Alas, the time has finally come as From Software’s next big game has been revealed to be Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Sekiro was the 2nd game shown at Microsoft’s E3 Presser and it was a delightful surprise to see how refreshing and how different the game appears to be from the Dark Souls franchise. Emphasis on the word different as Sekiro looks to change up the tried and true formula From Software has deployed in the past. Although little is still known about Sekiro, here are some tidbits you may have missed about the game amidst the craziness that E3 brings.
The Hard Facts
The following facts were recently reported in a Famitsu interview with legendary director Hidetaka Miyazaki and translated by a Reddit user.
- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice began early production in 2015, after production on Bloodborne: The Old Hunters DLC wrapped.
- The key theme for the project in it’s early days was Ninja. Cues and inspiration was taken from the Tenchu series.
- The project, at it’s inception, was almost a Tenchu game but seeing as the franchise in the past was developed by multiple different studios with varying characteristics, the From Software team decided to stray and do something different to avoid any kind of imitation.
- The game will be developed and published in Asia territories while Activision will handle publishing for other regions.
- The subtitle, “Shadows Die Twice” was originally just a phrase for the reveal trailer but Activision liked it for some reason and kept it as the full title according to Miyazaki.
- As suspected, the term Shadow refers to the way of the Ninja. The ‘Die Twice’ phrase is actually a mechanic in the game which was teased in the E3 trailer.
- The game takes place during the Sengoku period in Japan.
- Realism is not something Miyazaki was too concerned with. Like Dark Souls, Sekiro is their interpretation of things.
- The game features a fixed protagonist but Miyazaki ensures players that this doesn’t mean it is a linear story-driven game. He assures that “nothing has changed in our stance to storytelling from the previous games.”
- There are “3 main actions” or gameplay features in the game. One is a grappling hook that lets you move vertically on a “3-dimensional map.”
- The second gameplay feature is the swordplay and the offense and defense that comes with it but also “one-hit kills.”
- “Killing cleverly is an important theme.” Like previous games, overcoming difficult battles and the elation that comes with succeeding challenges will be a big part of Sekiro.
- The map design in Sekiro is similar to the Dark Souls, seamlessly connected with very few exceptions.
- Leaving out multiplayer was due to a focus on the single player campaign.
- Revive system consumes resources. “Revives at the moment are guaranteed once”
- Game will be hard. Will require “cleverness and work.”
That was a boatload of information for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. How do you feel about the game now? The lack of online play will definitely be a hump for me to get over; but I absolutely loved the tidbit about killing cleverly. It seems Sekiro will deliver challenges like the previous Souls games.
While i’m a little concerned about the game having a fixed main protagonist, I appreciate From Software trying something so radically different and it truly speaks to From Software’s ability to reinvent and retool their own games. We have no firm release date but a 2019 window but we hope to see Sekiro launch in the Spring like most Souls games. On a scale of 1 to 10, how hyped are you? Leave your thoughts down below.
