Prepare To Live

Death is an opportunity in Hidetaka Miyazaki’s most punishing game to date.

- Nathan Brown

We are sat in a hotel suite high above the madness of E3 when someone asks the only question about Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice that matters. We’ve just had our first proper look at one of the biggest surprises of the show, a sharp stylistic turn from From Software that is being published by, of all companies, Activision. We’ve seen an entirely new approach to the studio’s signature third person combat that abandons many of the tenets that have characterised From’s work over the past decade. We’ve marvelled at the world, which takes the late-1500s Sengoku, or warring states, period as its stylistic jumping-off point. We’re already in love, but with a caveat. The first question from the assembled press gets right to it. Who’s the director? “Miyazaki desu,” says producer Yasuhiro Kitao. “Go anshin kudasai.” 

It’s Hidetaka Miyazaki. Don’t worry. 

That says it all. While few studios on the planet boast so singular an identity as FromSoftware, to its most devout followers it is in effect two companies. It makes FromSoftware games, and it makes Miyazaki games. Dark Souls II, developed by a sub-team while Miyazaki was busy with Bloodborne, is widely held as the weakest entry in the series. It’s all relative, however. Miyazaki’s involvement is essentially the difference between a FromSoft game being exceptional and merely brilliant. What we’ve seen of Sekiro gives no indication that streak is about to be broken.