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

[Bebpo]

Took down the hidden forest headless. Purple Umbrella & projected force didn't really help me, I'd parry (absorb) and hit R1 for the project counter attack only to eat the next swing of the headless doing tons of HP and terror damage even with terror reduction. All for like 10-20% HP damage for one counter. Died probably 10+ attempts in to the first deathblow trying to fight with the umbrella instead of confetti. Ended up just using gourd/terror gourd/attack + posture up/the last of my divine confettis and beat it. Don't like this guy at all. The camera was also pretty shit there. You know I thought the mortal blade special move was supposed to hurt undead, or I guess apparition and undying are different enemy types. Did 0 damage on headless.



Then tried O'Rin with no divine confetti left because I read if you are truly good enough you can parry enough to get 2 deathblows on her without attacking once. So I tried this for about 20-30 mins and finally pulled it off. I can imagine with divine confetti and actually being able to attack back it'd be a pretty easy mini-boss since her combos aren't too bad to deflect and her red attacks are easy to jump counter or avoid for the grab. I'll be real happy when either I can just buy 99 divine confettis for these types of fights or when I'm 100% done with the last stupid apparition type boss/mini-boss.

So now just have corrupted monk left. I've now cleared every enemy and area available to me up to this point in the game. Hopefully that fight won't be too bad. I never gave it a real chance just because I thought the damage output I was doing meant I was missing something and needed to comb back later.

[Himu]

See? And you said you were done with the game and you did all this. BTW Bebpo, did you give the sakura drop to Kuro? You get an extra revive doing that.

[Bebpo]

See? And you said you were done with the game and you did all this.

Yeah. Was still very frustrating. I was enjoying Sekiro a lot and felt it was probably best game I've played in 2019 yet, but this middle section of the game now after Genichiro hasn't been much fun for me. I really liked everything up to Genichiro, but I've been non-stop frustrated on everything since. Even small stuff like the monkeys, I didn't get that there was

spoiler (click to show/hide)

an invisible monkey

[close]

And so I ran around for like 20 mins trying to find the missing monkey. And all the terror/headless stuff is just annoying.

And if the last 1/3rd or endgame is even tougher than this middle section, I dunno if I'm gonna enjoy it.

BTW Bebpo, did you give the sakura drop to Kuro? You get an extra revive doing that.

Yeah, I don't even know where I got the sakura drop from.

[Don Rumata]

Yeah, I don't even know where I got the sakura drop from.

I think Lady Butterfly gives it to you upon death.

[Himu]

Terror enemies ARE an issue and put the game down a notch. But I still love it.

[Don Rumata]

Terror enemies ARE an issue and put the game down a notch. But I still love it.

I agree, i hate that shit, like i hated the "Frenzy" bullshit in Bloodborne (which is essentially the same thing, but worse).
I also think it's shit that you need Confetti to fight them, but can't have infinite confetti from the start.

[Himu]

Needing an item to beat enemies is wack. Sekiro is NOT an rpg.

Only major complaint about the game.

[Don Rumata]

FWIW, i agree with you Borys, cheesing is exploiting the AI or arenas/geometry in a way that clearly weren't intended.

Some people call even using prosthetics cheesing. 

[Himu]

Snake eyes in Ashina Depths is way harder because of poison and hidden/hard to see gunners. Fuck off From.

This is rage inducing. Putting a goddamn pit of poison that’s not easy to jump out of with a boss that moves around like this pisses me off.

[Don Rumata]

Snake eyes in Ashina Depths is way harder because of poison and hidden/hard to see gunners. Fuck off From.

This is rage inducing. Putting a goddamn pit of poison that’s not easy to jump out of with a boss that moves around like this pisses me off.

At least it's easier to get that stealth kill in.

[Himu]

I’m not sure how. Well I wasn’t sure until I beat her. You have to find the other idol on the other side first.

[Himu]

The mist forest is excellent. Lots of hidden enemies. This is pure Souls.

[Don Rumata]

The mist forest is excellent. Lots of hidden enemies. This is pure Souls.

It's almost literally a copy/paste of the mist forest in Dark Souls 2 (only made easier, i guess). 

[Himu]

The mist forest is excellent. Lots of hidden enemies. This is pure Souls.

It's almost literally a copy/paste of the mist forest in Dark Souls 2 (only made easier, i guess). 

Sounds fantastic. Loved the storytelling in that place. Took down the noble in like literally three seconds but no complaints lmao. Liked everything from the forest to mibu. Just great, fun shit.

