Sekiro is a great game but imo it is FromSofts weakest game since Dark Souls 2

[Toriko]

So I have been playing Sekiro on and off again for the last few days on the PS5 and absolutely loved my time with it. Played it on ps4 around launch time but wanted to play on ps5 at 60 fps and repurchased it digitally. Had a few thoughts on the game and I am curious what everyone thinks of the game here..

imo the positive as expected is that the combat mechanically is sublime as usual just like every fromsoft game. When fighting one on one there are very few games that offer the satisfaction of blades clashing as much as Sekiro. Some of the boss fights are just chefs kiss

Having said that I think this is the weakest From Soft game in a while since Dark Souls 2 and imo def Miyazakis weakest when it comes to the following


Level Design - Gone is the ingenious intricate looping back level design that you see in Souls games. The level design in Sekiro is far more banal and linear. Each level is fairly straightforward with very few interesting shortcuts compared to souls and bloodborne. The game is littered with far more liberal checkpoints all arranged linearly. You always know where to go which is hugely disappointing. Imo the vertically was not put to the best use. I have see people sing a lot of praise for levels like Hirata Estate and I don't see it coming even remotely close to Froms previous efforts.

Art Style - Man Japan is such an interesting setting but this one imo has very bland environment design. Coming of Ghost of Tsushina i was shocked how much of a downgrade this game feels in terms of art style and easily their weakest to date. Enemy design ranges from ok to good but does not imo reach the highs of their previous games

Music - What happened here?The combat music is such a massive let down from Soulsborne. Like there are very few that are memorable. I could recall all the bosses from their fantastic tracks before but here I can't remember anything

Encounter design - Imo the encounter design is a bit weak when it comes to figting multiple enemies at a time.. The game wants you to use a little bit of stealth to wittle the numbers but the stealth is pretty half baked with very few interesting tools that makes playing stealthily quite boring. Crawl behind, backstab gets old really really quick.

Like I said I think the game is great but imo is the weakest game of the ps4 generation. What do you think era?

 

[DFG]

Imma let you finish but Sekiro is the greatest last gen game of all time!

 

[Dest]

It's only second behind Bloodborne for me, but putting it above Dark Souls 2 is still good cause Dark Souls 2 is still great.

 

[AuthenticM]

I think it's pretty much a masterpiece in my eyes. I would rank it third after Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3. Hell, I'm not even sure about that; it might be tied with DS3.

 

[Jakisthe]

I too tried to forget Déraciné.

 

[dom]

I too tried to forget Déraciné.

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Everyone forgets the VR game.

 

[Toriko]

I too tried to forget Déraciné.

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lol I should have said their big budget games.

 

[Noema]

Sekiro was just what the doctor ordered after the uninspired retread of Dark Souls 3. It's so fresh and full of ideas and energy.

 

[LavaBadger]

Yeah, really did not like Sekiro much at all. The only game worse by From is Darks Souls 2.

 

[Strings]

It's still in the same echelon as BB and DS3, where I don't think DS2 is.

 

[GameAddict411]

Sekiro is close second after Bloodborne. Sekiro is just an epic game and if you actually play it with parry, it's fantastic. But I felt that the boss fights were a bit restrictive compared to Bloodborne hence why I rank Bloodborne higher.

 

[Tierdal Xy'Thil]

Imagine thinking Sekiro is worse than Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne.

Sekiro is the culmination of thsoe games with the cheese/lameness removed - and replaced with pure skill. No more "poke" tactics where you just push dudes off the enviroment. No lame shielding builds. No cheese, just pure skill.

It is FromSoft perfection,

 

[Uzupedro]

Imagine thinking Sekiro is worse than Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne.

Sekiro is the culmination of thsoe games with the cheese/lameness removed - and replaced with pure skill. No more "poke" tactics where you just push dudes off the enviroment. No lame shielding builds. No cheese, just pure skill.

It is FromSoft perfection,

Click to shrink...

Pure
Skill

 

[finalflame]

It's just the weakest modern FROM game period.

Abysmal storytelling, extremely uninspired world/lore, super narrow scale, lacking in play style variety. It bored me to death. Its only saving grace is the combat not being terrible.

Dark Souls 2 is an order of magnitude above it.

 

[Toriko]

Imagine thinking Sekiro is worse than Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne.

Sekiro is the culmination of thsoe games with the cheese/lameness removed - and replaced with pure skill. No more "poke" tactics where you just push dudes off the enviroment. No lame shielding builds. No cheese, just pure skill.

