Real talk, /v/. Would have an optional (In other words completely ignorable) easy difficulty really ruin Dark Souls? Because I really don't think it would, so long as the hard difficulty is still intact as the normal difficulty. I've debated with a friend about this and I really don't think optional settings ruin a game. After all XCOM has a reputation for being difficult, and that has an easy difficulty. You never see anyone talk about playthroughs on easy in XCOM, it's always Legend with Iron Man on. So if an optional feature doesn't ruin XCOM, why should it ruin Dark Souls?