LB: I really like Darkest Dungeon's approach to difficulty. You're launched right into the game with its intended settings, but there are menu options to disable certain difficulty-raising features. The first time you do this, a pop-up appears to say "hey, you *can* turn these off, but the game is really designed around them being on."
Difficulty can be an important design tool, and I roll my eyes at the insinuation that, say, the Souls games are only hard for the sake of "elistist gamer bros" or w/e, but I also don't think my experience is lessened by clearly signposted difficulty options that I can just ignore.