Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice’s Traversal Mechanics Will Make For More Dynamic Boss Fights

FromSoftware’s upcoming action title, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is looking more and more excellent with every new bit of information we receive. Though it’s not going to forgo the challenging nature that FromSoftware’s games have been associated with so long now, things such as its focus on stealth, its progression mechanics, and the greater degree of exploration that it allows (to name just a few) look to be making sure that it sets itself apart from the Souls games in significant ways.

One more area where it’ll be doing different things is boss fights- boss fights, of course, are a vital part of any game made by FromSoftware, and though that’s obviously not going to change, how Sekiro approaches its boss fights is going to be different from how Dark Souls and Bloodborne did it. How so? Speaking with Game Informer, director and studio head Hidetaka Miyazaki said that thanks to the game’s traversal mechanics, which make the player character a lot more agile and mobile, bosses will also be structured differently.

“The traversal options allow much more dynamic movement within the boss arena, both for yourself and the boss character themselves,” said Miyazaki. “Previously, you would have just had to run around a huge boss’ feet and hack away at his ankles, but now you have all these movement options; you can both fully use the extent of that arena.”

“There are boss fights that through design didn’t fit that staple,” he continued. “If in every boss fight you were able to use the grappling hook to zip everywhere or stealth kill every boss, it would just get monotonous and boring. So there may be boss fights where you’re up against a huge creature and you need to use the full arena and get around very quickly and use that dynamism, but there may also be fights where you just need to go toe-to-toe and use every piece of kit in your arsenal.”

If FromSoftware can blend the faster, more action-oriented combat that Sekiro is going for with the excellent and challenging boss design that their games are usually know for, that’d be one hell of a combination. Looking at their pedigree, I have no reason to think that that isn’t exactly what they will do.

We should find out soon enough either way. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice launches in a little over two months, on March 22 for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC.