To see how much you agree with the points of a reviewer on something you have experience with, which will give you context on how to weigh their opinions in the future on things that you HAVEN'T decided whether or not you wanna buy them just yet.
@@kaciepeacock8112 that's not true in the slightest. He does explain the mechanics but also talks about how those mechanics fit into the overall game and if they work or not. It would be a terrible review if it was strictly opinion based without justification.
I spent over an hour on the Drunkard. That bastard. And then once I beat him and felt good about myself, the next boss comes in and destroys me. This game is insane. (in an awesome way). Definitely GOTY (for me).
I have sucked at most Souls games, but this one... I am just naturally good at (at least so far). Beat Drunkard in first try (after using stealth to get him down to one health bar) and Lady Butterfly in my second try. Far from easy, but I can tell, I am better at this form of combat than most Souls veterans for some reason.
It's definitely an contender but I wouldn't say it's GOTY right now because it's too early still. There's still heavy hitters like Borderlands 3, Dying Light 2, Ghost Of Tsushima, Death Stranding and TLOU2 (at least 2 of the last 3 i mentioned will more than likely come out this year).
@@alexanderchilton911 They will be announcing the B3 release date on April 3rd. DL2 is scheduled to release this year. Finally for the last 3 Sony said at least 2 of their major games will come out this year. Days Gone, Dreams and Concrete Genie will be the ones to first release.
Total # of bosses in Bloodborne = 17 (including variants) - ca.ign.com/wikis/bloodborne/Bosses Total # of bosses in Dark Souls 3 = 29 (including variants) - ca.ign.com/wikis/dark-souls-3/Bosses#Dark_Souls_3_Boss_List Total # of bosses (currently known) in Sekiro = 41 (assuming no DLC) - heavy.com/games/2019/03/how-many-bosses-sekiro-shadows-die-twice/ or 16 + A to J having variants (10) = 26 unique bosses: A* Genchiro Ashina (First Encounter) B* General Naomori Kawarada C* Chained Ogre 1 Gyoubu Oniwa B* General Tenzen Yamauchi 2 Shinobi Hunter Enshin of Misen D* Juzou the Drunkard 3 Lady Butterfly E* Blazing Bull 4 General Kuranosuke Matsumoto 5 Seven Achina Spears F* Lone Shadow Longswordmam 6 Jinsuke Saze A* Genichiro Ashina 7 Armored Warrior G* Long-arm Centipede Sen’un 8 Folding Screen Monkeys G* Long-arm Centipede Giraffe H* Headless 9 Great Serpent I* Guardian Ape J* Snake Eyes Shiraffuji J* Snake Eyes Shirahagi D* Tokujiro the Glutton H* Headless (Underwater) A* Isshin Ashina 10 Emma, the Gentle I* Headless Ape 11 Great Shinobi Owl 12 O’Rin of the Water J* Corrupted Monk (Ghost) J* Corrupted Monk (True) 13 Divine Dragon A* Immortal Severance E* Sakura Bull of the Palace 14 Great Colored Carp 15 Demon of Hatred C* Chained Ogre (Ashina Castle) 16 Mist Noble F* Lone Shadow Vilehand D* Shigekichi of the Red Guard In my opinion...... The overall design diversity in Sekiro is greater than Bloodborne but "maybe" a little bit less than Dark Souls 3. The variety of combat skills in Sekiro is on par with Dark Souls 3 as many combat arts and weapon attack animations in Dark Souls 3 are repeated. The variety in the spells catalogue of Dark Souls 3 is covered by the variety in the prosthetic tools upgrade catalogue of Sekiro. However, the variety in the weapons (not weapon attack animations) catalogue of Dark Souls 3 surpasses Sekiro. Sekiro is harder than SoulsBorne because players are not able to grind to obtain huge amount of health to tank. Players are restricted to a progressive health increment through the process of defeating bosses. Sekrio is a better action game than SoulsBorne because of the introduction of stealth and jump (jump over sweep attacks, jump on enemies, jump to roof tops etc). There is a little bit of stealth (snipe shot with a bow) in Souls too but the stealth content is insufficient. In other words, although there are tons of weapons in Dark Souls 3 but the "action variety" in Sekiro is greater than Souls. With an addition of a female shadow and tuning up the stealth mechanics, Sekiro could be a perfect revival of Tenchu.
This is my 1st FromSoftware game and I have to say I am loving every second of it... Everyday I am defeating several new bosses and mini bosses and gaining prayer beads and memories and upgrading my skill trees... I am going to get Bloodborne after I finish this... And the feeling I get after defeating one boss... That's incomparable to any boss fights in other games... I started Nioh in February, but it couldn't capture my attention the way this game did and the credit goes to FromSoftware...
@@miko5167 Yes they can. The AI is really wonky in this game. You can 'sneak' up beside an enemy by almost going right infront of them or directly beside them(without using certain sugars). In other situations, you just can't sneak because the encounter wasn't designed like that, or enemies just see you from areas they have no business seeing you from. It's not so much stealth, as a gameplay gimmick of 'stealth'.
@@ruekurei88 I'm personally trying to avoid criticizing the combat system to avoid the "git gud" comments from fanboys. It is really delicate to criticize combat without everyone thinking that you do so, because you suck at it. But yea, the combat has flaws which causes you to die, not because you suck at it. One flaw is the stealth as you mentioned and the other one is the grab attack from enemy. Sometimes you just dodge from the grab but the enemy magically turns on you in the last millisecond and grabs you anyway. And sometimes it's just so lamely obvious how devs wanted you to play the certain parts of the game the way they want, because the logic says that there could be so many other options to do it, but nope, devs wanted you to play it the way they want, so you can't do it the other way. Sekiro is a good game, don't get me wrong, but it seems to me that every time the game has high difficulty it's automatically and blindly masterpiece for everyone and if anyone dares to criticize it then that person automatically suck in it.
Some enemies are triggered by proximity alone (the Lone Shadow Longswordman or "purple ninja") which can be frustrating, especially if they have two life bars.
@@ruekurei88 It's never ever inconsistent. Shinobi will see you on Proximity, normies will suspect you because of the torch alarm guys, and some are just really blind. Even if you can tell you aren't supposed to do something, it's fairly easy to do. Yamauchi, for example. He turns around pretty frequently if you go in as soon as you see him. If you wait long enough after killing some guards though, he notices and starts walking around. Then he gives you an opportunity to stealth kill one of his bars. I never found the stealth unfair.
I thought that was where Sekiro was going to end up for me as well in my Soulsbourne rankings but it's become my favorite. Favorite world and combat for me by a pretty good margin. Admittedly I've always preferred the feudal japan setting over medieval fantasy so I think that helps
@@ZeroHayabusa Dark Souls 1 lands in front of Sekiro by a bit, simply because it's more replayable. I love Sekiro, but it was basically FromSoftware saying: "You see, we can get rid of RPG elements and still make the game fun!" I know that the combat is really satisfying, moreso than Dark Souls, but it feels like something's missing, and it was just an experiment. I would have liked a DLC for it, since we never see Tamura outside of the opening cutscene, and we never see Takeru, or Lady Tomoe. These would all be really cool bosses, and it's a shame that we'll never fight them. I wish they would make a Sekiro 2, but you know From. The only time they work on a new IP is when they feel like they're done with the current one, so we'll never get a sequel.
Does anyone feel that the sentence starting at 4:01 is missing some information? "If used wisely your prosthetic tools can quickly change the tide of battle in your favor, but also a large number of upgrades that can enhance the abilities of your tools and add additional effects". The second half is missing something on the end like "...allow you to customize your loadout to suit your play-style or specific scenarios". Maybe something was cut out?
Beautifully written review, Brad. I never knew how much I needed Demon's Souls till I had it in 2010. I never knew how badly I needed an Eldritch-inspired Victorian Era action-focused RPG until I Fromsoft gave me Bloodborne and again, I never knew just how badly I needed a Sengoku Era stealth oriented action RPG until Fromsoft delivered Sekiro. In my opinion, Demons, Bloodborne and Sekiro are essential and Fromsoft truly are the pinnacle of development studios. I only wish I could erase my memory of ever having played Sekiro, just so I can experience the joy and wonder once more.
As someone who isn't already sold on the game, this review didn't really convince me it deserves it's score. You did a lot of describing the mechanics, but you didn't really explain what's so great about it.
He did mention his liking for the combat and bosses though, and it makes sense because it is the focus of this game. If an interesting combat system and challenging encounters isn't a major selling point to you, this may not be a game for you. I agree he could have talked more about the atmosphere and the story though, but don't go in expecting a cinematic experience.
