Every Way Sekiro Isn’t a Souls Game
One Singular, Voiced Hero
Souls games have always let you create your own character, someone that is purely used as a cipher for the player. While Souls games have always been packed with story and lore, a lot of it was indirectly told through item descriptions and hidden things.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, on the other hand, tries to tell its story much more directly through cutscenes and dialogue, as well as a voiced main character. The “One-Armed Wold” is a disgraced shinobi, who’s been left for dead after his arm was cut off and his master is taken.
Obviously, this is a huge change for FromSoftware’s Souls-style games, as they very much want you to know who the main hero is, and there’s no sort of customization you’ll be doing in terms of looks and clothing.
Single Player Only
To add on to the emphasis of the main character, Sekiro doesn’t feature multiplayer in any shape or form. Souls games were always single player centric, but the brilliant multiplayer system allowed you to help out friends, invade other player’s games, and have player’s invade your own game.
Sekiro does away with all of that, but it certainly doesn’t suffer for it. The difficulty is fine-tuned for single player, and there’s still a vibrant and deadly world to explore. The larger emphasis on story also translates to a more enjoyable single player experience.