Following up from my previous letter about my initial, not-good, impressions of Sekiro I got to thinking about my progress through the Dark Souls series over the past few months. Since I got Dark Souls Remastered for Christmas I’ve been steadily trying to play through the series again, and have indeed finished the first game. Though I’ve had moments I really wondered why I was playing the game (the Tomb of the Giants nearly made me angry enough to throw my controller at my TV). I enjoyed the journey immensely. I’m also enjoying my journey through Dark Souls II: Scholar Of The First Sin, perhaps even more than the first game.
Oddly enough, I think it was my experiences with Bloodborne that showed me a way of playing the Dark Souls games that I’m finding much more fun, and that’s this: get rid of the shield. Sure, the first game emphasises its importance and there are certainly some parts you’ll get stuck without one, but I recommend avoiding using it wherever possible. Bloodborne encourage a more aggressive approach to gameplay, with more emphasis on dodging and parrying, and this approach works well for the most part in Dark Souls.
It works better in the second game, in my opinion, since that game’s generally more open-ended and gives you more options on how to tackle a situation, but in general I found the games much faster-paced and more fun by adapting the Bloodborne style to them.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that there are one or two shields in Bloodborne, but they’re basically useless. Also worthy of note is the phrase ‘engendering passivity’ in the item description. This suggests that From weren’t really happy with forcing a certain playstyle on the players, and Bloodborne and the latter Dark Souls games felt like a response to that.
I think this was why I wasn’t too happy with how Sekiro basically forces players into a specific playstyle in order to get anywhere, and that I felt the punishments for dying are far too harsh. I felt like I’d hit ‘the wall’ far too early in the game. Still, I don’t doubt I’ll give it another try one day; after all, I’d already written off the Dark Souls series, and now I’m giving it another chance. Anything’s possible.
Andrew Middlemas
GC: From are adamant that Sekiro is not a Soulsborne game. We think you’re criticising it too much for things it was never trying to do.
