I QUIT SEKIRO
(or it broke me)
by Dylan Blight
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, the latest game from Demon Souls, Dark Souls and Bloodborne developers FromSoftware released last Friday and I eagerly jumped in excited to play it.
My time with the game — an estimated 10 hours — was a gruelling, rewarding and constant learning experience. It didn’t play like Dark Souls; it didn’t play like Bloodborne, and it lacked several key elements from both those games. Elements that most considered main ingredients in the Soulsborn formula. But I was learning, adapting, and enjoying my time.
After 10 hours though, Sekiro broke something in me and I made a decision to uninstall the game. Yes, I know #gitgud and all that fun stuff, but I have boiled down my feelings for Sekiro and decided I didn’t have time for its shit anymore.
My key frustration grew from the game’s lack of any soft-padding. In Soulsborne titles, there is the ability to somewhat makes things easier for yourself if you get stuck. You can grind some character levels, stick some skill points in HP, Attack, Defense, or whatever you think will help you in your battle, and be able to give yourself the slight edge you needed to survive a boss battle. Although all Soulsborne games do come down to skill, having the option to grind out something to possibly make the battle a little easier was always a nice option and added a level of ease for those not wanting to beat the entire game without ever getting hit. It was a welcome option, especially as it gave you something to do when you wanted a break from bashing against a boss battle over-and-over.
Another thing Sekiro is missing that Soulsborne titles have always included is any online components. In Bloodborne and the Souls games you were able to call in for help from another player if need be, which made playing through a ridiculous boss in co-op an easier option. There was also the option to leave notes on the ground to help other players with useful tips, or trick them into a deathtrap (if you were that kinda person.)
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a singular experience that lacks the RPG elements of previous FromSoft tiles, and has you playing as one protagonist, one set stat-sheet and the only option you have when you’re hitting up against a wall is to practice and get better at the game. But when you’re getting one-hit killed, it can make practising specific boss battle elements hard.
Which sure, I get it, and the game is rewarding. The first mini-boss in the game took me roughly 10 tries and when I finally understood the parrying system it was an “a-ha” moment and at the time, I was looking forward to more like those.
Sekiro though has changed a lot of the Soulsborne systems we knew, introduced a much weaker character and thrown you into a world that is ultimately more brutal than any previous FromSoft games. Grunt enemies 10 hours in are still scary to face because I know that one of them could still knock half my HP down if I’m not careful. Also, not having the amount of HP restoring items we have had in previous games always makes the slightest mistake nearly game ending. Which is where the bonfire or camp system in this game becomes tedious to a point I was sick of it. It’s one thing to ask me to learn a brutal boss system, but another to make me constantly wander through such long areas to get back to the boss after dying. Often areas lead to death if you’re not careful as you’re getting shot from outta nowhere; tackled from the sky or dived on from above. Previous Soulsborne titles didn’t always have checkpoints close to the boss fights, but you’d also usually be able to open a shortcut to the boss, and sprinting past all the enemies was usually pretty easy. If one managed to hit you, whatever, not the end of the world. In Sekiro if any enemy hits you, you might as well walk all the way back to the checkpoint and rest because you NEED that HP more than ever.
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Git Gud.
I tried
Good for you! It’s a super hard game. I’m at the “end boss” but only because I wasn’t afraid to watch some YouTube videos of bosses that were crushing me. I’m playing the game on my terms by making cloud saves right in front of a hard boss so I can go straight back at it which makes it less painful. If it’s going to be hard I’m going to play hard back
It is a super hard game, but good on you for getting there.
Lol another article about some shitty casual gamer getting cucked as usual because they just horrible at basic mechanics and don’t have the will to learn.
I got corner cucked hard unfortuantly.
+1 for use of Corner Cuck
😀
If your not willing to play the game on it’s terms, maybe it wasn’t for you to begin with.
True
I feel you man , i uninstalled the game and sold it for 45 bucks , …. i loved everything about it but it was frustratingly hard , kudos to the people who can pick this up and just wreck house , i died over 50 times to the ogre in the beginning got past him …and just wasnt having fun at all with the game…..i also have a limited amount of time to play nowadays so yea …fresh ass game but not for me.
Yeah just gotta admit when something isn’t for you and time is money.
Great article. I feel the same way about this game but also a little disappointed because i was really looking forward to enjoying this game. i like challenging and difficult games but they also have to be enjoyable to play and Sekiro is not. At least to me anyway. It plays and looks like a game PS3 game, the graphics are ok, the lock on to an enemy is broke and the combat is really basic (in a bad way). I finally realized that the frustration of playing Sekiro over took any enjoyment I might have gotten out of it and I uninstalled it too. Hey, I bought the $90 collection edition so at least i have a statue, map and a few coins to enjoy!
I got the collectors editions as well! And I’ll enjoy that statue haunting me for the rest of my life haha.
– Dylan
On top of everything that was said on the matter last couple of days – perhaps you should try and face the simple fact:
YOU ARE BAD AT THE GAME and it’s simply to hard for you to enjoy not for the lack of trying. There were flawless speedruns of the game 2 days after release. Some people just don’t have the reflex to deflect hits and that’s OK, don’t play the game but the whole faultfinding is just baffling. There were bosses that took me over a day to learn and beat. That is the whole point. You can’t compare the satisfaction it gives you to anything else on the market, and it blows my mind how many people don’t get how detrimental would have been to be able to choose an easy mode. Most people would just go for it at some point, ruining the game for themselves. Having platinumed the game I still feel it being incomplete for me, as I remember all the bosses I beat with the worst hit and run run run cheese imaginable. Thankfully some of the hardest ones don’t allow that and those will stay with me as my epic gaming victories. I’m fucking proud of beating the game, especially battles fought the way Miazaki wanted them to be.
"My key frustration grew from the game’s lack of any soft-padding. In Soulsborne titles, there is the ability to somewhat makes things easier for yourself if you get stuck." – SERIOUSLY? Grinding for stats is a laymen cheese strat and a horrible one to rely on, one I’m also guilty of getting my ass kicked in Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne. As far as summons go, I will not spoil the game for you as little as you have clearly seen it by making this point.
"We talk a lot about games not respecting players time these days, and also the lack of accessibility in games for those that need it, whether that’s on a skill level or a barrier of entry because of a control input. Sekiro isn’t comforting on either of those. " – which just happens to be another awesome strength of the title. Basically everything you try to point at as a flaws of the game are actually its strengths. This game is not for you. It doesn’t owe you a way of being for you. You are not entitled to get a mode lowered to your reflex just because you want one. Please read and watch this.
https://gamerant.com/sekiro-corrupted-monk-reddit-quadriplegic/
This comment is the perfect representation of what’s wrong (badly wrong) with a part of the otherwise amazing soulsborne community.
"You are not good enough, gneeee gneeee", "Boooooo I platinumed the game in 23 seconds", "hahahahaha noooooooob".
I, like billions of others, have finished Bloodborne multiple times and I’m not having difficulties (rage quitting ones at least, so far) with Sekiro, but I don’t feel the need to crap on other people’s view of the gaming experience and BTW he has a point.
These games, being awesome and whatever, still have flaws and many of them are related to the balance between difficulty, reward, time spent and "commitment fairness". There’s nothing wrong in pointing that out.
We talk about THIS kind of games simply cause other games are still enjoyable even with non compulsory various levels of difficulties.
Nodoby ever spent hours talking about the level of difficulty of The Force Unleashed. Try playing it from the beginning (the first time) in Sith Master mode as if it was the only possible choice (or Nightmare in the original Doom) then we’ll talk about this topic again.
I’m SURE you would beat them, but the 90% of the rest of the gamers would react in a different way.
I think I won’t quit Sekiro just like I didn’t quit Bloodborne (which is much easier BTW) when I was stuck with a boss or level, but you have to remember that not everybody is 13 years old and has 10 hours of playing time available every day for days in a row.
This clicked with me as I was just commenting on reddit how I KNEW I could pass the "test" of the renaming bosses. But I realized I wasn’t "enjoying" the bosses I passed. It was like a chore. I was about to have a 3rd go at seven spears and I said "what the hell am I doing?" When I beat him, I can’t say it would have been joy that I felt.
What’s always interesting is you’re pointing out you could have beaten these bosses. You simply didn’t want to. But responses will always be "you’re not good enough" or "the game isn’t for everyone". I am less frustrated by the patronizing responses than I am that they didn’t actually accept the point/criticism made.