Sakura Blossoms: A Sekiro Retrospective.
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- čas přidán 25. 07. 2024
- Hello and welcome to a somewhat personal and spiritual journey through my favorite Fromsoftware game and one of my all time favorite games. Sekiro shadows die twice was released in March 2019 and went on to become the 2019 game of the year. Back in 2019 though I couldn’t have cared less about it. Fromsoft games seemed to pride themselves on being torturously difficult and certain vocal members of its fandom made the people who play them seem really hostile.
Still the star aligned and I finally wound up dipping my toes in the Dark Souls water and swimming all the way down into this game. Sekiro dispelled all of my preconceived ideas about these games and their communities and went on to blow me away, easily landing a spot in my all time top ten games. I love the world and art direction, the incredible story with all its themes of death and rebirth and its absolutely brutal combat. So let's dive in and dissect this one and see if we can’t figure out what it is that makes it so damn special.
#sekiro #fromsoftware #gaming #soulslike #ninja
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Special thanks to @thesummerofmark for the snippet of Mass Effect footage.
His Mass Effect video is here. It’s a banger.
• Mass Effect Review - A...
------------------------ Chapters---------------------------------------------
00:00 Start
03:47 Housekeeping
06:49 Kanji Study
08:56 The Sengoku Era (Story)
12:30 Ashina (Art direction)
19:32 Dragon Rot
25:25 Sakura Blossoms (Themes)
33:33 Gameplay Mechanics
46:14 Immersive Souls (Exploring and level design)
49:18 Boss Battles
57:27 Conclusion and Sign off
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Sekiro may be a one trick pony, but it’s my third favorite FS game! Can’t believe it never got a sequel or even a dlc! Thank you for your retrospective. May it grant you much positive karma 🙏
If not a Sekiro sequel, I really hope we at least it's combat return in another game.
While everyone tends to focus simply on the challenge, the difficulty and the brilliant, highly intuitive combat system Sekiro has, I'm glad you've taken a more rounded look at the game and gave a lot of the time of your video to its story, lore and the larger themes and motiffs that are integral to the game. And given you have spent some time living in Japan, it gives your video a more interesting lense through which you take a look at the game, the influences behind it and also makes it your best video to date, all things considered.
It was worth the wait and it deepened my understanding of the game, so thanks for that! Great video, really enjoyed watching it!
Glad you enjoyed it. Narrative and themes are the best part of any game for me. The deeper the better.
Man, I really love your work!!
Thanks for this new great video and I really looking forward for the next one!!
You do know what this means right? You’re now OBLIGATED to do a souls retrospective, I don’t make the rules just enforce them 😤
@@Carlisle-mn3fv That might fill the time from now until Perfect Dark drops.
I concur.
Fantastic review man. This inspired me to start a Sekiro over again in lieu of my gaming backlog. LOL. Keep up the great work. I very much appreciate your videos.
Dude you did it this is my favorite soulsborne, you need more exposure my boy cause your content is way too good.
@@charaznable8072 I'm going to remake the thumbnail tonight. I was browsing other sekiro retrospectives and this image has been way overused. It might help drive some traffic here. I might DM a mod at R/sekiro and check if it's okay to share the video there too.
And thanks. Glad you enjoyed it.
@@arkham666 I was telling them on Strife Hayes Live about your videos hope you get some new viewers you deserve it bro.
Agreed!
thank you for the insight on the sekiro translation. Never heard it explained quite like that.
Bloodborne and Sekiro might just be the two greatest examples of merging gameplay/mechanics, story/lore and setting/atmosphere. They each do so very differently, but accomplish true synthesis of what the player does, what the player sees, and what the player learns. So many games have such a disconnect between style and story, but FromSoftware absolutely nailed that cohesion in Dark Souls and did so even better in Elden Ring, but absolutely perfected it in Bloodborne and Sekiro. My dream game from them now is to combine the trick weapons of Bloodborne, the fluidity of Sekiro and the verticality of Elden Ring. I can imagine some giant crumbling city inspired by Minas Tirith, and you're constantly fighting both the environment and the deranged inhabitants with unique tools that function both as weapons and traversal tools.
'Hesitation is defeat' 🫡
The "one armed wolf" is cool!❤❤❤😊
@@leophoenix1452 you're preaching to the choir.
Great video❤
This was poetry❤
@@andip278 thank you. That's very high praise.
Great video, man! Sekiro is awesome!!!
@@vladimirsabol808 thank you and agreed.
Ah yes, Sekiro, the Ninja Gaiden/Bionic Commando/Dance Dance Revolution chimera that I never knew I needed so badly, until I played it and it took over my life for months. Great breakdown and retrospective.
@@njp4321 I need to play the 360 era ninja gaidens. I've heard the steam port is sub par though.
@@arkham666 I haven't played any of those, either, but I've heard the same about the Steam port.
I'm middle-aged, so my Ninja Gaiden is the original (NES version, not so much the arcade) and its early sequels (ditto with my Bionic Commando reference point). In my mind Ninja Gaiden blends into Sekiro in its shinobi aesthetic and precision-driven difficulty curve.
A one hour long Sekiro video? I'm watching this
You explained kurro charm incorrectly. You had it all game, youre actually allowed to get rid of it in ngplus. Its an optional challenge where you must land the parry in order to take no damage. If you dont give it to kurro, youre just playing the same as youre used to. It doesnt add anything.
Thanks for the correction. Never noticed it before NGplus but I guess that's my bad.
Excellent work. One of your best videos
@@thesummerofmark Thanks my man. I had a good time making it.
Sekiro is fantastic if the core combat system clicks for you. It's almost hypnotic the way it looks and sounds as you chain up a bunch of attacks and deflects in a row.