Thanks for giving that information. Ever since the PS2 era where voice acting strongly got better in games, I dont want to play games with stories that I would need to read all the way.
Yeah I did too. Fromsoft always has great English voice actors in their games and this game is the same. I get the whole "Japanese language in a Japanese game" argument, but to me the English voices were great.
I just tire of hearing the same English VAs so much. Plus in Japanese games it just feels more Authentic. I couldn't imagine playing Yakuza in English.
@@lapsedilationdrive3943 Obv, but they've made strides to having good dubs. Some characters sound REALLY bad in the dub, and some do their roles great, like Isshin.
Yes! Been waiting to see your review, this game is blowing my mind with how good it is. The combat mechanics are so smartly executed, and I think from software have outdone themselves. This game is truly incredible. I'm fortunate enough to have started with demon's souls when it was first released, and watching the progression of their games from then to now has been some of the most memorable gaming moments I've ever had in my life. ❤L&R❤
Yeah while I was watching it felt like this was a new player's help guide or something. When Jones started leading to the verdict with "Sekiro is an exhilarating...", I thought "Oh right, opinions".
I guess I'm sentimental about Dark Souls 1, it was my first From game ;). Also, the world design is unbeatable, even if the gameplay made great progress thereafter.
@@antoineroth2555 Dark Souls 1: World design is great, but falls short with combat and many other things like boss design. Yes Ornstein and Smough are great, but 90% of the bosses in dark souls 1 weren't great, people just remember the best ones. Like Taurus Demon, Bed of Chaos, etc etc aren't remembered when people idealize dark souls 1 for nostalgia. Based on what I have heard, demon's souls is pretty damn great, plus it has some innovating and unique things like world persistance or whatever, and the fact that you can invade someone's world as a certain boss (I believe it was a monk), here's hoping it's remade by bluepoint.
Oh man, Demons Souls is so good too, completely worth revisiting. There is a kind of floatiness to the combat that might seem rough compared to DS3 but all the elements of From’s winning formula are still there, and the five distinct words to explore are diverse and all fantastically designed. I hope they do a remake indeed, but otherwise try to get your hands on a PS3, it’s worth it for this game alone, especially if you enjoy From’s game design.
This game is for boss level gamers. I'm almost done with the first ending. I'm Trying to take my time with it. 9.5 is a perfect score. The only thing that gave me problems sometimes is the camera angles in some fight sequences.
I already beat NG+, but I've been waiting ravenously for this review anyways. I just wanted to hear your eloquent summary of this masterpiece. Great work as always lads!
It's interesting how with each game I get more and more into From Software. I loved the entire idea of Demon Souls but just couldnt really get through on my own but watched loads of videos online and was captured by it. Bloodborne is still my favorite ps4 experience and this looks right up my ally specially with it being even more reflex based and faster paced.
@@seafarinhare he is, some of the Allies have been getting sick since the meetup. But I meant more so that there was an issue with the audio, not Jones's voice
What these games remind me more of than anything is old arcade style games, made to be hard and keep you coming back. Mega Man, Ghouls n Ghosts, Metal Slug, etc. wonder why I rarely hear them mentioned.
So far From Soft games are pretty much an instant buy from me dating back to Armored Core 2... still always watch the EZA review though, great work Brad, Ian and Jones!
The guy that magically sees you in hirata estate actually just heard the other guy spotting you. Yellow indicator means you can still preform death blow to him if you are directly behind.
My only real complaint is that the enemy AI doesn't know how to take advantage of posture break and 90% of the time it's inconsequential to have your posture broken. I wish some enemies or at least bosses could react to this and use more powerful attacks when you're stunned instead of standing there waiting for you to recover. That and the occasionally wonky hitboxes which I guess is a From staple
This has gotta be my new favorite by the FS team with Bloodborne still being a close second. I was curious of the guys felt this was worth a perfect score, but the 9.5 is still solid praise for (what I hope will become) an exciting new franchise. I definitely agreed that the challenge in this game is higher than traditional dark souls games, that final boss in particular is ABSURD. Still not sure how I managed to beat him, and not looking forward to the NG+ version lmao.
What about the performance though? Since all from software's games suffer from bad frame rate/ pacing, it would have been interesting to see that part reflected in the review
I agree. It's odd because they seem to mostly review games they like, so on one hand you cant fault them but on the other... KH3 and Sekiro 9.5? *shrugs*
Completely agree with this review. My new favorite From Software game, and without a doubt my GOTY. I can't imagine it being beaten. It is pretty much a masterpiece (this far at least, played for like 20+ hours).
Masterpiece is a bit far. This game has flaws such as unresponsive controls and seriously bloated difficulty. It’s a good game, but it’s not a masterpiece.
@@mattwilcks5156 Lol, controls (playing on Pro) are snappy as fuck. The enemies and mid-boss/boss battles are always fair, you will never lose a fight because of bad balancing or artificial difficulty, it will ALWAYS be your own fault for not learning a moveset, not having a proper strategy, not paying attention or knowing how the controls work (which are super simple btw). TL;DR I think you're just bad at the game, it's okay
If I struggled with the souls and Bloodborne games, should I even consider giving this a go? Or is the difficulty the same? Great review again, love the Easy Allies review format
I can't speak for BB, but i have beaten DS1 several times and Sekiro is definitely harder. Sekiro is more focused on player skill, whereas DS is more focused on stats and items. If you have trouble defeating a boss or area in DS, you have the option to grind and boost your stats so you can wreck the game, also you can call in other players to help you with these as well. None of this is an option in Sekiro, if you have trouble, your best option is to explore and see if you can find tools that will help you with specific encounters, some will definitely give you an advantage, but never win you a fight. In the end you WILL have to gid gud, which to me is one of the best aspects of the game. The combat system is amazing and the world and setting is incredible. I wholeheartedly reccomend Sekiro, it IS hard (of course this can be subjective), BUT it is never unfair. If you learn enemy movesets, explore the world and persevere, you are in for one of the most rewarding experiences gaming has to offer right now. It's great
Good point but I don't think the problem is the quality of Jones's voice, but of the audio itself. It sounds almost like it's peaking and seems noticeably louder than the game.
Who, the DoH? My strategy was running around and attacking a couple of times after he attacks then run away again, he basically won't hit you at all, just bring the fire shield for his second fase. There's a reason the arena is so huge.
Great review as always. There is one thing I'm still wondering about from the perspective of someone completely unfamiliar with Sekiro. While the synopsis of the plot is given, how is the story and characters reviewed? The voice acting and deliberation in scenes is self-evident, but does the story feel captivating? When the review concludes with that this game deserves your full attention, and so much of the review focused exclusively focused on the gameplay mechanics, it feels as if the storytelling was not one of the major points to discuss.
I'm pretty surprised by the practical non-mention of story and characters, as I personally feel that those were From's biggest and best improvements with this game. In Sekiro, we get to know ourselves (main character) and the other characters far better than any other From Soft game, and we're treated to far more story-relevant cutscenes than any other of their games. The characters by default feel more fleshed out and "real", with the classic From lore dives still being possible. I played the game in Japanese due to the setting, and Japanese voice acting is virtually synonymous with "excellent". The clips that I've seen of the English voice acting don't really do it for me at all, but it's still passable, I just think that the setting demands the Japanese VO, much like how Souls and Bloodborne felt excellent with English VO. Anyway, the story and characters were a highlight for me personally, in addition to the Japanese developer getting to make a game directly relevant to their culture. I'm hoping for more elaboration on both from EZA in future streams/videos. Maybe when Brandon and Ben finally give their full opinion. haha
@@luapchalos I feel like the Lore in this game took a hit. It was like if Dark Souls had never included the Artorias of the Abyss DLC. They build up to characters like Tomoe and Tamura and Takeru, but you never even see them. It just feels like they were building the lore up to a DLC that would clarify everything, and that DLC never happened. I still love the game but the Dark Souls lore had surprisingly few loose ends.
SoulsBourne players keep telling us to "git gud", though to be honest the most obsessed fans of these games are masochists. Gaining persistent gratification from dying all the time is like getting pleasure from eating and chewing on barbed wire-the pain must be so good that your lips turn a bloody crimson, but all you do is continue punishing yourselves until it's all over. You guys need to chill and play some Yoshi and Kirby games to offset this insanity.
