Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice will focus on exploration and combat and differ from the Dark Souls formula

In Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, FromSoftware promises to move away from the formula it created itself in its other series, Dark Souls.

In Sekiro, exploration, which is now much more open, is basically a form of research and goes hand in hand with combat, closely tied to the gameplay. The mobility mechanic lets your character climb rooftops, towers, trees and high places and will be used to explore the scenery (exploring the scenery also grants other advantages, such as stealth kills and gathering information by listening to enemy conversations) before entering combat, letting the character discover advantages in the terrain, the position and number of enemies, and traps. We can see the mobility mechanic in the video below:

Even combat already shows deep changes, as explained in an interview with Game Informer:

“When an enemy is attacking you, you can deal damage to them, you can wear down their posture, by deflecting their momentum and their attacks,” says Yamamura. Most enemy attacks can be countered by your own sword movements, dealing damage, but more importantly, increasing their posture meter. When that meter reaches the maximum, they are vulnerable to deathblows, which deal severe damage, usually killing them.”

“It’s not simply a matter of mashing the attack button instead of the roll button; the window to properly deflect an attack is quite short, so you will have to study an opponent’s attacks and learn the proper timing to counter them. Once players master the deflection technique, they will be dealing damage not only through their own attacks, but also when they are being attacked by enemies, turning that into an advantage”

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice will be released on March 22 for PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Source: GamingBolt / GameInformer