My Thoughts — Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

A Review of My Experience

Game Description

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is an action-adventure game developed by FromSoftware, the creators of notoriously difficult, but culturally beloved titles like Demon’s Souls, the Dark Souls trilogy, and Bloodborne. The game is published by Activision. Centered around the protagonist Wolf, the shinobi watchdog of a mystical young lord, the story of Sekiro spans several decades of events and seems to focus most heavily on the topics of war, loyalty, greed, and immortality. The setting is a fantastical version of the Sengoku period of Japanese history. With a hybrid approach of both tactical stealth and expeditious melee combat, the game provides a versatile, but incredibly difficult experience to even gaming veterans. Due to diverging story paths based on player choices, the game requires a minimum of four playthroughs to fully experience all of the content.

Story

First and foremost a story is nothing without the characters who act it out. Sekiro’s cast of central characters is interesting, and each seems to be independently realized in their motivations for participating in the current climate of the game’s narrative. Unfortunately the ways in which you can interact with these characters or help them further their goals is quite limited. As is generally tradition with FromSoftware titles, the story seems to take a backseat to the gameplay. Most of the exposition is told through the descriptions of items and overheard by eavesdropping on conversations. There are story cinematics, but these are in majority only triggered during a handful of plot milestones. Even most boss encounters are engaged seamlessly with no cinematic interruption at the start or end.

I got every ending, absorbed every bit of dialogue, and read the description of every item I could get my hands on. While all of this information and lore did help me make greater sense of my trials and accomplishments as they fit into the story, I was left feeling a bit unsure about a few things relating to the politics and factions of the game world. It is very possible that I overlooked a small detail that ties everything into a neat bow, but I don’t think FromSoftware has ever been about neat storytelling. I think they like mystery, and upon reflection, so do I. What gives this particular story the most weight is not the abundance of micro lore connections, but rather the human relationships you observe and participate in over the course of your adventure.

While these relationships and interactions can range from extremely thought provoking to cliche, I think the most interesting relationship is the one between Wolf and Kuro, the young lord he has sworn to serve and protect. It is nothing like titles such as The Last of Us, God of War, or any other parental simulator. The relationship between Wolf and Kuro is an infrequently explored dynamic of inverted authority between child and adult. You exist to serve Kuro and fulfill Kuro’s desires. Wolf may not have depth of personality, but what he has is something much more important; clarity of purpose. There is no confusion in your mission, and every swing of your sword and near-death experience feels truly symbolic of your commitment to your role as a loyal servant. Through all the struggle and the suffering you push forward because you have a job to do, and gave your word that you would do it.

My least favorite character was probably Owl, the great shinobi, and father figure to the protagonist. His purpose felt mundane and cliche, but I guess some might consider it timeless for how frequently it gets repeated across media. I don’t want to spoil his role in the story for any of those who haven’t got the chance to see it for themselves yet, but suffice it to say I found this character to be one-dimensional and not properly humanized, or even adequately elaborated on. I wish this character would have seen more exposition, because I actually really liked his introduction in the opening cinematic as well as his visual design. Perhaps FromSoftware will release DLC that further explores and adds complexity to his character, but perhaps not. Time will tell.

If I was pushed to rate the story I would say it was just fine. It wasn’t incredible or inspiring. It wasn’t terrible or poorly written either. I actually liked the dialogue and the fragmented exposition style of narrative. It is my honest opinion that most players will probably remember the gameplay much more than the story itself, and that is okay. Not every narrative needs to be grand in scope or extremely memorable. Sometimes less is more, but maybe too much less can be a bit disappointing. Sadly Sekiro seems much shorter in length than any other recent FromSoftware game and, if you are able to dispatch baddies quickly, the pacing is almost too rapid. Luckily for the average player the high difficulty makes it feel longer, but the difficulty might be too demanding for most of them to finish the game once, let alone the four times necessary to view every ending.

