God Of War director Cory Barlog lends his two cents to the ongoing debate about video game difficulty. The fine line between presenting seasoned players with a satisfactory challenge and making things accessible enough to newcomers is as old as the medium itself, with plenty of passionate voices on both ends of the spectrum speaking out on the issue.
A prime example in this ongoing debate is developer From Software, whose brand of action-adventure games like the Dark Souls series, Bloodborne, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice are infamous for their punishingly high difficulty level. Some players love these games for the intense challenge they provide, while others wish they carried an easier option for rookies looking to get into the affectionately dubbed “Soulslike” genre. Sekiro in particular has sparked an intense online discussion over whether From Software should add a lower difficulty mode, to the point that some players have even added an Easy Mode using mods.
When speaking to GameSpot editor Tamoor Hussain on the issue of players arguing against easy options in games like Souls, Bloodborne, or Sekiro on Twitter earlier today, Sony Santa Monica’s Cory Barlog replied by comparing these options to a building’s “elevator and ramps” and chiding people who condemn these settings as “someone saying they like a building because it only has stairs.” In keeping with his analogy, Barlog adds that players who want to play a game on a higher setting can simply “just keep taking the stairs and ignore the elevator and ramps. The enjoyment is still there, only now it’s accessible for all instead of a select few.”
Cory Barlog is no stranger to hard video games or the Soulslike genre, as 2018’s God Of War reboot borrowed its gameplay and difficulty heavily from the likes of Sekiro - though that game still wasn’t quite as punishing as From Software’s titles. That being said, even he admits that he finds difficulty in playing certain video games, as he’s claimed to have never earned a Platinum Trophy achievement on a PlayStation title before. Not that he has much time to practice, as he and the rest of Sony Santa Monica are currently at work developing God Of War: Ragnarök, which has been delayed until 2022.
Making video games intensely challenging for longtime players and reasonably accessible for newcomers is a difficult endeavor in and of itself, as God Of War’s Cory Barlog knows all too well. There is wisdom in his words that games should try to do both, as an optional easy mode isn’t hurting players who want to get an intense challenge from a higher setting. To quote the man himself, the stairs will still be there even if the building has an elevator.
Source: Cory Barlog/Twitter