Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

[Dragon Lord]

Developer: FromSoftware
Publisher: Activision
Platform: PlayStation 4, Steam, Xbox One
Release Date: TBA (2019)
Genre: Action Adventure

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is an upcoming action-adventure game played from a third-person view. Although compared to FromSoftware's Souls series, the game features no role-playing game elements, such as character creation, classes, and equipment upgrades, as well as having no multiplayer elements. Rather than attacking to whittle an enemy's health points, combat in Sekiro revolves around using a katana to attack their poise and balance instead, which eventually leads to an opening that allows for a single killing blow. The game also features stealth elements, allowing players to immediately eliminate enemies if they can get in range undetected. In addition, the player character has the ability to use various tools to assist with combat and exploration, such as a grappling hook and a torch. If the player character dies, they are revived on the spot instead of respawning at earlier checkpoints.

The game is set in a reimagining of late 16th-century Sengoku period Japan. The player takes control of a shinobi who was left for dead after his lord was kidnapped and his arm severed by a leading samurai of the Ashina clan. The shinobi awakens to find that his missing arm has been replaced with a prosthetic by a mysterious busshi who dubs him Sekiro, or "the one-armed wolf". Armed with a katana and the prosthetic, which allows for various tools and gadgets to be installed on it, he sets out to rescue his lord and get revenge.

[Moonface]

The game looks neat, and I wondered how death was handled in the game after the trailer showed Sekiro just getting up again. My only concern with just being revived on the spot is it gives me the impression health doesn't matter because you just get up and carry on the fight until you win, in which case why have the ability to die at all? There needs to be a consequence attached to it.

[Dragon Lord]

I'm sure there is going to be some kind of consequence to dying too many times. I assume there's going to be a death limit. That way you have to carefully choose when to die in order to use your revival as an ambush tactic.

I thought I remember it being mentioned that you only auto-revive once, though I could be remembering wrong. We'll have to wait until more details for the game come out to know for sure.

[Moonface]

If it has a limit then I'm cool with it. I hope that if you revive after enemies have stopped looking at you and then notice your corpse missing that they react and begin looking for you. I also wonder if they interact with the corpse at all or if once you "die" they just lose interest and walk off every time.

[Moonface]

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Release Date and Collector's Edition Announced
Activision has announced that Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice will be released on March 22nd, 2019 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

Alongside the release date announcement, they also revealed the Collector's Edition for the game, which includes the following content:

• Copy of the game
  
• 7" shinobi ninja statue
  
• Steelbook case
  
• Collectible art book
  
• Parchment map
  
• Digital soundtrack
  
• Replica coins
  

[Dragon Lord]

Digital soundtrack kills the CE for me. Still looking forward to getting the game next year though, going to be awesome to play a Fromsoft game that isn't just another stale Souls game.

[Bollywood]

I remember not getting the Special Edition for Bloodborne and regretting it later-- and I hope that doesn't yield the same conclusion with this game? I am quite excited for this title regardless.

As far as death goes-- It wouldn't be very Fromsoft like to not have any sort of downside to dying. So even though multiplayer and invasion isn't a mechanic I'm sure something comparable will be put into the game to add some sort of difficulty.

[Moonface]

As far as death goes-- It wouldn't be very Fromsoft like to not have any sort of downside to dying. So even though multiplayer and invasion isn't a mechanic I'm sure something comparable will be put into the game to add some sort of difficulty.

I think it'd be a good thing for this game to have some differences to other FromSoftware games. Otherwise their games are going to get held back by trying to stick to the same beats instead of changing some things up between IP's.

[Dragon Lord]

As far as death goes-- It wouldn't be very Fromsoft like to not have any sort of downside to dying. So even though multiplayer and invasion isn't a mechanic I'm sure something comparable will be put into the game to add some sort of difficulty.

I think it'd be a good thing for this game to have some differences to other FromSoftware games. Otherwise their games are going to get held back by trying to stick to the same beats instead of changing some things up between IP's.

Dark Souls III being a prime example of this. It's well past the time for Fromsoft to ditch the Souls recipe and going back to making other types of games. I'm glad that Sekiro is going to be purely an action game with no ties to the Souls games.

[Bollywood]

I think it'd be a good thing for this game to have some differences to other FromSoftware games. Otherwise their games are going to get held back by trying to stick to the same beats instead of changing some things up between IP's.

Dark Souls III being a prime example of this. It's well past the time for Fromsoft to ditch the Souls recipe and going back to making other types of games. I'm glad that Sekiro is going to be purely an action game with no ties to the Souls games.

