Sekiro is yet another masterpiece developed by FromSoftware. Its atmosphere and stellar combat make it well deserving of GOTY.

Sekiro tells possibly FromSoft's least ambiguous story to date. You are tasked with protecting the divine child and ending immortality. This leads into a beautfiul tale that features sacrifice, moral decisions, and portrays what one is willing to do for their homeland. Finding out more details about the lore through sharing drinks with NPC's is also a fantastic touch and a great way to add lore into the game.

Sekiro has combat that is unparalleled by any game I have played. The flow state you achieve when playing it is like no other. Almost every single boss is amazingly designed to feel like a rhythmic dance where one mistake can cost you your health bar. Outside of combat, however, traversal leaves me wanting more. Exploration isn't rewarded as much as other FromSoft games due to the lack of spells and weapons in the game. Enemies also don't pose much of a threat since almost all of them can be sneak killed, grappled around, or just ran past to the next idol. This makes the areas between bosses feel far worse than other games.

Sekiro has areas that are very distinct from eachother and beautifully designed. The look of the divine realm and final boss arena are just two examples of how incredible the art direction of this game is. The sound design is also great, but the tracks never take the forefront as much as they do in other games with such a big emphasis on boss battles.

Sekiro's replayability comes from you the player mastering it's combat system. You can get the new game + feeling of demolishing early bosses on a new save file since your skills as a player have improved so much and not necessarily your stats. Sekiro doesn't have build or weapon variety like other FromSoft games but it makes up for this by offering many different ways to increase the difficulty in subsequent playthroughs such as the demon bell or not accepting the charm. You can sadly only experience slowly mastering the combat and then replaying it to see how far you have came once.

Overall, Sekiro is a fantastic game with the best combat in any game I have played. It has a strong narrative and good options to obtain extra lore. It's art direction is incredible but it leaves a little to be desired in terms of replayability and rewards for exploration.
( 92/100 )

Sinceramente um dos melhores jogos que eu já joguei, claro tem vários defeitos como qualquer jogo do Myazaki mas as partes boas com certeza são maiores do que as partes ruins. Se no começo do jogo você por acaso pensar em desistir ao chegar em algum boss alto que estava inicialmente preso e tem um moveset baseado em agarrões com hitboxes injustas ou pior ainda um boss que é simplesmente um animal em chamas, PORFAVOR não desista, você estaria perdendo o que por muitos pode ser o melhor jogo da FromSoftware e pra mim mais uma perola criada por um asiatico muito sábio com fetiche em pés.

Don't give up, skeleton!

If Elden Ring didn't exist I would've told you this is the best game FromSoft has made. The greatest combat system I've ever played in a game to this day because of the amount of sword techniques + shinobi prosthetics you can mix and match together to make combat extremely engaging outside of the usually dodge and wait for an opening gameplay that we are used to seeing. This game demands that you learn the basic mechanics down to a subconscious level similar to breathing. You will be VIOLENTLY skill checked throughout various points in the game. The final boss is the most perfect culmination of every single mechanic and skill you've learned and you had better hope you've mastered them to even stand a chance against Glock Saint Isshin. This game is simultaneously the easiest and the hardest FromSoft game I've played.

The most cinematically beautiful game ever made. Game Design™ Aficionados froth at the mouth and lose half their motor function trying to explain how the parry is an uninteresting central mechanic, to which the only response necessary is linking an mp3 file of the sound effect. The totality of the video game, the perfect harmony of sight, sound, and input, this is what AAA execution should look like. Make no mistake this isn’t cinematic as in a movie you mostly get to move the main character in. This is a video game presented cinematically without ever compromising on any of the strengths of it’s function. Making your way through or around the world and watching Ashina slowly get infiltrated and crumble over the course of the game is an experience best played, never explained. This is the reason why money exists: to fund shit like this. It is still a fromsoft game so it should be approached with similar levels of caution about the consistency of the encounters i guess, but i will always hold that anybody who has a very negative opinion of this game is untrustworthy.


Often imitated not yet duplicated, right now it is the mission of game developers around the world to try and prove this game wrong. To try and take the parry and try to build a game around it even better. Unfortunately I am not omniscient so I can’t really say with 100% certainty what the end of the road looks like, but i’m a gambling man and i’m willing to bet on who the world over will remember, and who will unfortunately be left behind.

For all that Dark Souls is touted as "tough but fair" (which it definitely isn't) Sekiro actually lives up to that description, perhaps because it deviates in key ways from the Souls formula. Where Dark Souls focuses on fantasy lore and dreadful exploration, Sekiro emphasizes stealth and high-energy, high-accuracy combat. Although the low-fantasy historical setting doesn't appeal to me, the levels are evocative and intricately designed. Sekiro's razor sharp encounter design repeatedly capitalizes on the emotional rollercoaster from "this is definitely impossible" to "I have achieved the impossible!" In terms of the apparent goals of the work Sekiro might be a perfect game. At the very least, I think it perfectly captures the "ninja warrior" experience while avoiding cumbersome realism or an overpowered protagonist.

