Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Review – Free Download on Steam

In my Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice review, I want to share my impressions of this unique game, which, despite its roots in the Souls and Bloodborne series, offers a completely new experience. From the first minutes, it is clear that FromSoftware has created a ninja-focused adventure that combines elements of stealth and action. Over the course of 50 hours of exciting combat and tense duels, I felt how the game allows me not only to fight, but also to explore the world with a new freedom, making this path to mastery truly exciting.

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Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Review by VpeSports

Within the first few minutes of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, it’s clear that FromSoftware has built its ninja-focused adventure on the foundations of the Souls and Bloodborne series. However, this new interpretation is a standalone stealth-action experience that’s more focused, cohesive, and, in some ways, forgiving, despite retaining the trademark difficulty of its predecessors. After 50 hours of thrilling combat, duels with fantastical monsters, and tense swordplay, I’m left with a deep respect for this amazing journey and the skills it requires to master.

Any Souls veteran will be familiar with Sekiro’s timing-based combat, which requires precise strikes and parries. The game’s levels are beautifully designed: they curve, weave, and lead to new hiding spots where you can rest and restock. Sculptor’s Idols serve a similar purpose to bonfires in Dark Souls or lanterns in Bloodborne – they’ll allow you to restore health, reload dead enemies, upgrade your character, and, of course, quickly travel between them.

I enjoy challenging games that test my skill (and I’ve proudly completed every FromSoftware game in the genre), but Sekiro feels empowering thanks to its more forgiving nature. For example, with more direct, linear paths than the sprawling hellscapes of other FromSoftware games, I didn’t feel like I had to venture far to find the next Idol to save my progress. This regular sense of safety greatly reduced the anxiety that all my hard work might be lost before I reached the next checkpoint. At times, I’d simply rush through an area, assuming an Idol would be right around the corner, and usually it was. This sense of safety in Sekiro allowed me to appreciate the game’s mechanical complexities in a way I wouldn’t have been able to if I’d been too afraid to take risks. I’m not saying I want every game in this genre to go this route, but it’s really refreshing and new.

Feeling Powerful in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Sekiro feels powerful thanks to its more forgiving nature. While many of the mechanics and level design philosophies in this mystical take on the Sengoku period (1467-1615) are nearly identical to the previously established formula, Sekiro immediately stands out thanks to the multi-functional prosthetic arm attached to your ninja character. Its standout feature is a built-in grappling hook that allows you to instantly scale rooftops, which changes the gameplay experience considerably. Where previous games in the series had characters firmly attached to the ground, slowly traversing corridors and climbing ladders, Sekiro’s levels allow for a much more vertical approach. With jumping and ziplining, the fear of getting trapped and killed in a dark corner is almost negated. If I found myself in a tight spot, there was almost always a way out if I thought like a ninja rather than a knight.

This new mobility enhances the stealth elements of Sekiro, allowing you to get into vantage points for silent kills, quickly escape danger and find cover to restart a failed encounter, or simply explore the diverse mythical landscapes. When I first entered Anor Londo in Dark Souls or Yharnam in Bloodborne, I was overwhelmed by the scale of those cities. But when I first entered Ashina Castle Complex, I felt the same excitement, and was also amazed that I could move between buildings and rooftops, gaining unprecedented freedom in FromSoftware’s megalopolis. The speed of exploration was an exciting change of pace.

That same feeling continues during stealth progression and combat in the misty forests of Ashina Depths and the icy cliffs of the Sunken Valley, which make up a small portion of Sekiro’s journey. With this freedom, challenging environments become almost playful, rather than a source of oppressive dread that they’re just another obstacle in your path. Yes, there are still plenty of enemies out to destroy you, but your ability to roam freely helps you see the world as a place that doesn’t add a malicious joy to your challenges.

• Multifunctional prosthetic changes the gameplay.
• Vertical approach to level exploration.
• Improved mobility for stealth and attack.
• Freedom of movement makes the world playful.
• Possibility of respawning with consequences.

Don’t worry: Some of FromSoftware’s traditional world-building elements are still present in Sekiro: bottomless pits, toxic (and dazzlingly Blighttown-like) pools in the depths of the Earth, and a pitch-black dungeon beneath a castle are all familiar fodder for die-hard fans. But moments spent in these cursed places are balanced by the sunny surface, where the swaying of trees and buildings brings renewal.

