Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (new From Software game)

[Kitchen Utensil]

Combat seems to be especially one-dimensional.

Just because it seems one-dimensional doesn't mean it is. I think the themes of fluidity, adaptability, concealment, and change coming through in the story and atmosphere are beautifully represented in the combat, mechanics, and systems. "More than meets the eye" is a current that runs through it all. Also, there is a lot of this game that simply does not translate to a viewing experience. There is a lot to learn about it and the surface has hardly been scratched by players so far.

Your overall response was the reaction I was expecting from a lot of people, and am pleasantly surprised to see much less of it in this thread than I thought there would be. I don't think this game is for you either, because you're looking for another Souls game. From and Miyazaki should be allowed to make something different, they have and it's great.

I agree. I really am looking for another Dark Souls, because for me the first Dark Souls was pretty close to perfection. I didn't expect Sekiro to be another Dark Souls, but I was hoping it would be a bit closer than it seems to be. I'm not saying it looks like a bad game by the way, the combat does look difficult and satisfying, and I'm sure there's more to it than meets the eye after watching 30 minutes of gameplay or so. It just doesn't look like my cup of tea.

 

[Mojobeard]

I'm finally at the point where I kind of like it.
Biggest complaint now is the stupidity of keeping any sort of leveling in. If there's no stats, then why not just make a straightforward action game? I thought that was the point, that they'd strip it down and make everything the difficulty they wanted it to be. Each upgrade right now is huge. Worth 15 early levels in a Souls game or so. Fights that were impossible turn into a challenging, but enjoyable dance.
And why not just give us most of these core skills right away or at least make them cheaper? All this does is make the combat system feel half-assed in the beginning. Especially aerial combat, "I can grapple to a boss and uh... not attack, okay".

 

[Matador]

Jesus fucking christ, using the PS4 controller on PC is such a fucking pain. Even with InputMapper it constantly throws off notifications about exclusive mode unable to connect or some such, the USB connection switches on and off, I can't find the controller settings in Steam....is that Microsoft purposely trolling people for not using the XBOX controller?

Try Inputmapper hidguardian to solve the problems with exclusive mode. It did it for me.

https://inputmapper.com/downloads/download/5-tools/76-inputmapper-hidguardian

I don't know if xbox controller is better, but I have a PS4, the controller is good enough and I don't want to waste additional money.

 

[Projas]

Oh god what the actual fuck is going on with the camera. DS3 played great on KB why would they fuck it up like that.

 

[Filthy Sauce]

Whhaah whhaah. The game was unexpectedly shut down... Progress could be lost. Shut the fuck up, game- I'll rage quit when I want.

 

[Silva]

Are gfx actually good? By the vids it looked worst than DS3.

 

[Mr. Pink]

Haven't read this thread at all but you absolutely need the skill that lets you counter thrusts before you can fight shinobi Hunter. Anyone suggesting chip damage is objectively wrong.

Spoiler

Kill the mooks around him, stab him in the back to take out half his lives and then dodge+move at the same time the moment he does a strong attack to take out 33% of his stamina bar. That's all there is to it.

I was confused about the combat and premise of this game until I realized it's basically a tenchu remake.

One you git gud, the bosses feel a lot more enjoyable and the amount of evasive options you get (dodge, jump, parry, counter) keeps things fresh.

 

[cvv]

Are gfx actually good? By the vids it looked worst than DS3.

I think it's still the same engine, although it's not as blindingly obvious as BB/DS3, thankfully. It's a pretty game, in a 2014 sort of way. Not that it matters that much.

 

[Mr. Pink]

I can't beat the purple guy in bamboo thicket slope...

I beat him by accident by panicking and falling off a cliff into the water.

Luckily I can swim... And he can't.

 

[Matador]

The drunkdard super armor delayed attacks are BS.

 

[cvv]

The drunkdard super armor delayed attacks are BS.

