact that they're reviewing games, they should by extension be at least competent at playing games? how many times have we seen reviewers play games like absolute dogshit and then demerit the game based on their own inability to play the game? as for your second point, do you know how many times i've seen people do the same thing OVER AND OVER again that results in the same thing? then get frustrated and quit the game and call the game dumb or again, demerit it based on their own inability to play the game? you don't need to have a disability to have a game be inaccessible for you, but you at least have to attempt to turn on your brain and learn about what you're doing wrong and what you can change to progress rather than immediately going to twitter and using hyperbole.

Another big part of them is the asynchronous MP and invasions/ summoning. With an easy mode you'd need to pool players off into two separate queues, but as the entire thing is a P2P mesh basically, that'd severely limit who you'd be matched with. The Souls games aren't exactly hard in the sense that they're unfair and unrelenting. They just require people to actually learn the mechanics past the bare minimum and pay attention to what enemies are doing. Games that are hard for the sake of being hard are a problem, but I can't say Soulsborne games fit that descriptor. They're punishing, but not unforgiving.

I won't defend game reviews that can't play a game, then demerit a game based on that. I will defend game journalists who despite their subpar gaming skills, produce worthwhile contributions to the medium. Game developers can at least make best-effort attempts at making games more accessible, this includes difficulty options (which is admittedly vague, but Celeste is usually a good example of a good suite). And the idea that game journalists are exclusively championing accessibility options because of their inability to play games (the "git gud" argument) is farcical. Does it happen, yes, but bad-faith actors will always exist in public discourse.

Moving the goalposts. Do you have to be this fucking dumb. I said games journalists, the people who fucking review games, how about you try having an honest discussion and not being a dickhead? "People should be able to choose the difficulty for the game they're playing." Firstly that's an opinion that I do not share. Secondly choosing how you play a game is choosing the difficulty. Not all difficulty is an option in a menu. I never said grind for 4 hours, I never said look up tricks and exploits. Stop making shit up. You're arguing like a twat.

i word things like a real asshole sometimes so i assumed you felt justified, no hard feelings lol it seems like a simple difference of opinion

It's literally like having someone without a driver's license reviewing sports cars

I'd appreciate it if you could point some out because I've never seen them. It can include explicit difficulty options, it doesn't have to. Also game journalists are not championing accessibility options. I've only ever seen them complaining that games (which are explicitly marketed as being difficult) don't have an easy mode. It comes across more as clickbait than any genuine attempt at broadening game's accessibility.

How about you take your own advice, I've been addressing your arguments point-by-point, you're just tilted. I agree, I think options should exist in-game that allow for easier gameplay (cheesing, traditionally). But this idea that games shouldn't have difficulty options (again, a broad subject, but I'm including accessibility options in this) is ludicrous. This is just farcical, Celeste for example had plenty of coverage on its difficulty options. Titanfall 2's developers have talked about how they wanted to include movement-puzzle difficulty as part of the in-game difficulty options. And even Noclip has covered accessibility options, and they have "hardboiled" employees on staff.

Remember, this is the type of Journalist calling for easy modes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOjXaAZHEQE

I feel like Sekiro is not a very good example for the argument that difficult games need an easy mode. Like, the game gives you so many tools to be successful. I don't see why anyone should need what is essentially a trainer to beat the game. You can cheese the game in so many ways with such little mechanical complexity that it really only takes a bit of creativity to discover.

2001 space odessy needs an easy mode

I never get tired of the first video. The only logical explanation has to be that the guy just had a stroke and forgot how to read for about a minute.

If a game is hard by design it should be kept that way, that's for the developer to decide, no one else.

