Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (topic now 200% easier to find)

I honestly have no idea since there are so many minibosses. I’m an hour or two past your description above, in the castle and just beyond it.

To be clear about the level design, you’re able to see old and new areas from just about every location. So the map feels coherent without tying itself down to direct interconnectedness. It’s very well done.

The grapple hook points seem incredibly arbitrary. Why can I launch up to this building but not that one? It feels so limiting at times and I can’t see a reason why except they want you only using certain spots.

The death mechanic is so good. Both practically and story wise. I was genuinely shocked re: story implications.

I routinely resurrect just to sprint back to an idol. It’s as close as you can get to save scumming in a FromSoft game.

Oh son of a…

Square on the PS4 - is everyone on the Xbox & Windows?

I’m on PC using a PS4 controller. Sucks that all the button prompts are for xbox tho.

I’m using X360 so I don’t get confused with DMC5. Heh.

Current status: 4 impossible minibosses, two unexplored pathways.

I made it past the drunk miniboss and now am up against the next boss. Doing a little grind here to get a few skill points until I feel ready to jump in there.

I’m feeling a lot more comfortable with the step dodge and parrying now, though I still rarely parry. I like the system of slow cuts weakening the tougher enemies, whittling them down while learning their move sets.

Regarding dragon rot…
Is this caused by using the resurrection ability (as opposed to just letting yourself die), or from dying and going to the idol?

Because i thought it was the former, but then i got a rot essence from not resurrecting in place, and going to the idol.

It’s the latter. That’s when you trigger the unseen aid. There are multiple tiers of death because videogames.

So there’s no reason to not resurrect yourself every time you can?

Sadly, I was talking about the very first miniboss who is still in the tutorial area. Now I am stuck on the next real miniboss General Something-or-other who has actual combat skills.

I have beaten all the Souls games, and I am concerned that I will have to quit this game less than two hours in.

That question was to ShivaX. If you’re struggling early on there’s still a chance you will ride the difficulty curve and it will be easier later. I feel like anyone that’s beaten all the Souls games can beat this game, though I can’t say that for sure.

We don’t know yet, but death is enough to trigger the Dragonrot, regardless of ressurrection. Or at least it seems so. I barely used ressurrection and still got people developing Dragonrot.

Of course, I cured them all, but seeing as I’m still dying a lot, I wonder how long that will last.

Can we use boss names? Or we hiding those behind spoiler tags too?

I’m at what I think is the last boss in Hirata Estate. I got the rhythm of the fight. Know every counter (for when it’s time to counter). Have seen the second phase. Know exactly what I need to do. But I haven’t been able to pull off a flawless run yet.

Spent the better part of two hours piecing it all together. And i’m not frustrated because it’s such a fun encounter. Feels like my first proper ninja fight.

Gonna take a break and go back at it later.

No someone else, though that guy basically required you to cheese them. Most mini-bosses do imo, which is kind of anti-climatic, but you can’t fight a boss with 8 adds in this game. So you play “kill a dude” run and hide/out of range, repeat and then get a stealth backstab or whatever. Meh.

The upside of the fight I was talking about is that I’m pretty sure that kind of crap isn’t going to cut it, so at least the fight feels good in that respect. Also I don’t have to fight 15 dudes on the way to it, so I can get my ass kicked in short order with full health.

Fortunately the bosses stop bringing friends, or at least friends that are difficult to deal with.

I made it to a major story break and now the game has opened up three huge new paths. I’m a little overwhelmed to be honest. I guess it’s break time.

I was Googling how long the game will take to beat and spoiled some interesting news about the difficulty level for experts.

Mechanics spoiler

Apparently you can increase the difficulty of enemies by ringing a bell in an area midway through the game. You get greater rewards this way. You can disable it at any time. Sounds exciting! I can’t wait to try it.

I kind of wonder how NG+ is going to work too but I don’t want to spoil that yet.

EDIT: Eh, not that great. It’s for item farming.