As the subtitle “Shadows Die Twice” suggests, the emphasis on freedom extends beyond death. As an immortal ninja, you have the ability to resurrect after death, though this comes with a set of circumstances that make each decision a carefully considered one. If you die, you lose half of your accumulated experience and currency – and you won’t be able to return to your corpse to pick up your lost items. (The only exception is the Unseen Aid mechanic, which acts as a divine intervention that allows you to die without consequences.)

Death and Rebirth in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

If you die, you lose half of the experience and currency you’ve accumulated. This is where things get really complicated. Every time you rest at an Idol, you’re granted a one-time rebirth (usually you can only have one in reserve) that you can use when you get hit – and you will. Sekiro is a FromSoftware game, after all, and dying is part of the learning process. But if you die a second time before reaching the next Idol, there’s a chance that your interference with the divine powers of rebirth will spread a cosmic disease known as Dragonrot to NPCs in the world. In-game, these characters become visibly ill, but the mechanical effect is that your chance of activating Unseen Aid is reduced from a maximum of 30% to a minimum of 5%, reducing your chances of getting lucky when you die.

It’s an effective reminder of the consequences of dying, but thanks to the way you conserve currency and the fact that you don’t lose experience after reaching certain thresholds that convert it into skill points, the risk is relatively low. Early on, I simply accepted that dying meant losing half of my unearned experience and currency, and it didn’t bother me. Sekiro’s forgiving nature allowed me to get out of a bad situation, and if I let myself die, it was because I could have avoided it, and the resource loss was mostly my fault. If Unseen Aid did work, it was a pleasant surprise. Since Sekiro is more focused on swordplay than resource management, I could appreciate the punishment, which kept me on my toes without feeling truly limited by my mistakes.

There are ways to get extra respawns beyond the first, tied to killing enemies or bosses with finishers, and they’re fairly obvious once you get the hang of the mechanics – Sekiro does this much more clearly than Dark Souls or Bloodborne. Ultimately, the real dilemma I had to think about was whether to resurrect after dying, depending on whether I could finish a fight I was losing based on my enemy’s supplies and condition. If I was really down, I’d revive to finish the job; but if I’d spent most of my healing potions without doing much damage, there was no point in getting up off my knees. I’d accept my death and try again, with a better understanding of what not to do.

When you’re not skulking in the shadows to ambush enemies and get easy kills with flashy, blood-splattering finishers, Sekiro’s combat is heavily focused on swordplay, requiring mastery of a new counter-attack system that feels like a game of rock-paper-scissors. While parries and dodges have always felt organic in Bloodborne and the Souls series, they’ve taken on a much greater importance in Sekiro and become critical to success in fights against enemies of any size.

Sekiro Combat: Mastery and Art

Sekiro’s combat system is based on swordplay and requires mastering a new, distinct system of counter-attacks. The usual attacks include specific thrusts, sweeps, and grabs that are difficult, if not impossible, to simply block or dodge. However, they come with fair warning animations that a strike is coming – a large red “DANGER” sign will appear on the screen, giving you a moment to recognize what’s coming and how to counter. Thrusts must be deflected or redirected, sweeps must be jumped out of the way, and grabs must be sidestepped. When done right, it’s a thrilling exchange of blows, precision timing and tactics that look as great in action as they are satisfying to execute.

However, it’s not an easy system to master, as the time intervals between the warning and the strike itself are varied and often tight. But once I stopped instinctively trying to duck back when under threat of a powerful attack, I began to find the simple beauty in standing toe-to-toe with any enemy. It took time, to be sure, as I was defeated more than once by instinctively retreating when my blow was blocked. But eventually, I realized that staying tough and living with my sword meant I would die less often (also with my sword). And when a 15-foot monster lands ten blows in a row and you not only block but deflect the barrage of attacks, you feel like the greatest swordsman of all time.

