Soulsborne doesn't need an easy mode.

The Soulsborne franchise is easily some of the best sets of games I have played in the past two years and I'm not exaggerating. With the exception of Dark Souls 2, each game is a masterpiece thanks to it's dark atmosphere, brutal difficulty, and extensive lore. However, as anyone can tell you, the part about the brutal difficulty can easily turn people off and it's not helped by it being the driving force of marketing when it comes to the Dark Souls games (Demon's Souls and Bloodborne didn't play up the difficulty as much). Regardless, I have met several people who are turned off as soon as I mention any of the games in the franchise as they feel that it is a franchise aimed at masochists. The biggest issue I have with this is that, once you learn the nuances, the games become some of the easiest franchises to get into.

For starters, the games require several hours clocked into the series to understand all of the nuances, lore, gameplay, and to fully grasp the layout of the environment. This is not a game that is meant to be rushed through as dashing through and unknown area will punish you for failing to take into account audio cues, enemy placements, your own item inventory, and your armor and weapon stats. There is alot of micro-management to go through and stubbornly insisting on one type of build can be a death-sentence for newbies. This is ultimately why I am so against the idea of an easy mode. By removing the challenge and set up of the game, several of the key themes of helplessness and overcoming adversity are lost. There's no reason to feel at odds with the environment or worry about checking your environment because you could easily just run through an area and walk through basic enemies. 

And this is another reason why I feel like there is no purpose in adding an easy mode. Enemies, as whole, have very basic designs to them. Their attacks are often slow, they can be easily dodged, and they can often be baited to even fall off a cliff if the player plays carefully. If a player is struck, the damage is significantly high, but after getting back up and learning enemy attacks patterns most enemies can be cleared through no problem. By including an easy mode, this feature would become a flaw as most players would wonder why such enemies hit so light after performing what appears to be a devastating attack or wondering why enemies hit really hard after winding up for 30 seconds. Bosses would also be turned into complete jokes. Most of the bosses are known for having a high damage output and requiring skill, patience, and endurance to take down. With an easy mode, most of these bosses would be turned into a complete joke with their telegraphed attacks and large frames.

But overall, the online component would be what would take one of the worst hits. The games have massive online communities built around the game's extensive multiplayer which runs simultaneously with the single player experience allowing players to leave notes or assist their allies. The problem with trying to incorporate an easy mode in this situation is how other players could possibly interact with other players. One solution may be to lock out players from the online to provide a better solo experience and to prevent invasions. The catch with this is that there is already a way to avoid this. If the player does not use a humanity, human effigy, or ember, they end up locking themselves out of multiplayer and they can re-enter whenever they want. Another problem is that players can no longer receive assistance from other players were this to be the ideal situation nor would they be able to receive hints as the series has become known for.

Finally, there is the famous attribute of player death. The games have earned a massive backlash due to the heavy emphasis on player death through the marketing. However, the biggest thing people don't realize is that bonfires are easily accessible and they are scattered strategically around levels in order to allow players to quickly recover, level up, or take a break should they be feeling overwhelmed. As a matter of fact, the death system is almost identical to that of Shovel Knight, providing the player with an infinite number of lives and goes a step further by adapting the Metroidvania design and encouraging the player to find shortcuts in order to lessen backtracking and provide quick access to bonfires.

Due to the stigma that the Soulsborne games have received, it will be almost impossible to get people who think the games are to hard into the series. However, forcing an easy mode should not be the solution, but rather changing a player's mindset is. We have been conditioned so much to games having us rush through them or being railroaded to the next location or sidequest that the lack of hand-holding can seem intimidating. Just paying attention to your surroundings or by backing off from an overwhelming challenge, any player can come to see that the challenge is often due to an individual's own mindset. Once you learn from your mistakes and adapt, any challenge can be easily conquered without having to go to an easy mode.