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[nenjin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ShtqK1eQP4

The E3 reveal finally fills in the details about their new game.

It's a Souls-like but with adjustments away from the standard Souls formula.

So in it you play some Japanese guy who was killed by his master and lost his arm. Some creepy guy brings you back from the dead and replaces your missing arm with this weird bone-based contraption. From there it's a revenge quest to catch up to your former master, while you slay your way through a dark and magical representation of feudal Japan.

That's what I got from a casual view of the trailer.

The game is being published by Activision this time, rather than Bandai Namco. Which I guess means From Soft has truly stepped in to the big tent.

So what's Sekiro doing? It looks like a mashup with standard souls combat, From Soft's signature brand of visual weirdness, new mechanics for From Soft, set in a classical looking-Japanese setting. (Maybe they saw Nioh and were like "Hey, we're Japanese, I think our next game needs to be set in Japan.")

It appears to have some of the weapon system from Bloodborne, in the form of your weird ass arm being able to do different variable attacks. Grafted to this is a more free-form level exploration compared to traditional Souls games. Rather than having your feet firmly planted on the ground, in Sekiro you'll have a grappling hook to shoot across the terrain, bringing a new element of vertical gameplay that From Soft hasn't done before. Enemies will pick you up and fling you across the level as well.

So this seems like a much more action oriented game than previous Souls titles. A lot more "Gee whiz" fast freedom of movement in line with your garden variety western 3rd person action games. I figure they'll leverage their experience from all their games, including Tenchu, to fill it out.

I'm interested for sure. It's refreshing to see From Soft do something different stylistically and in terms of mechanics. After BB and three Souls games the formula was getting pretty stale.

That said, I'm wondering what compromises if any they will make with this new IP that is clearly incorporating some of what's popular in today's games. Will their game retain the same From Soft feel of level exploration, meticulous combat and the restrictions which help define the game space? Or is all that getting thrown out in favor of whip slinging across levels and faster combat? What other changes might they make now that they're in the hands of the biggest NA game publisher?

Time will tell!

[Egan_BW]

Looks neat. Unless you have additional information that I don't, it doesn't look like a soulslike.

[nenjin]

Previous leaks were saying it's a souls-like. But maybe this starts the discussion about what that term actually entails. Because the whole "you dead but you ain't dead" theme is alive and well in this game.

[Egan_BW]

Is Shadow of Mordor a soulslike? It's all about melee combat, and when you die you come back.

[Coolnesstod]

Shadow of Mordor is more Batman: Arkham-like. The dieing and coming back is the only really similar thing to Souls.

This game tho, looks like it could be a good mix of combat style's of both Souls and Arkham. More gameplay shall tell.

[Ygdrad]

I believe the core of what makes a soulslike game is the methodical deliberate unforgiving combat. Most games have spammy combat full of pointless filler moves to feel busy, soulslike games have combat where every attack is a decision you could regret. This can go beyond game genre, Salt and Sanctuary is definitely a soulslike game and it's a 2D sidescroller. Combat in Dead Cells while faster paced definitely feels like it's based on the same design philosophy as a souls game and it's a 2D sidescrolling action roguelike. Any extra similarities like coming back to life, bonfire equivalents, and dark settings are just extra fluff to look even more soulslike. What makes dark souls what it is is the combat design(although some might argue the vague lore too).

Shadow of mordor and the recent batman games have combat that's meant to look great and make you feel good, but it's really mostly hidden quicktime events. Most of the combat system is on rails and you just pick what you do when something happens. This has the advantage of letting the devs make combat animations that look better and more believable since you can't really go off the rails much, but it comes at the cost of player involvement. Its design is aimed at making combat cinematic, some people will like this low involvement combat style, some won't.

Sekiro could definitely be a soulslike game, I'm not really seeing anything arkhamlike in there. What few attacks we saw seemed like more fluid, faster pace dark souls, so probably inspired by bloodborne. Most of the trailer was just cinematic with almost no combat.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Again, too early to tell for me, but it looks like it's got some crazy awesome kendo-esque parry system--and that's a plus!

[Retropunch]

I think the combat looks really good, and it looks to have some interesting looking mechanics, but...I'm not sure.

They're keeping to relatively human bosses apparently, and whilst that's fine, I can't imagine it'll have the same spectacle as DS/BB.

There's apparently no RPG elements - it's more of an action adventure where you unlock new items/powers to help you progress, but there's no upgrading or anything.

Feudal Japan seems to have been done to death at the moment - I guess it's not an area of history I can get super excited about, but Rioh was just out like a year ago and seems pretty much the same thing.

Overall though, all of this would be fine if I thought that From Soft was going to tell a really good story with it. I feel instead they'll do their usual super opaque, moody, slightly teenage goth rambling as they try sort of scramble around trying to make it meaningful. That's fine with DS/BB as the story isn't the core of the game and it's really just there for atmosphere building, but that doesn't work for a more linear game where it needs a tight story to drag people onwards.

very unsure.

[nenjin]

If this turns out to essentially be From Soft’s Prince of Persia, I will be disappoint.

[NJW2000]

Looks OK. Lots of different hand tools, very fun. Verticality is in all souls games to some extent, so I'm not sure how great a change it'll be to have the grappling hook... Could make a lot of difference, could make very little in the larger scheme of things.

[nenjin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqv47mLdLdQ

Haven't been keeping up with this game mostly due to not wanting to know too much before it releases.

But here's some more looky-loos.

The big take away is that, blocking is very important. It's important because it builds up a meter (that also fills when you deal or take damage) where when full you get to unleash a devastating kill synch animation. For regular guys it seems less necessary, but when bosses have multiple health bars and this super move just takes one of them away....starts to seem like a central gameplay mechanic. The absence of a stamina bar, and the kanji over your head when you're about to receive an unblockable attack, seems to support all this.

The boss fight in the video has some gimmicks you won't find in Dark Souls. There's a section where you pretty much just have to dodge/grapple around and probably can't hurt the boss. I expect more of that.

So far Sekiro seems very focused on the spectacle and the gameplay supports it. While I don't necessarily like 'Power bars' and 'charge this thing up to do a super move with a long animation", I appreciate they're probably doing it for the visuals and the style.

Anyways, looking forward to playing this. It's been a long time since I've played Tenchu and this seems like a pretty even blend of that and Dark Souls. But I may not rush out and get it at release. This seems like one of those titles you can maybe wait on, since it's a single player action game and not an RPG.

[Kagus]

The big take away is that, blocking is very important. It's important because it builds up a meter (that also fills when you deal or take damage) where when full you get to unleash a devastating kill synch animation.

Truly, game design is going on to break all previously known limits of innovation.

[nenjin]

Just saying, in comparisons to all their most recent games, blocking appears to be a core, unavoidable mechanic.

[Kagus]

The big take away is that, blocking is very important. It's important because it builds up a meter (that also fills when you deal or take damage) where when full you get to unleash a devastating kill synch animation.

Truly, game design is going on to break all previously known limits of innovation.

[nenjin]

I'll give it to you.