Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

[Dragon Lord]

That's what the Souls games did. They restrict who you can invade based on level (Your level +/- 15%), but that doesn't stop people from keeping a character at level 4-10, obtaining end-game gear (either by going through the game or having a friend give it to them), and then invading other low level players.

They attempted to fix this in Dark Souls III, by making invasions based not only on your level, but also the level of your weapon (someone with a +10 weapon could only invade other people with +7-+10 weapons, for example), but that didn't really stop it. People just found which weapons could 1-2 shot low level characters while keeping the weapon at a low + level.

And putting level requirements (outside of STR/DEX) would only make the fans cry that they're not able to do low level runs with their favorite weapons because you need to be xx level to use said weapon.

What Fromsoft needs to do is let go of the invasion idea. It's not good, and it's never been good. Make a Souls game that has co-op and that's it. Replace Invasions (which are supposed to be a punishment for co-oping) with a huge stat boost to enemies (I'm talking like 50%-100% per summon). Honestly, that would punish people more for summoning other players than one invader who just gets ganked by 3-4 players.

I would love to see an Ornstein & Smough fight in Dark Souls with a 300% boost to their stats.

[Moonface]

Co-op doesn't bump the difficulty at all? Even in Bloodborne? I thought it would because it logically makes sense, although at the same time I can see From likely viewed co-op as a way of helping out on a tough challenge rather than making it tougher.

[Dragon Lord]

The only thing summoning another player did was increase the HP of the boss per player you summon. None of their other stats increased at all. So the boss would take longer to kill, but you'd have two to four people attacking them, pretty much negating the increase in HP.

What they should have done was made it so that summon a phantom increased ALL of the stats of a boss by 50% per person. So if you had three phantoms, you were looking at a 150% increase. Or if they really wanted to make you earn it, increase the boss's stats by 100% per summon.

Sekiro not having multiplayer is only going to turn out to be a good thing. It'll let them focus on making the game fun and not focus on "balancing" the game around a handful of whiny children.

[Moonface]

The official Sekiro Twitter account just put out this short teaser of either a boss or enemy called the Corrupted Monk:

[ShiraNoMai]

I forget how soon this game intends to be out. I almost hope they release a demo just so we can get a taste of how the game feels before it launches.

[Moonface]

I just started this game, and judging from this and Bloodborne I'm going to assume it's just a thing for a From Software game to put you into an unwinnable fight in the opening?

[Dragon Lord]

Not unwinnable, just very difficult if you don't have prior experience and knowledge of the game. None of the opening battles in the Soulsborne games are unwinnable.

Well, Dark Souls 2 doesn't have a tutorial boss and Dark Souls 3's first boss is a required win (probably because they just assumed anyone playing DS3 has prior experience with the series and didn't need the easy way out). Demon's Souls tutorial boss is completely optional, but winnable. If you beat it, you go to an area where you can get some decent items to start out with. Lose and you just go to the start of the actual game.

Dark Souls is a little more difficult. The Asylum Demon can be defeated on the first encounter, however this is before you get your weapon, so if you want to beat it, you have to be good enough to kill it doing 2 damage a hit with the Broken Sword Hilt (or by taking the Black Firebombs as your starting gift, but that's a huge waste). Beating it the first time around gives you the Demon's Great Hammer, though you need a whopping 50 STR to use it.

Bloodborne doesn't have that opening boss either, but I know you are referring to the Wolf that kills most new players immediately. You CAN kill that Wolf (or just run away from it). You just need to know how to properly get behind it and backstab it before it can react. Takes a bit of practice, but once you get the game mechanics down you'll never die to it again. I don't think I've died to that guy since my very first play through of BB, lol.

I don't know 100% about Sekiro since I haven't played it yet, but if it goes along the same lines as Demon's Souls or Dark Souls, it is beatable, but you're not likely to accomplish that as a new player.

[Moonface]

I don't know 100% about Sekiro since I haven't played it yet, but if it goes along the same lines as Demon's Souls or Dark Souls, it is beatable, but you're not likely to accomplish that as a new player.

Yeah, having picked this game up again recently, that first fight could be done but not without knowing the mechanics first. I expect doing it on a NG+ run would be a lot easier too unless it intentionally strips you down to just the sword and no other character upgrades in that opening.

I beat my first main boss yesterday, and despite thinking I wasn't going to do it I managed to get it done on my second attempt with parrying almost every attack. I thought I wasn't going to get the hang of parrying but I'm starting to pick it up quickly. Before now I'd just been stealth killing everyone or just keeping my distance and attacking during openings.

Only thing I'm not sure I like yet is the amount of punishment when you truly die. Losing half your money and experience I can live with, but dying too many times affects other things too (NPC's will get sick and you have a limited number of times you can heal them all) and I'm not sure how I feel about that part yet.