“Wait, they only die twice?” said all the literal title interpreters in the Steam community upon seeing Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice’s name. They’ve since been shocked—shocked, I say—to find themselves dying many more times than twice.
Like Kotaku’s own Natalie Degraffinried, Steam reviewers mostly love Sekiro, the latest deliciously murderful brainchild of Dark Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki and his team, whose sadism comes so clearly through these series that I’m convinced they’d be in jail if they weren’t game designers. Steam reviewers are big fans of the fast-paced combat, stealth-centric encounter design, and setting. They’re also all about the punishing timing-based difficulty—for the most part. A handful of Sekiro’s Steam reviews read like that angry text you sent an ex when you probably just should’ve taken a nap instead. The salt, it flows.