[Impressions] Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

If you think you know Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice because it’s a FromSoftware game and you’ve played your share of SoulsBorne games before, then you’re going to get beaten to a pulp by this new IP. While all that training with stamina management and tactical combat will still help you, this game, as a whole, is fundamentally different from the classic series.

For starters, Sekiro is fairly story-centered, compared to Dark Souls and Bloodborne. Right away, there are cutscenes with dialogues, instead of monologues, to set the tone for the world you’re about to enter, as well as the character you will be in control of, Wolf. Surprisingly, he knows how to talk. For the story set-up, instead of being about a never-ending cycle, it’s about Wolf recovering his kidnapped master.

Now, if the game starts with a story cutscene, then the first time you take control of Wolf is equally unexpected. You’re unarmed, having to sneak your way through an entire area until you’re given a weapon. Then, fast-forward a bit and you’ll wake up in what will be the Firelink Shrine of this game, that is, the hub to which you'll keep coming back. Again, this differs from the traditional SoulsBorne hubs, because in this case there’s a single path forward and you'll come back to improve your left arm prosthetic and Estus Flask- I mean, Healing Gourd.

Now, you set on your journey to recover the master and Wolf quickly sets himself from previous Undead and Hunters. If it wasn’t clear enough during the tutorial, this protagonist is a lot more agile than usual, throwing his prosthetic arm’s grappling hook left and right to reach the top of buildings or to quickly climb walls. But this is not the full extent of the artificial limb: with his trusty katana on the right hand and a swiss knife for a left arm, Wolf is not to be messed with. Between axes, spearheads, flamethrowers and who knows what more, Wolf is a pretty brutal samurai.

However, the world of Sekiro is equally brutal to the player. There’s no way to upgrade stats or equip different armor or weapons. The only option is to, once in a blue moon, use a special item dropped by bosses and mini-bosses to improve health and attack. Thus, combat, which is already difficult as it is, paired with virtually no options for improvement of your stats, can feel like banging your head against a wall, when you either “git gud” or die trying.

What about combat then, why is it so tough? For a combination of reasons: it requires more precision and timing than what we’re used to in Souls games and there’s absolutely no way to guard against attacks (such as shields). Guarding with your sword is barely an option, because taking consecutive attacks drains your posture. And so, we get into the topic of posture, which is sort of the replacement for the traditional stamina. Both you and your enemies have a posture bar which fills up the more attacks you take. If the bar completely fills up, the defender will most likely suffer a death blow: super satisfying to execute, but almost certainly a death sentence against Wolf. However, the game is not called Shadows Die Twice for nothing. You can resurrect yourself once per “life”, which gets you back into action with some recovered health. To put it in a simple way, Sekiro’s combat is all about mastering posture, which includes learning enemy attacks so that you can parry them, fill their posture bar and land the finishing death blow.

Though, combat is not just about direct combat. Surprisingly, stealth is extremely efficient and clearly emphasized the environment design. Why drop down to the ground and face enemies head-on and risk dying a quick death when you can climb a tree with the grappling hook and land an aerial assassination? Or hide in the tall grass and kill enemies one by one, leaving the tough area in the area for last? Not only is it satisfying to execute, but it’s also extremely useful and, to certain degree, mandatory.

Sekiro is quite hard, period. As I’ve mentioned, unlike in the SoulsBorne games or RPGs in general, there’s not really a way to improve your character unless to keep improving your own skill has a player. Combat revolves around precise attacks, striking when the enemy falters and being brave to parry incoming attacks to create openings yourself. But, it’s hard. No matter who you’re up against, exchanges of attacks require perfect timing and missing either a defensive or offensive opportunity will surely cost you a lot of health.

All in all, Sekiro is a brutal game so far. While at first you imagine this will be another SoulsBorne entry because FromSoftware’s name is attached to it, I do think it’s much closer to Nioh. Sekiro is not as methodical or tactical as a Dark Souls game, rather, it’s all about mastering the systems and putting it into practice. However, even if it takes the technicality of Nioh’s combat and the atmosphere of Dark Souls/Bloodborne, it brings to the table its own ideas: stealth and dedication to the player skill, disregarding almost completely RPG mechanics. To wrap it up, after eight hours of playing I’m left wanting to play more. The game doesn’t know what it means to hold back, but I enjoy improving myself as a player and, as a consequence, seeing Wolf become a much better samurai.

Below I leave the links for two fights I recorded:

Boss fight

Mini-boss

#sekiro #impressions #2019 #ps4