Sekiro: How I learned to stop worrying and love losing I haven’t ever written a long-form review before, but I thought this was worth it. Please forgive me if I ramble a bit. The first paragraph has the tl;dr. ------------------------------------ I have a confession to start off with. I’m a From Software fanboy. I started playing their games with Demon’s Souls way back in 2009, and I’ve been hooked ever since. I almost cried when I found out Bloodborne was a PS4 exclusive (I will never forgive Sony for that). So, there was approximately a 100% chance I was going to buy Sekiro on day one, and a 0% chance I could write an unbiased review of it. I promise I will try to keep the gushing to a minimum, but if all you want is the TL;DR version, rest assured I will end this review by telling you to drop everything and buy it immediately. ------------------------------------ Intro: Still with me? Cool. So, to start with, the last couple of games I’ve played this year have been looter/shooters. One is decent, and the other was a huge disappointment (you know who are are). Either way though, I started those games off basically knowing how to play them. Shoot this guy, melee that guy, skill those guys, run here, pick up shiny thing number 347, rinse, repeat. So shooty, so looty, so cover-dashy. Good time-killers, but meh. I needed something to really sink my teeth into; to get the blood flowing right. And then I found out Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice was coming out last Friday. I bought it instantly. And I have not regretted a single second. By now, if you keep up with games, you probably know the deal with a From Software game. They’ve become legends in the last few years for their uncompromising approach to gameplay. No hand-holding here. They’re hard, but fair. You have an objective and some tools, so go get to it. No complaining. In broad terms, Sekiro is no different. Like every FS game, this one will absolutely, guaranteed, flatten you into the ground when you start playing it. There is no day-one skill; you are going to get destroyed, frequently. What makes Sekiro so special is FS’s general approach to death, and more specifically, Sekiro’s perfection of that approach. Dying is never a losing state. There are no game overs, checkpoints are frequent, and consequences are few (there is a story cost, but you can manage it with an item). Get up, dust yourself off, and try again. Story: So broadly speaking, this is an action adventure game. It’s Sengoku period fantasy Japan, and you are a shinobi in the service of a local lord. He carries the Dragon’s Blood, giving him the power to resurrect the dead – at a rather terrible cost to everyone else. A feud between local clans has sprung up, and your lord has been kidnapped. Disgraced, you must track him down, rescue him, and restore your honor. It’s honestly the same story as Mario. There is a ton of lore hidden in items and overheard conversations, but the prince is in a castle, go get him. Moving on. Sound: It has music, and that’s all I’m willing to attest at the moment. I would have preferred some traditional Japanese music to go with my traditional Japanese setting, but no dice. Sound is on point though. Swords bang against each other, footsteps are… footstep-y. Enemy special attacks have a sound to tell you they’re coming. It’s good, but I ain’t a sound artist and this ain’t what I’m here for. Moving on. Visuals: They would have looked amazing 2 years ago. They’re good, and the visual cues for everything are spot on, but it’s not the cutting edge of graphics tech. The snow is nice though, and the environments are pretty. Gameplay: Here we go. So, in broad terms, Sekiro is a ninja game. Sneak around a corner, shuriken that dude over there, stick 3 feet of steel into this guy’s spinal cord. You know the drill, right? When you’re first starting its Assassin’s Creed with a Japanese guy. Then a mini-boss shows up (there are a lot of them) and oh boy, how wrong you were. Suddenly, sneaking doesn’t work. It’s time to fight. And it’s time to see what is probably the best-designed combat system I have ever seen. I’m not exaggerating here (maybe a wee bit). Hmm… I think I’ll hold the block button and observe this guy for a sec- oh god, why is 9/10ths of my health bar gone? Guess I’ll try jumpi – nope, he can swat me out the air. And I’m dead. Try again. Okay, this time I’ll parry instead of blocking. Hey, that’s not too hard! Okay I got this, oh crap, he can jump 10 feet in the – and there goes my health bar again. Try again. Okay, parry that attack, jump over that attack, sidestep that one. Hey! I got this! Shove a sword through his throat. Blood everywhere. I win. That’s is the thing about fighting. It’s FAST. And it’s fluid. A fight plays out almost like a rhythm game. Attack – parry – jump – sidestep – riposte – kill. Screw up, and it’s back to the checkpoint with you. But while every review I read is talking about how brutal the fights are, no one I’ve seen has mentioned how forgivingthey are. You have the power to resurrect yourself a single time after every death (twice with a charge). You can literally pop back to life 3 feet away from the guy that just killed you and try again. Die one more time, and it’s back to a checkpoint. But even that isn’t an issue. Checkpoints are rarely more than a minute or two away from a boss, and mini-bosses don’t respawn. Just go back and try again. From a more mechanical sense, the objective isn’t just to whittle an enemy’s health down, it’s to break their posture. Perfect parries break a lot, and attacks break a little. Missing a parry will likely still block, but now your posture is down instead. Hitting them directly lowers their ability to recover from future attacks. Fighting is a tightly choreographed dance of attack, defense, and maneuver. Once their posture is open, you can kill them with a single, massive attack (bosses take two). And it’s the best damn feeling a game has given me all year. And that’s the thing about Sekiro. It’s brutal, and uncompromising, and it’s dense. But it’s fair. There are no levels. You can gain stat points (of a sort), but only by beating mini-bosses and bosses. There are items, but they are aids, and are not really necessary. With each challenge presented you are at exactly the level you need to be at to beat it. This game will pound you into the dirt, but no one wants you to succeed more than the game itself. You die, and it reaches down, dusts you off, and says “It’s okay, man. You got this. Just try again”. If you have any interest in action games, you seriously owe it to yourself to play this one. 9/10
If you didn't like the approach to combat in Dark Souls, this does a good job explaining the difference. https://www.pcgamer.com/sekiro-is-a-perfect-subversion-of-everything-dark-souls-has-taught-me/
