Shinobi Execution.

Since the release of Demon’s Souls, FromSoftware has developed a reputation for crafting intricate worlds and filling them to the brim with all manner of creatures that are eager to murder every adventurer they come across with extreme prejudice.

While their catalogue of exceptional games is well known mostly for their difficulty, I’ve always felt that the challenge presented was but one cog in a large, well-oiled machine. The enemy and level designs, the meticulous pacing, the tight, responsive controls and the lore lying hidden within the world were all just as important pieces to the whole. It’s a delicate balance where if even one single component fails, the entire thing could come tumbling down.

FromSoft’s newest release, “Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice” is emblematic to this elegant balancing act and one that is executed with such grace and expert proficiency that I can say without reservation or hyperbole that it is an absolute masterpiece.

A beautiful night for a duel to the death.

MSRP: $59.99
Platforms: PS4, X1, PC
Played on: PC
PC Specs: i5 4570k Geforce 1080
Length: 25~ hours for first playthrough with multiple endings

As a Shinobi, Wolf serves his young master Kuro with absolute loyalty.

As the heir to the divine blood, Kuro possess the power to grant immortality to those he deems worthy. However, such tremendous gifts can oftentimes become a curse, as those who seek to use the divine heir for their own ambitions kidnap him, and fatally wound Wolf in the process.

Waking up in a dilapidated temple, Wolf finds a prosthetic arm attached in place of his severed arm and vows to rescue his master, through any means necessary.

The world presented in Sekiro is a re-imagining of 16th century Japan- a tumultuous era known for the blood that was shed on innumerable battlefields. The intricate architecture and stunning vistas of nature paints a world that is equal parts beautiful as well as it is brutal and unforgiving as piles of dead bodies line the streets.

Complementing the stellar visuals and art direction, I found the PC port of Sekiro to be very well optimized, easily maintaining its high fidelity throughout my entire playthrough without any issues. As it was installed on a SSD, the load times were minimal as well, with the longest instances averaging about 8 to 10 seconds at the maximum. Given FromSoft’s somewhat troubled past with PC ports, it was reassuring to have such a pain-free experience which all but guarantees that I will play the next FromSoft game on a PC as well. However, if you fancy yourself a PC enthusiast, don’t expect to have a myriad of graphical options to micromanage, as such options are kept to the bare essentials.

Exploring and taking in the sights of various locales in war-torn Japan was helped by the use of the grappling hook installed in the Wolf’s prosthetic arm. After zeroing in on a nearby grappling point, I could quickly zip to that location with a simple press of a button and when there were multiple grapple points in proximity, I often found myself flying around the map with ease, getting from place to place with incredible speeds all while staying out of line of sight from patrolling guards.

Verticality is often the most underutilized element in a 3D environment but in Sekiro, it’s one that I found crucial to my success. After all, why would I ever want to walk in the streets when I could be maneuvering between rooftops getting the bird’s eye view of all the enemy locations?

I’m not saying that I would cut off my own arm to have a grappling hook installed on it but I’m just saying that if I somehow lost my arm, I would most definitely want to have a grappling hook installed in there.

I could also hang from ledges, shimmy across tight spaces, duck under floorboards and hide my presence in the tall grass with little effort. Given my wide range of mobility, the stealthy approach was not only practical, but the wisest choice of action.

A stealth take down from behind or above scored an instant kill against most enemies that weren’t bosses, mini or otherwise. In fact, it became a common trend to begin an encounter with a mini-bosses with a stealth attack so that I could clearly shave half of their life before the fight even begins. Given how they could be just as difficult as full blown bosses, if not more in certain cases, starting the fight with such a massive advantage made all the difference.

Wolf’s prosthetic arm found more uses outside of its native grappling hook feature since as I found new compatible parts for the arm, it gained new functions. The very first to be discovered was a shuriken attachment that allowed me to rapidly throw out shurikens to inflict light damage or interrupt enemies. A favorite of mine, the firecracker was able to momentarily stun enemies and disable hostile beasts for a time. Each of the ten attachments hidden around the environments served a unique purpose and as I used crafting parts to upgrade them over time, they became even more useful.

Due to the variety of tools at my disposal, I often found myself experimenting to see what kind of interaction my weapons had with difficult situations and even boss fights themselves.

