Full Review + Trophy Review and Tips Below
This year I started my journey through the Soulsborne franchise starting with Bloodborne in March, Demon’s Souls in November and now Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. I have grown very fond of this genre over the year as I have seldom played games that were so rewarding in their experience. The discussion around these games and the fandom (which tends to be pretty toxic) turn off a lot of players from even attempting them, I counted myself among them. The unforgiving nature of the game design and the “Get Good” attitude from the fans made me nervous about attempting them. Was I good enough?
If you are wondering the same thing, I am here to tell you YES. Yes, you are good enough. You can tackle Sekiro in one of two ways. Completely blind and see where the game takes you or read up on some quick strategy and recommendations and allow yourself to be guided on the best path through the game. Both scenarios are equally rewarding. Even though the game is designed for exploration, I have concluded that From Software WANTS you to look up solutions and talk with friends on the best strategies you can use. The reward comes from mastering a section, defeating a boss, and progressing forward to the next challenge.
Sekiro is the quick and complex in its gameplay as you can parry, dodge, jump, slash and use special prosthetic weapons to defeat enemies. Every hit on an enemy whittles away at their health bar and every blocked attack impacts their stance which if broken, will result in an immediate death blow. So again, you can attack in one of two ways. You can go on the offense and slash, jump, dodge and parry in perfect synchronization on almost every enemy in the game to break their stance and deliver the death blow or you can run around like crazy, dodging attacks and going in for the strike during the 1-2 seconds they are unprotected. Or if you are like me, do a lot of both.
Sekiro is different from other Souls games I have played as there are frequent idols throughout the world that act as your saving point. You can rest and regain your health and items or use them to fast travel. Many times it was a quick sprint past enemies to find the next idol, rest and then backtrack to take out enemies and search for items and bosses.
The game is beautifully designed with a variety of locations to explore. Exploration is made all the more engaging with the ability to grapple and reach new heights. The grapple mechanic is one of the most satisfying components of the game next to the perfect parrying you will be do during battle.
Sekiro is a game worth experiencing and one that I recommend you attempt, regardless of what you feel your skill level may be. If you're anything like me, you'll quickly get hooked.
Trophies
Difficulty: 7/10
Time: 50 Hours
Trophy Guide: Recommended
Trophy List Score: 6/10
Going for this platinum without a guide will probably double the amount of time it takes to complete. There are many quests that need to be done in a very specific order to get some of the endings or the bosses required to earn a trophy. I am a visual guy so I highly recommend SquareOneGuy on YouTube that has a Sekiro “Road To Completion” that will not only take your through the entire Platinum run but has some great tips and boss strategies.
You can check it out here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_uVGCXfB4k&list=PLtBgr5sxTadSKdY70AIF7btH6JoL88bEo
This list will require a minimum of 2 playthroughs to get every trophy using well placed cloud saves or 4 playthroughs to get all the trophies naturally. It goes without saying that From Software games are designed to be played multiple times and Sekiro is so much fun that you may want to do just that.
The list itself is very rewarding, especially when taking out a difficult boss and seeing the trophy pop for it. The game does a good job of consistently rewarding you with trophies as your progress through the game during your first run. In New Game + it’s mostly about clean up which typically is boiled down to the final bosses needed at the end of the game by choosing the SHURA path and upgrading your prosthetics and skills to the max. The biggest obstacle on your way to the platinum will be a few of the bosses, mainly your 2nd encounter with The Owl or Isshin Ashina. The key is to practice until you have the rhythm of the fight down.
Tips:
- Sekiro is constantly saving your progress so you can easily upload your save to the cloud, especially before difficult encounters and then download it again so you don’t lose any progress.
- Almost every boss and mini boss can be dealt a death blow to start the encounter.
- Using the cloud save you can keep on doing a boss encounter until you feel you have a good pattern, no matter how many times you die and then download your save to do the real run at the boss.
- The Firecracker prosthetic is a huge help and used wisely in time with your attacks will help whittle away at the enemy’s health.
- Patience is key, it is smarter to take 15 minutes to do a boss encounter by slowly chipping away at its health than having to start the encounter over 20 times.
- Have a hand towel by your side because you are going to need it often for how sweaty your hands are going to get.
- You will have to spend about 5 hours farming XP at the end of the game to level up every skill. If you break it out into an hour each day with a good podcast, it isn’t that bad.
