Sekiro Shadows Die Twice (translator's note: Sekiro means ninja fuckery)

[Himu]

Sweet Jesus.

[Coax]

My thoughts on the late game.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I think past a certain point a key factor is there are fewer motivating factors to progress, difficulty aside. In the first half of the game pushing through meant opening new, interesting areas, encountering new enemies, finding items and going along with the story. By the second half there aren't any more interesting areas imo, the enemies are mostly re-used, the weather makes existing areas visually duller, by that point one recognizes most skills/items/tools don't offer significant advantages and the sheen of obtaining them wears off, with the story/characters additionally not being particularly compelling by themselves.

For me those things contribute to the sense of progressing through for its own sake by that point. Which if I'm honest even where I'm at currently is how I feel about it. Noise around me has subsided in the last couple days so may pick up where I left off though if I don't beat it that's also fine with me.

Was also holding out for the potential of the dragon mask fragments to be turned into a wearable but later we discover it's merely a game mechanic (and increasing attack power is fruitless past level 11 as Borys pointed out). I'm hoping that DLC, if it comes, will be the thing to look forward to.

[close]

[Bebpo]

I was reading up on the rest of the bosses and areas and endings. Watching people play it and it's annoying because the bosses always look so easy when other people to do it.

Like I watch this guide on Owl


And in this run of mine I'm absolutely playing way better than this guy, but I still die and he beats it :|


Anyhow, because I have a hard time letting go, I gave the Great Shinobi Owl another hour and beat him, but I did not enjoy the fight at all. It just feels like such a bullshit fight. His running slash sometimes will combo into more moves, sometimes won't. So sometimes it's safe, sometimes it's not. His 3-4 hit combo will sometimes finish after 3 or 4 hits, sometimes it'll go into a 2nd combo right away. Again, sometimes safe, sometimes not. His jump back and toss shurikens, often followed by a single shuriken and super dash slash. From my experience there's absolutely nothing that can be done besides parrying this slash and getting a knockback stun for a second. The poison stuff is also a total mess, I had to just suck it up and eat poison and not worry about it while my life went down because if I tried to heal it I'd get hit and probably die. Had one run, don't remember if it's the above one where I was doing good but died from the poison oh well.



This was the run where I beat him, but seriously no satisfaction. Just got lucky more times than unlucky. This fight would be ok if it was the final boss and then the game ended. It's about final boss bullshit levels in a very tough game. But more bosses left? Ehh.

I tried True Monk next, was surprisingly easy (way easier than corrupted monk, I have no idea why). The only move that was hurting me was his shadow clones but I'd just go hide up in the branches. Got 2 deathblows on him in like 2nd try, but then 3rd lifebar has pretty much totally different moves and died real fast. So basically to learn how to even fight the 2nd form I'd have to keep redoing the first 2 phases. So dumb. Also the one thing I hate about the corrupted/true monk fight is both of his red flash moves are fast and need different reactions. This fucks me up a lot.

Honestly I think bosses having a red flash that's both a pierce (so you have to dash forward or just hit dash) and a red flash sweep (that you have to jump and will hit you if you dash) is cheap and it's one of the biggest pet peeves I have with the bosses in this game. I don't have fast enough reaction time after the red flashes to see which animation starts and then either jump or hit dash to counter it. So most of the time I just hope it's the jump counter one and jump a bit to the side to try to avoid the stab one but I usually get hit by hit. And now with True Monk in the 3rd phase there's another red one that I don't even know what it is...yeah, idk.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

anyhow, from reading the guides bosses that I'm sure would take me hours and hours of frustration to beat:

Owl again but harder in Hirata - fuck that
Guardian Ape + Another enemy at the same time - lol, fuck that
Final boss with 4 phases - hahahahaha, never be able to be this.

[close]

FROM was really pushing it with Dark Souls 3 DLC#1 last boss having three phases. It was - and still is - the most difficult non-Sekiro boss in Soulsborne games.

Here they went over the fucking broad and gave us four phases.

