The Jimquisition: Prepare To Die

The thing is, it's easier for people to understand "it's hard" than "it has a difficulty that can always be overcome with careful consideration of the enemy's abilities, your abilities, the environment and a knowledge of the game's mechanics." Plus, more people will buy into the whole aggressive, "I'm going to beat the game because I got good" thing than the "I'll take my time to learn the best way to do things"... thing.

Naterkix

I'd do a hot wing challenge if someone else is providing the hot wings.

Jason Youngberg

the return of the hat is truly great to see

I fully agree and have been saying it for a while. Requiring pre-emptive knowledge to succeed isn't difficulty; it's fake difficulty. It's like the difference between I Wanna Be the Guy and Super Meat Boy. One uses a ton of fake difficulty with a bit of genuine difficulty, while the other uses exclusively genuine difficulty. Dark Souls is like IWBTG--if you know the instant death trap is there, it's usually not difficult to avoid; you just have to know it's there. <br><br>For a while, I've wanted to run the experiment of having someone who has never played it watch hundreds of hours of Youtube playthroughs and then play the game, comparing that to someone who plays it blind. I consider the original Castlevania to be the magnum opus of teaching players to take it slow with genuine difficulty, while Dark Souls relies mostly on fake difficulty and insta-deaths. I'm not saying it's all fake difficulty, but in my experience, it's predominantly that.<br><br>All that said, I do think "Prepare to struggle" would be a better slogan. :)

Still not convinced Dark Souls doesn't deserve a hot wing contest. Best argument for a difficulty select/story mode is that some people are missing out on all the cool aspects the series offer, lore, atmosphere etc. As for Contra, I thought I had seen those graphics somewhere... damn mobile graphics

Rawk Hawk

Great Episode,Jim. I have always just let other people play the Souls games as I watched them on Twitch or YouTube and the definite truth of that fact is that I don't want to play an "impossibly hard game" Ninja Gaiden was billed in much the same way and having tried it and getting my ass kicked (while hating the gameplay and mechanics) turned me off. Now every game that brags about being "ULTRA HARD" just makes me tune out. I feel no reward from playing a game that constantly frustrates me. I enjoy tactics and storyline and enjoy figuring out boss patterns and enemy weakness. In that respect Dark Souls always seemed like I SHOULD like it but still...I never gave any of them a chance because of the whole "omg it's so hard but once you've died 30 times to one boss and finally beat him it feels so good". That just sounds like banging your head against a particularly boring wall. I will say that there seems to be a movement afoot to get new players to try the Dark Souls series. Between this Jimquisition and other folks telling me that the series really is worth playing..... I think I will try Dark Souls 3 this time. Namco can thank their fans and Jim Sterling for one more purchase.

Impact93 (Jon)

Even if I never overcome the psyche out factor (Goddammit Ali, my boxer is max everything how do you keep beating me!) I love it when a game smartly pulls it off.

shadowscribble