PS4 Shadows Die Twice

Last updated date: September 23, 2019

DWYM Score
8.7


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We looked at the top Fantasy Games and dug through the reviews from some of the most popular review sites. Through this analysis, we've determined the best Fantasy Game you should buy.

Overall Take

With outstanding graphics and excellent battle scenes, “Shadows Die Twice” shines a whole new light on combat weapons and tactics. Explore in a world with lots to discover and hidden gems throughout. The unbeatable 1080p resolution makes playing this game even more enjoyable, thanks to the crisp image. In our analysis of 172 expert reviews, the PS4 PS4 Shadows Die Twice placed 3rd when we looked at the top 10 products in the category. For the full ranking, see below.

Editor's Note October 8, 2019:
Checkout The Best Fantasy Game for a detailed review of all the top fantasy games.

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Expert Summarized Score
8.6
28 expert reviews
User Summarized Score
8.8
962 user reviews
Our Favorite Video Reviews
What experts liked
Sekiro is immediately its own beast when it comes to stealth, combat, and movement thanks to a Swiss-army-knife of a prosthetic arm strapped to your titular Shinobi character.
- IGN
March 21, 2019 | Full review
Set against a background that balances brutality and beauty, Sekiro is one of this year's must-have titles – if you have the patience for it.
- Tech Radar
April 2, 2019 | Full review
The prosthetic is literally animated by death, with abilities performed using spirit emblems reeled like fish from falling bodies. It's bestowed on Sekiro by a sculptor who spends his days obsessively carving Buddhas, each contorted by rage, reflecting a colossal karmic debt (if you're feeling curious, or kind, you can fetch him sake to hear a little of his life story). This penance will one day be your own, the sculptor warns, but in the meantime, the wrathful Buddha idols have a certain utility.
- Euro Gamer
| Full review
The world is gorgeous and brimming with deep, dark secrets.
- Trusted Reviews
| Full review
A clear story mixed with cryptic side quests.
- Games Radar
| Full review
Shinobi Prosthetic can be upgraded with all kinds of side weapons that can help turn the tide of battle. Each one has its uses and there are plenty to find throughout the game, from a fire blasting Flame Vent to the impenetrable Loaded Umbrella shield.
- Push Square
March 27, 2019 | Full review
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is an enjoyable, yet deeply challenging game.
- The Gamers' Temple
May 14, 2019 | Full review
Landing Shinobi executions on some vicious bosses.
- Game Critics
April 25, 2019 | Full review
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a gorgeous world to explore. It’s quite often that I found myself stopping to admire the view of majestic pagodas overlapping distant mountains whilst traversing over perfectly tiled rooftops with my trusty grappling hook.
- The Digital Fix
| Full review
Sekiro is a phenomenal game for those gamers who enjoy a challenge. The environments are very well designed for the most part, though there are a few outliers that will make it seem like you’ve tread this ground before.
- Game Industry News
April 10, 2019 | Full review
If only it were so easy to keep playing, I would unequivocally love the game. As inviting as it is to anyone that comes up to its threshold, Sekiro is equally willing to throw them back out.
- The Escapist Magazine
| Full review
Ultimately, that’s the dichotomy of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. It’s like a majestic mountain: gorgeous to look at, but if you don’t give it adequate respect, it will send you plunging to a swift, agonizing demise. Playing Sekiro is like climbing a mountain too.
- Gaming Nexus
April 4, 2019 | Full review
The presentation of combat makes it easy and rewarding to learn from mistakes. It feels good to parry correctly, witness the Posture meter of your opponent rise, and hear that appropriate clanking steel-on-steel sound effect. The ethereal whoosh and camera repositioning when a Deathblow is due is another visual signal and a Pavlovian reward. FromSoftware’s often-reused “blood spilling out of a massive wound” splash noise is a macabre dessert. Sekiro respects and gratifies the player with its presentation as quickly as it does with its Skill Points and Sen.
- Digital Chumps
| Full review
The subtitle of the game, Shadows Die Twice, highlights the game’s central focus on death. When you’re killed, you have the ability to resurrect for a second chance, and resting at a sculptor’s idol will reset your base resurrection ability. The act of resurrecting is an interesting tool that can be used to give yourself an advantage in battle or simply a chance to run away and rethink your strategy. Being able to resurrect may sound a bit overpowered at first, but the game is nicely balanced around the mechanic.
- Easy Allies
| Full review
Sekiro’s systems are something special as well, and only add depth to the already impressive swordplay system. Rather than character progression being tied to stats, weapons, and armor that you find along the way, Sekiro has a skill point system that allows you to unlock new passive and active abilities from a handful of skill trees.
- We Got This Covered
| Full review
The opportunity to perfectly parry an attack and set up a deathblow feels like it lasts less than a second with most enemies. Missing that window means getting hit with a brutal attack that often ends in death, and many enemy attacks are simply unblockable.
- Den of Geek
| Full review
Everything in this game has a purpose, it's up to you to figure that out though.
- Know Techie
May 9, 2019 | Full review
Posture system makes battles engaging and skill-based.
- Digital Trends
| Full review
