[This review was rewritten three times; i was going to originally take my friend's format to make it easier to write, but it got messy...real fast.]

It's been a day since i finished NieR Replicant, and it has been on my mind ever since. My feelings for the game are mixed, and I don't know how to feel about it, I both like and dislike it so much. I bought this game 2 weeks ago but only really played it 3–4 days ago. I expected this to be better, but it's nowhere NieR automata. 
(For this review, I'm going to be comparing this game to its sequel, keep that in mind.)

I think it's best to write positives first rather than start with negatives.

the charcters:

nier replicant made enjoyable characters that feel like living beings, they are many times as interesting as automata's, its not like the characters were terrible in that game, replicant just made them better and i enjoyed even the side characters like facade king or the mailman, the redbag couple, the little shade at the shipwreck, even the characters that make bad choices are amazing

the story:

in my honest opinion, automata made a better story, apart from the characters, but that doesnt mean replicant didnt make something interesting, its unfair to compare the sequel to replicant because that one has got so many endings (27 or 28 i think) and ending E itself leaves you to wonder and think, while this one didnt hit as hard , still this game has a good story, the only gribe i have about the story is the fact that most side quests dont include story and serve as a way to earn coins, side quests should include small bits of story, or fit the theme of the world around them, the way to they compensate with that is making you read the neir books, many things in this game lore wise are left behind for no reason, its sequel does have books dont get me wrong, but there is so much lore in the side quests it makes me, a side quest hater, love automata side quests, speaking of..

side quests:

THESE SIDE QUESTS ARE SHIT, worst side quests in gaming, as said, side quests should give you something more than coins, these ones are boring and are grindy for no reward, and include no story, and guess what, the only reason you need to do these is because you need all weapons for all endings, whoever decided this was a good idea in the remaster, fuck you, in a game made in 2010, maybe, but the remaster is crazy, and no, i disagree with the people saying, when you replay you get a whole new prespective on the "villains"/"bad guys", yes but replaying anything with extra scenes is BORING, automata did it with ending B but it gave you more levels in place of other levels, and it actually gave you another prespective on the story. Good thing cheat engine were a thing fr 💯

music:

The music in this one didn't hit; most tracks don't have the same atmosphere as Automata's, and that's okay since the game is much more colorful and takes place in a magical land, but it sucks since my favorite instrument, the violin, is used heavily in that, replicant not so much. After listening to the album after playing the game, i could confidently tell you, 4 tracks hit, let me list them right now.

the prestigious mask
Shadowlord's castle / memory
Shadowlord's castle / roar
(I literally can't find this one, it's in the junkyard inside; it's really daft punky, sounds like aerodynamic by daft punk electric guitar solo; I LOVE IT; vocals suck though.)

the gameplay:

i am surprised to say that the combat isn't my main talking point here, i didnt love it, but i didnt hate it, its just that it has not impact, none of my weapons feel like they have a hit on my enemies, and none of my enemies attacks have an impact on me, i think i died 2 times because of the fact that i die without knowing im getting hit, because the sound design SUCKS, but no the combat okay, the enemies and level design are uhhhh... yeahh no, most levels are annoying to traverse and battle in, i dont know specifically what has done that but its deff the way that most levels are boxes, with more enemies, and repeat, nothing is interesting in them, and also, the enemies in replicant are either one of the two

don't hit you at all.
spam annoying moves
(Honorable mention: those flying birds that have magic barriers should kill themselves now)

i did not enjoy it that much, but it's okay. I would take it over DMC 3 💀

pacing:

I know this is a sub chapter in story or writing, but the pacing in Part 1 IS SO BAD, it's boring, its shit, nobody talks about it for some reason, the cope is insane, i fucking hated it, i started this game like 2 weeks ago and procrastinated most of it until the Emil chapter, when it got so much more interesting, It was boring, nier as a child was boring, Kaine and Wiess were cool, but holy shit, i hated when i had to do it again in ending E.

Speaking of endings, this is where i get assassinated.

ending(s):

Put yourself in my shoes for a second, The game didn't click at the start, the osts didn't hit as much, the combat wasn't ight, you were delaying the game for 2 weeks, playing for 20min each time, i know part 2 hit better, i know the osts got better, but the fact that it click with me at the start, made rest of the experience worse, dont get me wrong, ending E was cool but, take automata for example, ending E in automata wasnt what clicked, it was the whole game that clicked AT ending, ending E saved replicant but it doesnt mean its 5 stars just for cool charcters and an ending, this game sadly wishes it was its sequel but it isnt

update: its a 4 star, the story carries so hard its crazy
update 2: 3 stars, after disccussing this after my friend finished it with me, its alright, maybe not a 4 star tho

"Hesitation is defeat."

A simple quote from Isshin The Sword Saint, yet quite impactful for me even though some players might find it annoying because they hear that hundreds of times.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is one of the games from the souls series and it's usually known as one of the hardest in the series if not the hardest. People says playing it as your first souls game would be a 'never ending nightmare'. I mean, I guess they are not wrong, but it's a bit exaggerated. I am one of those players that has never played souls games before Sekiro. I went to this game completely blind without knowing anything besides people telling me that it's a difficult game. I honestly didn't 100% believe them at first, but I changed my mind when I first encountered 'Chained Ogre' miniboss because that's when my suffering started. I'm not a great gamer. I mean, I'm not a professional in any games and never really want to. I just play and finish them, but sekiro pushed me beyond that.

