Die With Honour In Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

With a fresh take on an old concept, can from software disrupt the action genre? We get our hands on it to find out once and for all.

You can feel it brushing over you in an instant; the winds of change guiding FromSoftware towards an all-new horizon. We are going to go right ahead and suggest that you check your expectations at the door; after we seized upon the opportunity to get our hands on the studio’s latest endeavour, it’s clear that it has about as much in common with the SoulsBorne games as Chromehounds did to Armored Core. The studio – led as ever by the enigmatic Hidetaka Miyazaki – has made no secret of its desire to start afresh. FromSoftware has, after all, poured much of its creative energy and resources into refining a single design philosophy over the decade. It’s finally time for the studio to do what it does best: free itself from the shackles of an exhausted formula in an effort to fully unleash its imagination and see where that may lead it.

The result is Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, a stealth-action experience heavily inspired by the myth and legend that helped define the late-16th century Sengoku period of Japan. You take control of a shinobi dubbed Sekiro, the One-Armed Wolf, who is duty-bound to reclaim a young lord that was kidnapped under his charge. To do so, you must step into the heart of the Ashina clan, although completing such a task is far easier said than done, for in this world nothing is quite what it seems.

While previous FromSoftware action-RPGs have been built around a foundation of slow, cautious play – forcing you to seize upon any opportunities that may present themselves with methodical precision – Sekiro is a stark shift away from this mentality. Here, you must make full use of your shinobi training, utilising more aggressive tactics and decisive actions in combat to progress.