Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

[ReptilianWorldOrder]

GOTY been settled for awhile: Sekiro. Went in with Souls Fatigue, yet found a refreshing changeup for their oeuvre. It’s a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Ninja Scrolls videogame! And godsdamn do I love it.

So I’m sure as ♥♥♥♥ not alone loving FromSoftware and their output, though also not the only one run down by “soul’s fatigue” these days either. My own prognosis dates back to Dark Souls 3, having jumped in right after wrecking Bloodborne in a damn fine ride. But I burned hard & fast on DS3, never finishing… and I swear baby you’re beautiful, you’re wonderful; it’s not you, it’s me. The fatigue persisted long, perhaps even now a simmering set of embers remains. There was no Sekiro hype for me. No interest, ads, or foreknowledge; just an acknowledgement I’d check it out (eventually) given long-run goodwill. Nevertheless, I ended up with Sekiro in my lap anyway and, from there, necessitating an install & quick look to at allay the guilt of a year+ dust collecting before motivated to dig deeper. Well, what started as an innocent peek snowballed into 200 hours and all the achievements.

It didn’t take long to recognize that Sekiro wasn’t another Souls, or a historical ninja game, or whatever else I’d anticipated. SEKIRO IS MOTHERFUKKKING NINJA SCROLLS!!! Oh, many of those familiar From elements are still around, but imagined in a different styling and creating a new tonal experience. One feeling & playing exactly like you’re being dropped into a videogame manifestation of the most badass anime flick ever made, Ninja Scroll. A game as glorious as glorious goes.

While still a tale of a historic Japan with fairly realistic setting and clan feuding, you’re also inhabiting a world of weirdness along the edges. From the mini-ninja mushroom men to hulking brutes--with about five feet of difference between main characters--you’re seeing a hyper exaggerated & stylized world that’s a whole lot of awesome. The historical myth/fantasy aspects generate more outlandish gameplay elements though keeping your enemies largely human. The collective of weirdo bosses are where it really feels like you’re fighting the eight devils of kimon, with bizarre powers and gimmicks yielding majorly memorable experiences.

Though it’s not just the crazy manifestation of a de-facto Ninja Scroll game that caught me by surprise. FromSoftware steps outside their past work enough to pull off something unique while still clearly “from the twisted minds who brought you” other beloved works. It’s almost as if “Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice” was designed for FromSoft veterans who’ve grown weary of the formula as well. For as much as Bloodborne was a refreshing change of pace from Dark/Demons, Sekiro is twice as unique and branching off in its own direction.

Story Innovations, Such as Having One

Unlike former From games, Sekiro offers a traditional narrative of cutscenes and dedicated characters beyond “♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ merchant” and “sad ass knight.” (Though a handful of the type do appear anyway with the usual own diverging character path options.) Still the story is fairly restrained with this new plotting, never veering into long cutscenes or irritating diatribes like my reviews. Ultimately this story & character core is a welcome change, providing an experience and endings that resonate far more elegantly. Meanwhile there’s still a large degree of lore speculation to be found in item descriptions and character tidbits that enrich the story with layers of ambiguity and theory crafting for super nerds.

You play as a Wolf. Now a Shinobi (Japanese for “♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ NINJA YO!”), he was orphaned as a child and adopted by another shinobi named Owl who trained him in the family business of war. Our story returns to Wolf as an adult, serving as bodyguard to the young Divine Lord of The Realm or whatever. But when the child gets Taken one day, Wolf must go all Liam Neason to Taken him back.

FromSoftware games often convey large story concepts through the mechanics themselves (resurrection, humanity loss, summoning) or maybe vice-versa. Even with the clearer plotline here, you’ll find a great synergy between the game mechanics and premises. Your very means of resurrection is heavily tied in with the igniting actions & character motivations, the mysteries, and the game’s resolutions. Your demise/return similarly elicit an effect on character status, though more on the world around you with other characters growing sick as you fail more but restorable with another power source.

A Game From From To From Fans

There’s a brilliant thematic weight to FromSoftware transitioning to the ruthless ninja ways. True to the Soulsbornes, there’s no such thing as fighting dirty for a shinobi either (as proven by your first in-game item, Dale Gribble’s trademark pocket-sand to toss in your enemy’s eyes for a quick stun.) As a shinobi, you’re out to embrace every technique or opportunity you can to accomplish your goal, and an expert of guerrilla warfare, infiltration and assassination.

A lot’s been said of the difficulty, and while certainly difficult, the challenge manifests from skill and timing rather than artificial ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. You’ll realize with total clarity it’s not about levels, items, or tools by the time you return to the opening battle on New Game Plus. What once rocked your world becomes a reasonable battle of blades. Winnable even. And with newfound victory in grasp, you’ll circumvent the entire game this time around then---still sliced off that arm, in a slightly altered cutscene. Well some things need to happen. But it’s okay, that hand was holding you back. Your new prosthetic allows all sorts of crazy things no normal hand could ever do. Launch Grappling Hooks! Shoot Fire Bursts! Throw Shurikens! Okay, the last one you could’ve done, but you never bothered trying until now, so I’m counting it.

