Recent reviews by Smul

i want to play this game because it looks like a lot of fun but I can't find a single player online

do not purchase this until the NFT scandal is sorted. Money was stolen from people promised voicelines and instead used to fund a project contributing to the demise of the planet's ecosystem. Major ♥♥♥♥♥♥.

--SPOILER REVIEW--

Not Dark Souls. But a very fun action RPG made by an amazingly small development team. Specifically I must quote the sound design is flawless, ambient audio is dark, brooding, and blends softly between different areas to maintain the dark tone. Weapons audibly hit surfaces and flesh much harder than in any comparable series, with weighty animations combined with detailed visual effects. Graphically one of the most stunning games I have played, makes up a quarter of the experience for me, really something gorgeous.

So many unique mechanics. Harden is powerful and can be used in a variety of different ways depending on the situation and enemy, once you learn the finer details of the combat that initially may seem surface level. Parry as the only reliable method of healing is an incredible concept to engage the risk-reward feeling commonly associated with souls action games. Because survival for longer is easier, checkpoints are significantly more spaced out. I liked this and never got frustrated with the distances between checkpoints. I do not know if I just got lucky or if this is immaculate game design, but it always seemed that as I was reaching the very last of my supplies, at the final stretches of my health pool, I would finally arrive at the next checkpoint.

Bosses are all well designed and fit beautifully within their respective areas, excluding maybe one of the four main bosses. Level design additionally was effective, feeling complex, sprawling and honestly almost confusing while fitting into such a small surface area. Clearly some players are not a fan of this, looking at other reviews, but personally having to explore the intricacies of a world is very engaging. I will most likely use a map to get all achievements however.

Overall this is a shorter experience than what you might be expecting, but does not overstay it's welcome for those who tire easily of this tense gameplay, while having potential to be very expansive and varied to those who are willing to sink some more hours in (which I am still planning on doing). Cannot comment on difficulty to anyone other than souls veterans; personally I found it quite easy in a fun way, although it's been so long since I have played a new souls game that it is hard to remember my initial experiences for comparison.

-9.5 Hours to beat.

high quality horror game that uses tension in a very effective way

i do not own this game

--SPOILER REVIEW--

The Shura ending I got means the game was much shorter than I anticipated. I have only fought 7, maybe 8 bosses if the Mibu Village Monk is a boss, and therefore don't feel ready to give my full opinion on this game.

Some comments I can make:
This game looks gorgeous. I was concerned after spending so much time in Ashina that there wouldn't be enough variety in the environments, and although the during you spend in each location is seemingly very unbalanced, the later areas in the game can feel very different and have their own unique gameplay style.

The combat is the biggest pull to this game. There is a significant amount of complexity between enemies, and the souls' RPG elements have been replaced with skills which help you forge your own techinique. I do believe that the amount of skills is detrimental to the bosses as I don't think they are perfectly balanced around each individual art, skill and tool (firecrackers being a prominent example in my playthrough).

For the most part the bosses themselves were impressive, with the only exceptions in my opinion being the folding screen monkeys and the mibu village monk. All of them excluding my final boss Isshin Ashina were easier than I expected and the majority of them I wouldn't die to, making them easier than a lot of the minibosses in this game. I love the encounters with minibosses however I wish so many of them weren't surrounded by annoying enemies that made the preamble before the juicy fight tedious.

The story is much more condensed as it would need to be for a standalone title. I am impressed with the amount of depth given and enjoy the way it is delivered. I would love to sit down with my old man and share tales over some sake any day. However as I am still early into the understanding of the characters and story I will comment more on completion.

Only two major complaints are with the movement, and the routing (which lend themselves to one another). The grapple hook, sadly, does not feel particularly fluid to use. It is inconsistent at best at connecting with a grapple hitbox; sometimes you can be directly next to a hook spot and it still will not register. Often the circle will go green and yet even after spamming the grapple button I would get no response.
In combination with this is the poor player directing in the midgame. The first two sections felt easy to navigate and understand (just get to the top of the castle/ reach the courtyard of the burning estate). However after scaling Ashina Castle the player is pummeled with 4 directions from 3 different characters, two of which aren't even fully accessible, one is incredibly hard at your current level, and the final correct one (in my opinion) is not intuitive to locate. When combined with being uncertain as to where you can and cannot reach with your grapple made navigating a first playthrough a little more difficult than it needed to be.

