There will be no Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice multiplayer, as From Software has already stated. Now the team has explained why the company’s signature multiplayer won’t be in its new game. Sekiro is boldly going in new, and old, directions for the Japanese developer.
Game Informer talked with the developers about the exclusion of online multiplayer in their upcoming title. Marketing and communications manager Yasuhiro Kotao said the company wasn’t necessarily abandoning online multiplayer, just taking a break from it. He said, “of course, we at From, we love those online elements. We love to create our own characters just as much as everyone else. We hope players are looking forward to something in the future where we might go back to that, but for now, Sekiro is very much its own thing.”
The move away from multiplayer also comes with a number of upsides for players and the developer. Players will be able to pause Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice at will. This is in stark contrast to From Software’s Dark Souls and Bloodborne, which were “always on” affairs. From Software is also able to design bosses with a single player in mind, instead of having to contend with co-op hordes demolishing bosses. Players also won’t have to worry about being invaded at inopportune times, or getting killed by laggy invaders.
Kitao also said that moving to a single-player only experience allows the developer to be more creative with Sekiro‘s world. “When creating these playspaces we don’t have to take into consideration how players will operate with one another in these maps, or how they may exploit the playspace by cooperating or something like this. So it allows us, again, to hone in on the player experience, and really capitalize on that lack of restriction that comes with creating a multiplayer-based game, and let our imagination run wild in these places.”
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice multiplayer is out, but grappling hooks and samurai swords are in. It was almost a Tenchu game, after all. The new From Software game is out March 22 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
