With my current playthrough reflecting many evenings of exploration and combat, there’s no denying that Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice has a certain compelling nature to it. Whether you’re attempting to defeat one of the generals or just trying to reach a location safely, a lot of the gameplay is tuned to a point where the player is more likely to try again than switch off. Obviously, different players have certain limits to patience and perseverance, but personally I’ve found the difficulty curve to be pitched quite well. However, I can’t help but feel like certain aspects of the gameplay design are at odds with others – that a player can begin to see mechanical contradictions of Sekiro – and that’s a weird observation to make when From Software are so adept at creating experiences that feel…connected.
Sekiro’s gameplay contradictions
So: you are able to grapple around the environment, sneak up on enemies or create more space if things are getting dicey – it allows for a freeform, tactical approach to combat right up until you’re locked in a boss arena with no grapple points, or a foe’s health resets if you stray too far. You’re able to replenish your stock of healing items at an idol for free but have to grind out cash for spirit emblems – essentially your ammunition for special gear. And as long as you find an area that you can safely battle in, grinding isn’t challenging, or fun – it’s grinding. Grappling around the environment is enjoyable but it’s only possible at certain points, and you sometimes feel like some obvious areas in the environment would benefit from those points. Deathblows feel weirdly inconsistent; one stealthy leap towards an unsuspecting fodder enemy can trigger the prompt, but it’s suddenly much more picky when facing a certain miniboss. Expendable items or skills that make you harder to detect will (of course) be ignored in certain encounters, and reviving after death seems empowering at first but soon may as well be multiple parts of one lifebar (admittedly, this makes sense for a game that needs to ensure that boss encounters feel challenging, but slightly diminishes the importance implied by the narrative.) Blocking attacks for posture gains would suggest that the game will reward your patience, but damage from enemy attacks can be so high that a long posture war can be over in a heartbeat when your lifebar is decimated by a new attack you haven’t seen. Back-to-back bosses are expected in a From game, but it removes the narrative impact when the boss who suffers a dramatic cutscene death moments before is suddenly back for more. You get tutorial tips for a move called the “lightning counter”, but only after an attack that you can use it against kills you instantly; unless I missed something, the game never introduces it in a practical learning environment.
Contradictions of Sekiro – a bad thing?
And so on. And sure, this is all part of the intended “vision”, and you shouldn’t criticise a game for not being something it was never trying to be, but to me it feels like a vision riddled with contradiction from a producer who has created other visions where everything made sense and the individual parts complemented each other. There have been From games in the past where it felt like all of the gameplay mechanics available to you were viable all of the time, and where you had so many options that you could pick an approach to gameplay that worked for you and use it until the endgame. What if Sekiro designed every boss encounter to have a dangerous but viable route through lesser enemies and environmental hazards which, when navigated, would secure a deathblow opportunity? What if the item that made you harder to detect opened up a new enemy moveset where their attacks were more uncertain? What if the deathblow range had a better visual identity? What if an opponent’s single-hit instakill was replaced with death by 1000 cuts that you could theoretically counter? I understand the need to limit abilities that would reduce the impact of certain encounters, but if more encounters incorporated more of the gameplay mechanics smartly – rather than making them redundant – it would result in an experience that’s much more cohesive and less peppered with contradictions. And I still love Sekiro – as I write this I’m pretty much at the endgame, and it’s consumed most of my gaming time lately – but From Software have created better worlds and experiences in the past that have less contradictions. Their other games have done more with less – less gameplay options available to the player, but options that allow a more freeform approach to a particular situation – and so it’s hard to know what to make of their latest game. I still recommend it – if you can get past the inconsistencies it’s quite a satisfying experience – however, you should be prepared for some interesting design decisions.
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