Toughest early miniboss in my book, I'll come back to him later when I level up. RN it's like running against a granite block.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

How to kill horse.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

I found ogre not to be that hard btw. Just keep you distance and not get too greedy. His hit may be poorly telegrathed up close (I dunno) but he has pretty big recovery time after hits, so just bait some hits out of his reach and then walk and attack a few times.
I kinda dealed in the same way with general before him. Parrying get too little poise damage so I just killed him with hp by baiting his attacks out of range and hitting him afterward. Lame but whatever.

 

[toro]

Haven't read this thread at all but you absolutely need the skill that lets you counter thrusts before you can fight shinobi Hunter. Anyone suggesting chip damage is objectively wrong.

I agree. Mikiri counter. The secret to all boss encounters (*almost).

Spoiler

wiki: This is an ESSENTIAL skill that is highly recommended for all gameplay. Get it first.

Once you get a red sign it means that the opponent will do some bullshit attack. However in order to actually counter the attack you have to parry it once the attack is landing.

I've played like 15 minutes with the dummy from Buddhist temple and his sword is flashing once the landing attack starts. The counter will fail if you parry before the landing attack starts.

Basically (1) notice the red sign, (2) wait for the attack and (3) parry once the landing attack starts.

All fine and dandy except that: most enemies have delayed attacks and figuring out when the attack is landing is a mess.

Well, all Bloodborne retards should love this cause it seems there is only one way to win boss fights in this game: parry or lose.

Well, if you love parries then this game will be a parry orgy.

 

[Silva]

Once you get a red sign it means that the opponent will do some bullshit attack. However in order to actually counter the attack you have to parry it once the attack is landing.

Just like For Honor then. Is it possible it was an inspiration?

Well, all Bloodborne retards should love this cause it seems there is only one way to win boss fights in this game: parry or lose.

Hunter Axe and Kirkhammer say hello.

 

[Ezeekiel]

Port works fine for me. Zero framedrops on max settings (except depth of field and motion blur, fuck that shit), 1080p on fairly old (by now) hardware.
Controllers are completely unnecessary for this (literally no advantage whatsoever if you play with one). Half the steam forum is people complaining about controllers not working. Sign of the times, I guess.

Also feels a bit like a Ninja Gaiden game.

Things I like so far:

-You can get keyboard+mouse prompts. Thanks.

-Feels less clumsy than Souls combat for now, but we'll see how it holds up.

-More freedom of movement thanks to the grappling hook, though some movement (falling from a roof onto a lower, wider roof section for example) can be finicky.


Some things I don't like:
-Still no oldschool western controls for this type of game. I wasn't expecting any, but still. I just want my guy to attack/aim/jump where I'm looking at ffs. Lock-on combat doesn't belong on a pc.
I doubt you'd really need it on console either. This would also allow more intricate weak-point/anti-armor combat.
If you want to look at something while attacking in a different direction, just hold a mouse-button to temporarily divorce aim/look direction or something.

-Not really an RPG anymore. If Souls ever really fit the bill. Still, you can't even make your own character.

-Story so far is just typical manga-trope trash for this type of setting. Even the voice actors sound exactly the same as the ones you get in any single anime with this general theme (playing with jap voices)
It's boring as fuck, and poorly told/introduced imo. The acting fits the tropes exactly as well.
Also somewhat crappy looking (compared to in-engine) cutscenes... Why. Not as bad as NuDeusEx, but still weird.
In general, the story telling stuff has its vagueness still to some degree, but otherwise it's an annoying departure from the SoulsBorne approach imo. Too intrusive at times, too. Maybe that changes later...
I loved getting defeated in a cutscene after kicking the first big bad guy you meet around in actual combat. Always nice to know that the cutscene people don't know they're making a game, not a movie.

-Moving the camera around fast enough makes the picture seem rather unfocused or weird/jittery, idk. Maybe because it's sort of focused on your character, not the background you want to look at? Or a frame-timing issue?
Not a huge problem in actual gameplay, but weird to notice.

-Game can have weird murk or something going on when it should be a perfectly clear day. Maybe weird HDR implementation or IDK.
I don't really like the image quality all that much tbh. Again not a big issue in actual play though. At times things don't stand out enough from the background as well, depending on lighting and whatnot. Again maybe HDR problem.
I cannot turn HDR on in the options (it's greyed out and says "off") but it seems to be on in-game anyway (but I want it off for real...). There's another greyed-out option regarding image quality or something, not sure what it's supposed to be for. Sharpness?

-They have some nice per-object motion blur but you can't separate it from regular motion blur in the options, sadly. Since I can't tolerate having everything blurred to shit just because of some camera movement, I'm forced to turn the general motion blur option off and that kills the per-object blur as well.

-No weapon variety so far. Yay, Katana borefest (and arm weapon special thingies). Some of your opponents get other stuff though, guns, spears etc.


Neutral:
-It feels easy as hell when facing regular enemies, much more forgiving than some of the souls games imo.

-Minibosses/Bosses appear more involved so far.

-Having to do the right type of action depending on their special dangerous attacks occasionally has me quick-stepping out of the way instead because it seems like it should work, graphically, but it doesn't unless you're well away already.
Going to have to get used to that. I'm not really a fan of rock/paper/scissors approach in this type of combat when the game's graphical representation of the action kind of makes it seem like you should be able to do other stuff.
I kind of prefer proper distance-management and such over awesome-button, magic-counter stuff.

 

[Parabalus]

Right at the start, there's an item on a ledge, at the end of the water filled tunnel - can you jump up to it or do you get there later?

 

[sullynathan]

Is it as hard as Ninja Gaiden/does it require as much skill? How does it compare to Nioh in systems? I'll be sailing the high seas for this one but not until next month or may.

 

[glass blackbird]

Enemies do one of three types of attack and you press the button that lets you counter it, then you hit them. Repeat.

 

[toro]

Is it as hard as Ninja Gaiden/does it require as much skill? How does it compare to Nioh in systems? I'll be sailing the high seas for this one but not until next month or may.

It requires skills. It's more difficult than Soulsborne games.

 

[Cromwell]

Well, all Bloodborne retards should love this cause it seems there is only one way to win boss fights in this game: parry or lose.

Bullshit, you could beat BB just fine if you were shit with parrys, I would know. Sekiro is way more frustrating.

 

[sullynathan]

It requires skills. It's more difficult than Soulsborne games.

more difficult as in "I play a lot of souls games and it requires different skill sets" or "I play a lot of action games and it's hard"?

 

[toro]

Well, all Bloodborne retards should love this cause it seems there is only one way to win boss fights in this game: parry or lose.

Bullshit, you could beat BB just fine if you were shit with parrys, I would know. Sekiro is way more frustrating.

You are probably correct. I skipped Bloodborne.

It requires skills. It's more difficult than Soulsborne games.

more difficult as in "I play a lot of souls games and it requires different skill sets" or "I play a lot of action games and it's hard"?

Both. You'll see.

 

[toro]

I beat the horseman.

Spoiler

Quite underwhelming.

The secret was to run in circle around the horsy I'm not joking. 2 minutes of non-stop running.

 

[Lutte]

Well, all Bloodborne retards should love this cause it seems there is only one way to win boss fights in this game: parry or lose.

Bullshit, you could beat BB just fine if you were shit with parrys, I would know. Sekiro is way more frustrating.

Parrying isn't required in Bloodborne but it's really worth getting the hang of it considering how much of the game it trivializes. BB has the easiest parry system of the souls I've played (haven't tried Sekiro yet, still downloading, didn't preorder) and being able to get invuln frames while doing visceral attacks on gang bosses like the shadows of yharnam feels really good.
I don't understand why you'd want to remain shit at the thing that makes the game easier.