Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

 PC
User Score
8.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 3214 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,674 out of 3214
  2. Mixed: 202 out of 3214
  3. Negative: 338 out of 3214
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  1. Topher44
    Aug 12, 2021
    10
    Easiest game I have ever played. If you want a real challenge go play Hello Kitty Fun House Dream Time.
  2. Reems11
    Aug 12, 2021
    10
    Its better than bloodborne and that's saying a lot. Fantastic game. Thank you Hidetaka Miyazaki.
  3. 2Toothie
    Aug 12, 2021
    10
    i died at least 400 times at the ogre. I need to git gud. This game is quite gud.
  4. Buttchunker5149
    Aug 11, 2021
    10
    What a video game is supposed to be. best sword fighting game in existence. hesitation is defeat 11/10.
  5. Kretizaor472
    Aug 11, 2021
    10
    ive played through it like 3 times but havent actually finished it yet, i love this game
  6. Keyzbg654
    Aug 11, 2021
    10
    Wasn't sure if Fromsoft games were up my alley, turns out they are amazing!
  7. Msienif3
    Aug 11, 2021
    10
    FUN AF BUT HARD AF. Combat is a lot better than dark souls combat IMO. I hope theres a sequel.
  8. Nigemog77
    Aug 11, 2021
    10
    This game has one of the best combat systems, and has easily become one of my favorite games of all time. Initially, the difficulty curve appears to be incredibly difficult and at some times nearly impossible; but, the main thing that drew me (and more than likely, the millions of other players) back was that overwhelming sense of accomplishment I felt after defeating a difficult boss forThis game has one of the best combat systems, and has easily become one of my favorite games of all time. Initially, the difficulty curve appears to be incredibly difficult and at some times nearly impossible; but, the main thing that drew me (and more than likely, the millions of other players) back was that overwhelming sense of accomplishment I felt after defeating a difficult boss for the first time.
    Give this game a shot if you're looking for an extreme challenge with gorgeous visuals, great environments, memorable boss fights, and an overall well-rounded experience.    … Expand
  9. Drakebog15555
    Aug 11, 2021
    10
    Great game, quite hard but the story is good. some game mechanics during combat could have been better but its overall a great game.
  10. Banak28
    Aug 11, 2021
    10
    If you have OCD and have to finish the game, your in for a long ride. Sick game.
  11. Directive62
    Aug 11, 2021
    10
    Easily became one of my favorite games of all times.
    I'm still coming back to it from time to time just to experience incredibly satisfying combat and fight bosses. Best fighting mechanics ever existed!
  12. Hilkbarry5
    Aug 11, 2021
    10
    its difficult but it just makes you want to get better. Shoving sword up an apes ass is amazing.
  13. Tg1riauio
    Aug 11, 2021
    10
    I adore this games combat personally over all the souls games i would give the combat a 10/10 but the terror mechanic reminds me this is a FromSoft game.
  14. OberiousLocke
    Aug 9, 2021
    1
    TLDR - Bloodborne, but they took out everything that made Bloodborne work, and set it in Japan, and also modelled it around the most finicky combat tactics from the Soulsborne series (namely parrying, which for some bizarre reason the fanboys try to argue is not actually a core, essential part of the gameplay loop despite being exactly that) FromSoft has continued their degeneration fromTLDR - Bloodborne, but they took out everything that made Bloodborne work, and set it in Japan, and also modelled it around the most finicky combat tactics from the Soulsborne series (namely parrying, which for some bizarre reason the fanboys try to argue is not actually a core, essential part of the gameplay loop despite being exactly that) FromSoft has continued their degeneration from tough-but-fair (Demon's Souls, mostly. Dark Souls 1, 95%) to Tough-and-****-the-player. The game plays nicely when it works, but unless you're a major masochist with hyperactive reflexes, I can't recommend it.

    Full text - Sekiro just doesn't do enough right to reach that same point of enjoyment. Your health is too low to start with, to the point where the first non-tutorial boss (Chained Ogre) can very easily knock off 50-75% of your health, roughly, meaning that if you take a single hit from your average enemy prior, he will kill you in one hit. Even if you live, you have a high chance of being flung off the map, which gets rid of the last of your health, making your respawn token's worthless. This is exacerbated when you reach Shinobi Hunter Eshin of Misen, who can take you from full health to dead faster than you can blink, you are given the opprotunity to pick up the Mikiri Counter combat skill, however it is damn near impossible to get it to work in the moment. This is both made worse by the fact that any attacks that result in a synced animation (grab attacks for instance) have some serious phantom range, to the point where you can dodge directly behind the Chained Ogre's lunging grab attack, and still get grabbed as the ogre yeets himself 180 degrees and grabs you anyway, the same thing can happen with Enshin. In no particular order I personally experienced multiple instances of being knocked out of the air by attacks that very clearly did not hit me and being grabbed out of the air by attacks that very clearly did not connect.

