From the very first moments of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, it’s clear that FromSoftware drew inspiration from the Souls and Bloodborne series while creating its Shinobi-focused journey. That being said, this new mutant strain is as much a stealth-action game as its predecessors; it’s more concentrated and cohesive while still maintaining the difficulty level of its predecessors. Even after 50 hours of blood-spattering pressurized geysers, fantasy monsters, lightning-quick swordsmanship and vast dungeons loaded with secrets, I still felt a sense of awe as I completed the game.

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Sekiro’s more forgiving nature gives me a sense of empowerment, even though I prefer punishing games that test my abilities (and have beaten everything FromSoftware has thrown at me). Unlike in earlier FromSoftware games with more extensive hellscapes, I never felt like I had to walk too far to find another Idol and bank my progress. That regular cadence relieves a lot of the oppressive anxiety in wondering if all your work will be taken from you before you can make it to the next checkpoint, and once or twice I simply sprinted through an area, assuming an Idol was just on the other side. As a rule, it was. In Sekiro, I was able to appreciate the game’s mechanical complexity since I wasn’t afraid to take any risks. Even while this isn’t something I’d like to see in every game of this type, it’s a welcome change of pace.

Aerial Swordplay

While in the air, you can strike and defend yourself as well as jump. Countering sweeping enemies is easy with aerial assaults, and sneaking up on unsuspecting enemy is the fastest method to get a stealth kill.

Element of Surprise

Sekiro’s environs are plenty of grappling spots that you can use for covert kill setups or to flee. Preparation is key before rushing in with a sword, since a grappling point can make things a lot easier.

Fateful Duel

Sekiro opens with a rival duel in a silver grass field, which is about as iconic as it gets in video games. Intense and attractive, the game makes sure to end the fight with a bang.. or at least it tries to.

Firecracker Showcase

Weapons and equipment can be attached to the Shinobi prosthesis in order to enhance your fighting prowess. An enemy caught in the flash of the Firecracker’s blinding light is temporarily incapacitated.

Flashy Counters

Thrust assaults may only be parried or evaded at the last second; they cannot be routinely blocked. A special counter that deflects thrust assaults can be unlocked, however.

Grapple and Leap

A notable jumping mechanic has not appeared in a From Software game since Ninja Blade in 2009. Sekiro can leap over enemies, avoid traps, and use his grappling hook to traverse large gaps.

Posture up

In order to maximize your posture gauge and deliver a last blow, you can use combinations, special sword attacks, prosthetic gadgets, and shinobi skills.

Defeating a tough boss in a From Software game gives me a real sense of accomplishment. The deathblow technique in Sekiro condenses all that emotion into a single moment. You feel elated and relieved as you hit the killing attack after a difficult encounter and see the glowing red deathblow reticle.

Boss meetings may be excruciating. Sekiro might not be for you if you’re not a fan of parry timings in combat (hitting the block button just as an enemy attack lands). Some bosses demand you to parry many combos on a regular basis in order to beat them. A battle with the Long-Arm Centipede Giraffe in a confined space is essentially a rhythm action sequence. To avoid their blitz of attacks, you must deflect them all in a shower of sparks and shwhing shwhing noises. Some opponents are designed to be vanquished solely by deflections, and precise deflections can inflict posture damage on them. Achieving mastery of this approach is difficult, but well worth the effort. It’s wonderful to be able to easily deflect and neutralize foes that once presented a formidable obstacle.

In contrast to Dark Souls, parry times are generous and significantly more responsive. To keep yourself safe while you’re learning enemy attack patterns, you can hold block and then release-and-tap to parry. Throwing you off-guard is a common enemy tactic that has its own unique reaction to it. With a push of the A button on a controller, you can kick the enemy’s head off and inflict a considerable amount of posture damage. Many grab strikes can be avoided with a good use of your dodge, but as the game progresses, adversaries will start surprising you with new attack patterns.

You have a formidable prosthetic arm at your disposal to fight back. A gruff but caring sculptor friend will help you install and upgrade any enhancements that you locate in your hub, the Dilapidated Temple. It’s possible to upgrade your weaponry to include an axe that crushes opposing shields, an umbrella that deflects gunfire, a device that throws shuriken, and more that I won’t reveal. It’s possible to switch between three at a time and switch those three around in the pause menu. With the right prosthetics attachment, even the most difficult adversaries may be defeated—shield enemies, for example, become laughably easy to beat after you locate the right axe attachment.

