My Journey to 100% Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
I've always been a fan of soulslike titles: the challenge, the gameplay, the glorious feeling of completing the game — it all appeals massively to me. So, naturally, on release, I bought and played Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice through... as much as I could. Fight as I may, and after easily hundreds of deaths, the final boss — Sword Saint Isshin, because I'm not a corrupt shura player — beat the crap out of me repeatedly. I struggled to get past Genichiro, I struggled to get past Isshin's first stage, and I was sure to struggle to get past the second and third. Dejected, defeated, and destroyed, I quit Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice at the edge of victory.
I thought I'd never play the game again... until two years later. I came back to play through the experience in my brand-new OLED display (at the time) two years after the game's release — I just needed to explore the Sengoku period of Japan. This playthrough would be the one where I'd beat the game... and do it another seven times to get every achievement. Here are my favourite achievements, my most dreaded ones, and whether I recommend you give it a shot, too!
Favourite Achievement
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice doesn't have a lot of overly-complex achievements; most of them are focused on completing story missions and killing bosses. Although I'd love to pick one of these, such as my favourite boss (something I likely wouldn't be able to do with ease), I believe my favourite achievement to get was the "Master of the Prosthetic", where you'll need to upgrade all of your Prosthetic Tools to their limit.
The achievement itself is pretty standard — unlocking every upgrade isn't a groundbreaking idea. What sold me on it, however, is what you need to do to get it: you have to enter and complete New Game+. Being mostly a newcomer to the soulslike genre at the time (having only played DARK SOULS III), I hadn't experimented with the NG+ modes, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice forced me out of my comfort zone. Thinking this achievement would be bordering impossible, as it also ties in with killing the Demon of Hatred, I entered very reluctantly, but it did teach me one thing: how good I'd gotten at the game. The early areas were easy to pass through, bosses that I once struggled with were quite simple, and it just overall showed me how much my journey to saving Kuro taught me.
Least Favourite Achievement
Ironically, from all of the achievements I thought I would hate (such as unlocking every ending or beating the Demon of Hatred), none will ever go down in notoriety the way that "Height of Technique" did. This simple achievement of unlocking every skill should be straightforward, but even after reaching NG+7 (the point at which the enemies and monsters stop scaling), I was still — somehow — not done; I wouldn't be for a long time after I'd finished.
I thought getting the 100% achievements for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice would be arduous due to an overly-difficult boss, a bothersome (and otherwise optional) side boss... but what really broke me was the grinding. I stopped going higher in NG+7 and opted to farming the same four enemies in a late-game area so that I could actually finish, and I still managed to spend several hours on it! Yes, hours — and this was my final achievement.
Notable Mentions
Getting all of the endings in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice was a fun achievement to get, especially as I set out to get it in my NG+ runs rather than restarting. Being forced to go down the shura route and disappoint everyone I cared about and experiencing numerous endings (including my favourite one, the purification ending) was an enjoyable experience that had me aiming towards more.
Aside from that, maxing out your stats (the posture and vitality by defeating the numerous side bosses sprawled across the world) is almost therapeutic once you've gotten the hang of the game and can go back to kill those that gave you trouble (looking at you, Seven Ashina Spears - Shikibu Toshikatsu Yamauchi). Seeing your posture and life exponentially grow creates a false sense of safety.
Was it fun?
Overall, yes. Beating the bosses and being forced into NG+ was really enjoyable, but perhaps the funnest part about the Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice's achievements is that they never get ridiculously hard nor demand pixel-perfect precision. For a game notorious for its difficulty and unforgiving gameplay, it merely asks you to beat the game up to NG+ to actually complete it — you don't need to win the gauntlet nor beat some of the harder bosses without getting hit. All you have to do is play and complete, and many of these are easily farmable, too!
This is a trend I've personally noticed in soulslike titles by FromSoftware — DARK SOULS III doesn't demand miracles for you to pass it, as all you'll have to do is find all of the spells and defeat all of the enemies (not even the really hard ones, like Slave Knight Gael — screw you, pal). FromSoftware acknowledges that the games are hard enough, and asking us to do outrageous tasks wouldn't be fun; just imagine the SL1 (passing the game without leveling up in DARK SOULS) challenge being an achievement!
Should you do it?
If you liked Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and want to have more time to play, I'd say it's worth a shot. Whether you complete the 100% or not, it's always a fun challenge to explore NG+, and it certainly doesn't have anything unfeasible — once you've finished the game, you should be more than halfway there. The achievements enrichen the experience and gave me more game time, something I could never complain about in this title.
What about you? Have you finished Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice? Are you looking to complete all of the achievements? Let me know in the comments below!
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