Thatâs the early Souls formula again. Demonâs and DkS1 are really easy when you know the relevant tricks. The series only started tightening the skill windows and limiting overpowered approaches later.
Now theyâre introducing unfamiliar mechanics so they have to do the same thing again in the early to midgame. But the big difference between Sekiro and the early Souls games here is that Sekiroâs late game bosses are legitimately hard and well-balanced, in contrast to flops like Gwyn.
yeah, the boss design here is genuinely good, once youâre adequately prepared for the big bosses.
the early minibosses are ⌠frequently much more of a âtrickâ than that word usually conveys. five minutes on youtube would pretty much set you straight, but what theyâre left with in this pared-back design still leaves a bad taste initially
I think I skipped some monkeys by accident
Iâm led to understand I skipped some monkeys
if you did the temple area before fighting genichiro then you might wanna check back, yeah
like their last few games the sky changes colour to indicate time advancing in-world
You ultimately canât miss the monkey(s), possible you havenât trekked a certain vein
iirc the order in which you pick up certain late game key items can vary, also what signals progression but as long as youâre fulfilling them all, things advance to the same end(s).
yeah it turns out getting to mibu village by way of the reservoir first is actually the way to keep your options open because it means no one shows up in that conspicuously empty cavern until youâre in the mood for it so thatâs nice
Swinging palm to palm they got me like
Yeah I did it in the other order and didnât really enjoy the surprise. Less than 30 minutes after triumphing against that boss I was already forced to fight the janky hard mode version of him. Optional on one path, forced on the other, is a weird game design quirk.
I did it in Brocoâs order and it felt like a hilariously cruel joke. The initial fight already springs a surprise resurrection and then immediately after itâs a second coming. Exactly the cruel trollish From Software I love.
i loved the first one and i was shocked at how much i didnât hate the second. It was silly fighting it right after though, yeah. And ive never done the first one without the mortal blade! Finish him dammit Sekiro!!
Think Iâm coming around a little
I think the big reason I didnât like this at first was because I only picked it up because I was in the mood for Dark Souls, and Sekiro was pretending, at least ostensibly, to be Kinda Dark Soulsish, and I bounced off pretty hard when it was actually not that at all (except for in a few superficial ways)
Now that Iâve put 3 or 4 hours into Nioh 1 over the last couple days, Iâve managed to find an acceptable enough outlet for my Soulswant that I can engage Sekiro on its own terms
was doing my best not to suggest that this was the case because I know it pissed people off when I kept insisting this when the game came out
I still stick by my complaint that the level design doesnât feel right. It just doesnât feel From enough
I am interested in your opinion on fountainhead palace when you get there
To me, that was the most classically From level design the game went for: sprawling horseshoe layout where your destination is visible from the start and gradual unlocking of shortcuts to shorten the route
Right now my barriers are
Use Shuriken on Lady Butterfly when she jumps up on the wires. You can also just be continually aggressive with her. When she moves into her second phase, move towards the big statue head thing, sheâll appear there and you can get some free hits in.
The more chances she gets to swing at you is generally bad, since most of managing that fight is just continuing to attack, working in the rhythm that the fight has in mind. Itâs a moment where you learn very strongly how the game wants you to play it (got stuck there for a very long time). Other than Owl, I think it might be the best fight in the game (and Owlâs mostly a great fight because itâs basically a graduation test of sorts, without being nearly as abusive and obtuse as other multi-phase boss fights).
I ended up just mostly sticking to a pattern of Dash in->hit once->get parried twice->dodge to the right->counter slash and then hiding behind a pillar when all the genjutsu-mans turned into heat-seeking butterflies
Also why is there a bonfire down there now? Itâs a dead end.
Isnât it?
Managed to slip past the bell-swinging oaf on the other side of the bridge where you eavesdrop on two dudes talking about putting some guy in some armor.
Lord, but the area past him is nerve-wracking and â oh a ghost samurai murdered me in like one second. Guess Iâll come back here like way later.
Now I can finally see whatâs behi-- oh itâs that same ghost samurai
okay.jpg
Tower of Woo still kicking my ass because I canât figure out how to even get to its base (where you encounter the first Woosman) without alerting like 5 shuriken-flinging jerks at once
to warp out easily if you went back
You can safely run past all the ghost samurai encounters. i donât even think you ever get cool treasure from them except a prosthetic upgrade that⌠makes ghost bosses easier
I straight up do not enjoy fighting the ghost bosses (Shichimen, Headless) in Sekiro and have never bothered to. Terror is bad, frenzy was bad, Fromsoft stop trying to do the basilisk curse thing again you nailed it the first time
but itâs like 12 seconds away from the last one