Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice reviews

This game is hard. Ands its awesome. Once you figure out how to beat a boss its quite a great feeling. WARNING: Not for babies. Die. Learn. Win.

This game is really good. You will definitely get your moneys worth. Because you will keep dying and play for hours. But you have really engaging gameplay, great graphics and so far pretty good story.

Somehow this game succeeds in being at once both magisterial and absolutely soul-crushingly difficult. If you enjoyed the challenge of the Dark Souls series then pack a lunch and brace yourself, because Sekiro will f**k your hopes and dreams to the point where you will begin to identify with beat-down titular shinobi on a truly spiritual level. The combat is primarily focused upon timing and the breaking of your opponent's guard. The learning curve is near-vertical from the outset. Although the environments can at times feel somewhat unpolished, given the fact that it was built for a modern platform, you will tend not to notice this as every ounce of your concentration will be focused upon not being gutted by an obese alcoholic samurai for the eight time. The combat mechanics are difficult, but also brilliant – it's a nice change to find a combat-driven game that is not reliant upon hacking-and-slashing and brawling. The narrative and character development are excellent, and are strong enough to help you endure the constant beatings that you will be receiving from even the lowliest mini-bosses. If you don't mind persevering with the frustration of multiple deaths at every step of your journey through medieval Japan, then you'll find Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice or to be more accurate: Shadows Die Repeatedly at Every Possible Opportunity) an incredibly rewarding experience. I highly recommend the game, but just be prepared for the inevitable frustration.

Classic FromSoftware, deep lore, philosophical lore, and painfully unreachable lore half the time. For Dark Souls players, I would recommend a few good hours or even a day spent on mini bosses to learn how to counter – always stock up on dragon tears unless you want the SHURA ending… For Bloodborne players, speed of movement is key but speed of deflecting is a much better investment, slow down – it is not the same as Bloodborne at all. Dark Souls = Patience, Bloodborne = Agressiveness, Sekiro = Trade blows (strike, deflect, strike, deflect) – homeward idol is your last resort – don't prepare to die!

My sister and I decided to pick up this game because we watched a youtube playthrough of it and the setting and overall aesthetic of the game really piqued our interest. Also what the HECK the main character CAN ACTUALLY TALK now AND the STORY is STRAIGHTFORWARD--- Me and my sister dug that, we really, really did. (Also the english VA is superb as Sekiro I love him, is he single). We appreciate not having to scrounge YouTube for lore videos and video essays about hidden back tragedies for once (as one tends to do with These^TM Kinds of games). We also appreciate the combat system: facing off enemies in one on one duels, parrying and deflecting until they get too tired, opening that precious window enough to land that sweet, sweet deathblow of justice and revenge…man. This game really had us living our best faux feudal honorable shinobi past lives on our humble 42 inch screen. Just. Glorious. Every single victory mattered, even against the rank and file. THAT'S The immersion we paid for. My god we had so much fun with this game, it turned into an awesome decompression ritual after work and uni, just laughing together through the silly deaths from our careless mistakes and high-fiving each other every time a boss bit it. That's going to be a valuable memory someday, as us kids get older. So thank you, sadistic game developers and also, respectfully go screw yourselves, we're 2 trophies away from platinum, just you watch.

Really good game that delivers just what we expect from FROM Software. It's hard, brutal and demanding. As a new offering to ‘souls like’ games, veterans of the series won't be disappointed. My only criticism is the lack of repeat playability. Once you've completed all four endings and won the platinum trophy there's not much more to do. And I want to play this game a whole lot more.