I really want Miyazaki/Fromsoft to explore a lot of different things as well. I believe hearing about a VR game also that I haven't really looked into? Still-- it's only beneficial as we get a new experience and I think the team will be very passionate about this project since it's "new," and when they eventually do return to the Souls-style it will be a big deal since we haven't seen it in so long. 

I often time think things need time to breath with audiences. I don't think you every want your fan-base to go "Already? Another?" I find myself saying that more and more lately...

[Moonface]

Game Informer Shares New Details for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Game Informer's cover story for their February issue is Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and as such that means a lot of new details about the game have been coming out, with more still to come! Here's everything Game Informer have shared so far:

Character Progression
Unlike other From Software titles, you will not upgrade your character by spending points on attributes that tailor the character to your preferred class, i.e. upgrading strength, dexterity, or intelligence to fight as a brute, archer, or wizard, respectively. Instead, you will receive skill points that are spent in a skill tree featuring branching paths and more, and skill points are obtained by defeating enough enemies to fill a bar to completion. You can read about all the details in its respective article by Game Informer: https://www.gameinformer.com/2019/01/08/...-die-twice

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Why There's No Online Multiplayer
Sekiro's lack of online multiplayer was learnt shortly after the game was first revealed, and Game Informer decided to find out why From Software was departing from such a staple feature of its games.

“We love to create our own characters just as much as everyone else. We hope players are looking forward to something in the future where we might go back to that, but for now, Sekiro is very much its own thing.”

It's not all bad news though, as the lack of online multiplayer means Sekiro will actually have a pause feature, and bosses and areas can be designed with a single player in mind, instead of trying to balance both single and co-operative experiences. There's not much more to it than that, but here's the article on Game Informer should you be interested in reading it: https://www.gameinformer.com/2019/01/08/...ultiplayer

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What You Can Do In Sekiro's Hub Area
Not much about the hub area in Sekiro, called the Dilapidated Temple, will be different to how other From games approach their hub areas. Once you unlock it, you can travel to it at any time from the games equivalent of a bonfire, or with a limited use item. There's a few characters to talk to at the temple once you're there. The Sculptor can receive items and will help with character progression. Emma can use your Gourd Seeds to increase the amount of uses it has. Finally, the Immortal Soldier can be used to practise and hone your combat skills.

Everything else you can do will also be familiar to anyone who's played a From game, and you can read up on them here: https://www.gameinformer.com/2019/01/09/...s-hub-area

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New Gameplay Footage
It's not long, but if you've been wanting to see some more footage of Sekiro, Game Informer have a couple of minutes of footage from an area of the game called Hirata Estates for you to check out:

[Dragon Lord]

I like how they try to imply that lack of multiplayer is a bad thing. Multiplayer is overall a terrible aspect of the Souls games. The co-op can be fun, but the invading is more often than not a complete mess that just ruins the experience for new players and veterans alike. Sekiro being a single-player experience could possibly make it better than any of the Souls games. Just depends on how they execute the rest of the game.

Maybe Fromsoft won't feel the need to ruin really fun weapons because the weapon ruins "muh PvP experience!" Sorry solo players, we have to ruin your fun by super nerfing a weapon you love because three people whined about the weapon in PvP.

[Moonface]

With the way GI wrote about it I'd got the impression that multiplayer aspects were very popular and/or well done in From Software games.

[Dragon Lord]

Co-op was popular in Fromsoft games. PvP was not. PvP was always a messed and ended up affecting the single-player aspect of the game because fun weapons that did good damage would get nerfed because people cried about it in PvP. There's a good reason why Dark Souls III died faster than any of the other Souls games in terms of online activity.

Of course we can't forget about the other fun aspect of PvP in Souls game: Griefers/twinks. Nothing says "This game is worth playing!" to a new player better than having someone who has put in 1,000 hours into the game invading them at level 4 with end-game gear and one-shotting them, proceeded by taunting them after their death, and then having it happen again, and again, and again.

There was a very small group of players who did PvP at certain levels and only in "fight clubs" to avoid ruining the game for other people, but 90% of the invaders in Souls games are people who grief new players who don't know what they're doing with end-game gear because they can't even touch an experienced player, and they have to make themselves feel good by killing players who have literally no chance of winning.

That's why I spent a lot of my time in Dark Souls co-op by defending new players from those people. I made the same build people used to twink/grief, but instead of invading, I put my summon sign down so that people could summon me and then I could give those invaders a taste of their own medicine. It led to a lot of "hate mail" from those players, which was pretty hilarious considering they told me to stop twinking.

[Moonface]

I feel the best solution to that that retains PvP invasions is to restrict levels into groups, so only high level players can invade each other for example. There's still the matter of people making fresh characters and being better skilled than other fresh players and being a dick to them, but I don't know any way to implement PvP in a game that can avoid smurfs.