Gameplay

As can be expected with FromSoftware, at least as far as my tastes go, the gameplay of Sekiro really delivers. Let’s start off with the combat since that is the system through which the Sekiro experience is felt most deeply. First thing you will realize is that you are extremely fragile, and that combat, to your thrill or your detriment, ends relatively quickly. This constant sense of vulnerability really raises the tension by maximizing the consequences of every mistake. The resurrection feature definitely offsets this by providing players with something of a do-over if they make too many. My two favorite elements of the Sekiro combat were the introduction of Posture, and the versatility of defensive options.

Posture is really cool and honestly I hope this or a similar feature sticks around in their future games. It functions as a sort of secondary health bar, which when filled up, will cause you to stagger and become helpless for a few seconds. It offered much more freedom compared to their previous Stamina system. When you fill up an enemy posture bar you can kill them outright, or in the case of some tougher enemies, reduce their vitality by the remainder of their current vitality bar. The flexibility of approach, what seems to be a core design principle in Sekiro, really seems to shine here. You can go hard aggressive and try to burn down both of the vitality and posture of your enemy simultaneous, you can focus on speed and opportunism and whittle down the enemy posture, or you can take a defensive stand and defeat your enemy through a sequence of blocks and deflections only interrupted by singular attacks when the opening becomes available.

I really felt totally in control of my combat experience and finding viability in shifting between these modes mid combat was satisfying, but nothing felt more satisfying than successfully performing a long string of perfect deflections. It feels more satisfying to press the block button in Sekiro than in any game I have ever played. For that matter, every defensive option felt like it gave me incredible agency in an otherwise oppressive fight. Whether that meant a narrowly successful directional dodge to evade an enemy slam, jumping over an enemy sweep and slashing their face, or forcefully interrupting the thrust of an enemy weapon using the Mikiri counter, it was all awesome. Combat in Sekiro just felt increasingly good the better I got at it. It also looks pretty cool when you can start using the grappling hook to execute dodges too. Against one particular boss I felt like I was Spiderman, flying from tree to tree while I waited out the enemy’s attack.

The introduction of stealth mechanics added a lot of versatility as well, and perhaps even more than that it added immersion. I’ve never felt like a ninja as much as this since playing through the Tenchu games. Whether I was skulking through the shrubs, stalking prey from the rooftops, or lurking patiently below the floorboards, it all made me feel like an unseen predator. I was sprinting into combat, backstabbing my mark, and disappearing through a cloud of their “Bloodsmoke” only to patiently await the dropping of guards to return for a second strike. It opened up a whole new world of tactics when it came to enemy engagement and disengagement. Which enemy will I take out first? How many are looking toward my mark? Are they stationary or on patrol? How many can I kill without alerting the others? These questions stuck with me all game long and it was actually fun to strategize over them.

Some of the downsides of Sekiro’s gameplay were that I didn’t really encounter many fights that demanded experimentation with items or prosthetic tools. With a few exceptions it made them kind of feel like an afterthought. The Firecracker prosthetic in particular seemed to be incredibly strong, and I might recommend the Spirit Emblem cost be increased to make it a tad less abusable. I personally avoided using it, but if you are struggling there is no shame in repeatedly popping off firecrackers to get in some free damage. Speaking of the Spirit Emblem system, I hope something similar sticks around in future FromSoftware games. It functions as Sekiro’s consolidation of the various types of ammo in the Dark Souls series, similar to the Quicksilver Bullets in Bloodborne, but less one-dimensional. Collecting and keeping track of different ammo variants in games has never been fun to me and I prefer only needing to manage the singular resource. Any reduction in tedium is good and Spirit Emblems are very easy to replenish.

A few other good departures from their previous designs involve fair reductions of tedium and punitive practices. In previous titles one ledge walking mishap or ill-conceived leap of faith meant going back to a Bonfire or Lantern. This time it is much more forgiving and you only lose a portion of your vitality, but you may still die from a fall if you don’t have enough vitality to spare. When you combine this change with the huge mobility of sprinting and the grapple hook, which each help you get back to where you died at quickly, you save a lot of time and spend it actually enjoying the gameplay. The fast travel system, this time called Sculptor’s Idols, has seen a minor quality of life adjustment. The interface feels much cleaner and I have an easier time quickly finding the exact location I am looking for in the menu without excessive scrolling or trying to remember which headstone to use like in Bloodborne.

