I find this to be true of the mikiri counters. I can do them without fail against some enemies and never get the timing right for others. Same was true with the burst counters in Nioh 2. I never know if it’s me or the game! :D
It’s actually very very easy to do. Always keep a slight distance away from Genichiro so you’ll find it easier to see when he jumps like a lightning rod where white flashes start gathering around him, you also jump immediately and press Attack button ONCE. Sekiro will take a small hit from the lightning but he’ll also automatically deflect back the lightning bolt back to Genichiro and he’ll be stunned by his own lightning.
You’ll only need to do lightning reversal twice against him as the reversals will do massive damages on him. It’s also the easiest to do in the entire game because the window to jump and press Attack is pretty generous. Mind you it’s better to learn now as future areas will have enemies that can shoot lightning too.
Or, you can do it the long and hard way, side dodge and runs around after a few cheap hits. But this cheese method is harder to pull off after patch 1.06.
Now that I’m back to work with the start of the new academic year, I’m no longer able to devote as much attention to my other full-time job, Sekiro. I hope I can maintain the proper amount of focus and discipline needed to actually complete a FromSoft game.
I had run out of areas to explore and mini-bosses to fight so I knew it was time to retry the Genichiro Ashina boss fight on top of the castle.
First, I spent a few evenings farming five skill points to get the Ashina Cross high-speed slash. It’s pretty strong but I might stick with the Nightjar Slash.
When I finally got that, it was late and I was about to quit for the night but first I decided to face Genichiro for a quick fight to see how it went… and I did great. I fought sloppy and still easily defeated his human form and got to his lightning form. And rather than get instantly zapped like last time, I held my own against him for a minute or two.
So my Sekiro morale gauge is full once more! I’m feeling confident that I can beat him later tonight.
I’m comin’ for you, bitch.
I was living vicariously through you. For some reason, I never clicked with Sekiro. Tried again briefly this summer.
followed
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Welp, I got spanked a couple dozen times. But I did manage to spend some quality time with lightning boy… and I’m learning. I even got off a lightning reversal.
I’m comin’ back for you, bitch.
Genichiro DOWN.
I repeat.
GENICHIRO DOWN!
Dat gif
0 healing left? You barely made it! Pretty bold of you to use the axe prosthetics.
Ha! It’s the only gif I could find. I assure you, it is not representative of my technique or experience save for the gruesome defeat (for now, it seems) of Genichiro the very bad boy. I think I had three heals left. And I used the Ichimonji Double to whack him over the head repeatedly before stabbing him through the heart. 💘
Someday I really need to master this. I don’t know how to use this effectively as it’s slow to execute and more often than not I’d get countered by the bosses. My default is always Whirlwind Slash as it’s defensive and quick to pull off on bosses, albeit dealing the least damage. But hey, slow and steady win the race.
I also used the umbrella deflect on Genichiro. Perfect parry + umbrella can deal lots of posture damages on him since his favourite move is that 7 multi slashes.
Someday I really need to master this. Never even tried it in combat!
I also usually stick with the Whirlwind Slash. (I said Nightjar Slash a few posts back but I misspoke and regret the error.) Lately I’ve been trying the Ashina Cross at the start of a fight to wear down their health for a bit, then I switch to the Ichimonji Double and work on the posture attack. I didn’t like Ichimonji until I got the double because I always got counter-attacked but I love how the double prevents that from happening.
The only problem with the Ichimonji strategy is my steadily growing impatience… whenever I start making a little headway on posture damage, I foolishly decide to keep pressing the attack and end up exposing myself. This seems to happen more and more with each new attempt at a tough fight until I give up and have to quit for the night.
I was surprised to beat Genichiro when I did because the previous two attempts ended in quick, embarrassing failure because of this kind of overly-aggressive rushing. I decided it was time to wrap it up after one last try and come back another day, but then I got into the rhythm of that fight and won it pretty easily.
It’s really a brilliantly fun and balanced game with the push and pull of the fight and the health and posture meters working in tandem. Plus, it’s a nice break from stamina bars.
GUARDIAN APE DOWN!
I freaked out the first time he transformed but it was actually a pretty easy fight. I was just super patient and stayed on the ground and tried to avoid any damage until I had a tiny opening so I could slash at him once or twice with a Whirlwind. Ape death by a thousand papercuts. Still, it took every health pellet and gourd I had to finally take him down. GROSS! And SATISFYING.
HEADLESS APE and his BIG MEAN MONKEY BUDDY DOWN!
That one took me a while to find and then a couple of nights of work but I finally got the right strategy. Monkey no like firecrackers.
I haven’t run around like such a frightened spaz since the Mezuki and Gozuki fight in Nioh 2. At least the arena for this fight was significantly larger. But I’m a staunch proponent of fighting one giant boss at a time, please and thank you.
Memory confronted. Attack power up. Prayer beads on. Vitality and Posture up. My challenge now is where to go next.
DIDN’T YOU KILL IT ALREADY???!!!
THAT WAS MY THOUGHT EXACTLY!!
You cannot kill that which is already dead.
Unless you cut off its disgusting centipede head.
Gotta say, that was a fun-as-hell moment… “Ew, he’s reaching in and pulling out his spine-- that’s no spine! EEWWW!!”
Plus how it explains the ape’s slithering attack movements. Very cool stuff.
You’ll be doing this again 😃
Yeah, I kinda figured that for the following reasons:
- His gross, twitching corpse and the still-very-much alive centipede sticking out of the neck-hole.
- The rule of threes.
- This f*ckin game.
I have good news! I got past the most challenging Fromsoft hurdle of all… not knowing where the hell to go.
In the past, that discouraging problem has halted me in my tracks on Dark Souls 2 and 3 and Bloodborne, all at around the halfway point. But I’m going to beat Sekiro, dammit, so I just kept loading up the game and exploring everywhere and brute forcing my way past the problem.
Little Lord Fauntleroy kept telling me to jump in the bottomless hole so I kept doing that, and plunging to my death, thinking that there was some path I was missing. I was convinced the umbrella would make me float upwards like Mary Poppins on a wind current or some shit so I experimented with that for a long while but nope.
Then finally I found the right tree branch in the Hidden Forest that would take me on to the roof of the hut so I could drop down and kill whatever was in there playing the pan-pipes. I think I’m pretty dramatically over-levelled for this area because I killed it in like 4 or 5 seconds without taking a hit.
So there I was staring out at a vista of unexplored territory and I saved the game and went to bed knowing I had direction and purpose in my life once more and it’s been over a week since I had that pleasure. So I’m just in a good mood about that.
P.S. I also killed the Shichimin Warrior in the Ashina Depths! Will I see him again?? Magic Eight Ball says PROBABLY YEP.
I have bad news! I’m stuck again. Man, this game is a pain in the butt.
Let me guess… Was it a monk?