Which boss are you talking about? I don't remember any of the bosses from the DLCs, but I did clear them! (honestly the only Dark Souls boss I never beat were the twin wolves in the DS2 DLC#2 in the frozen wasteland.

I honestly think the other From Soft bosses aren't on the same level as a lot of these Sekiro bosses. I'd say the hardest boss in Bloodborne is the final boss in the standard game and Orphan of Kos or Ludwig in the DLC (I don't think Maria is that bad compared to some of the other stuff). But all of those would be like medium-tier difficulty enemies in Sekiro. In Demon/Dark Souls most of the bosses aren't actually that bad, the stages tend to be tougher imo.

[Coax]

boss list

anyhow, from reading the guides bosses that I'm sure would take me hours and hours of frustration to beat:

Owl again but harder in Hirata - fuck that
Guardian Ape + Another enemy at the same time - lol, fuck that
Final boss with 4 phases - hahahahaha, never be able to be this.

[close]

The first is only if you unlock a specific ending path, which most won't encounter unless you take a sequence of missable steps, while the second on that list is optional from memory.

[Himu]

Does Darksouls reuse enemies like Sekiro does? I'm shocked they reuse mid-bosses and shit.

[Himu]

Apparently a lot of people agree with you guys.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Sekiro/comments/b7c2k2/the_final_boss_is_legit_too_hard/

[Bebpo]

boss list

anyhow, from reading the guides bosses that I'm sure would take me hours and hours of frustration to beat:

Owl again but harder in Hirata - fuck that
Guardian Ape + Another enemy at the same time - lol, fuck that
Final boss with 4 phases - hahahahaha, never be able to be this.

[close]

The first is only if you unlock a specific ending path, which most won't encounter unless you take a sequence of missable steps, while the second on that list is optional from memory.

Oh I thought the

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Owl Memories - Hirata

[close]

Was an optional thing you can do at this point, like the 2nd one.
And yeah they're optional, but you probably want the attack power from them for the final boss, I'd guess?

[Bebpo]

Sister Friede from the DS3 Frozen DLC has three phases (alone, with Father Ariandel (2 bosses at the same time), alone but super saiyan) - each one harder than the previous one!

Oooooh, yeah I remember that fight being a pain.

[Don Rumata]

Does Darksouls reuse enemies like Sekiro does? I'm shocked they reuse mid-bosses and shit.

Depends on the entry.
They all reuse a little, but Sekiro and Dark Souls 2 are (from memory) probably the worst offenders, with Sekiro being the worst one by far.

I actually don't remember if DkS3 reuses anything in particular, actually, Bloodborne too (if you don't count Chalice Dungeons).

[Bebpo]

Watching a video of that Dark Souls 3 fight, I remember it but it just doesn't seem as bad as the Sekiro stuff to me. I think it's just that the combat in DS, even DS3 which is the fastest of them, is so much slower than Sekiro and so yeah there are cheap boss moves and a lot going on but you have a lot more time to see stuff and react to it.

Like I found this article when looking around at Sekiro stuff

https://www.pcgamer.com/i-beat-sekiros-final-boss-with-cheats-and-i-feel-fine/

and the guy doesn't use like invincibility or some god mode like that, he just slows the game speed down a little so he can actually react to shit.

1. Sekiro's game speed is so fast
2. and on some of these bosses it requires near-perfect execution
3. and on some of these final bosses they are lengthy endurance fights.

Any one of those 3 or even 2 of these three would be fine, but requiring 3 of 3 in that is just ugh, frustrating stuff.

Like on True Monk, after like 20-30 mins of tries and figuring out you can get a free stealth deathblow after lifebar one (so it's essentially just a 2 lifebar battle) I was getting there (I've turned it off cause I'm going to sleep):



But like the only motivation I have at this point to waste more time and beat this fight is to be able to explore the final area. I don't care about the final boss and the ending but I've resigned myself to that I wouldn't be able to beat it and I'd just youtube the ending. But my favorite part of Sekiro was finding new areas and exploring them. Finding all the secrets in the nooks and crannies and learning to fight all the enemy types. Like it was said above, I think a big problem with the end game is after you come back to Ashino it's essentially just a re-run/boss rush with lots of reskinned bosses that are just made harder. The sense of exploration (aka the rpg aspect of From's games) is mostly gone and exploring the Fountainhead Palace is the only thing of interest left to me.