Dying is how you get gud. Ideally, you should learn from each death, and the combat and encounters are so good that we don't mind throwing ourselves at a boss for the 50th time
@@paulmcpherson4918 I get that but the point is it's insanity. I don't mean the following as a negative against Sekiro, Dark Souls, Nioh, The Surge, Ashen or Bloodbourne-but dying over and over again is anti-fun, and fun is what videogames is all about. These games are a fantastic challenge, but they perpetuate and/or influence negative emotions like anger and frustration.
@@jdbruiser There are about a million quotes about how there can be no joy/happiness without pain/struggle. These games are really just the best example of this. Most games you can go through and die maybe a few times depending on the kind of game. In my personal experience, those games are kind of a snooze-fest unless every aspect of the game is perfect to keep me engaged. Soulsbornes and Sekiro, on the other hand, demand that you learn and persevere until you win. The feeling of losing to a boss a hundred times only to finally beat it is possibly the best feeling I have ever experienced playing a video game, and something that most games don't even offer. You can say it's masochism, but I'm really just searching for that feeling. And even though during the times where it feels like it's impossible to overcome a given challenge I do feel negative emotions, what I'm left with after defeating the final boss is a huge sense of accomplishment, and that feeling of joy I was chasing to begin with. Obviously if you give up when it gets too hard, you'll be left only with those negative emotions and have a bad impression of the game. If the game is played how it's meant to be played however, you end up remembering those moments of hardship as speed bumps. Anyway , I'm not sure where I'm going with this anymore, but thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
It's not the dying part that's fun. Beating a boss or something that's been giving you trouble is one of the most satisfying feelings in games. These games are not as hard as everyone makes them out to be. They just require you actually learn the mechanics to beat them.
@@jdbruiser I get joy from learning, getting better and overcoming difficult challenges. I get no joy from a game if it doesn't challenge me, because there is no learning experience. The more difficult (and sometimes frustrating) a challenge is, the more intensely joyful the moment of victory will be. The pleasure doesn't come from losing or dying, but rather from the fact that you constantly can see yourself getting better at a fight. My third time at fighting a boss I'll be much better than my first time, and it will make me happy even if I ultimately die. And when I finally manage to kill a difficult boss, the feeling of achievement is amazing. -
The only problem I find is the camera that sometimes feels annoying. Overall, Sekiro is to my eyes, From Software’s best and most complete work to date. It has the best from their previous games melted up into a single package with such minimalistic yet innotavive systems, a more explicit story and exceptional world design. Can’t stop playing, I’m hooked.
By explaining the basic systems they are able to meticulously criticize specific aspects of the game. Having a vague review that simply says "the combat is hard but satisfying" doesn't actually help explain why it might be hard or why it might be satisfying.
liamout yes, but what about performance or enemy variety or location variety etc. Also, how compelling and memorable are the characters and plot? I couldn’t find that info in the review
Man, I was ready to give up on this game because of Lady Butterfly. Once I finally beat her, the game officially clicked with me and I have been enjoying it since.
@@andrefrazier8653 You can waste more time if you have a general idea of the mechanics, it's easy to be frustrated when you feel that you're doing nothing wrong. That's why the time it takes for the game to click varies so heavily.
Way back when...I was in Hong Kong and PS3 games are cheaper there...so I bought a few Katamari, that Move Sports and Demon Souls...I was like meh, I'll give it a try, and I bought my brother a copy too... Years later....we've graduated onto Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and now Sekiro...but I'm waiting for any DLC announcement, cause I wanna get the Complete Edition, if there's one...
@@andrefrazier8653 That's definitely not true. DS and BB have co-op and levelling, this game does not. There's ONE difficulty that everyone plays at, since there are no different weapons, so it's significantly harder to beat if you've never played a Souls game.
This game has teased me with moments of good victories, and many moments of rage. It has kicked my ass more than any game I have ever played, but I keep coming back.
Which made it much more of a chore than fun imo.... like listening to ur favorite song on repeat for 24 hrs straight... that also made it too long and a have way too many games and responsibilities to invest that much time in one game. Is Sekiro more forgiving?
Just finished watching your Souls Retrospectives and as a fan of the games I loved your work. I'm playing through Sekiro right now and thought I'd check out this video while taking a break. Thanks for sharing your views and hard work on a series of games that may be the last I play as I'm losing interest in gaming overall. 👏👏👏👏
Definitely my second favorite From game next to Bloodborne. The combat is incredibly addicting, possibly my favorite combat system in any game. It should easily be GOTY.
Did anybody else feel like the game was oddly small? Often there is barely a basic room seperating two (mini-) boss encounters. Especially towards the end there was a suspicious amount of repeated boss fights and locations... i had an immense amount of fun 90% of the game until the ending came around..
I would not call the game small, but it definitely runs on repetition and recycling. The amount of repeated bosses and minibosses started to get annoying at some point, not to mention have to go through some of the same areas multiple times to progress with the story. It's like they had a limited amount of ideas but had to extend the game's length as much as possible.
It felt shorter to me, but I honestly think that's just because you move so fast in this game. I tried to take my time, but zipping all over the place is too much fun haha.
@Don Lobo Yeah these guys aren't like IGN, who somehow posted a review for this 50 hour game when they had only received their review copy 48 hours prior.
Yes I know. Thats why I say it's worth the wait. I've been following these guys since their Gametrailers days, so I know that they are very thorough in their reviews. But that doesn't mean that I can't still become impatient to watch their review of an anticipated game :)
@@velvetcrowe5548 It took me 50 hours and I didn't get stuck anywhere besides the last boss. I did do all possible bosses though. The IGN revew also said that he played it for 50 hours, despite only having a copy for 48 hours.
I loved this game. It was one hell of a ride. My only complaint was losing 50% of exp and gold upon dead. I thought that was excessive for the amount of difficulty the game already displays. It felt unnecessary. Otherwise I had a blast going through it.
That's why you have resurection though: so you can escape with your gains if you don't think you can win the next encounter. Beside, you can always cash in your money by buying money pouches, and wait until you fill up an experience level before you challenge difficult enemies.
@@Psil0 That doesn't work for boss fights. You're stuck in the area with them. The first store you can get pouches from are after a boss. It's an unnecessary part of the game. I already beat it, so I'm not worried about it. Just said it was the one thing I didn't like.
These souls type games are fantastic for people that play games from Wake to sleep... Horrible for people like me with responsibilities. Too much dying and trial and error. Every person I've seen play these types of games, rage the whole time and end up rage quitting 😁 hard pass for me. I play for fun and feeling like a badass , not for frustration and feeling like a rookie learning how to be a badass
@@angelserrano9049 At the end, you'll actually be a badass, at least at that boss or encounter. Once you beat your first major boss, you understand why these games feel so rewarding, even if they aren't for everyone.
Thank God! I've been waiting for EZA's review for Sekiro for ages. I feel bad that the game has only a limited amount of cures for Dragon Rot. Not that I think it's too frustrating to die so many times, but it'd be better if an unlimited access to curing Dragon Rot is available. It can be designed in a way that it is essentially hard to get the cure though, as long as the chances are unlimited.
I think there's only like ONE questline that Dragonrot blocks. It's not that big of a deal, which is why no characters actually die from it, they just suffer.
@@gu3z185 Ok, thanks for the info. I didn't know that. I'm recently playing Bloodborne, and it's more frustrating than the original Dark Souls imo. xD Not sure if I'll have enough vigour to tackle Sekiro after this, lol.
okay one problem. Jones said "if you die and resurrect excessively" making it sound like the resurrection causes dragon rot. This is FALSE, using your Resurrection DOES NOT cause dragon rot. Only true deaths cause dragon rot, meaning you hit a loading screen and got sent back to an idol. This needs to be corrected as people are not using their Resurrection in fear of getting dragon rot and that's not that case.
Played through DS1-3 AND Bloodborn and loves Them all, Sekiro though is not My cup of Tea. And the game should have had the option to cap the framerate at 30 fps, it runs horrible on ps4 pro.
I don,t think they explain it well. There's no downsides to resurecting. The downside comes with true death. Resurection is actually a chance at getting away from a fight. You are offered a choice: another chance at finishing a combat encoutner, or escape with your sen and experience.
Hoping for a 10 brad I love this game! Expecting slightly lower tho because it’s not all perfect but haven’t watched the vid yet one sec... Yeah 9.5 makes sense it has a lot of things that are very refreshing for the whole souls genre but in doing them it feels like this games sequel will be more fleshed out imo stealth and grappling need a little bit of tweaking as well as more enemy variation next game but that’s easy to fix if they do a sequel with the dragon’s homecoming ending (you’ll understand why if you watch it). Now here’s hoping future from soft games are this level quality or better and I’ll be giving them all the money (Bloodborne 2, Dark souls IV, Demon souls reboot/remake, newly re-imagined Armored core game and Sekiro sequel pls)
Na let DkS die after how disappointing DkS3 vanilla was (DLC was solid) Besides this nothing left to do. I’d rather see them explore new IPs or just make a sequel for Sekiro and Bloodborne but FS isn’t the best at sequels with their track record and making a 4th Dark Souls game will be more of the same and inhibit innovation.
KlassicKrusty everyone’s opinions are fine but I actually enjoyed ds3 a good amount and liked it much more than 2 anyhow and so I know it may not be as great as the first but imo it controls far better and has a lot of what makes Dark souls and Bloodborne good and I think it’s strong enough to warrant a new game in the series hell man maybe they should just do a new souls game but just not dark souls lol nonetheless I see them continuing the series for sure
When I look at it, it sort of reminds me of Nioh but not as fun. Don't really care for the souls games. So I'll just keep playing Nioh. Hyped for whenever Nioh 2 comes out.
Yeah, I'm alway tempted by these games since they have almost a Fighting Game appeal but... Just not enjoyable to me. I'm gonna get my Samurai fill from Shadows of Tsushima and Samurai Showdown!
I'm at the final Boss of Sekiro at the moment and have to say, I feel this review was a bit dismissive with the game's flaws. From took some lessons from previous titles and it is great to see how they tried to change the formula to bring something different, but it still repeats some of the same annoying issues present in previous titles (and at times, it can get worse than ever). I consider myself a fan of FromSoftware's games and I had my share of fun with Sekiro, but I definitely feel bittersweet about it, specially when it seems the game is being put on a pedestal.
@@LitMitMedia One some NPCs they moved, others not so much. I actually haven't played Bloodborne, but Andre from Dark Souls had a moving mouth, when nobody else in the game did. They're not in sync in this game, though, even if they tried. It honestly doesn't matter, because they're pretty much perfectly synced during cutscenes, which is when it matters.
Not bragging, just proud of myself. But I beat the horse boss on my first try without having to revive. After I saw that he mostly swings from his right side and the horse was scared of fire crackers, it was just a matter of keeping focus and blocking. I’m just impressed with myself cause my usual From Soft first boss fights are usually me getting super pissed and wanted to get rid of the game. Lol. Now, that general right before the snake though... he was a freaking asshole until his fighting style finally clicked for me. I HATE having to clear an area after every death just to fight a mini boss.
The game looks and sounds amazing, but I'm behind. I beat dark souls 1 in like 2013 and since I've only beaten bloodborne, almost day one bought dark souls 2 when it was one of the only games worth checking out on ps4, but I never got it in the end, I started dark souls 3 after this game came out and I've beaten a few bosses since, I feel like sekiro coming out was what drove me to play it. I'll play nioh and the surge (1 for both) before playing sekiro, then sekiro, then I'll play nioh 2 and the surge 2 probably. (other games between each one in this sub-genre of course, don't want to burn myself out) SO yeah, tl;dr : I'm not playing because I'm playing dark souls 3 finally after owning it for over a year. Game looks great though. I am more excited for nioh 2 than this though, and this isn't in my top 5 most anticipated of 2019 games, so far that's stuff like kingdom hearts 3 (caught up with the series, it's all I have left), Judgment, Cyberpunk 2077, and probably other games I"m too lazy to look up a list to find.
5:11 While I agree the stealth can be inconsistent, this is just wrong. Different enemies can see at different range. You can't seriously expect a musket or mortar guy to not see you from much further than a swordsman, unless you really want them to be completely useless.
After rolling credits pretty recently and taking my sweet unadulterated time to explore everything this game had to offer its an 11/10. I mean seriously let's take all the things we love about From Software games before it and let's add stealth, an actual combat system with depth and skill, and mobility... I mean holy shit it really doesn't get much better than this! P. S. How am I missing 1 prayer bead... WHERE ARE YOU!? xD
why do i watch reviews of games i already purchased...
To see how much you agree with the points of a reviewer on something you have experience with, which will give you context on how to weigh their opinions in the future on things that you HAVEN'T decided whether or not you wanna buy them just yet.
And beaten ^^
Sleepless Specter too bad he doesn't really give an opinion. this is really just an explanation of the basic systems, not a review.
@@Pandsu to justify your purchase and make you feel better 😂
@@kaciepeacock8112 that's not true in the slightest. He does explain the mechanics but also talks about how those mechanics fit into the overall game and if they work or not. It would be a terrible review if it was strictly opinion based without justification.
If Jones sounds sick, it's because Brad died and resurrected excessively.
kingofthesharks DRAGON ROT
OH. MY. GOD *dies twice of laughter
Lol this is very good
Brad doesn't die. ;)
I spent over an hour on the Drunkard. That bastard. And then once I beat him and felt good about myself, the next boss comes in and destroys me. This game is insane. (in an awesome way). Definitely GOTY (for me).
That is where I gave up on the game today lol
I have sucked at most Souls games, but this one...
I am just naturally good at (at least so far).
Beat Drunkard in first try (after using stealth to get him down to one health bar) and Lady Butterfly in my second try.
Far from easy, but I can tell, I am better at this form of combat than most Souls veterans for some reason.
It's definitely an contender but I wouldn't say it's GOTY right now because it's too early still. There's still heavy hitters like Borderlands 3, Dying Light 2, Ghost Of Tsushima, Death Stranding and TLOU2 (at least 2 of the last 3 i mentioned will more than likely come out this year).
@@Shadow4192008
None of those are confirmed 2019 titles (maybe Dying Light?), and I bet most of them won't be.
@@alexanderchilton911 They will be announcing the B3 release date on April 3rd. DL2 is scheduled to release this year. Finally for the last 3 Sony said at least 2 of their major games will come out this year. Days Gone, Dreams and Concrete Genie will be the ones to first release.
Total # of bosses in Bloodborne = 17 (including variants) - ca.ign.com/wikis/bloodborne/Bosses
Total # of bosses in Dark Souls 3 = 29 (including variants) - ca.ign.com/wikis/dark-souls-3/Bosses#Dark_Souls_3_Boss_List
Total # of bosses (currently known) in Sekiro = 41 (assuming no DLC) - heavy.com/games/2019/03/how-many-bosses-sekiro-shadows-die-twice/ or 16 + A to J having variants (10) = 26 unique bosses:
A* Genchiro Ashina (First Encounter)
B* General Naomori Kawarada
C* Chained Ogre
1 Gyoubu Oniwa
B* General Tenzen Yamauchi
2 Shinobi Hunter Enshin of Misen
D* Juzou the Drunkard
3 Lady Butterfly
E* Blazing Bull
4 General Kuranosuke Matsumoto
5 Seven Achina Spears
F* Lone Shadow Longswordmam
6 Jinsuke Saze
A* Genichiro Ashina
7 Armored Warrior
G* Long-arm Centipede Sen’un
8 Folding Screen Monkeys
G* Long-arm Centipede Giraffe
H* Headless
9 Great Serpent
I* Guardian Ape
J* Snake Eyes Shiraffuji
J* Snake Eyes Shirahagi
D* Tokujiro the Glutton
H* Headless (Underwater)
A* Isshin Ashina
10 Emma, the Gentle
I* Headless Ape
11 Great Shinobi Owl
12 O’Rin of the Water
J* Corrupted Monk (Ghost)
J* Corrupted Monk (True)
13 Divine Dragon
A* Immortal Severance
E* Sakura Bull of the Palace
14 Great Colored Carp
15 Demon of Hatred
C* Chained Ogre (Ashina Castle)
16 Mist Noble
F* Lone Shadow Vilehand
D* Shigekichi of the Red Guard
In my opinion......
The overall design diversity in Sekiro is greater than Bloodborne but "maybe" a little bit less than Dark Souls 3. The variety of combat skills in Sekiro is on par with Dark Souls 3 as many combat arts and weapon attack animations in Dark Souls 3 are repeated. The variety in the spells catalogue of Dark Souls 3 is covered by the variety in the prosthetic tools upgrade catalogue of Sekiro. However, the variety in the weapons (not weapon attack animations) catalogue of Dark Souls 3 surpasses Sekiro.
Sekiro is harder than SoulsBorne because players are not able to grind to obtain huge amount of health to tank. Players are restricted to a progressive health increment through the process of defeating bosses.