Feeling Powerful in Sekiro: The Path to Mastery

Once I’d rewired my muscle memory, I found a simple beauty in standing toe-to-toe with any enemy. Over time, this process makes Sekiro more forgiving and a bit easier than its predecessors. This is partly because by properly countering the blows of tall monsters and deadly assassins, you almost always leave them vulnerable to an attack immediately after. You have a guaranteed window to punish them if you can pull it off, and that’s reassuring, especially when you first encounter a seemingly invincible foe.

Defeating enemies by dealing damage alone isn’t your only option, though. Sekiro introduces variety to the ways you take down opponents based on the concept of posture: a sort of second health bar. As you trade blows and counters, both you and your opponents gradually deplete each other’s posture bar. Deal unparried damage, and you lower their posture. Deflect their attacks, and you also lower their posture. If they block your attacks, you still lower their posture. This means that even enemies who constantly block attacks – preventing you from lowering their health – can be defeated because when you eventually break their posture, they become vulnerable to a finishing blow.

1. Reprogrammed memory helps to resist enemies.
2. Proper counterattacks make enemies vulnerable.
3. Posture adds variety to combat and strategy.
4. Constant pressure reduces the enemy’s posture quickly.
5. The fight always ends with one of the opponents winning.

This system emphasizes the idea that standing toe-to-toe is the best way to fight. For example, if you deflect an attack, land an unparried quick strike, and then land another strike that they block. Yes, you’ve only done a little damage, but all three actions lower their posture. Keep up the pressure, and you’ll quickly find your sword in their neck. This means that fights never feel drawn out. Somehow, even a fight between perfectly matched opponents will always result in a winner.

Enemies and Character Progression in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Sekiro constantly throws a variety of unique and challenging enemies at you, which builds tension and makes the game more challenging. Not all enemies need to be defeated with combat skills. Sometimes I encountered monsters that hit too hard or unpredictably to try to deflect their attacks, like one particularly sneaky giant beheaded. In those moments, a reliable tactic of running in circles until it missed, then quickly stabbing it in the back allowed me to dispatch it without any trouble. Old habits die hard.

When it comes to simple enemies, the method of defeating them doesn’t matter as much – they quickly fall in a pool of blood from repeated attacks. But Sekiro constantly introduces a variety of unique and challenging enemies into the fight, which adds pressure and complexity. Whether it’s a corrupted monk with a giant halberd, a twisted four-legged monster with Wolverine-like claws, skilled swordsmen, one-armed ninjas, or supernatural threats, each enemy requires its own tactics, and rarely do they overlap. Learning their moves and abilities becomes a complex dance of flexibility. While there are fewer than a dozen capital-B Bosses in the game, the world is filled with powerful minibosses that test your skills and help keep you alert.

Compared to its predecessors, Sekiro’s character progression system is significantly simplified. There are no attributes or numbers to accumulate by collecting souls or blood. You don’t increase your strength to deal more damage – there is no strength as such. Instead, your vitality and attack only increase as you acquire and use key items that you earn by defeating bosses and difficult enemies (though these are limited, there are ways to increase this number later in the game). There are no real weapons or armor to find. With the exception of a couple of story-driven items, you’ll be using the same trusty katana from the start of this 50-hour adventure until the very end. So you already have the foundation for success in Sekiro, which emphasizes improving your skills rather than finding new weapons or armor to overcome some gimmicky challenges. The ways in which new weapons and armor could have added variety to the gameplay is reflected in the inventive prosthetic tools, so the experience of finding new mechanical advantages throughout the adventure isn’t lost.

Instead of buying attributes, the experience you earn is converted into Skill Points, which you spend on a tiered skill tree that lets you unlock passive abilities like improved stealth for easier kills. You can purchase the ability to restore health when performing a finishing move (easily one of the most valuable passive abilities in Sekiro), or increase the maximum number of Spirit Emblems, allowing you to use your prosthetic tools more often. In terms of active skills, there are plenty of combat moves to choose from, such as devastating stance strikes, lightning-fast attack combos, secret sword techniques that kill in the blink of an eye, and more. In fact, the number of skills, abilities, and combat techniques to unlock is staggering, and surprisingly, each one feels unique and useful, even if only in certain situations.