Overall I am really enjoying this game currently and have been in need of a game like this for a while; although I cannot yet give it much comparison to the other fromsoft games.

-15.5 Hours to beat.
--EDIT--
At the end of my time in this game, I'm happy with Sekiro; the amount of quality content cut from my original playthrough is criminal. I certainly believe it is the most accessible and friendly FromSoft game I have played so far - which I'm sure is due to a helping hand from Activision. You can take this quality as a positive or a negative, but to me I think it's a massive benefit to the game as it allows players other than me to be able to enjoy a souls like experience who otherwise wouldn't be encouraged into such a special kind of game.

I don't feel the pull to come back to this game yet; although I'm sure I will return at some point, I don't think there is enough variety in the gameplay and player choice to make it feel like a unique experience. After doing the Purification ending on my second playthrough, I felt like I'd experienced everthing the game had to give me, and to be honest from that point onwards there was little to no new content. And to be honest I think the shorter length of this game is also a benefit in some ways.

This game feels very concise. There is a specific way to progress that has been carefully lain out by the developers, and deviating too far off this path will likely get you nowhere (unlike other souls titles). This allows the overall experience to feel far more refined and will be very consistent throughout multiple playthroughs. Your playstyle doesn't have much room to change but the speed at which you progress will - which to a decent extent feels quite satisfying. A different feeling to previous titles, but still satisfying.

In this same aspect this is in my opinion the easiest From game by quite an extent. The enhanced movement unfortunately allows for almost all the games content to be skipped and jumped/ran through. The bosses themselves are also quite menial, although there was no more than 1 flop and a great selection of highlights. In creating the most fair fights sometimes the player is given too much of an advantage which can even make the first attempt too simple. This comes from the repetitive nature of almost all bosses due to the deflection mechanic, so upon encountering a new boss you already know the solution to countering them before you even start the battle, since all you will have to do for the most part is deflect and look out for danger.

This follows through in completion, where there is really very little complexity to it with minimal items to collect, and only minor npc interactions being required to '100%' the game.
I think the soundtrack is the only disappointing part that genuinely feels like it detracts from the experience for all players; I would expect more out of From and it's no surprise that Sekiro is the only game they have developed that doesn't have an original soundtrack album.

In conclusion I would still recommend this game to everyone, if it was the same price as an experience like Dark Souls 3 on sale. However the daylight robbery that Activision pull on a purchasely basis means it is unlikely this games price point will ever rival those of the Dark Souls franchise, and until then, I will still recommend those games over this one to a beginner. On the other hand if you are a souls enjoyer, definitely pick this one up as it is not worth missing out on and will also not take up too much of your time.

-57.5 Hours to complete.

--SPOILER REVIEW--
My first impressions of this game where honestly not very promising. From the first few moments when after creating my female 'Scrotumtooth' (the 3rd) I'm presented with a pre-rendered cutscene of a male(?!) protagonist lost in the rain. Clearly some aspects of this game aren't as well thought out.

Unlike the other 2 games, there is no clear objective when starting from Majula. In Firelink Shrine, there are a few different ways you technically can travel at the beginning. A hidden elevator down to New Londo Ruins, where you will immediately decide to leave since you can't actually damage any of the enemies; or a gank hell of skeleton ambushes that will only build up more and more the further you go - if you manage to make a certain distance you will be rewarded with a strong weapon, and likely then find a different path after feeling accomplished. You will end up finding the easy path with enemies laid clearly out ahead with much lower health pools.

In Dark Souls II, the 'correct' path is littered with enemy ambushes and gank squads - the very technique FromSoft used to dissuade the player from pursuing an area in the previous game. It was incredibly hard to figure out where to go to find the 4 primal bonfires without any guidance from the game or it's characters. Additionally all of this happens in the first section of the game before the player has even become accustomed to the games systems.

In terms of areas, Heide's Tower is gorgeous and contains two very solid boss fights that compliment one another - although I just wish they had gone and compiled the two easier bosses into one more difficult fight. Belfry Luna has that DS1 signature complexity which I love, even if it becomes less commonly found later on into the games. The Gutter sucks ass and it's boss isn't much better, that's all that needs to be said.
Iron Keep pretty much made my hair fall out, and that's an achievement since the chemotherapy did that for me already. Brightstone Cove is kinda cool, nice use of the torch although its a shame the mechanic wasn't used later on - excluding Earthen Peak which was a nice break from the poison swamp before.

--SECOND HALF--

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the second half of this game is so much better than the first. Drangleic Castle, Mirror Knight, Shrine of Amana, Demon of Song, Guardian Dragon, Velstadt, Vendrick are all bangers. The final boss was underwhelming but DSIII accustomed me to that. Dragon Shrine is gorgeous and the lore really shines with Vendrick and the giants.

In conclusion for now, I look forward to completing this game as it feels more suited to a NG+ playthrough, and actually having competent stats will be very satisfying. I definitely still recommend this game but there is a considerable amount of patience needed to reach the better fights and experience.
-30.7 Hours to beat.

--SPOILER REVIEW--

Quickly I have to clarify before someone's hair starts falling out of their head, I found the bosses in this game much simpler and easier overall in comparison to DS3 (mostly due to a lot of them being single phase, tanky fatty bosses, or parryable - a skill i learned in the previous game. However, unlike the third, this game completely forces you to approach every situation cautiously, and incredibly slowly. There is very little opportunity to run past enemies like you can in later entries, and avoiding combat for too long will likely end in a clip-worthy gank fest.

The environment is incredible, with the majority of the entire game a maze of interlocking pathways that allow you to reach almost any area on foot without retracing an entire linear path. I missed having fast travel for the first period of the game before the lordvessel, and to be honest believe the game would be better if warping was available throughout. It was a slog having to work my way back to Andre, and to get out of Blighttown. The infusion and upgrade systems seemed convoluted and was hard for me to understand: having to travel around the map to level a single weapon felt confusing.

I love the depth of the story in this game, from Artorias, Sif and the Abyss, The Painted World, of course the incredibly memorable Gwyn and his family. Anor Londo gave me the same chills I felt seeing London abandoned in 28 Days Later. I have yet to try the covenant system or summon, but plan to 100% the game so will probably provide an edit with that. The bosses in the DLC are certainly the hardest and most intense in the game, usually with large movesets, huge damage output and a massive health pool (looking at you Manus). I actually enjoyed the final fight and felt satisfaction defeating Gwyn with parries, although I absolutely did not appreciate being forced into NG+ immediately with no option to clear up loose ends.

I cannot comment on the quality of this remake as I have never played the PTD edition. Graphically the game looks horrible and dated in the darker areas, with little to no detail, terrible lighting, and basic fog. However in light or forested areas such as Darkroot and Oolacile, the game still shines graphically. The textures have definitely been updated along with adding some post processing effects. Character and enemy models still have detail, with nice animations; in contrast the environment lacks vertices and you can clearly see how each building has been created.

Overall, at a sale price this game holds up well as a very different experience to DS3, with the same intense challenge, and satisfaction of progress.

-41.5 Hours to beat.

--EDIT--

Finally, this game is complete. Undoubtedly I had a blast collecting all the achievements for this game. None of them dragged particularly (at least in comparison to the nightmare of ring collecting from DS3), the side quest interactions were well thought out and developed the world perfectly. It was devastating watching all my fellow undead slowly turning hollow or meeting some grisly end, and the challenge to save the few that you could was both difficult and unsatisfying - but in such an intentional way. Never once you save someone do you feel like you did a good thing - their reaction and the lack of change to their destiny almost makes you feel as though you made a mistake. This is just a perfect example of good moral building in videogames.

Initially I hated the weapon upgrade system but after searching for all the embers I (mostly) enjoy the way it is formatted - excluding such ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ as the Blue Titanite Slab in Crystal Cave. I loved little quirks in the gameplay such as how me using the Firelink Shrine firekeeper's soul prevented me from ever lighting the flame in that area for the rest of that NG cycle, and the journey of Big Hat Logan. Seeing my hard work pay off on my final NG as I successfully parry any attack a blade wielding enemy throws at me, punishing with the massive damage numbers I had earned from upgrades, was a glorious feeling I've come to expect from the franchise.

In conclusion it is difficult to compare this game to Dark Souls III. It is a massive jump in combat speed, and refining my skills felt a lot simpler in this. The environments are difficult but rewarding and designed in a very detailed intertwining manner and some of the boss fights are unforgettable - albeit they are held back by a number of easy or boring ones. Definitely recommend this game especially to a souls fan as it is an experience you will not forget.

88.5 Hours to complete.

--SPOILER REVIEW--

First of all, I feel like this game was misrepresented to me as to how intensely challenging it’s supposed to be as a first-time player. Sure, the experience is a very tough one, but only in the same way that it’s hard to learn an expert level in a rhythm game. The battles tend to come down to your ability to process pattern recognition quickly, which will improve the more you play the game.

I’ve only just finished my playthrough, and already feel tempted to return and do the two optional bosses I missed (Nameless King and Ancient Wyvern) – choice like this made my experience feel unique, and how challenging I found each boss seemed to vary dramatically from my friends’ experiences. The immersive and intimidatingly bleak world combined with the endorphin rush you feel as a reward for overcoming a tough segment draws me back in.

I have some standout highlights on my first souls journey with my ashen one Sir Scrotumtooth, such as practicing parrying against Pontiff to then devastate Gundyr with what I’d learnt, not even taking damage in the process.

In absolute contrast, how about spending 5 hours straight, late into the night, enduring attempt after attempt against the wretched Dancer and her near-impossible to read second phase; I even ended up cowering behind the corner pillar (with the pulpit) in fear of her Link’s Spin Attack on steroids, to get my successful run.
Or how surprisingly impactful the narrative could be, even without playing previous titles, just by leaving a lot to interpretation. I felt it in my gut when the Fire Keeper begged to be killed after being given eyes, seeing the world without fire; to accompany, soft piano phrases began to complement the sorrowful strings of Firelink Shrine.

The environments and art are impressively imposing and overbearing to the player – I’ve never been able to appreciate desolation quite until I saw the overpowering mangled kingdom that is Kiln of the First Flame. Even boss fights that completely lacked challenge usually made up for it in grandeur: obviously Yhorm the Giant is a great example of this.

On the other hand, a more controversial example (for my experience) would have to be the final boss, Soul of Cinder.

After spending a surmountable period of time toughing out Twin Princes, I prepped my character with their best fit, choosing my weapon wisely and making use of my Titanite Slab to max out my choice, I felt ready to face a challenge similar to the extremity of Dancer. However, when I actually got into the fight, I was given more than enough breathing room to heal, each phase could be combatted just by rolling, and I was able to defeat him on my first try. This definitely made the ending feel underwhelming, especially with such a vague final cutscene.
But really, what did I expect from a game as bleak as dark souls 3 – clarity? This is really the most fitting way to close the story.

To sum up my experience so far, I found that this punishing, but fair title requires (but massively rewards) creativity and forward thinking, teaching you to learn a combat strategy for each foe and exploit their weaknesses. That gameplay loop is just so powerfully motivating that in my 31 hours this might already be one of my favourite games of all time, and I encourage everyone to finish it. You can do it, and it will be worth it.

-33 Hours to beat.

--EDIT--

At 63.5 hours, I have now completed all the achievements for this game. Nameless King is an absolute blast, exactly what I want from a boss fight in this game - high intensity, variety of fighting styles in each phase, complicated attacks to telegraph, and powerful lore. Ancient Wyvern isn't as bad as people made out to me, it served to make me feel powerful before getting slapped in the face by the King.

I absolutely do not recommend completing all the achievements, the grind for covenant rewards needed for the ring/miracle/sorcery achievements is painfully slow and cannot be sped up by the player unless they would prefer to kill 10,000 silver knights.

The hollowing side quest (involving Anri) was engaging and made my NG++ feel unique compared to my other playthroughs.
I truly feel like I've mastered the PvE in this game to it's entirety with my build - although I am a long way off destroying consistently in PvP.

Although this journey in DS3 is probably almost over for me now (ignoring the expansion pass), I'm excited to move on to the older games in the series and the added content in this game; I am hungry for more content.

good game