This game is almost perfect. It's another Fromsoft title but I can't in good faith compare it to the other games as it plays so differently. My first time playing this game was rough because I was trying to play it like Dark Souls; Genichiro taught me real quick it wasn't gonna be like any of those games. Sekiro has the best sword combat I have ever played. The level of mastery you can display against each of these incredible bosses is awe-inspiring and has me coming back just to experience them all over again. The story is very serviceable with 4 very distinct endings. A lot of the NPCs can end up being bosses and if you make the wrong choice, you can cut the game a bit short as I did on my first playthrough. This gave me incentive to play it again even if it was a bit annoying to cut my playthrough short by selecting another ending. On replay getting to refight bosses that initially gave me trouble and just flawlessly defeating them through raw skill is unmatched. There's probably about 2 main bosses you could consider 'bad' and the rest are pretty much flawless. If you love a challenge and are a fan of the games setting/style, you should absolutely give this one a try.

O jogo que mais tu sente a própria evolução que eu já joguei, o combate é impecável, a sensação de dar parry no momento certo faz tu se sentir um deus na terra, daí o inimigo muda o pattern e tu morre que nem um bosta, lembrando que tá em sekiro.

A história é simples mas funciona muito bem, sendo contado bem mais diretamente do que qualquer outro SoulsLike, com o protagonista tendo nome e história antes do jogo começar.

Os bosses são estremamente desafiadores, derrotar ele é o sinal claro da sua evolução, e os mais iniciais, caso você volte a batalhar com eles, nota como evoluiu em comparação a 1° vez que tentou derrotá-los, matar o gyobu na primeira run e depois no ng+ mostra o monstro que tu se tornou (até ter que derrotar o Isshin de novo)

Eu odeio o demônio do rancor

Sekiro is a very good game, but I'm not a fan of it. I have really enjoyed this game every time I have played it, it is addictive and makes you keep playing more and more. It is incredible how beautiful the message is to the player, of perseverance, not giving up and continuing despite difficulties, getting up all the time and fighting until you achieve it. Sekiro is not a difficult game, Sekiro is a game where you don't know how to play and you learn in the process, once you master everything, even the most difficult Boss can seem easy to you. Sekiro (the character) is very interesting, and very good despite having little substance. The story isn't the big point of this game obviously, but that's okay.
The problem that I have had with Sekiro is the problem that it is so repetitive, it is something that has made me drop it many times because I was bored, I didn't feel like starting the game, but once I did, I enjoyed it, but It's very repetitive, I guess it's like that in all souls. But I think I'm going to enjoy Dark Souls much more, the aesthetics and ideas are more interesting to me.
Sekiro is a game that I really care little about, it may be in my top #20 video games, but nothing more, a rewarding experience, and different from the rest. The gameplay is repetitive, but satisfying every time you kill a boss. The parry technique is beautiful.
And I have nothing more to say, yes, the best game related to Japanese aesthetics. GOT is shit next to Sekiro.

My hottest gaming take,

This game is very overrated. The combat can be played with a parry and maybe a Mikiri counter. Everything else is useless.

Compared to other Souls games the combat is extremely simple. It is just press a single button with no thought behind it. It is very forgiving. So much so that simply spamming the button can get you through most attacks.

The world is okay, but nothing special to me. Pretty good game, worth playing.

"Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice" artfully merges its combat mechanics with its narrative, presenting an elegantly straightforward system. However, this simplicity, while narratively fitting, slightly misses the opportunity to delve into the complexities that could elevate the game into a realm of more strategic melee combat.

Parrying and Blocking Distinction: Currently, the game combines blocking and parrying into a somewhat undifferentiated defensive tactic, which may simplify engagements more than necessary. Introducing a more pronounced distinction—such as preventing parrying from a block stance and possibly requiring a directional input to parry—would compel less experienced players to adopt a more deliberate approach to defense.

The Role of Spacing in Combat: As it stands, the game's combat system underutilizes spacing, heavily favoring parrying over positional strategy. Making spacing a fundamental aspect of combat would introduce a significant tactical layer, requiring players to consider their positioning meticulously. Reworking enemies to punish predictability and prolonged close-quarters combat would force players to use the entire arena, making every step and swing into a calculated duel.

Utilizing the Environment in Boss Fights: The boss arenas in Sekiro offer scant chances for environmental interaction, a feature that, if expanded, could radically transform boss encounters. Envisioning arenas with embedded strategic elements and interactive hazards would not only make the surroundings a pivotal component in the strategy for victory but also add a layer of depth to each battle, making environmental awareness as crucial as swordsmanship.

Dodging Mechanics and Combat Philosophy: Despite Sekiro’s emphasis on aggressive forward motion and parrying precision, the ability to dodge without limit seems out of sync with the rest of the game’s mechanics. By limiting dodging, players would be nudged towards mastering timing and parrying, aligning more closely with the game’s philosophical underpinnings and heightening the combat challenge.

Visual Cues and the Art of Anticipation: Sekiro leans on visual cues to signal perilous attacks, a choice that simplifies the anticipatory dance between player and enemy. Diminishing or even removing these cues could elevate the combat experience, pushing players to become finely attuned to enemy patterns and tells, thereby rewarding skill and keen observation over mere reaction.

Ranking System for Mastery Recognition: The introduction of a ranking system—evaluating players on damage avoidance, combat efficiency, and minimizing healing—would not only honor mastery but also motivate players to delve deeper into Sekiro’s combat. This system could serve as a benchmark for players, encouraging them to explore and master the game's combat.