Reviews

I recently picked up this game when it launched on Switch. For a long time I wasn't even aware what the game was about, nor was I aware of the games infamous difficulty. Throughout the past year I have found myself playing a lot of From Software games and appreciating the level of difficulty and feeling of accomplishment you get for finally beating a boss. Despite Cuphead being so far from a Soulsbourne game in gameplay and the Souls comparison getting staler by the minute; this game fits nicely in that hard but fair gameplay I've come to love. 

First things first, this port is excellent. I pretty much played exclusively in handheld mode on my switch and never had any drop in framerate, input lag and the game looks truly amazing. From everything like the hand drawn characters and animations to the lovely backdrops of the levels, it plays homage to its influences perfectly. Alongside the lovely visuals is a soundtrack that booms personality and has obviously been made by people with a massive appreciation and knowledge about 1930s cartoons. More importantly than these points though, is that the game is just really fucking fun. The difficulty progression was for the most part great and I definitely myself gradually getting better at the game the more bosses I defeated. Despite the difficulty I never felt like the game was "too hard" or that it was unfair to the player which is the most important element to a game like this IMO. Every boss you kill gives you some feeling of success and finally working out a good tactic to tackle a hard fight always felt great.

The game isn't insanely long, it took me just under 15 hours, but I've heard it can take as low as 8 - I sucked. What it lacks in length it makes up for in solid gameplay and one of the most fun experiences I've had gaming in a long time. Plus the replayability is great with different difficulties, ratings and items to collect. On top of this it has a co op mode too. At the price of 16.99 I'd be hard pressed to give you any reason to not buy this game, unless you're not into challenging games.

If not for the poor but serviceable combat and sometimes annoying backtracking this game will be easily a 9, so let's have that out of the way.

It's kind of hard to put in words what makes this game so special, at first I was reluctant and I was playing this game just to play something before a "big" game but soon enough I was enjoying myself so much within its sad yet beautiful world. I thought that I will hate the characters and never bother with its story but once again I was so wrong, it was like playing something that Makoto Shinkai (5 centimeters per second, Your Name) would write and direct, it is filled with melancholic and genuinely beautiful moments, so its kind of sad that Director/Writer/Producer Kentaro Kawashima didn't make another thing afterward (Surely because of bad sales, which is a shame to us all) because he has a lot of potential and this game shows the passion and soul that he put into it.

It has a lot of unrefined mechanics that maybe felt too gimmicky in its time but I think they aged very well, say resting in bonfires, unveil the story of the world with cryptic but optional drawings/messages, items that tell stories within themselves that may or may not be relevant to the main plot, Do this rings a bell? Speaking of stories through items, I loved to explore its world just to find those items and go to the nearest bonfire and listen to its story, a lot of them were trivial but interesting but quite a few were truly amazing, longing and feeling for its characters. Also, another thing that is really amazing was the soundtrack composed by Riei Saito, it's not perfect but it hits you and hits you hard, its also sad that it seems that this was her last major composer role.

I really want to speak a lot of what I loved of this game but it's better if you try it by yourself, again, is by no means perfect, if only for the combat and some annoyances this would be tons times better, but I say that if you like Nier, Drakengard, Makoto Shinkai and even Dark Souls (if only just for the mood) please take a look of this game, and maybe just maybe we can give these amazing creators another chance to truly shine like the moon.

Is hard to give a review to Sekiro because it has a lot of background behind and is difficult to not think about Souls or Bloodborne, but in the end, as bloodborne did in its own way, Sekiro is its own thing and is really good.

Everything feels familiar but it plays and tells its story very different than its cousins, the combat is great and makes you feel like the previous games lack in that department but for me the story and its characters never grew to the heights of other FromSoftware games, although I was very reluctant to feel sympathy for its main protagonist, in the end I was happy to be at his side.

The game gives you different difficulty settings in a very cryptic way as always, I played the harder mode and there's also a stealth mode which is the "easier" but slower mode, once you understand that you will prefer to dash through enemies and go berserk, because the stealth mode is kind of awkward and tedious.

As far as the presentation, the graphics are good but not great, and aside from a few ones which are beautiful the boss fights aren't as remarkable as they could be, the music didn't work that good for me because maybe I'm very ignorant of Japanese music but I really couldn't tell apart that a lot of tunes, which is a shame because the main composers of the previous games are here.

Even though is not that remarkable as the other FromSoftware games, is very good and better than a lot of other AAA games from another companies, I strongly recommend that if you're a FromSoftware fan check it out, and also if you are up to some challenge, is hard but not impossible and even you're almost alone in this game never forget to praise the sun.