Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is not going to have that many connections to From Software’s previous games, according to a recent interview with creator Hidetaka Miyazaki.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is not meant to be a Soulsborne game, according to series creator Hidetaka Miyazaki. The new game coming out of From Software, which was teased during the most recent Game Awards and revealed during E3 2018, will stand on its own.
The news comes from an interview with GameSpot, where Miyazaki talked somewhat at length about Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and its relationship to the previous games in the Soulsborne franchise. While the newest title coming out of From Software should be somewhat familiar to players through its dark theme, it doesn’t look like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is going to be scratching all of the itches that Dark Souls and Bloodborne did.
“[Sekiro] was designed from the ground up, from scratch, as an entirely new concept, as a new game. So we don’t know if you’d call this an evolution of the series in this sense. “Of course with Sekiro, we don’t intend to disappoint or turn away fans of previous From Software games, that core fan base. We want to keep the challenge. We want to keep that core experience very much intact for those people.”
The differences in Sekiro‘s gameplay seem to be matched with a stark difference in theme. Where Dark Souls explores a bleak western medieval fantasy, and Bloodborne takes the player to a sinister Lovecraftian story full of cosmic horrors and werewolves, Sekiro is distinctly eastern in style. This is evidenced by frequent use of Japanese characters in Sekiro‘s branding, as well as genre staples such as samurai swords and eastern-style robes, as shown off in one of the game’s tweets.
As Miyazaki mentioned, it doesn’t seem like From Software is making any deliberate effort to alienate their existing Soulsborne fanbase. The materials shown off for the game so far do give Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice a very dark feel, ripe for the same kind of contextual world building and grotesque body horror that fans of the Souls games love so much. Miyazaki seems to have faith in the next game, so it’s not unreasonable to think fans will give him the benefit of the doubt.
Still, there are many fans who will have a difficult time parting with some of the elements in Souls games. Purists of the franchise who were slow to adopt Bloodborne may struggle to find a home in From Software’s newest outing.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is currently in development to launch in 2019 for undisclosed platforms.
