I'll start by saying I expect this to be down-vote brigaded. This game is not only in its honeymoon phase, but it's also from a (deservedly) highly-respected studio. But maybe after the confetti has settled and people start taking a more critical look at this game, this post will claw its way up from the depth to relate with what I see to be the inevitable coming criticisms and comparisons to FROM's other fantastic games.
This is all in sort of stream-of-consciousness, so don't expect great structure with this "review". Just wanted to get my thoughts out there on some particulars of the game.
The Environments: I understand Sekiro has a theme: Sengoku Period Japan. In fact, this was all the marketing ever talking about during pre-release. But holy-shit, FROM took almost no chances with Sekiro in designing the areas. People asked incessantly if there is a "twist" in Sekiro much in the way that Bloodborne has one when it>! shifts from Gothic Nightmare to Lovecraftian Horror!<, and the answer is NO. NO there is not. The game remains in ancient Japanese temples, towers, castles, and forests the entire time and outside of enemies, environment and art motifs from the beginning of the game to the end are nearly identical. There are some horror elements later in the game, but they're not particularly imaginative or surprising giving FROM's pedigree and come across as a natural progression rather than a balls-to-the-wall twist.
It is INCREDIBLE to me that people are ignoring this and claiming Sekiro has variety in its environments. I promise you in a few months when the Youtube "long-form video-essay critics" community (MatthewMitosis, Joseph Anderson, etc.) get their thoughts out on Sekiro, they will nail Sekiro for this very fact. FROM has gone backwards from the variety offered in Dark Souls 3, right back into the same criticism that marred Bloodborne pre-DLC.
The Story: Some people really dislike the esoteric style of story-telling FROM practices in their games. I personally think it's fantastic in the way that if I think its weak or uninteresting, there's enough gray-space to enjoy my own interpretations of the story without the narrative forcing its way to the front telling me that I'm wrong. Sekiro is VERY much a narrative-tight game. We were told by "influencers" that Sekiro still carried the trademark esoteric storytelling made famous in previous titles, but I vehemently disagree. There is nothing to interpret or uncover in Sekiro. It's a conventional revenge story with some twists and unique ideas inspired from Japanese folk lore. The story itself is good, but not fantastic. I won't remember Sekiro (the character), nor his father/mentor, NOR Lord Kuro. Overall I felt like the story was generally pretty bland and even with the late-game twists, fails to ascend to the same strange and bizarre heights that Bloodborne and Dark Souls 1 and 3 got to.
Shinobi Prosthetic: Since Bloodborne, FROM has been scrambling to match the genius that was the trick-weapons. The Shinobi tools come close, much closer than Dark Souls 3's weapon arts, but they still don't inspire awe and wonder. They're generally just special abilities which do little more than add a damage buff in the form of instant-free damage, aggregated damage, or a stun. Firecrackers and shuruken are not as cool even on paper as lollipop shaped chainsaw, or a saber being attached to a folding staff to become a scythe. Some stand-outs are the Mist Raven, iron unbrella, and the divine abduction outside of those, they're surprisingly bland and stingy on ideas. It also doesn't help that more than half of them have a direct utility and outside of that utility, they range from middlingly effective, to a complete waste of spirit emblems.
Difficulty: I won't take anyone on the subreddit seriously when they tell me "don't compare this game to DS/BB" when I'm surrounded my posts about how this game is "way harder" than Soulsborne and how it will "eat you alive" if you don't "gitgud". You can't have it both ways lads. Either comparing Sekiro to Soulsborne is valid or it's not. You can't tell me I can't compare Shinobi tools to trick weapons (while in the meantime almost every professional reviewer is doing just that), but then karma-farm by virtue of saying how Soulsborne "is WAY easier than Sekiro!" The game is hard. Yes. Hardness never was and never will be an indication of quality in a video game. Sekiro is challenging in the way that you MUST learn its mechanics. For this, Sekiro excels in this department. I think it strikes a great balance between allowing you minor stat/item upgrades but still forcing you to engage with the game and not cheese it or grind it down until you can steamroll.
Anyone... Sekiro is a good game, but in the pantheon of previous FROM games, I would be lying to myself if I said I didn't find it near the bottom of the list along with Dark Souls 2 and Demon Souls.
Once again -- I feel like Buddha is offering me the power of clairvoyance and I can just see the comments now: "dOnT cOmPaRe iT tO SoUlSBoRnE!!1!11!" - but you're literally asking for the impossible given the obvious similarities in gameplay/design/philosophy behind those games and Sekiro, and the clear inspiration FROM has admitted to during their development of Sekiro stemming from the runaway success that was Dark Souls.
Submitted March 25, 2019 at 10:39AM by Kombini_Ghost https://ift.tt/2UPBDq1
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