Worry not, Souls fans! Masaaki Yamagiwa, producer at Sony’s Japan Studio, announced today that shields will indeed make an appearance in the PlayStation 4 exclusive, Bloodborne.

Speaking with IGN, Yamagiwa said, “There are shields in the game. However, if you’re always standing back and guarding, you’ll die very quickly. So you have to incorporate it into your strategy of how you play and fight.” According to Yamagiwa, their goal is to create encounters that encourage the player to remain aggressive. Turtling behind a shield can easily end with the player being overwhelmed, he said.

Bloodborne is, by most accounts, a spiritual successor to the Demon’s/Dark Souls series. Previously, shields would often allow players to soak up vast amounts of damage before needing to attack or retreat. In Bloodborne, however, it appears as though they are intended to be a defensive last-resort. Nevertheless, shields should add even more variety to gameplay and character progression.

Bloodborne is being developed at From Software and is slated for launch on March 24 in North America.