Game Maker: Starting by Healing the Players

Players who were originally excited about Sekiro's Despair Mode lost all hope after experiencing the Double Trouble difficulty in a second playthrough.

The second playthrough raised the bar for players significantly.

If they didn't return the Charm, then the second playthrough wouldn't be that difficult.

In fact, with the inherited attack power from the first playthrough and having familiarized themselves with the monsters' patterns and the bosses' attack styles, players could already start playing like they were unstoppable.

But the crucial point was that to unlock Despair Mode, one had to clear Double Trouble difficulty, which made countless players lose their minds.

No need to mention other aspects, just the imperfect parry causing health loss from regular blocks was enough to trouble many players.

And this was even with returning the Charm; many players didn't dare to imagine how terrifying the difficulty would be after ringing the bells and facing even tougher challenges.

Players who felt powerful after clearing the first playthrough found themselves enduring the same suffering during the second playthrough's high-difficulty challenges, even though they knew the moves of the regular enemies and bosses.

Especially with perfect parries, facing bosses with high attack frequencies, if they still relied on the "shake-off" technique with less than full health, it would be a death sentence.

Of course, some players were instead spurred on by a masochistic desire, not backing down but bravely facing the challenge.

After all, the biggest characteristic of Souls-like games wasn't it, seeking breakthroughs in one's own limits through suffering?

Moreover, Sekiro's combat "iron-banging" system was very engaging, making many players feel very excited.

They weren't new to being beaten, and in such situations, some high-level players utilized the game's prosthetic tools, combined with skills, to create flashy effects similar to the promotional trailers and movies.

For players who relied on "shake-off" and weren't very good at perfect parries, the strengthened posture bar and percentage-based health loss from attacks in the second playthrough were minor issues; the biggest difficulty was the health loss from blocking.

But for masters, health loss from blocking was a trivial matter. Therefore, after the game had been out for a while, once the expert players figured out the monsters' attack mechanics, most challenges in both Double Trouble and multiple playthroughs became a piece of cake.

Major video websites were also flooded with videos of players various ways of crushing bosses.

After clearing the three consecutive battles of Ashina, the Father, and the Exalted, unlocking the "Inner" versions of Genichiro, Owl, and Isshin, they directly engaged in a seventeen-consecutive-battle death match.

Before Despair Mode was released, this mode became the players' target for challenges. However, besides the "Inner" Owl, "Inner" Genichiro, and "Inner" Isshin, the other bosses remained unchanged.

As for "Inner" Genichiro, Owl, and Isshin, they only had a few new special moves added. For example, Genichiro could use "Cherry Blossom Dance," and Father Owl, as asinine as ever, in addition to firecrackers and shurikens, had learned a "Mist Raven" move to pull off some petty tricks.

It could be said that under the competition of skilled players, Genichiro and Isshin had become units of measurement, much like the Nameless King in Dark Souls or Nergigante in Monster Hunter.

Until the release of Despair Mode.

Familiar maps, familiar characters, but the difference was that the monsters' movesets had completely changed.

For example, in the first phase, Genichiro's leaping slash was always followed by a thrust, but in Despair Mode, this thrust might become "Floating Passage" or a horizontal sweep. And the most crucial point was that the "danger" warning was removed in Despair Mode.

This meant that players could only rely on their own experience and reflexes to judge, instantly raising the game's difficulty to astronomical levels.

Countless players who previously considered themselves experts were all filled with despair after starting Despair Mode.

"Is this even playable by humans?"

"The margin for error is ridiculously low!"

In an instant, the live streams of major game platforms and videos on video websites were like when Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice was first released.

As for ordinary players, they were all happy.

"Play Despair Mode ourselves?"

"We're not stupid!"

"Clearing Double Trouble high playthroughs or the Double Trouble 17-consecutive battle is already our limit."

"As for Despair Mode, let the real experts play it."

There were many speedrunning masters, both overseas and domestic, who were researching how to speedrun Sekiro's Despair Mode better and faster.

After all, this time, Despair Mode had a built-in ranking system. If one could achieve a first clear or refresh the time record, it meant bragging rights in front of players worldwide, and how exciting was that?

...

Various expert players were doing their utmost to break through Despair Mode faster, but for Lucas, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice had reached a natural conclusion.

In terms of subsequent playability, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice was indeed a bit weaker compared to Bloodborne and Dark Souls.

Because there were no grinding elements, generally, if one deliberately focused on it, after three or four playthroughs, one could max out all the prosthetic tools and combat arts.

And in terms of gameplay strategies, compared to the RPG elements in Dark Souls and Bloodborne brought by different classes, weapons, and stat builds, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice leaned more towards action, honing the players' own skills. Therefore, it didn't have as much content in terms of gameplay variety.

In the break room of Nebula Games, Lucas, holding a cup of cola, found a massage chair and lay down, picking up a nearby laptop to look at some reports.

These mainly concerned the version updates for World of Warcraft, such as the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj and the Shadow of Naxxramas, as well as issues with class data adjustments. There were no major surprises; everything was basically planned.

As for future projects, after Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice had thoroughly tormented players, Lucas was planning to let players relax.

As he was thinking, Lucas heard Anna's voice from the adjacent employee break and recreation room.

"Quick, Rachel! Push the tower! They're pushing our base!"

Lucas was startled and got up from his chair, heading towards the adjacent recreation room.

Upon entering, Lucas saw Anna, Rachel, Hector, Marcus, and Hutu all sitting in a row in front of their computers.

The monitors displayed the game Warcraft.

"An RPG map in Warcraft?"

Anna, whose screen had gone black and she had returned to her base's fountain, was about to go out and fight again when she suddenly heard the voice behind her. She was startled and turned around, seeing Lucas, then relaxed: "Boss Lucas, scaring people to death is bad!"

After a brief complaint, Anna replied, "Yes, Boss Lucas, this Zack map is quite interesting."

Standing behind Anna, Lucas took a quick look and basically understood everything.

This was a map created using the Zack Warcraft editor, a 5v5 competitive game where the main way to win was to destroy the opponent's main base, divided into three lanes.

The gameplay was similar to the 3C and DotA from his previous life. He didn't know the specific details yet, but from the minimap, Lucas could roughly infer the structure of this Zack map, though it was still rudimentary.

The presence of forests and elevated terrain, based on the layout, clearly hadn't been deeply explored; they were merely decorative elements, much like in the early DotA of his previous life.

There was also no concept of shared neutral resources; everything was just rocks, trees, and forks in the road.

However, the concept of three lanes, troop deployment, and controlling a single hero for combat was already present.

"Who made this Zack map? How popular is it right now?" Lucas asked Anna.

Hearing Lucas's question, Hector replied, "Boss Lucas, this map is still in closed beta and hasn't been released yet. A friend of mine made it, and he's currently working at Atari."

Atari?

An old acquaintance!

After a brief pause, Lucas hadn't expected this Zack map to be in a testing version, and moreover, the developer was an Atari employee.

After all, this company had had many dealings with Nebula Games in recent years.

There were notable titles like "Red Dead Redemption: Redemption" and "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild."

Including after the release of "Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice," Lucas heard that Atari had also started a similar new project.

"Hector, you... cough, cough, please contact your friend and ask him if he's interested in working at Nebula Games," Lucas said, lightly coughing.

(End of chapter)

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