How difficult are we talking?

[Andrew R]

Is there an option to dial it down?

[Valborg]

There is currently no difficulty option in the game. Because this is a souls-like, I will compare it to several other games to give you my sense of the difficulty, and then say some things about this game in particular.

This game is harder than Dark Souls 1, but not as hard as the Dark Souls 1 DLC, primarily due to the speed of combat. This game is easier than Hollow Knight. This game is harder than Elden Ring, but easier than the Elden Ring DLC, primarily due to the fact there is not "build diversity".

This game is, by and large, an exercise in timing and pattern recognition. Normal enemies are not that much of a threat; certain elite enemies can pose a challenge before you get a good sword. Bosses represent a significant spike in difficulty due to the infrequent moments of downtime for healing. Exploration is very rewarding, and after you defeat the first main boss you unlock a traversal ability that lets you explore basically 85% of the map without worrying about another boss battle. If you do explore the world fully, you can have the best equipment in the game for the remainder of all boss battles, which will significantly reduce the frustration that you may experience.

There are two consumable items that are easy to farm, which when used liberally can really help carry you through boss battles. It doesn't feel good to spend the time to grind for consumables, but it is possible and it does make the game easier. Some consumables feel pretty impossible to grind for, and therefore you probably just shouldn't try.

If you find yourself dying more than 5 times in a row to a boss with no good sense of getting better at the patterns, I would go elsewhere or just put the game down for the night. Every time I did that I had much better success the next play session. The amount of fun I had, the sense of mystery and the amazing soundtrack more than outweighs the small bouts of shouting I had at my monitor over boss difficulty.

Just remember that the game is about timing, not spamming attacks, and you should be fine.

[Andrew R]

Pretty tired of souls games.

Another game to not get.

[Pulowski]

who asked

[Valborg]

Originally posted by Andrew R:

Pretty tired of souls games.

Another game to not get.

Sorry to hear that. If you ever find your appetite has returned I do recommend this game. It has wonderful music and a pretty compelling world to explore with a sense of mystery basically everywhere.

[EzhnoSeraphim]

Originally posted by Andrew R:

Pretty tired of souls games.

Another game to not get.

Maybe find an easier genre to get into instead

[ImperialPanda]

This is like base hollow knight level of difficulty.

[Andrew R]

Originally posted by EzhnoSeraphim:

Originally posted by Andrew R:

Pretty tired of souls games.

Another game to not get.

Maybe find an easier genre to get into instead

I play a pretty wide variety from God Of War, Uncharted, Persona, to Vampire Survivors, and a TON of indie platformers.

[Legion_Pheonix]

Originally posted by Andrew R:

Originally posted by EzhnoSeraphim:

Maybe find an easier genre to get into instead

I play a pretty wide variety from God Of War, Uncharted, Persona, to Vampire Survivors, and a TON of indie platformers.

Players of difficult games do not understand that they are not alone here in the universe.
It is not difficult for a developer to make a difficulty level for clumsy people like me. Who just play metroidvanias.
And now the fashion has gone to shove a souls-like genre into metroidvanias.
It is some kind of mania. And God bless him that this genre exists here.
Just make three difficulty levels and let the fans of high difficulty play it, and we play normal or easy. That's the whole problem.
But such players do not want to understand us, and the developer apparently does not care.