Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Playtime: 42.6 Hours
I have 100%'d 3 FromSoftware games so far. Dark Souls 1, Dark Souls 3 & Sekiro. From this list, Sekiro is by far my favorite of the bunch. It is truly a fantastic game and I want to explain why.
There is usually a formula to FromSoftware games. They make very difficult games (enough to have a genre named after their series), and you are given a lot of different options on how to approach a situation. You have a character that can have multiple different builds and choose from a variety of weapons.
Sekiro doesn't do this. In Sekiro, you have one weapon. A sword. And FromSoftware refined this sort of combat to a T. Boss fights are designed with you using only this weapon in mind, and not various of other crazy weapons that other Soulsborne games usually provide. That being said, there is a sort of variety. You gain skills by levelling up, and you can get everyone of these skills if you kill enough enemies. That being said, it took until the end of my fourth playthrough for that to happen.
But you also unlock a variety of different side weapons that can help you along the way.
I really like how the enemies are handled in this game. 90% of the time, the mob characters are really easy to deal with. If you are stealthy, keep calm and run away from danger, they will never be an issue. It almost feels like I'm playing Assassin's Creed at times where I'm slowly and methodically picking off enemies instead of tackling them head on, and I much preferred this. It meant I was never overwhelmed by a load of enemies and I could focus on getting the bosses as quickly as possible.
Instead of a shield, you must parry with the blade. I really love this sort of combat thanks to the parry being instant, and having the reflexes honed into me after playing MGGR on Revengence mode! No stamina bar meant I could run from Point A to Point B without needing to slow down and it made the game feel more fast-paced.
What this game thrives at, is making hard bosses & mini-bosses. A lot of them are of varying difficultly, and some require changing up your strategy while approaching different enemies. Sometimes you can beat them without dying, but other times, it just feels downright unfair how overpowered some of the bosses are.
Ironically, my favorite boss of this game is the one that gave me the most trouble. It was hard, it was frustrating, and again, felt unfair. I had to bring out all the stops to beat him the first time, +Attack +Speed +Healing +Revive, I had it all. And then you have to fight two bosses back to back with 4 health bars in total!
I'm usually quite quick when it comes to Souls-like bosses. While fighting bosses, I died a total of 109 times. 56 of which were against this boss. But despite the fact I kept losing, I kept pushing on, and the satisfaction of winning never felt so good!
So I have rambled on long enough about how good the gameplay is. This game is very gameplay focused but what about the other aspects?
Story is fine. I mean, it's nothing special, definitely not a bad story, but I wasn't expecting a masterpiece in storytelling in this game. The only real standout moment for me was the bad ending, and it's honestly my favorite ending of the bunch just because of how shocking it is. But while I don't think much of the story, I do really like the characters! Even if they are not on screen, I seem to recall a lot of them vividly. And I do like how they each have their own little side story and they made me really appreciate the world more.
The level design is also phenomenal. I didn't expect an interconnected world when I got this game, but I was very surprised by how much I loved it. Having played Dark Souls 1, I didn't enjoy that aspect of it, mainly because I kept getting lost and having to look up where to go. I didn't have that experience with Sekiro and it was all the better for it. The different locations in this game were visually stunning and it really made me want a sequel to this game!
That being said, this game doesn't need a sequel. It is very good as is, and is definitely worth trying out if you want to test yourself. Even after four playthroughs, I still sometimes get caught off guard by some of the bosses! The game is hard, but once you learn how to play it, it gets easier.
Just give it a try and see what you think!
