There’s been a lot of talk, and sometimes it gets pretty tiring, about how hard action games should be. Should games like Dark Souls and Elden Ring have easier options? Would that make them more welcoming to more players? Would it take away from the feeling of accomplishment that even the creator, Hidetaka Miyazaki, believes is a key part of the experience? Would these games even be as popular and well-known if they weren’t so famously difficult?

When I asked Fujita if the challenge in Nioh is something Team Ninja is set on, he told me, “We’ve never thought about adding different difficulty settings to the Nioh series.” He believes that the feeling of accomplishment when you finally beat the game is something that brings players together. He also pointed out that Nioh 3 has even more ways to play and strategize than before. So, instead of changing the difficulty, their idea is that players should find new ways to win when they get stuck.

This idea is actually something that the creator of the genre, Miyazaki, has talked about too. He’s said before that you don’t need to be a super-skilled player to beat Dark Souls. You just need to learn how to adjust, maybe try a new spell, a different weapon, or even a new way of thinking if hitting a boss over and over with the same strategy isn’t working.