Team Ninja change up the co-op in Nioh

The co-op in the alpha, beta, and final demo of Nioh pre-release all featured multiplayer in one form or another. Each demo had the Revenants, which were AI controlled imitations of players who'd fallen to a foe and left a grave marker for other players to summon them to battle. The beta and Final Demo both included a co-op feature (which may have been, and likely were, in the alpha in the form or the Ochoko cups, but I didn't use them so I don't remember), but it seems Team Ninja has found issue with their Co-op implementation, and decided to change things. Some players are not happy with the changes.

In the aforementioned demos, players could, and frequently would, summon a friend into their game and proceed through the game together, taking on all the challenges Nioh could throw at them cooperatively, comfortable knowing that they had someone to watch their back. I guess this didn't sit well with Team Ninja, as the co-op has been changed up a little.

Kirk Hamilton of Kotaku reached out to Team Ninja for a little clarification. The response he got is as follows: 

“You cannot co-op through the entire game because that would make it too easy for players to beat the game,” said Tom Lee, creative director at Team Ninja in an emailed statement. “We want players to experience Nioh in how it was intended to be. We allowed players to co-op anytime in the last trial demo only because of the limited stages and time to try out the demo.”

Now, in the final game, it seems players will only be able to summon friends who have already cleared the specific level they need help with. For instance, if a player needs help taking down the Ogress, they can only enlist the aid of someone who has already done so, instead of the two of you samurai tag-teaming it on your first go.

You could almost say a student can only team up with a master, not two students fighting together. 

It's obvious why players would want to play the game co-op, as Nioh can be soul crushingly difficult at times, but I can also see Lee and his team are coming from. Discovery on your own is half the fun on Nioh, playing through a level by yourself strategically is different from barreling through the game with a partner. It creates a whole different dynamic when you know you've got backup. Still, if you really want some co-op adventures, I suppose there's always the Twilight missions.