I might have to stop playing so late at night. Mibu village and the forest are spooky!

[Let's Cyber]

oh god, Forbidden Woods in Bloodborne.

 

[Himu]

Guardian Ape fucking sucks balls. The beast bosses are all terrible.

[Himu]

Jesus Christ I am not having fun. Fucking die already.

[Himu]

Ten. Minutes.
 


Second form is easy but boring as all fuck. BAD.

Also I’m thoroughly confused. The menu said mortal blade costs emblems. I am using it in this fight despite having only 1 emblem. I limited myself in previous fights because I figured I couldn’t use mortal blade. What in the fuck.

[Let's Cyber]

If you're out of emblems, you can still perform the move but it will do less damage. If you have the emblems to spend, your mortal blade will be stronger at the cost of said emblems.

[Himu]

If you're out of emblems, you can still perform the move but it will do less damage. If you have the emblems to spend, your mortal blade will be stronger at the cost of said emblems.

“Needs Spirit emblems to use.” From, you mother fuckers.

[Himu]

After Ape it’s refreshing that O’Rin and Monk were easy af.

[Bebpo]

So after my last set of posts on Guardian Ape, Headless 2 in hidden forest, and O'Rin with no divine confetti left so having to win by parrying only, I ended up in the ER a few hours later from all the stress of the game. Basically 4-5 hours of retries against bosses gave me an anxiety attack and cause my internal organs to freak out and I injured the lowerend of my esocigarillous. So swallowing stuff would hurt right around where my heart is. Didn't sleep at all for about 24 hours. Doctor said I shouldn't be playing games that stress me out so much. Never had a game put me in the ER before.

So today was mostly recovered and against my better judgment I thought I'd try playing the game more calmly and not let 100 deaths on a boss stress me out.

Tried Conjuring Monk. First 30 mins of learned all his attacks, but not being able to beat him because it's hard even getting 1 hit in after parrying most of his attacks (his fade back slash -> jumping slash when side dodged let me get like 2 hits, rest most of the time get 0 hits in). I realized why I thought I was doing chip damage without confetti, because he was blocking all my shit and I was not actually doing any damage most of the time. I'd just parry all his stuff and do posture damage but he'd recover posture damage too fast to kill him that way so it was basically getting kinda impossible for me.

Then I just ran in and hit him like 3 times when appeared -> firecracker -> hit 1-2 times -> firecracker -> hit 1-2 times -> repeat until out of fireworks to at least get him down low enough in HP that the added up posture damage I would do in the fight would finally be enough to kill him and it was and beat him the first time I tried doing that.

Then went back to Ashina Castle and re-activated all the idol points.

2 Chained Ogre was a joke with flame vent this time, jumped down deathblow -> fire -> slashes -> he ded
The double purple ninja fight at the dojo seemed impossible at first until I saw I could stealth the first guy and puppet him and then beat him on first try after that.

Then came the next roadblack, the fucking masamune or whatever spear ninja by the old serpent shrine. I'd sneak around and backstab him and then he'd use ako's sugar and was INSANE. I literally spent two hours in about 100 retries on him. I had all his moves down pretty damn perfect but some of his bullshit like even parrying his 3 hit poison blow poisons me and his 4-5 hit combo that ends with a foot kick that you can mikiri, so many fucking time the hit before the final kick would break my posture and he'd do basically 100% damage on me while stunned. The only safe hits in where parrying his jump down kick and then head stomp his sweep followup, but that does posture damage and he recovers posture incredibly quickly. I had so many times where I had him under 50% HP pulled out the trees area and he's just like sitting and waiting for me but no matter what I'd try to do he'd block and and then do a ton of hits and break my posture and poison me and kill me.

Ended up getting lucky one time rushing him down because I didn't want him to have a chance to use ako's sugar which was what was really killing me in the fight.



After that got to Great Shinobi Owl, spent an hour of probably 30-40 tries before bailing. Another boss where I learn all his moves and adjust to parrying them but the posture damage always adds up and kills me. I really hate the game design of Sekiro where it's like "look this game is about standing your ground and parrying and countering" but then gives all these bosses so much posture damage that they get you to flashing in like 1 combo. Genichiro was a fair fight because his posture damage was similar to yours.

Anyhow since I couldn't beat him I just recorded my last 10 mins of tries so you can see how he fucks me up.



I learned pretty quick that anytime I was on the defense I would lose. I saw some youtube strategy about running circles around him and baiting his easy moves and getting hits in with whirlwind slash. Well like all the other internet "easy cheat strategies" I don't have the skills/reflexes to pull it off so I gave up on playing defensive.