It is FromSoft perfection,

Click to shrink...

Most of Sekiros bosses can be cheesed. I find Ludwig alone far tougher than anything in Sekiro. Whats worse a lot of mini bosses can just be backstabbing to take away the challenge.

It's just the weakest modern FROM game period.

Abysmal storytelling, extremely uninspired world/lore, super narrow scale, lacking in play style variety. It bored me to death.It's only saving grace is the combat isn't terrible.

Dark Souls 2 is an order of magnitude above it.

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I agree with your criticisms but the combat puts it over DS2 for me.

 

[ReginaldXIV]

Sekiro is only second to Bloodborne. But Dark Souls 3 is a close third.

 

[AuthenticM]

Here's how I'd put it:

S-Tier From games: Bloodborne, Dark Souls 3, Sekiro
A-Tier From games: Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 1, Dark Souls 2

 

[BackwoodsAltar]

It's no Bloodborne but it is far and above better than Dark Souls 2. In fact, I'd say it's an insult to even compare it to that absolute garbage. Different leagues.

 

[Deleted member 12833]

Worst of the whole lot including DS2

 

[takriel]

Never really got the hang of the combat. Somehow, attacking and deflecting felt off to me, even at 60 fps. I wish the deflect response was much faster.

 

[TeenageFBI]

Poll results are surprising. I expected more people to put Sekiro at the top. It's definitely there for me. I love how no-nonsense it is. The combat is so lethal and the jump/grapple make for some really great level design.

That said, I can see how people that are into replaying Souls games with different builds would prefer the other two games.

I would think more highly about Bloodborne if it wasn't held back by some big technical issues. (30 FPS, poor frame pacing, overbearing chromatic abberration)

 

[Nuclear Detergent]

I can certainly see the merits of Sekiro, but I found the game to be too heavily focused on one specific playstyle for my personal preference - I'm not fond of the riposte mechanic in anything but Bloodborne. I find the path heavy leveldesign better, than Sekiros more open approach. I really wanted to love it as much as From's other games, but it just wasn't for me.

 

[Toriko]

[

Never really got the hang of the combat. Somehow, attacking and deflecting felt off to me, even at 60 fps. I wish the deflect response was much faster.

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The parry windows are quite generous unlike Souls so surprised you felt it was off.

 

[rude]

Sekiro is far and away the best game they've ever made.

 

[KingM]

I enjoy it more than BB and DaS3. The aesthetic sealed it, lack of summoning meant I really had to get better to reach the end, and the abilities were cool.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

Yeah. It's by far my least favorite modern FromSoft game. The "BETTER BE GOOD AT PARRYING OR FUCK YOU" requirement just ruins any sense of fun I could have with it.

The final boss fight is also way too fucking long. From needs to cool it with the "ACTUALLY I HAVE ANOTHER FORM, AND YOU DON'T GET A CHECKPOINT" boss fights. Sekiro pulled that stunt like six fucking times.

 

[KOfLegend]

Imagine thinking Sekiro is worse than Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne.

Sekiro is the culmination of thsoe games with the cheese/lameness removed - and replaced with pure skill. No more "poke" tactics where you just push dudes off the enviroment. No lame shielding builds. No cheese, just pure skill.

It is FromSoft perfection,

Click to shrink...

I platinumed the game and cheesed my way through like, half of it.

 

[Custódio]

It's the worst modern FROM game to me. Elder Ring Is actually taking the things I like the most about the souls series and uping them to 11, while the things that Sekiro took from Souls are actually the things that I don't care so much.

 

[Butch]

The best they've made. I also love the map design so can't agree at all there.

 

[DailyCalmSpirit]

I am genuinely shocked that anyone could think Tsushima has a better art style than Sekiro.

I guess if you're like, *really* into the same three buildings you see in GoT then it makes sense?

 

[Toriko]

It's the worst modern FROM game to me. Elder Ring Is actually taking the things I like the most about the souls series and uping them to 11, while the things that Sekiro took from Souls are actually the things that I don't care so much.

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So hyped for Elden Ring because of the exact same reasons. Please give us better level design than Sekiro, From Software!

 

[Kaguya]

It's not as repayable as their other games, but I didn't enjoy it any less on the first run.

 

[Zukuu]

Sekiro is trashtier From imo.
Puzzle rhythm game with no RPG elements makes for a very stale and repetitive experience for me.

 

[Stoze]

Imagine thinking Sekiro is worse than Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne.