As much as Guardian Ape pissed me off and sent me to the ER (though I'd say Headless 2 caused as much if not more of that frustration), at least I was still motivated to clear Guardian Ape and see what was behind that waterfall. Same with Corrupted Monk. But really unmotivated anymore. Plus I've got other good games I could be playing with this time.

Fwiw, I checked my game time from the main menu to see with all these deaths what kind of time I have in it, and I'm about 30 hours now myself.

[Bebpo]

Also in my video at like 3:45 True Monk does a sweep which I head jump into terror spit which hits me as I come down from the head jump. Talk about cheap shit.

Does Darksouls reuse enemies like Sekiro does? I'm shocked they reuse mid-bosses and shit.

No, absolutelty not. That's Sekiro's weakest point IMO. Even weaker than useless skills & prosthetics.

Now that you mention it. That's one other thing. I felt like the prosethetics were pretty useful for a lot of the mid-game in Sekiro but all the fights now feel like there's no "helpful tool" that makes them easier. It's just git gud or keep dying.

I have most of the skills and like 7,000 gold coins in bags to use if I need to, but nothing to buy that seems like it'd be helpful.

[Bebpo]

TBH to be perfectly honest the story and the endings kind of suck in Sekiro. The lore and Sengoku Era feel, architecture, atmosphere etc. is brilliant but the story/ endings are... meh at best.

Right now I am just enjoying watching the speedruns (not skill runs as they are pretty boring and also hacked for infinite mana).

Bebpo, you really, really, really need to play Nioh next. It's everything you would ever want from Samurai Souls and fair challenge game.

Yeah, the experience in this endgame difficulty has me wanting to play Nioh, which hopefully will be a little less brutal.

[Himu]

Borys to help me prepare for the end, please help me with the following:

- where to grind for lots of gold
- where to grind for lots skill points

[Himu]

Was this with or without mibu balloons?

[Don Rumata]

Nothing in Sekiro is as annoying as the Chalice Dungeons.
Fire Dog in the defiled one, has the biggest health pool in any of FROM's games, AND one shots you by virtue of you being half health.


Also Nioh seemed even harder to me, but i only played the beta.

[Himu]

There is no XP Mibu Baloon, Cindi. Major oversight in this game!

I meant for money

[Himu]

Bebpo, fwiw you're better than me. I have 60 hours clocked in Sekiro. Idk if it's because sort of new-ish to From games. You have far more experience than me and the last one I got a ways into was Demon's. Or maybe I'm just bad. idk.

[Himu]

I’m getting tired of having to fight fast ass enemies in small ass rooms. There’s a loneshadow near the old grave and you have to fight him the smallest room ever.

A big problem I have with Sekiro sometimes is you have no time to think and you need to pressure constantly for posture damage but if you back off you lose posture damage. And in a fight with a cramped ass room like that it completely makes an infuriating combat scenario where you’re supposed to be incredibly offensive while the game fills the screen with shit that gets in the way of the action.

I am really looking forward to Bloodborne and being able to stop and observe, go in, do a 1-2 slash again. Because FUCK. Some of these encounters are SO FUCKING STUPID.

[Bebpo]

Fwiw, I don't remember how much better Bloodborne is at that. I feel like all From Software games suffer from bad camera/cramped spaces at spots. I lost a few times against the Owl by being up against a wall and not even being able to see the boss and just trying to parry blind from their typical combo rhythm.

Bloodborne is definitely a bit slower than Sekiro and more time to think and dodge and react. It also has a lot more focus on the stages like Souls games do.

But yeah, that Loneshadow guy is the one that took me 2 hours. You can pull him out to the forest and he'll chase you out but even there it's a tight space and the dude is 120% aggressive with super buffs.
Still, I have a feeling you're gonna be able to finish Sekiro, you're doing good.   

