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Notes -
The very thing that makes videogames stand out from other mediums is the difficulty. The dialogue between designer and player; as a player you are challenging an opponent who has made all of their moves in advance and is daring you to find a way through them.
Removing difficulty, or even removing fail states altogether, completely undermines what makes videogames a unique medium in the first place. The difficulty IS the point; if you just want to experience the story, watch a Let's Play or go watch a movie. Walking Simulators don't deserve the title of game for the fact that they have no gameplay; at least no more than watching a DVD while periodically pausing it, flinging the remote across the room and retrieving it before continuing does.
Difficulty is a way of telling a story in and of itself; we know Malenia is hard as nails because she's fucking hard as nails. Radahn dropping on you from outer space hits home as a gameplay mechanic in a way that simply showing it in a cutscene wouldn't. It's the difference between "wow, that was cool" and "holy FUCK that would've oneshot me if it hit, wouldn't it?"
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