Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019)

This game is one of highs and lows. When combat clicks, its absolutely wonderful, and some of the boss battles in particular are just wonderful. Exhilirating, tense, tough, beautifully presented and memorably executed as part of the overall narrative. But at its low points, this game is incredibly frustrating to the point where playing it can feel masochistic. This one might depend on how well you click with the game of course.

For me it's sort of a 'game of two halves', where I struggled to truly grasp the combat up until I reached Genichiro Ashina. Fighting him again and again and again, I slowly began to grasp how the combat system worked, unlearning the habits I picked up in Bloodborne. Beating him took so long, and was so exhausting, that I questioned whether I wanted to continue.

But encouragement that the skills I learned would transfer to the rest of the game proved true. Everything after was a much more memorable and wonderful experience, one where I felt a match to the game's challenges, rather than feeling like the game was trying to punish me. It's absolutely worth pushing through the tough experiences to get to the good, but not having the patience for it is totally understandable. I'm kind of amazed I did, but I'm also really glad that I did.

After many mini-bosses and million screw ups and therefore deaths. I managed to beat the first actual boss. This game isn’t a Souls game and that is a good thing. Only remembrance to souls’ game is hard difficulty and death penalty, that’s it. Unlike souls game this is actual “get gud” type of game. I don’t see a way of over leveling and killing everything with pure grind alone. Combat is fast paced and challenging. Timing really mater in this because of huge use of counter attack mechanic.

I really like the game so far. The stealth type of gameplay and open world gives me an option how I like to deal with my enemies even though sometimes game forces the pure action approach.

Impression - 3/23/2019

I got a good tip about adding spoiler tags to these posts, so I think I will start doing that, especially now that I am getting a bit further into the game. That way I can also be a bit more specific with my section titles.

Finishing off the first memory (Shinobi Hunter, Drunkard and Lady Butterfly)

• Coming back to the game, I had to make several runs at the Shinobi hunter. I found him to be pretty tough at first, but now that I am past him, I do see it as a classic From Software gatekeeping boss. It really becomes a pretty easy fight once you learn the moveset and especially if you get the skill to counter thrust attacks. What's tougher about this fight is the enemies surrounding the Shinobi Hunter that you will need to clear out before each attempt. The player is given a pretty easy route to the hunter (so far I feel that Sekiro has been better about routes to the bosses than the other From Software games that I've played), but you still will need to clear out 4 enemies in the same area as the hunter. On one hand, I think maybe this is meant to be a stealth check since there is so much in this area that points you towards that approach, but then I feel like it doesn't quite work with the hunter. You can take off his first death blow easily via stealth, but you will still have to learn to fight him for the second. This can be hard to learn given the amount of time you will need to take between attempts. Maybe it would have worked better with a general miniboss that the player would already be familiar with. First time fighting a Shinobi hunter should have been a bit more isolated, I think.

• After getting through the Shinobi Hunter, I was able to get up to the Drunkard without any issues. By this point I had learned the two-hit combo move which helps immensely with clearing low-tier enemies quickly. There was another big hammer guy in the way, and this time I couldn't find a viable way to kill him via stealth. I was able to clear out the other enemies and actually found that he wasn't too hard to fight. His moves have a lot of startup and are pretty easy to dodge and then get in several hits. The other From Software games I've played have had similar enemies: big, intimidating guys that are actually not too tough once you figure out their move set. I really like enemies like this because they make the player feel really accomplished. These games tend to be about outsmarting the opponent and big dumb enemies like this really dive this point home.

• Right before the Drunkard fight, there is a nice scene with Wolf's adoptive father. I don't have much to say about it, but it was a nice moment for both the characters and it takes place in a pretty striking area visually. Overall, this memory has had a really exciting escalation as you move from the quiet nighttime river towards the burning estate.

