Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice -- Yea or Nay?

[avatar! | 1,820]

So, I'm a fan of Bloodborne, Nioh, Dark Souls (although III was getting pretty boring in my opinion

Anyway, I never did play Sekiro but I did read reviews that claim you need to basically have perfect timing to succeed in the game -- I keep coming across reviews like this --

https://steamcommunity.com/app/814380/discussions/0/1850323802579762262/

This is not a very fun game at all. I don't mind dying in games, but the gameplay shouldn't be repetitive and not fun and there is absolutely zero sense of accomplishment even after beating a boss you have been trying to kill for hours. Combat is simplified, all encounters play the same, parrying and posture is simply a dull game mechanic, grappling is underutilized as half of the s*** you should be able to grapple cannot be grappled (even Tenchu on PS1 didn't have this issue), the story is supposed to be more linear and better than Souls, but it is absolutely not and the Dragonrot mechanic is a cheap gimmick. Every soulsborne game From released so far trounced this game by far. In fact, I learned to appreciate them far more in hindsight now that I played Sekiro.

So, what are people's thoughts? Did you play and/or beat the game? How frustrating and/or fun is it? Would you recommend it to someone that loves Nioh and Bloodborne or not?

[a3quit4s | 4,111]

Never played it but the general consensus I’ve seen is if you dig FromSoftware games Sekiro is a must play. Plus you should be able to get it for less than $20 on console and probably less on Steam so I think it’d be worth it. I wouldn’t let one cranky review sway me lol

[Reed Rothchild | 9,558]

10/10

Up there with Dark Souls and Elden Ring and among my favorite games of all time.

For me, beating Isshin the Sword Saint was one of the most intense gaming moments in history.

Would you like it?  I'm not sure: you seem to get very hot or very cold on games, depending on if some mechanic or feature draws your ire.  Since you like all those other Soulsbornes, you should probably at least give it a chance.

It's definitely hard though.  There's no option to grind levels to cheese and overcome bosses.

[Sumez | 2,969]

May... bea.

The timing and parrying stuff never clicked with me even after playing the entire game through.

It's a good game no doubt about that. Its just not made for me.

[avatar! | 1,820]

4 minutes ago, Sumez said:

May... bea.

The timing and parrying stuff never clicked with me even after playing the entire game through.

It's a good game no doubt about that. Its just not made for me.

So you were able to complete the game, even though you were never great t the timing/parrying?

If that's the case, it's a bit reassuring  

[Sumez | 2,969]

Yeah, most of the time it's not strictly necessary, and you can even get away with kinda mashing the parry button, since it doesn't leave you open, you just do a block instead. But you'd definitely enjoy the game a lot more if you adapted to it.

[Webhead123 | 684]

I really wanted to like Sekiro and gave it more than a few fair shakes. In the end, it felt too punishing for me in my current stage of life and I just don't think my skill level and patience were up to the demands required to feel like I was making progress. Keep in mind, I'm very hyper-critical of the "Souls-like" genre on the whole and if I like a Souls-like game, it's in spite of its difficulty. I appreciate challenge in games. I even don't mind replaying portions of a game to "master" it, to an extent. I remember how beating Ninja Gaiden on X-Box felt like one of the greatest accomplishments ever. But that was...damn...18 years ago and these days, games have to give me a reason to want to come back to them, either by rewarding my effort or by at least acknowledging what it demands of the player. Sekiro has a very fascinating world and setting...but I couldn't see much of it because it kept putting up walls for me to beat my head against until my vision was blurry and my head was hurting.

Take all that with a grain of salt or two.

Edited April 10 by Webhead123

[Reed Rothchild | 9,558]

On 4/9/2024 at 11:13 AM, avatar! said:

So you were able to complete the game, even though you were never great t the timing/parrying?

If that's the case, it's a bit reassuring  

You move quite a bit quicker than the other Souls games, so you can depend a bit on maneuvering in an absence of perfect parrying.  At least on an initial run.  Parries are definitely the path of taking the bosses down quicker and easier, if you can do it.  Basically they have health bars and stamina bars, and if you're skilled enough you attack the latter.

[avatar! | 1,820]

4 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

You move quite a bit quicker than the other Souls games, so you can depend a bit on maneuvering in an absence of perfect parrying.  At least on an initial run.  Parries are definitely the path of taking the bosses down quicker and easier, if you can do it.  Basically they have health bars and stamina bars, and if you're skilled enough you attack the latter.

You've convinced me I should try it, if nothing else

[fox | 1,668]

I'm playing Rise of the Ronin and am really enjoying it.  It is a mix of open world exploration with Nioh/Sekiro combat.  It does favor good timing, but if you can't parry to save your life, you can still block or roll out of a lot of attacks.  Feels a lot more approachable if you want a samurai game with a similar feel.

[bag | 58]

Sekiro joined demon souls as the only souls games I had to take forced breaks and come back.

Demon souls was more because it was my first time playing a souls game (the rest weren't released when I played it haha)

Sekiro was by far the hardest of all the souls games. Definitely felt like I did something great after beating the bosses. Especially the demon, double apes and final boss. 

I was not good at parrying when I went into Sekiro, really forced me to learn haha.