[review wip]

People keep shitting on how this game is incredibly frustrating when Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a rarity that surprisingly has its own way of having an engaging combat gameplay that consists of an ACTUAL "parry and attack" procedure. For being a FromSoftware game, that carries on their legacy of developing their famous Action RPG game series Dark Souls, it is a wonderful game... IF you can manage to get through the game's very challenging patterns and solve problems in certain situations. Sekiro is NOT a game for those who are looking for a very accessible experience, this game requires you effort on finding your own reflexes, much like how would a shinobi perceive.

By and away my favorite of Fromsoft's catalogue. The grim feudal Japanese world, the incredible fantasy vistas, the feeling of being a ninja with little more than your blade fighting off against incredible odds and sheen-polished duels simply works for what I am looking for in a video game. Played it right after Elden Ring and enjoyed every minute of it.

Much like Elden Ring, it showed me just how much difficulty can make a game that much more enjoyable and memorable - the immense struggle I had being killed off by mooks or minibosses or boss-bosses made every triumph, every victory, every boss learned feel that much better. The game demanding I rise to its challenge made my feeling like a cracked out sword-slinging ninja feel earned.

Man. It ruled

I will die on the hill that Sekiro's combat may be the most rewarding of any game released in the last 10 years. It certainly is not as complex as KH2 or DMC4, but the moment to moment enjoyment of Sekiro's encounters trumps all other games.

Somehow the developers managed to introduce the satisfaction of a perfectly timed Guitar Hero streak into a 3d action combat game. If you cannot learn how to perfectly parry an enemys attacks you are not getting past the first third of the game.

The game's difficulty is not something that cannot be beaten with overlevelling or an overpowered spell or item, it is simply a matter of you understanding the timings of the boss and how to punish their openings.

The only things I will knock this game for is the lore, mainly because I love Dark Souls lore and I expected more from this game...but being such a protagonist driven game I can understand their choices with the plot.

started this the week it came out, and have picked away at it a couple of times in the last few years, but I thought it was about time to just get on with it.

I always seemed to bounce off of it for the same reasons. None of that "It's too hard business", just this sense that I wasn't really improving. I'd stealth an area, kill some mini bosses, then fight a big boss that would generally seem impossible on the first attempt, but after a couple of goes would show ways you could probably exploit it, and that's generally how I made my way through it. A little parry, parry when the game demanded it, a little bit of cheese when it was useful. I don't think it takes anything away from it, but I always had the feeling like there was a lack of progression. Sure I could get better at deflecting strikes and reading patterns, but that isn't half as satisfying as rolling up on a boss or two ready to wreck it in thirty seconds with a mega powerful weapon.

I think there's a good reason why so many more people are enamoured with Elden Ring, and Sekiro seems to be the most bounced off of when it comes to modern From games. Did I enjoy my time with it? Yeah, sure. Would I have probably liked it a little more if it had a few more ways to make parts of it a little more forgiving? Most definitely. And just to be clear, I fully understand why some people love it, as on paper it's my kind of shit, but honestly, it ain't no Bloodborne.