Some may disagree with this, but I also think removing the ability to accidentally attack NPCs and ruin their quest lines is a step in the right direction. I really appreciated in the realm of quality of life adjustments was the quick loot system. Instead of having to walk from body to body you just hold a button and watch the spoils of war come directly to you. Last quality of life adjustment I liked was the perilous attack indicator to inform the player ahead of time which attacks are not able to be blocked. Mistakes you make have dire consequences, and it is nice to have a slight warning before the opportunity to make a really big mistake arrives. I like that it gives you a warning to react, but doesn’t give you so much time that you don’t still have to be mentally alert and ready to go. It felt fair and with plenty of other information tracking to do between vitality, posture, gourd count, and so on, not having to track subtle body language cues to anticipate these attacks was nice. You still should pay attention to those things, but it is a bit less devastating if you forget to.

One thing I absolutely did not like was the punitive nature of the skill system. The more skill points you have spent the more experience is required get the next one, and the game rewards you for hoarding your points by making them easier to accrue in bulk early on. This creates a gigantic tedious grind for anyone unaware of this fact who desires to unlock every skill. You also lose a percentage of your experience on death so if you die too much it can be very difficult to make progress in unlocking skills in the late game when the additional experience requirements are working against you. I actually hated this and I feel like it could easily be resolved with either introducing a skill point banking system through items or an NPC, or by providing the option of purchasing points directly, or in item form, for a high cost of Sen. Either that or lower the rate at which the experience requirements increase, because I think it is a bit silly when most of the skills don’t even provide serious advantages or improvements to the player.

Content

As I previously mentioned, the game feels a bit too short, especially when you become a more efficient killer. I think a big part of this has to do with the increased mobility and how much more quickly you can travel the game world. I just wish there were more unique areas to explore and more bosses. It kind of felt like a rip off that, of a certain two large enemies, one is dispatched in a single scripted deathblow sequence and the other isn’t even actually fought. These could have been actual boss fights and I felt a bit let down after finding out they were not.

I personally felt a huge problem for the content of Sekiro is found in diversity. The first failure of diversity is found in the fact that of a whopping thirty-five miniboss encounters, about half of them felt like they were outright duplicated or barely more than reskinned. Most of the redundant fights just were slightly harder versions with more vitality and, if you were lucky, one or two new attacks. This felt kind of lazy. Even a handful of the actual bosses were just slight variations of previous encounters. This is definitely an area where the Soulsborne series put Sekiro to shame. Despite my criticism, I still found a lot of fun and challenge facing off against the bosses and minibosses they did include.

Another diversity problem can be observed in the area of female representation. Of those thirty-five minibosses I mentioned a moment ago, only four are woman. Two of the four are so covered up you wouldn’t know one way or the other, and one belongs to a clan of warriors the game itself describes as inhuman. Meanwhile there are five seemingly duplicate undead minibosses. If excluding mini bosses there really aren’t many more female characters in the game at all, and certainly very few that engage in any kind of combat. I’ve had a few people tell me, “Look, it’s the Sengoku period, there probably weren’t many females in positions of power back then,” to which I reply, “I doubt there were monkeys with guns or undead monsters either, but that didn’t stop them from including those.” It’s a fantasy game and I think it would have been cool to fight against more badass ninja women.

One area of content that I did like a lot was the distribution of prayer beads. I like any game that uses clever design tricks to encourage the player to explore. Sekiro does this best by literally limiting your potential vitality if you don’t. Players, especially those who are struggling, have an incredible incentive to check every nook and cranny of the game world to collect those precious beads of longevity as well as gourd seeds, which greatly increase their success odds against any given boss. I do feel like there could have been a few more secret rooms and areas hidden in the game to reward the especially curious, but that is less of a general complaint and more of a personal desire.