I had to stop reading your post here because this is just laughable. I struggled with this boss and literally everyone I've watched play the game has struggled with him aside from the people who figured out you could run away after triggering the fight and use a stealth kill to remove one health bar. Only one of his grab attacks can be jumped and jumping to escape it doesn't even work 100% of the time depending on the terrain; on top of this, players are unlikely to discover that this grab can be jumped, because 1. other grabs can't and 2. it doesn't work every time. All grabs do almost all of your health if they connect, as well as killing you if you are thrown off the edge afterwards, and some of his "very slow attacks" cover massive distance so if you're hanging out of range so that you can actually get hits in at the end of his moves, you're going to have to have really fast reactions to get out of the way in time. Each of his 'normal" attacks does a third to half of your health. Did I mention you only have 2 gourds at this point, they both only heal for half your health, on top of 1 revive (which revives you to half health), and the Chained Ogre has 2 life bars with no obvious way to stealth attack him unless you already know the game well or figure it out by accident. Acting like this is some kind of easy boss that only exists to allow you to get acclimated to the controls is laughably misleading; the Chained Ogre's "very slow attack" and "easy to dodge grab" (it isn't) don't do a thing to stop him from easily being one of the hardest enemies of early game and considerably harder than Gyoubu, the mandatory boss after him.

idk why y'all acting like this is a "gotcha" for them I know I had to play a game for my job at a magazine, I don't want to have to try again and hone my skill to get good at it and in the end waste my time. I have an article/review to write. I need to be able to finish it in a decent amount of time. Of course an easy mode makes sense for journalists.

the chained ogre is hard as all fuck, i really don't know what janus is talking about. i'm a soulsborne veteran and that thing kicked me to the curb like a dozen times.

I don't understand your point here, what do you mean by "for developers to decide?" That's kind of tautological. They're the developers. Of course they decide how they develop the game. And then they can be criticized for any decisions they may have made.

Yeah, that was my point with the whole "It forces you to learn how to play the game" bit. Everyone struggles with it at first, it's not unique to disabled gamers. 100% false. The ogre has two grabs, a short range grab where he stands still and a long range one where he lunges at you. Both can be jumped, while it is possible to mistime a jump and get grabbed that's just a part of the learning process. There are precisely 0 grab attacks used before the ogre, aside from the drukard Elite Enemy who is a miniboss in an optional area, his grab can also be jumped. You're right it doesn't work every time, until you 'git gud', but people make mistakes it's only natural. The grabs do a lot of damage, yes. So you should probably learn how to avoid them, it's not actually hard once you're used to the controls. Also you can grapple onto the ogre after he throws you, just a little protip. Not really, they have some have long range yes but they're still slow attacks. You know you can block and deflect all his attacks. In fact you can block and deflect everything that isn't a danger attack (except the snakes, but they're as big as a house). As do most normal enemy attacks at that point in the game. Also all of his attacks can be blocked or deflected, as stated above. Did you know you can go to the Hirata Estate and get another gourd seed? And also tools which will help fight the ogre. The guards just before it even mention that it's scared of fire. He has two health bars but he doesn't change when you get to the second one, he doesn't get harder. If you can remove one health bar you can do the second, because it's literally doing the same thing again. You don't need to be able to sneak attack him, though I did it the very first time I fought him because I had picked up the Gachiin's sugar shortly before the ogre which increases your stealth. It's a game about being a ninja, you're literally called 'Shinobi' by everyone you meet. (Just in case you didn't know ninja and shinobi are literally the same word in Japanese). It's not 'getting acclimated to the controls', it's a barrier to prevent you from continuing until you understand the controls. It's not meant to be easy if you're bad at the game, it's meant to make you get better so the rest of the game doesn't destroy you. The dodge is easy to grab once you know what you're doing, which is the point of the enemy. He's a miniboss, he's not supposed to be easy at the point you first encounter him, he's meant to ensure you're prepared for the challenges which follow. If you can beat the ogre you can probably beat the two military leaders. If you can beat them you can probably beat horse boy. He's also harder than Blazing Bull. The main difference is he has significantly less health than either of those. You don't have to be as good to beat the bosses which follow the ogre, but you do have to be consistently good, which is what the ogre is there to teach. Can you kill it? Good. Can you kill it twice? You're ready to move on. It's not perfect, I would have put it a bit later, maybe the courtyard area before Gyoubu.

