One of the big surprises of E3 2018 was FromSoftware's appearance at the Xbox press conference, showing off new game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Firmly focused on action, the hero is a ninja warrior slashing and slicing his way through 16th century Japan looking for vengeance. The game leaves behind many of the RPG elements that were the nuts and bolts of FromSoftware's beloved Dark Souls series, but in an interview from the new issue of Edge magazine, out July 19th, creator Hidetaka Miyazaki promised the same brutal levels of difficulty.
Subscribe via Print or Digital for as little as £16 / $9 for a quarterly digital subscription and get the must-have companion for game industry professionals, aspiring game-makers and super-committed hobbyists. Issue #322 features Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Cyberpunk 2077, Death Stranding and more.
"We have no intention of making an easier game," Miyazaki tells Edge. "When we first approached the idea of a ninja game, we felt like we wanted something that gave the player a more risky sense of battle. They’re going to feel like they’re constantly at risk of dying. They’re not a knight in armor; they’re exposed, weak, vulnerable. They need to be constantly on edge."
If hero Sekiro dies, he'll respawn on the spot, instead of being flung back to an earlier checkpoint. Miyazaki explains how the team came to that mechanic.
"We were dying a lot, and it just spoiled the game’s tempo," he says. "We needed something that would address that frequency of death, and the resurrection system did a lot to solve that. We hope that it’s not going to be something that makes the game easier; it’s not going to numb the player to death. It’s going to make them feel they’re constantly at death’s door. It’s something they’re going to have to be aware of at every single encounter, and is going to be tuned to that sense of trepidation."
"It suits our ninja protagonist quite well. This is a cold-blooded warrior who will use even his own death as an advantage, as a way to turn the tide and gain a strategic advantage."
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice will be released on Xbox One, PS4, and PC sometime in 2019.
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