Just been playing some random stuff lately, and I want to talk about it.

First up is Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, the new game by From Software.

I'm not far in at all, only a bit over an hour, but it is extremely freaking cool. It seems to have the same sort of structure as Dark Souls and Bloodborne--wandering through levels, saving at bonfires (statues in Sekiro) which also respawn enemies. There are major differences, though. The story is told in a straightforward manner, through cutscenes. There are no classes to pick, no stats to manage. You play a set character. There are no armor sets, no weapons to pick up. You have your sword, and there are some items you can find and equip on your cool mechanical arm, but that's it.

Combat is really fast and really cool. Bloodborne was way faster than Dark Souls, and Sekiro is way faster than Bloodborne. The combat is based on breaking an enemy's Posture, which serves sort of as replacement for the old stamina meter. As you attack enemies, you build up their Posture meter. Successful parries build up the meter faster. Once the meter is full, their Posture is broken, and you can do a Death Blow, which kills the enemy. Some more powerful enemies, however, require multiple Death Blows to defeat. So, rather than doing the Dark Souls thing of chipping away at a health meter, it's more about being fully up in enemies' faces, building up that Posture meter for a kill. The same mechanic applies to you, though.

This 30 second video shows it off really well. I really love that it forces players to get up close an personal to enemies and to actually engage them, rather than poking at them and dodge-rolling away. The way that combat is designed means that you can dodge, but you can't just continually do it and wait for an opening--you have to constantly be engaged to deal permanent damage to enemies.

I'm not nearly far enough to make any sort of real judgment of the game, but I am absolutely loving it so far. Just as a note for folks of From Soft games that might be interested, it already seems way harder than Dark Souls or Bloodborne, and I've heard the bosses are even more intense. There is no grinding out Souls to level up so you can tank enemies--you really just have to learn combat patterns and get better.

The other thing I've been playing is Baba is You, an absolutely wonderful puzzle game. I can't even begin to explain what it is. This short Giant Bomb video does an excellent job of showing what it is though (and apparently it gets even more clever and really hard). If you like puzzle games, definitely check this one out.