izigame.me

I don't normally write reviews on steam, and I especially don't write any in-depth reviews, but this game is an exception so here we go. Hopefully this review gives at least one person a better shot at what this experience is and I will be happy.
So let me start out by saying that I was very new to souls games when I started playing Sekiro. I had just beaten DS3, which I loved and was looking for more of that before Elden Ring came out. This game is NOT like Dark Souls, or Elden Ring, or any of the other souls game. This game is something entirely different than any game you have ever played... This was initially upsetting...
I quickly realized that this game wasn't really what I was looking for and refunded it. After playing many other souls games, I eventually returned to this game with a different mindset. I tried to have patience but quickly became frustrated. I couldn't dodge effectively, I couldn't parry consistently, the hit-boxes were BS, there were too many enemies, I couldn't just over-level... It felt like every part of this game was unforgiving and out to punish you on every level. I struggled my way through the first several bosses in hopes that I would improve, gritting my teeth the whole way.
The final straw was a boss named Genichiro. This boss is the first true skill test you come across in this game. He tests you for almost every fundamental mechanic in the game to make sure you understand it. It was... impossible... He had soooo much health. His moves were so quick, he had THREE FULL PHASES!!! I thought there was no way I would ever be able to beat him, and maybe I didn't want to at this point.. I died to him countless times.
The really interesting thing about this game is the way everything comes together. There is a point in there where you die over, and over, and over, and over and you don't think you're getting better, but you actually are. The amazing thing about the human brain is that it picks up on things it doesn't even understand that it can pick up on. Slowly but surely, those "fast" moves start becoming readable. You start to know what moves transition into what. You start finding openings where you thought there were none. You start to dance with your foes rather than fight them... This stage might take you 10 times, it might take you 100, but I promise if you keep at it your hands WILL eventually learn what to do, even if your brain doesn't.
After enough attempts, something clicked in my brain. If you have ever seen the scene in The Matrix where Neo becomes awakened, its almost exactly like that. You start to anticipate every attack, every move. Its like you can see into the future... This is what the game is trying to bring you to. There is a motto in this game: "Hesitation is defeat." There is a reason this is the motto. To truly play this game, you must not SEE your enemy, you must FEEL them. In this moment, I truly felt like a samurai, a shinobi. Once you feel the moves in your bones, then you are ready to really experience what this game has to offer.
I thought that this game had issues(which it does, just not the ones I thought it had). I thought that the hit-boxes or parrying systems were buggy or wrong sometimes. I failed many times and blamed the game. I eventually watched a video of someone beating the game with a dance pad, and with a blindfold(different videos). This showed me that the game is actually(almost) 100% consistent, it was ME that was the problem. Go watch a video of a boss fight in slow motion and it will show you that the hit-boxes and timings are practically flawless.
Once it clicked, the regular enemies transformed from something for me to avoid and be afraid of to something that becomes a challenge that I want to take on. I slowly learned that everything I thought about the game initially wasn't true. The reason dodging is so ineffective is because this game ISNT DS or ER. It is trying to teach you right off the bat that dodging is not how this game is meant to be played. Instead dodging is simply one of your many tools you have at your disposal.
This game has MANY tools. You might think that that by only having one weapon there is not much variety in this game, but you would be very wrong. All of those enemies that I struggled with had a trick, ALL OF THEM. Every. Single. Enemy. Every enemy in this game has an extremely effective counter, you just have to find it. Between the prosthetics, skills, weapon arts, and consumables there is a solution for any "BS" you can think of.
This game teaches you on so many different levels. The start teaches you to parry. The ogre teaches you that dodging is still a tool that is useful for some situations. Gyoubu teaches you that you can parry a lot more things than you thought you could. Lady butterfly teaches you to use consumables(snap seed), the Bull teaches you speed and aggression, the Monkeys teach you stealth, the Guardian Ape teaches you movement and placement, the Owl teaches you to not rely too much on instinct, and so on. I could go on all day about the lessons that this game is trying to teach you, but that is besides the point.
I love all of the souls games, but at the end of the day souls games are memorizing attack patterns and learning how to time rolls, and how to create builds. I feel like this game is much more than that. This game transforms YOU, not your character. New Game+ in the souls games is like a revenge tour of everyone who looked at you the wrong way your first go through. In DS NG+, your character is so much stronger, your weapons are so much better, and you even have a lot of the boss fight patterns sorta memorized so it is easier.
NG+ in Sekiro is an entirely different beast. Yes, your character is stronger. Yes, you have more tools. But the biggest difference in NG+ is you. You are stronger. You have faced all of the trials and tribulations. The bosses you come across will feel like a breeze. Not because you have better armor, but because you now know their moves inside and out. You have become a true shinobi. By the time I played the second time around, Genichiro was no longer a strong adversary, he was pathetic. A fool who was slow and predictable. I knew every move, I could practically do it with my eyes closed.
The Souls games are a test of adversity. They are difficult not to make you mad, but to show you enlightenment. A game is not rewarding if everything is handed to you. Anyone who has ever used cheats in a game has experienced this. It might be fun for a minute, but it is not a lasting joy. For you to truly feel like you accomplished something, you must first overcome adversity. Nothing feels as good as beating a boss that gave you sooo much trouble.
This game is the ultimate incarnation of overcoming adversity. In Dark Souls you can beat a boss, but there is a good chance you will have as much of an issue beating them a second time as the first. What makes Sekiro so special is that when you learn a boss, you learn a boss. They become a tango that you know by heart rather than a battle. Replaying bosses is one of the best things about this game since you will feel how far you came from having your ass handed to you. THIS is the ultimate joy. Mastery over bosses, and if you keep playing, mastery over every single thing in the game. The amount of satisfaction is unparalleled and will leave you wanting more and you just might end up beating the game 40+ times like me because there isn't another substitute out there(Sifu is good).
Suffice to say, I think this is one of the best games ever made and it easily has the best combat ever made. I could go on all day about it. If you like Dark Souls you will like this game, just in a way different way, and it will be harder to get to the place where it all clicks, but good god is it so worth it. So please, REALLY give this game a shot. You have to give it EVERYTHING you have for it to give you EVERYTHING it has...