Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

- By Ash

"Hesitation Is Defeat."

– Sword Saint Isshin Ashina   

Overall Rating : 9.2/10
Graphics Rating : 8/10
Difficulty Rating : 9/10

Available on Steam at $59.99
https://store.steampowered.com/app/814380/Sekiro_Shadows_Die_Twice

Production :-

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is an action-adventure video game developed by FromSoftware and published by Activision. It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on 22 March 2019.

Backstory :-

The game is based in a re-imagined late 16th century (Sengoku period Japan), The warlord Isshin Ashina staged a coup, seizing the control of the land of Ashina. During this time, a wandering shinobi named Ukonzaemon Usui, a.k.a “Owl” adopts a nameless orphan naming him “Wolf” and trains him in the ways of the shinobi.

As the time went by Ashina is on verge of falling into pieces due to ageing Isshin falling ill and the army of interior minister steadily closing in. In a desperate attempt to save his clan, Isshin’s adoptive grandson Genichiro sought out the Divine Hier Kuro so he could use his “Dragon’s Heritage” for forming an immortal army. Wolf, now a full-fledged shinobi and Kuro’s personal bodyguard, loses his left arm while failing to stop Genichiro. Having received the dragon’s blood from Kuro, Wolf survives and is brought to an abandoned temple to be recuperated by a Sculptor; a former shinobi named Sekijo.

My Experience :-

When I started playing Sekiro, the backstory was captivating enough to hook me up with this game. As I started my adventure my thoughts were like “It’s gonna be a piece of cake completing this game “  Oh! Boy was I wrong, I died in the first 10mins of the game’s tutorial.

The difficulty of the game is on par with a huge title like Dark Souls. This game is definitely worth trying by the Dark Souls fanbase.  It heavily focuses on evading & deflecting enemy’s attack with perfect timing and inflecting posture damage with a variety of attacks. 

You will be required to battle with many mini-bosses like Ogres, Headless Demons etc. But one thing for sure is that you will DIE… DIE a lot, It may get frustrating but bear with it, cause it is really worth it. Every boss has a weakness and you have to be good at exploiting it. It emphasizes precision and skill in its combat. It walks the line between patient stealth attacks and gruesome melee combat against threats both earthly and otherworldly.

This game is heavily inspired by Japanese culture and many references of their folklore are quite visible while playing the game for example in the case of a corrupted monk , She is based on a Japanese folk story of Yao Bikuni (八百比丘尼, “eight-hundred (years) Buddhist priestess”).

The game throws a variety of challenging and unique opponents at you and demands perfect skills with your limited arsenal of weapons. As the subtitle “Shadows Die Twice” suggests, you are gifted with the power of resurrection, but one should be heedful while making this decision . If you die, you just lose half the experience and currency you’ve collected, the only backdoor to this is the Unseen Aid which is essentially divine intervention giving you a penalty-free death.

Concluding Remarks :-

I would highly recommend playing this game, though I haven’t completed it yet. The beauty in these types of titles is the challenge and pressure that you feel while playing it.

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