A di f f iculty of epic proportions

Yet, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice offers a rewarding experience, writes Aiman Maulana

THE Dark Souls series of games is known for its extreme difficulty but it inspired a line of games with great entertainment value. The same developer has returned with a new game that has a similar sense of struggle. It’s called Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice takes place in a reimagining of 16th century Sengoku in Japan. At the end of the Sengoku era, warlord Isshin Ashina stages a bloody coup and seizes the land of Ashina. During this time, a nameless orphan is adopted by the wandering shinobi (mercenary) Owl, who names the orphan Wolf.

Twenty years later, the Ashina clan is on the brink of collapse. Desperate to find a way to prevent the fall of his clan, Isshin’s grandson Genichiro captures the Divine Heir Kuro, in hopes of using his Dragon Heritage to create an immortal army.

Wolf, now a full-fledged shinobi and Kuro’s bodyguard, attempts to stop Genichiro but is defeated and his left arm is cut off.

Miraculously, Wolf survives his wounds thanks to the Dragon Heritage and finds himself in an abandoned temple.

In the temple, he meets the Sculptor, a former shinobi who replaces Wolf’s lost arm with the Shinobi Prosthetic, a sophisticated artificial arm that can wield a variety of gadgets and weaponry. With a new lease on life, Wolf sets out for Ashina Castle to save Kuro.

REWARDING

At its core, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is an action role-playing game with a difficulty of epic proportions. The best way to describe the game is Onimusha spliced with the Dark Souls DNA. Players face a variety of enemies. Many battles will not be in your favour if you aren’t prepared or your sense of timing is bad.

The first part of the game teaches basic actions, including eavesdropping, movement and combat.

With movement, dodging is key as you will need to time it accordingly in enemy attacks. If you dodge too early or too late, the enemy attacks will hit you and quite possibly kill you. I say possibly because it doesn’t take much for you to die in this game.

You will be able to fend off enemies as soon as you obtain your katana in the game. It’s not as simple as slashing your enemies to death as they will almost always block after a few hits. You have to time your dodges or defend as soon as an attack is about to hit. This will create an opening and lead to lots of damage.

Another key element in combat is the Posture Gauge. The gauge is present for both yourself and the enemies, and it fills up when deflecting incoming attacks from enemies or taking damage.

When the gauge has been filled up, the user will be in a vulnerable state. The player will be staggered and not allowed to defend but the enemies will be allowed to perform a Deathblow, an attack that will instantly kill them.

Gamers will have to be extra careful as some enemies have access to Perilous Attacks, which cannot be guarded against. Gamers will have to perform the right counter for it is like a rock-paper-scissors game based on the enemy’s attack stance. If direct combat isn’t your thing, stealth is an option as you can sneak behind enemies and swiftly land Deathblow attacks on them.

The addition of this simple system to the Dark Souls formula makes for a surprisingly refreshing and rewarding combat experience.

Sure, the difficulty can be frustrating and enemies will require multiple Deathblows to kill them but if you can overcome this, you will enjoy a smooth yet exhilarating gameplay experience.

When the game first starts out, gamers go through a rather linear path. This is particularly important as it gives a good feel of the world of the game. This will go on until midway through the game when you are allowed to explore the world at your leisure.

In a sense, the game holds your hand until you’re truly ready to experience everything that it has to offer. This by no means makes the first half of the game easy, just that, it becomes exponentially harder later on.The downside is that when it happens, you may end up feeling lost and unsure of what to do. The best thing you can do is travel around and eventually you’ll find your way to your objectives again.

To maximise survivability, you need to take everything you can get, from items to experience points. While some items are rather straightforward like healing items, there are some which serve a specific purpose, which is to strengthen your character. While experience points can be used to power up your character via the skill tree, you need to find the specific item to unlock a specific part of the tree.

You will also be travelling the world and discovering new gadgets to equip your Shinobi Prosthetic. While this may sound a bit troublesome, it does give you a purpose for travelling the world aside from achieving the main aims. You need upgrades to survive the latter portions of the game.

CONCLUSION

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a difficult, yet rewarding game that allows many action role-playing game enthusiasts to have a great time. Due to the sheer difficulty, it’s not a game for everyone and introducing an easier difficulty may ruin the overall experience.

If Dark Souls and difficult games are to your liking, then this will be a great addition to your library. I award Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice an eight out of 10 rating.

PROS

• Smooth and exhilarating combat experience.

• Posture Gauge system adds depth to combat.

• Enthralling storyline.

• Shinobi Prosthetic customisation is surprisingly fun.

• Early parts of the game are designed to ease you into it.

CONS

• Notorious difficulty makes it unsuitable for many gamers.

• Players may find themselves lost midway through the game.

• It’s a game that many may never complete.