SEKIRO: SHADOWS DIE TWICE 💀

King of Posters
#245

Yeah i found the incidental multiplayer in Souls generally pretty fun but the obsessive rebalancing they started doing to keep the pvp “fair” became a real drag by the time 3 rolled around. There are cool and fun weapons in that game but never anything as delightful as lucking into a black knight halberd drop and tearing half the game a new one. So i guess i’m also hoping they allow you to break Sekiro some way or another.

and i also won’t miss shithead gamer misogyny littering the ground near any female NPC

1 Like
#246

i’m going to regret asking, i know, but what?

#247
#248

the in game tutorials are universally so bad as to make me wish they weren’t there at all and the game left stuff to be inferred from context tbh

I think the succinctness with which they explain really ambiguous or difficult to execute mechanics just makes them more frustrating

but of course the last month or so of prerelease stuff managed to annihilate my skepticism at Activision

#249

Count me as someone who has barely brushed a Souls game who is super excited to never need to worry about multiplayer if I eventually pick this up

1 Like
#250

the multiplayer kept it light though! because even if you were doing well in the game as designed then some dingus could still fuck it up for you! It was funny! This isn’t funny!

#251

For a lot of people, having WEEDBRO420 wreck their shit was not light or funny at all.

8 Likes
#252

Multiplayer in Dark Souls never consistently worked for me, and it hung over my playthrough like a bizarre cloud in the same way that, when I emulate a game and encounter a glitch I’m never certain if it’s the game itself or the emulator causing it, and I just get anxious thinking about it.

I can see spectres of people at the bonfires - are those other people, or is that part of the game? I’ve never been invaded and my soapstone messages have never changed, but I do see soapstone messages. Why is that?

I’m glad it’s gone because it was such a stupid mystery that it just annoyed me.

Also I have anxiety hi it’s me

#253

I’d be interested to hear a strong case that removing multiplayer strengthens the game. Did it not feel optional?

I’m surprised at how much has been removed without a replacement as this sort of design by subtraction goes against the prevailing windy of the last, oh, twenty years. I don’t know how I feel about the minimalism yet but I’m going to let it settle.

The level design, highly vertical and with grapple points strewn around, is fantastic so far. As it moves closer to PS2-era action games we can look at the levels in that context and the complexity of approaches and flow of running around is so good.

4 Likes
#254

My first experience with Dark Souls on PSN had someone significantly more experienced than me invade me, kill me (obviously), then PM me “git gud” unsolicited. It felt pretty terrible to be tested on a skill that had literally never been practiced or taught (PVP), and then have that player harass me for it

#255

That was the one time I connected a Souls game to the internet. I play that shit offline.

3 Likes
#256

Dark Souls 1’s multiplayer didn’t work for me, but I had a lot of fun with the bell tower covenant in 2. I liked the occasional feeling of drama and terror when being unexpectedly invaded. Gave me a pyramid head survival horror kind of feel.

In Bloodborne it felt like they kind of reduced the emphasis on invasions. IIRC it was a little harder to do? I only got invaded once or twice in the whole game. I did use the co-op a lot for tough bosses so I’ll miss that.

1 Like
#257

i played a short while until i [FIRST AREA POST-INTRO SECTION] died a few times to a samurai general miniboss and decided to try again later.

really enjoying the combat so far but the people saying the in-game tutorials are bad are 100% right. i’ve tried dark souls, dark souls 2 and bloodborne and bounced off all of them after not too long, but i really like their art design and the mechanics appeal to me in concept but apparently not in practice. this seems a little friendlier to me so far and kinda reminds me of something that would have been on some “underappreciated ps2 games” list but better-looking. will i come back in a week to say i have zero interest in playing this ever again? maybe.

#258
4 Likes
#259

The tutorial thing seems pretty classic From. They’ve never explained their mechanics well, and while people took that as some sort of mystery preservation in the Souls series, it was pretty much just how they design games.

2 Likes
#260

So far, this is sounding like a game for me to admire from afar but not actually play. I don’t mind departures from the Souls formula in theory, but if the whole experience is focused on aggressive enemies that never get especially weird and don’t have the easy mode of summoning help (or something else) to fall back on, it’s probably not for me.

I would like to know if the game takes a turn into bizarre environments and creatures. That would probably be enough to get me to at least try to deal with the difficulty. I did get through virtually all of Demon’s Souls without help from summons.

But Demon’s Souls had a world that I found evocative in a way that made me relish my desperation, and this one at first glance appears to lack that.

1 Like
#261

it would probably would have saved me a lot of deaths and frustration if the game could just come out and say “hey dumbass, you need to parry enemies more than once in counter attack them.” like, if you’re going to do the annoying video game thing of interrupting me every five seconds with a new tutorial message, you may as well just go all in and explain the process in full.

3 Likes
#262

I am also wondering this. there’s a cute little bridge troll in the tutorial level but he can’t carry all that pressure on his own

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#263

and to everyone asking, yes, there is hella supernatural shit in this game. without spoiling things, there is a segment i played through that makes the dark souls dragons look like common trash mobs.

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#264

Wow, wake up and find that everyone seems to be universally frustrated with the in-game tutorials. That’s kinda why I was a little miffed people were all like “lol noob” when I posted a very helpful beginner’s guide earlier in this thread.

It addresses most of what everyone seems to be frustrated by and could be a helpful resource for anyone who has already purchased the game or is considering putting down 60 bucks for it.

As we know, Souls games have inscrutable systems and little nuggets of knowledge go a long way towards your enjoyment. For example, just knowing how important the stability stat in the original DS was when the game really clicked for me.

From games are all about the community and “beginner videos” aren’t noob guides for this genre, they’re shared information from people who are passionate about the games. That was my line of thinking when I posted the video, and also Vaatividya’s voice is super soothing.

7 Likes