The environments were another area of design that got reused and repurposed, but while at first I felt an urge to complain about this, I realized I actually enjoyed seeing the world transform more drastically over time. I enjoyed that aspect of Bloodborne too, how after defeating bosses the game world would progress forward in time and some enemies would change their behavior or locations. Sekiro takes this to a new level even having specific minibosses only become available after certain plot milestones. There is also one boss battle toward the end of the game that is fought in a familiar arena, and it adds an entirely different feel to that spot than you get the first time through. I do hope any DLC they release contains more original environments and not just memory rehashes of previous areas.

This leads me to my next point of contention. The Buddha statue is a mechanic in Sekiro that is horrifically underused. It exists entirely to access Hirata Estate. It’s probably a good candidate to access DLC, but it could have had much more purpose than just being a portal to a single environment. One of my ideas to make it more meaningful would be to allow players to re-fight bosses as much as they wanted so long as they held the memory remnant item for the boss in their inventory. Not only would this add a cool way for players to enjoy some favorite fights without needing to dedicate an entire extra playthrough, but it could also serve as a more advanced practice environment for players who have learned everything Hanbei has to teach. I am sure speed-runners would appreciate this kind of practice environment a lot too.

Aesthetics

I can’t even begin the conversation about aesthetics without going back to how amazing it feels to deflect enemy attacks. The animation difference between a regular block and a successful deflection is so visually stimulating. It makes me feel good about my successful defensive actions, and the sound design of the metal weapons clashing just pulls me into a state of immersion. The sound design in general was very well put together. It made combat feel more engaging, stealth feel more sneaky, and the gushy sound of your sword successfully striking an enemy was rewarding in its own right. No game has ever made me enjoy pressing both the attack and block buttons so much. I loved to play Sekiro with my lights off and the sound up to just absorb all the stimulus coming from the game. It was a great experience.

Spoilers contained in the next paragraph detailing the encounter with the Chained Ogre miniboss.

A great example of how the sound design adds to the immersion and adrenaline of combat can be found in the battle against the Chained Ogre miniboss early on in the game. At first he gives defeated cries and grunts like he wants to escape his confinement, but isn’t quite desperate enough to pull it off yet. Then as you, a strange shinobi, approach him, it’s as if you can see his fight or flight response kick in as his cry transforms into an angry desperation. Then you hear it, the crashing sounds of his wooden prison being smashed apart. Listen to his grunts as he tries to hit you with some of his attacks which I can only assume he learned during his time as a professional wrestler in the WWE. You feel his immense weight as his giant body falls into the earth when he does a drop kick attack. The cool thing is the sounds of every fight greatly contribute to the experience. Strong sound design is a big part of my love for FromSoftware games and Sekiro carries the torch beautifully.

Yuka Kitamura did an incredible job on the music compositions. Some of my favorite tracks are “Conspiracy” and “The Owl.” I won’t spoil where to hear them in game, but they add so much dramatic tension and I love them. Picking a singular track to call favorite is impossible for me, because all of the music is simply fantastic. If I had to describe it in two words I would say mystique and urgency. It accented life and death moments, it encapsulated the danger and uncertainty of exploration in the game world, and it gave a new dimension of life to every moment. Whether I was around Ashina Castle, Mibu Village, or the gorgeous Fountainhead Palace, the music always seemed to be in lockstep with my emotions and perceptions of the environment. If you are interested in hearing some of her compositions from previous FromSoftware games I highly recommend “Velstadt, the Royal Aegis” from Dark Souls II OST and the hauntingly beautiful “Secret Betrayal” from Dark Souls III OST.

