8 Reasons Sekiro Is BETTER Than Dark Souls

6. Checkpointing

One of the more frustrating things about Dark Souls - besides those a-hole blowdart sniper chaps - was the immense slog that faced players between checkpoint and boss upon death. One of the quintessential gaming desires is “one more go”, and while I respect the decision to tease this expectation out to teeth-shattering levels, Sekiro is much fairer when it comes to checkpointing.

Instead of dying and looking at a punishing 15 minute journey back to the boss, Sekiro posts spawn points more frequently, making progress and success feel like a more constant event. This in turn is great at keeping player investment high, as it’s less likely you’ll walk away from an encounter knowing you can try again far faster.

In my eyes, it’s not a weakness to have a more frequent points of respite, because the combat between these moments is still chaotically fast and visceral. The ability to jump back into fighting bosses and growing in skill alongside makes time fly by.