You can see in my last attempt before I bailed at around the 4:50 mark I played offensively, staying in his face and parrying his shit (or at least trying) and only backing off when I parry his firecracker combo so I jump back and then jump forward to get hits in. Sometimes I trade/eat damage being so offensive, but it's the only way I can handle him. I get to phase 2 in that run and even get lucky and get like 50% of his HP down playing the same way, but of course when I try to dash back to heal because I'm thinking "hey I'm doing a great run this time, I should heal up and try to finish him" I die because I try to back off and heal.

Whenever I try to dash back, run back, jump back to get some space if my posture is almost broken or life is low and I want to heal...almost always eat a hit. I suck at getting away from him.


Anyhow, if I tried for another 1-2 hours of 30-40 retires (btw I'm completely out of my entire stock of spirit emblems by the end of that fight which is another reason why I bailed), I could probably eventually beat him.

But why bother, I'm sure there'll just be another harder boss after him that I'll spend hours of retries on and another one after that. My plan was basically if I got to an ending I was gonna delete my save file and shelve the game right after because I don't find it fun and just want to beat it and trash it and never touch it again. But at this point I've just lost all interest in the game and might sit down tonight and watch a video playthrough of the rest of the game just to see the rest of the story.

When I spend 2 hours on a boss and beat them, I don't feel satisfied. I feel like I just wasted hours of my life until I get lucky and had a good run. Sekiro for me, at my skill level, which the game has obviously exceeded by this point, isn't a game where I feel like I'm learning and getting better. I feel like I've pretty much hit my skill ceiling and whether I beat it or not just depends on if I'm willing to hit my head against a wall enough times until I get a lucky run and get past each tough boss, and that's just not worth it for me.

I'd been debating while playing Sekiro whether it's the hardest game I've played in my entire life. I wasn't willing to give that label for most of it because I mean I was there for the final boss of Shinobi PS2, some of that Ninja Gaiden Black stuff, Hollow Knight, SMB, etc...and the various other From Soft games (which aren't even anywhere near this kind of difficulty). I'm sure there's a handful of games in my life that I've just given up at because they're above my skill level but I can't think of any specifically. So yeah, I'm willing to say this is the hardest game I've played in my life and it's frankly too hard for my skill level. I've never claimed to be a masterful expert at action games, but I thought I've been pretty decent since I've all the other ones I've played, but yeah in retrospect this game's showed me that I'm probably one of the worst at videogames out of all of you here since most of you were able to beat this and it's pretty obvious I can't.

So I'm calling it out on Sekiro, for real before it kills me irl. I actually don't like the game as much because the skill level and reflexes it demands is just obscene. If this is the direction Miyazaki wants to keep going and making their games harder and harder, then I'm probably gonna skip the next one, or play it the way one of my PC gamer friends did, where they used a trainer and had a great time through Sekiro lol

[Himu]

Yahoo!

About to fight Owl. I have a feeling I’m at the end of the game so I’m uploading save files to PS cloud for backup. I haven’t beaten any headless or anything so I want to do that stuff before beating the game.

[Himu]

Bebpo I’m sorry

[Himu]

Trying to get the bad ending lol and fighting Isshin

[Himu]

Lol I have a backup save and when I get the bad ending I’m going to load it up tomorrow or something and kick Owl’s ass for Bebpo and then get the rest of the stuff needed for the best ending. Zehahahaha!

[Don Rumata]

But why bother, I'm sure there'll just be another harder boss after him that I'll spend hours of retries on and another one after that. My plan was basically if I got to an ending I was gonna delete my save file and shelve the game right after because I don't find it fun and just want to beat it and trash it and never touch it again. But at this point I've just lost all interest in the game and might sit down tonight and watch a video playthrough of the rest of the game just to see the rest of the story.

Yeah, the final boss is 4 phases of torture, cool fight tho.

When I spend 2 hours on a boss and beat them, I don't feel satisfied. I feel like I just wasted hours of my life until I get lucky and had a good run. Sekiro for me, at my skill level, which the game has obviously exceeded by this point, isn't a game where I feel like I'm learning and getting better. I feel like I've pretty much hit my skill ceiling and whether I beat it or not just depends on if I'm willing to hit my head against a wall enough times until I get a lucky run and get past each tough boss, and that's just not worth it for me.

