I have been playing Souls Games since Demon's Souls first released 10 years ago. I love them to death and have platinum trophied all of them.
When I started Sekiro, I was very skeptical. To be honest, I wasn't even that excited about it, and I only barely remembered to preorder it. I heard it was much harder than Dark Souls, and when I first started playing it, I felt like that was true. Where Dark Souls is all about rolling and shielding, Sekiro is all about stealth and parrying. It was punishing in the beginning, and it took me a while to understand how combat worked.
But boy, let me tell you, once you really nail down how it works this is one of the most satisfying games you'll ever play in your life. I'm about halfway through the game now, and I think I may very well love this more than any Souls game that came before it.
Combat
So, to the reviews complaining that this is more difficult than Souls in an "unfair" way. I understand why it might feel that way at first, but I would urge you to keep in mind that this is a battle system that we haven't seen before. Souls was really well suited for fighting large monsters, but Sekiro was built for one-on-one sword duels. The parrying system is brilliant. Instead of whittling down your opponent's health, you're trying to wear down their posture so you can take down an entire bar of health at once. Posture is a new mechanic that allows you to land a killing or critical hit when it goes down. You and your enemies both have posture, and it will restore itself over time. This means that you can't really fun and hide- you have to keep up the pressure and strike any chance you get. Even if your opponent blocks your attack, it still wears away their posture damage.
Exploration
Sekiro is a very open game. If you enjoyed the exploration aspect of Dark Souls, you'll find that in spades here. Having a character that can jump and grapple all over the place really opens things up, and I was finding so many new, diverging pathways to go down at various points of the game that if I ever got stuck on a boss or mini boss, I could easily take a break from it and try something new.
Another big win for the exploration is that you can now kill EVERY enemy (save bosses and minibosses) in one hit using stealth. This is HUGE. No longer do you need to run through crowds of enemies o avoid the tedium of fighting them all. Even big monster enemies can go down in one hit if you sneak up behind them. And if you're bad at stealth, don't worry. You can stay hidden very easily in Sekiro.
Leveling Up
In Souls games, if you ever got stuck, you could always grind to get more powerful and try again. That's not really the case in Sekrio. In this game, all of your skill points can only be applied to new combat techniques or passive skills that increase your battle capability. If you want more health, you have to kill 4 minibosses. If you want more attack power, you have to kill a boss.
This may sound like a negative at first, but I found it to be a positive. This system FORCES you to learn the combat system, because, honestly, your attack power and health are almost irrelevant compared to how good you are at combat. So long as you can block and parry your opponents (which does get easier, I promise), you'll barely notice how much health you have left. I found myself learning enemy attack patterns and anticipating their moves in ways I never did in Souls games. Every move I made felt like a true counter to their last attack.
The Story
I love the story telling method of Dark Souls, and since Sekiro is more straightforward, I was worried it would lose a lot of that "story without telling a story" that made Souls lore so much fun. I'm very glad that this was not the case. Sekiro does have a more straightforward story, and it's pretty enjoyable. This is due in part because they combined the Souls style of storytelling with classic storytelling. I know what's going on in the world of Sekiro, but there are plenty of clues about the world I can piece together on my own based on the npc dialogue, environment, and item descriptions.
Creativity
Just a small note here. Not all of the boss battles in Sekiro are "battles" I've had a couple bosses now where I had to win through untraditional means, like sneaking through a valley while being hunted by a giant snake, or figuring out how to kill kimono-wearing monkeys in a world of illusion. They add nice variety to the regular combat. Don't worry though, there are still plenty of traitional challening boss fights.
Final Word
Sekiro is very punishing in the beginning. You start with very little health and almost no healing items. But that's not so bad. As you keep going through the game, you'll find it gets easier and easier- not because the difficulty has gone down, but because YOU'VE gotten so much better. If you like Souls games, definitely pick this up and DON'T put it back down just because it doesn't feel like Souls at first. It's not Souls, this is true, but it's every bit as satisfying to master what this game has to offer.
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From the manufacturer
Sekiro Shadows Die Twice Game of the Year Edition
This Game of the Year Edition now includes bonus content*:
- Reflection and Gauntlet of Strength – new boss challenge modes
- Remnants – leave messages and recordings of your actions that other players can view and rate
- 3 unlockable cosmetic skins
Game of the Year - The Game Awards 2019
Best Action Game of 2019 - IGN
Metacritic Must Play
Over 50 awards and nominations
Take Revenge. Restore your honor. Kill Ingeniously
Carve your own clever path to vengeance in the critically acclaimed adventure from developer FromSoftware, creators of Bloodborne and the Dark Souls series.
In Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice you are the 'one-armed wol', a disgraced and disfigured warrior rescued from the brink of death. Bound to protect a young lord who is the descendant of an ancient bloodline, you become the target of many vicious enemies, including the dangerous Ashina clan. When the young lord is captured, nothing will stop you on a perilous quest to regain your honor, not even death itself.
Explore late 1500s Sengoku Japan, a brutal period of constant life and death conflict, as you come face to face with larger than life foes in a dark and twisted world. Unleash an arsenal of deadly prosthetic tools and powerful ninja abilities while you blend stealth, vertical traversal, and visceral head to head combat in a bloody confrontation.
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Sekiro Shadows Die Twice - PlayStation 4
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Sekiro Shadows Die Twice - PC + Steelbook
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PlayStation still charges 59.99 for this. There is no DLC. If you don’t mind having a disk version save yourself 30 bucks. May not be PS5 but it is PS4 pro enhanced. So good enough.
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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 27, 2019
Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 23, 2022
Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Top reviews from other countries
Rachito
No me gustó tanto....
Reviewed in Mexico 🇲🇽 on May 2, 2022Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Razziael
Dont bother if you need your hand held to play games
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 29, 2019Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Cliente de Amazon
Contenido descargable no incluido en el disco
Reviewed in Mexico 🇲🇽 on December 18, 2022Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
christian veinticinco baam
El mejor juego de From Software
Reviewed in Mexico 🇲🇽 on March 5, 2020Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Liam
This game is fun and amazing, but be prepared for a challenge
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 22, 2022Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase