Recent reviews by Just A Wolf

So far this is my GOTY and I'm not even joking. It's so badass, man. Innovative, fluid, and satisfying platforming mechanics with a high skill ceiling and atmosphere that keeps your adrenaline rushing from start to finish as you climb higher and higher. This game is cold and unforgiving, and that's what makes it so euphoric when everything finally clicks and you lock in. The tension I had playing this and nearly making it to the finish line several times (and eventually clearing it!) had me genuinely shaking and my palms sweaty. This was an incredible experience for just a demo and I really hope it reaches a wider audience with time. Hats off to you DMG, you guys are insane. Thank you for keeping video games fun and unique.

So originally I wrote my review after playing about 3 hours of the game and sucking, really really badly. My initial impressions of the game were poor because I was frustrated at the insane difficulty of the starting encounters, the permanent loss of XP, money upon death, the introduction of Dragonrot, etc. The game does NOT go easy on you at the start to let you get acclimated to the combat or certain mechanics, and you begin with a pitiful lack of abilities that are more or less necessary to play the game to its fullest (HP recovery upon Deathblows, Mikiri Counter, etc).

Since then, I got over myself and pressed on, somewhat begrudgingly over not wanting to waste my $60, and I gotta say I'm pretty glad I stuck with it. The game has an... interesting perception of difficulty "balance," where some boss encounters are shockingly easier than the fights that lead up to them. As it turns out, the game *really* stresses its stealth mechanics, so much so to the point where nearly every non-boss encounter can be made easier or even cleared by being invisible and just getting free kills. Enemies also have a pathetic attention span and forget you ever existed if you simply run away after getting a stealth kill that wasn't as stealthy as you were hoping. If you're not a fan of stealth, you can always *try* to fight the enemies head on, but... good luck. There's usually more hidden just around the corner waiting for you to make this mistake, and fighting 6+ enemies at the same time in a game with Soulsborne difficulty is about as fun as it sounds.

So, the combat. It's great. From Software stated in interviews that the game was a challenge for the developers because they needed attacks to be choreographed and telegraphed extremely well for the player to react to, and they weren't lying. The animations in this game are a beauty. Swordfighting truly feels like a dance in this game, with enemies gracefully murdering you in a variety of really spectacular and dazzling attacks. With that said, the combat is extremely unforgiving should you make mistakes, with poorly timed deflects quickly building up your Posture bar and improper reactions deleting about 40-90% of your Vitality (HP) bar. You will die. A lot. And it's natural, for the most part. Initially I was put off by the permanence and severity of the death penalties in this game, but they aren't as bad as they seem at first. You will learn through failure, even if it takes a long time. And when you finally master that one enemy's attack pattern, you truly feel like a badass getting near perfect deflects and dodge timing the next time you fight them. You can look forward to a satisfying and morbidly awesome, unique Deathblow on bosses to commemorate your efforts.

The world design in this game is absolutely gorgeous. It rivals, if not outclasses Bloodborne's visuals in terms of variety and sheer scale. The introduction of a grappling hook brings with it an aspect that was fairly lacking in the Soulsborne games: verticality. It's so satisfying to climb up four, five, six stories high in an environment and scout out your prey, hide from enemies, explore new pathways. There's never really a dull area in Sekiro, maybe a few subjectively ugly environments like poisonous bogs, but that just adds to the variety of the setpieces. There's so much to see in this game, and every time I entered a new sprawling area it put the biggest smile on my face. If nothing else, wanting to explore the world was one of my biggest driving forces in playing (I guess finishing) this game. Oh, and of course, Yuka Kitamura is a goddess as always and the music is utterly phenomenal. It's much different from the Dark Souls or Bloodborne sound, because Japan. But you thought that would stop Kitamura? You fool. She is not of this realm.

If you suck at video games, playing Sekiro will result in either one of two outcomes. You will either walk away as a god of action RPGs, or you will walk away with a broken controller. For me it was a mixture. Sekiro trains you in the art of timing. Where DMCV is a one-sided fighting game with you as the fighter, Sekiro is the opposite; this time, the enemies are the ones with the SSS combos. In both games, they require a bit of training to understand and fully take advantage of. Naturally you will be bad at first, but overcoming your defeats and improving your reflexes is part of the experience.

I didn't exactly walk away from the game entirely satisfied (the ending I got, coupled with the ludicrous difficulty of the final boss left me pretty bitter), but the experience was definitely worth the money. So overall, Sekiro gets an 8/10 from me. If the difficulty was a little more balanced at the start and very end of the game it would probably be a perfect 10 but my initial bad experience is still a factor in my score. I highly recommend it if you like challenging games, if you don't then it might not be worth the stress. I myself am not a "hardcore gamer," but I like fair challenges and Sekiro is... well, sometimes fair. But I'm a slave to From Software so I play their games anyway.

TL;DR- game is hard, game is sometimes oddly easy, game is beautiful, music is beautiful, I can't sit properly anymore

One of the best action games I've played in my entire life. I got what I was expecting and much, much more. Graphics, combat, and music are all amazing. Story and acting were okay, but the script was a little awkward at times. Solid 9/10, I'll definitely be playing through this more times before I get tired of it, if ever.