Sekiro's Resurrection Mechanic Makes the Game Harder, Apparently

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice was first shown off at E3 this year, and it got a lot of peoples attention, not just because it was the third samurai game to be shown off (but yeah there were a lot of samurais), but also because its the next game by legendary developer Hidetaka Miyazaki, the wicked genius behind the Dark Souls and Bloodborne games.

That said, other than the trailer and some impressions we got from journalists who were lucky enough to play the demo at E3, theres not a ton that we know about the game but we do know its pretty different from Dark Souls, specifically because it employs a new death mechanic. Whereas in Dark Souls, death meant you would lose all your EXP/money and respawn at a nearby save point (and all the enemies would respawn too), in Shadows Die Twice, you resurrect immediately at the point where you die.

But talking to The PlayStation Blog, Hidetaka Miyazaki claims that this new death mechanic is not just only a lynchpin of the story, but it makes the game harder, not easier.

There are three ways death influences Sekiro: for the gameplay purposes of keeping the flow good and being able to have this risky situation, to be able to use it creatively, and also that the story centers around the concept of resurrection.

Theres one thing Id like to make sure isnt misunderstood: the resurrection system was not introduced to make the game easier. If anything, it actually can make the game harder because it allows us to push the edge of risky combat where the player can die at any moment.

He also made it clear that the resurrection mechanic wasnt final, and that they would still take care to make sure players feared death. But since the game doesnt have any classes or EXP or other RPG mechanics, its not clear exactly how it could be penalized.

But, hey, I trust Miyazaki.