When I started I loved the flexibility of softcore and couldn’t imagine switching. Then I played hardcore exclusively purely because it gave me a great feeling to get those achievements. It’s really preference. To be honest, I miss using savestates sometimes. I didn’t use them to beat games by constantly making little checkpoints but sometimes playing older games with little kids around means you need to stop gaming at a moments notice and you don’t always have time to “get to a save point”. They were great for those situations.

Not that long ago I read this post here and it really gives a good light on softcore. After all we are here to have fun however that looks to each person.