Yod Gebre

Hi, I’m Yod Gebre, and I am drawn to things that force me to fail. While my favorite hobby has been gaming ever since I was a kid playing on the Wii, I don’t look for easy entertainment. And out of all of the games I played, my favorite, of all time, is Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, a game defined by its brutal, uncompromising learning curve.

I didn’t expect much from Sekiro. I knew it’d be a good game, but it honestly felt a little overrated to me at first when I heard about it. Boy was I wrong. In fact, it had such a deep effect on the way I see challenges now. The creators are known for their brutal but fair design philosophy, so there are no shortcuts you can take. They demand that you learn from your mistakes and grow past them.

The same could be said about how you approach some challenges in life. You could always try to find the path that is easiest, but by doing that, you’ll never truly grow. And there are some walls that can’t be walked around. In Sekiro, the bosses are just that. Even if you get by, following the easy path, it will be impossible for you to defeat these bosses. You have to internalize the struggle of losing and grow from it. But once you do, it’s the best feeling in the world.

Sekiro also taught me a lot about failure and perseverance. For each fight I won, I lost at least ten before, and for each time I failed, I wanted to give up twenty times more. However, I didn’t let that stop me. I reevaluated my weaknesses, improved on them, and eventually succeeded.

If there is one thing this game proved to me, it is that hitting a wall isn’t a sign to quit; it’s just an invitation to get better.