In one of its most revolutionary moves, Sekiro contains absolutely no online systems whatsoever. No sarcastic trolling messages, no ghost-players, no PvP or jolly cooperation. Yes, that means it also has the important distinction of a fully-functioning pause feature, and it feels unquestionably strange to interrupt a boss fight mid-swing to answer the door or fetch a cup of coffee, a great generosity to those who previously missed an important call or fought with a significant other because they couldn’t leave their game running.
- Screen Rant
| Full review
The clarity of Sekiro’s storytelling bleeds over into the game’s presentation. From Software announce their intentions right away, opening the game with a scene set in a forest awash with vibrant fall colors. While Sekiro still offers some dark, intimidating corners to explore, it isn’t as relentlessly murky as the Soulsborne games.
- WCCF Tech
March 27, 2019 | Full review
The posture system in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is brilliant, though it does feel weird not having to manage your stamina. Being able to sprint endlessly is a strange feeling in a FromSoftware game. But standing your ground, planting your feet, and going toe-to-toe with the enemy is so incredibly satisfying.
- Game Spew
April 1, 2019 | Full review
Verticality, stealth, and a lack of a stamina bar. These three things are, in my opinion, the biggest changes to a classic formula. Early on in the game, players receive the Shinobi Prosthetic arm, the crux of combat and traversal in Sekiro. This instantly gives players a retractable grappling hook (just like in Tenchu) that really opens up the levels and adds some much needed depth and layering to a recipe that has been traditionally rather two dimensional in regards to traversal and combat.
- CGM
| Full review
Like no other game before it, Sekiro revels in the ritual of swordplay – and it is ritualistic. The weapons are ornate and exquisite; when they clash, they produce firework flashes; and the fights – all a matter of posture and footwork – have the timbre of a dance.
- Video Gamer
March 26, 2019 | Full review
In the graphics department, Sekiro is a visually impressive game bogged down by performance inconsistencies not unlike the developer’s previous release, Bloodborne. The game outputs at 1080/1800p resolution on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro respectively, with sharp image quality and amazingly detailed environments and character models that bring the fantasy 16th century Japan setting to life.
- Impulse Gamer
| Full review
Unique reaction-based combat takes a while to master yet it's ultimately rewarding.
- Video Chums
April 27, 2019 | Full review
The slow, methodical combat of Dark Souls has been replaced by something a bit more frantic in nature. There’s no stamina bar in Sekiro, so you’re allowed to go wild with attacking and defending. Instead of stamina, there’s a new posture meter. When this fills up for either you or the enemy, a posture break will occur, which leaves the subject open to a devastating strike.
- Game Revolution
| Full review
What experts didn't like
Not for those without patience accept you may never finish it.
- Tech Radar
April 2, 2019 | Full review
Camera can prove frustrating at times.
- Trusted Reviews
| Full review
Shoddy stealth with AI that’s easy to fool.
- Games Radar
| Full review
Performance is also an issue on PlayStation 4. Running at an unlocked frame rate on PS4 Pro, both it and the standard console occasionally struggle to keep things smooth, and with combat so reliant on precision and perfectly timed parries, it's not ideal.
- Push Square
March 27, 2019 | Full review
I miss finding new, fashionable types of armor in the world.
- Game Critics
April 25, 2019 | Full review
The game still seems to have no improvements to the camera system used in From’s games as far back as Demon’s Souls, and Sekiro exacerbates a lot of the problems inherent with the camera, especially in the capacity of lock-on.
- Game Industry News
April 10, 2019 | Full review
Less amusing is Sekiro’s camera. Certain instances of attempted stealth, especially in the tall grass of the Hirata Estate, are obstructed by not being able to see much of anything.
- Digital Chumps
| Full review
Compounding issues is that, while Sekiro demands perfection, sometimes its controls just don’t work how they’re supposed to. Several times in boss battles, I’d press the button to land a major attack with either my katana or prosthetic only for nothing to happen.
- Den of Geek
| Full review
Although you can revive multiple times in combat, sometimes the feature is pretty damn useless.
- Know Techie
May 9, 2019 | Full review
The brutal difficulty can be unfair.
- Digital Trends
| Full review
Unfortunately, you may wish for more assistance fighting the many stunning bosses, several of which are the most brutal to date.
- Screen Rant
| Full review
Some camera and targeting hitches.
- WCCF Tech
March 27, 2019 | Full review
Your grappling hook really opens up the movement in Sekiro, but I wish it wasn’t so limited. You can, in fairness, get to pretty much anywhere you want, but there are invisible walls in almost every area. With a tool so different and unique from FromSoftware’s usual playbook, it’s a shame you can’t just latch on wherever you please.
- Game Spew
April 1, 2019 | Full review
There are certain things I expected from Sekiro that aren’t on offer, weapon and gear variety and build diversity primarily, and I feel that may harm the longevity of the game, more so when combined with the (so far) lack of multiplayer.
- CGM
| Full review
Gameplay starts to become quite repetitive once you master the combat.
- Video Chums
April 27, 2019 | Full review
A minor problem with combat is that sometimes your lock-on to an enemy will just drop and you’ll just be screwed as the camera stops tracking them. I also had instances, especially when facing the Burning Bull mini-boss, where I was against the wall, and the camera decided just to rotate straight up. In a game like Sekiro which demands precision and attention, this is a death sentence.
- Game Revolution
| Full review

From The Manufacturer

Winner of “Best of gamescom” and “Best Action Game” at gamescom 2018, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is the next adventure from developer FromSoftware, creators of Bloodborne and the Dark Souls series. Carve your own clever path to vengeance in this all-new action-adventure title. In Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice you are the “one-armed wolf”, a disgraced and disfigured warrior rescued from the brink of death. Bound to protect a young lord who is the descendant of an ancient bloodline, you become the target of many vicious enemies, including the dangerous Ashina clan. When the young lord is captured, nothing will stop you on a perilous quest to regain your honor, not even death itself. Explore late 1500s Sengoku Japan, a brutal period of constant life and death conflict, as you come face to face with larger than life foes in a dark and twisted world. Unleash an arsenal of deadly prosthetic tools and powerful ninja abilities while you blend stealth, vertical traversal, and visceral head to head combat in a bloody confrontation. Take Revenge. Restore Your Honor. Kill Ingeniously. *Internet connection required. Digital Artbook access subject to limitations. ;2019 FromSoftware, Inc. All rights reserved. Published and distributed by Activision. ACTIVISION is a trademark of Activision Publishing Inc. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners. Bloodborne is a trademark of Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC. Dark Souls is a trademark of BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc. Sony and Bandai Namco are not the publisher of SEKIRO: SHADOWS DIE TWICE. Activision has no affiliation with Bloodborne or Dark Souls.

Overall Product Rankings

1. XBOX ONE Dark Souls III: The Fire Fades Edition
Overall Score: 9.3
Expert Reviews: 3
2. Warner Brothers Witcher 3
Overall Score: 8.9
Expert Reviews: 17
3. PS4 Shadows Die Twice
Overall Score: 8.7
Expert Reviews: 28
4. Bethesda Elder Scrolls Skyrim
Overall Score: 8.7
Expert Reviews: 13
5. XBOX ONE Kingdom Hearts III
Overall Score: 8.6
Expert Reviews: 18
6. Square Enix Final Fantasy XV
Overall Score: 8.5
Expert Reviews: 10
7. XBOX ONE Middle-Earth: Shadow Of War Gold Edition
Overall Score: 8.4
Expert Reviews: 11
8. XBOX ONE Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age
Overall Score: 8.4
Expert Reviews: 4
9. Nintendo Switch Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Overall Score: 8.3
Expert Reviews: 19
10. PS4 Secret of Mana
Overall Score: 7.6
Expert Reviews: 21

An Overview On Fantasy Games

Be transported to another world when you sit down to a great fantasy game on your favorite console. Whether you are an avid Xbox One player or you are exclusive to your PlayStation 4, you’ll surely discover excellent fantasy games that will fill your free time with exciting adventures on screen. Let’s take a closer look at the two consoles and what they have to offer fantasy game players.

The PlayStation 4 has countless perks for its players. With an excellent record behind it for graphics, the console offers detailed imagery with excellent 1080 resolution. Players also find a very easy-to-use interface on the PS4 along with endless options for playing with friends. Owners of the PS4 also love the feature that allows you to transfer your gameplay to another device when others want to use the television. For those who want to use their console for more than just game playing, the PS4 offers a couple of different options for media apps to access television series, movies or music.

