Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - GOTY Edition Review (Retro Fashion Technology Item)
It isn’t just too hard - it’s too demoralizing!
You’re not only facing off against a legion of foes that can kill you with a blow, but as you die (time and time again - just so much death) the NPCs of the world start to vanish. They get a strange otherworldly disease caused by your frequent death/reincarnation - and they just vanish forever. Your allies dwindle; disappearing before they ever get the chance to help you. More and more alone - and weak - and helpless - and each path filled with challenges you can’t help but fail at. You start to give up.
At this game, getting good means persevering.
And yeah, you persevere. You get revenge! You kill everyone! The NPCs all come back - and you kill them too! You kill a giant fire demon twenty times your size! You get so good at fighting the guy who takes your hand that he's not even a credible threat by the end of the game. You look forward to his stupid slow attacks because they're so easy to counter! You kill everyone, easily! You kill a giant monkey, and then he turns into a zombie, and you kill the giant zombie monkey too!
But most importantly, you kill the doubt you had in yourself - you kill that fear that it’s more than you can handle - you bring back everything you lost and give everyone fancy sake to hear their cryptic backstories. You kill a snake! You kill a fish!!
The game is just intensely worth playing. It teaches something worth knowing, and the way it communicates is beautiful and brutal.