[TGS 2018] Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – Where Dying Is Sometimes A Strategy

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a game developed by FromSoftware whom we all know is famous for Dark Souls and Bloodborne. You might find some familiarity with other titles by FromSoftware but really, Sekiro has a very unique mechanism that could turn your life around – figuratively but literally in the game. Yes, we heard about how the game is pretty much similar to Tenchu that was also developed by FromSoftware and published by Activision. While both may give out the same vibe, Sekiro has more action though – along with a deep story of saving and protecting the one you sworn to.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

The game is an action RPG with some strategic elements which will make you think harder a little sometimes. As the gameplay has more action like Dark Souls or Bloodborne, there were less stories to tell in those games. Now with Sekiro, FromSoftware took the opportunity to put in an in-depth story that’s set towards the end of the Sengoku Era where shinobis and samurais thrive.

You’re sworn to protect your master, however he was kidnapped and you are to set out to rescue him. While you’re on your journey looking to rescue your master, you’ll be fighting all sorts of enemies who are out to kill you – even beasts! With the prosthetic arm that’s customized for combat, you may also find it handy to keep your secondary weapons and whip ’em out whenever you like during combat. Of course, as we seen in the trailers, the grappling hook is also there but you will need to get used to the mechanics.

Gameplay – Battle System, Mechanics, Skill Tree

Just like Dark Souls and Bloodborne, you are free to attack in anyway possible – even stealth! You can choose to walk behind an enemy to strike its weak spot to ease the battle a little bit, even onto bosses. Unfortunately, you can’t stealth through the game which means you’ll have to defeat every single one of them. As a single player game with an in-depth story, the game is expected to be done within 20-30 hours, but just like Dark Souls and Bloodborne, you might just waste your time dying to complete the game.

You can check out the gameplay below:

As stated in the title, your character will die but he will have a second life. You see it in the trailers, but the question is how do you do that? Well, there’s a bar that fills every time you defeat an enemy. Once the bar is full, you may rest easy fighting a boss knowing that you have a second life and live to not restart from the last check point. However, when you resurrect, you will begin with only 50% of your health bar. As enemies tend to turn their backs once you’re dead, you can strike their weak points upon resurrection – of course fighting against bosses doesn’t always go your way. Then, to refill it, you’ll need to go around defeating enemies.

Of course, some enemies may not be easy to take down. Each enemy including yourself, has a meter. When you attack them, they will attempt to block your attacks but the posture meter will be filled every time you attack them. Once it’s full, you can initiate an attack to take down a single bar of HP. As bosses have more than 2-3 HP bars, with a successful flurry of attacks on them, you can easily take down 1 one of their HP bars. Then again, the bosses aren’t as easy as it seems. They all have multiple move-sets which are hard to read which makes the game challenging for players who love these types of action RPG.

There’s also a skill tree system which allows you to upgrade and progress your character with new unlockable skills and strategies. With the skills you learnt, you can use them against your enemies to strike their weak points easier or play just the way you wanted. Though these mechanics can be too complicated compared to Dark Souls or Bloodborne, they do provide us with a tutorial that’s easy to understand and help us master the mechanics of the game.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a beautiful game by FromSoftware. Just like Dark Souls and Bloodborne, the environments in the background are amazing and captivating in Sekiro. Though those moments usually pass on fast as enemies are always around the corner, the vibrant colors depicting the Sengoku Era never gave us a dull moment as we enjoyed during the demo. On a side note, there are also hidden rooms in the game where you can explore and discover them for a treasure.

We can’t wait for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice to be released on March 22nd, 2019 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. For more info, you can check out their official site!

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