Sekiro is the culmination of thsoe games with the cheese/lameness removed - and replaced with pure skill. No more "poke" tactics where you just push dudes off the enviroment. No lame shielding builds. No cheese, just pure skill.

It is FromSoft perfection,

Click to shrink...

Ah yes, pure skill, no cheese.

*goes back to spamming the block button with almost no sense of timing*

Love Sekiro though, awesome game.

 

[signal]

It's the best since BB.

 

[Van Bur3n]

The interconnectivity of FromSoftware games was brilliant in DS1 where it mattered, but once fast travel was implemented in the rest of the games from the start, it became a redundant way to design levels. BB, DS3 and Sekiro are all far more linear than DS1 have an equal amount of minor interconnectivity within its levels, but they all prove pretty pointless and lack the effect DS1 had with them. This doesn't really stand as a criticism exclusive to Sekiro, but all From games since DS1. If anything, DS1 was an outlier in its genius. Something From has chosen to move away from for whatever reason.

I find the art style immensely more interesting than Ghost of Tsushima. But that is subjective. Both go for very different things anyhow, given their setting. The same goes for comparing the somewhat grounded setting of Sekiro to the dark fantasy that is Dark Souls and Bloodborne. Same goes for comparing the grounded but has some dark fantasy elements approach of Sekiro to the entirely grounded approach of Ghost of Tsushima. That said, who gives a shit about Ghost of Tsushima that game is shit.

Music was done by one composer this time around with Sekiro, Yuka Kitamura. She has done a lot of the music for From's previous games (some of the best music I would add), but she is seemingly the sole composer here. As a result, a lot of the tracks can feel a bit samey. Personally, I don't mind it because her work sounds good regardless, but it's a understandable criticism many have had of the game.

I find the stealth to be fine in this game. It proved a solid challenge where it needed to with enemy placements that implored the player to explore the environment in ways to circumvent the enemy. Were the tools limited as to how you could approach it? Somewhat, it was fine otherwise.

Ultimately, I still put it behind BB and DS3. I love Sekiro. It is an amazing game. But Souls games will always be my favorite games. Sekiro isn't a Souls game.

Imagine thinking Sekiro is worse than Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne.

Sekiro is the culmination of thsoe games with the cheese/lameness removed - and replaced with pure skill. No more "poke" tactics where you just push dudes off the enviroment. No lame shielding builds. No cheese, just pure skill.

It is FromSoft perfection,

Click to shrink...

You can cheese the ever living fuck out of this game. I ain't sure what you're going on about. Yes, a number of encounters require skill. But there is a good amount of them you can fuck with. Even after attempts to patch away these cheeses, people found new ones for some encounters.

Never really got the hang of the combat. Somehow, attacking and deflecting felt off to me, even at 60 fps. I wish the deflect response was much faster.

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It is likely you're just not good at the game because the game is very forgiving with the deflections it allows you to pull off.

 

[finalflame]

Sekiro is trashtier From imo.
Puzzle rhythm game with no RPG elements makes for a very stale and repetitive experience for me.

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Bingo.

I agree with your criticisms but the combat puts it over DS2 for me.

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I can see that perspective. I personally prefer the combat variety in DkS2 to Sekiro's tighter but more narrowly focused systems. I might be biased as I have by far the most hours in DkS2 PvP than any other FROM game.

 

[Aerial51]

Imagine thinking Sekiro is worse than Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne.

Sekiro is the culmination of thsoe games with the cheese/lameness removed - and replaced with pure skill. No more "poke" tactics where you just push dudes off the enviroment. No lame shielding builds. No cheese, just pure skill.

It is FromSoft perfection,

Click to shrink...

But that would mean that their Combat System is actually good enough that you want to put an significant amount of hours into it. From Games are great but not because of their combat, because of the level design, the art, the lore you figure out on the way, the oppressive atmosphere.
And Sekiro is imo far weaker in all of those aspects, because it tries to be different than DS but still shackles itself to many Souls Tropes. The result is something very uneven.

I don't play From Games to fight 2 hours straight. A Bloody Palace Mode like in DMC would just get boring super fast, with the basic Arkham Esque Combat of Sekiro.

 

[Rixan]

Sekiro has the highest skill ceiling out of those options, and is their best combat implementation to date. Technically and balance-wise, both.

That said, it's likely my least favorite of those options from an atmospheric and musical perspective. The grapple is a fine traversal mechanic but the environments themselves (overall with some exceptions) aren't as compelling as the souls series or certainly Yharnam.

