The hardest thing I have ever done
Earlier this week I finally beat Sekiro, and it was one of the hardest things I have ever done. So hard that I thought about getting a tattoo of the game’s logo to remind myself that no matter how bad things are, I will always have done this (I’ll probably go for a T-shirt instead).
Sekiro is a 2019 game by From Software, makers of Dark Souls and Elden Ring. As with every From Software game, it got rave reviews and won the Game of the Year award. Also like other From Software games, it's incredibly hard.
By the time Sekiro came out I had become a fan of From Software games, having finished Bloodborne and all the Dark Souls, and I thought I was up for any challenge. So I bought it soon after it was released and found out that boy, was I wrong!
As I soon realized, Sekiro’s combat is different from any previous From Software game. Where in Dark Souls and similar you either dodge attacks or block them, and wait for the right moment to hit, in Sekiro you need to constantly be on your enemy to deplete their “posture” which recovers automatically when they are not attacked. Moreover, where in Dark Souls parrying an enemy attack is an optional mechanic that is difficult to master but can be safely ignored with the exception of a few bosses, in Sekiro it’s a fundamental part of combat and it’s impossible to make progress without it. When I first tried Sekiro I just couldn't get into this mindset and couldn't get past the first mini-boss, so I gave up and never touched it again for years.
But after finishing Elden Ring I thought that it was time to give it another try, and this time it went better. Until about a third of the game when I met Genichiro, a boss so hard that it made me want to quit again. But with the help of a few youtube videos and many, many tries, I passed the challenge and things got better. Only to find harder and harder bosses later, but again with practice and a lot of time I was able to beat them. In the end it took me 105 hours to finish the game, and I think I spent the last 30% of the time on the last three bosses.
The best thing about these games, and Sekiro is no exception, is that they are hard but fair. As long as you accept the fact that you are going to die many, many times, you will eventually learn the bosses' moves and how to counter them. The feeling after beating a boss that you’ve been struggling with for days is exhilarating and totally worth the struggle.
Another difference from previous FS games is that you can't grind to a higher level to make a fight easier, which was my strategy so far. In Sekiro the only way to level up is to beat the bosses, and while you can grind to get a few extra skills (which I did), these won’t make a huge difference in a fight.
In the end Sekiro was really close to replacing Bloodborne’s top spot in my heart, but I still prefer the latter because of its level design and bosses. One thing I didn’t like in Sekiro was that you visit the same environments multiple times and also that the bosses are mostly human. But it’s still my number two, followed by Elden Ring.