SEKIRO: SHADOWS DIE TWICE

Developer FromSoftware Publisher Activision Format PC, PS4, Xbox One

We will never forget the day we impressed Hidetaka Miyazaki. It was E3 2018, just a few days after FromSoftware had revealed Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice to the world. In a quiet, blissfully air-conditioned meeting room above the hubbub of the show floor, we asked him about his new game’s resurrection mechanic, which lets the protagonist get up after a fatal blow, taking revenge on an enemy who has turned their back on you. Did such a device mean Miyazaki was making an easier game? Or did it give him licence to make an even more difficult one? “Nice,” came the reply.

Nine months on from Sekiro’s release, it’s clear Miyazaki took the latter path. It may have been published by Activision, but this is no massmarket proposition; rather, it’s a game that takes the high difficulty and stern punishment for which FromSoftware’s work is so renowned and pushes it even further with a frighteningly exacting combat system. In most action games, the parry is a way of raising the skill ceiling, giving advanced players a way to show off by pushing the concept of risk and reward to its limits. Miyazaki, instead, built a whole game around it.

The result was a dizzyingly difficult game, yes, but all the more thrilling for it. If combat in the Souls games is about waiting for your turn – baiting an attack, then blocking or dodging it and getting in a few hits while your opponent recovers – in Sekiro fighting is about making it yours, of putting on pressure and not letting up until your foe has been truly run through. It may have been even harder to master than the studio’s previous games – and held back from true greatness by a spiky difficulty curve and camera problems – but this is another essential addition to the Miyazaki oeuvre regardless. Colour us impressed, too.