‘We’ve never considered adding difficulty settings to the Nioh series’, says Nioh 3 game director, who gives players different ways to tackle challenges instead

I’m of two minds about difficult games like Nioh 3—one mind thinks that difficulty’s a matter of accessibility, that there’s really no harm in adding a setting so that someone (for any reason) is able to see a game through. The other half of me thinks that difficulty’s often kind of the point, and can be a part of a game itself. I’m also one of those pretentious gits that thinks videogames don’t have to be fun to be worth making or playing, though.

Very much in the ‘it’s the point’ camp is game director of Nioh 3 Masaki Fujita, who spoke with Eurogamer on the subject this week. In case you’re unfamiliar, Nioh 3 is a soulslike action game with an emphasis on skill expression and difficulty.