Sekrio is a better action game than SoulsBorne because of the introduction of stealth and jump (jump over sweep attacks, jump on enemies, jump to roof tops etc). There is a little bit of stealth (snipe shot with a bow) in Souls too but the stealth content is insufficient. In other words, although there are tons of weapons in Dark Souls 3 but the "action variety" in Sekiro is greater than Souls.
With an addition of a female shadow and tuning up the stealth mechanics, Sekiro could be a perfect revival of Tenchu.
This is my 1st FromSoftware game and I have to say I am loving every second of it... Everyday I am defeating several new bosses and mini bosses and gaining prayer beads and memories and upgrading my skill trees... I am going to get Bloodborne after I finish this... And the feeling I get after defeating one boss... That's incomparable to any boss fights in other games... I started Nioh in February, but it couldn't capture my attention the way this game did and the credit goes to FromSoftware...
Sometimes the Ai can see you from great distances depending on what they are. Like archers and gunmen can see farther than everyone else.
True, although sometimes even melee enemies see you through walls.
@@miko5167 Yes they can. The AI is really wonky in this game. You can 'sneak' up beside an enemy by almost going right infront of them or directly beside them(without using certain sugars). In other situations, you just can't sneak because the encounter wasn't designed like that, or enemies just see you from areas they have no business seeing you from. It's not so much stealth, as a gameplay gimmick of 'stealth'.
@@ruekurei88 I'm personally trying to avoid criticizing the combat system to avoid the "git gud" comments from fanboys. It is really delicate to criticize combat without everyone thinking that you do so, because you suck at it. But yea, the combat has flaws which causes you to die, not because you suck at it. One flaw is the stealth as you mentioned and the other one is the grab attack from enemy. Sometimes you just dodge from the grab but the enemy magically turns on you in the last millisecond and grabs you anyway. And sometimes it's just so lamely obvious how devs wanted you to play the certain parts of the game the way they want, because the logic says that there could be so many other options to do it, but nope, devs wanted you to play it the way they want, so you can't do it the other way. Sekiro is a good game, don't get me wrong, but it seems to me that every time the game has high difficulty it's automatically and blindly masterpiece for everyone and if anyone dares to criticize it then that person automatically suck in it.
Some enemies are triggered by proximity alone (the Lone Shadow Longswordman or "purple ninja") which can be frustrating, especially if they have two life bars.
@@ruekurei88 It's never ever inconsistent. Shinobi will see you on Proximity, normies will suspect you because of the torch alarm guys, and some are just really blind. Even if you can tell you aren't supposed to do something, it's fairly easy to do. Yamauchi, for example. He turns around pretty frequently if you go in as soon as you see him. If you wait long enough after killing some guards though, he notices and starts walking around. Then he gives you an opportunity to stealth kill one of his bars. I never found the stealth unfair.
Landing square in the middle of all the "Soulsborne" games for me, Sekiro is still one of the best games ever made.
I thought that was where Sekiro was going to end up for me as well in my Soulsbourne rankings but it's become my favorite. Favorite world and combat for me by a pretty good margin. Admittedly I've always preferred the feudal japan setting over medieval fantasy so I think that helps
@@ZeroHayabusa Yea I could see that. I prefer the gothic horror and medieval stuff.
@@ZeroHayabusa Dark Souls 1 lands in front of Sekiro by a bit, simply because it's more replayable. I love Sekiro, but it was basically FromSoftware saying: "You see, we can get rid of RPG elements and still make the game fun!" I know that the combat is really satisfying, moreso than Dark Souls, but it feels like something's missing, and it was just an experiment. I would have liked a DLC for it, since we never see Tamura outside of the opening cutscene, and we never see Takeru, or Lady Tomoe. These would all be really cool bosses, and it's a shame that we'll never fight them. I wish they would make a Sekiro 2, but you know From. The only time they work on a new IP is when they feel like they're done with the current one, so we'll never get a sequel.
@@ZeroHayabusa Same🇯🇵😎😱
This isn't really Soulsbourne if you ask me. It's a thing of its own. Far more action adventure than anything RPG.
Anyone else's UA-cam feed all Sekiro boss guides now?
yep
Spoiled so many bosses for me
Nope. I have an add-on for Firefox that removes them.
Lol yeah
A couple weeks ago I was trying to figure out a way to block all Sekiro videos. Spoiled multiple bosses for me including the final boss.
Buy it now. One of the best games ever made.
Does anyone feel that the sentence starting at 4:01 is missing some information? "If used wisely your prosthetic tools can quickly change the tide of battle in your favor, but also a large number of upgrades that can enhance the abilities of your tools and add additional effects". The second half is missing something on the end like "...allow you to customize your loadout to suit your play-style or specific scenarios". Maybe something was cut out?
It’s my first from software game that I bought on day one, this setting is so great and i love this game! Brad and Ian did a great Job on that review!
You have to try the others next. They are all amazing in their own way
Play Dark souls 3
Beautifully written review, Brad. I never knew how much I needed Demon's Souls till I had it in 2010. I never knew how badly I needed an Eldritch-inspired Victorian Era action-focused RPG until I Fromsoft gave me Bloodborne and again, I never knew just how badly I needed a Sengoku Era stealth oriented action RPG until Fromsoft delivered Sekiro. In my opinion, Demons, Bloodborne and Sekiro are essential and Fromsoft truly are the pinnacle of development studios. I only wish I could erase my memory of ever having played Sekiro, just so I can experience the joy and wonder once more.
Seems like Jones having a Dragonrot while recording the audio.
Fromsoftware should be given huge credit for commiting to doing NEW things. I cannot wait for their upcoming Dark Fantasy ARPG and Armored Core!!!
Awesome
New things? They just keep making dark souls, just with a different skin each time.
I wouldn't say it's completely different from Bloodborne but it does feel somewhat fresh.
@@Darkness1984 The skins are awesome though
@@Darkness1984 sekiro is nearly nothing like dark souls so your comment is irrelevant
As someone who isn't already sold on the game, this review didn't really convince me it deserves it's score. You did a lot of describing the mechanics, but you didn't really explain what's so great about it.
He did mention his liking for the combat and bosses though, and it makes sense because it is the focus of this game. If an interesting combat system and challenging encounters isn't a major selling point to you, this may not be a game for you.
I agree he could have talked more about the atmosphere and the story though, but don't go in expecting a cinematic experience.
Have you played other Fromsoft games and if so did you like them?
Simon C.S.
Exactly.
Interesting you didn't mention how good the VO is in both English and Japanese. I went through the whole game in English and it was great.
Thanks for giving that information. Ever since the PS2 era where voice acting strongly got better in games, I dont want to play games with stories that I would need to read all the way.
Yeah I did too. Fromsoft always has great English voice actors in their games and this game is the same. I get the whole "Japanese language in a Japanese game" argument, but to me the English voices were great.
I just tire of hearing the same English VAs so much. Plus in Japanese games it just feels more Authentic. I couldn't imagine playing Yakuza in English.
Japanese dub is better imo
@@lapsedilationdrive3943 Obv, but they've made strides to having good dubs. Some characters sound REALLY bad in the dub, and some do their roles great, like Isshin.
I've already beaten this game, but I couldn't wait for this review!!!
Jones' audio is a bit off.
Yes! Been waiting to see your review, this game is blowing my mind with how good it is. The combat mechanics are so smartly executed, and I think from software have outdone themselves. This game is truly incredible. I'm fortunate enough to have started with demon's souls when it was first released, and watching the progression of their games from then to now has been some of the most memorable gaming moments I've ever had in my life.
❤L&R❤
Started with Evergrace. It's no less memorable, but...
Agreed. Been playing all weekend. Keeps getting better and better over time
This game is way better than I expected
Feels like more of a feature set rundown than a review. There's barely any subjective thoughts in it.
Brad is their least experienced reviewer, still relatively new, so that probably explains a part of it.
Yeah while I was watching it felt like this was a new player's help guide or something. When Jones started leading to the verdict with "Sekiro is an exhilarating...", I thought "Oh right, opinions".
A new peak for Fromsoftware, to equal DS1 and Bloodborne. This studio can do no wrong. I love this game so much
I'm liking dark souls 3 a lot more than I liked dark souls 1, I'm a few bosses in.
I guess I'm sentimental about Dark Souls 1, it was my first From game ;). Also, the world design is unbeatable, even if the gameplay made great progress thereafter.
@@antoineroth2555
Dark Souls 1: World design is great, but falls short with combat and many other things like boss design. Yes Ornstein and Smough are great, but 90% of the bosses in dark souls 1 weren't great, people just remember the best ones. Like Taurus Demon, Bed of Chaos, etc etc aren't remembered when people idealize dark souls 1 for nostalgia.