Sekiro is the only game that has pushed me to my very limit and that is exactly what made it so special for me. I have never been this happy fighting the same boss over 50 times. I have never been this happy being stuck in the same section for 6 hours straight. Sekiro's challenges are difficult, but they are all refreshing each times. They didn't add the quantity of the enemy to make it harder, but they design the challenge itself to be different and somehow difficult each times. Each enemies, mini-bosses, and bosses are all different. There are the calm ones, aggressive ones and you can't beat them with the same tactic you used in the previous challenge. You have to memorize the rotation, the rhythm, and the most important thing is to believe yourself A.K.A. do not hesitate. I didn't mean you gotta be careless. The key is do not be afraid to keep trying and face these challenges. That is the only way you can get the message, the fun, and the satisfaction from the game despite being defeated hundreds of times. The satisfaction when you beat the boss is unmatched until you meet the next boss and die 50 times again, but believe me it's all worth it when you finish the game.

The combat is -without doubt- the best combat mechanic I have ever played so far. The mechanic is actually not complicated. It's either you attack or defend yourself. In most games, dodging is always the main defense to overcome enemy attacks, but in this game it's a bit pointless most of the times. There are 4 ways to overcome enemies' attacks in this game and those are deflecting, blocking, dodging, and jumping. You can't use the same method to overcome these attacks because each of them has a different method. Blocking works good enough especially to get to know about enemy's rhythms, but you still can't rely on it. The game will punish you if you do that because there's this thing called posture bar. Posture bar will grow each times you get attacked including when you block and deflect them. When the posture bar is full, you will get stunned and it will create an opening for enemy attacks. The only way to protect your posture is by deflecting. You will still get posture damage, but when you deflect the attacks perfectly, the posture will never break and you can easily recover the posture by moving away from the enemy. You need time to get used to deflecting. It's not easy. Well you can easily deflect normal enemies in the early part of the game, but the game will get harder so don't be proud yet because you deflected like 3 attacks from a regular enemy. Obviously it's not easy to master and players need time to get used to it, but even if they get used to it, it's still difficult to be flawless. It's not really necessary to be 'flawless', but it makes the game even more satisfying and entertaining to play.

The combat itself is already hard to master, but the suffering doesn't just stop there. I talked about 'punishments' earlier in the last paragraph and now I want to talk about it more. The punishments doesn't just stop in the combat. The punishment also presents outside the combat. Every time you die in the game, it will give a punishment called 'dragon rot'. 'Dragon rot' is a disease that affects NPC around you and it is spread every time you die. It doesn't really punish you directly, but you will get a few effects from it, for example some side quests will be locked. Other than Dragon rot, your money and XP will be decreased every time you die. Yeah it does sound scary and that is why I said this game pushes its player to their limit. The players have to be careful with their decision and at the same time they also have to be brave to face these challenges.

Every game has its own highlights and for Sekiro, it's the bosses. I don't think there's a bad boss/mini-boss fight. The worst is just decent or mid like the blazing bull and folding screen monkeys. Besides those two, the bosses are all well designed and I think each bosses have at least one thing to be praised. Favorite boss fight? To be honest, I'm still not quite sure which boss fight is the best, but I will name a few that is memorable for me: Genichiro (inner), Owl Father, Demon of Hatred, Isshin The Sword Saint, and The Guardian Ape. Each of these bosses took hours to beat and I didn't even mad about it. I simply enjoyed each defeat and learned to be better in the next attempt. They are all so challenging and fun and I will never get tired of them.

Even though I love the game, there's one thing that I didn't give it enough appreciation when I finished it which is the plot and its lore. No, before you assume anything, I followed the story and watched every cutscenes, but I never really "invested" because of how complicated it was for me. The satisfaction that I got from this game at first only came from the gameplay. I thought to myself "maybe there's more to Sekiro than just gameplay", so I watched the lore videos. After watching a few lore explanation in youtube, I can confidently say that I knew nothing about the game. The things that I thought I knew was wrong or 'not quite right'. Sekiro has a massive and complicated lore, but once you managed to digest it, you will appreciate Sekiro more than just 'a difficult game with amazing combat'. The writers of Sekiro needs more appreciation of how much efforts on putting the details in the game whether it's from the dialogue or items. What makes it cooler is that, everything that is in the game has its own story. For example, there is a reason why a certain place has a certain loot/item in it. The game didn't put those loots/items based on RNG, but those items have their own story and the same goes for each NPCs. It's still hard to explain the lore, but I understand it way better now.

Sekiro pushed me to my limit and by doing that it taught me to be a better person. "Hesitation is Defeat" is not a mere quote for me. I use that quote in my everyday life and heck even it's my motto now. Because of this game, I am able to overcome most of hesitations I get in real life. I get to be more active and productive because I stopped hesitating. Yeah this sounds cliché and cheesy for you to read, but I didn't made it up or exaggerating it. I love this game because of its challenges and how they taught me to not hesitate, to not greedy, and to be patient.

Saying Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is 'amazing' or 'fantastic' is an understatement. I still don't know which word in english dictionary that can fully describe my love for this game. Of course Sekiro is not NieR duology, but it still manages to be one of those games that I incredibly love as much as I love NieR games and it's just surprising. I am definitely looking forward to other souls games now. I heard all of them are difficult so yeah I'm excited to suffer again in each of them!

i would rather kill myself, this game walked so sigma 2 could run

just like another reviewer said, you cant compare this to mgr, bayonetta, even dmc3 (that i hate) since its clunk city, geneuinly hard to play, felt deppresed fr

also the camera made me wanna kms...

played this, way better than the first one in every aspect

still got that clunk to it tho, why cant games just allow dodge offset like bayonetta??, or atleast being able to cancel attacks to dodge or parry

this has hack and slash elements but it still doesnt truely feel like one, still not as dogshit as the first one tho

the bosses were annoying asf, like all of them

when you look at this series from an outside perspective and you hear what the fanbase is saying you think this is the best video game franchise of all time but its utter trash, sad to say i prob wont play 3, since not even the fanbase likes that one

its joever