Our playthrough of Sekiro ran at 60 frames per second at all times. However, modders have already devised workarounds that allow for frame rates of 100 or even higher than the official limit of 60 frames per second. PC gamers have access to a plethora of sophisticated choices, including a motion blur-free fighting option that is much appreciated.

Otherworldly

Like the dark fantasy RPG series, Sekiro shares a lot with Dark Souls. In contrast to Lordran, which is comprised of a massive connected universe, Sekiro is divided up into smaller, more manageable sections. Even if you’re not a fan of Dark Souls, you’ll still appreciate the tangled structure of these regions, as well as the numerous surprises that can be found by using the grappling hook, which allows you to jump between tree branches and rooftops. In order to catch up with merchants and NPCs, you will find yourself returning to old places regularly. I always feel like I’m only scratching the surface of what’s possible in a From Software game, and this is no exception. For Sekiro’s deeper stories to emerge, it will take a long time for fans to connect the dots.

Through Sekiro’s interactions with the tiny Lord and other NPCs, Sekiro’s primary story is revealed. The main character of the game, Sekiro, is voiced as well, and plot points are revealed through dialogue with multiple choice options. For the first ten hours or so, the planet itself was really boring—a collection of the samey brown-hued townships with a small number of opponents. As the game proceeds, the variety grows tremendously and gorgeous new regions are unveiled.

Sekiro is less harsh than Dark Souls while having a more difficult fighting system. Idols, the game’s bonfires, bind the landscapes together in a similar way. At the last Idol you touched, you respawn and only lose half your money and some skill experience. You’ll receive ‘Unseen Aid’ 30% of the time, meaning you have nothing to fear.

In Sekiro, the possibility of receiving invisible help decreases with each death, yet there is no way to get utterly stranded. Purchase bags of coin from vendors to save your money, and a magic gold-booster balloon can be popped for a quick trip back in time for when you’re ready to spend it. New skills are great, but they aren’t necessary for advancement.

Hard mode

Importantly, bosses are the source of stat boosts. You can improve your attack power by processing memories of amazing boss fights, and your health and posture can be improved by turning in prayer beads. Secret chests contain prayer beads and one-off kills of difficult, ordinary opponents. Because of this, you can’t spend your time boosting your stats. Instead, the game is centered on a consistent distribution of power among the players. Compared to Dark Souls, this is a significant improvement. Allows you to focus on the task at hand, rather than fretting about being underprepared or under-equipped.

That you can return from the dead is a big aid. A second resurrection is charged each time you kill an enemy while resting at an Idol. Even though you can’t utilize several resurrections at the same time, they’re a useful tool to have on hand for boss battles. If you become stopped in one section, you can try to progress in another or backtrack to take on a miniboss that was too difficult earlier in Sekiro’s gameplay. As a bonus, stealth reduces the sting. Finding sneaky ways around common foes in locations with a high concentration of them is a fun side effect of the game’s design. Combining stealth and fighting is also a lot of fun. Before slicing through the remainder of a group with my sword, I like to get an instant kill on one member of the group.

High-level tasks in Sekiro could add another 10 hours before I go into new game + before I’m done with Sekiro. To the end, the shinobi fantasy is powerfully realized in every ferocious killing strike and perfectly timed parry in Sekiro’s combat system. Some of the most stunning and nerve-wracking PC dueling awaits those who are brave enough to face Sekiro’s challenges.

Go Your Own Way

A Swiss-army-knife of a prosthetic limb connected to your titular Shinobi character gives Sekiro a distinct advantage in stealth, fighting and movement, despite the game’s similar mechanics and level design philosophy. When you use the grappling hook, you can launch yourself to the tops of buildings, and this has an impact over the entire game. Rather of being confined to the ground like previous Soulsborne characters were, Sekiro’s level design allows for much more verticality. The fear of being surrounded, overwhelmed, and murdered in a dark alcove is nearly nonexistent while you’re jumping and zip-lining between anchors. As a ninja, rather than a knight, if I was in trouble, I could nearly always find a way out.

