Death's Door is one of the highest-rated video game releases of 2021, earning widespread critical acclaim for its atmosphere, exploration, and challenging combat. The game is essentially a combination of old-school Zelda games like A Link to the Past and FromSoftware's Dark Souls series. While the exploration, puzzle-solving, and top-down camera are reminiscent of Zelda, the game's challenging boss fights and the way they are presented are clearly inspired by Dark Souls.
The Death's Door and Dark Souls comparisons run even deeper than that, but the main connective tissue is that both games have a stiff challenge that comes from their boss fights. However, few would argue that Death's Door is as difficult as Dark Souls or any FromSoftware game for that matter. While there are plenty of challenging boss fights in Death's Door, the game is still very doable and avoids frustrating the player.
Death's Door could be described as an easier take on Dark Souls, eliminating the frustration and time-wasting elements that are featured in those games. For example, Death's Door has a leveling system where players collect "souls" and spend them, just like in Dark Souls. But in Dark Souls, if players die they then have to make their way back to their fallen corpse to regain their souls, and if they fail to do so, they will have lost out on all that XP and potential upgrades. Death's Door has no such mechanic, and in fact lets players keep any of the souls they've gained, even after death.
It also doesn't make players trek through a ton of enemies they've already conquered just to get back to the boss fight. This is something else that's common in Dark Souls and FromSoftware titles, and it's part of the reason why some can find the games so unforgiving. Not only do players have to overcome challenging bosses, but dying often means repeating significant chunks of an area, especially in the tougher zones.
Death's Door handles things quite differently. Death is not really a significant punishment at all, instead putting players right back at the start of the area, and for bosses, this means right outside their door. This way Death's Door players can focus on mastering the boss fights, memorizing attack patterns and figuring out the best strategies to take them down instead of having to worry about repeating content that they've already completed only to get to the boss and die again.
Death's Door is still fun despite the steps it takes to make things easier on the player. As previously mentioned, Death's Door is one of the highest-rated video games to come out all year, and its fun factor is a big part of that. Considering this, one has to imagine that the Dark Souls games would still be beloved by fans, even if it gave the option of stripping away its more frustrating elements or took steps to make the experience a little easier.
Those looking for a stiffer challenge in Death's Door can still find it, however. There is an achievement in the game for beating the whole thing while using the umbrella weapon, which is the weakest melee weapon by far. This is the most difficult achievement Death's Door has to offer, and it will undoubtedly take players quite some time to master the game well enough in order to earn it. Extra challenges like this are completely optional, meaning those who aren't interested can safely ignore while those who are looking for a punishing experience can pursue them.
One of the main arguments against Dark Souls adding an easy mode has been that it would potentially ruin the game's atmosphere or the gameplay mechanics. However, Death's Door is proof that an easier Dark Souls would work. After all, there are other things to enjoy about the Dark Souls franchise besides its overbearing difficulty. Some may enjoy simply seeing all of the impressive Dark Souls boss designs that FromSoftware has come up with, whereas others may enjoy taking in the sights and sounds of the franchise's well-designed and atmospheric worlds.
It would really boil down to giving players options. Another popular indie game, CrossCode, allows players to adjust the difficulty by changing up how much damage the enemies do and how often they attack. So not only is Death's Door proof that an easier Dark Souls would have some value, but Dark Souls could learn from CrossCode and its approach to difficulty when it comes to creating a more accessible Dark Souls experience. Those who struggle with Dark Souls and other FromSoftware games will likely just turn to mods to make the experience easier for them anyway, so why not make those options available in-game.
There is no indication that FromSoftware ever plans on adding a Dark Souls easy mode or doing anything else to make the games more accessible to less-skilled players. For now, those people can still enjoy games that mimic the Dark Souls atmosphere or other aspects of the series, and Death's Door certainly fits the bill.
Death's Door is out now for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.