Apart from the amazing music I also really loved the environment designs. The Japanese architecture and scenery was so refreshing and dynamic. Environments like bamboo forests, frozen cliffs, and mountain temples were very cool and really played to the historical and cultural fantasy of the setting. One environment I mentioned earlier was Fountainhead Palace and, even though I already noted its beauty, I can’t not comment on the incredible lost city vibes. I would compare it closely to my experiences in the Uncharted franchise where each game has this awestruck moment of finding this mythological, isolated place filled with enchantment and unique allure. Arriving at Fountainhead Palace was itself a quirky and charming spectacle, but exploring it was nothing short of a treat. I could really get lost in the world of Sekiro, and perhaps my frustration with the game’s brevity stems more from a lack of new locations to explore. I wasn’t ready for the game to be over.

The aesthetic design in every area of Sekiro is inspired. The passion of the developers is visible in every meticulously crafted detail. FromSoftware has a reputation for strong world building and that reputation has been validated once again. If you are a fan of action games with rich detail and original worlds then this is a good game for you. With the exception of games like Nioh and the unreleased Ghost of Tsushima, I haven’t really seen these Japanese style settings be featured in many recent titles. After playing Sekiro and getting to appreciate the scenery I think my interest in playing those other games I mentioned has actually increased. Perhaps most important is the fact that I actually felt compelled to learn more about the history of Japan and the real Ashina clan of the Sengoku period. When a game is challenging, fun, and makes me want to learn, to me that is a winner.

Closing Sentiments

From the moment Sekiro was teased I could not wait to play it. I love action adventure games, I love FromSoftware games, and I absolutely love “difficult” games. I love a challenge so much so that sometimes simply playing games on the hardest difficulty just isn’t enough. I have to fabricate additional restrictions for myself to heighten that rush of satisfaction when I manage to get through despite my self-imposed limitations. For Sekiro this was quickly decided to be that I would beat the game without resurrecting once. As a veteran Soulsborne player who has unlocked the PlayStation Platinum Trophy in every title except for Demon’s Souls, I was going into Sekiro pretty confident. Then I actually started playing and things changed.

The difficulty is high and I died a lot of times despite my experience level. I tried to play it too much like it was a Soulsborne game and had to relearn a new mentality for approaching the combat before it started to feel easier. I really think Sekiro is the most difficult of all FromSoftware games in the beginning, but after you pass a certain point of upgrades and understanding it quickly becomes the easiest. Once you get a feel for the rock, paper, scissors nature of combat, enemies start to feel more like puzzles than fights. For the average player Sekiro is going to test their patience and their emotional resilience when getting stuck. I recently wrote another article about why I feel FromSoftware should start including an easier difficulty to make their games more accessible to players of varying ability and skill. Until they elect to do that I just want to warn anyone interested in this game that while it is incredibly satisfying to reach the end, getting there will be a constant uphill battle.

I hope next time around they add a little more love to the NPCs. They felt relatively shallow, and despite having great character design, I think FromSoftware could have done a better job giving them stronger and more active story lines. I also hope, in the event there is a sequel, they consider limiting the amount they allow themselves to duplicate and reuse certain types of content. The direction of design they have gone in with Sekiro is overall very good and I feel like I got my money’s worth and then some. If they do end up dropping some DLC I am almost certain I’ll be buying it. If that DLC does not include a Tomoe Esoteric Text item that teaches me some cool new lightning skills, well, I’ll just have to save those thoughts for a future write-up. Until then I can definitely say that I have fallen for Sekiro hard enough that you can still hear me screaming, “Roberrrrrrt!!”

After my first resurrection-free victory I decided to keep going and to not use resurrect until doing so was all that stood between me and the Platinum Trophy. I kept pushing myself to be better and every playthrough I learned new things that I had not noticed before. I don’t know if I am the first person to complete this kind of no-resurrection Platinum Trophy run, and knowing the FromSoftware community I am probably not. Even so, it was an incredibly satisfying journey. I am eagerly looking forward to any announcement of DLC so I can return to Sekiro for another bout of high-intensity masochistic ninja fun, and for another dose of Japanese historical fantasy and cultural beauty. Hidetaka Miyazaki, you and your entire team have my thanks for producing another great game.