I agree with this, thatās why seeing how strong the recovery was (after generally ignoring it) kinda shocked me - they reasoned into its advantage somehow, well to keep players close and not running away but thatās a bit too inverted conceptually imo. Maybe standing ground and building tension does seem like reinforcing yourself, in a way.
Oh christ Iām mega shit at this. Iāve only just got it a few days back but I finally beat the 1st proper boss (Lady Butterfly?). The sub boss before her was ridiculously difficult.
I feel like Iām playing this really wrong, does that go away over time?
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I def prefer guarding to speed up posture recovery but thatās because it clicked into place conceptually for me. I played the entire game like it was the Usagi Yojimbo RPG (if you havenāt heard me wax poetic about the combat design of this tabletop rpg hit me up on discord or in person or something) but I love that I have to press a button to speed recovery. Itās like I have to take a moment to catch my breath and center myself. Total samurai film feel.
Also, generally not feeling the idea of stance switching. The extent to which I could deal with it is doing one-handed vs. two handed. The high low mid thing nioh was doing feels so bad in comparison. What Iād like in a followup to this is a further elaboration of the grappling hook mechanics. Being able to pull enemies to you, pull yourself to larger enemies (they did this a little, but I would love it way more often), more generalized and less intrusive grapple points, etc.
It went away for me, but if you beat lady butterfly before gyoubu oniwa, youāre doing just fine. More of the game will click into place as you play. Every encounter teaches you to play better.
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Yeah I was going to say something similar about the guarding. Itās less like Souls where you are putting a heavy shield down to get a quick breather, and more like assuming the attack stance to focus and prepare for the enemyās next move
I think if regaining posture was a dedicated button Iād be fine with it. They way itās implemented, itās awkward.
Itād also be nice if it had some sort of specific animation so the game at least indicated visually that you were performing the regaining posture action rather than the general guard action.
Iād like to see this but also the mechanic where you can regain stamina if you hit R1 at the precise time after you attack.
Also, throughout the game Iāve learned to appreciate the input lag but sometimes I wish it was as responsive as a Ninja Gaiden game.
holy fuck the thought of adding nioh or nioh-adjacent mechanics (stances, āactive reloadā-thingy) to this game viscerally disgusts me lol. why take a simple-but-deep, elegant combat solution and fuck it up with unnecessary wrinkles? it would only make the game more demanding, and itās plenty demanding already.
iām surprised people are still finding so many things to criticize about the combat, i guess? itās by far the best element in the game, and i canāt easily think of a game where i prefer the combat. blocking to regain posture is fundamental and excellent design. it both immediately signals to those paying attention that this is not Souls and works to affect their desired pace and approach. as with nearly every game From has ever made, ignore the gameās feedback at your own peril. i find it extremely natural to block to regain posture. itās a smart tradeoff - you can dash around and be opportunistic, or you can hold your ground and clash. you can go for a posture victory or chip away at the enemyās health. contrary to what some have implied, the game supports and encourages both approaches depending on encounter. itās far from a one-trick deflect pony when looking at the game as a whole.
i think one of the biggest weaknesses of the game is that the boss content feels stretched a bit thin. most of them donāt grate too hard, but the drunkard rematch in mibu except now he uses fire and has a different name is too much, even though i laughed pretty hard at the appearance of the gunmonkey. the placement of the boss doesnāt make sense, nor does his very existence.
the economy is a little off. skills and prosthetic upgrades mostly feel too expensive (especially relative to usefulness), sen purchases mostly feel too cheap (such that there is frequently nothing worth spending sen on).
this thread still causes me to scratch my head and go āhuh?ā a lot. this game is certainly divisive and polarizing in a lot of ways.
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My mention of Niohās stances isnāt so much a drag and drop of the same exact thing, Iām exploring the way to marry the complexities and variety of that into Sekiroās strengths.
Once I stepped back from the basic groove, it could be more demanding and some of it stands fairly repetitive āimoā, I think I have a fair perspective I can explain shortly***. Iām not critiquing as much as Iām coming from an advancing, refining look at things.
***with more time/resource available, shite.
I agree, thereās a beautiful simplicity to the combat but itās clearly meant to be a starting point. Itās not even a question as to whether theyāll layer on more complexity in the future because they most certainly will.
Given the adjustments they made to the most recent patch itās clear From would like to see a more varied play style by making upgrades more accessible. This is just the first half-step towards opening the game up even more and I donāt think it would ruin things.
Adding additional weapons, changing the move set and possibly adding stances (hypothetically) would make the combat even more thrilling in my estimation and I think at this point in the gameās life span weāre ready for more.
I donāt think faster posture recovery when holding down guard/block is altogetherā¦fundamentally wrong, but for the sake of deflection, directness, and less constant evasion, I do find just holding the same button down, you pressed to start blockingā¦too loose. I can reason it elegant form fitting or fluid, then still find the pos recovery rate perhaps more generous than it should be. Or maybe it wouldnāt seem so, if not for the fact thereās no more strain on the player. I donāt have a best recommendation or practice to put forth like āthatās broken, hereās the fixā. Cuz itās not a big crack or flaw. Itās fine! Good! As an example, yeah another button press/held in theory, addresses my concern. Weāre largely used to holding one (or away/back) to block. Now with the added dimension of a posture meter, I want more input on my part to keep and recover it, not just given back the same way I block - something more that reflects greater pressure and tension.