• The Drunkard. Oh boy, the Drunkard. Before I get into the fight its self, I just want to quickly touch on the buildup to the fight. You find the nearby Samurai and can ask him to help you in the fight. From his dialogue, I get the impression that he does not really like Wolf, but he does respect him and is willing to put aside those feelings to save their master. The moment of the two of you running up towards the Drunkard and his henchmen felt really dramatic. I think this is a good example of how satisfying these games can be with more of a focus on the narrative. It felt really exciting to be teaming up with him to quickly turn the odds in our favor.

• Unfortunately, both me and my friend died. Many times. This fight was a bigger road block for me than anything else so far. However, I didn't find myself getting too frustrated (aside from a couple of times I got the Drunkard down to one hit and died). There is a really easy and safe route from the nearest bonfire to the fight, so it is only a matter of a minute or so to get back into the fight. On top of that, you can easily take out three of the enemies through stealth before triggering the fight. Through my (many) attempts of this fight, I got that great feeling of slowly getting better and better. I went from relying on my Samurai buddy to even clear out the small enemies to being able to take them all out on my own without being hit before calling in my backup. When I finally beat him, I basically had the Drunkard's moves memorized. I still didn't always execute perfectly, but I at least knew what openings to look for. I beat him with just a sliver of health left. It felt so satisfying and gave me a lot of confidence going forward. I was able to take out something like 6 enemies at once with a miniboss that can kill me in 2 hits chasing me the whole time. This was the moment that those enemies stopped feeling as threatening to me. Although these games have overt leveling up systems, I've always thought about how they make you feel like you have leveled up just through your actual experience rather than gamified experience. At this point I didn't have any more health or do any more damage, but these early enemies not felt pretty trivial to me. Unfortunately, my Samurai friend died in the friend. I wonder what he would say had he survived.

• After this it was a pretty quick path towards Lady Butterfly. The bonfire is only one hallway away from the fight, with only one archer in the way. This archer is such a little threat that I struggles to understand why he is even there. Is it just a design philosophy that there should never be a checkpoint outside of a boss without any obstacles on the way? I might be getting confused here, but I'm pretty sure you find the son of the woman who gave you the bell here. He is wounded and gives you one consumable item to dispel illusions. This is something I really do dislike about these games. There are often bosses that are made easier with (or sometimes require) a certain consumable item. This is so frustrating to me because it is a design choice that hurts players that are struggling. A high-level player may be able to beat Lady Butterfly the first try and it won't matter that they only had one dispel item. But a player who is struggling, and could really use the extra help of the item, will probably die and waste it. This wouldn't be as bad if there were a way to buy more of the item, but at this point I did not have an option to do so. Even then, that would mean mindlessly grinding up money to buy more (this problem already exists with the prosthetic attacks since they use up a finite resource you need to grind to get more of). Personally, this just meant that I didn't use the item to beat her. I knew that I would die and waste it, so I figured that I might as well learn to beat her without it from the start. It turns out that Lady Butterfly is not too tough anyway. I definitely found her easier than both the Shinobi Hunter and the Drunkard. I abused the roll>attack pattern to get her stuck in a chain for large chunks of her health. I have heard some people refer to this strategy as cheese, but the game specifically points out this technique to you prior to the fight, so I think it is actually meant to be a viable option. In general, I don't like the gatekeeping attitude in the Souls community when it comes to "cheesing" a fight. These games are tough, and like I said earlier, I really think they are about outsmarting your opponent. Sometimes that means memorizing their moves so you can perfectly parry all their attacks, and sometimes it means learning to exploit their weakness.

• After beating Lady Butterfly, we get to see the moment where Wolf is infused with Dragon Blood. This of course makes no sense because we have been coming back to life through this whole memory.

Chained Ogre, Third General, Headless

• Back in present day, with increased attack power, I made quick work on the chained ogre. I wonder how much getting the increased damage early helped with this fight, because I have seen some people having trouble with it. Although I found it easy, I did enjoy this fight a lot just because I though the chained ogre using wrestling moves (I got powerbombed at one point!) was pretty funny.

