Well, well, well...just when I thought I was finished with a certain game by the acclaimed game developing team that brought you Dark Souls and Bloodborne (i.e. From Software) I've decided to give it another go. And yep the game in question is Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
Now, I've already done two posts on this game alone and in both of them, I expressed my disappointment over the game and how I felt it didn't live up to expectations as I even gave Sekiro a second chance and again I just didn't enjoy playing it. However...I decided to give Sekiro one more chance to see if I could get into it but only this time I bought it on the PC instead of the PS4 and I will say more about why in a bit.
So has my opinion changed??? Well, let's find out!
So as this is essentially a review update, I will still mention a bit about the story, so here is the usual warning...
PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
STORY (By the way this was taken from the Sekiro Wikipedia page)
"In a re-imagined late 16th century Sengoku period Japan, warlord Isshin Ashina staged a bloody coup and seized control of the land of Ashina from the Interior Ministry. During this time, a nameless orphan is adopted by the wandering shinobi named Ukonzaemon Usui, known to many as Owl, who named the boy Wolf and trained him in the ways of the shinobi. Two decades later, the Ashina clan is on the brink of collapse due to a combination of the now elderly Isshin having fallen ill and the clan's enemies steadily closing in from all sides. Desperate to save his clan, Isshin's grandson Genichiro sought the Divine Heir Kuro so he can use the boy's "Dragon Heritage" to create an immortal army. Wolf, now a full fledged shinobi and Kuro's personal bodyguard, loses his left arm while failing to stop Genichiro. As he received the dragon’s blood from Kuro three years prior, Wolf survives his wounds and awakes in an abandoned temple. In the temple, he meets the Sculptor, a former shinobi named Sekijo who now carves Buddha statues, and Wolf finds that his missing arm has been replaced with the Shinobi Prosthetic, a sophisticated artificial arm that can wield a variety of gadgets and weaponry...".
And its from here where Wolf (or Sekiro as he is later known) must start his dangerous journey to try and rescue his kidnapped lord and get revenge over Genichiro...
THOUGHTS
Well...so after my initial disappointment with Sekiro on playing the game I just found it too difficult and punishing to warrant playing by the time I had reached the Genichiro boss I had felt pretty frustrated and deflated by the game. The second time round I tried the game (bought it again on the PS4) but perhaps rather foolishly I decided to start playing it where I left off as I kept my PS4 save files and I ended up feeling the same way as I failed to make a dent on Genichiro and on trying to tackle a mini boss (a human centipede one) to get some extra prayer beads.
However...this time round I purchased the game for the PC and the reason why is because I decided to try out a game mod that would make Sekiro an easier experience. Now, I didn't try this mod straight away and played the game up to a point where I felt frustration creeping as I failed to get by that pesky Blazing Bull mini-boss. So after some trouble I finally managed to load in one of the easy mods (perhaps the first one was a bit too easy!) and not before long it transformed my opinion of the game as it suddenly became a far more enjoyable and accessible experience.
Now I must admit I am cheating a bit here by playing an easier mod of the game but to be fair I have loaded in a mod that has eased the difficulty level but not to the point where the game is no longer challenging as I am still dying quite a bit in this version and have had my struggles with some bosses. However I think what is more important is that thanks to this mod, it has changed my opinion of the game and I am happy to say I now think that Sekiro is a very good game with plenty going for it. In fact this mod might even encourage to go back and have a go at the game in future at its standard difficulty (although I might regret it!).
So with that said, I am now enjoying the game mechanics more, the combat, the story lore (well to an extent!) aswell as the number of unique items that can be found and used in the game also. And it just shows you that just maybe Hidetaka Miyazaki (the director of the game and the Soulsborne games) should have incorporated an easier mode to ensure that players can it enjoy the game more rather than rely on using PC mods to achieve this.
GAMEPLAY (This section will be split into sub-sections just so you know!)
Before I start just to explain as the playable character in the game is referred to as both Wolf and Sekiro, he is later referred to as Sekiro, so for the purpose of this post, I will refer to the character as Sekiro and try and use the game's full title or an abbreviaton to avoid confusion!
Well, as for the gameplay, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice while it has its differences to the Soulsborne games, it stills shares the same non-linear structure where you can explore different areas rather than having to fight each area in succession. The game also shares similarities to the SB games such as healing and check points, as here in Sekro SDT and I will go into more detail on them below.