Similarly, the Prosthetic Arm can be equipped with various gadgets that must first be found in the world and then upgraded with valuable materials. These tools really open up new possibilities as you progress, and like the combat skills, many of them serve a specific purpose. For example, Firecrackers can scare animals, which is useful when you’re being attacked by a pack of wolves, an enemy on horseback, or facing an angry bull. Alternatively, the Charge Spear is great for pulling weaker enemies closer to you to keep them in range, and can also remove loose armor from enemies – although this doesn’t happen very often. The Flamethrower does what you’d expect, but it’s not just a damage over time device, as some rage-prone enemies only fear fire; so blasting them with flames leaves them vulnerable to follow-up attacks.

Tools and Lore in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

For example, firecrackers can scare off beasts, which is especially useful when you’re being attacked by a pack of wolves. Some of these tools feel more versatile than others: the ever-useful Shuriken is essential for reliable long-range damage, while the Mist Sparrow Feather lets you phase through enemy attacks and appear next to, behind, or above them, which has saved me in the most difficult situations. Other tools, like the Loaded Umbrella, which blocks Incoming Projectiles, or the Loaded Axe, which shreds shields, are extremely useful, but only in their own narrow scope.

These tools also have their own distinct upgrade trees, which cost valuable resources to upgrade but provide increasingly powerful versions of themselves. The Loaded Umbrella is useful early on, but when you upgrade it to negate all damage from the Wraiths — which inflict the Horror status, instantly killing you if you take too much damage — it becomes a real game changer. While it’s expensive, once you finally level up some of these tools to tier two, three, or four and combine them with unlocked skills, they become devastating in the sense that they’re not only flexible, but also regularly fun as you experiment with lieutenant-like synergies between tools, skills, and abilities.

While Sekiro has a rich Japanese atmosphere, it’s the game’s story that resonated the least with me. On one level, it’s a much simpler tale than FromSoftware usually offers: your immortal one-armed ninja loyally serves, protects, and endlessly kills at the behest of his master, a divine heir blessed with immortality. On the other hand, because Sekiro’s quests are more linear, characters speak to you in coherent sentences and give you clear directions, and there are hints scattered throughout the world that help you make the right decisions, the journey feels less intriguing. I could get through it without stopping to reflect, as is often the case in FromSoftware games.

• Firecrackers scare away animals, useful against a pack of wolves.
• Shuriken provides reliable damage at long range.
• Unique tools have their own upgrade trees.
• The story is simpler, but less intriguing to explore.
• Mystical elements create atmosphere and captivate.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing – far from it. But I realized that most of the time I spent playing Sekiro, I was simply following orders from others. I wasn’t discovering, exploring, or deciding what to do; I was being given commands and following them to the next task, and so on, as if each request was accompanied by the phrase “Would you please?” It wasn’t until I finally reached a certain point in the campaign where I started making key decisions that changed the course of the story and determined which of the possible endings I would see that I felt more in control of my destiny.

While Sekiro starts out as a historical fantasy set in a bloody yet atmospheric period of Japanese history, in true FromSoftware fashion, the game quickly delves into the mystical and supernatural. This is necessary, as rebirth is a key feature, and all existing scientific evidence suggests that 15th century Japanese couldn’t do that. But it does so in a way that remains relatively grounded and rooted in real mythology, which I genuinely like. These incredible landscapes, ripped straight from myth and legend, often overshadow the story itself, creating a compensating feeling. The moments where you walk through divine gardens, experience memories from the past, and encounter fantastical creatures create a unified vision of a world that teeters between this reality and the next, and I really enjoyed that. The bright, colorful landscapes and dark, atmospheric sounds create a varied world, immersed in a soundtrack that’s both calming and terrifying. While Sekiro is overall a less convoluted FromSoftware experience and the events unfold more straightforwardly, the world still retains the mystery that makes these games so enjoyable. You’ll find an item that seems to have no purpose, or hear a rumor about a sword that can open a portal to the afterlife, or simply see a building on a cliff that seems inaccessible. Solving some of these mysteries made me feel connected to Sekiro as much as I did to Bloodborne when I finally saw the invisible or helped Solar become so terrifyingly colorful in Dark Souls. And perhaps more importantly, those persistent clues I’ve discovered and have yet to unravel will keep me interested in my next New Game+ playthrough.

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