‘Lies of P’ Getting Difficulty Options in DLC Sparks Outrage From Hardcore Gamers

The director of Lies of P is facing backlash after announcing that the game’s upcoming DLC, Overture, will add difficulty options. The inclusion of an easy mode in the Soulslike title has sparked a debate among hardcore gamers, who argue that it will ruin the RPG.

Difficulty Options Anger ‘Dark Souls’ Players

During a May 23 interview, Neowiz director Jiwon Choi explained that a new difficulty option will be added in the upcoming Lies of P: Overture DLC. According to the developer, the studio wants to make the game more accessible so it can appeal to a larger audience. “We wanted to make sure a wider audience of players could play the game. So by making development adjustments and introducing these difficulty options, we can offer the experience to different types of players. This broadens the base.”

The reaction from the Soulslike community went about as well as you would expect. Following the announcement angry player’s took to social media to criticize the Lies of P developer. A user wrote “Get good. The feeling you get from beating a boss you’ve been stuck on for ages, is unbelievably exhilarating. Life is difficult. It will s*** on you at every turn. We don’t get a difficulty setting. Man up.” Another exclaimed “the whole point of a souls game is to spit on your face, show you how weak you are to make you stronger. Having no difficulty option means you have no choice to push through.” One comment simply vented “disgusting.”

One of the main issues players seem to be heavily focusing on is Jiwon Choi’s statement that the decision to add difficulty options was to ‘broaden its player base.’ The argument is that the studio is trying to cheapen the Lies of P to appeal to casuals. However, not everyone is against the decision to make the game easier. Many players praised the upcoming difficulty update, saying they are now more likely to try out the challenging RPG.

It wasn’t just Dark Souls fans who were upset about the Lies of P: Overture difficulty options announcement. In fact, the game’s own community was also angry about it. Over on the Lies of P subreddit, the forum was quickly overrun with negative threads and comments. It got so bad that the moderators of the subreddit had to redirect new posts to a difficulty megathread that was originally created in 2024.

In the thread angry player’s vented their frustration. For example one commenter mockingly called Lies of P easy mode “the participation trophy difficulty.” Another user complained “Just use summons. That’s easy mode already. Why does it need to be even more braindead.” A user even wrote “adding in a game journalist difficult mode is a mistake.” Hey now, that’s uncalled for! I’ll have you know I totally didn’t use Elden Ring’s easy mode to beat the FromSoftware title.

Look, I still don’t understand why difficulty options anger Soulslike fans so much. As I’ve said before, I think the choice should be left up to the developer. Easy modes should never be forced into a game, and studios shouldn’t be pressured into adding them. However, if easy difficulty options are added, why do people care? As long as they don’t impact the base game’s difficulty for everyone else, why does it matter? I get why people personally dislike easy modes—I just don’t understand why they care so much about what others do with their own gaming experiences.