Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a strong contender for best combat in a FromSoftware game, and that’s nothing to scoff at. FromSoftware has played a pivotal role in revolutionizing action-RPG combat over the course of the last decade—games like God of War (2018) and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order simply wouldn’t exist without Dark Souls to inspire them—but Sekiro‘s finely tuned combat sandbox, where every fight is like a delicate and lethal ballet, is something truly special and unforgettable.
One of the many reasons why Sekiro‘s gameplay is so engaging and refreshing is how it rejects so many of the trends that define FromSoftware’s previous works. Pure defense isn’t really a viable playstyle in Sekiro, as there are no I-frames for dodges, and guarding against attacks can wind up doing more harm than good, since posture is often more important than health. Rather, players are encouraged to never let up against their foes, seize every opportunity to attack, and deflect blows with perfect timing to both negate damage and erode enemy posture. These myriad design choices result in a gameplay experience that is relentless, intense, and, ultimately, empowering. It’s hard to imagine how FromSoftware could top it, quite frankly.
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Miyazaki Thinks FromSoftware Can Top Sekiro’s Speed and Intensity
In an interview with Game Informer this past summer, FromSoftware boss Hidetaka Miyazaki touched on the creative success of Sekiro. He noted that Sekiro was a “turning point” for the studio, in the sense that it was the pinnacle of offense-defense balance up until that point. The game was born from years of tweaking defensive and offensive options since the days of Demon’s Souls and even King’s Field before it, so these comments definitely make sense.
Something he said that was considerably more surprising, however, is that he believes the studio can take the speed, action, and fluidity of Sekiro up “one more level.” For those who have experienced Sekiro‘s white-knuckle combat firsthand, this may seem like something of a ludicrous statement, and in some ways, it is. But if any developer could realize such lofty ambitions, it’s probably FromSoftware.
FromSoftware Has Been Making Its Games Progressively Faster
Between Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls 2, FromSoftware’s instantly recognizable combat design didn’t change all that much, at least not on a fundamental level. But when Bloodborne was introduced in 2015, it marked a decisive shift in FromSoftware’s combat philosophy. It still felt like Dark Souls in many ways, but defensive play was intentionally underdeveloped: shields were all but removed entirely, I-frames were reduced dramatically, and the traditional parry system was replaced with gun parrying, meaning that even a fundamental defensive option doubled as an offensive maneuver. These ideas seeped into Dark Souls 3 which, while still adhering to its series’ predecessors, featured a notably faster player-character and enemies, which encouraged a far more aggressive playstyle.
This trend reached its climax with Sekiro, which essentially strips all familiar defensive options from the player. Wolf, Sekiro‘s protagonist, isn’t concerned with hiding behind a shield or ducking and weaving around sword attacks. Rather, he attacks the enemy with his full ferocity, living up to his namesake. The game takes Bloodborne‘s melding of offense and defense to the next level, as the player’s only true offensive move, the perfect deflect, cuts down the enemy’s posture bar, making it so they are constantly edging closer to victory.
So, just like how Sekiro managed to take Bloodborne‘s speed and intensity to the next level, so too could a future FromSoftware game build on the foundation set by Sekiro. It might be a game that few could have anticipated, but that’s a big part of what makes FromSoftware such an exciting developer.
Carve your own clever path to vengeance in the critically acclaimed adventure from developer FromSoftware, creators of the Dark Souls series.
In Sekiro™: Shadows Die Twice you are the ‘one-armed wolf’, a disgraced and disfigured warrior rescued from the brink of death. Bound to protect a young lord who is the descendant of an ancient bloodline, you become the target of many vicious enemies, including the dangerous Ashina clan. When the young lord is captured, nothing will stop you on a perilous quest to regain your honor, not even death itself.
Explore late 1500s Sengoku Japan, a brutal period of constant life and death conflict, as you come face to face with larger than life foes in a dark and twisted world. Unleash an arsenal of deadly prosthetic tools and powerful ninja abilities while you blend stealth, vertical traversal, and visceral head to head combat in a bloody confrontation. Take Revenge. Restore Your Honor. Kill Ingeniously.
- Released
- March 22, 2019
- Engine
- Proprietary Engine
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Violence
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty