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Souls veterans: What's your final assessment of Sekiro?

Souls veterans, what is your final assessment of Sekiro?

  • It was great.

    Votes: 190 59.6%
  • It wasn't for me.

    Votes: 64 20.1%
  • I'm kinda in the middle.

    Votes: 65 20.4%

  • Total voters
    319

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
That exchange at 2:36... sooooo good.
giphy.gif
 
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Yoda

Member
I was initially sour on it. After playing it through 3 more times, it's probably my favorite output from FROMSOFTWARE. I think it suffered greatly from being compared to SoulsBourne, it really is in a different category imo. The place it does overlap all build and surpass its "spiritual" predecessors:

* Amazing world design, best use of verticality I've seen in a game
* Great lore and a lightweight, but meaningful story
* An extremely deep combat system if you're willing to learn it
* Some of the best boss fights in all of video games

Anyone who put the game down early because it didn't feel like a "souls" game should really give it another shot.
 

DelireMan7

Member
Didn't like it.

It's a good action game not a Souls. Combat is ok but too much limited.
My 2 big complaints about the combat :
  • Too much focus on deflect (which is too easy and safe to perform).
  • Prosthetic tools are a nice idea. Too bad you have to farm to use them. (Just make emblems refill on death !!!).

Also too much focus on challenge (challenge is not the thing that make me love the Soulsborne).
Setting, story, music and character didn't worked for me. It's not my type of game.

Edit : I beat the game once and didn't boot it since...
 
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Freeman76

Member
I couldnt get very far, i'm shit at it. I managed to plat demons souls solo, i platted ds1 using summons, ds3 i needed to summon for most bosses. For me Sekiro is souls without the fun bits. No build, no grinding to OP yourself, no co-op. Shite basically.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Sekiroā€™s combat shits on Souls games from a great height. The parry-to-punish mechanic is incredibly satisfying and never gets old. You feel like an absolute badass downing some of the mid-to-late game bosses.

Sure, but it's basically one weapon and one playstyle with no varied builds. Incredible action game and I love it, but it's a different kind of game to Souls and even Bloodborne.
 

Manji Uzuki

Member
I enjoyed the game but its the only one in the "series" I didn't want to replay after I finished. I don't want elden ring to follow this combat style as I still think Bloodborne has the best system.

Still a great game but all the other souls games are better IMO
 

regawdless

Banned
To think of someone calling it mediocre I have to wonder about that person. What an insult to this game.

Hey, that's me. Nice to meet you! :messenger_beaming:

I'm obviously speaking only for me and my individual subjective feelings. I went into this game not expecting a Souls game and being happy they tried something else. I'm all for new ideas and directions. Therefore I judged it like an individual game. As it's part of the body of work from From, there are still valid comparison points to be made. I didn't expect Sekiro to follow the footsteps of the other games though.

I like some of the stealth, paired with the mobility options, it's fun. Combat animations are well done and level design was also largely interesting.

But for me, there was also a lot of stuff that I didn't like. The main character was not interesting, deep, funny or anything to have an impact. Same goes for the story, which failed to make me want to see more. The storytelling was also pretty mediocre. I simply didn't care. NPCs were forgettable as well. Same goes for the environments which were ok but nothing special. So the story, characters and the world failed to create emotions and make me feel involved.
Which is a big part of any game. The atmosphere was kinda good mostly, but some nice levels alone weren't enough to involve me emotionally.

Gameplay wise, they forced the player into a pretty clear direction how the game was meant to be played. And that direction didn't resonate with me that well.
In combat, I enjoy stuff like positioning, distance management, dynamic movement. In Sekiro, fighting a big part of the enemies, I could just stand directly in front of them and play the rhythm deflecting game. No need to move. Some enemies and bosses required you to jump or dodge. But it always felt very static because I felt like the game encouraged me to literally stand there and wait for the next button to press.
Some might call that strategical and tactical. I call that kinda boring. The combat was way to "distilled" for my taste.

Visually, it wasn't above average tbh. It was somewhat fine, but there is a lot of way better looking stuff out there.

At some point I asked myself why I'm even playing this. The whole package failed to motivate me to push further. Unlockable abilities alone weren't enough to keep me going. Story and characters certainly weren't and the combat got tedious. The world wasn't interesting enough to push me forward.

That made it a pretty mediocre experience for me. I'd give it a 6/10, slightly above average and one of the bigger disappointments of last gen.
 

nemiroff

Gold Member
I have some 400 hours in the Souls games and unfortunately I didn't like Sekiro even half as much. It's definitely a high quality game with good production, but I disliked some of the "timing-based" fighting (don't know how to describe it properly).. In the Souls games I felt I had much more creative control, thus Sekiro felt way too hard for me even though I relatively easily completed each Souls games many times. After having played quite a lot of the game I eventually I went "fuck this shit" and abandoned it.
 
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Gandih42

Member
While I personally prefer the more traditional Souls style of game with leveling, weapon variety and so on, Sekiro is incredible. I don't need FromSoftware to keep making the same game, especially considering we now have many talented studios also iterating on the Dark Souls ideas with great results.

The combat in Sekiro was pure crack for me. I ended up beating the game four times in a row to get all the endings (seeing how much better I got at it by the end was an experience in itself). I think it's a very valid complaint that the combat is limited to a single style, but for anyone that is engaged by it, it is spectacular. It is so easy to find clips/gifs of how incredible combat can look when done right. I don't think I've ever felt so immersed by combat as I did in Sekiro. The level design, artstyle and worldbuilding is in my mind also fantastic, although in that respect my favorite would be Bloodborne.

As a whole, Sekiro gives me a lot of faith in FromSoftware's ability to create new things, rather than sequels. I wouldn't mind a Sekiro or Bloodborne sequel, but the most enticing thing they can do (for me) is to work on something new, with new ideas, concepts, mechanics, lore and so on. They have really been exceptionally masterful at creating fun engaging gameplay with worlds that are fun to explore and discover, and to me Sekiro is no exception.
 

Shubh_C63

Member
Fell in love with the game but couldn't complete it at all.

Genechiro fight was probably the most loved one and got stuck at couple Ape fight. I can't fight it 20 times again like I did with Genechiro and butterfly.

Thank God Elden Ring will be a grindable game.
 

Elcid

Banned
Damn I just finished platinuming my final Souls game and was debating picking up Sekiro next, but the backlog restricts me. Judging from the comments looks like I can hold off it for a while.
Demon's Souls PS3
Demon's Souls PS5
Dark Souls PS3
Dark Souls Remastered PS4
Dark Souls 2 PS3
Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin
Dark Souls 3
Bloodborne

I was kind of sad last night thinking on how I have no more incentive to play Souls since I've literally done everything in all of them :(
Looks like onto Nioh (in my backlog)...
 

Gandih42

Member
Damn I just finished platinuming my final Souls game and was debating picking up Sekiro next, but the backlog restricts me. Judging from the comments looks like I can hold off it for a while.
Demon's Souls PS3
Demon's Souls PS5
Dark Souls PS3
Dark Souls Remastered PS4
Dark Souls 2 PS3
Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin
Dark Souls 3
Bloodborne

I was kind of sad last night thinking on how I have no more incentive to play Souls since I've literally done everything in all of them :(
Looks like onto Nioh (in my backlog)...

Don't be sad man, think of how many fun hours you've had with these games! and Nioh is great and has a fun endgame gear system to mess with. Not a bad follow-up to the souls games.
 

johntown

Banned
A fantastic game! Bloodborne is the most similar in one way.......timing. Once you understand how to play the game the combat is so satisfying and fun! I think many people give up too soon or try to play it like Dark Souls and that won't work.

I have over 100 hours in the game and I still enjoy playing it.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
Absolutely brilliant game with my favourite FROM gameplay. But there wasn't any replay value for me, thats my only issue with it, I would replay Souls and BB more often trying different stuff.
 

Mr Hyde

Member
Another Miyazaki masterpiece and one of the best games of the generation. Incredibly well made, beautiful world and interesting story, with a innovative and immersive combat system and some of the best bosses this industry has seen. The Owl, Corrupted Monk, Guardian Ape, Sword Saint Isshin. The list just goes on. They kept me on my toes of the likes I never seen before. From is absolute masters of their craft right now. The best developer bar none.
 

dyergram

Member
I voted in the middle. I havenā€™t finished it but I ultimately think without the online options souls games arenā€™t as special or fun.
 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
Sekiro is fine-tuned for speedruns and alternative paths through the game. Tons of optional bosses and areas. Once you open Ashina Gate after the first boss, the game opens up considerably and you can explore several massive areas and resolve some end-game options without much restriction. After the boss on the top of Ashina tower, you are given your major "quest" that carries to the conclusion of the game. From here, almost every other area becomes accessible, once again allowing you to tackle it in any order and ignore large sections. My post from a few months ago:

Finished Sekiro NG+

Had a hunch that my second playthrough would be shorter. Sekiro rewards metaknowledge far more than the other Soulsborne games so I figured it would be much easier on the second go. My initial playthrough (where I defeated every boss and area I could, admittedly) took 73 hours.

My second playthrough in NG+ took 18 hours, and I wasn't exactly rushing. I still died a fair number of times, but it was nothing compared to the first playthrough where I learned all the nuance and banged my head against the wall.

I still consider myself an amateur at this game (haven't even platinum'd it yet) but even in one playthrough I had shortened my run time by over 50 hours. If I wanted to cut it much closer, I imagine the game could be finished in 5-10 hours without much practice or talent, closer in pace to a character-action game than an RPG. Sure, this means you're skipping areas, but that's how Sekiro is laid out.

The sort of Soulsborne fan who enjoyed low-level / naked runs and speedruns would probably jive with Sekiro the most.
 

nkarafo

Member
Took a little bit of adjustment because i always play tanks in Souls games. But it became a second nature.
 
Sekiro seems to be really mixed bag for Souls-fans.
BB and Demon's Souls Remake are the only FROM games I've played.

Next one to conquer will be Dark Souls Remastered. But Sekiro might be after that.
 

TexMex

Member
Got the platinum for Dark Souls and Bloodborne, but Sekiro is just impossible for me. Iā€™m horrible at it, and gave up around the half way point. I know Iā€™m the problem but I just canā€™t make that combat click.
 

GametimeUK

Member
I fucking loved this game so much and I'm a huge souls fan. I'd say it ranks up there with the best of them. A stellar game.
 

itsArtie

Member
It's fucking epic. I felt like graphics and environment design was much better than Souls games. I enjoyed the combat and deflecting mechanic since I got bored of the whole rolling around thing. The story is pretty basic. I would rate it 8.5/10 compared to all Souls games that are 8/10 for me.
 

tassletine

Member
Great game but unbalanced. I don't like boss fights which test your patience rather than skill.

My main complaint with the game is that it felt cheap. If the bosses weren't so overpowered then the game would be considerably worse -- Imagine the game, with those empty levels, and easy bosses, it really wouldn't work very well.

So the bosses felt like they were overpowered to give the game character rather than being a challenge of skill. And they do have a lot of character-- but the game feels unfinished.
 

FrankWza

Member
Sekiro seems to be really mixed bag for Souls-fans.
BB and Demon's Souls Remake are the only FROM games I've played.

Next one to conquer will be Dark Souls Remastered. But Sekiro might be after that.
I would wait until after youā€™ve played the rest. Itā€™s tough going backwards, especially if you plan to play back to back. The release order helps you out because it shows Froms combat progression. IMO itā€™s the biggest gap between any other games in terms of speed and combat difference and difficulty.
 

splattered

Member
I haven't touched it yet but i have beaten all but the original demon's souls games... i notice a lot of people in this thread say they don't like the lack of variety but heck in every DS game i played i really only made one character and stuck with it the whole way through. Still want to play through Sekiro and have a feeling i'm really going to like it.
 

Saruhashi

Banned
Excellent game but the lack of builds compared to other From Software "souls" games kind of makes me feel less inclined to play it after seeing all of the endings.

With Dark Souls Trilogy, Bloodborne and now Demon's Souls I really liked going back in and starting again with different builds and ideas and just seeing what's possible in the game.

Sekiro is a bit more linear and a bit less replayable, in my opinion.
 

regawdless

Banned
I haven't touched it yet but i have beaten all but the original demon's souls games... i notice a lot of people in this thread say they don't like the lack of variety but heck in every DS game i played i really only made one character and stuck with it the whole way through. Still want to play through Sekiro and have a feeling i'm really going to like it.

People mean that the Souls games give you the choice how to play the game. You can do ranged weapons, a magic build, go for fast dexterity style builds, or build a tank class. All these possibilities change how you play the game. While Sekiro has a very clearly defined way the combat works, without much deviation and choice. Either you like it or you don't.
 

tassletine

Member
It's a masterpiece, my GOTY 2019 with some of my most memorable boss fights in all of gaming.

It's also an action game, judging it on Dark Souls merits is totally missing the point.
If they hadn't tried so hard to tie it to the Souls formula then you'd have a point.

I'd have much preferred the game as a straightforward linear action title, I love action games -- but all that faffing around with bloodrot and making the game almost as big as Souls was a waste as far as I'm concerned and only really done to solidify the From style.

Some of the levels, especially the later ones were very good, but quite a few of them felt empty and unfinished, as did the stealth.
A lot of the game feels redundant and reeks of cut content -- Souls games have this problem too but that was always made more interesting when you had more weapons etc to choose from.

I enjoyed it a hell of a lot but it was way too long for an action title and the pace was off.
 

frogger

Member
I am a soul veteran. I just started playing Sekiro, a few hours in, I realize that I can't play it like a soul game.

Which one is harder? DS or Sekiro?
 

regawdless

Banned
I am a soul veteran. I just started playing Sekiro, a few hours in, I realize that I can't play it like a soul game.

Which one is harder? DS or Sekiro?

I'd say Sekiro, because it has very differently tuned combat and requires you to adapt. Everything that's new and unknown is more difficult than a known quantity.
 

decisions

Member
It's the best game Miyazaki has ever made, and makes Souls combat feel simplistic, repetitive, and boring.

This isn't to say that I think the Souls games are bad or anything now. It's just the conversation that goes in the player's mind when improving at Sekiro is much more interesting to me than what happens in Souls games. Moreover, it carries a lot of the other elements that Souls games are known for such as memorable boss encounters and atmospheric art direction.
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
t's the best game Miyazaki has ever made, and makes Souls combat feel simplistic,
I agree with you. In Souls games I mostly play as melee fighter and to me Sekiro melee combat is waaaaaay more satisfying. In Demons Souls I made STR, Dex and Faith build but in the end I beat most bosses in same, no matter what build I made.
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Could you elaborate how Souls combat is repetitive while Sekiro's is not?
Because you guys think just because Sekiro has only one main weapon makes combat simplistic but I would argue Sekiro combat is much deeper than rest "soul" series.

Especially if you really start using the tool and arts.
 
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Great Hair

Banned
The Ogre Wrestler fight was funny, but iĀ“d rather re-experience Blightown at 20fps, 720p on 7th gen consoles than Sekiro. Facing 3x Red Knights in (1-3, 1-4) OG DemonĀ“s Souls in PBWT was more challenging, enthralling than Sekiro (to me).

Sekiro has nice underwater effects, thatĀ“s about it and only Nioh 1 has worse level design.
 
Because you guys think just because Sekiro has only one main weapon makes combat simplistic but I would argue Sekiro combat is much deeper than rest "soul" series.

Especially if you really start using the tool and arts.


That wasn't my question. Sekiro's combat may seem flashy but at its core its a derivative of Souls combat only. Calling Souls combat repetitive automatically makes Sekiro combat repetitive as well.
 
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