As with the Dark Souls Trilogy, FromSoftware’s Demon’s Souls is best known for its brutal and unforgiving gameplay, forging players in the fires of strife before simply chewing them up and spitting them out anyway. The newly released Demon’s Souls Remake is similarly difficult in nature, though developer Bluepoint Games very nearly implemented an Easy Mode before ultimately deciding against it.

The news comes by way of The Washington Post, which spoke about the Demon’s Souls Remake with Bluepoint Creative Director Gavin Moore in a recent exchange of emails. Within that conversation, Moore revealed that an Easy Mode was being considered for the game, though the team decided against it as they were “merely being custodians”  for the original PS3 classic. “This project remakes the work of another development team,” wrote Moore. “While we’ve made some changes, our core driving mantra has always been to preserve the spirit and intent of the original creators.”

While we considered and discussed an easy mode, we ultimately decided it wasn’t our place — merely being custodians for this amazing game — to add something that would fundamentally alter its balance.”

Despite the fact that the Demon’s Souls Remake has no Easy Mode, there are still resources available to players that weren’t quite as easily accessible in the days of the PS3. “I think a lot of new users hear ‘Demon’s Souls’ and they go ‘Oh that’s game’s really difficult.’ But it’s not. It’s actually very fair. It’s challenging, but very fair,” said Moore in a previous conversation with The Washington Post. “But we do understand that people get stuck. … And we’ve got 180 plus help videos that actually sit inside the game, so if you do get stuck, you can bring up, as you’re still playing, one of those help videos and it will tell you, ‘In this area, you need to do this,’ or ‘This is the best tactic against this boss.’”

The way the system works is it will show you a video if you ask for some help, which is just enough to give you a hint. And then if you still haven’t got it, you can look at the next one.”

Purist Demon’s Souls Remake players may choose to shy away from these PS5 help videos, though for those stepping into the Souls-like genre for the very first time, it could be just what they need to keep their heads above water.

The Demon’s Souls Remake is now available exclusively for the PlayStation 5.

Thoughts on the remake almost getting an Easy Mode? Let us know in the comments section below, and as always, stay tuned to Don’t Feed the Gamers for all the latest gaming and entertainment news! Don’t forget to follow DFTG on Twitter for our 24/7 news feed!