[Himu]

I really want the game to be over. I am not a fan of the end game at all.

[Himu]

THIS FUCKDKDNKD DNDA

[Bebpo]

I really want the game to be over. I am not a fan of the end game at all.

Yup, never felt this way about any of the other From Soft games. They were always fun even in the endgame (sometimes moreso in the endgame). Never felt like a chore/pain in the ass.

THIS FUCKDKDNKD DNDA

Yup.

[Himu]

I WANT TO SHAKE THEM AND ASK WHAT THE FUCK THEY WERE THINKING

[Himu]

End game just screams lazy and “we ran out of ideas/money/time” so use this as a challenge and enjoy redoing an entire area you’ve been to before.

[kingv]

I think they really need to unfuck their camera.

I could feel your pain as it panned to a spot where your character is off screen getting pummeled.

[Himu]

I really want the game to be over. I am not a fan of the end game at all.

Yup, never felt this way about any of the other From Soft games. They were always fun even in the endgame (sometimes moreso in the endgame). Never felt like a chore/pain in the ass.

What's end game like in the others?

[Bebpo]

I WANT TO SHAKE THEM AND ASK WHAT THE FUCK THEY WERE THINKING

Nice fighting!


But wait, in your runs Cindi, after you do the deathblow, does he usually use an ako's sugar and glow red trails the entire fight? Because I see he didn't do that at all during your fight which is weird because for me he would've totally done that by that point. I'm wondering if maybe I did something in the game to extra piss him off and cause him to be a hyper buffed version?

Edit:



See in my fight at ~18 seconds he glows dark red trails.

I really want the game to be over. I am not a fan of the end game at all.

Yup, never felt this way about any of the other From Soft games. They were always fun even in the endgame (sometimes moreso in the endgame). Never felt like a chore/pain in the ass.

What's end game like in the others?

Idk, like a normal videogame? Actually more like an rpg doing all the endgame sidequest secret stuff and then getting OP'd and taking on the final boss. But final bosses are still pretty challenging in their games, but not too bullshit.

[naff]

What's end game like in the others?

you have your build locked down and you can do pvp and co-op/invasion pvp stuff (help with bosses as sunbro collecting sunlight medals), mop up collectables and on DkS3 (haven't played 2, don't know if you can switch builds, still can't in dark souls 1 which kinda ruins a really great part of 3's endgame) switch your build around as you see fit experimenting with different builds, and new game+(+(+...)) lets you run through doing the stuff you missed/didn't do last time (there are a lot of those "organic" storytelling moments in souls which are very easily missable) and collect better gear (e.g. ring drops are improved in ng+). ymmv with DkS online, but i really like the undead arena in 3 and generally find messing round with various pvp builds really satisfying. lag is part of the experience   

[Himu]

He uses a sugar if you let up on him. Never give him time to do it. I treated it like playing a fighting game. When he gets up from the ground from the first deathblow,  I used oki (wake up attack) with mortal blade before the fucker even drew his weapon.

[Himu]

Bebpo you did great in your boss fight. I see he did the sugar on your run mid-combat. On previous runs he did use the sugar but def not mid-combat. I guess it's just a numbers thing. I have no idea.

you can do pvp and co-op/invasion pvp stuff (help with bosses as sunbro collecting sunlight medals)

please rephrase this sun collecting?

[naff]

That was meant to be an e.g. (e.g. help with bosses as sunbro...), it's one of the things you can do post game. quite a nice chill post game activity, i started doing it because i needed 30 sunlight medals (reward for helping someone beat a boss while in the Warriors of Sunlight) to get a lightning miracle, but now just log in to lay a sign and help a bro beat a tough boss like midir or friede occasionally.

Warriors of Sunlight aka Sunbros / disciples of Solaire of Astora are a much memed covenant in Dark Souls.

[Himu]

What system do you play

[naff]

PC

[paprikastaude]

you don't even have to do that boss 

[Himu]

That wasn't a strategy on purpose. I mean, I noticed the guy was behind the pillar. Might as well take it while it's an option. It just turned out that way. Free damage is free damage. Fuck honor.

