“Hesitation is Defeat”

(spoiler free)

This is my favourite FromSoft/Souls game and one of my favourite games ever.

This game doesn’t get the love it deserves because too many people come in expecting Dark Souls but Japan. Don’t get me wrong Dark Souls is wonderful, but this game is its own beautiful beast which needs to be handled as such. If you come in and spam dodge like Souls meta you won’t get far. You must give this game a chance and learn and grow with it.

I think many Souls veterans expected to drop in and destroy everything as they had several games worth of time/ experience with the Souls format, when that inevitably didn’t happen they instantly disliked it and didn’t give it the game the chance it deserves. Again, it isn’t Dark Souls 4/ DS:Japan, it is its own piece so expect to have to learn the ropes again. Looking through my ‘friends who have played previously’ tab on Steam so many people have ~7 hours or fewer on this game, so clearly gave up, which is sad. I don’t mean to invoke “git gud” I just mean there’s a lot to be loved here but just giving it a few hours isn’t giving it a fair chance.

I feel like the game is fun from the start, but it takes a while to really get a feel for the game’s mechanics and understand its “language”. Once you get past the Souls muscle memory and it “clicks” with you it is so satisfying and feels incredible. Fans often joke Sekiro is actually a rhythm game akin to ‘Just Dance’, where timing and rhythm are the most important factors and honestly there is a lot of truth to that. In Sekiro many of the boss fights regularly feel like a dance and the sword play has such a music like flow to it. It is very poetic and works so well with the culture and setting of the game. Whilst I won’t pretend to be a historical expert on Feudal Japan the game portrays the culture and setting beautifully, the fantasy elements lean heavily into Japanese culture which really compliments the environment and keeps the theme/story clear and tight. Especially regarding the use of spirits and animals, how their movement and fighting styles are so different to that of human enemies to reflect their nature, often wilder and more frantic (animals) and more methodical and peaceful (spirits). It really aids the immersion and the art like beauty of the game. Further, the emphasis on respect, honour and oaths are portrayed very neatly here (obviously very present in Japanese culture/media), being pivotal key themes of the whole game and different to the nature of the other instalments of the Souls games (obviously largely due to the Japanese setting in contrast to Souls’ more western theme). This lends very well to the decision-making components of the story and the directions the story/ ending can take with how ‘oathbound’ you decided to be in your roles and decisions for example.

It sounds ridiculous to call a game that won Game of the Year under-rated but what I mean is this game is pushed to the side when talking about the From/Souls games. DS1+3 and now Elden Ring get all the praise, focus and limelight when it comes to FromSoft and Sekiro is treated as an afterthought by a great deal of the fandom/ industry, which is a shame as I feel it is a nearly perfect game and the best of the bunch. I feel this is the only Souls/From game that is consistently GREAT throughout. Whilst I love the Souls franchise, pacing and level of quality consistency has always been an issue. The tail end of Dark Souls 1 is far worse than the front, whilst Dark Souls 2 has almost the exact opposite problem with the first few hours being rough but it eventually finds its footing. This statement probably won’t be well received but honestly the most recent (and widely praised) FromSoft game, Elden Ring, is guilty of this with the latter half not being as good as the first and the ending boss is truly awful and dramatically worsens the whole experience. I feel like Sekiro is consistently great, it doesn’t weaken during the middle/end like most of the other Souls instalments, plus the ending boss is fantastic. The only thing that dramatically effects the pace of the game/ is a dip in quality consistence (in my opinion) is the Screen Monkeys boss fight. I got what they were going for, it was something very different having a puzzle boss, but on sequential playthroughs it is a bit of a chore to get through (but at least it’s only a few mins long).

The biggest complaint I have seen for this game is that “Katana only combat can be boring” addressing the lack of build variety in this game. Whilst the current Elden Ring meta is 2 Katanas and these same people moan about Sekiro being too basic *cough* *cough* ANYWAY, I feel focusing less on the RPG aspects of the Souls formula led to a tighter design for Sekiro, the bosses are more tightly tuned to what you will likely be bringing against them which makes the fights so much cleaner and stylish, there’s less “oh use this one specific aspect of weaponry for this particular boss” which I am a big fan of. Whilst the RPG elements of Souls are great and add a ton of variety and replay-ability to the games, Sekiro works really well without them. Compared to having to cater to a bunch of different builds like in DS/ER, not to bash ER too much, it is also a great game I just feel that trimming the RPG elements from the formula worked well in Sekiro, I’m not saying they should be removed in all future From/Souls instalments I just feel it did work well for Sekiro and is not a negative aspect of the game at all. It especially fits thematically being the ‘skilled Shinobi’ and lends well to immersion opposed to a hypothetical Sekiro spell spamming his way through sword fights, no thanks.

I feel like Sekiro is a perfect candidate to the “can Video Games be Art?” debate. It has so many beautiful elements that all come together so well for such an all-around amazing product. Not just graphically in its environment design but in the messages it brings through its story, pacing, themes and display of culture. I don’t want to overuse the word, but it is truly a beautiful game in every sense of that word.

There’s also tons of content and replay-ability in the game. Like the rest of the Souls games, it features NewGame+ (can keep going as many times as you want, I have seen people at NG+50). The game has 4 different endings which involve visiting different areas/bosses you may otherwise never see. Sekiro also received a challenge gauntlet of bosses in a free update after winning GOTY in which you can fight previous bosses again, including harder versions and cosmetic rewards for doing so. Further if you want more challenge the game has an optional hard mode through ringing the demon bell (TLDR: making enemies stronger) and/or rejecting Kuro’s Charm (the charm disables ‘chip’ damage in which you take damage if you do not deflect attacks with perfect timing). Whilst your first playthrough will likely take you 20-30 hours the game can be speedrun in a fraction of that, once you have mastered the game and know the route of only what is essential, which I found very satisfying seeing just how much I had improved from struggling at the start of Playthrough 1!

If you are struggling at any point, whether that's getting into the game (early) or at a particular boss, take Isshin’s wise words to heart “Hesitation is Defeat”. Combat-wise you want to be more aggressive than Souls but you still want to be deliberate with every attack and not just spamming attack/spam blocking in an attempt to land a parry. Parrying is your best friend and the quicker you get that skill down the quicker you will improve at the game in general. Focus on the rhythm and patterns of your enemy’s attacks and maintain control, do not put yourself too much on the defence or be running away, do not hesitate. Hesitation is defeat ;)