How FROMSOFT Designs Difficulty

Game Dev — Do A Kickflip — Since the days of arcades, games have provided varying degrees of difficulty. This was to ensure quarters would keep falling into the gaping maws marked 25c. As home consoles took over, the need for excessive difficulty became passe and slowly slipped into obscurity (except in Japan, where arcades just got crazier -> DDR, rhythm games -> like that one with the hands, and game where you play a bus driver… that’s it… that’s the game. That seems like a job…). Of course the change was gradual and it took time to refine game design away from old habits (see Mega Man 1, Battletoads, TMNT, etc). The shift allowed grander adventures like Zelda and Final Fantasy to emerge and tell stories (PC had been doing this with Ultima, etc). As modern gaming evolved, difficulty became a thing players opted into through menu selections. But as the gaming world shifted to accommodation, there was an opening for developers who wanted to do something different, i.e. who wanted to design for difficulty rather than ease. This fostered a counterculture of developers that became known for brutal games. FROMSOFT, even before Miyazaki made Demon’s Soul’s, created hard games. Games like King’s Field and Otogi were obtuse and obstinate toward players. How does FROM design difficulty into their experiences?

FROM’s approach to difficulty has been igniting arguments online and in real life since gamers started championing the relatively obscure, at the time, Dark Souls. It was unlike anything most had seen before, save the few who played Demon’s Souls. Because of this, we’ll use Dark Souls as the base for explanation and expand on it. After creating a character, players are awakened in a prison cell within the Undead Asylum. Oscar of Astora tosses down a key that lets them out. As they walk down the hallway there are a few hollows that are easily dispatched with a broken straight sword. So far, so good. It seems much like a roughly standard dark fantasy adventure game. After dispatching a few more hollows, players arrive at the first bonfire sitting right in front of 2 large double doors. Through these doors FROM is about to teach everyone a lesson. Once inside, there’s an easily missable message on the ground that says “Get Away!” just as the enormous Asylum Demon makes its terrifying entrance. The game, which was largely bereft of music up until this point, suddenly becomes a cacophony of orchestral malevolence. In virtually any other game, players would take the challenge head on. FROM counts on this and makes it clear the demon isn’t to be messed with; it kills the player in 1 hit. For those brave enough to attack it, they will do 2 damage to something with over 100 hit points. After players get smashed by the demon a few times they will notice a doorway lit with sconces near the back of the room. The game is telling players 3 things: 1) 99% of you cannot beat this guy, 2) Running away is a viable option until you are stronger 3) When you die, you lose all the souls you’ve accumulated and they remain where you died (if you die before recovering them, they are gone forever). Players then loop around, defeat regular enemies, pick up weapons, and can discover a back entrance to the room which allows them to drop onto the demon’s head and do significant damage. With the Asylum Demon defeated, players get transported to Firelink Shrine. Now the real fight begins…

The Undead Asylum teaches players to recognize Dark Souls is not the same as other games. It’s the “silly race” in Marble Madness where “everything you know is wrong.” If players want to succeed here, DS requires them to pay attention and use what they learn. The game reinforces the learned messages quickly. From Firelink Shrine many will go to the graveyard, see skeletons, and think, “piece of cake. Skeletons are easy, so this is probably the way to go.” After defeating a skeleton in ~2–5 hits, they get back up again, and again, and again. This is not the way to go. Moreover, if they hang around the graveyard or move to the Catacombs, they will quickly get mobbed by the unkillable skeletons. If players descend from Firelink, they will end up in the New Londo Ruins and be faced with deadly enemies that their weapons pass right through. That leaves one direction, the Undead Burg. The difficulty itself is the guiding light. Enemies in “the Burg” are mostly easy hollows with a few surprises. This area again reinforces earlier messaging: 1) It’s easy to become overwhelmed and enemies in groups are dangerous, 2) Players will have to learn to navigate ranged and melee attackers, 3) just because most of the enemies are easy, doesn’t mean they all are. Both a single black knight found down some stairs and Havel at the bottom of a tower will keep players on their toes (both are optional), 4) A surprise boss can happen, 5) You have to take risks, i.e. running across a bridge between waves of immolating dragon breath

Let’s dig into the combat design and how it affects difficulty as there are big differences with how FROM approaches combat versus many other games (and we’ll do a full gameplay design breakdown in the future). For starters, standard enemies usually can be killed in 2~5 hits. The difficulty arises in how hard they can hit and how players can deal with timing and crowd control. Next is in players’ ability to dodge, roll, block, and parry. Each enemy type has a telegraphed moveset, i.e. a windup swing, shift in weight, casual wink (not so much that one). This signals to the player when to block or when/where to dodge/roll (in DS, players mostly dodge into the attack and roll through it). Blocking will eat stamina and blocking heavy weapons can cause the player to become staggered, leaving them open. Blocking is a relatively safe way to run through DS and is helpful in learning the game. Blocking also leads to parrying as some shields can be used to counter attacks. But this is tricky and requires patience and practice. Once learned players can parry and open up enemies for a strong counterattack. The initial hollow enemies are extremely slow, giving players ample time to unlearn the frantic button mashing other games teach. In the later Souls games combat becomes more of a dance. These mechanics are crucial concepts that players must get if they want to survive

DS pushes players on a solo journey to get the basics down. This is true until they meet Solaire (praise the sun). Solaire gives players the white soapstone, an item that is ? of the game’s hidden easy mode. The other half is a consumable, “humanity,” an item players will pick up throughout the game. The Soapstone enables players to get summoned into other peoples’ games. This is a risk free way to explore new areas of the game all while earning souls. When you die in someone else’s world, you are transported back to your world with all the souls and items you found (jolly cooperation, indeed!). Humanity allows players to summon help, be it NPC or other players, into their game (it also has other effects, like increasing defense, adding health, bonfire kindling, etc). It cannot be understated how much easier the game is with help, either with NPCs or other players

Miyazaki, the Game Director and now President of FROMSOFT, has said his goal is to make games that give players a sense of accomplishment by overcoming tremendous odds. All the tools are there but players have to learn. Many claim they want an “easy mode” but adding that would be anathema to the core design philosophy. When someone picks up a notoriously hard hobby and then gets upset the hobby is hard, it’s frustration misplaced. If you want to learn how to skateboard, you have to learn how to ollie. There’s no shortcut, no easy mode, only time and effort. It’s going to leave you bruised and broken, but if you’re willing to put the time in it’s a remarkably rewarding activity. Similarly, there will always be a hill to climb for players of FROM games as those are the games they make. The fun that is so brilliantly interwoven into the design is the players willingness to build new skills they do not possess on initial attempts. It’s growth, not through the traditional game power fantasy, but through hard skills. FROM presents all the tools that are needed, one only need to get off their phone and pay attention

One final note is difficulty in games is it’s a delicate balance, which is precisely why it’s so difficult to do well