FromSoftware’s Real Inspiration Behind Sekiro Wasn’t Even a Soulslike Game

FromSoftware shot to fame for its prominent titles such as Dark Souls and Bloodborne. These games had such an impact, that it started an entirely new genre of games, known as the Souls-like genre, named after the Dark Souls game franchise.

Released in 2019, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, marked the developer’s exit from its former works as it forayed into a whole new project. To date, the game maintains intolerant levels of difficulty and a deep combat system. These again proved to be known as FromSoftware’s hallmarks.

However, it also maintains its uniqueness away from Dark Souls and Bloodborne being an original game based on feudal Japan. Interestingly, the devs once revealed that they never planned Sekiro to be a new IP.

Tenchu was the inspiration behind Sekiro

Speaking to Games Industry for an interview back in 2018, FromSoftware community manager Yasuhiro Kitao disclosed that Sekiro was initially planned to be a new installment of Tenchu. Tenchu is the studio’s stealth-action ninja series which has been dormant for a while now.

Kitao stated,

“When we originally set out to create something different from Dark Souls and our previous titles, we thought it would be interesting to make a Japanese-themed game. So from that we started going in the direction of the shinobi and ninja, and of course, Tenchu was an IP with that history; that was the original impetus for this project.”

The community manager also revealed that the studio first approached “a number of companies” with the project. Activision was the one to immediately get on board. As the two developing houses worked together, the project ultimately thrived beyond its Tenchu roots. Thus giving birth to an entirely new and original title. He says,

“As we developed and as we partnered with Activision, and started building it together, it started becoming its own thing and the game we wanted to make was no longer just Tenchu, so it really evolved into its own thing.”

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice launched on March 22, 2019, for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Apart from its Japanese-inspired setting, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice further branches from Dark Souls and Bloodborne by presenting a resurrection mechanic. According to the mechanism, when a player falls in a battle, they can use a limited number of life tokens to instantly revive.

About Tenchu

Tenchu, an action-adventure stealth video game series, was originally developed by Japanese developer Acquire and first released in 1998 as Tenchu: Stealth Assassins. The game puts the player in the role of a 16th-century ninja in Japan. The word ‘Tenchu’ in Japanese means “Divine Retribution.”

The series is based on 16th-century feudal Japan, wherein, the original story includes two ninjas, namely, Rikimaru and Ayame. Both of these have been members of the Azuma Ninja Clan since their childhood. The two ninjas are seen serving the benevolent Lord Gohda as they work for him as his secret spies and are on a mission to drive out corruption and gather intelligence in his province.

However, there is an evil demonic sorcerer named Lord Mei-Oh who seeks to destroy Lord Gohda. Lord Mei-Oh uses his demon warrior Onikage, to wreak mayhem throughout Lord Gohda’s province. Even though the demon was killed in the first game, he later appeared in all subsequent games as the archenemy of the two ninjas.

Over the years, the game has witnessed multiple entries and sequels with the last one being Tenchu: Shadow Assassins released in 2008. Ever since then, the franchise has remained dormant for more than a decade.