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girlintogaming1 · 5 years

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Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - a casual scrubs hot take on difficulty

Until Sekiro I had never played a From Software game for predominantly two different reasons. Firstly knowing that these games were designed to be hard put me off as I am the type of person who defaults to playing a game on the normal difficulty setting, as I want a game to challenge me enough that I don’t feel dropping £40 to £50 on it was a waste but at the same time I don’t want something so ballbustingly difficult that it gets added to that pile of games I’ve never finished because I got stuck. But also the settings of both Dark Souls and Bloodborne weren’t really my cup of tea and so they passed me by and that was fine. Then enters Sekiro.

The first time I heard of Sekiro was E3 last year and I went from this looks cool to, oh it’s made by those Dark Souls guys so it’s probably not for me nevermind. But over the past year I’d seen more of the game and I’m not going to lie the weeb in me really wanted this game. With that and with watching and enjoying Dororo and wanting just more of that I’d convinced myself to buy Sekiro.

So on March 22nd I arrived home from work to find my copy of Sekiro had arrived, I popped it in my PlayStation 4 waited for it to install then jumped straight into the game. Got to the part of the training area where you learn combat and died, tried it again and died. This went on for quite an embarrassing length of time as despite the game telling me otherwise and despite of what I knew about the games From Software make, I insisted on using my all guns ablazing button mashing assault that had worked for me fine in Devil May Cry 5 which I’d been playing the week prior. I did eventually adjust my play style and then breezed through the training section and felt a sense of satisfaction from doing so and this is how I’ve continued on with the game.

Every single boss and mini boss I’ve encountered so far has killed me multiple times to the point of absolute frustration, well except for Juzou the Drunkard, I beat him on the second go, but I’ve slowly learned as I’ve gone along and when I’ve finally taken them down the elation I’ve felt is amazing. I’m still not good at the game and have a couple of times sought help on the internet but it’s a slow and gradual process with one hell of a payoff. This is a payoff I would have lost had the game included an easy mode.

I have seen and read many of the arguments both for and against Sekiro and other From Software games not having an easy mode and for me personally I’m really glad Sekiro doesn’t. Had From Software put in an easy mode that’s what I’d have chosen to play it on and would have robbed myself of that sense of satisfaction every time I chip a little bit further into the game. There is nothing wrong with having one difficulty setting on a game if that’s what the creators intend. There’s a quote from Hidetaka Miyazaki saying “I’ve really been pursuing making games that give players a sense of accomplishment by overcoming tremendous odds” and that’s what he’s created with Dark Souls, Bloodborne and now Sekiro and who the fuck is anyone to tell him that ok that vision is cool and all but can you put an easy mode in there now.

There is so much criticism of the AAA gaming industry that developers are manufacturing games to appeal to the broadest of audiences possible and are out only to make lots of money for their publishers, yet From Software are very much making the games they want to make even if that gives them a smaller audience and that should be applauded not criticised. Not every game will be for you and that’s absolutely fine. I’m personally not really a fan of first person shooters and very much prefer a 3rd person perspective but I don’t expect the Call of Duty developers to put that in to suit my particular wants. It all boils down to entitlement and people believing they are owed something just because they ask for it. If a developer chooses in a game they’ve designed and crafted to put in one difficulty level then that’s their decision alone to make. The only things you as a gamer deserve to have in a full price £40 to £50 game is, a complete narrative whether that be stand alone or part of an overarching series, a game you can fully experience without relying on micro transactions to complete and the game to be playable and not riddled with bugs. If we as consumers start making demands on how a developer makes their games where do we draw the line.

I’m probably never going to git gud enough to where I can speed run through Sekiro or play it through with a DJ Hero turn table but I will finish Sekiro and maybe even prove to myself I can play games on harder than normal difficulty.

#sekiro #sekiro shadows die twice #ps4 #playstation #from software #git gud

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