I understand why there's a real divide on this game among From Software fans. Dark Souls and its siblings are games of personal expression - you can play any way you want, you can tear the game into little pieces through a million different strategies and exploits, and the game will always bend to allow it (even if it spends some time pushing back at you). It might be difficult, but Dark Souls is a game that never says No.

Sekiro says No. It says No a lot actually. Sekiro is the culmination of From's Bloodborne and DS3 push to force players to play a specific style - a fast, aggressive, parrying melee specialist. You can't be a tank in Sekiro, you can't be a sorcerer in Sekiro, you can only be Sekiro. When you hit a tough boss in Dark Souls (or especially in Elden Ring), that's an invitation to hunt for weapon upgrades, new armor or rings, or come back at a higher level - when you hit a tough boss in Sekiro, it is a "you must be this good to pass" barrier, the kind of thing people think Dark Souls bosses are, but never have been.

Having said all that - I think the game is great! By ditching most of the RPG elements, From created one of the best and most demanding action games...ever? Probably ever. The controls feel as tight and responsive as they've ever felt - once you get the feel for the tight parry windows the responsiveness is incredible (and makes that recent Jedi Fallen Order game feel like you're swinging a lightsaber through molasses).

The area design, sparse storytelling, and creepy NPC's are as good as they've ever been, and the music might be the strongest in From's modern catalogue. The final boss is exactly as hard as everyone says he is - I spent half an hour to an hour a day for about a week and a half trying to beat him. Today I did it, and it's an achievement on par with the time I soloed Ornstein and Smough with the Demon's Greataxe (it's harder than it sounds, trust me).

Ultimately I think Sekiro's supreme difficulty works against it in one respect, that weakens the game a whole a little for me. I'm not referring to the boss difficulty, which I found ridiculous but rewarding, but more that the world itself is so incredibly dangerous that I often found myself just getting through areas as quickly as possible to get straight to the next sculptors idol or boss - what's the point of exploring when items aren't going to make you significantly stronger and you're likely to run into some outrageous optional miniboss that's going to send you to the You Died screen in 3 seconds. Exploring is dangerous in all modern From games, but the reduced RPG components of Sekiro mean that exploring is higher risk and lower reward than it's ever been - which is too bad! I know there's some cool stuff I missed out on (and there's a lot of stuff I only found because I looked up where to go, rather than stumbling on it naturally), but I'm sure as hell not going back into that meat grinder to find it! A game to feel good about beating, but not one I'm likely to revisit any time soon.

There's some evil stuff in here. I realize the real super mario bros 2 (the lost levels) has the poison mushroom immediately upon starting it so that's the real origin point of evil mario levels, but there's some wild level design in here! It also feels a bit like Doom (ironic because this game was part of the inspiration for doom) in the way that there are hundreds of tossed off ideas in here that could be whole games, and eventually someone else WOULD pick them up and make them into their own games. Cool ass object, still fun to play, hard as hell.

A game I remember playing but never finishing as a kid - boy is it clear now why that was. Extremely charming and for most of the run time it's a fun Mario romp with a solid JRPG skeleton but when you hit a boss fight it reveals a streak of masochism. Boss fights are incredibly long and frustrating, with attack patterns lasting long past the "you have mastered this mechanic" range and into "dodge this attack with an incredibly small timing window 45 times in a row" territory. JRPG battles being a long slog is one thing, but the action component required for dodging attacks and attacking enemies is actually a physical drain - the final boss battle took me over an hour and left my hands and wrist in physical discomfort (note - you can definitely take breaks - you should in fact!). I don't know if I was chronically under leveled - it's definitely possible! But it was a real pain point in a game I otherwise had a pretty good time with.

The game is full of charm and nintendo polish - animations, puzzle mechanics, sound effects, and music are perfectly tuned and extremely satisfying. I can't say it was perfect or capital g Great, but it's definitely worth taking a look at to see what it's all about.