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[regawdless]

Reading a lot of comments since Sekiro has been released, I feel like the Souls "community" - or people who finished and liked the Souls games - are pretty divided regarding Sekiro.

Some love the setting and the new direction for the combat, others don't like the new approach and the limited customization and fighting style options.

Personally, I've finished and really liked all Souls games outside of DS2 (stopped after like 70% completion). OG Dark Souls holds a special place in my heart.
Also loved Bloodborne, despite a significant struggle to adapt to the new combat approach basically without blocking and being a tank. It was a pain until I managed to beat the Bloodstarved Beast, it really clicked with me after that.

Was hyped for Sekiro and played it on PC at 4k 60fps. I made it to the monkey temple, then stopped playing it. I didn't feel the sense of discovery and sensation that the other games managed to convey. The world and characters didn't grab me, the story was... I don't even remember anything about it.
I liked some of the stealth gameplay and the mobility was great.
But I really didn't like the focus on parries, which was the main reason for me not having that much fun with the game. It had some good mechanics and there was a lot good stuff there - the direction they've taken just wasn't for me. I liked Bloodbornes and NioHs combat so much more.

Overall, I tried so hard to like it but had to accept that for me, it's a pretty mediocre game.

So, what's your opinion on Sekiro?

 

[Graciaus]

It's a rhythm game not an action one. It's fun but the Souls formula was much better.

 

[The Cockatrice]

The combat is the best out of all games however it lacks in everything else that makes Souls games great and that is indeed that sense of discovery you're talking about, the metroidvania aspect.

 

[Makariel]

I'm rather lukewarm on Sekiro. It was fun for what it was but I didn't enjoy the game as much, since it gives way less variety with the characters you can play (or create). One reason I played each of the Souls games (with exception of DS2) multiple times was to try different builds, different weapons, different crazy combinations of gear, spells etc. I simply don't see the same variety in Sekiro. It's done and gone for me, while I still look forward to my next time playing Demon's Souls.

 

[Saiyan-Rox]

The combat was too heavily focused on deflection for me...I enjoyed what I played of it but eventually I got annoyed/bored of the same old deflecting and stopped playing.

 

[Jokerevo]

It has some incredible boss fights but although FROM were trying to distill their gameplay into its purest form, they forgot that having a variety of approaches was why the souls games appealed to so many. To me Sekiro is literally a one button game. Once you learn the timing everything else becomes irrelevant.

If you play Nioh 2, which is essentially a love letter to FROM soulsborne games, you'll see that they tried to give us everything that Sekiro didn't want to. No doubt FROM still are the boss and level design masters but they took an absolute pummelling on combat, customisation, replay-ability, coop features, weapon design, movesets, loot etc etc.

I have 500 hours played on Nioh 2 and still not even touched the final dlc.

Sekiro: 20 hours and didn't bother to finish the game.




Oh and Elden Ring has to steal stances, they would add a layer of depth hitherto undreamt of to the soulsborne games. Imagine having light, medium and heavy movesets for your ace and being able to flow between them to access special moves...yeah? It's already been done.

 

[Krisprolls]

Sekiro is great. The problem is it's really too hard for me. I finished the great Demon's Souls remake by using Magic, but there's no such thing on Sekiro.

I'll try to get back to it, but it's really too punitive for me.

 

[cireza]

It was a great game, but I had to wait for the Series X to be able to tell you this. Before this, having played in 30fps, I quite disliked the experience.

Not having to manage an inventory is a big plus for me. No stats as well. Sekiro is 100% about playing, all this management stuff bores me to hell.

 

[Sentenza]

I'm not very fond of the setting (overdone in a lot of Japanese fiction) but From Software put an interesting twist and vibe to it.

That aside, gameplay wise it's their masterpiece. Best combat system and best boss fights around. And no one comes even close.

 

[Sw0pDiller]

I agree with some that the combat mostly felt like a dancing game. You really have to watch the movements of the enemy and react just right to succeed. I really loved the game and had a big love/hate relation with most bosses. The lore, the Japanese horror, the environment. All great. The same great feeling of accomplishment when you finally kill a boss is the same feeling that ds game bring. For the rest it's a whole different game.

 

[Radical Dreamer]

It was great.

 

[SantaC]

It was overrated and the weakest souls game.

 

[Bartski]

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.

 

[Orpheum]

Amazing game. The combat system is even better than bloodborne and the bossfights are the best in any soulsbornekiro game. I'm still ranking bloodborne above sekiro but it's a really close second place. Shame there was never any dlc

 

[gunslikewhoa]

It's objectively a great game, but below all of the Soulsborne games for me.

 

[AV]

It's a masterpiece, like most of the stuff From puts out.

It's just not a Souls game, it's a deviation and it makes sense that some Souls diehards didn't enjoy it.

 

[Lux R7]

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.

pretty much

 

[TintoConCasera]

I had a hard time with it until the combat finally clicked, to the point I almost got filtered by the shinobi hunter in the Hirata state.

When the game clicks and you learn the parry timings, it became one of the best action games for me. I just missed a bit more of exploration and branching between the zones, but that's just a small nitpick.

Also, the monke, holy fuck.

 

[kraspkibble]

really enjoyed it. it's a fantastic game but compared to Dark Souls/Bloodborne...it's not as good in the respect that it's much easier than any Soulsborne game.

1. far too much time is spent explaining controls and how stuff works. there is a dedicated NPC for training lol. in soulsborne you were thrown in the deep end with not even a "good luck".
2. you can pause the game which i find ridiculous!
3. the main weapon Sekiro has is his prosthetic which is cool but basically lets you GTFO of any sticky situation with the grappling hook. you run into a crowd of enemies in Bloodborne? you gonna get fucked up.
4. you get two and maybe even three lives. it's the name of the game. it's designed around being able to revive Sekiro. that goes against pretty much everything that makes Soulsborne what it is.

i know it might sound like i'm shitting on the game but i'm not. like i said...it's a fantastic game and i loved it. it's just not a Soulsborne game and that's OK. anyway, the game more than makes up for these "flaws" (not that it has to) by having some really fucking difficult bosses. the final boss is easily the most difficult boss i've fought in any game.

 

[Griffon]

It's a rhythm game not an action one. It's fun but the Souls formula was much better.

Nailed it.

It's a very good game, and I might want to do a replay someday to reassess it.
But it wasn't awesome and mysterious like the souls games or bloodborne.

 

[kraspkibble]

also might i add that it is absolutely criminal that we didn't get any DLC expansions.

 

[K.S v2.0]

Absolutely deserves its title of GOTY 2019, and should also win an award for new original IP too.

Yes its a 'Soulsborne' styled game, loosely... but its still an original IP.

 

[Sign]

My only real problem with Sekiro was the lack of character customization. Can’t say how many times I saw a piece of armor I wanted to wear or weapon I wanted to wield, but couldn’t.

Also, I’m not convinced Wolf being a voiced / named protagonist added much to the experience. I don’t have a problem with From going in that direction, but it puts a barrier between the world and the player. When I see something in BB that is striking I wonder, “How does this make me feel?” When I see something in Sekiro I wonder how it makes Wolf feel. Which would be fine if I could answer that question, but most of the time I could not.

Ultimately, I felt the setting was squandered for these reasons. Still a better game than 95% of what is out there, though.

 

[rofif]

Incredible game. Better than most other non souls games.
Perfect controls, perfect gameplay for what it is.
But it's not really a souls game. Maybe a bit in level design.

I liked it a lot but the bosses were so much higher difficulty than the rest of the game... and the game is quite linear and forces only 2 play styles (more attack or more blocking). No weapons, armors, stats.
It's least fav of the bunch but I love all of them

 

[Elog]

For me Sekiro and Bloodborne are in a class of their own - two amazing games.

Agree with the comments regarding character customisation in Sekiro but that is about it. Bloodborne DLC and Sekiro has some of the - if not 'the' - best souls-bosses (in my opinion of course).

 

[Strider Highwind]

You can look at my avatar and tell how I feel...one of my fave games of all time honestly...The combat is leagues beyond what most third person action games offer, and it was pretty funny watching games come out so soon after Sekiro made its debut that were copying it(Mortal Shell, and Fallen Order!)

I'm a huge Souls fan/Sekiro fan and im the type to try and master the gameplay/combat of these games...I also do a lot of helping by joining my friends/acquaintaneces games in Souls/Ni-Oh so I can get them through tough areas/bosses.

I posted this before, but here is a vid of me fighting the next to the last boss....I got hit when it first started, but I have a No-Hit run of the entire game on the hardest difficulty I need to finish editing that I completed when quarantine kicked off :


Souls games just don't require that amount of coordination in any of the encounters to complete them. Two totally diff styles of games so i'm not taking anything away from them...And like someone said Bloodborne is in an entirely different class of its own as well.

I do agree with character customization though...Would have been really cool if we were able to make the Wolf more of our own character even if it was just cosmetic. But I LOVE this game

 

[Hudo]

Sekiro is a very good game but don't go expecting it to be a Souls game. But I bet that if From Software were to make a new Armored Core, people would complain that it's not Mecha-Souls...
From kinda trapped themselves with the Souls games a bit...

 

[Eolmith]

I liked the game, the one thing I hate about the game is the disparity in difficult, I mean, through the whole game the difficulty is constant but the last boss is completely off the curve, It made me feel like I have wasted my time until that point, took me weeks to kill it and i almost gave up.

 

[Azurro]

I haven't managed to play more than a few hours. Actually, Sekiro feels like a test lab for new concepts for Souls games and see if they work, with the grappling hook and the parrying and whatnot, I just don't enjoy parrying that much and this game is basically just that, a rhythm game.

 

[iorek21]

It would have benefited a lot from better replay value, but people can still find fun on repeated playthroughs nonetheless.

Level design is the better since DS1, it feels like a giant Firelink Shrine with all the interconnection.

I really like it

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

I think it's my favorite Souls like game, and I started with an Asia-region import of Demon's Souls on PS3. The combat, exploration, enemy AI, story pacing... everything is sublime. Even the music rivals the best tracks from Souls/BB, though it's more subtle, quieter.

 

[Troglodyte]

Its good but I much prefer Souls and Bloodborne. I got all the endings and was satisfied with it.

 

[Rean no Kiseki]

I think it lacks A LOT in variety, one weapon, one move set and the the shinobi tools were underwhelming, it's still a very good game mind you but it’s not better than DS3/BB, i was done after 1 playthrough, might give it another run when I get my hands on the PS5 and play it at 60fps.

 

[Fbh]

Loved it.
The combat was amazing, it has some really nice locations, some of my favorite boss battles of this gen and I really liked how it enhances the already great FROM style level design by adding a lot of verticality with the grappling hook.

I don't think it's about "This or Souls" they are both great and quite different while sharing some common DNA (same as RDR with GTA or TLOU with Uncharted).
As much as I liked Sekiro, I wouldn't want them to exclusively stick to this formula moving forward. And as much as I like Dark Souls and Bloodborne, I hope they keep making more unique and different feeling games like Sekiro.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

After Sekiro, I think I’m over From Software for the time being.

Dark Souls 3 disappointed and enraged me to no end, and Sekiro just exhausted me and the little energy and patience I still had for this kind of video game. If Sekiro didn’t have save points so close to boss fights and used the Souls formula instead, I wouldn’t even get to the final boss. Which I never beat anyway. I probably spent a good half of the game wishing for it to end already.

The X1 version I played had a significant input lag that didn’t contribute to the experience at all, but really, Sekiro is just exhausting. Maybe I’m just too old for this shit, but I can’t remember a single moment in the whole game where I felt I was having fun. Beating a boss never felt elating; rather, it felt draining, like I was the hero of Shadow of the Colossus. Thank God I never found the boss fights with the two apes, or I’d probably just throw the controller at my TV and be done with it.

I’d like for this “you died like a little bitch, git gud” trend they started to be done for good, but I’m not kidding myself. This is From’s shtick and they’ll stick to it until there’s people who lap this stuff up.

 

[KiNeMz]

It's not a souls game. It's a Sekirei game. So it's an awesome Sekirei game.

 

[Smoothcat]

Loved it. Next to bloodborne and DS3 it's my favorite From game.

 

[#Phonepunk#]

I love it. To think of someone calling it mediocre I have to wonder about that person. What an insult to this game. Game is a masterwork with the best combat they have ever done paired with the best exploration.

By the time they got to Dark Souls III I had figured out the formula to where I was defeating new bosses in one or two attempts. Sekiro was like taking me back to school. I remember fighting the one Seven Swords guy for an hour and he wasn’t even a boss! From surprised me with a new challenge and I can’t wait to see where they go from here.

 

[Elder Legend]

Great designed game in terms of mechanics, game design and combat.

The most boring theme, asthetics, enemy design and atmosphere. Least enjoyable of all the Slulsborne games.

My favorite are Dark Souls 1, 3 and Bloodborne. Demon's Skuls remake is a great remake but it is stuck in the past in terms of game design and yes I did beat it on PS5.

 

[MDSLKTR]

A dedicated game to dex builds with accessible narration and a jump button. Loved it.

 

[Enzo88]

It's my favorite action game since ninja gaiden black and the best from software game...it is pretty different from the 'souls' though.

 

[O.v.e.rlord]

Loved it! The parry system makes the game. The game really makes you feel like a badass ninja. You can just stand there and parry all attacks. It's so cool. With the addition of the boss rush mode, FUCK ME that kicks it up to 14. Like I still have not beaten the "mortal journey" and i have played the game over 230 hours. All the bosses. limited everything (thank god they let you rest in-between fights). I legit had to plan out when to die for a good run for bosses that I have problems with. Lastly that adrenaline rush, god damn. that was me. That fight had me on edge the entire time. Or when I ran into the first boss and he just says fuck you, not getting by me. Stab him in the back for the first time. Thinking oh that was ok. Then the boss is like ready for round 2, I'm siting there with no health items, fucked. Trying to parry just to survive. Then landing a win? That right there was soooooooo good. That was my third attempt at that boss. I thought to my self, "Hey, let's try that again". Get my ass stomped on 9 out of 10 times. Trying to understand how I won at all and losing hope lol.

 

[Kokoloko85]

Bloodborne and Dark Souls are in my top 10 favourite games of all time.
Loved Sekiro too maybe top 20/30. Combat was awesome and one of my favourites. Good story.

I prefer the souls games but prefer combat in Sekiro

 

[Aion002]

For me it is an amazing game with a fun combat, incredible art, awesome map design, cool enemies, memorable characters and interesting setting.

One of the best games of the gen.

The only bad things that I can see on it are: the lack of builds and Nioh combat puts everything else to shame.

Anyway, I love it!

 

[RedVIper]

The combat is great but everything else is strictly worse.

Worse world building, worse level design, worse customization, worse enemy variety, no variety in play styles, nothing to really explore (Without a variety of weapons/armors then most items you find are consumables, the reward for exploring is much smaller than in soulsborne).

It's a good game, but one I have no desire to replay.

 

[#Phonepunk#]

Such a weird trend of people demanding that games fit exactly the templates of older games. I don’t get it why not enjoy the new games? Why are people unendingly comparing this to a Souls game? It is not that. Why are people even pointing out “it’s not a souls game” when it never claimed it was? Did everyone completely forget that they said DS3 would be the final Souls game? Y’all thought they were joking or lying? Why?

Reminds me of everyone who wants Cyberpunk to be exactly like GTA. Like you people realize not every game has to fit in one box?

It’s so bizarre like looking at every Capcom game released after Street Fighter II and complaining why isn’t Resident Evil like that? “Resident Evil is a terrible Street Fighter” lol no duh why are you expecting every game to be Street Fighter? It’s boring tbh.

Extra funny cos everyone was complaining that the Souls “formula” was tired and boring by 3. And now they are upset Sekiro isn’t doing that old formula? Lol ok.

 

[Captain Toad]

Great game, but I MUCH prefer Souls and Bloodborne.

 

[Batiman]

Not really a souls vet but I put Sekiro over anything souls. Just didn’t play DS 2

 

[Touch fuzZy. get BizZay]

It's great combat, but I NEED multiplayer

 

[Kacho]

Sekiro’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.