When I first saw gameplay of Sekiro around its announcement I remember being vaguely frustrated that From were making a game this different from the other outings in their modern catalogue- "this is going to be a more straightforward story with only one weapon type and no character customization? I'm not going to be able to dress my character up in fashionable clothes?? No!!! :(" After playing Bloodborne and loving its more fast, aggressive style of gameplay, though, I decided to check this out and I'm kind of embarrassed at how dismissive towards Sekiro in the first place. I expected to enjoy it going in, but coming out I genuinely might count it as my favorite of From's games that I've played.
I say "From's games that I've played" and not "Soulsborne games that I've played" because I think at this point pretty much everyone acknowledges that this is a totally different beast from that other genre of games. It's because of this that I can't really say whether I like it more than Dark Souls 1 or Bloodborne; what actually appeals to me here is just so, so different. Combat is a rhythmic, life or death dance on a level that none of those games captured; the clang of deflecting swords, the joy of stomping on an enemy's spear to perform a counter, the resonant sting as you execute a deathblow, all of it makes it so that encounters with individual enemies feel much, much more significant.
I think that's the reason why almost every boss here is a joy to fight; the unlockable Gauntlets of Strength you get post-game are a delight, purely because they let you fight these ultra-condescend tests of your mastery over Sekiro's movement, enemy attack patterns and toolkit. Playing through this made me realize exactly why "katana only combat" works so perfectly here when it would have been kind of a tough sell to 18 year old me. Your base moveset is pretty robust, sure, but each boss has so many intricacies to how they move, how you have to counter, the timing for each of their attacks. More in this than in any other game I've played recently, I felt a real joy not just at learning how to use my own tools, but how to respond to their own. I genuinely think this might be the best way to implement a "dueling" system in a game. I adore it. The art direction and music are downright beautiful, of course- there's a whole slew of reasons I love this game that I haven't even touched upon. But to me, Sekiro's biggest triumph is just in how viscerally thrilling it manages to make two swords clashing feel.
I say "From's games that I've played" and not "Soulsborne games that I've played" because I think at this point pretty much everyone acknowledges that this is a totally different beast from that other genre of games. It's because of this that I can't really say whether I like it more than Dark Souls 1 or Bloodborne; what actually appeals to me here is just so, so different. Combat is a rhythmic, life or death dance on a level that none of those games captured; the clang of deflecting swords, the joy of stomping on an enemy's spear to perform a counter, the resonant sting as you execute a deathblow, all of it makes it so that encounters with individual enemies feel much, much more significant.
I think that's the reason why almost every boss here is a joy to fight; the unlockable Gauntlets of Strength you get post-game are a delight, purely because they let you fight these ultra-condescend tests of your mastery over Sekiro's movement, enemy attack patterns and toolkit. Playing through this made me realize exactly why "katana only combat" works so perfectly here when it would have been kind of a tough sell to 18 year old me. Your base moveset is pretty robust, sure, but each boss has so many intricacies to how they move, how you have to counter, the timing for each of their attacks. More in this than in any other game I've played recently, I felt a real joy not just at learning how to use my own tools, but how to respond to their own. I genuinely think this might be the best way to implement a "dueling" system in a game. I adore it. The art direction and music are downright beautiful, of course- there's a whole slew of reasons I love this game that I haven't even touched upon. But to me, Sekiro's biggest triumph is just in how viscerally thrilling it manages to make two swords clashing feel.