Based on what I have heard, demon's souls is pretty damn great, plus it has some innovating and unique things like world persistance or whatever, and the fact that you can invade someone's world as a certain boss (I believe it was a monk), here's hoping it's remade by bluepoint.
Oh man, Demons Souls is so good too, completely worth revisiting. There is a kind of floatiness to the combat that might seem rough compared to DS3 but all the elements of From’s winning formula are still there, and the five distinct words to explore are diverse and all fantastically designed.
I hope they do a remake indeed, but otherwise try to get your hands on a PS3, it’s worth it for this game alone, especially if you enjoy From’s game design.
@@antoineroth2555 Have a ps3, too annoying to go back to it outside of games like mgs 4.
This game is for boss level gamers. I'm almost done with the first ending. I'm Trying to take my time with it. 9.5 is a perfect score. The only thing that gave me problems sometimes is the camera angles in some fight sequences.
Have never played any of the Souls games or Bloodborne, but have played Tenchu and that's good enough for me to take this game on.
I still play the PS2 tenchu games. I probably need medical help lol
I already beat NG+, but I've been waiting ravenously for this review anyways. I just wanted to hear your eloquent summary of this masterpiece. Great work as always lads!
It's interesting how with each game I get more and more into From Software. I loved the entire idea of Demon Souls but just couldnt really get through on my own but watched loads of videos online and was captured by it. Bloodborne is still my favorite ps4 experience and this looks right up my ally specially with it being even more reflex based and faster paced.
Is it just me or does Jones's voice seem a bit too loud? Almost like he's peaking? Might just be me and my crappy headphones, though
No I hear it too and I have pretty good headphones
Sounds like he might be getting sick.
@@seafarinhare he is, some of the Allies have been getting sick since the meetup. But I meant more so that there was an issue with the audio, not Jones's voice
He sounds sick
Puberty is hitting hard.
Still my game of the year and it’s not even close. The best combat I have ever seen in a game. Ever.
What these games remind me more of than anything is old arcade style games, made to be hard and keep you coming back.
Mega Man, Ghouls n Ghosts, Metal Slug, etc. wonder why I rarely hear them mentioned.
The game feels like the result of Dark Souls and Ninja Gaiden Black breeding.
Easy Allies is one of the best gaming channels on YT. Great review.
So far From Soft games are pretty much an instant buy from me dating back to Armored Core 2... still always watch the EZA review though, great work Brad, Ian and Jones!
The guy that magically sees you in hirata estate actually just heard the other guy spotting you. Yellow indicator means you can still preform death blow to him if you are directly behind.
My only real complaint is that the enemy AI doesn't know how to take advantage of posture break and 90% of the time it's inconsequential to have your posture broken. I wish some enemies or at least bosses could react to this and use more powerful attacks when you're stunned instead of standing there waiting for you to recover.
That and the occasionally wonky hitboxes which I guess is a From staple
This has gotta be my new favorite by the FS team with Bloodborne still being a close second. I was curious of the guys felt this was worth a perfect score, but the 9.5 is still solid praise for (what I hope will become) an exciting new franchise. I definitely agreed that the challenge in this game is higher than traditional dark souls games, that final boss in particular is ABSURD. Still not sure how I managed to beat him, and not looking forward to the NG+ version lmao.
What about the performance though? Since all from software's games suffer from bad frame rate/ pacing, it would have been interesting to see that part reflected in the review
30fps even on ps4pro. You better have a good pc
Pfizenmaier I'm con NG+2 on a 6 year old PS4 and barely even notice performance issues. Just some stuttering at times but pretty rarely tbh.
I agree. It's odd because they seem to mostly review games they like, so on one hand you cant fault them but on the other... KH3 and Sekiro 9.5? *shrugs*
@@Choom89 It has a 90 on metacritic
I think it has a variable frame rate that doesn't stick in place so you basically get fluctuations between 39-45, with 30 in demanding areas.
Completely agree with this review.
My new favorite From Software game, and without a doubt my GOTY. I can't imagine it being beaten. It is pretty much a masterpiece (this far at least, played for like 20+ hours).
Just another dark souls re skin.
@@Darkness1984 bad bait
Masterpiece is a bit far. This game has flaws such as unresponsive controls and seriously bloated difficulty.
It’s a good game, but it’s not a masterpiece.
@@mattwilcks5156 I think you're just bad at the game.
@@mattwilcks5156 Lol, controls (playing on Pro) are snappy as fuck. The enemies and mid-boss/boss battles are always fair, you will never lose a fight because of bad balancing or artificial difficulty, it will ALWAYS be your own fault for not learning a moveset, not having a proper strategy, not paying attention or knowing how the controls work (which are super simple btw).
TL;DR I think you're just bad at the game, it's okay
VO seems strange to me but can't put my finger on it, I think it's louder and faster paced? Hmm or maybe Jones is just sick lol
Definitely seems faster paced but I've had the same feeling in other reviews in the past
Where do you fight the enemy at 2:17?
If I struggled with the souls and Bloodborne games, should I even consider giving this a go? Or is the difficulty the same? Great review again, love the Easy Allies review format
I can't speak for BB, but i have beaten DS1 several times and Sekiro is definitely harder. Sekiro is more focused on player skill, whereas DS is more focused on stats and items. If you have trouble defeating a boss or area in DS, you have the option to grind and boost your stats so you can wreck the game, also you can call in other players to help you with these as well. None of this is an option in Sekiro, if you have trouble, your best option is to explore and see if you can find tools that will help you with specific encounters, some will definitely give you an advantage, but never win you a fight. In the end you WILL have to gid gud, which to me is one of the best aspects of the game. The combat system is amazing and the world and setting is incredible. I wholeheartedly reccomend Sekiro, it IS hard (of course this can be subjective), BUT it is never unfair. If you learn enemy movesets, explore the world and persevere, you are in for one of the most rewarding experiences gaming has to offer right now.
It's great
To the people mentioning Jones' audio: On the latest episode of Frame Trap he was still dealing with a cold so that might've been a factor here.
Good point but I don't think the problem is the quality of Jones's voice, but of the audio itself. It sounds almost like it's peaking and seems noticeably louder than the game.
He caught dragon rot
I still can't beat the hidden boss. My own muscle memory from Soulborne.
Same. I keep trying to dodge everything. Lets just say that its not going well.
Don't try to dodge it. You should stick close to him and run around him counter clockwise while attacking and jumping. Goodluck!
gotta get those deflection timings down
Who, the DoH? My strategy was running around and attacking a couple of times after he attacks then run away again, he basically won't hit you at all, just bring the fire shield for his second fase. There's a reason the arena is so huge.
Stick and move, stick and move.
Great review as always. There is one thing I'm still wondering about from the perspective of someone completely unfamiliar with Sekiro. While the synopsis of the plot is given, how is the story and characters reviewed? The voice acting and deliberation in scenes is self-evident, but does the story feel captivating? When the review concludes with that this game deserves your full attention, and so much of the review focused exclusively focused on the gameplay mechanics, it feels as if the storytelling was not one of the major points to discuss.
I'm pretty surprised by the practical non-mention of story and characters, as I personally feel that those were From's biggest and best improvements with this game.
In Sekiro, we get to know ourselves (main character) and the other characters far better than any other From Soft game, and we're treated to far more story-relevant cutscenes than any other of their games. The characters by default feel more fleshed out and "real", with the classic From lore dives still being possible.
I played the game in Japanese due to the setting, and Japanese voice acting is virtually synonymous with "excellent".
The clips that I've seen of the English voice acting don't really do it for me at all, but it's still passable, I just think that the setting demands the Japanese VO, much like how Souls and Bloodborne felt excellent with English VO.
Anyway, the story and characters were a highlight for me personally, in addition to the Japanese developer getting to make a game directly relevant to their culture. I'm hoping for more elaboration on both from EZA in future streams/videos. Maybe when Brandon and Ben finally give their full opinion. haha
@@luapchalos I feel like the Lore in this game took a hit. It was like if Dark Souls had never included the Artorias of the Abyss DLC. They build up to characters like Tomoe and Tamura and Takeru, but you never even see them. It just feels like they were building the lore up to a DLC that would clarify everything, and that DLC never happened. I still love the game but the Dark Souls lore had surprisingly few loose ends.
SoulsBourne players keep telling us to "git gud", though to be honest the most obsessed fans of these games are masochists. Gaining persistent gratification from dying all the time is like getting pleasure from eating and chewing on barbed wire-the pain must be so good that your lips turn a bloody crimson, but all you do is continue punishing yourselves until it's all over. You guys need to chill and play some Yoshi and Kirby games to offset this insanity.
