Getting Punched in the Face and Liking It
Introduction
Released in 2019 by FromSoftware, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is the gaming equivalent of running a marathon after getting your leg caught in a bear trap. Directed by gaming’s favourite sadist, Hidetaka Miyazaki, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice takes much of its inspiration from some of the man’s previous works, mainly Dark Souls and Bloodborne.
Plot and Setting
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice takes place in Feudal Japan, particularly in the severely war-stricken fictional land of Ashina. Unlike most games directed by Miyazaki, this one places you in the sandals of Wolf instead of being a custom-made abomination created by players’ strange intentions. Wolf is the bodyguard and most trusted shinobi to Lord Kuro, the divine heir of Ashina.
While attempting to flee for their lives from the forces waging war, Lord Kuro is betrayed and kidnapped by the Ashina Clan who intend to abuse his powers of immortality to turn the tide of the war in their favour. Wolf tries to defend his master but loses and gets his arm sliced off in the process. Now equipped with a new prosthetic arm endowed by the power of plot convenience, Wolf must save the young living MacGuffin. Little does our hero know, Lord Kuro blessed him with the gift of resurrection, the power to come back from the dead after being slain.
It comes as no surprise from a FromSoftware game that the world of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is bleak. Yet, this time around, the game has you play through the events of Ashina’s downfall and even be a part of it, rather than just picking up the pieces; an unusual twist from the developer known for making their players construct their own plots with the little information provided.
In another departure from the studio’s schtick, Sekiro actually has a fully realised plot with clear objectives, a massive improvement from the Bells of Awakening quest from Dark Souls. Despite its change to its narrative structure Sekiro still retains several FromSoftware tropes within its DNA. The ability to turn death into your bitch and return from it as if passing through a revolving door has always been a hallmark of the company.
Characters and Performances
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is the first FromSoftware game in a long time with a fully voiced protagonist. Wolf is loyal to the prince he guards and the code he follows and is conflicted about what choices to make. Noshir Dalal’s gruff voice, the lack of expressions from the character himself, and the animation clues to his uncertainty in combat show that Wolf is currently in a very dark place.
On the other end of the big boy energy spectrum, Isshin Ashina and Lord Genichiro, portrayed by André Sogliuzzo and Ray Chase, respectively, sound a bit too eager to deck people in the face. Lord Isshin sounds too enthusiastic about pretty much everything, whether it is fighting enemy ninjas or drinking sake. He is a nice change of pace to everyone else’s sombre characters. Genichiro, on the other hand, does not share the same fondness for battle as Ishinn, but can still intimidate you with an intense staredown, making every encounter thrilling.
Gameplay and Mechanics
The Resurrection and Checkpoint System
Despite the drastic change in themes, the gameplay still utilises much of the same core mechanics seen from other Souls-like games, one of the most famous quirks being the ability to resurrect oneself after dying in battle. As with all similar games from this genre, Wolf can return to life next to the last checkpoint visited. However, Sekiro mixes this mechanic up a little by giving Wolf second chances through the power of Lord Kuro’s blood, allowing the shinobi to last longer in bouts against tough opponents.
There are two currencies in this game, which are experience points and gold. Experience grants Wolf new abilities to overcome the odds, while gold allows him to purchase new equipment to help him along his quest. If you die in this game, you automatically lose half of your gold and your experience and have to build yourself up again. In this regard, Sekiro is much more brutal than any of its predecessors.
You also are granted a magical gourd that heals your wounds upon drinking from it, and you will need it! The gourd itself feels reminiscent of Estus flasks from the Souls games and even refills whenever the player takes it to the checkpoint.
Stealth Mechanics
Unlike previous entries in FromSoftware’s Souls library, Wolf has his own designated jump button, something FromSoftware regularly considers an afterthought while developing their platforming sections. Wolf can also use this grappling hook to traverse high locations with a lot more ease, getting in some verticality and distance between him and his adversaries. This extra manoeuvrability is greatly needed as the game is incredibly harsh, and rarely does it pull its punches.
