Every Way Sekiro Isn’t a Souls Game
Posture Mechanic
The biggest change for Sekiro comes with its Posture mechanic, a stat that affects both you and the enemy equally. Souls games always allowed you to block and parry, but Sekiro absolutely demands that you parry, or suffer for not.
An orange bar appears below the enemy’s health and on the bottom of your screen, and this represents yours and the enemy’s posture.
The bar goes up as you block or get hit, and once full you become staggered and completely open to attack. Of course, the same holds true for the enemy. This makes Sekiro’s combat feel very tactical and exact, as you need to wear down enemy’s posture while trying to protect your own.
You still have a dodge button, but combat in Sekiro is almost entirely focused on timing your blocks in order to deflect an attack, and inflict huge damage on your enemy’s posture. It’s a complex system that feels extremely different from the methodical combat of Souls.
Only One Weapon But Shinobi Prosthetics
Also adding onto the changed combat in Sekiro is the fact that you only have one main weapon to use, the Wolf’s trusty katana. You won’t be able to equip different weapon types like in a Souls game, however, there is still variation to combat.
On top of a wealth of different skills you can learn, Sekiro gives you a number of different Shinobi Prosthetic Tools, each of which has a different function. For example, one Prosthetic lets you shoot shurikens at an enemy, while another lets you use a massive axe attack that has a decent amount of wind up time.
You can equip up to three different prosthetics at any time and swap between them on the fly, but their use is dictated by a resource called Spirit Emblems. Each prosthetic uses a number of Emblems each time you use it, and the items can be bought from Sculptor’s Idols, dropped from enemies, or simply found lying around.
