The project began at the end of 2015, after the development of the Bloodborne DLC had ended. They were preparing for a few titles to do after the current DS3 development ends
The game design began with the keyword of Ninja, with a lot of stimulus coming from the Tenchu series
There was the option to make it a Tenchu game, but Tenchu was originally a series made by many different developers, each with their own characteristics. They thought they would end up imitating them in the end, so they gave up on that.
Game development and publishing in Japan and Asia will be handled by From, with Activision handling all other regions. Activision gave a lot of advice regarding many things, including game development.
To be clear though, game development and final decisions were always in our hands to begin with.
The subtitle was catch copy for the trailer that I had thought of, for some reason the publisher really liked it, and made it part of the title.
Shadows refers to the way of the Ninja, and Die Twice hinted at the revive system which is a gameplay feature. In addition, Die Twice also contains the message that players will be doing a lot of dying again.
The time is set near the end of the Sengoku warring period in Japan. Like all other games before this, it isn’t an actual location, but it is in a high-altitude cold country(Japan was splintered into countries during this time). Begin at the end of the Sengoku era also holds the nuance that the country may be at its end (as Japan will soon be unified).
Realism wasn’t something we were too concerned with. As with Dark Souls, it is constructed according to our own interpretation.
The game has a fixed protagonist, but it’s not a linear story-driven game. The story does revolve around the character, but beyond that nothing has changed in our stance to storytelling from the previous games.
There are three main actions (gameplay features). First off is the grappling hook that lets you move vertically on a 3-dimensional map.
Then there is the sword play: the offense and defense of it, and the one-hit kills of the Ninsatsu.
The third is “killing cleverly.” The game takes pains to allow for different approaches to killing, from making a ninja-like opening by using the hook to take the high ground,
Killing cleverly is an important theme. Taking on difficult challenges, and then enjoying the experience of overcoming them
In this game, when you met an enemy you won’t be immediately plunged into battle. The levels are designed to let you observe and think about how to take them on, and you can also “listen in” on enemies who aren’t in combat mode.
The ninja prosthetics are to support the combat parts of the game: shuriken, firecracker, hidden axe and other variations. Choose a few items before, then choose on-site t use them (probably like Tenchu?)
It’s an action adventure game, so the protagonist has growth tied to a different method than RPGs
Map design is close to DS1, with a few exceptions, it is a seamlessly connected 3-dimensional map.
The reason for leaving out online play, was to focus on making the fun of the single-player experience
The revive system consumes resources, being able to come back to life at will at the same location. Killing an enemy who think you are dead is also a tactic.
Revives are at the moment, guaranteed once, with additional revives requiring resources. In order to keep death something to be nervous about, the penalty and restrictions are tuned to keep the game at a good pace.
You can say that the sharp penalties are there because of the revive system.
As for the difficulty, this time you can overcome ever harder obstacles than before, with the difficulty based not on how well the actions are performed (player-skill) but aimed to be something that can be done with cleverness and work
At the very least, we do not intend it to be difficult for difficulty’s sake, but we are also not making it easy.
