Initially when I reviewed this game I did not recommend it but having put more hours in I feel I have a better understanding of it now and while I would recommend it there are some glaring issues.
Positives
Sekiro is not Dark Souls and you should not expect it to be, the game is not about dodging attacks, tanking damage and watching for openings in an enemy's attack pattern. Instead Sekiro is all about preventing openings from ever occurring, that's the key to the gameplay, get in your enemies face, attack as much as you can, deflect as much as you can and break their posture without ever letting up. It's fun when it works and it's impressive to watch. Pair this with the ability to grapple and you have a very mobile and exciting game with a wonderful setting. It's not as magical as Dark Souls but somehow giant serpents, phantom monkeys in kimonos and lightning wielding samurais don't feel out of place. The world isn't as sprawling or intricate as Lordran but it is much more detailed and feels more lived in.
Negatives
I will start off with the biggest flaw in this game. It is linear as hell, not just in world design or story but in how it expects you to play the game, From Software want you to approach each boss in a pre-defined way. For example, Lady Butterfly caused me a lot of trouble in my first playthrough I spent hours trying to learn her attack patterns, trying to counter her, doing everything I could but still struggling. I eventually caved in and checked a guide which taught me that in order to beat her I just need to spam the dodge-counter-attack over and over, locking her into a loop of posture damage. This wasn't even a cheese, this was the way the game wants you to beat her as it mentions the use of the counter-attack before the fight but I didn't think it wanted me to essentially stun-lock her to win. I beat her in less than 2 minutes once I realised this. Juzuo is an annoying fight because in order to have a chance you have to stealth kill the 7 or 8 enemies surrounding him and this takes time which makes dying feel even more punishing as you have to spend another 10/15 minutes setting the fight up before it even happens and it's such a slog trying to fight him without doing this that it's not worth even trying. There's no room to experiment in these boss fights at all, it's From's way or nothing.
The next problem is how imprecise counters are. This whole game is about precision and accuracy, timing dodges and deflections is an important skill and so you would think timing counters would be the same except it's not. I found the Mikiri counter very difficult to get right in the beginning until I realised you don't need to get it right, as soon as you think you need to use it you just spam the button over and over and it will work, same with the lightning-counter, accuracy is not required at all. This feels very at odds with the rest of the game and it also leads to animations getting janky and weird which looks odd in a game where combat flows so well.
The story of Sekiro is also not that interesting in my opinion. During my first playthrough I restarted the game because I honestly lost track of why I was doing anything or where I was going. Even in my new playthrough I really couldn't care less for anyone's motivations, it just feels like text boxes to skim through before moving onto a new area or unlocking a new upgrade, it's utterly forgettable; especially when compared to Dark Souls where it does its best to obscure any actual story and requires lots of investment in the lore which is far more interesting.
Also having to kill bosses twice feels like padding in a lot of the fights, especially the mini-boss fights. Items don't really have uses either, I never used the ceramic tiles, the various balloons or anything like that, you could play the game without ever picking them up.
Also Sunken Valley is so poorly designed, platforming while being shot by 4 enemies who are dead accurate that you can't counter because you're struggling to use the half-broken ledge grab is not fun or fair. Gun enemies in general are a bad experience.
Verdict
Sekiro is a unique game worth trying whether you like Souls games or not. I would nearly suggest it to people who don't like Souls games more than those that do. I would never ever recommend using a guide for Dark Souls but for Sekiro it almost feels like a necessity, if a boss is giving you too much trouble it is probably because you're not playing the game in a way From intended for you to, so maybe keep that in mind.
Positives
Sekiro is not Dark Souls and you should not expect it to be, the game is not about dodging attacks, tanking damage and watching for openings in an enemy's attack pattern. Instead Sekiro is all about preventing openings from ever occurring, that's the key to the gameplay, get in your enemies face, attack as much as you can, deflect as much as you can and break their posture without ever letting up. It's fun when it works and it's impressive to watch. Pair this with the ability to grapple and you have a very mobile and exciting game with a wonderful setting. It's not as magical as Dark Souls but somehow giant serpents, phantom monkeys in kimonos and lightning wielding samurais don't feel out of place. The world isn't as sprawling or intricate as Lordran but it is much more detailed and feels more lived in.
