Kai Cenats Elden Ring Victory Is Exactly Why Difficulty Matters (2024)

Last week saw Twitch streamer Kai Cenat finally beat Elden Ring after 166 hours and 1,701 deaths. In that moment of triumph against the Elden Beast, the relief is palpable. He screams with joy as the final boss fades into the aether, arms spread out as the adrenaline surges into serotonin, before slinking back into his chair to quietly take in the moment.

We’ve all been there. We each have a story about spending hours on a boss, determined not to give up. The number of times I’ve closed down the game only to boot it back up seconds later, too stubborn for my own good - that’s the magic of soulslikes.

Fans have been debating difficulty in FromSoftware games for years, with the common criticism that they need an easy mode to be more approachable to newcomers. I’ve been in that hot seat before, dipping my toes into the world of Drangleic only to be crushingly defeated so many times that I threw Dark Souls 2 aside and told myself it wasn’t worth it.

It wasn’t until a year later that I was roped back in by a mutual friend who wanted someone to play co-op with, and even with someone by my side helping, I struggled to overcome the learning curve, seeing the ‘You Died’ screen so often that it was etched into my dreams. But I wouldn’t change a thing.

The moment we finally stood face-to-face with Nashandra after a hundred-hour gauntlet elicited a rush unlike anything I’d ever experienced. I had never been so focused, eyes glued to her every move as I dove out the way and rescinded her attacks with devastating blows of my own. Whittling away that last slither of health took less than a minute, but it was as though time itself had frozen.

When I finally won and walked up to the throne, ready to roll credits as I took my deserved seat, it was the most satisfying moment of any game I had ever played. I earned that victory, and I could feel so much growth in myself for it. Diving into NG+ and even the other Souls games, I was a natural. Pushing through each and every area, refusing to give up, had made me a better, more patient, more determined player.

All of FromSoftware’s soulslikes are about overcoming adversity and refusing to bow down. It’s not just a tenet of gameplay, but a theme that permeates each and every narrative thread as we watch the husks of those who failed in their journeys aimlessly clutch to who they once were.

Gwyn, the final boss in Dark Souls and the god who first ushered in the Age of Flame, is an empty shell by the time we find him, standing idly by a fading spark. He's hunched over in his kiln, surrounded by burned soldiers defending their forgotten king, clinging desperately to his bygone era. It’s our perseverance that rekindles this world and finally pushes the pendulum forward.

What sets us apart from all of the lords we face throughout each soulslike is that we don’t give up. That would be an impossible theme to capture without the genre’s signature difficulty. To not give up, there has to be adversity.

There aren’t many games, even those which ape FromSoftware’s style with the ever growing soulslike genre, that understand the importance of weaving difficulty into narrative. It’s not just a signature mechanic or a marketing gimmick, but part of the atmosphere. Overcoming those odds and pushing through is rewarding in a way few match, and Kai Cenat’s instinctual response sums that up perfectly.

Pushed to the brink, most of us would switch to easy mode just to get through, but in being forced to grapple with the challenge, the spoils are that much richer. The satisfaction in winning is truly yours, which is why soulslike difficulty goes beyond taglines and reputation—it’s part of the genre’s DNA. Even if you’re not as animated as Cenat when clinching those victories, we all feel that relief burst out with each and every win, and it’s a feeling so integral that it’s hard to imagine anything else.

Elden Ring

With worldbuilding from Game of Thrones scribe George R.R. Martin and developed by FromSoftware, Elden Ring is a masterpiece in what has become known as the 'Soulslike' genre of action role-playing games.