Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (new From Software game)

[Correct_Carlo]

Lady Butterfly was a learning experience for me, in that she was initially incredibly difficult (the first difficult boss), but she became trivial once I realized that I was confusing block and deflect. I initially was just holding down the block button, not realizing that deflection both has to be timed and actively drains bosses' posture (the tutorial may have mentioned this, but I was left with the impression that you have to Deflect + Counter to damage posture, rather than just deflect,).

Once I realized this (and got the hang of deflection), I beat her on my first try. She's pretty simple:

1. Deflect, Deflect, Deflect, attack twice (repeat ad naseum). Attacking her will make the fight go faster, but I'm I'm pretty sure you can deplete her posture and open her up for a death blow by doing nothing but deflect her attacks. So don't attack unless there is an opening, as there's no point risking it when deflection will keep her posture bar up.
2. If she jumps into the the air, throw a Shuriken.
3. Try to attack her aggressively in the second half to prevent her from summoning the phantoms (she won't summon them if you are continually engaging her). If she does summon them, however, just run away. They only last a few seconds, so they really aren't worth killing. Just be sure to hide behind a pillar after they de-spawn, as they will all turn into butterflies that do massive damage.

 

[Lambach]

Are you supposed to take Posture damage when you Deflect? Because I see what you guys are saying and I've seen some YT vids on her, but even when I block on time (or so I think at least) she stills keeps doing enormous Posture damage to me, far more than I can handle before running away to regain it (at which point she just regenerates hers as well).

 

[Wunderbar]

Are you supposed to take Posture damage when you Deflect? Because I see what you guys are saying and I've seen some YT vids on her, but even when I block on time (or so I think at least) she stills keeps doing enormous Posture damage to me, far more than I can handle before running away to regain it (at which point she just regenerates hers as well).

don't run away then. You can keep deflecting even with filled posture bar.

 

[Parabalus]

Are you supposed to take Posture damage when you Deflect? Because I see what you guys are saying and I've seen some YT vids on her, but even when I block on time (or so I think at least) she stills keeps doing enormous Posture damage to me, far more than I can handle before running away to regain it (at which point she just regenerates hers as well).

If you block on time you'll hear a sharp sound, and see lots of sparks. You shouldn't get any posture damage for deflecting normal attacks.

Recognizing the que is important, because when enemies deflect your attacks (instead of guard), it means they'll counterattack (because you/they recover faster) and you yourself should switch to deflecting.

If you're having trouble, try always deflecting, and attack only after she does a perilous/ you use shuriken to knock her down.

 

[Villagkouras]

You do receive posture damage even if you perfectly deflect, but your posture will never break if you keep doing so (and obviously the enemy's posture bar fills with a much higher rate).

 

[Lambach]

It's done. It took ~50 attempts, but it's finally done. My new PTSD trigger? Old ladies.

Blazing Bull is also a bitch.

 

[Lambach]

Spoke too soon, brought him down on the 3rd attempt. I did not realize you could also Deflect his charges for a brief stun and a lot of free hits.

 

[Parabalus]

Spoke too soon, brought him down on the 3rd attempt. I did not realize you could also Deflect his charges for a brief stun and a lot of free hits.

I had the same issue, I never would guessed that that shit is deflectable, kept dodging/jumping which prolonged the fight.

There's a few more such cases as you go further along.

 

[Biscotti]

If it's not a grab or a sweep attack it can be deflected. I don't think I've ever run into any exceptions to this rule.

 

[mogwaimon]

I just started playing this game finally and I can't tell if I like it or if I don't. On one hand it frustrates me to the point where I have to turn it off, but then I go back to it an hour later and make a little more progress, repeat ad infinitum. On the main track I've made it to some Seven Spear general I was having trouble with, still haven't beaten him yet because I decided to see if I was missing some prosthetics since those little fucks with the hat shields started showing up and fucking me over. Yea, turns out I missed an entire questline because I took a shortcut earlier in the game and never ended up backtracking so I went to Hirata Estate and got the stuff I was missing.

Spoiler

so I just beat Lady Butterfly, it was a pretty good fight. Not overwhelming, but challenging enough to make me have to retry a few times. For anyone having trouble with her, I found it helped to fake her out by hitting once or twice, then before the third hit (she usually deflects the third one) do a dash counter and it will usually take off some of her vitality, which makes it easier to keep her posture down. During second phase I found that the snap seeds were kinda useless and that it was easier to just run around the arena to dodge the projectiles after she converts the illusions than to stick around and use snap seeds or fight off the soldiers.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

Blazing Bull is easy. Just chase him, staying on his ass. If you are bothering to deflect him you are doing it wrong.

