Sekiro : Shadows Die Twice is unrelentingly tough. At times it can be maddeningly so, going to the brink of how far you expect a video game to try and test you. After all, these digital play things are supposed to be for escapist enjoyment, aren’t they? They’re for chilling out on the sofa when you’ve come in from a long day at work… aren’t they?
And yet, despite eschewing any kind of traditional 'fun’, Sekiro somehow keeps you hooked. For all the pain and your loud, involuntary cursing, you feel compelled to push on. Not out of some weird sense of pride but because of a real feeling that you’re improving with every successful sword swing, as well as every flailing, frustrating death. The game knows that, deep down, the unrivalled thrill of you overcoming these remarkably hard challenges is the key to getting embedded so deep into your brain that it’s all you can think about.
It’s something I didn’t think developer FROM Software would be able to recapture a third time. After all, the studio has done it multiple instances before now – with three Dark Souls games and with Bloodborne under its belt, it’s an undeniably familiar formula. All of these games, including Sekiro, share similar DNA and motifs. Hard, precise combat; alluring worlds; themes of death and rebirth. Much of that is here in some way, but reshaped and refined so much that many of its best ideas – even if they’ve been repurposed – feel fresh.
In this, it’s not so much about attacking your foes repeatedly to take down their health while conserving your own. You can play it like that, sure, but it’s a laboriously slow way to get anywhere, and it only serves to increase the risk that you’ll fall foul of a surprise enemy attack and end up dead, back at square one. Instead, combat in Sekiro is about finding the opportune moment for single, devastating attacks made possible by finely timed parries. If you also compromise an enemy’s "posture", you leave them open to massive damage, which lets you make a lot of progress towards victory in a small amount of time.
The cling-clang of steel in Sekiro is perhaps the best in any game I’ve ever played. Going toe-to-toe with its basic enemies is a thrill of its own, one that throws up countless options for combat as you take advantage of your own skills, as well as the environment around you. A grappling hook lets you whizz around the skies, between rooftops, opening up options for stealth. Even though the stealth mechanics leave a little to be desired, the option to off several enemies in one blow, rather than take on groups at a time, is one you’ll always consider to even the odds.