I generally feel the same. The idea of surmounting a big challenge, as far as gaming goes, works on a bell curve for me, after a certain point, the sense of accomplishment when i eventually memorize every little thing and do it, is completely evaporated, and i just feel like i've wasted X hours of my life on a videogame.
It's why i never bothered with the Dark Souls 3 DLC, after hating the final boss of the main game so much, it just wasn't fun anymore.
It's also why i didn't bother to finish Sekiro for the same reason, i was happy after beating the Owl, that was a fun challenge for me, then the boss after it (which wasn't technically harder, but whatev.) all interest in the game had evaporated, and i knew i wouldnm't have had the patience to spend 40 tries on the final boss (as i had seen my Brother beat him).
I still dick around in the game here and there, tried some wacky mods etc, but for the most part, i moved past it pretty quickly (doesn't help that the game doesn't really allow for any other playstyle or exploration, and feels more shallow than other action games i liked).

I'd been debating while playing Sekiro whether it's the hardest game I've played in my entire life. I wasn't willing to give that label for most of it because I mean I was there for the final boss of Shinobi PS2, some of that Ninja Gaiden Black stuff, Hollow Knight, SMB, etc...and the various other From Soft games (which aren't even anywhere near this kind of difficulty). I'm sure there's a handful of games in my life that I've just given up at because they're above my skill level but I can't think of any specifically. So yeah, I'm willing to say this is the hardest game I've played in my life and it's frankly too hard for my skill level. I've never claimed to be a masterful expert at action games, but I thought I've been pretty decent since I've all the other ones I've played, but yeah in retrospect this game's showed me that I'm probably one of the worst at videogames out of all of you here since most of you were able to beat this and it's pretty obvious I can't.

This doesn't mean that much, i've had a bit less trouble than you with the game, but as i mentioned before, different people struggle at different points in all hard games, so it's not a linear progression of skill (not that i'm good at any game in particular).
For example, maybe Sekiro is harder than other FROM games, but it never managed to frustrate me as much as Bloodborne did at some points (Katana guy in the Church, or Chalice shit), so from my perspective, i'd call Bloodborne harder, but it's mostly because of how much affinity you have with what specific play-style the game is asking of you, i think.

[Don Rumata]

This is exactly how a lot of people feel about this game. There's no joy and celebration after beating a hard boss here like in Souls. There's just this thought "glad it's over" until the next roadblock which happens after 10 minutes because the game is choke full of bosses/ mini-bosses.

Yeah i wanted to say, this is also a thing.
It's weird because i like the Sekiro combat more than any other FROM game, it's satisfying to constantly attack, put pressure on a boss, break their posture when they're still at half health, it's satisfying to deflect etc, but then the game as a whole just feels paced wrong.
Levels in between bosses are complete push overs, you may die here and there, but compared to the slow exploration of past games, it's something you completely breeze through, and i know comparison with Souls isn't fair, but the resulting loop is a series of incredibly hard walls (bosses) that feel way too close together, because everything in between is just noise.
Even if you compare it to other action games, Sekiro feels worse - Ninja Gaiden and Bayonetta for example don't feel like a collection of bosses stringed together by thinly veiled treks through cannon fodder, Ninja Gaiden in particular asks you to pay attention in levels more than bosses, in many areas.
Sekiro has to pull 100% of its challenge from bosses, and this creates a really weird difficulty curve, of abrupts starts and stops.

In Sekiro, i had just finished the Owl after 6 or 7 tries, so what i'd consider a fairly tough fight, and not 20 minute later, i'm asked to do True Corrupted Monk? I didn't even get to enter the Fountain Head Palace/see a new area, and already i'm expected to spend another hour on a boss (granted it was a rehash, so i sort of knew its moveset), so i said fuck off, and used the stealth kill glitch, and dropped the game for good soon after (after the Dragon).
In this sense, as i mentioned before, i preferred the approach of Demon's Souls which sure, had some bad gimmick bosses (and some good gimmick ones), but at least tried to make every encounter different and unique, not just put another guy with 3 health bars you have to memorize a completely new move set of, every 20 minutes.

I don't mind the fights themselves, it's why i think a mode where you can freely fight individual bosses would even be fun, but as a whole, in the game, it never allows you to feel satisfied, when you spend 2 days beating a boss, and you're kicked in the ass by a completely different guy 20 minutes after, and you have to start all over, with very little in between.

[Himu]

Sekiro is full of difficulty spikes might be the problem. It's not smooth. It's very rocky and down up down up and relies on bosses (and mini-bosses) for challenge. I love it though. It's my favorite game this generation.

I'm hoping to beat it by Tuesday when Bloodborne arrives.

Everyone's criticisms seem to be completely fair.

[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.