    I could go on about other things, about how the game can't tell if it's trying to be a fast paced action game or a stealth game, how the combat just doesn't match the game and it's difficulty in conjunction with your pitiful amounts of help, the game itself being generally misleading out or outright deceitful, like how it makes it clear early one that dodging is key, yet with most even basic enemies in the game, dodging is no guarentee that the enemy won't just spin in place like a top and hit you anyway. I could go on about how fighting more than one enemy at a time, which will happen very early on in the Hirata estate becausethe fact that enemies can see for miles is an absolute train wreck, or about how everything happens so quickly in a game that demands caution and precision making the game a miserable experience for those without the reflexes of a coked-up squirrel.

    In short, like Dark Souls 3, it suffers from Bloodborne syndrome, albeit to an outrageously higher degree. Fast paced combat that has no place in the game, lacking all the systems that made it work such as the Rally system. There IS an upgrade in the first technique scroll that allows to recover health on a deathblow, but that isn't going to help you because you generally don't get that many deathblows when it would be the most useful (i.e boss fights), and knowing the pitiful amount of health you get at the start, it probably would be uselss anyway.

    Hopefully by the time Elden Ring comes around, Miyazaki and co. will finally be over the hyper actively difficult game play that plagued Sekiro and Dark Souls 3 to a drastically lesser extent, and realize that it's just not fun having your skull caved in by relentless, artificial difficulty of homing attacks, low health at the start, and dying in 2-3 hits, and parry centered combat despite the fanboys screeching otherwise. If you're a horrendous Sadomasochist, I can see you getting mileage out of this. Otherwise, I really cannot bring myself to recommend this like I would FromSoft's previous work.    … Expand
  15. BottomTextgang2
    Aug 8, 2021
    10
    This games the only game that i've played that actually sells the experience of being in a real fight, with how intense it is, how drastically numbers can effect a fight, how hurt you'll get from one slip up and how difficult it is to recover from it, and im referring to a fist fight, not sword fight since you'd just be dead, but i had the exact same feeling in this game that ive had inThis games the only game that i've played that actually sells the experience of being in a real fight, with how intense it is, how drastically numbers can effect a fight, how hurt you'll get from one slip up and how difficult it is to recover from it, and im referring to a fist fight, not sword fight since you'd just be dead, but i had the exact same feeling in this game that ive had in actual fights where i'd nearly avoid an attack by just dumb luck and instincts and think like "damn idk if imma be able to pull that off again" and feeling uncertain about how much longer i'd last (but since you can die endless times you eventually just learn everything, im just talking about your first few encounters).… Expand
  16. Rekker289x
    Aug 8, 2021
    10
    Monkey samurais 10/10 New to souls like games? This game is going to be hell for you. Souls like god? This game is going to be even worse of a hell for you; because you gotta retrain yourself to not roll away from every attack. Instead you have to learn how to parry/deflect every attack at the perfect time. It'll take time, and patience to get the hang of it, but the game does a perfectMonkey samurais 10/10 New to souls like games? This game is going to be hell for you. Souls like god? This game is going to be even worse of a hell for you; because you gotta retrain yourself to not roll away from every attack. Instead you have to learn how to parry/deflect every attack at the perfect time. It'll take time, and patience to get the hang of it, but the game does a perfect job of helping you know how to react. Using perfect audio and visual clues to react to. Once you get the hang of it you'll look and feel like a god, and you'll look at dark souls combat as silly looking. Everything about this game is polished and perfected.… Expand
  17. Titanshatter100
    Aug 8, 2021
    10
    10/10 would never play this gain, just beat all the boses, i had to beat the game basically 3 times to unlock the endings and secret bosses and alternate bosses, loved the game, hard as nuts i would expect nothing less from fromsoftware. love it but never again will i put myself through that again, that ape...... i still see him in my nightmares..... all hail shura.
  18. 9Tzitu58
    Aug 8, 2021
    10
    Might break a few things around your desk but it's worth it. Really fun stuff.
  19. Big_bum11
    Aug 8, 2021
    10
    Another fantastic addition to From Softs catalog, with sword play that far outpaces its predecessors and flows with more grace than Nioh could hope to have. A honest to goodness masterpiece.
  20. Tookjonhosn796
    Aug 8, 2021
    10
    This game took the life out of me. it beat me down over and over but when i finally beat it, i ascended to the heavens. the story is amazing, the character arcs (in all endings) are great, it was worth every penny.
  21. Coconut332
    Aug 8, 2021
    10
    Its not dark souls, but damn is it fun. Well, if you have the patience and skill for it.
  22. Loehq20
    Aug 8, 2021
    10
    I came here admiringly. At present, I have defeated Xianichiro in 10.6 hours, and now I go back to fight Madame Butterfly and then it should be Xianfeng Temple. The more you fight, the more addicted you are! The best of 2019 is worthy of the name! Super praise!
  23. Cookingwith6
    Aug 8, 2021
    10
    I've never written a game review before but now i had to because of this game, i played it a bunch of times when it first came out on console and will continue to do so now since i got it on pc.
    if there was a game that best describes a balance between fun and difficult it would 100% be Sekiro. usually a lot of difficult games tend to go with the most tedious and boring routes to make it    I've never written a game review before but now i had to because of this game, i played it a bunch of times when it first came out on console and will continue to do so now since i got it on pc.
    if there was a game that best describes a balance between fun and difficult it would 100% be Sekiro. usually a lot of difficult games tend to go with the most tedious and boring routes to make it self harder (boring) for the player, but this game is completely different, the gameplay is just perfect it honestly changed the way i look at other games drastically, its also the game that got me into the whole souls games. no matter how many times i play it or comeback to it, its always a blast, and never fails to give me the best time, the repetition of some mini-bosses might be a little annoying to some people but i've never really noticed it until someone mentioned it to me. To me this game is just a masterpiece, its a must try for everyone, who knows maybe it would end up affecting you the same way it did for me :)    … Expand
  24. Derfed82
    Aug 8, 2021
    10
    Now that I've beaten all 4 endings and done a no death run i can 100% recommend this game. When I first played it in 2020 I gave up before i even got to the first proper boss. I got extremely frustrated just because of a bigger enemy and I didn't think the parrying/deflecting and gameplay were for me. I played for 80 minutes and then got a refund. Fast forward to a few months ago, betweenNow that I've beaten all 4 endings and done a no death run i can 100% recommend this game. When I first played it in 2020 I gave up before i even got to the first proper boss. I got extremely frustrated just because of a bigger enemy and I didn't think the parrying/deflecting and gameplay were for me. I played for 80 minutes and then got a refund. Fast forward to a few months ago, between 2020 and this year, I had played through the souls series, so when I saw Sekiro on sale I picked it up again. The difference is, this time I was willing to make the effort to understand how to play the game and understand its mechanics, and I was rewarded with one of the most rich and fulfilling games I've ever played, even surpassing my high expectations after playing Dark Souls. So don't be like me last year, and don't be like Asmongold. I assure you, give the game a second or even third chance and you might be surprised by how good it feels to finally get a grasp of the combat system… Expand
  25. Lastm1m200
    Aug 8, 2021
    10
    This is one of the best games I've ever played in my entire life, forcing one to grow as a player in order to progress- it's the definition of hard but fair. Whenever I found myself frustrated, I would take a break, reassess my strategies and mow through every challenge that came my way. By the time I beat a boss, it almost felt easy- no matter how many times I would fail, victory alwaysThis is one of the best games I've ever played in my entire life, forcing one to grow as a player in order to progress- it's the definition of hard but fair. Whenever I found myself frustrated, I would take a break, reassess my strategies and mow through every challenge that came my way. By the time I beat a boss, it almost felt easy- no matter how many times I would fail, victory always felt earned- never did I feel like I got lucky, in fact when I did get lucky, my overconfidence would make me sloppy and I would usually die during the attempt.… Expand
  26. Weahpw785
    Aug 8, 2021
    10
    "Must buy" If you want to repeatly die more than twice... It's a masterpiece beyond my words. Stop sitting there and buy it.
  27. JimmesRustled55
    Aug 7, 2021
    10
    Personally, as a fan of From Software games, this was an amazing experience and I loved the game. Easily one of my favorite games and have already started my second playthrough. If you want a challenge and a whole new combat experience to master, get it.
  28. Ecrus3ar
    Aug 7, 2021
    10
    An absolutely superb game and easily my favorite FromSoft game to date. Best combat I've seen.
  29. Sharists80
    Aug 7, 2021
    10
    It's like the Turbo Pug of endless racers only a souls game. Great visuals.
  30. Johndaoe24
    Aug 7, 2021
    10
    The FS games are literally an institution of "git gud" with sekiro being the dean of admissions.
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Awards & Rankings