[Bebpo]

you don't even have to do that boss 

But what is a game if not for its bosses 

Bebpo's fight > Cindi pillar strats

That's only because you didn't see the other 67 fights that were horrible looking

[Don Rumata]

you don't even have to do that boss 

But what is a game if not for its bosses 

Well in the case of Souls i'd disagree, but for Sekiro? Yeah... Not much else to see.

[Bebpo]

I was joking :p
I mean I do feel like if you’re playing a game like Sekiro that’s all about the fights why wouldn’t you feel compelled to do all the fights available (gotta get those beads too).

But yeah my favorite part of Sekiro are the levels & normal enemies. I really like exploring the interconnected worlds and meeting weird npcs and fighting different grunt setups.

[Don Rumata]

There was honestly no area i really loved.
Senpou Temple was probably my favorite, but lacking a real boss, it means it didn't have a proper build up and climax.
Fountain Head Palace was visually appealing and original, but the level design felt somewhat confusing (and the way you get there was tonally very out of place).

The rest was ok, i didn't find the level design as mind blowing as people were saying, nothing on the level of Demon's Boletaria/Latria or BB's Yharnam, anyway... but i concede that it's easier to make intricate levels, when all you character can do is walk, like in Soulsborne games.
Still, even taking from the classic Samurai imagery, there was a lot they could've done, but instead they sort of treaded the same ground.
I think the game would've benefited from a teleport/levels approach like Demon's.

[paprikastaude]

I really like watching people play some of the bosses and it always makes me want go back to sword clashing myself. They really nailed that duel feeling to make it satisfying.

[HardcoreRetro]

I could not get a read on Owl's openings at all. So I just ended up getting in only hits when he does the overhead slash or drops the Lloyd's talisman. Makes it a boring fight, but whatever. Got him down either way.

[Don Rumata]

I could not get a read on Owl's openings at all. So I just ended up getting in only hits when he does the overhead slash or drops the Lloyd's talisman. Makes it a boring fight, but whatever. Got him down either way.

I enjoy that fight, but the thing that i dislike about it, is that his only danger (aside from maybe the poison) comes from every other attack doing 90% damage, that's all there is to it.
He doesn't even have any perilous, IIRC.
His second fight at least is proper hard, because it has a very complex move set.

[Don Rumata]

I could not get a read on Owl's openings at all. So I just ended up getting in only hits when he does the overhead slash or drops the Lloyd's talisman. Makes it a boring fight, but whatever. Got him down either way.

Baiting is a proper strategy. Owl can kill you in 2 hits (if they connect) vs like 6 hits from Genichiro, that is precisely what makes him harder.

Genichiro has a more fun move set to fight against, more varied anyway.

[HardcoreRetro]

Actually being able to break his posture in a reasonable ammount of deflects helps as well.

[Himu]

lmao

[paprikastaude]

I could not get a read on Owl's openings at all. So I just ended up getting in only hits when he does the overhead slash or drops the Lloyd's talisman. Makes it a boring fight, but whatever. Got him down either way.

After the overhead slash he backs away for a new attack, among other occasions. If you follow him/dash towards him at the same moment you can get another bunch of hits on his health. iirc it then doesn't take long for his posture to stay up.

[paprikastaude]

Played through two thirds of ng+2 today

[HardcoreRetro]

You all bailed out on this game?

Going for the platinum. Probably gonna involve boring grind for the final skill points.

[El Babua]

Beat Genichiro on my second try.

I am loading up on beads tho

[Bebpo]

You all bailed out on this game?

Still working through the video playthrough, but interest comes and goes. I was excited to see the

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Divine Dragon

[close]

fight since I was hoping it would be a bit more Souls-like, but it looked pretty easy with just like 2 slashes to dodge/jump and then lightning.
At the part after that where the guy is just wrapping up all the new mini-bosses at the very end.

