The story actually carries this game so much. Honestly great. Falls apart a lot in the gameplay aspect, since it’s basically the same as the other games, just with a couple of new abilities which don’t really add much to the experience. The missions can get super repetitive when they decide to constantly throw 50 basic enemies at you just to pad out the game. I at least appreciate that they toned down the side stuff and actually made it more fun. It made going for the platinum much less of a chore than the first game.

I wasn’t expecting the game to change up the formula much, but they could’ve done so much more with the gameplay and mission structure to make it more engaging. A little disappointing, but still probably on par with the other games.

About as hit and miss as it gets. I appreciated the message and elements of the execution of this quite a bit, but it gets weighed down heavily by some pretty poor writing. The constant “fake deep” dialogue, mainly from the main character, made my eyes roll most of the time.

Really wasn’t a fan of the gameplay at all either. It takes a lot of inspiration from P.T. (definitely threw a few references to it throughout the game) with its walking sim horror gameplay, except they decided to throw in a bunch of shitty chase sequences, which became kinda frustrating by the end. This two hour demo has about 6 chase sequences with basically the same environment and monster that chases you.

Graphically, the games environments are absolutely stunning, almost photorealistic at times. The art direction really makes for some memorable shots as well. A lot of care was obviously put into that aspect.

I was getting hopeful that the game was going to switch it up and move towards the more occult-based story that the first and third games focused on. You begin finding articles referencing witches and curses, however, it doesn’t amount to anything other than making the protagonist question the suicides that the game is centered around. Ultimately, that aspect doesn’t get explored at all.

Overall, a little bit of a disappointment. Apparently Konami themselves developed this, which makes me a bit concerned that this is the direction they are hoping to take the franchise. I still have some hope for Townfall and f though, as they have some strong names behind them, so I’m praying that they don’t take the surface level approach to psychological horror that this game/demo did.

So so close to perfection. Perhaps the most consistent lineup of bosses in any game I’ve played. The combat is easily the best and most satisfying I’ve ever experienced, demanding your focus and mastery for near enough every enemy you come up against.

About 2 years ago, I attempted playing this game and reached the Guardian Ape fight, which ended up making me quit the game due to how frustrating it was to fight at the time. I finally decided to commit to finishing the game front to back this time, and am so glad I did. Up to that point in my initial playthrough, I struggled so much with Genichiro and obviously the Guardian Ape fights, yet when I returned to the game, they felt like a walk in the park, Guardian Ape especially. Something about the combat just clicked with me and I felt really comfortable and confident with it… until the first Owl fight. That was a BIG reality check. It took me a solid 10 attempts, which isn’t too much, but it was a definite struggle learning all of his moves. But then, the Owl Father fight arrived and again proved that I wasn’t even close to mastering the combat. This fight is so awesome and so difficult, but if you really take the time to learn all of his moves, it becomes one of the most engaging boss fights ever.

I watched plenty of videos of Sekiro before returning to beat the game, and one of the most common aspects of those videos was how difficult they claimed the Demon of Hatred fight was. Honestly though, it’s not even that bad! Took me 3 attempts. Literally just hug his arse the whole time and use the fire umbrella if you ever feel at risk, it’s pretty simple. Another boss that has the same reputation though, is Isshin. Oh boy, this fight is fucking brutal. I can safely say this lived up that claim, even topping Nameless King as the hardest boss I’ve ever fought. I should’ve beat this damn game 3 weeks ago, but this fight beat the shit out of me so much that I had to take a massive break. Then I came back and smashed him on my 4th attempt! One of the most intense and thrilling fights ever. It is incredible. My only complaint is the thrust attack felt extremely inconsistent to avoid. In total though, I probably had 30+ attempts at this fight.

I would absolutely love to give this 5 stars, but I’ve got to complain about the lack of replayability. Sure, it would be cool to keep playing and truly master the combat, but the lack of build variety makes this a little bit boring for me personally. This is obviously just me though, so I can completely understand people who say this is the best fromsoft game, and would be very hesitant to argue with that. I’ll definitely look back fondly on this first full playthrough of the game.

Maybe one of the most bloated games I've ever played. I really don't understand why they felt the need to extend a third of the original game out to a 30+ hour game. It feels like it wants to waste your time at points. Many of the chapters could have been cut in half easily. I was actually enjoying the game quite a bit for the first half, but the combat isn't nearly enjoyable enough to keep it engaging throughout the whole thing, especially with how spongy a lot of the enemies and bosses are.

A lot of what made the original game so iconic was its open world design, which for some reason was completely taken out in this. I think the linearity holds this game back quite a bit. There is a lot of side content that you can do between some of the missions, but most of it is kinda bland and doesn't offer significant enough rewards for it to feel worthwhile in my opinion.

Slightly disappointing, but I'm still interested in seeing what the second entry offers, considering they've actually brought back the open world design for that.

It's quite rare that I feel compelled enough by a roguelike to actually complete it, but I really enjoyed a lot about this game. The core gameplay is super fun and satisfying, with a ton of variety in enemy design to keep things interesting. Weapons are very varied as well, but only like half of them are actually viable choices. The electropylon weapon is so far above everything else though. It can straight up melt bosses without you even needing to aim properly lol.

I think the game is far more engaging in its early stages compared to later on however. Learning all the enemies and the fundamentals of the maps are very fun, and the first boss was the only one that really gave me any difficulty. That being said, the bosses on the whole are very solid in terms of visuals and spectacle, but most of them don't really pose much of a threat, the final one especially, which was quite disappointing.

Also, I feel like it was a really odd choice to have the game "finish" after act 2, when it doesn't really offer much of a conclusion at all. I would definitely advise people to finish act 3 if you want to get the most out of the story. Even then though, it's still very confusing and not explained particularly well. I did love most of the storytelling in the game though. There's lots of super interesting and surreal storytelling methods used and it really made me want to keep playing, even when I felt like the game was getting a bit repetitive towards the end (a common problem I have with roguelikes).

Waaay too long. Had a lot of fun with this for the most part, but really started to feel fatigued around the half way point. Combat just doesn't have enough variation to be consistently entertaining. The writing also leaves a lot to be desired. Still though, I have a lot of appreciation for how much passion went into this. The pixel art is truly beautiful and the developers obviously love and understand a lot about the games they took the inspiration from. Just a shame they didn't do too much to separate themselves from those old school JRPGs.