Sekiro is an incredible action-adventure game that will offer a brutal and unrelenting challenge. Know that this is a slight departure from the typical Souls formula; Sekiro has a greater focus on the action and adventure while losing most the RPG aspects. Your freedom of movement is surprisingly great, not only can you properly jump, but you can walljump, grapple hook and even swim not just on the surface but underwater too. There is indeed a small but fun amount of underwater sections to explore and plunder (most are entirely optional), and even a couple bosses to square against underwater. The best part is that when you unlock the ability to swim underwater, you gain a magic power to stay submerged indefinitely without having to resurface for oxygen. This greater focus on exploration and movement reminds me of Shadow of the Tomb Raider which I regard highly.

On the combat side of things, you are permanently stuck with one weapon for the whole game. Some may be disappointed in the lack of build diversity, but to be honest, in the Dark Souls games I usually just stuck with the same weapon most the time anyway. I still do wish there were at least 1 or 2 extra primary weapons though. Luckily, the weapon you are stuck with is immensely satisfying to use, and Sekiro boasts some of the most intense and challenging PvE swordplay conceivable. If you're like me and suck at parrying in Dark Souls, then you're gonna have a tough time here but you'll love it anyway. It is so good that no matter how hard it gets, you want to keep trying and getting better. There are very few experiences in a video game that can match being totally annihilated by a seemingly impossible boss, only to improve your skills through sheer resilience and persistence until you become the boss.

Even though I came into this game expecting to suck, I wasn't quite expecting just how brutally insanely challenging it would turn out to be. It is barely hyperbole when I say that Sekiro manages to make Dark Souls look like it was made for brain damaged amputee paraplegic kindergarteners. If you were ever decent at parrying then your mileage may vary of course. As for me, almost every single boss and even miniboss proved to be immense hurdles. It would sometimes feel like I hit a brick wall and that I might as well give up because I just don't see how I can ever beat that. But then I do, and that's what it's all about. If you have even the slightest appreciation for some good boss fights then this game is a mandatory purchase. Expect to be challenged, and expect to have felt you actually accomplished something even though in reality you just played a game and witnessed a particular arrangement of pixels on the screen and nothing more.

Obviously, this game is not perfect. There are a few things I wasn't particularly enthused about, but mainly it's the way Prosthetic Tools work. These are your cool ninja tools like shurikens, flamethrowers, retractable axes and spears and even bullet proof umbrellas. Sounds awesome right? Indeed they are, except for one thing: they all cost a special currency to use. This "currency" is spirit emblems and it drops from pretty much every enemy so you'll be practically drowning in them. So what's the problem? Boss fights. If you are stuck on a boss for a long amount of time, which happens to me on pretty much every boss, then you'll quickly find your spirit emblem reserves running dry if you are one to enjoy yourself with some cool toys. I see no reason why spirit emblems can't just work like the healing flask and refill when you rest at a shrine instead of consuming your limited supply. You don't earn any while fighting a boss since you aren't killing anything until you finally beat it, so you might completely run out and then your only options are to just fight the boss normally (which is still fun mind you, but it's still missing out on some of the main combat mechanics which several bosses were specifically designed around) or give up for a while and farm fodder enemies to refill your emblem stockpiles. This flawed design choice led me to pretty much forget about ever using the tools, because there was no point being reliant on them if they could just run out and force me to farm which I have no intention of doing when I'm trying to beat an epic boss! Dark Souls 1 and 2 had spells and special attacks with limited uses that replenished when resting, Dark Souls 3 had FP that replenished when resting. And then Sekiro's cool powers rely on a currency that you are liable to run out of and must do some braindead MMORPG type farming if you want more. Seems backwards to me.

Sekiro is easily FromSoft's best looking game to date, and it certainly helps that there's actual vibrant colours for once. I loved exploring the environments as much as I did because they were beautiful works of art. The diversity of locations isn't quite as high as the Souls games but there's still enough eye candy to enjoy, and it helps that the level design is actually insanely good too. You know how each Dark Souls had progressively less intricate level design? This game finally goes back to having impressive level design reminiscent of Dark Souls 1 but with much more depth thanks to the freedom of movement and detail of the environments. At numerous points in the game I had 3 or 4 separate paths I could take, and each individual one usually splits up into different paths or is just generally pretty large. Sometimes I would take a path and end up back at a previous area and just be impressed by how well it's all connected. This isn't quite an open world game, but it feels very close to being one at times. I have very high hopes for Elden Ring now, since it's legit open world.

I may have beaten the game after 47 hours, but I'm far from finished with it; getting 100% achievements will be no easy feat as it's required to beat the game no less than 4 times. I played this game expecting a Dark Souls spinoff to keep me busy until Elden Ring, but I didn't realise just how incredible the experience would be. It's certainly flawed in some aspects, as is every game, but the overall experience is pretty damn close to a 10/10.