The Prosthetic Arm inSekiro: Shadows Die Twicewas a stand-out feature in the FromSoftware game that already introduced many unique ideas to the standard Soulsborne combat. The arm is introduced initially as a traversal tool, but it soon shows itself to be a powerful and useful item in combat.Sekiro: Shadows Die Twicealready has some of the most fluid combat in modern games and the Prosthetic Arm only creates more options for the player to explore when facing off against the many different types of enemies.
SinceSekirostands out so much when compared to other FromSoftware games, it makes sense for the developer to introduce such a diverse weapon in this title. However, the versatility of the Prosthetic Arm could lay the groundwork for other weapons and abilities in future FromSoftware games. FromSoftware prides itself in giving the player options in combat, and the potential of more weapons similar to the Prosthetic Arm could make the combat even more diverse.
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How the Prosthetic Arm Works in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
The protagonist inSekiro: Shadows Die Twice, known as Wolf, is different that than any other player character in FromSoftware games because he given a proper name and voice. The game’s title heavily focuses on the protagonist as the name Sekiro translates to “one-armed wolf”. Wolf is already a well-established shinobi at the beginning of the game and gains his nickname shortly after the start of his journey when he loses his arm in battle and receives a prosthetic arm from the Sculptor.
The Prosthetic Arm originally allows Sekiro to grapple to hard-to-reach areasand greatly compliments the mobility of the game, which was new to FromSoftware titles. However, as players progress through the game, they discover new Prosthetic Tools that can be equipped and used in combat, at the cost of Spirit Emblems. These abilities allow Wolf to add variety to his standard sword attacks and helps him use different weapons such as a long-range spear or heavy axe.
Sekiro’s journey takes him to many different locationswith a wide variety of different enemies, many of which pose unique challenges and have specific weaknesses. It is with these types of enemies, that the Prosthetic Arm truly shined. Shielded enemies could easily be defeated with the use of the axe attack and beastly enemies with red eyes were vulnerable to the flame attachment that also caused a burn status effect. There are plenty more enemies with different vulnerabilities that could be exploited with the Prosthetic Arm weapons, and the game encouraged players to try each tool and see which one was most effective.
There are even somebosses that are weak to Sekiro’s toolset. Some are easy to figure out, like the Flaming Bull’s weakness to the firework attachment, similar to other animal enemies in the game, but some of the weaknesses are less obvious and that makes them all the more satisfying when they are discovered. The second stage of the Guardian Ape boss, for example, has the enemy lose its head and use an attack in which it falls to the ground, leaving its neck vulnerable. Most players see this as an opportunity to attack the boss normally; however, if the player uses the spear attachment, they are able to achieve a critical attack and severely damage the boss’ health and posture.
It is the player’s ability to explore all the different combat options of the Prosthetic Arm that helps create moreinteresting combat inSekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Unlike other FromSoftware games, this title only has one main weapon and no spells or magic, but the Prosthetic Arm opens up an entirely new class of combat and combination attacks that goes far beyond the use of spells in other games. Proper utilization of the arm and its tools can allow for players to exploit enemies’ weaknesses while the limited amount of Spirit Emblems prevents players from over-using the abilities of the arm.
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How FromSoftware Can Utilize the Prothetic Arm in the Future
FromSoftware is well known for creating diverse and creative combat experiencesin its many action-oriented games. Even the early games likeDemon’s Soulshave had many different weapons and abilities that keep the player’s experience from becoming too stagnant and repetitive. With different weapons using different types of attacks such as blunt and sharp and spells usually revolving around elemental damage, players are able to utilize these different attacks to deal extra damage to enemies who may be weak to a specific type of attack.
With that said, the Soulsborne games have never truly broken away from the same attack types that were created inDemon’s Souls.Bloodborneswitched things up a bit by introducing trick weaponsand replacing the usual parrying system with the fast-paced gun counter, but the combat never strayed too far from its roots, untilSekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Though the Soulsborne games do include elemental effects that could be added to weapons to exploit and enemies' weaknesses, it never felt nearly as powerful as Sekiro’s Prosthetic Arm.
FromSofware’s latest entry,Elden Ring, is clearly trying to break the mold by introducing players to a completely open world full of a wide variety of different combat options.Elden Ringfeatures a plethora of new weapons and abilities and puts an emphasis on mounted combat in the open world and also encourages stealth combat. The latter of which has likely beeninfluenced bySekiro: Shadows Die Twice, as it focuses on stealth and quick, fluid combat. But stealth is not the only combat option that FromSoftware should adopt in future titles.
Though it would be impossible and impractical to feature a weapon identical to the Prosthetic Arm in other FromSoftware games, it could be in the developer’s best interest to use the weapon as a blueprint to create a more diverse set of weapons or abilities that each have their own benefits.Sekiro: Shadows Die Twicerequires players to think on their feet and quickly adjust their move set or attack style to better deal with a particular enemy or boss, and the Prosthetic Arm allows for a variety of different combat options to be available at the player’s whim. More weapons similar to the Prosthetic Arm could allow otherFromSoftware games’ combat to become more fluid and diversewhile also introducing a new level of depth to the already intricate and challenging combat system.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twiceis available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
