I’m always surprised to read things like, “please change the difficulty so I can appreciate the art.” The difficulty is the art - you can’t just carve it out. It couldn’t be done even if Miyazaki wanted to do it. You’d lose the essence of the art because so much hangs on the challenge: the failure, the success, the relationship of the player with the game.

Instead, the real solutions to the mechanical challenges that Soulsbornes throw at you are sprinkled throughout this thread.