Happy Trophy Hunting!
This year I started my journey through the Soulsborne franchise starting with Bloodborne in March, Demon’s Souls in November and now Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. I have grown very fond of this genre over the year as I have seldom played games that were so rewarding in their experience. The discussion around these games and the fandom (which tends to be pretty toxic) turn off a lot of players from even attempting them, I counted myself among them. The unforgiving nature of the game design and the “Get Good” attitude from the fans made me nervous about attempting them. Was I good enough?
If you are wondering the same thing, I am here to tell you YES. Yes, you are good enough. You can tackle Sekiro in one of two ways. Completely blind and see where the game takes you or read up on some quick strategy and recommendations and allow yourself to be guided on the best path through the game. Both scenarios are equally rewarding. Even though the game is designed for exploration, I have concluded that From Software WANTS you to look up solutions and talk with friends on the best strategies you can use. The reward comes from mastering a section, defeating a boss, and progressing forward to the next challenge.
Sekiro is the quick and complex in its gameplay as you can parry, dodge, jump, slash and use special prosthetic weapons to defeat enemies. Every hit on an enemy whittles away at their health bar and every blocked attack impacts their stance which if broken, will result in an immediate death blow. So again, you can attack in one of two ways. You can go on the offense and slash, jump, dodge and parry in perfect synchronization on almost every enemy in the game to break their stance and deliver the death blow or you can run around like crazy, dodging attacks and going in for the strike during the 1-2 seconds they are unprotected. Or if you are like me, do a lot of both.
Sekiro is different from other Souls games I have played as there are frequent idols throughout the world that act as your saving point. You can rest and regain your health and items or use them to fast travel. Many times it was a quick sprint past enemies to find the next idol, rest and then backtrack to take out enemies and search for items and bosses.
The game is beautifully designed with a variety of locations to explore. Exploration is made all the more engaging with the ability to grapple and reach new heights. The grapple mechanic is one of the most satisfying components of the game next to the perfect parrying you will be do during battle.
Sekiro is a game worth experiencing and one that I recommend you attempt, regardless of what you feel your skill level may be. If you're anything like me, you'll quickly get hooked.
Trophies
Difficulty: 7/10
Time: 50 Hours
Trophy Guide: Recommended
Trophy List Score: 6/10
Going for this platinum without a guide will probably double the amount of time it takes to complete. There are many quests that need to be done in a very specific order to get some of the endings or the bosses required to earn a trophy. I am a visual guy so I highly recommend SquareOneGuy on YouTube that has a Sekiro “Road To Completion” that will not only take your through the entire Platinum run but has some great tips and boss strategies.
You can check it out here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_uVGCXfB4k&list=PLtBgr5sxTadSKdY70AIF7btH6JoL88bEo
This list will require a minimum of 2 playthroughs to get every trophy using well placed cloud saves or 4 playthroughs to get all the trophies naturally. It goes without saying that From Software games are designed to be played multiple times and Sekiro is so much fun that you may want to do just that.
The list itself is very rewarding, especially when taking out a difficult boss and seeing the trophy pop for it. The game does a good job of consistently rewarding you with trophies as your progress through the game during your first run. In New Game + it’s mostly about clean up which typically is boiled down to the final bosses needed at the end of the game by choosing the SHURA path and upgrading your prosthetics and skills to the max. The biggest obstacle on your way to the platinum will be a few of the bosses, mainly your 2nd encounter with The Owl or Isshin Ashina. The key is to practice until you have the rhythm of the fight down.
Tips:
- Sekiro is constantly saving your progress so you can easily upload your save to the cloud, especially before difficult encounters and then download it again so you don’t lose any progress.
- Almost every boss and mini boss can be dealt a death blow to start the encounter.
- Using the cloud save you can keep on doing a boss encounter until you feel you have a good pattern, no matter how many times you die and then download your save to do the real run at the boss.
- The Firecracker prosthetic is a huge help and used wisely in time with your attacks will help whittle away at the enemy’s health.
- Patience is key, it is smarter to take 15 minutes to do a boss encounter by slowly chipping away at its health than having to start the encounter over 20 times.
- Have a hand towel by your side because you are going to need it often for how sweaty your hands are going to get.
- You will have to spend about 5 hours farming XP at the end of the game to level up every skill. If you break it out into an hour each day with a good podcast, it isn’t that bad.
Happy Trophy Hunting!