I played this game in coop, so I will talk about it in that context.
Stranger of Paradise is an action game, made by Team Ninja, the developers of Nioh. The influence of Nioh is clear, though Stranger is designed slightly differently. It is probably easier, better for coop, and less punishing. It is also more simplified and streamlined.
I think the story is really well done, but I reserve most of my words for the gameplay.
Before going into more specifics, I will mention some the stuff that makes the game not punishing, and good for coop. The game is based around same system as Nioh, and can be compared to the bonfire system of Dark Souls. However, like Nioh, there is no open world but a mission. The ‘bonfires’ allow you to change equipment, restore dead enemies, and return if you die. However, no progress is lost at any point. Dying does not drop anything. You can also quit the missions, and as long as you went near a bonfire just before you quit, everything is saved. You will need to make progress in the mission again to get to the same point but nothing else is lost. You can complete nearly the entire game in coop. There are a few story missions you must complete by yourself, but if you find them too hard you can turn the difficulty down.
Also, there are difficulty levels on each mission. Further, after completing the game once, there is a mode which gives you certain buffs, that when used in conjunction with special armour handed to you with the season pass, makes you functionally invulnerable for all story content. There is a difficulty that is not able to be done while invulnerable.
I’ll mention one more thing that will make more sense later, but even though you do a massive amount of levelling up, you can basically turn off all of your enhancements and equip low level gear and play on the first difficulty mode again with someone else. For coop you don’t both need to be at the same point in the game. One person can have finished the game on the highest difficulty, but still turn off all their extra power relatively easily and be as strong as a character on the first difficulty.
Gameplay wise, the most fundamental aspect of gameplay is the choice of weapon. I think there are 8 base game weapons, and another 2 DLC weapons. Fundamentally, your move set is built around the basics of each weapon. You have some level of customisation, but not the level approaching Nioh. The combos are based around a common standard game style of normal and special attack. So every combo is an amount of normal attacks, before the special attack finishes the combo with a combo attack. You also have some other special attacks like leaving guard, etc. Each weapon has a small range of finishing moves you can put on the final combo attack, but you don’t have unlimited freedom. This is where your customisation is. It isn’t a lot, but it is some.
The next gameplay aspect is jobs, or classes. The jobs do not change the weapon styles at all. What they do is they have a range of job specific buffs to various stats. They also have limited choice of weapons. Every class has a special attack only that class has. This is basically always unique enough to warrant use, and does provide some variety. Each class does have strengths and weakness in that they alter the base stats of the character. So the Mage class won’t have as much health as a fighter class, for example.
In terms of progress you would level every job up because every class has unlock skills that contribute to the weapon skills. As in, the ice finishing move on the sword is available to unlock in the whatever job, and once unlocked, every job that uses the weapon can equip that attack. This is largely the first playthrough of the game. Switching jobs as you go to learn all the basics and unlock each class. You can skip changing jobs if you really want, because you get crystals that level you up. I believe you mostly get these for coop play, so I had an abundance.
This is where I get to the third element of gameplay, which is the statistics or attributes of the character. You don’t get to change the base stats of the character, these are produced through a combination of jobs and items. That is, until you basically finish the game the first time. After this point the higher difficulty missions start unlocking a second set of levels for every job. Levelling these up gives you master points, which are locked onto that job, but buff the same general set of attributes for every job. To say it another way, every job has the same possible set of buffs, but the amount of points you have available to spend of these depends on the level ups achieved on that specific job. Once again, you can use higher level crystals to level these up.
It might seem strange to mention equipment at such a late point, but there is a reason for this. They basically don’t matter until the final part of the Season Pass. The Season Pass is actually three separate DLC combined together. Items only really start to matter into the second and Third DLC. You are certainly going to amass huge amounts of item before that point, and you can pick and choose between them if you want. But difficulty wise, if you just press the optimise gear button every so often it will put the highest level equipment on you each time, and that’s all you need. This game is still an action game until later in the DLC. You might notice that there is a suggested level for each stage. On your first playthrough you will be rapidly jumping each mission, but after this first play through, and access to later difficulties, this component changes so you choose what level to make each mission. You can start choosing gear at that point, but you don’t need to spend much time on it. It only in the second DLC where the difficulty of the game is no longer tied to a level number.
Stranger is difficult though. I make the distinction between difficult and punishing in that you may die a lot on a difficult game, but a punishing game punishes you for losing. Dark Souls punishes you for losing, but Stranger does not. You can also use difficulty modes built into the game to avoid stuff you find too hard, or skip over stuff you want to. If I remember correctly, after completing the game once, you can probably just never do a mission again if you don’t want to. If you do need to do a mission again you can change the difficulty and make it easy. There is still grind towards the end of the Season Pass but that is only if you want it. I am pretty sure you can complete all story important stuff while basically invulnerable, though I am pretty sure the invulnerable mode is only available in single player. I say this stuff because most difficult games don’t allow you to skip stuff. And they often aren’t this coop friendly.
I really enjoyed this game in coop. It is complex enough, and gives a lot to do, and you can do as much or as little as you want.