If I jump out of the way of a grab attack and get teleported back into it and murdered because the hitbox for the grab was touching my toe, how high do you think is the chance of me trying that again is, especially when dodging works way better for every grab in the game (except for that specific lunging grab the ogre does)? No, because that's wrong Except you have a limited amount of healing items, revives, and spirit emblems, so that's also wrong

Sorry about that one. I was getting mixed up with the prayer bead you can find. Not really. You have a spawn point literally 50 metres away from it. You can just come back to life forever if you want. Your gourd always replenishes when you die, you can buy spirit emblems cheaply. Instead of assuming the game is wrong you could try again and not get grabbed? The jump has i-frames and the grab can't touch you once you're above the ogre's arms. It's fine to fuck up and die. That's how you learn. Also jumping is only bad against one grab, the Guardian Ape's jumping grab, but that's because you jump into it. also, you don't have to jump the grab, you could dodge, or sprint away.

I can't figure out if I'm being trolled right now

How the fuck is this trolling? Just pay attention to the enemy and learn what it does. It's not rocket science. Hold block unless it does a grab, then you jump or dodge (your preference). Attack when it's recovering from an attack. Do this until you can do it without getting killed. It's really not hard.

In principle I agree with this completely, but I don't think you're being totally honest about Sekiro. Chained Ogre and Blazing Bull are probably the two enemies I've seen the absolute most complaints about since the game launched. Saying things like "Blazing Bull doesn't have danger attacks and can be avoided by running away" trivializes how difficult and overwhelming that encounter is until you figure out how to deal with it, it's like saying Lady Butterfly is easy because you can knock her out of the air and even stunlock her - it's true, but that only makes it easy once know about it. I don't think Sekiro does anywhere near as much as Dark Souls did, which sadly never really got much credit for how it actually did give the player a lot of options to make the game easier. Sekiro clearly rewards creativity in stealth and tool use, but it also took away a lot of those options by removing summons, weapon types, armor, leveling, etc. I agree that difficulty modes are generally lazy, and what Dark Souls did was a really good way to do it. But the games could still benefit from a Celeste-style Assist Mode. Also I disagree that slowing down the time wouldn't be enjoyable, I'm tempted to try it myself just to be able to pull off combat that I couldn't in real time. I've done it in other games in the past and it really is fun to steamroll all the things that are challenging at normal speed, and it naturally makes you do more risky things than you would without it, so in a way at least some of the challenge is reintroduced that way and the joy of being successful is still there. I once did it in one of the Touhou games (bullet hell shooter series), and where I would normally just dodge a bullet I would instead continuously loop around them while staying as close to it as I could while still trying not to touch it. It was fun to play it that way, as well as to watch the replay of the run at full speed afterward.

I beat the game already, I'm not complaining about the boss and I don't actually think it's unfair (except I feel like the lunging grab attack could use work because you should be able to dodge it other ways besides jumping, since conveyance does not properly express the ability to dodge grabs with jumps). I know this is probably confusing and I'm sorry but my main disagreement with you was about something that I thought your post implied (and I'm not the only one who made that mistake) that you didn't mean to imply. I did continue to post some things you got wrong after that because I was feeling combative because of your dumb ratings, but since you clarified that you didn't mean that the chained ogre was easy, the core disagreement is resolved.

Don't get me wrong, I think Blazing Bull is a bad boss and it doesn't act the same as any other fight in the game. I hate fighting it because it's a fucking slog. It's not hard though, it's just discordant with how the rest of the game is played. Absolutely it doesn't give you as many options as Dark Souls. It's a much more focused game ut that's why they made concessions to make the game fairer. You only lose half of your money and XP when you die rather than all of it, you can buy money bags to save your money (with a 10% tax), if you earn enough XP for a skill point it's locked in forever. I don't think the slow down mode would work in Sekiro because you're locked into animations once you do them. I just think it'd feel extra shitty to mistime an attack and have to slowly watch as you can't dodge or jump until the attack animation plays out.