I’d love to see a strategy guide that tells me which tools and combat arts to use where. I don’t care enough to learn or experiment with them. It all seems unnecessary. But I really like the rest of the game so it doesn’t matter.
I’m the most cranky person on the Internet when it comes to wasted time on repeated boss fights, but 1 second to skip a cutscene never seemed that bad to me. Zipping through the first phase is fun because the combat remains engaging and quick. It’s not like Dark Souls where you’re waiting for stamina to recharge. You can kill the boss as fast as you’re able to.
I dunno, I enjoyed that entire fight. I never really got super frustrated because it was all so fast paced, and it was pretty clear early on what you had to do.
I started NG+ and I decided to give away the Kuro’s Charm, an item you get at the start of a new playthrough, which means I take chip damage if I block instead of doing a perfect parry. It’s really keeping me on my toes! I’m not sure how long I can keep it up.
Finally made it to Great Papa Owl, and to get there I slightly cheesed Ole Stinky Fist Shinobi by using the puppeteer ninjutsu to make his little friend dance. Pull the string! Don’t feel bad about it all. Guess I cheated myself ;)
Using the built-in tools provided by the game isn’t cheating or cheese, it’s playing the game as intended - the developers have been saying for months leading up to launch the game is about being creative with the abilities and items you have at your disposal.
I’ve managed to get Great Shinobi Owl into his second phase twice after about four hours. I don’t know how much longer it’ll actually take me to get through, but I’m making progress. I remain impressed at how comparatively little frustration I feel with bosses in this game.
I’m kind of annoyed at how few experience points you earn in NG+. I’m skipping most of the enemies but come on. It’s going to take a lot of farming to unlock all the skills.
I’m still going strong without Kuro’s Charm. It’s pretty tense. On the last boss now.
I’ll probably wimp out next run though. I’m looking for a fun tour to wrap things up.
I fucking hate the Divine Dragon. This is the first boss fight that has me actually frustrated. It feels like it was meant to be super easy, but instead I keep screwing it up somehow and failing. I just feel clumsy like I’m bumping into corners. I’m failing, but I don’t know why. I’d take Genichiro or Owl again over this in a heartbeat.
I am currently at Lady B. again, I get to the second phase, but not reliably. So I checked out some Dark Souls streamers like Lobos, Fightingcowboy, ENB… wow, they just do it. 1-2 attempts and done. I just don’t have the reflexes I guess… at least the fight is not frustrating me.
So I’m finally at the final boss and I’m beginning to feel that sense of fatigue mentioned upthread. This guy has four fucking phases! I’ve only been able to make it to his second. I just spent 90 mins on this guy and died probably 30-40 times and made it to his second phase maybe 8 times. I’m sure that Icouldeventually beat him given enough time but do I want to really sink that much of my gaming time into this one singular activity?
I don’t know why From thought it would be in any way rewarding for the player to have to fight what amounts to four of the toughest bosses in the game all in a row. The combat is great sure but the fact that you have to be almost perfect for so long and against such variety is getting frustrating. I’m not sure I have the energy to put into this. It feels like a job.
Hmm, after 90+ minutes that first part should feel laughably trivial. Are you optimizing all the attacks or are there still some that trip you up or that you avoid because you don’t want to deal with them? You’re smashing the hell out of his guard until he deflects you or does a perilous attack, right? Just like the first time you fought him.
I’ve been saying since release that if you’re not making linear progress in Sekiro you need to step back and re-evaluate.
I just encountered this all over again when I fought some other bosses in the Shura ending.
I’m not really sure what you mean by optimizing his attacks. There are definitely still a few that I fail to recognize and get punished for. Im standing in with him as much as I can, trying to stay aggressive. It’s usually a failed Mikiri Counter or a late jump on a perilous slash that gets me. But you’re right even now I can tell that eventually he will become trivial. But then I need to go through that cycle on the next phase, and the next, and the next!
My point wasn’t so much that I feel like I’ll never beat him, I’m pretty sure given enough time I will, it was more that I’m not sure I want to. Call it a gaming existential crisis. I heard Kirk Hamilton, on the Kotaku podcast, compare playing Sekiro to learning an instrument and I’ve heard others make this game as music comparison as well. Learning the moves and rhythms of a particularly difficult boss fight like this one does remind me of when I used to play cello and learning a new piece of music. The same repetition, the same slow growth in confidence and capability over time. The biggest difference however is that at the end of the process with the cello I’ve learned a new piece of music I can play over and over and enjoy every time, at the end of learning this boss…I’ll have beat the boss and will likely never touch the game again. All of the same frustration in the process, none of the repeated reward in mastery.
That’s fair. It’s not like you’re missing some awesome ending either. It’s the usual stuff.
Of course if you do master that part you’ll be able to demonstrate that over and over while you work on the other parts. That should be somewhat rewarding.
I totally understand wanting to give up though. Sometimes you just snap and you’re suddenly done with a game. At the very least you could take a break.
Well I’m going out of town in a few days so that will be a forced break if I haven’t beaten it by then. Of course I’ll likely lose all the progress I’ve made by the time I get back to it!
Like I said it’s more of an existential crisis than anything else. I’m sure I’ll eventually finish this damn game but this game more than any game ever has me asking Why?
Right. It’s like Guitar Hero. No one cares if you’re good at pushing buttons on a plastic instrument. It’s not the kind of mastery that translates into anything else in life. I enjoy playing the games for myself, but it’s not worth toiling away at it when I don’t enjoy it because I don’t get anything else out of it.
