3889

Very possible. I didn’t really look up much of anything my first run.

The things I did look up were mostly NPC quests and more of that was to save time instead of going to every single Grace on the map looking for people (before they were on the map, obviously).

It’s easy to miss a ton of stuff though.

3890

Some reviewers (not a lot, but still more than “zero” LOL) did finish the game before it was widely available.

3891

It’s HUGE if you do everything. I’m 218 hours in, with 5 main bosses down (and their map regions completely cleared, except for the “find 3” puzzles and maybe some night-only encounters), most of the hidden areas done, and possibly 5 majors to go (3 extra shard-bearers, 2 required bosses, best guess). I’m cautious and thorough, but there isn’t much “world” left for me to find, mostly just the late dungeons and bosses.

It’s also mostly time-wasting filler with the open world, repeating bosses + variations + duos, and no guidance to find the core items for your build. I like the game, but they really could have designed a more interesting and compelling world structure and progression than just cleaning up “more scenery, more enemies, more items” repeatedly. On the whole, I feel like the sheer volume and uneven difficulty of the content dilutes it compared to Fromsoft’s previous Souls-like games.

I have no idea what a build or play-through looks like if you just stick to the critical path, or plan one out first, or follow a guide or walk-through. Being under-levelled sounds painful.

3892

I am increasingly of the opinion that Sekiro has been their best effort and I’m actually really looking forward to getting back to it.

3893

I am just hitting 100 hours in, I have 2 great runes and have beaten so many mini-bosses I can’t remember them anymore. I am level 76. I have been to most of the world but I know there is still a lot left.

I do think the open world part of the game has been made easier. There are some tough things out there but so much is optional.

But I am loving it. It is DS play but it is not a DS world.

3894

I look up stuff all the time because I suck.

3895

Whatever works for you is what you should do.

3896

Oh, I miss stuff because I’ve seen quite a bit of new stuff on my second play through. In prior Dark Souls games I looked up stuff more, like boss weaknesses. So, you are not alone :-) And like Scuzz says, whatever works we should do.

3897

I haven’t had a lot of issues, but I’ve gotten a freeze that sounds like the problem described about once/hour. Checked, and I did have 3 XVD drives in the device manager.

I uninstalled all the Xbox GamePass games that have just been staying installed for when I get back to them (i.e. never), kept the only one I’m actually still interested in, and all those XVDs went away.

I wasn’t having a ton of issues, but if I have even fewer now, fantastic. Thanks for that link.

3898

I have to say I’ve hit some what appeared to me to be quite out of the way bosses and when I look at achievement stats I’m very surprised to see like 26% or 30% of people have done them.

3899

Finally got the ability to use the great lift and up onto the plateau. (My Raya Lucaria soldier summons are awesome and made Fort Farosh a cakewalk.) Trying to decide if I should explore up there some or maybe tour around Caelid or maybe just try to kick Rahdahn’s ass.

3900

At 218 you’re an outlier I’d say. ~100-120h seems to be the norm for most completionists from what I’ve seen. Matches my experience too.

And I think this could easily get cut in half of subsequent runs, lots of time on first playthrough goes to pathfinding.

3901

I’m 76 hours in, 3 main bosses down, and I believe I’m inches away from the fourth. I was being pretty completionist early on, but this game is astonishingly big. After beating the upcoming big boss, I have three large environments queued up to explore and no idea which ones are completely optional. Some open world fatigue is starting to set in, so I’ll be aiming for the critical path to the end moving forward.

3902

I keep wanting to move on in the story but then I see something cool and I’m off again.

3903

112 hours in and level 149. I think I’m getting close to the end?

3904

…the game crashed on me, and now crashes whenever I try to reload. Guess I’m done for the night.

3905

I have an Xbox controller that I could use but I actually prefer M&K. The keybinds are rather clumsy and need some time getting used to, but for someone who mainly plays PC games, just being able to use mouselook instead of a joystick feels so much better.

3906

I’m still at level 60, but as I’ve seen I think completing the game is possible. But there are other things that are very obtuse or not explained clearly or not explained at all.

Usually, I look in guides when I have some object in my inventory that I have no clue how it works.

The last was the Great Rune from Godrick. I had no idea I could activate it, and I don’t remember anyone telling me.

3907

Haha, I love this, I did exactly the same! All the others have been mostly possible to make a beeline, but this one was different. I finally got it and also found a manor I’ve received an invitation to. I was just checking out my designated room, but turns out there is a hidden wall and a big area to explore here as well!

I’m almost feeling some burnout ~70hrs in, open world games usually don’t click for me. I just need to remember I can proceed along “the critical path”, but then I get distracted yet again, like with this volcano mountain area.

3908

I think the game mentions it, but it’s extremely easy to get distracted in this game and forget what you were up to.