Perhaps the biggest perk for PlayStation 4 owners is the copious amounts of games that Sony offers. You will find all kinds of genres from adventure to Indie and, of course, plenty of fantasy games. If you’re looking for non-stop action within an elaborate fantasy world, “Sekiro Shadows Die Twice” is the game for you. Situated in old Japan, the game allows players to create their own path through battles with creative monsters and encounters with friends and foes alike.

For an old favorite, discover the excitement in “Final Fantasy XV.” This PlayStation 4 fantasy game has been around for years, but never like this before. With improved scenes and performance options for the characters, this edition will leave you wanting more game time than ever. When you need a good fantasy game fix, these two will certainly give you the ultimate experience you want.

Now let’s turn our attention to the Xbox One. This console offers some competition to the PlayStation 4 players. With access to three generations of Xbox games and cross-play on PC games, Xbox trumps PlayStation 4 with its accessibility to games. The affordability of the games and console also gives it an advantage for budget-conscience consumers.

However, for those who want the best graphics, Xbox One is just a bit subpar with a 900 resolution on most games. A cool feature with Xbox Skill features is the ability to activate and control your console through Alexa devices with your voice. In addition, Xbox One, which features Xbox Live, has excellent options for entertainment outside of games, including Kodi, a sought-after media app. The console also offers compatibility with Dolby sound products for outstanding audio experiences as well.

Xbox One has simply incredible fantasy games. For challenging and diversified action scenes, “Dark Souls III” is the fantasy game for you. The player will find their way through intense combat with creatures of unimaginable characteristics surrounded by an edge-of-your-seat landscape that keeps you on your toes.

If “Dark Souls III” is a favorite, you will also enjoy “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.” Players will find a frigid atmosphere set in the Northlands during a post-war period in this fantasy game. Navigate through sparse lands while encountering enemies and friends in a unique and entertaining story.

The fantasy game lineup extends much further beyond these favorites for console game players. Take a deeper look into what Microsoft and Sony offer for games and get a feel for which has the library of your taste. From there, you can decide which console will best suit your fantasy game style.

DYWM Fun Fact

In schools in the mid-1900s, video gaming became an object of study. Students and professors were exploring all the possibilities, and although they were starting simple with games such as “OXO” and “Tennis for Two,” they were major advancements. As time passed, the games became more complex. In the late 1960s, the home console or “The Brown Box” was created. Later in 1972, consumers were offered this same console as the “Odyssey” from Magnavox. From there, developers gave life to new games and improved versions of old games. Even new consoles were eventually born. Some of the earliest favorites that are still loved today include “Pac-Man,” “Donkey Kong,” and “Space Invaders.”

The ’80s brought about a crash in the industry from a flooding of the market, and many console creators experienced bankruptcy. In 1989, the first console war arose between Nintendo and Genesis, both of which had hit the market with improved gaming attractions: Genesis with “Sonic the Hedgehog” and Nintendo with a 16-bit Super NES console. The ’90s then exploded with multiple new genres, including fighting games with gore that prompted a rating council to emerge in 1993. This was the basis of today’s rating system used by all the game producers.

Three-dimensional gameplay broke out in the mid-’90s with Sega releasing the first 32-bit console,  and then one year after, Nintendo launched its 64-bit console. This ushered in the dawn of modern gaming that we still see in action today. The early 2000s were marked by Blu-ray compatibility and an improved motion system for players. The Wii was soon to follow with motion-sensitive remote controls and the “Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure” that brought players physically into the game with plastic figures.

The evolution of video games has been an incredibly quick and impressive progression over the last 65 years. From simple tennis to motion-censored controllers, generations have seen the industry go through so many changes that most industries do not witness in a single lifetime.

The Fantasy Game Buying Guide

  • When looking for games for kids, be mindful of the rating on the fantasy game. You can find an explanation for the rating on the advertisement, such as violence or language.
  • Although subscriptions to the gaming networks for each console might seem pricey, it is a cost-effective way to have all the games at your fingertips for convenience. This is something to consider if you play games a considerable amount in your home.
  • Online networks help players to connect with friends and fellow gamers to create outstanding teams and enjoy the games further by tracking your progress and stats.
  • When you buy a subscription, you will find the latest news on recently released fantasy games or soon-to-be-released fantasy games. You’ll always stay up to date.