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 )
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 )