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Open World Games When does difficulty become un-fun? Dev says their game has moments of "intentional bulls***" but the trick to difficulty is making the player feel it's their fault they failed

Action RPGs "I'd rather quit with dignity than drop it down to Easy": Soulslike boss on The First Berserker: Khazan says many players will quit a game before lowering the difficulty, so they had to add and change some options

Action Games Dread it, run from it, Hollow Knight: Silksong gets hit by the difficulty discourse as players can't decide if they should "git gud" or acknowledge "legitimate issues" Team Cherry has with the Metroidvania

Baby Steps trailer showing Hornet statue from Hollow Knight Silksong

Games "I'm definitely in the camp of not having an easy mode": As Silksong crushes players and Team Cherry nerfs it, veteran designer says some games have to be difficult because that's the whole point

Hornet strikes at a red flow bud beneath her in Hollow Knight: Silksong in The Marrow

Action Games Hollow Knight Silksong has beat my ass for 11 hours, but it's not too hard – we just have a problem with instant gratification

Ghost of Tsushima sequel Ghost of Yotei reveal trailer screenshot

Open World Games Ghost of Yotei lead says the "easier" Sucker Punch made the Tsushima sequel, "people liked it less" – but devs didn't want to "alienate a bunch of people" with its Lethal difficulty, either

Silent Hill What do the Silent Hill f difficulty modes mean?

Silent Hill f: A close-up on Hinako Shimizu's face during the reveal trailer for the new Silent Hill game.

Silent Hill Silent Hill f fans can't decide if its combat is "ruining the whole experience" with fights harder than Elden Ring, or if the new horror game "was designed for you to pick your battles"

the bird-headed guardian blocking behind a greatshield as fire swirls all around

Action RPGs Elden Ring Nightreign answers your unholy prayers with extreme "Deep of the Night" challenge mode, and it even has an endless option

Hollow Knight: Silksong still of Hornet dueling a sword wielding bug

Action Games Silksong is way harder than Hollow Knight, and my theory is that Team Cherry became evil masterminds without even realizing it

Roguelike Games FromSoftware finally added an easy button to one of its games: Elden Ring Nightreign will let you de-rank its brutal Deep of Night mode if you decide it's too hard

Action Games Fans say Team Cherry was wrong and Silksong is actually "noticeably harder" than Hollow Knight, with movement and bosses pummeling you from the Metroidvania's first hour

Platforming Games Silksong is harder than Hollow Knight because "Hornet is inherently faster and more skillful than the Knight," Team Cherry says, and you can use Elden Ring logic to get around the difficulty anyway

Borderlands 4 Harlow character close up holding a detonator

Borderlands Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford is "a little nervous" about Borderlands 4 because it can be harder than previous games and not everyone wants a big challenge

Action Games The most popular Silksong mods tone down Team Cherry's cruelty, and this Elden Ring-inspired solution to ridiculous boss runbacks makes a very fair point

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When does game difficulty become un-fun?

Baby Steps is a bizarre, very literal walking sim that can be utterly brutal at times. Unlike the recently released Silksong, Baby Steps is difficult in a very different way, but it is certainly still frustrating.

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