Sekiro is supposedly a grand departure from the tradition of Myiazaki’s games, although as I’ve already stated here, the man isn’t unwilling to experiment.
Sekiro, despite being so different, still has the core elements of what makes Miyazaki’s games unmistakably his and then some. Much like in souls games, Sekiro features unforgicing difficulty offset by a resurrection mechanics, as we can clearly see in the trailer. But, as far we can see, it’s very different—you don’t re-spawn at a checkpoint, but right then and there.
Fans were understandably curious and worried about this, thinking that instant re-spawn could possibly trivialize some portions of the game. Miyazaki, in a conversation on the PlayStation Blog, decided to dispel some of the worries.
“The idea of resurrection is that it helps the flow of the game. Yes, you have this battle, but you don’t necessarily need to go back every time you die, this helps to balance that out and allows for that riskier “edge of the knife” type gameplay”—says Miyazaki. He also talked about using your death as a tactic to gain advantage, which is a fantastic idea.
From what it looks like the death and resurrection mechanics is meant to be implemented seamlessly with the game’s story as well. And if there’s one man who can pull it off, it’s definitely Miyazaki.