Dying is how you get gud. Ideally, you should learn from each death, and the combat and encounters are so good that we don't mind throwing ourselves at a boss for the 50th time
@@paulmcpherson4918 I get that but the point is it's insanity. I don't mean the following as a negative against Sekiro, Dark Souls, Nioh, The Surge, Ashen or Bloodbourne-but dying over and over again is anti-fun, and fun is what videogames is all about. These games are a fantastic challenge, but they perpetuate and/or influence negative emotions like anger and frustration.
@@jdbruiser There are about a million quotes about how there can be no joy/happiness without pain/struggle. These games are really just the best example of this. Most games you can go through and die maybe a few times depending on the kind of game. In my personal experience, those games are kind of a snooze-fest unless every aspect of the game is perfect to keep me engaged. Soulsbornes and Sekiro, on the other hand, demand that you learn and persevere until you win. The feeling of losing to a boss a hundred times only to finally beat it is possibly the best feeling I have ever experienced playing a video game, and something that most games don't even offer. You can say it's masochism, but I'm really just searching for that feeling. And even though during the times where it feels like it's impossible to overcome a given challenge I do feel negative emotions, what I'm left with after defeating the final boss is a huge sense of accomplishment, and that feeling of joy I was chasing to begin with. Obviously if you give up when it gets too hard, you'll be left only with those negative emotions and have a bad impression of the game. If the game is played how it's meant to be played however, you end up remembering those moments of hardship as speed bumps.
Anyway , I'm not sure where I'm going with this anymore, but thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
It's not the dying part that's fun. Beating a boss or something that's been giving you trouble is one of the most satisfying feelings in games. These games are not as hard as everyone makes them out to be. They just require you actually learn the mechanics to beat them.
@@jdbruiser I get joy from learning, getting better and overcoming difficult challenges. I get no joy from a game if it doesn't challenge me, because there is no learning experience. The more difficult (and sometimes frustrating) a challenge is, the more intensely joyful the moment of victory will be. The pleasure doesn't come from losing or dying, but rather from the fact that you constantly can see yourself getting better at a fight.
My third time at fighting a boss I'll be much better than my first time, and it will make me happy even if I ultimately die. And when I finally manage to kill a difficult boss, the feeling of achievement is amazing. -
The only problem I find is the camera that sometimes feels annoying. Overall, Sekiro is to my eyes, From Software’s best and most complete work to date. It has the best from their previous games melted up into a single package with such minimalistic yet innotavive systems, a more explicit story and exceptional world design. Can’t stop playing, I’m hooked.
This is more an explanation of the basic systems rather than a review.
Many of their reviews have been like this since becoming EZA :/
By explaining the basic systems they are able to meticulously criticize specific aspects of the game. Having a vague review that simply says "the combat is hard but satisfying" doesn't actually help explain why it might be hard or why it might be satisfying.
liamout yes, but what about performance or enemy variety or location variety etc. Also, how compelling and memorable are the characters and plot? I couldn’t find that info in the review
NO! Resurrecting doesn't cause Dragon Cancer. True death causes it. Feel free to resurrect as much as you like. Just don't die.
Man, I was ready to give up on this game because of Lady Butterfly. Once I finally beat her, the game officially clicked with me and I have been enjoying it since.
Solh0und really? Lol took it that long to click? Lol
@@andrefrazier8653 You can waste more time if you have a general idea of the mechanics, it's easy to be frustrated when you feel that you're doing nothing wrong. That's why the time it takes for the game to click varies so heavily.
Way back when...I was in Hong Kong and PS3 games are cheaper there...so I bought a few Katamari, that Move Sports and Demon Souls...I was like meh, I'll give it a try, and I bought my brother a copy too...
Years later....we've graduated onto Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and now Sekiro...but I'm waiting for any DLC announcement, cause I wanna get the Complete Edition, if there's one...
Thx for the review. I'm still on the fence on getting this. Not in the mood for a love/hate relationship at the moment.
BobbyTrizzle it's fantastic. Way more accessible than DS or even bloodB. It's really good forreal.. Been playing all weekend
@@andrefrazier8653 That's definitely not true. DS and BB have co-op and levelling, this game does not. There's ONE difficulty that everyone plays at, since there are no different weapons, so it's significantly harder to beat if you've never played a Souls game.
This game has teased me with moments of good victories, and many moments of rage. It has kicked my ass more than any game I have ever played, but I keep coming back.
Loved the game. Did expect it to be harder due to its reputation though. I found Bloodborne to be much more challenging.
Which made it much more of a chore than fun imo.... like listening to ur favorite song on repeat for 24 hrs straight... that also made it too long and a have way too many games and responsibilities to invest that much time in one game. Is Sekiro more forgiving?
Easy Allies do some of the best if not THE best reviews on UA-cam. Super informative and nicely edited. Keep up the amazing work!
4players from Germany do the best Reviews on UA-cam. By far.
Finally!
I've been waiting for their review.
I've been avoiding watching any other reviews.
The Owl boss in hirata took 3 hrs to beat for me, that old rag was hard
The gunpowder attack is the worst.
Amazing game I still got to buy it......
Just finished watching your Souls Retrospectives and as a fan of the games I loved your work. I'm playing through Sekiro right now and thought I'd check out this video while taking a break. Thanks for sharing your views and hard work on a series of games that may be the last I play as I'm losing interest in gaming overall. 👏👏👏👏
Definitely my second favorite From game next to Bloodborne. The combat is incredibly addicting, possibly my favorite combat system in any game.
It should easily be GOTY.
Is it more forgiving than Bloodborne?
Oh, we been waitin’ for this...
His voice sounds a little bit off. He sounds like he has a cold
mag917 it's dragonrot
blame Kyle
That is beacuse he had one last week
Seven Ashina Spear is actually stupid hard, he’s like one of the only mini bosses I had serious problems with.
Did anybody else feel like the game was oddly small? Often there is barely a basic room seperating two (mini-) boss encounters. Especially towards the end there was a suspicious amount of repeated boss fights and locations... i had an immense amount of fun 90% of the game until the ending came around..
I would not call the game small, but it definitely runs on repetition and recycling. The amount of repeated bosses and minibosses started to get annoying at some point, not to mention have to go through some of the same areas multiple times to progress with the story. It's like they had a limited amount of ideas but had to extend the game's length as much as possible.
@@crownoart yeah i agree with you. Maybe it is the limited material of the setting or budget restraints.
It felt shorter to me, but I honestly think that's just because you move so fast in this game. I tried to take my time, but zipping all over the place is too much fun haha.
This review was just about the gameplay. What about the story, setting, characters, soundtrack?
Most awaited review. ❤
Been waiting for this!
The review I was waiting for. Cheers.
Finally! You took your time with this review, but it was worth the wait 😉 Shekiro is a masterpiece!
@Don Lobo Yeah these guys aren't like IGN, who somehow posted a review for this 50 hour game when they had only received their review copy 48 hours prior.
Yes I know. Thats why I say it's worth the wait. I've been following these guys since their Gametrailers days, so I know that they are very thorough in their reviews. But that doesn't mean that I can't still become impatient to watch their review of an anticipated game :)
@@BasketCase-rr7tx It's not a 50 hour long game.
@@velvetcrowe5548 It took me 50 hours and I didn't get stuck anywhere besides the last boss. I did do all possible bosses though.
The IGN revew also said that he played it for 50 hours, despite only having a copy for 48 hours.
I loved this game. It was one hell of a ride. My only complaint was losing 50% of exp and gold upon dead. I thought that was excessive for the amount of difficulty the game already displays. It felt unnecessary. Otherwise I had a blast going through it.
That's why you have resurection though: so you can escape with your gains if you don't think you can win the next encounter. Beside, you can always cash in your money by buying money pouches, and wait until you fill up an experience level before you challenge difficult enemies.
@@Psil0 That doesn't work for boss fights. You're stuck in the area with them. The first store you can get pouches from are after a boss. It's an unnecessary part of the game. I already beat it, so I'm not worried about it. Just said it was the one thing I didn't like.
@@Cinderkin Well, before that first boss, you don't need sen for anything else than Spirit Emblems anyways.
They make the best gaames!!!! You always get your money's worth!!!! Video games in THIER Purist form.