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You can get into opportune positions to silently kill, avoid danger and hide to reset an encounter that went awry, or simply explore the different grounded and magical surroundings. This additional mobility strengthens the stealth elements of Sekiro. When I first arrived in Dark Souls’ Anor Londo or Bloodborne’s Yharnam, I was taken aback by the vastness of the city. Awe struck me again when I first stepped into Ashina Castle and learned that it was possible to zip across rooftops for unprecedented freedom in a FromSoftware megacity. It was exciting to adjust the speed of exploring.

In the Ashina Depths and the Sunken Valley, you’ll be able to sneak and fight your way through the mist-shrouded forests and the steep frozen rock walls. A platformer-like lighthearted pleasure can be had in intricate surroundings like these, rather than the dread that these places are yet another impediment in your path. Even if they’re still full of creatures that want to kill you, your liberating mobility helps to reveal the world as a place that isn’t deliberately adding to the anguish of travelling from A to B.

Even while Sekiro doesn’t feature many of FromSoftware’s trademarks, such as a bottomless pit, poisonous ponds, and a pitch-black dungeon beneath a castle, the devout will still be able to enjoy some of their favorites. Swinging through the air between trees and buildings on the sun-kissed surface makes up for the exhausting times spent meticulously navigating these hellish locales.

Second Chances

“Shadows Die Twice” shows that such concern on freedom extends beyond death. Despite having the unique capacity to resurrect after death, an undying Shinobi must carefully weigh all the pros and downsides before deciding whether or not to use it. If you die, you lose half your experience and gold and can no longer rush to your body to pick up your dropped items, which is the basic premise of the game. Except for a mechanic known as Unseen Aid, which is effectively supernatural intervention that spares you the consequences of death, this is the rule.)

If you die, you lose half of the money and experience you’ve accumulated in your lifetime.

PC vs PS4 Pro vs Xbox One X: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Graphics Comparison

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There are still penalties for death, but since you can bank your money and you don’t lose experience after reaching certain thresholds, the danger is quite low. This is an excellent reminder. I didn’t care about the penalty because I had come to terms with the fact that dying meant losing half of my unbanked experience and currency. For me, the forgiving aspect of Sekiro meant that letting myself die was largely my fault because the game allows you to typically get out of a terrible situation. It was a pleasant surprise when Unseen Aid activated. Sekiro isn’t really about resource management, so I like the penalty for keeping me on my toes, while also enjoying that I wasn’t truly handicapped by zigging when I should’ve zagged.

You can utilize more resurrections if you kill foes or bosses with deathblow attacks, and they’re reasonably self-explanatory once you get into the swing of things thanks to Sekiro’s unusual fondness for describing its concepts.

Unboxing of the Collector’s Edition of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

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It was a tough call to make, but in the end it came down to my supplies and the status of my opponent’s health as the deciding factors in whether or not I should be resurrected after I fell to the ground. I’d come back to finish the job if I’d taken him down to almost nothing, but if I’d used up all of my healing draughts without dealing much damage to my assassin, there’d be no use in resurrecting myself in victory. As for me, I’d take my death in stride and try again, knowing what I know today.

Alone at Last

Sekiro is a single-player-only game, a first for a FromSoftware game of its genre. This has both advantages and downsides. Because there is no persistent multiplayer, you can pause the game in the middle of a fight, which acts as a kind of second chance feature. No, I didn’t dodge the poison strike, thus I took the full weight of it. Use an antidote item and get back to it without having to fiddle with your inventory while you’re evading for your life. The option to call a timeout and take care of one’s health throughout a grueling war removes much of the sting.

However, I do miss the subtle notes left by others in the environment that alert me to potential threats or hidden mysteries, or that nebulous sense that danger lies behind me in the shape of an invading player. Sekiro, on the other hand, is a more streamlined and direct experience, thus the absence of player-placed clues isn’t felt as severely as I’d expected.

PvP combat are a major disappointment, given the game’s increased emphasis on skill-based swordsmanship. Even if it lacks the depth of a game like For Honor, the rock-paper-scissors premise might foster a unique gaming community in which sword fights between rival player-Shinobi could last minutes at a time.

Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword

As long as you’re not lurking in the shadows and skulking around in search of an easy kill with stylishly gory execution animations that spray gushing gushes of blood in every direction like a rotating lawn sprinkler, the focus of Sekiro’s combat is on skill-based swordsmanship that requires mastery of an excellent new rock, paper, scissors countering strategy. Bloodborne and the Souls series have always had an organic feel, but in Sekiro, parries and dodges are critical to victory against all kinds of foes, big and small..

To be successful in Sekiro’s fighting, players must master a brand-new counterattack technique.

How Does Sekiro Differ from the Soulsborne Series? (And 4 Things They Have in Common)

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A significant learning curve exists because of the varying and narrow timing windows that exist between telegraph and delivery. I found a simple beauty in being able to stand toe-to-toe with any attacker once I overwrote my reflexive muscle memory of merely attempting to run out of dodge when I noticed a large attack coming. It took some time for that to set in, for sure. My survival rate improved dramatically once I learned to stand my ground and live by the sword after being battered to death dozens of times for instinctively dodging backward when my strike was rebuffed (also by the sword). Moreover, when you’re able to deflect a 15-foot-tall monstrosity’s flurry of attacks in quick succession, you feel like you’re the greatest swordsman of all time.

Simply standing face-to-face with an enemy was a beautiful thing when I erased my muscle memory.

Because of this gradual acclimatization, Sekiro eventually becomes more forgiving and more approachable than its predecessors. With towering monsters and incredibly lethal assassins, you’re virtually always left open to assault shortly after you’ve countered their attacks with adequate countermeasures. As a first-time combatant, it’s encouraging to know that you have a definite opportunity to punish your opponent if you can pull it off.

It’s not the only way to take down your foes in Sekiro, as the concept of posture, or maintaining your calm while fighting, serves as a second, parallel health bar that may be used to your advantage. As you and your opponents engage in a series of strikes and counterattacks, your posture meter will be reduced. They become more vulnerable to your attacks when you do unblocked harm to them. You weaken their resolve by deflecting their blows. When they block your attacks, you’re weakening their stance even further. As a result, even if an enemy’s posture is constantly blocked, they can still be taken down because once their posture is broken, they’re immediately vulnerable to a deathblow.

Because you may deflect an attack, slash them with an unimpeded rapid slash, and then swing at them again that they block, this system enforces the idea that fighting while standing toe-to-toe is optimal. All three of your acts deteriorated their posture even if you only inflicted minor harm. If you keep up the pressure, you’ll find your blade in their neck in no time, which means that fights never feel like they’re going to go on for eternity. Even if the two opponents are perfectly matched, there will always be a winner.

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Sekiro’s constant barrage of varied and difficult foes raises the stakes and adds variation to the experience.

It is not necessary to defeat every adversary by brute force. One particularly deadly huge headless ape was one of those rare monsters that attacked so hard or swung so wildly that deflecting its blows was just not an option. When I needed to rapidly stab it in the back, I used the old-fashioned method of rushing around it until it swung big and missed. It’s hard to break old habits.

Tools of the Trade

To put it another way, Sekiro’s character advancement is impressively simple compared to its previous games. Grinding Souls or Blood won’t give you any stats or abilities. You can’t do more harm by boosting your Strength because Strength doesn’t exist. Instead, the Vitality (health) and Attack Power (damage) you gain from defeating bosses and challenging adversaries only increase with time and use of crucial items (of which there are a finite amount, though ways to further inflate toward the end do exist). In this game, there are no weapons or armor to gain. With the exception of a few others that are necessary to the plot, you’ll stick with the same katana for the entire 50-hour journey.

There are eight things you should know before playing Sekiro.

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Sekiro focuses on improving your current abilities rather than acquiring new weapons or equipment.

To succeed in Sekiro, you already have a solid foundation, which emphasizes emphasis on improving your abilities rather than acquiring new weapons or armor to complete a gear-check gimmick encounter. New weapons and armor would have added a lot to the gameplay, but the ingenious prosthetic tools keep the sensation of discovering new mechanical advantages alive.

When you earn experience instead of attribute points, you can spend them on a multi-tiered, multi-page skill tree that lets you learn passive skills like a more potent stealth for simpler assassinations. There are a variety of passive talents that can be purchased, such as the ability to regain health while completing a deathblow (which is hands down one of the most valuable passive skills I’ve received in Sekiro) or increasing the maximum number of Spirit Emblems you can hold.

