I had tried Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice once before on PS4, and quickly bounced off of it, mostly due to the steep learning curve that punishes you for playing it like Dark Souls, and quite frankly the performance and load times on PS4 did not help the situation. Jump forward about a year and I’ve finally started and finished it front to back on PC.
As I said, it’s hard to not go into Sekiro not being stuck in the so-called “Dark Souls brain”, where after four Souls titles, Bloodborne, and for me, Elden Ring, all of which play incredibly similar and sort of wire your brain to their unique eccentricities and gameplay styles, Sekiro comes in and expects you to throw all your knowledge and experience out the window. Yes, it shares many elements of the Souls titles – Sculptor’s Idols are bonfires, the world laid out in distinguishable zones with difficult boss fights at the end, the overall dark fantastical tone of the world, and the subtle purposefully vague story (though Sekiro is more of a straightforward plot than any of the Souls titles).
However, the real change is Sekiro’s approach to gameplay and combat. This is not an RPG, you cannot change your build up or grind up some levels to make encounter easier. Your options are to simply fail at your objective, or learn the new combat system. Every Souls game has a certain level of forcing you to engage with the game’s mechanics to improve, but none more than Sekiro. It is quite simply, a game of adapt or die.
And it is so, so incredibly worth pushing through the difficulties and hardships of the first few hours. For most players, it “clicks” around Lady Butterfly or the first (really second) encounter with Genichiro. For me it was the latter. Once you grasp the full spectrum of your arsenal, from perfect deflects, your wide selection of ninja tools, combat arts, the rock-paper-scissors style system of knowing when to block/parry/dodge/jump/Mikiri counter, and perhaps most importantly, knowing when to swing your blade and when to simply just block a hit and get out to reset the flow of battle. When you’ve got all your abilities and tools going at once, Sekiro is borderline a character action game with the amount of options you’ve got.
Genuinely I cannot gush about the combat system enough, it’s really that good. Once it all clicks and you’re in the deep end fighting the harder/late-game bosses like Owl and Isshin, it’s a spectacle to see all you’ve learned come together in a beautiful display. Funnily enough, Isshin himself tells you the key to victory in the early stages of the game – “Hesitation is defeat.” It really all comes down to confidence, the second you hesitate, you’ll spiral into a series of mistakes that end your attempts prematurely, and most of the game is growing and learning in order to gain that confidence required to win. In none of the other Souls games do I find the boss fights to have such a sweaty, hand-shaking intensity to them, nor do I find the same immense level of satisfaction.
Combat aside, the game’s levels are designed immaculately, fun to explore with rewarding finds around every corner. The game is absolutely incredible looking, with the most beautiful vistas and intricately cool location designs outside of maybe Elden Ring. Sunken Valley, Senpou Temple, and Fountainhead Palace stand out as incredible, memorable locations. A staple of director Miyazaki, Sekiro brilliantly mixes a sense of grand beauty along with a tragic, disturbing tone. Additionally, Sekiro’s hordes of regular fodder enemies are also fun to fight, with a crazy amount of work and detail poured into even the most basic of enemy. Everything is way more complex than you’d think and it adds a lot to the experience.
Sekiro has more “setpiece” style sequences than any of the other games, thanks to its much more linear design. Standouts for me were sneaking past the giant serpent in the Ashina Depths, narrowly avoiding the maneating koi fish in the Fountainhead Palace, and using the umbrella shield to cross a rickety bridge in the Sunken Valley while blocking dozens of riflemen unloading on you.
I will admit I have a couple gripes with the game even after finishing everything it has to offer – primarily I think the need to refill your resurrection charges is a little obnoxious. I understand not being able to spam resurrect, that would defeat the purpose of the game, but if I deathblow a boss, it should fully refill the next charge. I had all three resurrection charges, but more often than not I’d only get to use one in a boss encounter, even after deathblowing multiple phases. A minor gripe but I found it problematic more than once when a full charge would’ve gotten me a victory I was mere inches from without.
The main story and cast I found interesting and endearing, but I found the game’s various NPCs and their questlines to be sort of forgettable. I liked Hanbei the Undying and Blackhat Badger, but even their quests felt kind of unsatisfying. The rest of the NPCs I either completed their quests without even realizing, or just missed entirely. The Souls games frequently have really cool memorable characters, so this was kind of disappointing in that regard outside of the main core cast.
Outside of those admittedly minor gripes, I have pretty much almost nothing negative to say on Sekiro. It’s incredibly brutal, unforgiving, and punishing, but at the same time one of the most satisfying games I’ve ever conquered. And it genuinely does feel like an accomplishment – I did the Shura ending on NG+ and I completely blew through the first half of the game in a fraction of the time it took me initially. You watch yourself in real time get better and better to the point you can run circles around bosses that you struggled against and turn challenges into nothing more than obstacles in your path. What an awesome feeling it is.
In short, Sekiro is unsurprisingly, another fantastic title from FromSoft – it is not a Dark Souls title and it is not an RPG. It is a brutal, fast paced action game more akin to something like Ninja Gaiden, and it requires your full attention and focus in order to improve and conquer its most difficult challenges. It is incredibly difficult, rarely frustrating, and wonderfully satisfying.