These souls type games are fantastic for people that play games from Wake to sleep... Horrible for people like me with responsibilities. Too much dying and trial and error. Every person I've seen play these types of games, rage the whole time and end up rage quitting 😁 hard pass for me. I play for fun and feeling like a badass , not for frustration and feeling like a rookie learning how to be a badass
@@angelserrano9049 At the end, you'll actually be a badass, at least at that boss or encounter. Once you beat your first major boss, you understand why these games feel so rewarding, even if they aren't for everyone.
Thank God! I've been waiting for EZA's review for Sekiro for ages. I feel bad that the game has only a limited amount of cures for Dragon Rot. Not that I think it's too frustrating to die so many times, but it'd be better if an unlimited access to curing Dragon Rot is available. It can be designed in a way that it is essentially hard to get the cure though, as long as the chances are unlimited.
I think there's only like ONE questline that Dragonrot blocks. It's not that big of a deal, which is why no characters actually die from it, they just suffer.
@@gu3z185 Ok, thanks for the info. I didn't know that. I'm recently playing Bloodborne, and it's more frustrating than the original Dark Souls imo. xD Not sure if I'll have enough vigour to tackle Sekiro after this, lol.
okay one problem. Jones said "if you die and resurrect excessively" making it sound like the resurrection causes dragon rot. This is FALSE, using your Resurrection DOES NOT cause dragon rot. Only true deaths cause dragon rot, meaning you hit a loading screen and got sent back to an idol.
This needs to be corrected as people are not using their Resurrection in fear of getting dragon rot and that's not that case.
Thank you brad!
Played through DS1-3 AND Bloodborn and loves Them all, Sekiro though is not My cup of Tea. And the game should have had the option to cap the framerate at 30 fps, it runs horrible on ps4 pro.
Loves=loved
The 30fps cap would have had bad framepacing too though. The game is hard as balls though.
@@hsapin yeah no doubt, but I mean so was Bloodborn, and did not percive the same delay in all My actions.
@@theschwartz8231 Huh, i'm also playing on the Pro, and i haven't encountered any such issues
@@kijin30 you haven't felt the frame-rate changing? Cause that can lead to change in input responsiveness.
Good thing you explained the resurrect mechanics. I was really wondering what are the downsides of resurrecting everytime.
I don,t think they explain it well. There's no downsides to resurecting. The downside comes with true death. Resurection is actually a chance at getting away from a fight. You are offered a choice: another chance at finishing a combat encoutner, or escape with your sen and experience.
@@Psil0 That is true indeed. Thanks man
@@Psil0 There's no real reason NOT to resurrect, but delaying it for a few seconds helps with some bosses. I don't even know why it's an option.
I'm used to Jones sounding so consistent that my first thought was to check if my audio setup was on the fritz 😂
Hoping for a 10 brad I love this game! Expecting slightly lower tho because it’s not all perfect but haven’t watched the vid yet one sec...
Yeah 9.5 makes sense it has a lot of things that are very refreshing for the whole souls genre but in doing them it feels like this games sequel will be more fleshed out imo stealth and grappling need a little bit of tweaking as well as more enemy variation next game but that’s easy to fix if they do a sequel with the dragon’s homecoming ending (you’ll understand why if you watch it). Now here’s hoping future from soft games are this level quality or better and I’ll be giving them all the money (Bloodborne 2, Dark souls IV, Demon souls reboot/remake, newly re-imagined Armored core game and Sekiro sequel pls)
Na let DkS die after how disappointing DkS3 vanilla was (DLC was solid) Besides this nothing left to do. I’d rather see them explore new IPs or just make a sequel for Sekiro and Bloodborne but FS isn’t the best at sequels with their track record and making a 4th Dark Souls game will be more of the same and inhibit innovation.
KlassicKrusty everyone’s opinions are fine but I actually enjoyed ds3 a good amount and liked it much more than 2 anyhow and so I know it may not be as great as the first but imo it controls far better and has a lot of what makes Dark souls and Bloodborne good and I think it’s strong enough to warrant a new game in the series hell man maybe they should just do a new souls game but just not dark souls lol nonetheless I see them continuing the series for sure
Finally, the review that matters.
Can i play this on easy mode? I suck at difficult games. Im only in mostly for the story
Nope
Ok.. thanks
Keep up the good work EZA
When I look at it, it sort of reminds me of Nioh but not as fun. Don't really care for the souls games. So I'll just keep playing Nioh. Hyped for whenever Nioh 2 comes out.
Yeah, I'm alway tempted by these games since they have almost a Fighting Game appeal but... Just not enjoyable to me. I'm gonna get my Samurai fill from Shadows of Tsushima and Samurai Showdown!
This game is better then Nioh is basically everyway. Well that's my opinion at least. I respect yours.
I'm at the final Boss of Sekiro at the moment and have to say, I feel this review was a bit dismissive with the game's flaws. From took some lessons from previous titles and it is great to see how they tried to change the formula to bring something different, but it still repeats some of the same annoying issues present in previous titles (and at times, it can get worse than ever). I consider myself a fan of FromSoftware's games and I had my share of fun with Sekiro, but I definitely feel bittersweet about it, specially when it seems the game is being put on a pedestal.
Oh, Jones :'( here, take my dragon blood droplet
This the Review we been waiting on!
Mouths move! What now Jones?
This is a great callback.
I thought mouths always moved they just weren't in sync in BloodMcBourne?
@@LitMitMedia One some NPCs they moved, others not so much. I actually haven't played Bloodborne, but Andre from Dark Souls had a moving mouth, when nobody else in the game did. They're not in sync in this game, though, even if they tried. It honestly doesn't matter, because they're pretty much perfectly synced during cutscenes, which is when it matters.
You guys are the ones I always wait for! :D
In my opinion it is the second best from Software game just behind dark souls 3.
Good thing it's just your opinion.
Any relation to the famous porn star who goes by the same name?
@@kronosleblu888 really
cant wait for the "fixed" review on easy update
Hmm, I dunno. This game heavily relies on parrying and Ian has admitted before that he's not that great at it. Curious to hear his take.
Once this game branches out there are like 5 different paths to take. It’s a lot to take in.
I heard tht resurrection doesn’t count toward dragon rot. Only true death.
Not bragging, just proud of myself. But I beat the horse boss on my first try without having to revive. After I saw that he mostly swings from his right side and the horse was scared of fire crackers, it was just a matter of keeping focus and blocking. I’m just impressed with myself cause my usual From Soft first boss fights are usually me getting super pissed and wanted to get rid of the game. Lol. Now, that general right before the snake though... he was a freaking asshole until his fighting style finally clicked for me. I HATE having to clear an area after every death just to fight a mini boss.
The game looks and sounds amazing, but I'm behind. I beat dark souls 1 in like 2013 and since I've only beaten bloodborne, almost day one bought dark souls 2 when it was one of the only games worth checking out on ps4, but I never got it in the end, I started dark souls 3 after this game came out and I've beaten a few bosses since, I feel like sekiro coming out was what drove me to play it. I'll play nioh and the surge (1 for both) before playing sekiro, then sekiro, then I'll play nioh 2 and the surge 2 probably. (other games between each one in this sub-genre of course, don't want to burn myself out)
SO yeah, tl;dr : I'm not playing because I'm playing dark souls 3 finally after owning it for over a year. Game looks great though.
I am more excited for nioh 2 than this though, and this isn't in my top 5 most anticipated of 2019 games, so far that's stuff like kingdom hearts 3 (caught up with the series, it's all I have left), Judgment, Cyberpunk 2077, and probably other games I"m too lazy to look up a list to find.
the level design in nothing like bb or ds the verticality is totally somethin else that is very unique from any other from soft game
5:11
While I agree the stealth can be inconsistent, this is just wrong.
Different enemies can see at different range.
You can't seriously expect a musket or mortar guy to not see you from much further than a swordsman, unless you really want them to be completely useless.
Always Always wait for an Easy Allies review, the wait is worth it.
The one review I have been waiting for. I guess great things take time.
this game is amazing
I love From Software, but the camera issues alone are so bad this game shouldn't even be touching 9 territory.
Mh, I don't know...it caused me issues maybe 3 or 4 times in the game? It IS an issue, but not enough to negatively taint the whole game.
After rolling credits pretty recently and taking my sweet unadulterated time to explore everything this game had to offer its an 11/10. I mean seriously let's take all the things we love about From Software games before it and let's add stealth, an actual combat system with depth and skill, and mobility... I mean holy shit it really doesn't get much better than this!
P. S. How am I missing 1 prayer bead... WHERE ARE YOU!? xD
Not the English dub good job Ian
Great review Brad.
Jones read sounds like it's flying by.