It's one of my favorite games of all time. I've beaten this game like 15 times across 3 different systems. It's been 7 years, and I still play it.
I'm not somebody who comes to these games for the difficulty, I think they have more to offer than that. But I understand why people say this is the most difficult FromSoftware game. I know a lot of people who have quit this game, even if they finished everything else in their catalog. But for me, something clicked halfway through my first playthrough. Something about this combat system is so weird and alien, but when you start to understand it, it feels like the game completely opens up. And that seems to be a common sentiment for people that love this game. Even as I replay all of the studio's games, Sekiro is the one that has gone from frustratingly difficult to borderline meditative. When I can't think of what to play, I fire up this game, because it's still challenging, but it has become oddly relaxing in a way that other FromSoft games aren't.
But there's one thing in particular this game nails that many games simply can't, and it's ultimately what brings me back : Getting good at it *looks* amazing. Have you ever fought the dragons in Skyrim? It sucks, right? Even if you love Skyrim, chances are you have fought enough dragons that you have made a build that permanently stunlocks them in place, or otherwise trivializes the fight. Gaming the system like that can be super fun, but does it *look* good?
A lot of video games are designed in such a way that the most optimal way to play them is often not the most glamorous looking. Stunlocks, spamming attacks, and otherwise minimizing risk is usually the optimal path. This is a totally valid way to play, and I love breaking a game as much as the next person. But games that allow this are either tediously over-difficult in expectation players will leverage these strategies, or so easy as to be unengaging, and you want use the strategies just to skip the boring parts. And that can make for dull, janky, and unimmersive gameplay.
Sekiro's combat is so tight and minimalistic in its design, with just enough room for experimentation, that the best way to play it happens to be the most cinematic way to play it. Nobody has to tell you how to do it, you don't need to read internet comments on what the "right" way to play it is. The game just gently guides you into playing that way. It's really quite something, and a lot of action games have been ruined for me because many of them, ultimately, do not encourage me to play like this game does.