COMBAT
However that aside, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice does largely depart from the Soulsbourne formats in most other respects and this is especially the case regarding the combat because here instead, Sekiro will use his katana to attack an enemy's posture (or their poise) and continue until its broken and then Sekiro can perform a deathblow attack to finish them off. However this will vary when it comes to the boss fights because Sekiro will be required to perform at least a couple of deathblows to finish them off as they have larger health pools. Sekiro can also deflect attacks from enemies but this does of course come with a penalty as they can also break Sekiro's posture to land an attack of their own. Sekiro can also perform stealth attacks and sneak through areas to takedown enemies from behind or from above.
SKILLS
Sekiro will also throughout the game earn XP points for taking down enemies and based on these points, he can upgrade his skills and these tend be a mixture of defensive and offensive skills and the number of points he can gain will increase as he progresses and kill stronger foes. Also as Sekiro progresses in the game, he can earn more points and enhance his skills and he will access them from the idols he travels by. These skills are a mixture of combat arts, which you can swap out as you gain more of them (but you can only use one at a time) and other techniques known as latent arts that affect different abilities such as Sekiro's stealth abilities. Also from the skill tree, Sekiro can even increase the amount of spirit emblems he can hold as well as boost the amount of health his healing gourd can restore.
TOOLS AND ITEMS
Sekiro similar to the Soulbourne games, has its own share of tools and items to be found throughout the world. Starting with the tools, well you may notice of course Sekiro only has one primary weapon which is his katana but once he obtains his prosthetic arm, he can pick up a number of accessory weapons that can be attached to the arm to help him take down his enemies. As an example there are Shurikens, which are ninja stars that Sekiro can throw at enemies, flame-vents, which are used to set enemies on fire, loaded-spears, which Sekiro can stab foes with them and loaded-axes, which again Wolf can use to stagger enemies to help him land a deathblow. He also can access other tools such as umbrella shields that can deflect enemy attacks or absorb elemental damage such as lightning or fire.
There are also plenty of other items in the game that are of much use such as different sugars that when Sekiro consumes them, he will gain different boosts such as reduction in physical/posture damage or an increase in his attack power. Other items include balloons, which when Sekiro crushes them will again provide different abilities such as receiving more gold from fallen enemies, or increased chances of getting discoverable items held by enemies also.
ENEMIES, MINI BOSSES & BOSSES
As for the game's enemies, they are mainly comprised of a mix of humans, beasts, ogres, apes, lizards, dogs and many, many more. The human enemies tend to be members of opposing Samurai clans and tend to attack you with katanas, spears, torches, bows, guns and even canons. The mini bosses however tend to be a bit more unique in that there are so many to be found in the game and they tend to have either one or two health bars, which involves Sekiro landing successful deathblows to finish them off. These mini bosses can vary in difficulty with some being very easy whereas others can be very tough to beat.
As for the main game bosses however they have larger health bars and can have up to three at the most and pose a greater threat to the player. And this game has its fair share of challenging bosses and despite even the game mod I used, I still struggled BIG TIME on the final boss, Isshin, the Sword Saint, who was absolutely brutal to fight and it took me 74 attempts over 3 days to finally beat him! So, I think its safe to say that FromSoftware finally came up with a truly challenging final game boss after their previous final bosses had lacked such a high level of difficulty.
PERILOUS ATTACKS
Bosses and standard enemies can also perform perilous attacks that deal out a lot of damage, which Wolf cannot block however he can counter them with a skill move (Mikiri counter) either that or he will have to jump back to avoid them. Perilous attacks are identified by a red kanji symbol just as the enemy performs the attack and its recommend that Sekiro dodge the attack just as the symbol fades to stand the best chance of evading it.
IDOLS, VITALITY AND POSTURE
Moving onto the game's travel system, which are the idols that are very similar to the bonfires and lamps that were used in Souls and Bloodborne as Sekiro will find these idols throughout the game's world. The idols similar to the bonfire and lamps in SB games, act as checkpoints for the player and will restore Sekiro's health fully aswell as his health items. At the idols, Sekiro can also upgrade his skills, his vitality and his posture (same as poise in Dark Souls) aswell as purchase Spirit Emblems that are used to utilise his prosthetic arm's tools and determines how many uses he can have of each tool.