The official launch trailer for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

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This can also be done with the prosthetic limb, but the devices for it must first be found in the real world before they can be enhanced using costly materials. Many of these tools, like the aforementioned combat abilities, provide you more options as you progress. When confronted with a horde of wolves, a horse-mounted opponent, or a raging bull, you can use the Firecrackers to frighten the monsters and escape their clutches. Alternatively, the Loaded Spear can be used to draw weaker adversaries toward you and keep them within range, as well as to remove loose-fitting armor off foes — though this never seemed to be an issue. For rage-prone enemies, the Flamethrower is more than just a straight-forward damage over time device, as blowing a pipe full of flames in their face leaves them vulnerable to subsequent strikes.

The use of firecrackers to frighten animals, for example, can be useful in the event of a pack attack.

The Shuriken is a must-have for long-range damage, and the Mist Raven Feather, which allows you to disappear and reappear next to, behind, or above an enemy for some life-saving distance and an unprotected vantage point, has gotten me out of a lot of tight spots. The Loaded Umbrella, which deflects incoming bullets, and the Loaded Axe, which shatters shields, are only usable within the confines of their intended use.

World at War

Sekiro’s story is the part of the game with which I had the least emotional connection, despite the presence of a beautiful Japanese backdrop. From a narrative perspective, it’s a far more straightforward story than what we’ve come to expect from FromSoftware. You play as an undead one-armed Shinobi who is tasked with serving, protecting, and murdering an immortal child Divine Heir. When it comes to gameplay, I’ve come to expect a lot from a FromSoftware game, and Sekiro doesn’t disappoint. It’s much more linear, the characters speak to you in coherent sentences, and there are plenty of clues and hints that let you draw correct conclusions, making it easy to breeze through the game without ever having to stop and think.

Assaulting the Tutorial in Sekiro! Shadows Die Twice What You’re Expected to Die for Your Master

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While Sekiro begins as a historical novel, it swiftly deviates into the realm of the mystical and the supernatural..

In no way am I saying this is a terrible thing, but I realized that for much of the time I was playing Sekiro, I was simply following other people’s instructions. Not discovering or uncovering what needed to be done, I was given directions and I would obey them to the letter until the next set of commands, and so on, as though they had followed each demand with a “Would you please?” Prior to the moment where crucial decisions were made around X ways through, it felt like my fate was out of my hands and that I didn’t have much control over what was going to happen to me.

As is customary for FromSoftware games, Sekiro begins as a brutal but dramatic piece of historical fiction before abruptly devolving into the mysterious and supernatural. It’s true that resurrection is a central theme, and all available scientific evidence says that 15th-century Japanese people couldn’t do it, but it’s done in a way that’s both anchored in truth and steeped in mythology, and that’s something I really love about the film. In a good way, these fantastical worlds plucked straight from myth and tradition frequently eclipse the actual plot. There were times when I felt like I was walking through exquisite gardens, reliving memories from my past, and tangling with magical animals, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Colorful visuals and deep, ambient soundscapes combine to create a unique universe, complete with a fitting soundtrack that is at once soothing and unnerving.

FAQS:

Is shadows die twice a good game?

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, in my opinion, is a work of art. Stunning visuals, challenging fighting, and amazing soundtrack design make this game a must-have for any gamer.

Is Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Easy?

In the shape of a “Sekiro The Easy” mod, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice has received an unauthorized “easy” option. Aside from a few in-game trinkets that make the game even more difficult, the notoriously punishing videogame from Dark Souls developers FromSoftware has no natural difficulty settings.

Is Sekiro worth playing?

As a result, it’s pointless to ask whether or not it’s still worth playing in 2022. To put it another way, I think Hidetaka Miyazaki’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is one of his best works. In actuality, even he will have a difficult time surpassing Sekiro. His vision and style of thinking struck the mark precisely.

Conclusion:

A stealth-action adventure with an emphasis on precision and skill is the result of Sekiro’s evolution of From Software’s formula. Deliberate and meticulous stealth is balanced with breakneck melee battle against both terrestrial and extraterrestrial foes. From Software’s overly opaque sensibilities are slashed without losing their enigma, thanks to the game’s inventive and adaptable tools. If you’re looking for a fresh take on a familiar formula, Sekiro is the game for you.

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Danh mục: Review