Video Game Reviews

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Review

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It's sad... for me... that this is the last time I will be playing a Soulsborne Game for the first time... I am going to miss this feeling, but let's get the previous Soulsborne game review out of the way, and yes I'm about to be biased as fuck again

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Premise: 

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice takes place during the Sengoku-Era of Japan, except if FromSoftware were the gods of the world and decided to bring Japanese Folklore to life. The game uses several Japanese Myths and fits them into the narrative, which makes it very interesting, and amazing to play. The lore, as always, is amazing, especially in this game.

Unlike the other Fromsoft games, there is no player customization since the character has already been created for us. We play as Wolf, who loses his left arm and is given a prosthetic arm, allowing him to use various tools... he also becomes Spider-Man with the grappling hook that the prosthetic arm. As we explore the world we discover that it exists within the Ashina Lands, which are all connected from the Ashina Outskirts, to the lower Sunken Valley, to the Senpou Temple in the Mountains and all ending at the Ashina Reservoir where the game begins and ends, with the scenery being... so breathtaking, honestly it gave me Gehrman vibes and I absolutely love it! The game has Sekiro go on a journey to free the lord of his bloodline that brings people back from the dead, claiming specific items like: The Mortal Blade, Dragons Tears, and other items, with the Mortal Blade being able to kill Sekiro's lord, since the Mortal Blade is created to kill the Undying... the issue here is that there is two of them, a black and red blade, with the black blade being able to resurrect souls from the Underworld. 

But... here comes the thing that surprised me... there was no DLC... well... kind of.

The DLC of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice isn't new areas or new enemies... kind of. What happened was that Fromsoftware released a free update to the game, allowing Wolf to gain three additional outfits, the ability to refight the boss fights, and the ability to leave Remnants (Messages for other players)... Yeah, kind of lackluster but it's additional content that I'll start doing eventually. 

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Gameplay:

This game... and it's... AMAZING GAMEPLAY!

Gone are the traditional ways of the Soulsborne games, and say hello to the combat of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. 

Sekiro's combat can be both a pain in the ass and so satisfying. You are left with only a couple of attack options, attacking, deflecting, and using the tools you have equipped with the prosthetic arm which can vary from axes, shields, spears, ninja stars, fans, assassin's creed whistle, and more. Attacking is well... it's the same animation thats used for the Katanas in the other Soulsborne games except you can spam it like a motherfucker since there is no stamina in this game which by the way.

YES! THANK YOU FROMSOFT!

Deflecting in this game, is basically parrying, except you can block and move away the attacks of other opponents in order to build their posture, what is posture you might ask? Their second health bar of Sekiro is their defense in other terms.

In Sekiro, the enemies have a normal health bar but now have a posture bar, if it's filled all the way Sekiro can pull off a deathblow allowing the player to kill the enemy with one hit, but they can recover if Sekiro isn't fast enough, but the game is very generous giving you about 5 seconds to perform the deathblow.