Judging by the Inbox reaction so far, I must be the only person whos come away from my initial time with Sekiro extremely disappointed. I really, really wanted to like it, but it feels like the games elements are all at war with each other and leaving behind a maddening experience.
I wasnt expecting it to be exactly like the Dark Souls games (which incidentally Im currently playing through) or Bloodborne, but it feels like From tried to shoehorn elements from those games into a Tenchu-like stealth/action hybrid and the result is a bit of a mess, in my opinion. Where it all falls down for me is the combat; it feels so rigid, more reliant on rote memorisation with no room for using a style thats comfortable for you. It feels more like a rigid quick-time event.
Dont even get me started on the total absence of any sort of crowd control (none that I could find, anyway). I suppose it also doesnt help that the combat is so reliant on deflection and parrying, the things Im the absolute worst at in any of the Soulsborne games, but here theres basically no alternative. Its a case of Do it this way or die, which isnt fun for me.
The nail in the coffin is that the punishment for dying is way, way too harsh. At least in the Soulsborne games there was a chance you could get your progress back. In Sekiro, if you die, thats it; you lose half your stuff permanently, and dying too many times means theres even less of a chance that youll be aRead More – Source