As for Sekiro's vitality and posture, these can be upgraded gradually throughout the game but in order to do so, Sekiro will have to fight a number of mini bosses to do so as he will obtain items called prayer beads that will let him increase both these stats. Wolf will also need to obtain four beads that form a prayer necklace to upgrade his vitality and posture by one level and there are 40 beads to be found throughout the game. Sekiro's vitality bar can be found on the bottom left of the screen whereas his posture bar is on the bottom centre area of the screen, which will fill up as he is attacked and reduce as it recovers. The boss health and posture bars by contrast are found at the top of the screen.
RESSURECTION AND DRAGONROT (Warning: this next section is kind of a spoiler!)
Another aspect of the gameplay is of course connected to the title where Sekiro can actually die...twice which means if he is killed once in combat, he can be ressurected once more before finally dying and the ressurection stat can be fully replenished whenever Sekiro rests at an idol. His ressurection status is shown down below his health bar and is indicated by two circular nodes that are cancelled out after Sekiro has died once but they can be refilled after he kills so many enemies or a boss.
However there is a big penalty that can be incurred if Sekiro keeps dying and that is dragonrot, which is an illness that certain NPCs in the game will contract as a result of Sekiro's repeated deaths. Wolf however can cure the dragonrot via the use of blood droplets and he must do this to ensure that the NPCs recover and he cannot proceed with their quest lines until he does.
GRAPHICS AND MUSIC
As for the graphics, well this is easily From Software's best looking game to date as Sekiro is stunning game visually speaking and the environments are both rich in detail and varied as Sekiro traverses many different areas such as temples, sewers, dungeons, open fields and of course fortresses. The character models are also pretty good although they are primarily better for the main characters but not quite so good for some of the enemies in the game as they can tend to look a bit goofy! But overall this game is very easy on the eyes in terms of its visuals.
Moving onto the music, the game is scored by Yuka Kitamura, who worked on the Soulsborne games aswell and overall its a pretty good score, which to its credit sounds very different to the scores we are familar with in the SB series. The score however doesn't quite scale the heights of the very best soundtracks in the Soulsbourne universe but it is still a fine one all the same and its mini-boss theme alone is well worth listening to even if it is overused in the game! That aside there are also some pretty good boss themes such as the ones for the Guardian Ape, Lady Butterfly and Isshin the Sword Saint.
FLAWS
As for flaws...well despite having changed my opinion on the game from last time, Sekiro it has to be said still has some worth mentioning.
For starters I would have to say that the game's main issue for me is its fairly steep learning curve in terms of difficulty as it is a pretty punishing game overall (hence why I downloaded the easier mod lol!). Also because its strictly a solo game with no means for any other players to join you in the fight, you are forced to beat the game alone and given the stern challenge presented by the game's bosses, mini bosses and standard enemies, its a daunting task to undertake and one I had found initially very off putting.
Another issue is maybe to do with the whole setup of the game as you are very limited in terms of building your character's stats as all there is available is your vitality and posture as well as your resurrective powers (based on how many enemies you kill or when you reset the world at an idol). Now to be fair, Fromsoft here did decide to go with a skill tree system where you can unlock many different attacks and defensive maneuvers and that does offer some variety to the combat in the game.
Then we get to the consumable items as there are simply too many of them to be found in the game and similar to some of the Soulsbourne ones that can be pretty useless! As an example one of the most common pickups from fallen enemies are ceramic shards, which you can use to attract the attention of individual enemies (similar to pebbles in Bloodborne) but here they aren't that effective at drawing your opponent over to you.
Further to this point, I found that there are some items that would have been better if you had more supply of and as an example I wish you could have access to more pellets in the game at one time rather just three, which I think is not enough. And the funny thing is there are some items such as antidotes, dousing powders for example that you can use five times at once but you can't with the pellets, which is a bit annoying.
Another issue is to do with the lack of availability of certain items in the game early on and only later in the game do you end up getting them more regularly such as divine confetti, which is essentially for taking on certain bosses in the game. However, divine confetti is only available in limited quantities until you fight one of the main bosses later on and by then you really wish you had those supplies by then! To be fair divine confetti is farmable from certain enemies in the game, so its not too bad in that regard.
Another big problem I had with the game was to do with the mini-bosses as there are simply too many of them and some of them are pretty challenging, which I admit is to be expected in a From Software game. Now quite a few of these bosses are optional but they are also fairly essential to getting prayer beads to upgrade your vitality, which means you need to keep fighting them over and over until you have defeated them in order to get just one bead! So, if you want to farm up to get the beads you could be in for a frustrating time if you want to do so.
