Suggestion: Custom Difficulty Setting

I'm not really into it. Sure, I know of the common opinion "if it's an extra option it's all good" but the truth is that in some games (such as this) I'd like to play a game that's been designed and fine-tuned (difficulty included) by the developers, without me tweaking the smallest parameters. In games such as Hitman or the one mentioned by the OP, the idea of difficulty is vastly different than the idea of difficulty for a 2D Metroidvania and this is not a type of game in which I would enjoy myself while "screwing around" lots of modifiers and options. Of course I know that for some the idea of a fully customisable difficulty level would be great, but I'm just not that type of player.

This an idea that works well in some games. One that comes to mind is Ark: Survival Evolved as the player can customize their single player experience right down to the experience multiplier. However, for games like God of War, Devil May Cry, and other games with a definite end point and combat elements then, I believe, the ability to fine tune the experience detracts from the whole. As PurifyWeirdSoul already said, it might be a feature that's better suited as unlockable content. So long as time permits and it doesn't keep the devs from releasing what they already promised then I'm all for more ways to play the game.

I'd only really be into customizing the difficulty insofar as changing what the allowed Level Cap is (especially on Nightmare difficulty), and which Stats are modified at the playthrough's beginning for each character (similar to a special "Luck Mode" option or another example; like giving Miriam really high starting INT & MND, but drastically lowering all other stats).

Long Story Short: Modify each characters' growth limit, and what they initially excel in.

Too bad for such a large map size and with so much that'll be in the game making things a bit harder to implement, but I wouldn't mind the difficulty slider changing items and item locations, as well as changing enemies and castle layout. It'd be dependent on difficulty and give more of a procedural feel, but unsure that's something that can be bothered with due to everything that'd have to go into it.

Well, considering that several Castlevania entries had a similar feature... It might not be impossible, I'd imagine. One example that comes to mind is Circle of the Moon, and its various play modes and stat builds you could unlock. I'd like to see a feature like this act as the "difficulty", as it does tailor difficulty and add challenges for speed runs; while preserving the originally intended pacing and challenges.

Well, I can't say I "know" it will be the case, but I'm quite sure it will be because all of the other games were like that and the intention has been stated that this will not be on the harder end of the spectrum. This is a new beginning that is certainly intended to pull new people in as well as satisfy us, similar to what we saw with SotN most likely, the "anyone can beat this if they try" design intention. The difficulty scales on its own by nature of it being easier/harder the longer you spend on it, even if you were playing a game of its type for the first time.

This is all opinion, including what I'll say, but to me as a standard, a game is a set assortment of challenges/experiences that someone had in their head. Especially in the case of Igarashi and his team, I would trust the design over my own preference to make something enjoyable for myself, on the aspects of both convenience and challenge...mostly because we don't know what's good for us, and definitely not initially on being presented with something we deem unpleasant. Mine and everyone else's first instinct on being confronted with something they don't like is to change it, and that is not usually the most interesting or rewarding way to experience something. The majority of players will go the route of changing whatever that thing is, which was something the game makers had likely expected people to be confronted with and have to think differently to get past. So...what is then the point of them being clever in designing those things? If we tailor or even circumvent their roadmap with our preference, everything becomes a sandbox, and the fulfillment and memory of playing with sand is a fleeting one. I'd of course take the stone castle built by the maker of castles over that. I don't think that makes someone a masochist either, which seems to be a common criticism of thinking that way.

Freddy mentions games/genres built with this kind of intended from the start, or at least built with it as a consideration (as is my assumption, I haven't played them). That can work great. I would have to agree that it is also unfortunate when difficulty problems present a barrier for someone to get through a game period (but I wouldn't expect that with Bloodstained). And like we said before, past a completed save file, I think it'd be a neat thing, but available always by default means that a minority of people will be getting through whatever collection and order of thoughts, ideas and art the people that made the thing wanted their players to see. This is how I see it, I wouldn't throw true/not true into it either way. It can certainly vary by person and by game.

Gah, I forget how to multiquote.:

@freddy:
You didn't say anything I object to. You were pretty clear that the feature wasn't for you and you wouldn't use it. I'm totally cool with that. As for the roguelike thing, I can see where you're going. I mean I know if they had a fighting game feature included I'd be like 'blech, what a waste of resources', so I imagine you feel the same way kinda. But nobody really demanded they impliment a roguelike mode like they did a wiiU port or whatever. This was naturally selected by the devs/Iga, so perhaps they have good ideas for that you may like? Maybe not, but hopefully t hey do.

@purify:
I think you're assuming incorrectly about the part where most players wont be playing the game as intended and might possibly imbalance it for the worse. I'm a mod NUT. I've modded games long before super popular modding games like fallout and skyrim were out. I've modded the dung out of diablo 1, and even before that, a shareware game (they didn't call it indie back then) called escape velocity, when it was a mac-only title!...But each and every one of those g ames, I actually played 'vanilla' first. Though I can't speak for every modder/adjust-happy player, I've participated in their modding communities, and aside from the new games like skyrim, people play them vanilla first nearly every time. In fact the only reason why they don't for skyrim and such is simply because they simply want 'objective' improvements such as better graphics or a more user friendly UI or something. Plus many games already do things like force the player to finish the game as-is before 'unlocking' these features as a sort of ng+ feature.

I’m fine with a ”New Game +” option, unlocked after you’ve beaten the game, with a harder difficulty... ok.