• Next up was the third general. Similarly to the Shinobi Hunter, this area had several enemies to clear out before fighting the general. This was a bit easier here, because the area was spacious enough that you could kill enemies in the back of the area without getting the general's attention. There was one enemy that would simple beat a pot to signal an alarm. I'm not sure what this enemy really did. The enemies still searched for me pretty normally. This general had a more robust moveset, using both lunges and sweeps. He killed me a couple of times, but once I got his moves down I beat him without much problem.

• From here, the path branched a bit. I jumped down some cliffs and into a cave. The atmosphere here was really great. I could barely see ahead of me, but I heard some spooky noises. It's moments like these that I really love these games. It really gave me a sense of adventure to have just found this cave in what seemed to be off the beaten path. First time through, I just passed through the cave without checking the noise. On the other side, I wrapped back around to the chained ogre area and opened a shortcut there. I decided to head back to the cave and found the Headless at the bottom. In order to hit him, I had to use some magic confetti. I only had three and ended up wasting them all without killing the headless. Luckily, this fight seems optional for now. There was another path in the cave that I followed to reveal a hidden path. It was just like the room in the temple, with an outline of a man in ash. I was expecting this would loop back around to the temple, but it actually brought me to an entirely new area. In here I found a weird enemy crawling on the walls. This actually spooked me the first time, but it turns out the enemy is pretty weak. Outside there is a bell that will give you a curse, making enemies tougher in exchange for better rewards. Luckily, it is easily dispelled. I think that is a cool idea for good players to get ahead quickly, but it is absolutely not for me.

• So, I have left off kind of lost. All paths I have explored have led to dead ends, but at least I cleared out a lot of minibosses and feel much more capable than yesterday!

Impressions - 3/22/2019

I didn't get to play too much yesterday and with a lot of the basics down yesterday, this should be a shorter entry.

First Memory

• The grapple hook mechanic, when coupled with the stealth mechanics, adds an interesting dynamic to combat scenarios. I've personally found myself sneaking around, picking off enemies when I can and then grappling away to hide for a while when it gets too hot. On one hand, this loop feels fitting for a shinobi character, but it is admittedly pretty game-y the way in which enemies will quickly go back to their normal routine after chasing Wolf for a while. That said, I think that these games have always had some game-y elements to them so I don't find that I mind it much. The bigger issue I foresee with it is the time it takes. The loop of sneak > strike > hide > sneak can take a good while of waiting if the area is dense with enemies. I think that this makes death feel especially punishing.

• I was pleased with myself that I got to the first mini-boss without much trouble. I died to him once, but beat him the second time no problem. I saw a tooltip that mentioned you can jump over sweep attacks and then jump off the enemy's head for significant posture damage. I only pulled this off once, so I wish that it was a technique you could practice with the soldier at the temple.

• On the topic of posture, I am finding so far that I really struggle to read it. I understand how it all works, but in the heat of a fight I am struggling to keep track of: enemy attacks, my posture, his posture. So far it hasn't been too much of an issue, I just keep parrying until the death blow is available. Still, I wish I had better awareness of posture so I could experiment with what worked best. For instance, there are some enemies that I find it is safer to simply rush down with quick strikes and others that you really need to wait for parries. As of now, I'm not sure if this is something I will be able to gauge better with experience, or if there is a weakness in the UI representation of posture.

• After the mini-boss, I got through a nice, open area that really allowed me to plan out my approach. All in all, the area here was spread out enough that it wasn't too difficult to divide and conquer here. There was one big enemy here that I tried to fight briefly, but I found he was quite tough. I backed off for a bit and then was easily able to sneak up on him and get a stealth kill. To me, this further emphasizes that I think Sekiro wants the player to approach encounters with stealth in mind.

• Shortly after this, I received the bell from the old woman and went back to the temple. It is at this point that I should express my disappointment that the player is able to teleport between any bonfire right from the beginning. The game does also let the player purchase items or level up without resetting the enemies. Like I mentioned yesterday, I do think that this is a mistake, but given the new level up system I don't think it is too open to abuse.