Still, overall it's one of my favorite FROM titles, and ahead of all the Dark Souls titles except DS1

To me, Isshin is one of the greatest boss encounters of all time

 

[HiLife]

All 3 are top 3 From games. But Sekiro steals the show for me. Gorgeous artstyle. Fountainhead is still the best area in their catalogue. I loved that combat, even if deflecting felt lenient. I'd put DS3 in second.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

Imagine thinking Sekiro is worse than Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne.

Sekiro is the culmination of thsoe games with the cheese/lameness removed - and replaced with pure skill. No more "poke" tactics where you just push dudes off the enviroment. No lame shielding builds. No cheese, just pure skill.

It is FromSoft perfection,

Click to shrink...

It also removes any and all experimentation, creativity and build variety from the combat in favor of one extremely limiting style of play, then expects you to be absolutely perfect at it.

If you're into that kind of thing I'm sure it's awesome, but for anyone who likes customization, doesn't enjoy parrying or who has shitty response times, it's a gigantic step down.

 

[Rixan]

All 3 are top 3 From games. But Sekiro steals the show for me. Gorgeous artstyle. Fountainhead is still the best area in their catalogue. I loved that combat, even if deflecting felt lenient. I'd put DS3 in second.

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To me Fountainhead is the one area that's on the level of their other work, most of the other zones are rather bland imho (bland for FROM, anyway)

I do wish the parry window was tighter, it's a bit too easy to spam tap L1

 

[Grudy]

It's only behind Bloodborne and Dark Souls for me, and not by far. Each of these games excels at different things and for me Sekiro is above and beyond all of them in combat. Just absolute masterclass design in having just enough depth while also keeping it simple to understand, but hard to master. They also did an incredible job with the setting as far as I'm concerned but I can understand why some people didn't enjoy it. As usual a lot of references and symbolism went over my head until I looked them up on youtube and whatnot but I did feel like I was on an amazing ninja adventure throughout, and that's what's important for me.

 

[Toriko]

The interconnectivity of FromSoftware games was brilliant in DS1 where it mattered, but once fast travel was implemented in the rest of the games from the start, it became a redundant way to design levels. BB, DS3 and Sekiro are all far more linear than DS1 have an equal amount of minor interconnectivity within its levels, but they all prove pretty pointless and lack the effect DS1 had with them. This doesn't really stand as a criticism exclusive to Sekiro, but all From games since DS1. If anything, DS1 was an outlier in its genius. Something From has chosen to move away from for whatever reason.

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I kind of disagree with this. I should have been more clear.Let me clarify - I do not necessarily mean the interconnectivity between levels but rather the aspect of finding shortcuts within the same level. I love DS1 but I don't think the idea of finding shortcuts in other souls games any less satisfying. It gave players reasons to explore and finding a shortcut to a checkpoint is way more satisfying than proceed straight in a linear fashion and I will put a checkpoint every 5 min approach of Sekiro.

IMO levels like Central Yarnham, Cathedral of the Deep etc.. have way way more satisfying and far more conplex level design than anything in Sekiro. I really wish they did something way more interesting in terms of vertically with the level design than what they ended up doing.

 

[RPGam3r]

Ah yes the fresh taste of daily shit on DS2. You would think it gets old but not on this forum (this is sarcasm, it absolutely gets old).

I enjoyed DS3 better than Sekiro or Bloodborne. Although Sekiro was not a Souls-like it was still more entertaining to me than Bloodborne overall.

 

[SoulsHunt]

Literally the best since Bloodborne.

 

[ThingsRscary]

For me Bloodborne is the best game that From Software have produced.

 

[pleaseinsertdisctwo]

Oh hell no

also I already had a thread written up for Sekiro but I thought I was overdoing it with Sekiro threads

I definitely am

but I want to make a counter thread lol

 

[pleaseinsertdisctwo]

Sekiro is trashtier From imo.
Puzzle rhythm game with no RPG elements makes for a very stale and repetitive experience for me.

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This is so disingenuous I don't even know where to begin

 

[Zera Bloodwinter]

BB> Sekiro > DS3.

BB was my first modern From game and it opened the flood gates for me. I have beaten all modern From games solo. BB is only ruined by its unoptimized net code and its 30 fps lock.

Sekiro is a master pieces of a single player journey that forces you to get good. Purchased it on release, made it to the end and quit because Isshin was too hard for me. Came back a whole year later and beat him.

Cannot wait for Elden Ring!