If you’ve never played any of the Souls games though, well, you’re probably in for a world of hurt. Whereas parrying was always “that one secret trick Dark Souls doesn’t want you to know!” rendering the game easier upon realizing/mastering, here it’s merely another mechanic. One you’re expected to have mastered already. But things won’t be smooth sailing for veterans either--and that’s a large part of what made the game so refreshing for me. The blocking mechanics do a real run on your muscle memory. Not only is blocking encouraged & powerful, it’s ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ rewarded: your poise regenerates far more quickly when holding your sword out in a defensive stance. You’ll fight years of honed instincts to struggle with “oh yeah” remembering to hold your sword high in those brief mid-battle moments of silence, like a true samurai-stare-down before swords come to clash once more.

The fact most enemies are simply ordinary sword verses sword battles with generic humans shows how amazing the game’s base combat really is. Even without shinobi tools, ninjutsu techniques, and items, the default swordplay mechanics of striking, parrying, and blocking end up being obscenely cool, fun, and challenging. That said, I’ve got endless love for all the weirdo bosses standing out with their own crazy gimmicks or supernatural techniques. (Or 50-foot apes). The mini-bosses tend to be exaggerated versions of normal enemies, but on occasion actually end up being way more of a ♥♥♥♥♥ than the main bosses. Most mini-bosses can be avoided though until you’re more confident or develop other techniques.

Localization Lazy Days

If there’s one issue I’d had with the game, the localization isn’t very friendly. It’s not full on Engrish or anything, just needlessly obtuse. Many words and concepts are left without translation or elaboration. [“Sakura” isn’t a proper noun or unique conceptual element necessitating the original word to communicate. If you’re going to translate the game, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ translate it and tell me it’s a cherry tree.] The rigidness just convolutes a game that already conveys deeper layers of its story via associations and symbolism.

Ideally, they would’ve included a glossary for characters and terms too. It’s hard enough trying to differentiate where concepts like ‘sekiro’ begins and ‘shinobi’ ends from the context alone. Meanwhile the many, lands, clans, and codes make it easy for Western audiences to entirely lose track of the hierarchy, sides, and stakes of character relationships that first time through too. (Boy good? Must protect boy? Is what do, yeah?)

Offline Ohlay! Call the Mods.

Lacking the customary online components (summons, invasions) proved a fairly nice. I suspect they toyed with ideas like summoned co-op for awhile as at least one boss encounter includes a helpful busybody running into the fray to help. Ultimately though you’re a defined character with a defined story-arc and one main weapon for combat and all that same skills, deflating those would-be invasions.

It’s been wonderful being able to mod the game more heavily than the usual minimal texture charges, with some particularly cool design coming like a Bloodborne gameplay variant and boss-rush mode. And it really moots any complaints about difficulty with so many adjustment mods anyway. Midway into my first run I decided to change-up my outfit, and kept at it often thanks to that “drag and drop” ease for regular wardrobe updates. On replay I ended up playing around with a mod uncapping the spirit charges carried (an enemy drop/purchasable governing tool usage and some of the rarer skills) to great delight without changing up the balance too much. Honestly, it was even preferable to the real game since you’ve got so many toys but always hoarding them for the most vulnerable times. It makes me wish the default game had your charges resetting on each kill so to still give boss battles some limitations though provide much more fun with the normal enemy onslaughts.

Potent Notables

One of the cooler things I found out was that the Shinobi tools within the game are more than just crazy game devices. Most actually have a historical precedence as shown in this amazing Rock Paper Shotgun article, including the propensity of upgrades to incorporate a fire element.

With each major story beat, the weather will shift for the whole region providing a nice makeover to keep things fresh upon return and inspire new wonder.

Japan contains a more beautiful and diverse landscape than I’d ever realized. I imagined with many places itself looking absolutely divine.

There’s eavesdropping mechanic and stealth for extra story plot hints/info, though stealth is a means of infiltration for targeting/positioning, one-by-one elimination, or outright avoidance. Unlike most games, they realize stealth is inherently justified without even one forced stealth segment.

In the course of this review, I did a something-search for “anything as badass as ninja scroll” and the third result was a Feb 2017 gamefaqs post [gamefaqs.gamespot.com] about “What If” FromSoftware made a Ninja Scroll game. (I double checked and the first teaser wasn’t revealed until December 2017.) O_O The response though: “Lmao what a horrible idea”




You can pick up Sekiro on Steam now


And find more recommendations on our curator page, Weird Wonderful Game Watch.