• I was pleasantly surprised to see a flashback level like this. I wonder if the game will continue to mix one large connected world in present day with a series of self-contained flashback levels. In this way, they could sort of create a combo of Dark Souls and Demon Souls.

• I found the guy in a barrel selling items for fish scales. He's the type of weird, mysterious character that I think people love to see in these games. In particular, he reminded me a bit of a sidequest in Majora's Mask where you encounter a hand sticking out of a toilet. He sells what seems like pretty significant items for this point of the game. I couldn't tell if the nearby fish were respawning, so I just picked up the refillable fire resistance and moved on. There is a nearby bonfire, so I figured it would be easy to return when I need to. However, this whole exchange was a real time paradox that again felt very game-y. This section is supposed to be 3 years in the past and yet when I buy the fire resistance here I now magically have it in the present. This is already a bit of a problem considering that you can freely teleport between the past and present. Are the bonfires able to send someone into their memories, or is this just a contrivance?

• Compared to the previous area, the memory has you fight in much more constrained spaces. This makes each encounter a bit tougher, both for stealth and standard combat, but it also makes it so that you can skip a lot of fights once you have found the correct route. I also found my first shortcut here. It wasn't a huge time save, but still it felt pretty satisfying to know that there were a couple areas I would not have to return to.

• I found a couple of new upgrades for my prosthetic, one of which was an ax. I quickly encountered a couple of enemies that seemed to require this new ax attack. Unfortunately, I would need to go all the way back to the bonfire, travel to the temple and talk with the sculptor (again this creates a time-paradox). Now that I think of it, perhaps I could have done all that without actually "resting" at a bonfire and the enemies would have stayed dead? I may have to test this in the future.

• I made it to what looked like my first fog wall, but there were some enemies and a mini-boss with a spear in the way. I picked everyone but the spear enemy off pretty easily and got my first death blow on the spear guy via stealth. He then completed wrecked me and I decided to call it quits for the night.

Impressions - 3/21/2019

On Spoilers

As this is the first of my journal-style impressions for Sekiro, I figured that I should be upfront about how I will handle spoilers here. For me, impressions will serve as a series of off-the-cuff notes I will take as I play the game. They won't be comprehensive and it should not be treated as a review. I will not be pulling any punches when it comes to spoilers, but I will be doing my best to organize my impressions by general "segments". Therefore, I hope that people may be able to follow along with notes on segments they have already completed. For a game like Sekiro, there is a unique challenge here given the non-linearity of the game. What I see as the first boss may not be what other players encounter as the first boss. So, I am going to try to do my best not to blindside anyone with spoilers, but this is your warning that you will always be at risk from this point on.

Setting context

Before we get started, I wanted to briefly give my background with these types of games. I will likely be comparing and contrasting Sekiro to other games, so I think it's best that you know what my relevant experience is. I have played both Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne, but I have not beaten either of them. Off-hand I could not give an accurate count of how many hours I am into each game, but i have put in significant hours into each. Of the two, I have more hours as well as progress in Dark Souls. Despite not yet finishing either, I think both are good games. Dark Souls in particular I think is a great game, while Bloodborne is a step down. The reasons why aren't relevant here, but since I have not beaten either game I should note that my opinion could easily change. These games are tough, and I am not very good at them. On top of that, they both make me anxious in a way that I sometimes find makes it hard to play them for extended sessions. As far as non-From Software games in the genre goes, the only other relevant game I have played is Hollow Knight. Similarly to DS and BB, I have yet to beat Hollow Knight, but have put in a good amount of time. I like HK, but I would say that it doesn't quite scratch the itch as well as DS or BB, even if it may be better for what it is. It may seem strange that I would play Sekiro even though I have yet to complete one of these games, but they do offer a sense of discovery and adventure that very few games can match. Off the top of my head, only Zelda scratches this itch (and at it's best, does it better), and those happen to be among my favorite games. So, I am optimistic and excited to play Sekiro. I find the setting appealing, although I am not expert on it. More importantly, it is a genre and developer that I have enjoyed in the past, and I think still has potential to be even better.