 

[Rivmusique]

 

[typical user]

After beating it 3 times it feels great once you know what to expect from all enemies. I actually beat the Sword Saint on my second NG on first try using only 3 gourds and no prosthetics (well maybe Raven Mist or a firecracker once but didn't chesee him).

Seven Spears is a bitch same as ministry purple ninjas so I suggest exploring and gaining Prayer Beads from other areas. Ashina Castle is a central hub so get to Ashina Depths, Mount Kongo etc.

The game is great and I am planning on replaying it and getting all prosthetic upgrades. If you struggle with a boss go to wiki and see walkthroughs - there are some good tips how you should approach a boss, when are good openings, what attacks you should avoid and some other useful tricks. I swear I struggled with Shichimen Warrior first time without divine confetti, now I just wait for him to jump to make aerial execution then I parry his beam of souls after he reappears.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

Fucking ledge grabs. I can't consistently grab ledges. It's usually not an issue, save for when there are ledges over pits. So fucking annoying.

 

[MapMan]

Here are my few cents after beating the game for the first time. I'm not great at articulating my thoughts so I will atleast try to keep it short:
- Locations - I think it's a pretty common complaint that we could use more variety. I think the locations that were there, were good but it's certainly not this games strong point. I do understand though that this time they wanted to keep things more 'realistic' and based on history. When it comes to verticality, at first I didn't like the verticality but it really grew on me.
- Soundtrack - I absolutely love it. My kind of thing. My favourite themes are in the monks monastery. Cool stuff, I listen to it outside the game often.
- Story - The story is the easiest to follow from all soulsborne games. I'm not a super fan of japanese mysticism and the general setting but it was enough to keep me interested.
- Prosthetics - This is a mixed bag for me and I think the biggest issue here stems from the fact that your standard toolset (i.e. the sword and movement) are much more powerful than any of the prosthetics. I found the only consistently good prosthetic to be the shuriken. I could use it to interrupt and close distance, which is useful. The other prosthetics are often very situational and even then their use is not necessary nor very rewarding. (cheesing aside).
- Bosses / general mechanics - This is where the game excels I think. The mechanics clicked for me at Lady Butterfly. It was an amazing fight. Extremely fair, each attempt I felt like I made progress and learned a bit. That's how bosses should be done. I never felt underwhelmed. Ultimately I learned to deflect basically her every move and kept pushing her until she ran out of posture health. Fights like Lady Butterfly, Genichiro, Owl and Isshin are my favourites for the same reasons. Very fair fights, never felt underwhelmed and never thought 'this shit is impossible'. Apparition mini-bosses were cool to change the pace and bosses such as demon of hatred (which normally would've belonged in BB) were great too. They refreshed the formula a little bit and forced me to think outside the box for a moment.
- Progression - I enjoyed exploring locations and fighting ordinary enemies to progress, like in any other soulsborne game. I thought it was a pity that at certain points the game turned into 'mini-boss/boss the game'. At certain point in the game I found myself having to beat a number of bosses/mini-bosses in a row, without having to really explore and progress through any location. I think it was somewhere mid game? Even though I barely relied on prosthetics, I still ran out of all my 'ammo' for them. I also did not progress on cash/levels at that time. The only way to make up for that was to grind in locations you've already cleared.

I also want to say a couple of things about the final Isshin fight. I think this is a pinnacle of soulsborne boss fights. The game culminated in a boss that forced you to use everything you learned up to this point. If you played the game 'it's supposed to be played', as in, you learned how to deflect, dogde and counter, then upon meeting this boss you knew that it's going to be perfectly beatable but challenging. Isshin had a little bit more moves up his sleeve, a little bit faster than usual and had great reach - that made him harder than previous bosses but all you had to do was to adjust your style a little. Beating him felt so goooood. Now, I do have a friend who made his way up to Isshin by mashing L1. It is possible to reach that far without really grokking the mechanics BUT then you're in a world of pain. If you didn't learn the proper way to fight sword enemies in the game then it means you already reinforced a lot of bad habits, mainly just mashing L1 to try and defend yourself. And that's where my friend ended up. He got really frustrated by the fight and said it's unfair and badly balanced. Basically what you heard from the journos. Watching my friend try to beat Isshin was painful experience in itself.

All in all, I think Sekiro is a great game and could be greatly expanded and improved upon in many ways in a sequel, which I think is promising.