Negatives
I will start off with the biggest flaw in this game. It is linear as hell, not just in world design or story but in how it expects you to play the game, From Software want you to approach each boss in a pre-defined way. For example, Lady Butterfly caused me a lot of trouble in my first playthrough I spent hours trying to learn her attack patterns, trying to counter her, doing everything I could but still struggling. I eventually caved in and checked a guide which taught me that in order to beat her I just need to spam the dodge-counter-attack over and over, locking her into a loop of posture damage. This wasn't even a cheese, this was the way the game wants you to beat her as it mentions the use of the counter-attack before the fight but I didn't think it wanted me to essentially stun-lock her to win. I beat her in less than 2 minutes once I realised this. Juzuo is an annoying fight because in order to have a chance you have to stealth kill the 7 or 8 enemies surrounding him and this takes time which makes dying feel even more punishing as you have to spend another 10/15 minutes setting the fight up before it even happens and it's such a slog trying to fight him without doing this that it's not worth even trying. There's no room to experiment in these boss fights at all, it's From's way or nothing.
The next problem is how imprecise counters are. This whole game is about precision and accuracy, timing dodges and deflections is an important skill and so you would think timing counters would be the same except it's not. I found the Mikiri counter very difficult to get right in the beginning until I realised you don't need to get it right, as soon as you think you need to use it you just spam the button over and over and it will work, same with the lightning-counter, accuracy is not required at all. This feels very at odds with the rest of the game and it also leads to animations getting janky and weird which looks odd in a game where combat flows so well.
The story of Sekiro is also not that interesting in my opinion. During my first playthrough I restarted the game because I honestly lost track of why I was doing anything or where I was going. Even in my new playthrough I really couldn't care less for anyone's motivations, it just feels like text boxes to skim through before moving onto a new area or unlocking a new upgrade, it's utterly forgettable; especially when compared to Dark Souls where it does its best to obscure any actual story and requires lots of investment in the lore which is far more interesting.
Also having to kill bosses twice feels like padding in a lot of the fights, especially the mini-boss fights. Items don't really have uses either, I never used the ceramic tiles, the various balloons or anything like that, you could play the game without ever picking them up.
Also Sunken Valley is so poorly designed, platforming while being shot by 4 enemies who are dead accurate that you can't counter because you're struggling to use the half-broken ledge grab is not fun or fair. Gun enemies in general are a bad experience.
Verdict
Sekiro is a unique game worth trying whether you like Souls games or not. I would nearly suggest it to people who don't like Souls games more than those that do. I would never ever recommend using a guide for Dark Souls but for Sekiro it almost feels like a necessity, if a boss is giving you too much trouble it is probably because you're not playing the game in a way From intended for you to, so maybe keep that in mind.
2 Comments
This comment was deleted
So what I mean by the imprecision of counters specifically relates to the counter attacks you do to the unblockable attacks bosses do, where the red symbol appears above their head. When blocking normally you time the block with when their weapon is about to make contact, and it's very precise. In the beginning I would try to time these counters to exactly when the unblockable attack would hit, however this is actually the wrong thing to do, you only need to perform the counter when the red symbol appears, which is far more generous of a window than normal blocks and deflections.
The problem comes from the game requiring very precise timing in all other scenarios but for that one it's actually so generous it's kind of misleading. My complaint isn't that it's too hard, it's that it's unusually easy and it stands out.
The problem comes from the game requiring very precise timing in all other scenarios but for that one it's actually so generous it's kind of misleading. My complaint isn't that it's too hard, it's that it's unusually easy and it stands out.
CassieShwutszah
13 days ago
Also Mikiri counter is actually easy for newbies, lmao.