Sometimes the video walkthrough makes me want to re-install the game again and get past true corrupted monk to try some of this stuff. But then other times is just like nope, no interest. Fountainhead Palace was pretty but the level design being all big and open doesn't look like that much fun.

Honestly, watching people play Sekiro I think what it makes me want to do is wait for a PC sale and re-buy the game and start from scratch again because I think I'd enjoy the first 3/4ths of the game much more on my 2nd time around knowing how to play and boss strategies. Ideally I'd love to do a NG+ run because I think I'd enjoy it MUCH MORE than the first run, especially not having jack shit VIT in the early bosses, but the problem is that to get to a NG+ run you have to beat the game which I don't really want to do (although if I knew this before Great Shinobi Owl fight I'd probably have done the Shura ending which I feel like I could have beat and then jump into NG+ run from there).

When I replay it on PC maybe I'll do that and go for a Shura run -> NG+ run, or I'll just get as far as a I can, use a trainer to finish the game with all VIT beads/ATK power and then attempt a proper no-trainer NG+ run.

I like Sekiro, but it's just too hard for me at the endstuff. Also I noticed in the video walkthrough the guy at Great Shinobi Owl fight had one more VIT necklace than I did, plus he did the Headless Ape fight for +1 ATK power; the combination of both probably would've made the owl fight a little easier. Still hard but those times where I got like 1 hit away from beating him would've actually beat him much earlier.

Or maybe I should just play Nioh while I'm waiting. I see the PC version is on sale in steam sale for $24.99 complete edition now. I have the PS4 launch edition but not the DLC and I think the DLC is like $20 anyhow, so maybe should just get that. Sounds like PC is better for 1080p/60fps while PS4 Pro is 720p/60fps.

[Bebpo]

Oh and one of the things watching a 100% video walkthrough run shows me and makes me want to replay the game is how much I under-used the tools in my run. Watching good people destroy the game they're constantly using different sub-weapons to completely demolish enemies/bosses. Like I never found a use for sabimaru but like fountainhead palace it just destroys the normal enemies in 2-3 seconds no skill required.

I'd definitely use my tools more on a new run. Although the weapon skills do seem pretty useless outside ichimouji and the latent stuff. Never see anyone use anything else.

[Bebpo]

Watching the FightinCowboy, it's very long and slow because it's a 100% (every item picked up) run, but since I'm not playing it and I like the exploring side it's close to my style of play and I like getting a full feel for all the areas/bosses since I'm not playing it.

I get what you're saying about NG+ bosses, but correct me if I'm wrong since you've done NG+ runs of Sekiro, but I feel like compared to the other Souls game Sekiro's NG+ would scale the least. This is because in NG run the bosses are already doing 60-90% damage per hit, and NG+ is going to be the same except A) Now you know their patterns and how to beat them and B) For the early bosses/areas now you have way more HP and all your sub-weapons/items.

So it feels to me like if in Dark Souls or Bloodborne, each NG+ run the enemies got 10x harder and you were 10x stronger/better, in Sekiro, the NG+ runs the enemies would get 3x harder and your skills would be 10x better.

Basically Sekiro as opposed to other Souls games is far less stat dependent and far more strategy/skill dependent and so NG+ runs should be much easier in Sekiro vs other souls games.

[Bebpo]

But yeah I think you're right that if I'm gonna start over from scratch on PC, might as well wait for the DLC to come out/finish. Just gotta not lose all my skills by then 

[Himu]

Nah mortal blade is amazing

[Bebpo]

BTW you do know that Confetti is a flat 25% damage boost against ANYTHING, right? It is 37.5% against ghosts but 25% against anything else living or not. And it stacks with sugars!

No wonder I'm seeing people use it. Yeah, lotta helpful stuff if I go back to Sekiro. Does Confetti stack with Sugar?

[HardcoreRetro]

Also to get the platinum without cheating you have to really play the game at minimum 4 times.

How is making a back-up save cheating? If you did the prerequisite to get all the endings you already proved you could beat it. Game doesn't seem to offer anything new on repeat playthroughs.

[Bebpo]

Finished watching the video walkthrough.

