Saros Makes a Difficulty Concession

With how much chaos is going on screen any given second, it’s surprising how both Returnal and now Saros remain crystal fair. Every beam, every orb, every ring communicates in both shape and color, and I just know when to do what. Visual clarity was essential in a game where one wrong move sent me back to the very beginning. But what role does it play in Saros, where I lose the primary currency but don’t have to restart in the first biome?

It makes the game much easier, there’s no avoiding that. It doesn’t make the game too easy, unless I mess with modifiers or rely on crossbows too much. And it makes the game much more replayable to me and, I assume, some others who felt both rewarded and exhausted when they were done with Returnal. When I finished Saros, it felt somehow less rewarding, but not only I wanted more, I had the energy for more. So I went in again and again: one more run in each biome, then one more run through them all to unlock just a little more of that insatiable progression matrix.

I’m always the one to encourage the trust in players, but Saros trusts me more than I can handle. I’m a player, of course I’m going to ruin my fun if you let me. I’ll exploit that one thing I’m decent at. I’ll raise the difficulty in the most non-consequential way to feel better about myself. I’ll pretend that it’s not the difficulty, it’s my skill improving and putting me in the flow. And I’ll realize what I’m doing too late, when I’m about to approach the final boss. Well, at least this time I have the capacity to fight him again later and get the true ending, so did I really ruin my fun?