[mths]

> the gameplay and mechanics are so so clunky

This is a feature though, it's what makes it unique and great.

I had the exact same impression when I first tried Demon's Souls as it came out around 2010. I knew the game was supposed to be hard, but it felt hard for no reason, as if they had made it clunky just to mess with you.

I ignored the whole souls genre until I finally picked up the remake on the PS5 about a year ago, and it all clicked this time. It's clunky in an effort to be more realistic than many superficially similar games, and that requires you to play it differently too. Your attacks have a wind-up and cool-down period, you got stats preventing you from carrying too much gear and get even clunkier, endurance stopping you from maneuvering like a mad man etc. All these limitations are there to force you to be more strategic with your leveling, equipment, fighting, .. They're very deliberate and not "design problems that make it player-unfriendly".

It's not for everyone, but it's a different experience many clearly find rewarding. And honestly, the games aren't even that hard once you grasp these concepts.

[mrguyorama]

>more realistic than many superficially similar games,

BS, it's about fake difficulty. If it was about "realism" you could hide from a dragon's attack behind a wall, but in Dark Souls 2 at least the dragons fire goes right through it.

Some people crave fake difficulty, as you can see when they were so against adding an "easy" mode, and these games are for them, but making gameplay purposely frustrating is dumb.

[bluefirebrand]

It's not about "fake difficulty" it's about real difficulty.

It's about a game that actually expects you to overcome hard things, not just wander through the theme park.

There are plenty of other easy mode games out there, people are welcome to play those. I highly respect FromSoft for standing firm that the challenge is the experience they want to deliver and they aren't putting in easy mode.

People can complain about it, but that's what FromSoft wants to do with their product and the success shows that it's a very popular choice.

[red-iron-pine]

Kinda the same way I feel about some of the survival modes for Skyrim or Fallout.

Adds a lot of realism -- "realisim" in a game where you kill dragons -- and changes how you play. Kinda cool, but also long, low, and slow. Lots of just walking... kinda boring.

[extr]

IDK. I don't really mind difficult games. Hades is an all time favorite for me. But in Elden Ring, I just didn't feel like the core gameplay loop was very fun or satisfying.