The behind-closed-doors presentation revealed several new details about the game.
PCGamer was able to try FromSoftware‘s next game, which will be published by Activision (Blizzard).
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is set in a reimagining of 1500s Sengoku era Japan with an expansive and interconnected world that players are free to explore. You play as an unnamed shinobi, tasked with protecting a young lord of mystical lineage, who is left for dead when a powerful samurai attacks and chops off his arm. The prosthetic limb can be attached with various offensive and supportive tools: an axe can destroy an enemy’s shield; a firecracker can stun enemies; a torch can set them ablaze, and a shield can block attacks. These can be combined with the katana – you can thrust the katana through the torch arm to place the katana on fire.
It’s going to be an action adventure game, not an RPG. There will be no stats, armour, weapons, classes, or multiplayer! Instead, there will be „Prosthetic Attachments” that can be attached to the “Shinobi Prosthetic” that replaces your hand and help you progress. There will also be a currency system, different from the Souls and Blood Echoes systems of Dark Souls and Bloodborne. It is used for some upgrade system for your gear.
The environments are built vertically. You can use a grappling hook to reach cliffs, rooftops, and it can also be used in combat to pull in enemies or get behind them. The combat is based around posture. Enemies can easily block attacks, but will gradually lose posture. If low enough, then you can finish them with a „Shinobi Death Blow.” However, you will also lose posture as you are attacked – you can avoid it by blocking perfectly, and that makes the enemy lose posture instead. The Kanji symbols that sometimes appear above the character’s head serve different functions. For example, a danger symbol signals that the enemy is about to use a special attack. The boss of the demo, the Corrupted Monk (a large woman with a naginata), can be predicted this way. You must read the enemy’s animations to know what the next attack will be and how to avoid it. The enemies will have patterns of attack. Some enemies can use sweep attacks to knock you down that cannot be blocked, but can be avoided by jumping.
The game’s „light stealth mechanics” include instant stealth kills, pressing up against walls, hanging off ledges, and crouching in the grass to stay hidden, and you can kill any enemy that comes close when hidden. The situations can be approached in various ways. If there’s a woman that would alert the guards if she spotted you, you can get rid of her to avoid the guards. There will be several „cat and mouse” segments with large monsters. One of them will require you to time your progression in a canyon to avoid getting seen. These are environmental puzzles, not traditional boss fights.
If you die, you can revive immediately and return to combat. Dying causes enemies to lose interest in you, and it gives you an „opportunity” to surprise and kill enemies who were not expecting you to revive. However, there is a limit to how many times you can revive!
Yasuhiro Kitao from FromSoftware told GameSpot the following regarding Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice: „This title is designed, from the beginning, to be a single-player experience, with no online components. As a part of that, one of the focuses of the game is, instead of having a choice between various classes from the beginning, you must play as a ninja. As a result, [the team] has been able to focus in on what those mechanics are and make them as deep as possible.”
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice will launch in early 2019 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
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