Demon of Hatred looks hard as fuck because of the huge hitbox for its attacks and 3 lifebars and that souls camera struggling with big objects thing. Cool visual effects though.
Final boss honestly doesn't look bad outside the endurance bullshit of 4 health bars. Like his attacks don't seem worse than Owl and just like Owl he's got some safe get hits in attacks like the overhead jump, the charge move and the lightning reversal. Like owl he's got little crap to parry (ninja stars = bullets). And like Owl he's fast and tracks you and has huge range with the spear (the spear swings look like they'd fuck me up the most since a lot of them seem stolen from Corrupted Monk like the jump back swing which Monk also has and is total bullshit because it's so fast you can't see it and the other swings feel like 7 Spears which is hard fight on its own). Anyhow, that's just what it looks like from watching a non-speed-runner play and take a lot of hits and still win.

Also people use the fuck out of things like rice (and even pellets not to heal but to have regen life during the fight) and using divine confetti + ako's sugar boost + subweapons. I didn't use any of this outside Ako's Sugar on bosses. I think if I was using rice/pelletes + divine confetti and new when and which subweapons to use I would've struggled a lot less on bosses like Owl and Ape and beat them much quicker. Also should've saved the Headless fights until I got Malcontent.

Also I think if they put a goddamn checkpoint in the final boss fight after the first lifebar it'd be a fight I'd enjoy playing. Demon of Hatred, if it was 2 lifebars instead of 3 I'd probably enjoy it.
I feel like if things were balanced a little easier just in that way, less lifebars, more checkpointing, not having to skip the fucking video everytime before fights like Owl/Genichiro, Sekiro would be more fun than frustrating, at least for me.


Also I followed up on the lore videos/story analysis after and while I like parts of the story, I feel like this is almost a Dark Souls 2 situation where so much of the lore is currently missing and people's theories are all over the place (like with the Centipedes). I hope the expansion DLC clear some of this up because I feel the plot is not as satisfying as I would like because so much of it is just

Also with the endings, they're alright but it's kinda weird how much the true end is straight out SEKIRO 2 - COMING SOON. I wonder if it that one bit was a push from Activision to be able to easily do a Sekiro 2 if it sells well.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

although at this point personally I'll be a little bummed if this is Miyazaki's new franchise and he makes 2 or 3 Sekiro games next since I'd rather have him do another original game or go back to more rpg souls again. But that's just my tastes. Even an easier Sekiro 2 is less appealing to me than something more souls-like.

[close]

[Bebpo]

Oh and I thought it was funny that I've watched a bunch of runs of people beating Spear Vilehand Masanaga out by Old Serpent Shrine, but not a single one of them has been able to beat him when he's buffed with Ako's Sugar. They all die if that happens and get a win in when they beat him before he can buff up. Or they use AI glitches to trap him in the forest area, but every AI glitch I ever tried on a boss I could never pull off myself /shrug.

Here I struggled for like 2 hours trying to beat him buffed thinking there was no way around it, because he'd usually do it in his first move after being stealth deathblow'd. Dude is just 100% bullshit when he gets his buff off. Unless you perfect parry every attack (because a perfect parry won't break your posture) his buffed posture damage will constantly break you and then hit you with a 95% damage kick while you're stunned which will usually kill you because he's doing posture + VIT damage before that.

I honestly think buffed with Ako's Sugar and not using any AI glitching tactics, he should be a contender for the hardest fight in the game.

[HardcoreRetro]

It seems if you take the final boss head-on the 4 health bars aren't that much of a problem. It's more that some of his moves are hard to read. Especially one of the kanji follow up attacks that can be either a swing or a stab attack. The time to parse those and react is insanely small.



Reminds me of the timing needed for this shit.

[Bebpo]

Oh yeah, that sweep/stab bit is the same shit that fucks me up with Monk. I've complained about it before but I legit think that's bad design on Miyazaki's part. Sekiro combat would be better (and more fair) if the sweep/stabs had different color warnings (yellow/red). I guess that's one thing they could do in a sequel to make it a little more accessible.