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Sekiro differs massively from other Fromsoft games. This difference comes from several factors.
The first and maybe the most outstanding one is combat. In sekiro your combat mechanic depends mostly on deflecting/guarding enemy attacks or attacking enemy attacks to make its attack be deflected/guarded and eventually breaking its posture so that you can get a deathblow. However, there are some powerful enemy attacks like thrust, grab, sweep and lightning which cant be guarded and some of them even cant be deflected so you should dodge/jump/mikiri counter for some not all. Thus, the game at first glance feels a bit hard maybe frustrating as well but the main thing is knowing the every enemy’s attack set and imply your strategy according to it. To elaborate it, you can’t try mikiri counter to a grab attack but a thrust attack. Once you know attack set of the enemy and what you should do to counter, the game becomes so much easier.
Let’s get into building the character. The second and for me the most unenjoyable difference is building your character. The game has lack of variety compared to other Fromsoft games. You wield a katana and have a prosthetic tool. There is no weapon choice other than katana and no armor sets in the game. This result in lack of variety. The only variety comes from prosthetic tools and skills you find/learn through the journey.
Prosthetic Tools: There are 10 prosthetics tools and you can upgrade them to change the usage they have. You can use them for a defensive or offensive purpose according to the boss or enemy you encounter. There is a currency for the prosthetic tools and every prosthetic tools have a cost per usage. This currency is called as “spirit emblem” which can also be required to use advanced combat arts like mortal draw, ninjutsu techniques or spiritfall buffs. You can buy spirit emblems in any sculptor’s idol (bonfire or site of grace) inexchange for sen which is the gold currency of the game, but there is a limit you can carry with you (15 at the beginning, maxed at 20). In addition, you can use ceremonial tanto to refill your spirit emblembs to a max of +5.
Skills: There are 5 skill trees focusing on stuffs like combat, stealth, prosthetic tools etc., and 3 ninjutsu technique skills which can only be used after a backstab. You can use them depending on the playstyle you wanna go for but there is no respec option which let you reallocate those spent skills. This is a con for me because it limits you in a way, ofcourse you can collect all the skills (i learnt all of them in ng+2 for the achievement) but it takes lots of levels which ending you up in grinding. If you wanna have all the skills you better go for ng cycles which is totally okay for me because i like going ng cycles in games but maybe not for people who don’t wanna go for it. So, that means you already got limited variety in the game and making it harder to vary by not giving players a choice to respec.
Vitality/Posture: It is simple, your vitality and posture increases as you collect prayer beads and using per 4 of them. There are total of 40, so you can increase your vitality and posture 10 times.
Attack Power: This one is simple too. When you beat a boss, you get its memory and use it in any sculptor’s idol for permanently gaining attack power. There is also another way to increase your attack power but it comes with a cost and i don’t recommend it if you aim to get all skills in your run. By dragon mask item, you can transmute 5 level of your character to 1 attack power. However, as you go higher in level your exp required to level up go higher as well and you can suffer leveling up to get all the skills in each of 5 skill trees.
Boss Fights: I read in somewhere something like “every enemy is a boss in this game”. The monks carrying twinblade suit this phrase nicely. In addition, some of the miniboss are quite a challenge too. Isshin, the Sword Saint, Owl Father in Hirata Estate are my favourites and worth fighting again and again. Genichiro is the first real challenge and i guess many players learnt the combat mechanic with him. Demon of hatred is the only boss i can believe if you say that is coming from Elden Ring or Dark Souls universe. In a nutshell, we can say bosses are well designed and qualified and i had quite a fun and satisfaction during fighting.
In conclusion, it is a must play if you like Fromsoft games by acknowledging it is a different one. Maybe you can like it more or less, it all depends on preferences of the person and there is no need for arguing. Only con for me is lack of variety in building the character. This and lack of multiplayer experience may lead a decrease in total play hours compared to the other Fromsoft games. The combat is just fine, satisfying and feels so smooth after you master it.
My recommendation rate is 9/10.