Can i pre-purchase?
This game is so worth it!

Let me prepurchase. I want to give them my money as soon as possible :)

So — how long are we going to wait??

I've heard that Team Cherry often make an announcement on December 13th, when they used to start their holidays. I really hope they'll announce the release date soon. My daughter asks me twice a week! :D I hope not! If there was Easy mode, I'd play it. And I'd lost a lot of fun. It took me almost 100 hours to finish the game (good ending) a few times I was sure I'd drop it. I didn't changed difficulty level because there was no such option and in my case - it was blessing! It saved me from spoiling all the fun.

That's quite a logic. Just because you can't bring yourself to change an option to hard (for whatever reason) you want everybody who simply have problems with hard - and might not even be able to play zhis way - to FORCE the hard option as well?

I understand. But after beating the game (as a very casual player) I've started to believe that's the way this specific game should be played, that it's part of its DNA and what's make this adventure special, that's what makes also the community (all of us face exactly the same challenge).
And I'm not going to force anyone to anything. It's solely devs' decision.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Okay, let me rephrase this ... you wish the dev to force it on everybody so that you don't have the problem to chose ... :)

And btw: Also casual player and yes, I beat it as well - but before that I twice uninstalled it, cursing while doing so, and I never managed to beat the true final boss.

No, you're right. There should be such option. My kids would be happy. I just still can see (what wasn't obvious for me before) that lack of difficulty levels may be also a part of a game's idea/design. And I'm grateful I was forced to beat it like that. Today I'd probably play Normal and keep fighting to the end - but today I'm different person thanks to that experience :D

Regarding uninstalling and final boss - that's exactly what I love in HK. They've forced me to change my mindset. When reached White Palace I promised myself to just reduce my effort to a few minutes a day. Just try, fail and come back tomorrow. Go forward, play other games, but come back from time to time to try - and to let "git gut" process run in the background.

I was sure I'm simply not able to complete it. But with patience built during all the boss fights (it's amazing, how this games rewards "keep calm" strategy in the center of chaos) and with my new attitude ("no plan to ever win, just fight, lose, get up, fight again") one day I won. Call it exaggeration, but that experience was something more than gaming, it affected my real life :D

Well I actually want players to stop demanding difficulty options from developers.

So you want those that aren't good enough to not be able to play the game just because you are unable to set the difficulty to your liking? I really don't understand the downside of an OPTION ... not at all.

No. I want that developers design the game the way they want, as difficult as they want and with the difficulty options they want to put in. If they are going to put difficulty options, it should be because of their artistic vision, not because of the demand of the gamers, or even worse, shareholders.

Okay. So what has a difficulty option ... meaning a setting you could ignore if you like .. to do with artistic vision? That is as if the devs would want to tell players: "Play it hard and if you are not able to do so don't play it at all" .. that's ridiculous. Options will always be pro gamer. Where do you start and where do you stop? "No, we won't add graphic options, the game is supposed to look good - so don't play it if your PC can't run it the way we would want you to enjoy it". I clearly understand the concept of a game that is designed to be hard ... but I will never understand the concept of a game design that will lock out potential players/customers.

You forgot option that there is also an option "you play it hard until you are able to play it hard."

"Difficulty" has everything to do with artistic vision of the game, because it affects gameplay, a prime tool of gaming as a medium. "Good" design can be made with any (perceived) difficulty, and with or without difficulty setting. But it has to be result of intentional game design.

Who says I am pro gamer, let alone pro consumer? People don't know what they want half of the time. Then again, I am not for a concept of customer getting ripped off either. To be honest, I don't believe in concept of hard or easy game, I believe in concept of games I am able to play, and games which I am able to play. And being able to play doesn't necessarily means I am able to beat them either. Not every game is for everybody, and I don't believe difficulty settings would attract or detract a significant portion of gaming audience.

And this is where you are wrong. Especially for older gamers who simply don't have the time to "git gud" over time because of work the option to lower the difficulty is an imprtant argument. I liked whar Remedy did with Control. They added an optional help function with several levels of "help" but the moment you even wanted to use one of those the game displayed a message and told you how it ids designed and that you should only use it if you really are unable to progress so that you still could have fun.

Y'all gotta take this convo somewhere else cause i keep thinking we got news lol.

I am not wrong, because older gamers who don't have will (they always have time) to get good in games aren't significant portion of gaming public, else From Software or Hollow Knight wouldn't be financially successful. Ruthless thinking, but "Ruthlessness is kindness of the wise." as the Imperium puts it, and sadly, Catholic Space Nazis are right this time. Now, since GOG users are getting upset for us derailing this thread, we can discuss this elsewhere.

P. S. I think that it's more productive to ask for lowered work time and difficulty so everybody can find more time enjoy the works of art they like, rather than asking for lowered difficulty of video games.