Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - GOTY Edition

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice GOTY Edition is an action-adventure game from FromSoftware (directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, creator of Dark Souls and Elden Ring), released on March 21, 2019 on PC (Steam), PS4 and Xbox One. In 2019 the game received the top award at The Game Awards, Game of the Year, becoming the first Japanese game in the history of the awards to do so, ahead of Death Stranding and Resident Evil 2. By September 2023 it had sold 10 million copies.

The story takes place in the Sengoku era, feudal 16th-century Japan torn apart by civil wars. The main character is Wolf (Sekiro, "One-Eyed Wolf"), a shinobi who lost an arm in a fight. His goal is to free Lord Kuro, the bearer of immortality, who was captured by the samurai Genichiro. The narrative builds four endings: from early death (Shura) to the true ending, Return, which is revealed only through thorough exploration of the world.

The combat system is built on deflecting: precisely parrying with the katana at the right moment. There is no stat leveling, no shields, and no helpers (co-op is absent entirely). In the Posture system, a series of precise deflects breaks the enemy's stance and opens a Deathblow, an instant kill. The Shinobi Prosthetic expands the arsenal: shuriken, a flamethrower, an axe and about ten more tools. The game is honestly hard: each death teaches rather than punishes.

GOTY Edition includes the free update of October 28, 2020 with additional endgame content: Gauntlets of Strength (a boss rush challenge without resurrections), Reflections of Strength (rematches with any boss), Remnants (asynchronous recordings of other players' runs) and three cosmetic looks for Wolf. GOTY Edition on Steam is the same appid, 814380, with no separate purchases.

Sekiro is the only FromSoftware PC game without paid story add-ons. All parts of Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Elden Ring came out with expansions; here there are none. One purchase gives the full game. On Steam it has 95% positive reviews out of ~347,000 (Overwhelmingly Positive), and a Metacritic PC score of 88 (Universal Acclaim).

Level 2 localization: the interface and subtitles in Russian have been present since release, while voice acting is available only in English, Japanese, French, German, Spanish and Italian. There is no official Russian voice acting. A full offline mode is available: the single-player campaign works without an internet connection, and only Remnants requires a Steam connection.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice GOTY Edition is an action game from FromSoftware with a combat system built on deflecting attacks. Samurai Japan, a single-player campaign, Russian subtitles and interface. Winner of Game of the Year at TGA 2019, 10 million copies sold. Steam key: one purchase, no paid add-ons.