And good for you for giving Souls a chance. They are punishing, but overall the difficulty aspect is overblown.
@@NikoTeaJay I think it's a bit of a marketing ploy these days. "Come play the game that will kick your ass!" But honestly they're not as hostile as the first couple of hours make them seem.
Only game that has been able to truly scratch the Sekiro itch for me is Nine Sols
@@nomongosinthaworld people have recommended lies of p to me.
Sekiro is the best fromsoftware game, its not even close
Hesitation is defeat
There is a ton of videos saying that sekiro is a great game, because it is but your perspective of a person that lives in Japan made it unique. I really enjoyed those parts.
When it comes to from soft games the first dark souls came to me at the right place and in the right time. I was getting bored with gaming. For example I love Batman: Arkham City, it's probably on my personal top 10 games ever but you have to intentionally try to see the game over screen. I bought the pc port of dark souls to see what the fuss is about and I got a game that doesn't like to explain itself, is unfair and likes to kick the player in the balls from time to time. I found it refreshing in an era of handholding.
Btw. now I'm playing thief: the black parade and I was wondering. Do consider making a video on those old Thief games? Did you like them?
@@wacawgregorczyk807 short answer yes. I love immersive Sims. I never finished og thief but it's very much on my to do list.
@@arkham666 Great to hear. I personally prefer thief II, great level design, world building and Eric Brosius sound design is still imrpessive even nowadays, it's one of the reasons I chose working with sound as a job. So thief is a very important series for me (except thief 2014, that didn't happen, lets forget about it).
But I get Warren Spector, who said the thief was focused only on stealth and that inspired him to create deus ex. So I'm really interested in your retrospective on those games.
Upload this on Spotify good for travelling atleast for me
I think Sekiro is the closest thing to a perfect game i've ever played
25:40 - 27:31 beautiful
You start with kuro’s charm the moment you play for the first time. The challenge comes with whether you keep it (easier no chip on normal block) or give it back to kuro (take chip on block, unless perfect deflected).
Basically it doesn’t require NG+, most players first play throughs will be with kuro charm.
@@jwalton1915 yeah I got another comment about this. It's my bad for rapid fire skipping through text on my first replay. Ah well you live and learn.
If Sekiro is so good where is Sekiro 2
We need a remake with game play graphics higher than the opening cinematic trailer...
He lost the arm actually due to his loss of memory...
Sekiro is 5 years old now, and has clearly influenced several games that have come since. It’s odd to me that FromSoftware haven’t either done anything else with the IP or made a game with similar mechanics. The basic souls formula has been iterated on since 2009 all the way up to 2024 with Elden Ring’s DLC, but Sekiro merely got a boss rush and a message system.
Sekiro arguably leaves its story open to a follow up depending on the ending, I would love them to make another one.
@@hyperdeath84 yeah it would be pretty cool. They could even push time forward a few years and introduce different historical elements or just straight up set it in China.
Nah I wouldn't want that. Sequels are always constrained to conform to established principles and (though not always) often fail to match the original.
What I would like to see instead is a spiritual successor. A game that hits the same notes without being held back creatively. Like what Dark Souls was to Demon's Souls.
I don't think the creator of this video had ever played ninja gaiden in the days of the first xbox...
@@leophoenix1452 I didn't since I never owned and og Xbox. While I've had a Dreamcast, ps2 and a 360 I've been primarily a PC gamer since the late 90s. I was recently considering dipping my toes into modern ninja gaiden but unfortunately the steam port seems to have issues so I'll hold out for now.
The one game series with better swordplay is ninja gaiden. 1 feels sorta like a soulslike (and was part of the inspiration to the souls series) and 2 turns it into a mix between a hack and slash with some fluidity that even dmc cant match
Sounds good. I've been meaning to take a crack at those.
Do you think they’ll do a Sekiro 2?
@@matthewalves3855 I think if they were going to, they probably would have buy now. Still it'd be awesome to have a part 2 or a spiritual successor.
@@arkham666 yeah I want to see what happens. Maybe one day hopefully!
Subbbbbscribed amazing video
@@darkodev6961 thank you
challenging and difficult, can be looked at. As the same thing.
@@eldudereno204 Sure but I see it differently and I'd say I explained how I see it very well.
@@arkham666 for sure, I am quite enjoying the video.
@@eldudereno204 I'm glad to hear that. I was just concerned I hadn't explained myself or that I was coming off wrong. You worry about these things when you write ya know.
Ghost of Tsushima. Equally good swordplay imo
@@hasuramapa4639 I'll be on that soon enough. I'm hoping to actually get out to the island later this year.
I've never understood why people consider FromSoft games stressful.
The games *want* you to succeed. There's hardly any punishment for death unless you bring it upon yourself by carrying a ton of souls for some reason. You won't ever *fail* by dying too much. You can try over and over again until you get it, the game lets you take all the time you need. I find it relaxing - a stressful game is one like a competitive multiplayer game, or a game with limited lives or some actual punishment for death, something where there's a fail state (and, in the case of multiplayer games, where my performance can cause *others* to fail as well). There's no fail state in FromSoft RPGs, the only way you can fail is by giving up. And not giving up, not losing hope is always a central theme in all of them.
It's a singleplayer game. Nobody's waiting for me. Nobody's counting on me. I'm not feeding the enemies by dying. I'm not losing anything but a bit of time when I die. I can keep trying, over and over again, getting better at it little by little until it's second-nature. My only opponent is my own limitations, which I get to feel the satisfaction of overcoming.
There's few games more relaxing to me than these.
Eh we all react to different stimuli in different ways.
Funny, 4 out of 5 old paintings you referred as old Japanese art, are actually Chinese....The only Japanese one is the 3rd one.
kay