We’ve always known that Guillermo del Toro, the director behind bangers such as Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy, and Pacific Rim, and one of the many high-profile stars to appear in Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding games, has great taste in video games. But it seems that the 61-year-old auteur has been running into a problem that all of us will eventually face in our later years: difficulty settings, or the lack thereof.
Del Toro recently sat down for an interview with IGN (via PC Gamer) to promote Pan’s Labyrinth’s return to cinemas and, naturally, his love of video games. He’s enthusiastically spoken about his love of several games in the past, including the likes of Left 4 Dead, Red Dead Redemption, Metal Gear Solid, and Death Stranding. Might be a tiny bit biased about that last pick.
During the interview, del Toro brought up Motion Twin’s 2018 Metroidvania roguelike Dead Cells, and while he gushed about its world design and how “interesting” he found it, he did take issue with its rather brutal difficulty.
Pan's Labyrinth returns this October for its 20th anniversary. Watch out full conversation with director Guillermo del Toro soon at IGN #sdcc pic.twitter.com/zwZdxvcu2G
— IGN (@IGN) July 29, 2026
“Dead Cells was really interesting to me, I just hate respawning,” stated del Toro. “You get 35 levels in, and then you start again…you get faster, but please, please do a version without respawning for the older, for the elderly players. I’m available. You can contact me and send it to me. Please, I beg you. Because I like the world, great design.”
It’s a provocative take, as, whether he’s aware of the fact or not, del Toro has now waded into a much-debated topic in the world of video games: optional difficulty settings. This discussion pops up every time a new Soulslike comes out, but most recently the debate reignited following the release of Yacht Club Games’ Mina the Hollower, which features dozens of optional modifiers that can make the game easier or harder to complete.
Indeed, Dead Cells does have several modifiers like this, including an Assist Mode that was added in 2022. This update also added a “Continue Mode” that lets you respawn from your last save point instead of restarting a run, so somebody should give del Toro a heads-up.