9
#9 Best PC Game of 2019
6
#6 Most Discussed PC Game of 2019
69
#69 Most Shared PC Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
88

Generally favorable reviews - based on 25 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 25
  3. Negative: 0 out of 25
  1. Game World Navigator Magazine
    May 15, 2019
    80
    There’s no leveling (in Soulsborne sense of the word), no covenants, no multiplayer, no variety in armor and weapons. It could be written off a stylistic choice, if the rest of the game didn’t feel very similar to the previous FromSoftware games. But it does, so Sekrio comes across as rather shallow. [Issue#237, p.28]
  2. MGG
    Apr 27, 2019
    88
    Sekiro Shadows Die Twice is a milestone in the genre. It offers complex, stunning and precise sword fights and duels that its predecessors lacked, and from which its successors will have to keep up with. You no longer simply learn by repeatedly and unfairly dying, but you refine your talents as a player. You seek unique methods to overcome each boss, rather than just rolling at the right time before spamming a few hits.
    Read full review
  3. Edge Magazine
    Apr 25, 2019
    90
    Dozens of hours later, we're still not sure how we feel about it. It's a game of contradictions, open and flexible in its level design, yet resolutely strict in its combat... It is a brilliant game, that is certain. but it is often a difficult one to truly love. Naturally, we can't put it down. [Issue#332, p.104]
See all critic reviews »