However sometimes the mini bosses can be a complete joke and barely even deserve having a boss HP bar to begin with, especially one boss called the Mist Noble, who you can defeat in a matter of seconds! So the challenge pendulum does swing both ways I guess from extreme difficulty to extreme ease.
I also had an issue with quite a few of the NPCs in the game as majority them really don't have much in the way of personality or character with the exception of maybe the odd merchant and the Sculptor but there are no real standouts in this game like there are in Soulsborne games. Here there is no equivalent of Solaire, Patches, Siegward or Eileen the Crow and that's a pity. Further to this, while I do think its good that From Software finally gave a playable character a voice and more than one expression (well.. maybe not!) I felt that Sekiro has barely any personality either and gives nothing but gruff, concise responses. Its like Fromsoft tried to have a go at a playable character with a voice but decided to keep it along in line with their idea of creating a blank one that does little more than fight.
Another niggle I had with the game was to do with when Sekiro dies the first time during a boss battle or standard enemy combat you get the choice of letting him die or resurrect. Now I appreciate the "die" option is there if you have had enough but I still think that is an option that shouldn't be included and I will tell why. So, the reason why I think the "die" option isn't a good idea is because during a couple of boss fights I accidentally pressed the "die" option button (L1 on the PS4) and it simply ended the fight when I didn't want it to! So, I just think it would have been a better idea to have simply give you only the one option to "resurrect" and keep on fighting as you will be pretty annoyed if you accidentally hit the die button and were in the middle of a decent attempt at a boss.
Then there is a problem to do with how when you fight mini bosses and if you run out of the area you fight them in, their health bars with automatically reset! Now, this happened to me in the Chained Ogre mini-boss fight as I had removed one of his health bars with a deathblow but tried to distance myself from him a bit and when I came back into the area, his health had fully reset itself again! And it also even happened again later in the game when I fought the Sichimen Warrior boss (and more on him in a bit!). So, while I do appreciate it the game will reset the boss's health if you run far away from the fight, its still a bit of a cheat if you give a little distance and have already taken away one of their health bars!
And last but not least another big complaint I have with the game is to do with one of the damage stats you suffer from in Sekiro and that is terror. Yep, terror is this game's answer to what curse was in Dark Souls and frenzy was in Bloodborne except its way more annoying! And the way terror works is very similar in that enemies that deal out terror damage, it causes your terror meter to build up and when it does, Sekiro instantly dies. Now I can appreciate that From Software wanted to include an insta-kill mechanic like curse and frenzy to Sekiro but I think they really abused it here, especially with the annoying Sichimen warrior bosses who dish out elemental terror attacks non-stop and it makes fighting them a real pain in the ass! So, for me terror is a game mechanic that Sekiro could easily have done without.
Anyway that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So, to sum up this updated review, I have to say that I have now changed my opinion on Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and I no longer see it as a disappointing game but instead a really entertaining, intense and gripping one that is well worth checking out. And I think simply by trying out the game on the PC using a slightly easier mod got me right into the game and it pitched the difficulty level just at the right place for me, which made me appreciate the game much more.
And yeah OK it might sound like I'm cheating myself of the original punishing experience of the game's standard difficulty but believe me the mod version I am currently using is still pretty challenging and the only real difference being that enemy damage you take isn't quite as severe as you would in the standard game. So, for me the game now feels a lot more balanced and I still wouldn't say no to going back to try it at its standard difficulty in future.
Sekiro of course also has its own bonuses such as its beautiful visuals, intriguing Japanese setting, I also like the idea of the combat simplified down to using just one primary weapon rather than having almost too many weapons to choose from like you have in the Souls games. The game's combat is also pretty intense and very challenging and the prosthetic Shinobi tools are also a pretty neat touch. I also even like that the game gives you the choice to start new game plus rather than force you to start it after you having defeated the final boss in the game (which you are forced to in the original Dark Souls and Bloodborne).
Another thing I quite liked is that From Software FINALLY gave players an option to PAUSE THE GAME while you were in the middle of fighting or at any point while playing for that matter! So, this alone is another plus for Sekiro.
So, I am happy to conclude this review by saying that Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is now a game that I really enjoy and would gladly go back to replay it in the future. Is it as good as the Soulsborne games? In my opinion the answer to that would still be no as Sekiro still has its work cut in trying to better those incredible titles that came before it. It certainly has gone up in my estimation though and while its not a masterpiece it is a pretty damn good game and that's enough for me.
Right, so that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post.
Till then its bye fer now!
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