How Sekiro teaches Flow State

Developed by award-winning FromSoftware, Sekrio: Shadows Die Twice is the latest entry in the “Soulsborne” series. Known around the world for the difficulty of its titles, the franchise is one of the most challenging and rewarding in the history of games.

The “soulsborne” games, a category that includes modern classics like Dark Souls 1 to 3, Demon's Souls and Bloodborne, share design features such as powerful bosses – which cause the player to fail multiple times and suffer many defeats until they are good enough. to beat them.

Sekiro is a spiritual sequel that shares much of the DNA with these titles, but the protagonist's most heroic and fluid form of fighting, which has moves inspired by the main japanese martial arts, modifies everything and makes the player learn what the famous flow state is.

How Sekiro teaches the flow state
 Photograph by steamXO/Public Domain "Sekiro transports the player to a world filled with challenging enemies."

Amazing and unique gameplay

The changes Sekiro made to the influential combat system made everything much faster and more fluid. There's no more stamina meter to worry about when performing attacks and dodging - and that gauge has been replaced with a stance meter that fills each time the player blocks an attack.

Blocking strikes without rest or at the wrong time causes the player's stance to fill up and then break, leaving them vulnerable to an attack. Now, if he blocks at the right time, the character not only deflects the blow and his gauge remains full, but also causes the opponent's block bar to fill up.

Only after the enemy's gauge is full is it possible to use a deadly counterattack. On weaker enemies, a single well-executed deflection can leave them vulnerable, but Sekiro's powerful bosses need several precise blocks to defeat.

Bosses that provide unforgettable fights and require high doses of concentration

All of the boss designs are amazing and range from massive monsters and demons with slower, more predictable movements with high damage to very fast and almost unpredictable humanoid creatures (except for a few indicators that appear before attacks), a fact that makes each fight unique. special and challenging in a unique way.

The player always enters boss arenas not knowing how they fight and the right way to defeat them. It is common to be defeated numerous times, but each time the gamer learns a little more about what the attack patterns are, when to use items, when to dodge and when to try to block the blows to counterattack.

The harder the boss, the more he has to adapt and focus exclusively on the game and this is where the phenomenon known as flow starts to appear for the player.

The flow in Sekiro

With each repetition of battles, the player's mind learns a little more about how to respond to patterns and how to act. With enough repetition, he gets to a point where he understands the extent of everything that is happening.

After a while, the outside world ceases to be a factor and he is fully present within the battle.

The player stops waiting for enemies to act and starts anticipating their movements. Your mind and body are acting in a unified way and it's as if time slows down when choosing to make a move.

This state of absolute concentration on a task that must be won or completed is known as flow and is one of the best ways to develop all kinds of skills and grow in many areas.

How Sekiro teaches the flow state
Photograph by steamXO/Public Domain “In Sekiro it is common to be surrounded by enemies and having to think about each of your moves”

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How to apply flow in different aspects of life

When one of the bosses is finally defeated after numerous battles, the player's brain releases high doses of so-called "happiness hormones". He gains a sense of accomplishment and feels like he has just completed one of the most challenging tasks of his life.

The flow state, as well as the great sensations that come with it, is not limited to games. It can be achieved in various other aspects of life that deal with work, completing tasks or even placing well in competitions.

One of the best examples of how to do this comes from famous poker competitor Yuri Martins, who talked a little about his experience with him and what it's all about the ideal state of mind for success. According to Martins, if a task is too difficult, the person will feel anxiety. At the same time, if it's too easy, boredom will set in. Thus, the state of flow appears when finding the exact balance of difficulty of a task or repeating it several times until it becomes easier.

It is very important to remember that it is impossible to improve all at once and learning is always constant. If to beat the bosses in Sekiro you have to try several times and choose defined objectives, such as learning the right time to dodge or when to use items, you also have to choose which skills you want to develop and which tasks will help with that.

The first few times a person tries to do a different task, be it writing a report, creating a presentation of power point or even start training, will always be more difficult than the next ones and the important thing is not to give up until you reach what you expect.

Putting knowledge into practice

After understanding how Sekiro helps to explain what the flow state is and how it can be used to improve performance in various aspects of life, all that remains is to choose a skill to develop and put everything learned into practice.

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