Lowering Elden Ring’s difficulty would ‘break the game itself’, says Miyazaki

FromSoftware president and Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki has said that toning down the difficulty of Elden Ring would break the game.

Speaking to The Guardian in a new interview to mark the release of Shadow of the Erdtree, Miyazaki responded to the oft-repeated discussion about the difficulty of FromSoftware’s games.

“If we really wanted the whole world to play the game, we could just crank the difficulty down more and more. But that wasn’t the right approach,” says Miyazaki.

“Had we taken that approach, I don’t think the game would have done what it did, because the sense of achievement that players gain from overcoming these hurdles is such a fundamental part of the experience. Turning down difficulty would strip the game of that joy – which, in my eyes, would break the game itself.”

FromSoftware’s games are known for intense difficulty, but each of Miyazaki’s games offers ways in-game to make the challenge more manageable. Players can grind for experience items and level their character far beyond that of the boss.

In Elden Ring, there are also items that allow players to create extra characters to fight alongside them, a strategy that was so effective that it was rebalanced in a patch following the game’s release.

Most FromSoftware titles also include the ability to summon other real players to help you on your journey.

Elden Ring’s first and only expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree, was released on Friday.

VGC’s Shadow of the Erdtree review called it a “sequel-sized sensation.”

“Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree is an incredible expansion and a worthy follow-up to the generation’s best game. In some ways, it’s better than the original by providing an experience that’s both tighter, but also more than double the length we expected.”