Though FromSoftware had been making games for well over a decade by that point, Demon's Souls' release in 2009 established a new winning formula for the developer, something that would be further cemented with Dark Souls and its two sequels. Between Dark Souls 2 and 3, FromSoft released Bloodborne, a Lovecraftian take on the Souls action-RPG formula. While all of these games performed very well both critically and commercially, it was clear that FromSoftware wanted a change of pace by the time of Dark Souls 3's release in 2016, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice felt like the result of that.