With all of that out of the way, let's finally get into impressions.

Tutorial Area

• Right off the bat, we see an opening cutscene. Similarly to Dark Souls, this works to quickly get the player up to speed on the state of the world that the game will take place. Unlike Dark Souls, there is a much greater focus on the player-character (Wolf) and sets up his personal relationship with the world as well as a couple of characters (his "father" and his master). I suspect that this will be a decisive change for the series (maybe it's not fair to lump Sekiro into the Soulsborne umbrella, but for now I am). I think that many fans enjoy the more vague narratives of previous games. It let's players have fun trying to figure out what exactly is going on in the world and it reinforces exploration - something I consider a core tenet of the Souls-like design. In addition, this robs the player of the ability to roleplay their own character. You are wolf, not a thief, knight, mage, etc. of the player's design. Personally, I have been wanting From Software to make a game with a more overt narrative for years. I quite enjoy piecing together the lore of these games as well, but I've always felt a disconnect in the way that characters talk in esoteric circles. I think these games are meant to be immersive. The punishing difficulty is less there to make the game hard, but more to force the player to approach situations realistically. If I were really trapped deep underground with a bunch of monsters, I would approach with caution and try to find any advantage i can before having to fight. These games tend to reward this attitude by often rewarding clever solutions with an easier time and punishing over-aggressive behavior. However, when it comes to narrative, the attitude has been almost opposite. Characters do not act realistically and the player-character seems uninterested in asking any relevant questions. Part of this is unequal knowledge. The player-character is part of the world already, so naturally they will understand the significance of certain things that the player would not. Still, I don't think any reasonable person would stay silent through the events of Dark Souls like the player-character does and instead the obscurity of the story comes across as a contrivance more than anything. I think there is a middle-ground to be found: a more direct character-driven drama set in mysterious world. That is, a clear plot with more obscure lore. I am hopeful that the setup for the story here seems to signal that From Software is trying to find this balance.

• There is no option to customize the character before the game begins. This fits well into how the story is being presented. Wolf is a character with an established and relevant history prior to the player controlling him. They probably could still have had some customization (what type of Shinobi is he?) but I think it is perfectly reasonable to not have any.

• The scene right before the game begins proper, where a woman throws down a note to Wolf, reminds me visually of the opening to Dark Souls. I wonder if this an intentional allusion or if I am just reading too much into it.

• This may sound like a nit-pick, but I think it is a poor introduction to the game visually to have Wolf begin with low health. When on low-health there is a red vignette effect on the border of the screen. This, in addition to being night, makes it hard to really take in the environment. I think that the game is meant to make you feel disoriented and weak, but I'm not sure it was worth it. Starting without the sword is enough to make the player cautious, I think.

• Another big change we see right away is the introduction of stealth mechanics. You can crawl through grass, sidle up against walls like Solid Snake and perform stealth kills. It is a fascinating direction to take, and fitting of a game about a Shinobi. For now, it doesn't seem especially fleshed out, but I will reserve judgement for now.

• Eavesdropping further establishes two things for the player: 1. Taking a cautious, stealthy approach can allow you to hear useful info and 2. The plot is going to be more fleshed out here than in previous games.

• As for combat, Sekiro seems to heavily incentivize defensive, patient play. This fits how I like to play these games, so i am happy to see that even though there is not a stamina meter the game is not asking the player to roll constantly. There is a segment of the fandom that swears off defensive, shield-heavy play as inherently inferior in the Dark Souls games, so they may be turned off by this.

• Visually, I would say Sekiro looks pretty good. The animation is nice (killing blows are especially satisfying) and lighting is striking. As you might expect, there is a strong sense of visual design. The world has many little details that flesh out the setting (the large bridge over the moat tells you that someone important lives on the other side) and the game funnels you into some nicely framed sights. That said, coming off of Devil May Cry 5, the actual fidelity of the models is not particularly impressive, pretty average for the console.

• One thing that really strikes me about Sekiro is how differently I am approaching it compared to other games, even in this opening section. I am taking a much slower approach and really taking in the environment to see if I can find alternate routes that may benefit me. I'm not sure if this is just due to the reputation of these games, or strong design. Probably a combination of the two.

• Near the end of this section, I look back to see an item hanging under the bridge. I considered going back for it, but to me there would be no reason for Wolf to backtrack for it. He had cleared the way and I felt a sense of urgency to escape with the kid as quick as possible. To be clear, I'm not saying it is bad that you can go out of your way for items, I think it is actually good. I just thought it was an interesting window into how I approached these games from a roleplaying perspective.

• Finishing off this section, we have a false boss fight (a fight that you are meant to lose). This has become a pretty common trope, but I am still a fan. It's a proven way to set up the player for accomplishment later. I suspect we will fight this guy again and when I beat him, it will signal how far I have come, both as player and character. This sequence sets up an overt villain and goal for the player. This is a big change, but one I think is good.

Safe Area

• There is probably a more official name for this location, but it is clearly the Firelink Shrine of this game: a safe spot with some NPCs. I think this is the last time I will harp on this, but it is again noteworthy just how much narrative we get here. There is still a lot of mystery, but characters are willing to talk much more than previous games, and you can even pick from a list of topics to ask the characters about.

• We hear a bit about Dragon's Blood and how we have it. Apparently it allows us to continue coming back to life after we die. The woman who healed us seems at least somewhat surprised to see us walking again, so this much be at least somewhat uncommon. What is interesting to me is that the nearby soldier is able to resurrect when we fight him. Does he have the dragon blood too? What are the implications here? Is it something you are born with, or was it transfused at some point? The soldier seems disappointed when he resurrects, so it seems like the game will explore the implications of this beyond an excuse for reviving in the game.

• The woman mentions that her master has ordered her to help us, but keeps their identity secret. This is immediately suspicious to me.

• There is a side path near the old man who crafted our new arm. Following it we come to an empty room with a body outlined on one of the walls in ash. I thought I was being clever by sidling up against it to match my body to the outline, but I still just got a message that it was locked from the other side. I am hopeful that this will be a shortcut in the future. The interconnected nature of Dark Souls 1 is one of the biggest factors that really drew me into the world. I don't think that Bloodborne really quite matched that feeling, and from what I hear DS2 and 3 do not either. I am hoping that Sekiro manages to feel like an interconnected world rather than a series of branches that wrap upon themselves but not the other branches.

• We get our first bonfire equivalent here. I know it has its own name, but I have forgotten it. I hope you will excuse me when I use terms from the previous games like this, I will also probably keep doing it. What I find interesting about the bonfire is that it does not heal you or revive enemies unless you choose to rest. That makes me wonder what else you will be able to do there? I am a bit worried that you will be able to level up or shop without having to rest. The previous games present this nice dilemma to the player: You have cleared out an area and now have a lot of souls to spend. You can safely backtrack to the bonfire to spend them, but then you will need to clear out the area again. You can press on, but you risk losing everything before you find another bonfire. This dilemma is an interesting "push your luck" situation on own, but it also supports exploration. When you find a shortcut back to a bonfire, not only do you get the satisfaction of opening a more direct route for the future, but it also a signals a moment to safely spend the souls you've acquired.

• Speaking of that estus flask, I just want to say that I am really happy to see the mechanic return. In Bloodborne, estus is replaced with single-use healing items. I thought this was a pretty regressive design. These games are tough and it meant that players like me would have to grind between boss attempts so that I would have enough healing items. The process of grinding was not challenging, satisfying or memorable. It was just frustrating. I think it is okay for me to struggle with a tough game. I do not think it is ok for a tough game to punish struggling players with menial tasks.