The game asks the player to take a smart and stealthy approach whenever possible as most enemies could either slice Wolf into tiny ribbons or waste a lot of resources to defeat. You can use your new-found verticality to fly above their heads and dispatch them before anyone is the wiser, or hide in the tall grace and slowly assassinate them like a master predator.
Combat
Sekiro’s combat is similar to other Soul-like games. You can dodge and roll away from enemy attacks and block them if you think you can tank the strike. The difference in combat comes with the inclusion of the posture gauge. Both you and your enemies have this bar, and the more pressure one applies to an enemy, the more said bar increases. If you manage to break their posture, you bring them down with a killing strike regardless of how much health they have left.
You can apply pressure to an enemy by relentlessly attacking them or by deflecting every single one of their attacks. This mechanic has a very steep learning curve but feels so very satisfying when mastered. Sadly, unlike other Souls games, there is no versatility surrounding combat with builds and powers. Therefore, understanding this technique is probably the best way to progress in the game.
This style of combat is very different from what I am used to as Dark Souls player. One cannot continue holding the block button or your posture will eventually break. However, you are also not awarded a lot when you attack too recklessly like Bloodborne, making this game a delicate balance of gameplay and tactics.
You can also use your prosthetic arm to break a hole through enemy defences by targeting their weaknesses, allowing you an opportunity to execute them. You can equip your prosthetic with an assortment of different weapons and equipment that can be incorporated to your advantage. Using firecrackers on animals, for example, makes them go insane and can even stun them, allowing Wolf to get in a few free strikes while they are disoriented.
The prosthetic can be equipped with basic weaponry such as shurikens, a ninja’s go-to weapon for distance control. It can also store more unorthodox equipment like spears, axes, and even a flamethrower, making this arm of yours into quite the swiss-army knife.
Enemies
In Sekiro, almost everything wants to kill you for one reason or another. For the most part, they can all be proficient at taking you down, even the weakest of adversaries, if you are not too careful. Regular grunts are scattered all over the place, which might as well have bullseye targets on their backs to save me time in killing them.
As the game progresses, these weaklings get replaced by opponents that can be or were once mini-bosses themselves. The number of near-death experiences I had while taking on single elite ninjas is depressing, but when you discover there are entire platoons of them, that is where it gets terrifying. These fights quickly become a game of strategy, studying their movements in the hope of a weak spot.
It also does not help that all the warnings are in Kanji! Many of these enemies resort to using special techniques that can severely damage your health, but thankfully, a symbol lights up before these powerful attacks are unleashed to help you evade them. The problem is they are all in Japanese, so I can’t tell what type of attack it is, making it a case of trial and error.
Bosses
Boss fights take this mechanic of posture and pressure to its absolute extreme. These tough opponents have several health bars and stages, making them versatile and formidable adversaries. Bosses and sub-bosses may need to be defeated multiple times before they can finally be vanquished completely.
These powerful adversaries can dish out several potent attacks that can devastate your posture, leaving you constantly on the backfoot and begging for this cruel and unusual torture to be over. You can also use your prosthetic to open up more opportunities to strike them.
Conclusion
While I am a fan of the Souls-like genre of games, I keep comparing Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice to Dark Souls and Bloodborne. It is a good game, but it does not give me the same satisfaction that other FromSoftware games have offered me. I miss the customization options granted by the games mentioned and the versatility in their gameplay. I am not a stranger to the genre, but I found the gameplay to be a bit limiting.
The plot is a step up, which is always a plus in my book, and the characters’ interactions improved since Demon’s Souls back in 2009, but I would not mind more expression and gestures from the characters.
If you like fast-paced combat like Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice will suit your tastes a lot more than any entry of the Souls series. Of course, if you are a fan of Feudal Japanese inspired settings like Ghost of Tsushima and the Tenchu series, I suggest taking this game for a spin as well.