 

[Rivmusique]

Fucking ledge grabs. I can't consistently grab ledges. It's usually not an issue, save for when there are ledges over pits. So fucking annoying.

hold x once you're in the air and you'll grab the first ledge you approach. don't need to time the press for right when you line up.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

Stuck on Genichiro. I know exactly what I need to do, and I've come close to killing him, I just always fuck up at some point, and his posture regenerates so quickly that if you fuck up, you might end up starting from zero. I've had the most luck trapping him against a wall and beating on him, but I always make a mistake at some point. Still need to get good, I guess.

Given that I'm stuck, I've done lots of other shit. I killed Shichimen Warrior, who's really easy once you realize you can deflect his beam attack, and mopped up all mini-bosses I could reach. Have a bunch of skills, 7 healing gourds, and etc. My impulse when I was stuck playing Souls was always to grind, as grinding could get you through lack of skill, but grinding really does you no good in Sekiro.

 

[DemonKing]

Genicho is a tough fight, but once you get through him you'll probably feel a lot more confident about the rest of the game as he's a great "skill check" boss.

 

[mogwaimon]

I am also now stuck at Genichiro. Just wait until you get that second health bar down. Freakin' bullshit, mang. I'll get him tomorrow, it's either that or fight the Corrupted Monk and I think I've got a better chance with Genichiro than that stupid undead terror mechanic.

 

[DemonKing]

Corrupted Monk goes down pretty quickly to one of the more basic skills (the one that does a big red-coloured slash), however I fear after defeating him you won't be able to progress further until you defeat Genicho anyway. Genicho's second form is pretty easy to beat if you can master the lightning strike skill as it does a lot of posture damage.

 

[HoboForEternity]

weird because genichiro is pretty easy for me. his patterns are pretty readable and his attacks are well telegraphed. i begin with circling him, avoid his first arrow, and his rolling attack, then get close, attack him with regular attack while deflecting his. once in a while he will use his thrusting attack or jump attack followed by thrusting attack which can be deflected by mikuru counter. in the second phase, basically the same strategy, except after jumping attack, he will sometimes use a round slash instead of thrust, which you can counter simply by jumping. just attack relentlessly, give him no room to use his jumping arrow attack. if you are fast enough, the speed you slash is faster than he can pull out his bow and use it. just keep attacking and deflecting. (the pattern is usually attack > attack > deflect his upper right diagonal downward slash is fast, that one you need to deflect). other thing you need to watch is his barrage cos it eats your posture like i eat ass. but it has a pattern where he goes attack > attack > pause > barrage. the short pause give you enough time to dodge away and he can't stop his barrage and he is open wide after that.

his 3rd section is alot more dangerous, but slower. he hits harder, but his attack are slower. the attack where he jump leave him wide open, and the only thing you really have to watch is his thunder which can be hard to predict, but either attack can be avoided by just running as far as you can while circling him.

now lady butterfly, she was a fucking pain in my ass. too me accumulative 4 hours to get her down.

 

[HoboForEternity]

also don't forget majority of the difficulty in souls like are mental. you see this boss with menacing figure, and you kinda get discouraged. when you get past the initial scare, you will see them more mechanically and their pattern will become clearer.

 

[mogwaimon]

I was starting to do okay on the first phase, once you get used to his patterns as you said it's not so bad. Right now it's the second phase that's getting me because many of his attacks have changed and I haven't gotten used to his moves yet there. Later on once I get home from work I'll probably get back into it, I just wish that there was an enemy or something before Genichiro that did lightning attacks so I could get some exposure there....

actually now that I think about it, does anti-air deathblow work on Genichiro? I forgot I had it since I only really got it to deal with Shichimen. Would make the first phase go by quicker if I could catch him in mid-air...

edit: Yea nevermind, had a bit of time before work and I couldn't resist. I went back, took me a few times (his first phase was a lot easier today for some reason, though I still made some mistakes) but I beat him. That lightning reversal really did the trick, and that leaping attack was actually pretty easy to Mikiri counter so there wasn't much to watch out for as long as I was on point.

 

[Lambach]

Stuck on Genichiro.

Got to Genichiro, got my ass beat a couple times, felt more overwhelmed than against Lady Butterfly, nope'd the fuck outta the game. I don't think I'll continue playing for the next day or two at least. Right now it feels more like work than entertainment, given that there's pretty much only one correct way to play and not a particularly fun way either.

 

[Multidirectional]

All this rage reminds me of my first run. Good times.