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

Yeah, the game sets itself to Japanese audio automatically, and frankly I would not even consider changing it to English…

…well, except for THIS GUY.

First time I’ve seen footage from this game.

I forgot to keep myself spoiler free for a minute.

Spoiler:. Unlike Bloodborne, you can block in this one! Since the main character never has a shield I had always assumed you couldn’t.

Not only can you, you pretty much have to!

I’ve kept myself pretty spoiler free for this one, too, mostly.

Ok, I died. That guy with the jumonji yari is pretty tough.

Edit: Jeez, this guy represents just a tremendous difficulty jump. Maybe I ought to go a different way for now…

Edit 2: I went back to Ashina to see what was what beyond the guy and his mom, and ran into the red eyed ogre. Thankfully I’ve been talking and listening to everyone and everything, so I had a decent idea what to do and I only needed two bites at the apple. Used all my oil, though.

The game has many gate keepers in terms of difficulty. You’ll need to master the mechanics to get past them.

Kept going in Ashina, found a shortcut, had a knock down, drag out fight with General Tanzen Yamauchi but prevailed (he’s way easier than the spear guy, just so much less aggressive), and found something in a dark cave that instinct (and a posted note) told me not to fuck with right now. Well, maybe now that I’ve put down the general and progress along this path seems to be blocked; although I can see more area, I can’t figure out how to reach it.

Edit: ok, the cave was a bad idea for sure. The shinobi hunter is just so damn aggressive, and his 危 attacks…are they ALL counterable with mikiri or just one of them? The windows on the windups are quite small.

Edit 2: Woo, got past the shinobi hunter, although I don’t think I landed a single mikiri counter to do it. Wait, no I did get one, but I didn’t posture break him, just wore down his health.

Edit 3: Oh ho, Hirata is not the only way forward, I simply missed a downward path. Although my reception that way was not very friendly…

I like these reminders of how horrible I am at these games, but I enjoy them so persistence counts. I look forward to hearing your experience in some of the fights that I died 1000 times on.

I can’t wait until I’ve forgotten enough of Sekiro to play it again. Or even better, they come out with a second one.

This is an interesting one. It doesn’t feel very “Dark Souls” to me, but I admit I have trouble quantifying what I mean by that. On the other hand, it is very Dark Souls to encounter something, as I have done a couple times already, and think “there’s no fucking way,” just to eventually get to the point where there most certainly is a way.

I very much appreciated that in Sekiro you really need to be aggressive and stay in the fight. In Dark Souls, I end up dodging and running around, while trying to get a few hits in here and there. In Sekiro, I just go at it and parry/block/whatever, and the resulting fight is just so great to experience.

I know you don’t have to play that way in Dark Souls, but since I’m not forced to stay in to succeed I end up never learning how to really fight well.

I find that’s true even more of Bloodborne. As I mentioned upthread, I feel like here I pretty much have the tools to pull out of any fight at any time, at least so far. Grapple up into a tree or what have you and figure out my next move, etc. In Bloodborne that was…very much not the case. Eat or be eaten, sometimes literally.

Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to play Bloodborne. Good to know.

Went down the path of the white snake and got as far as putting one eye out before getting chomped, so decided to see if I could put an end to the other path I have open.

Got to LB. As relatively spoiler-lite as I have been on this game, I have heard of her. Has a reputation. So when I got to the end of her life bar I was a bit surprised, although I had used all of my healing items. Of course there’s a second phase! Damn you, From, making me think a boss wasn’t gonna have a second phase. I did not prevail.

I will say I think it’s a pretty bold choice to make a consumable item integral(? it’s a little hard to tell) to a boss fight.

lol, even the game told me to give up on LB for now after the 20th consecutive L.

Edit: And he of the incredible voiceover is dead. Then I ran into the blazing bull and that’s enough Sekiro for one day.

I can get past LB’s first stage now without dying, but the second stage, hoo boy. Trying not to use my snap beans but all the little missiles and whatnot make this one pretty brutal. Gotta use my shuriken better, I guess.

I never used them. You can just run around and then hide behind a pillar to avoid the whole sequence.

LB down. I found just running around avoided them well enough. I did try hiding behind the pillars, but she was always coming for me and I didn’t want to wait for the whole cloud to spend itself…good fight!

Got past the BB, found a dude in a well and finally the traditional From problem has reared its ugly head: the camera. The space is so small the camera keeps bashing itself against the walls and then spontaneously unlocking so the guy gets behind me (and I can’t see him because all I can see is my own back) and ends up drop kicking me for massive damage. I was starting to think maybe they’d learned something!

It’s not required at all.

I did end up beating her without them.