Secrets™: Sekiro Shadows Die Twice

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice takes you to the Japanese 1500s, the era of constant daimyo wars and intrigues, with death covering the entire islands. You follow the story of a young warrior Sekiro, or The Wolf, who has fallen from high hopes, losing an arm and then letting the enemies capture his young lord. But shadows die twice. Now, armed with new shinobi skills, various deadly prosthetics, and infinite confidence, he is on his way to save the lord and regain his honor.

It will not be easy. Enemies are numerous, and not all of them are human. The Sekiro world embraces Japanese bestiary from fairytales, with huge monsters, spirits, and abnormal abilities. The prosthetic arm can be equipped with various fantastic weapons, making you a sort of cyborg. You will have to fight lots of typical units, like dwarf-like cutters, or straw-hat soldiers. Sometimes there are local bosses, like samurai generals.

As for visuals, it’s a real eye-candy made of blood and fire. For you to enjoy the combat scenes, the game offers you a third-person perspective, letting you see all around you. Though sometimes the combats are hard to make out, it’s a question of skill. But what is undeniably terrific is the environment. Not only it’s greatly done, from high mountain peaks and castles to village streets and rivers, but also it’s interactive, and you as a ninja will be able to make everything either your weapon or your battlefields.

Heavily story-focused, Sekiro doesn’t let you customize your character. There is a wide skill tree, and you can select which skills to upgrade with your points, but your appearance, your manner, and your missions remain. There isn’t even much space to grind to get upgrades with time: you cannot buy true skills, that’s the shinobi philosophy. Illumination is priceless when you finally find the vulnerability and kill the enemy; this game is rather about a series of these illumination moments than constant grinding.

No wonder some combats may appear extremely hard until you learn to protect yourself and find weaknesses in your enemy’s defense. It may be very hard. To console you, the game embraces the doctrine of reincarnation, and it takes a little ritual in a special place to create a checkpoint.

The game by From Software, published by Activision, is considered one of the best titles of 2019. Offered for a price far from the lowest, it’s worth the investment, as it provides long hard gameplay, with no multiplayer at all, and only NPC’s sometimes coming to the rescue, but not so much that you can rely on them.

If you have several weekends or entire weeks free from any serious work, Sekiro will provide you great entertainment. But it’s not the game to play casually. The immersion is one of the reasons the game establishes emotional contact with you. And, in order to win, you must enter the do-or-die state of the protagonist.

Pros

• Incredible visuals;
• Hard gameplay that requires concentration and inventiveness;
• Historical accuracy when it comes to details.

Cons

• Not for casual playing;
• Checkpoints instead of traditional saves;
• Takes a lot of time to feel it.