I'm not missing the point, I've already tried to politely cut through some of the rhetoric in here by bringing up examples of other games that have mechanically used difficulty for the good of the game world. From Bushido Blade to Gothic. There aren't too many outside of some puzzle games, that only get played on one difficulty. As I've said a few times now, From Software is a MINORITY in the majority of video game developers that have easy, if not story mode in their game (basically godmode). The mere fact they are the minority means the whole industry has largely gone how some in this topic say it should have, which is fine. I just don't see why one developer doing things a bit differently is such a big issue?
From Software is known as the developer you go to for a linear difficulty challenge, where the whole community taking part has to experience the enemies and bosses the same and the sharing, tips and co-op that can come with that. Co-Op is primarily an "accessibility tool" introduced via game design that isn't an arbitrary stat selector to reduce difficulty. Along with builds in the Souls games, meaning, go magic if you want it to be easier (generally speaking). Or there are some items to use or covenants to join that make things easier.
Even Sekiro still has some scope to make things easier, but yes I do agree nuking summoning from it has even alienated some Dark Souls fans. Parrying is a lot harder for some too.
This is all before we even talk about how to do arbitrary difficulty sliders with co-op. Someone earlier in this topic said we gate off people who choose difficulties into their own summoning brackets. That's just not... a Dark Souls game. That IS negatively affecting the experience.