A good example was at an area known as the gun fort, where there are snipers positioned all over the cliff side and I was trying to make my way through dodging bullets and fighting enemies all at the same time.

When I came across a long bridge, I found that there was no cover for me to take, and after trying to jump dodge a barrage of bullets, I fell to my death. Undeterred from a rather embarrassing death, I thought “maybe…” and decided to brave the bridge again but this time used the umbrella shield prosthetic and grinned as the bullets bounced off the umbrella harmlessly as I made my way across the bridge.

This was just one such situation out of dozens where I simply thought, “maybe…” and was delighted to find that not only was my strategy a viable option, but generally a better approach to the situation at hand. After all, Wolf was no samurai warrior bound by the code of the bushido, he is a shinobi and using every tool at his disposal to complete his mission is the shinobi’s mantra.

Snap, Crackle and Pop.

As useful as the stealthy approach might be, sometimes there’s no escaping a duel to the death and in those moments, I had no choice but to fight.

Luckily, the combat engine in Sekiro is as unique as it is enjoyable. Even though Wolf is quick on his feet with his ability to jump at will and dodge out of harm’s way. It was more often than not best to just face my enemy head on, guarding and parrying their attacks. The typical life bar one would expect an enemy to have is present here in the form of their vitality, but the much more important thing to keep on eye on was their posture. As they guarded my attacks and took damage, their posture meter would fill up and once it was completely full, they would become susceptible to a deathblow attack, taking off a full life bar.

I could also reduce their posture by guarding at the exact moment their attacks connected with my sword, parrying their blow. Unlike most other titles where a parry is featured, it didn’t necessary give me a window of opportunity to counter attack right away as depending on the attack patterns, they would continue their onslaught. If I simply guarded their attack without parrying, my own posture meter would fill, and when it became completely full, I would lose my ability to guard for a time leaving me open to attack.

There were some attacks that couldn’t be parried and had to be avoided by jumping or doing a special counter designated to be used specifically against piercing attacks.

So the general flow of combat went along the lines of me parrying the enemy’s attack, counterattacking to do a bit of vitality and/or posture damage and dodging or countering unblockable moves until I had my window of opportunity to perform a deathblow.

As I learned the attack patterns and trained my muscle memory to the various enemy types, I became more and more proficient in the art of parrying and after a few hours, the combat engine completely clicked and I was able to change my mentality to not over rely on one strategy.

However, given that the mechanics in Sekiro are unique, I did take my fair share of deaths before I became comfortable. Death in Sekiro can cost a heavy toll as there is no way to simply go back to where you died to get everything back but luckily, in Sekiro, shadows die twice and sometimes even three times.

Dying didn’t necessary mean going back to the nearest idol, as I was given the option to resurrect on the spot thanks to Kuro’s benevolence. This meant that almost every single time that I died, I had to die twice in quick succession. As the saying goes, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, well I just lost half my money and some experience. Since the experience was used to unlock new combat arts and passive abilities, it was painful to lose but when I came across a worthy boss or mini-boss, I would spend my skill points first to minimize the burden of death. Even falling into a pit didn’t mean instant death as I was just brought back to the nearest solid ground with half of my HP missing.

However, during the times that I would die too many times in a row, the various NPCs in the world were stricken with Dragonrot, which reduced the percentage chance that I could avoid the usual penalty for death, but I found curing Dragonrot was a simple matter and it never really played a big role in my playthrough.

Despite what many claim, I firmly believe that Sekiro is the “fairest” FromSoft game yet, as I almost never fully took a death and thought it was anyone but my fault that I died.

The very few times that I could legitimately blame the game were in situations where I was in an enclosed area and the camera decided to get stuck behind a wall or a tree branch, obscuring my vision. Despite all the advancements in game design, I feel that the 3rd person camera might be one beast that will never fully be tamed.

Kill smart, not hard.

Sekiro is an experience that is akin to a revelation.

The joyous sense of freedom in being able to engage and disengage a situation as I effortlessly transitioned between stealth and combat- the feeling of excitement as the awe-inspiring bosses and set pieces set the bar to new heights both in spectacle and design, Sekiro is a masterpiece that will influence future games to come for generations.

Fun Tidbit – If you think that this game might not be for you based on all the overblown reports of its difficulty, I recommend that you give it a try anyway as the more than any other FromSoft title, it promotes and rewards clever planning and creative use of in-game mechanics.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.