The Appeal of Hard Games

This week I played through Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, beating all bosses. That means I actually played it twice. During the dialogue with Owl Father, I accidentally chose to stay true to the Iron Code, which led me to the so-called Shura Ending. When I discovered that this ending makes you miss about 20% of the game and several remaining bosses, I decided to add a few more hours to my 50-hour struggle and start a New Game+ to experience the rest.

After finally defeating Isshin, who many say is the hardest boss in any FromSoftware game, I felt some of the strongest emotions I’ve ever had from finishing a game. It was a mix of accomplishment, joy, and pride – but also respect, grief, and sadness. It was done.

This marks the first FromSoftware game I’ve beaten, since unfortunately, Dark Souls never really clicked with me. The slower, dodge-based gameplay and the setting just didn’t appeal to me.

But why do I, or anyone, go through the struggle of such a hard game? For me, the answer is simple: fun. Any game can be fun – easy or hard, it doesn’t matter. It’s not about accomplishment or the thrill of overcoming pain; it’s simply that these games are fun to play. Well, maybe a little bit of accomplishment, especially at the end.

Another hard game I’ve beaten is Celeste, a 2D platformer about climbing a mountain. Sounds easy, right? It’s not. I died 12,872 times. And yet, just like with Sekiro, the reason I kept going wasn’t the sense of achievement. It was that the game was simply fun. Everything else was just a bonus.

Update: One thing I still have to do sometime: Grab all those yummy strawberries!