As I said, it’s hard to not go into Sekiro not being stuck in the so-called “Dark Souls brain”, where after four Souls titles, Bloodborne, and for me, Elden Ring, all of which play incredibly similar and sort of wire your brain to their unique eccentricities and gameplay styles, Sekiro comes in and expects you to throw all your knowledge and experience out the window. Yes, it shares many elements of the Souls titles – Sculptor’s Idols are bonfires, the world laid out in distinguishable zones with difficult boss fights at the end, the overall dark fantastical tone of the world, and the subtle purposefully vague story (though Sekiro is more of a straightforward plot than any of the Souls titles).
However, the real change is Sekiro’s approach to gameplay and combat. This is not an RPG, you cannot change your build up or grind up some levels to make encounter easier. Your options are to simply fail at your objective, or learn the new combat system. Every Souls game has a certain level of forcing you to engage with the game’s mechanics to improve, but none more than Sekiro. It is quite simply, a game of adapt or die.
And it is so, so incredibly worth pushing through the difficulties and hardships of the first few hours. For most players, it “clicks” around Lady Butterfly or the first (really second) encounter with Genichiro. For me it was the latter. Once you grasp the full spectrum of your arsenal, from perfect deflects, your wide selection of ninja tools, combat arts, the rock-paper-scissors style system of knowing when to block/parry/dodge/jump/Mikiri counter, and perhaps most importantly, knowing when to swing your blade and when to simply just block a hit and get out to reset the flow of battle. When you’ve got all your abilities and tools going at once, Sekiro is borderline a character action game with the amount of options you’ve got.
Genuinely I cannot gush about the combat system enough, it’s really that good. Once it all clicks and you’re in the deep end fighting the harder/late-game bosses like Owl and Isshin, it’s a spectacle to see all you’ve learned come together in a beautiful display. Funnily enough, Isshin himself tells you the key to victory in the early stages of the game – “Hesitation is defeat.” It really all comes down to confidence, the second you hesitate, you’ll spiral into a series of mistakes that end your attempts prematurely, and most of the game is growing and learning in order to gain that confidence required to win. In none of the other Souls games do I find the boss fights to have such a sweaty, hand-shaking intensity to them, nor do I find the same immense level of satisfaction.
Combat aside, the game’s levels are designed immaculately, fun to explore with rewarding finds around every corner. The game is absolutely incredible looking, with the most beautiful vistas and intricately cool location designs outside of maybe Elden Ring. Sunken Valley, Senpou Temple, and Fountainhead Palace stand out as incredible, memorable locations. A staple of director Miyazaki, Sekiro brilliantly mixes a sense of grand beauty along with a tragic, disturbing tone. Additionally, Sekiro’s hordes of regular fodder enemies are also fun to fight, with a crazy amount of work and detail poured into even the most basic of enemy. Everything is way more complex than you’d think and it adds a lot to the experience.
Sekiro has more “setpiece” style sequences than any of the other games, thanks to its much more linear design. Standouts for me were sneaking past the giant serpent in the Ashina Depths, narrowly avoiding the maneating koi fish in the Fountainhead Palace, and using the umbrella shield to cross a rickety bridge in the Sunken Valley while blocking dozens of riflemen unloading on you.
I will admit I have a couple gripes with the game even after finishing everything it has to offer – primarily I think the need to refill your resurrection charges is a little obnoxious. I understand not being able to spam resurrect, that would defeat the purpose of the game, but if I deathblow a boss, it should fully refill the next charge. I had all three resurrection charges, but more often than not I’d only get to use one in a boss encounter, even after deathblowing multiple phases. A minor gripe but I found it problematic more than once when a full charge would’ve gotten me a victory I was mere inches from without.
The main story and cast I found interesting and endearing, but I found the game’s various NPCs and their questlines to be sort of forgettable. I liked Hanbei the Undying and Blackhat Badger, but even their quests felt kind of unsatisfying. The rest of the NPCs I either completed their quests without even realizing, or just missed entirely. The Souls games frequently have really cool memorable characters, so this was kind of disappointing in that regard outside of the main core cast.
Outside of those admittedly minor gripes, I have pretty much almost nothing negative to say on Sekiro. It’s incredibly brutal, unforgiving, and punishing, but at the same time one of the most satisfying games I’ve ever conquered. And it genuinely does feel like an accomplishment – I did the Shura ending on NG+ and I completely blew through the first half of the game in a fraction of the time it took me initially. You watch yourself in real time get better and better to the point you can run circles around bosses that you struggled against and turn challenges into nothing more than obstacles in your path. What an awesome feeling it is.
In short, Sekiro is unsurprisingly, another fantastic title from FromSoft – it is not a Dark Souls title and it is not an RPG. It is a brutal, fast paced action game more akin to something like Ninja Gaiden, and it requires your full attention and focus in order to improve and conquer its most difficult challenges. It is incredibly difficult, rarely frustrating, and wonderfully satisfying.
3 Comments
Same fav boss fight too! A lot of boss fights here in Sekiro feel challenging, but not to the point of insurmountable. There's a clear curve yeah, but I think once you get enough of the mechanics and what not to do down, the game's strengths really flourishes. The "hesitation is defeat" line really nails what you shouldn't do. Where aggressive(but safe) style of play is important to learn and maneuver your way past a bosses patterns. Almost becoming a puzzle, but not really where you have to find the right moment to attack then evade, counter and repeat for the right opportunity. Wonderful review!
Thank you!
Jacob
9 months ago