Starting about halfway through my ng+ of Sekiro, I began feeling a small shade of repetition in combat, occasionally a little with level traversal that (far as I can recall)ā¦I didnāt with the neighboring similars (Ninja Gaidens, MGR, DMCs, Tenchu more for its stealth/problem solving). Nor did I with the older relatives (Soulsborne). Now thereās a lot of factors that go into this especially length, level of detail to uncover, and they all have their shortcomings, no doubt.
But where I think next is between Samurai and Shinobi action. The Sekiro they completed has little concern with silent in shadow assassinations, placement tactics, deep hiding, or much subtlety at all in dispatching opponents - compared to flinging about and reveling in glorious combat! Occasional neck plunges to turned backs included. They built and the vision came into sight and itās gorgeous! However
5 main slashes in the attack combo, looping at the first diagonal strike down.
A running spin horizontal slash.
A mid air attack that can swipe both ways.
A charged thrust attack.
From a certain perspective, thatās pretty meager, though there are I think ~15 combat arts (including powered up variations). Then tools and their sub-uses. Both equippable one at a time, largely expendable (excluding a handful of combat arts then the rest once expended are stripped down versions).
The arts/tools contain many extremely useful skills, but given the full game and opportunities you are presented with, the majority feel like flavor unless you really push for experimenting and variety for the sake of it. As mentioned they had toāve realized some of the lack in usable options.
There are some bosses and enemies with killer tricks to utilize - wouldāve liked more!
I think this gameās great! I understand if anyone loves it so much they might scoff at my reservations. But it also tickles my action-rpg brain bits toward certain details. Ruminating on what-ifs or crazy blends, are things I really I dig in wild big game threads.
I actually recorded an entire run (NG) of this game.
However itās 720p and YT will absolutely destroy the video no matter how good of a bitrate I render.
Iāll still upload it anywayā¦ but after watching @Rudieās videos I kinda decided to take the damn commentary off the videos. The micro is not the best, and my room is always full of noise.
Iām not convinced at all if anyone is interested in watching, or will actually answer my question here but, what would you guys rather have? With commentary or not?
Or maybe just the 3rd choice like: āDeciā¦ fuck offā witch imo is a perfectly reasonable choice.
[late edit]
BTWā¦ Iām really not trying to be a youtuber, I stream sometimes (mostly whenever I play something streamable on PC), but thatās just it. I would never do the cut of a āLetās Playerā or whatever thing like that
[/edit]
[even later edit]
I was testing different bitrates and shit, fight against first Genichiro (losing arm fight):
Looks pretty horrible but I simply canāt get better than that.
[/edit]
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To get better video quality on youtube, you have to upscale the video.
Youtubeās video settings are this:
So based on that, try upscaling your 720p 60fps video to 1440p 60fps, with a bitrate of 25Mbps
Yeah, saw all those setting, the video I show there was uploaded at 720p and 30mbpsā¦
But 720p or/and low views = you get a terrible ārecompressionā.
Also read around that upscaling to 1440p and uploading that way, it will force the VP9 compression from the part of Youtubeā¦ which is the āniceā compression.
This is kinda terrible of youtube imo.
Also, sorry the thread for going off-topic, Iāll start a thread someplace to go over this after a few more tests.
Also, thanks a bunch @disestablished
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Does anyone have any good advice for the final boss of this? Iāve spent at least 10 hours on him doing the same recommended strafing strats for the third form only to get annihilated regardless (First form I double ichimonji until his posture breaks and then hit and run for the second phase), and I canāt time the umbrella counters to save my life. Iāve debated grinding out the attack stat just to kill this asshole but thereās got to be something more practical.
in my experience u can play the 3rd phase exactly like the 2nd.
Summary
unless you are counting genichiro as phase 1? i cant tell actuallyā¦
Third phase of the four total, my bad.
A very slow but generally safe method for the last two phases is frequent running away at medium-far distance locked on (with him in your sights), until he does the leaping spear to the ground attack, he almost always follows up with a sprinted slash in your direction - study how far away you can be to avoid it while still running, but close enough to immediately rush in for an attack or two. This can be tiring and repetitive, so look for a couple other openings like his powered up wide area slash (itās like jumping over or behind him, youāll have to observe the trail-arc to see whatās clear).
As for doing it quicker and with deflects, that requires a lot of timing and aggression you may have already tried plenty. The handful of swipes combo that he does followed by a clear Perilous Attack thrust forward with the spear, is a great Mikuri Counter opportunity.
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ah ok all good. its confusing to talk about lol. for the whole fight id strongly advocate standing directly in front of the boss and deflecting everything and doing mikiri etc when necessary, and just working out when u can get a hit or two in. for phases 1 and 2 be extremely close. for phase 3 be mid distance, basically just within his weaponās range, so you can step back if need be (due to high posture or being uncertain about the attack etc) sprint a lot when avoiding the charged spin attack things. or the energy blast attacks.
tbh based on ur description of what ur doing maybe this would be a big change, and i assume you dont wanna totally change ur approach to every phase. but idk, when u get to playing it this way it definitely feels like this is how they intended u to beat it. it feels v doable and consistent.
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