Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (new From Software game)

You know what game this reminds me the most? Kenseiden from the Sega Master System.

 

Too many characters wacking on a boss at once is going to fill up that posture meter quick.

 

Got to fountain palace. Great atmosphere and one of the most original areas theme-wise in Soulsbornedom.

Also, almost rage-quit in Corrupted Monk and had to resort to googling. In the end I killed her through ash/firecrak in her face then pow, pow, pow repeat-> stealth kill 2nd phase -> ash/firecrack then pow, pow, pow repeat again 3rd phase. It made the fight banal.

 

By the way, about prosthetic tools:

My impression so far is that they definitely have an impact on bosses, but I ain't finding it a very elegant implementation of the concept. What I wish prosthetic did was opening up new avenues of engagement that you could focus and develop according to personal style. What it does is making bosses a gimmick guess game, where you have a dozen or more tools and have to guess the right one that devs chose for this one boss (the choice not always apparent).

That's a pretty old school mindset, I give you that, and if that's the intention then kudos for the devs. But I can't stop wondering how the game would have been if say, focusing on spear prosthetic upgrades allowed me to become a lancer shinobi specialist, not so different from a build in DS, and tackle challenges lancer-style ways. More or less like Dishonored let's you focus on certain abilities opening up stylistic avenues of play. But this would probably make the game too easy for From standards.

Anyway, this isn't a bash on the game. It's amazing and some segments are giving me that same rush of tension I felt the first time playing Dark Souls. That alone makes it better than DS2 and DS3 for me.

 

Wow Divine Dragon fight is amazing. It's easy as fuck yeah, but it's friggin beautiful. They nailed the atmosphere in Fountain palace and divine dragon. The sound design finally came on its own.

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Btw, I think I found out what my problem with the music is:

First I definitely think that Yuka guy composer wasn't as inspiring here as he was in DS and BB. Period. The bosses tracks here are a shadow of those games.

Second, the action music stays on even when enemies are in alert/yellow stage, which makes it loop indefinitely sometimes even when I want to stealth around in a calm manner immersed in the environs. At these times the action music ends up suppressing good atmospheric sounds like footsteps, the wind, birds singing, etc. It breaks my immersion, my feeling of "being there" and replaces it with some generic action movie vibe.

And finally, the music instruments sound too... artificial? I'm not an expert on the matter but it seems like they make little use of real instruments like shamisen, flutes or those taiko drums, and instead rely in synthetic sounds?

Here is what I think is a great feudal Japan "action music":



Now a Sekiro one:



The Sekiro one uses what seems to be a synthesized violin or cello at the core, and the melody is more westernized and generic? Sure there are insturmental flourishes but its complimentary. While the Shogun one makes better use of traditional Japanese instruments at the core and the melody seems more eastern in nature? Anyway, I know this is more subjective and dependent on taste, but I can't stop feeling that the music was a big missed opportunity here.

 

It's a limited budget thing, hiring an orchestra with real instruments isn't cheap.

 

Could be. Or maybe it's on purpose, Miyazaki seem to be a big fan of the west. It would explain the cellos and synths.


Anyway, finished it.

Default ending, Immortal Severance or something. I could go for another one called Return but I preferred to see the normal one first. Very sad to see

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the boy dying.

Took all day to beat Kensei Ashina Isshin. Can't say I liked him, though. I mean, he is superb from a lore and atmosphere and moveset POV but he's too oppressive, you must memorize his moves to the smallest detail like Guitar Hero on very hard otherwise you're fucked. My favorite bosses were the ones that give the player more... freedom of expression. Madam Butterfly and Guardian Ape are my fave. Also, found the mini-bosses and normal enemies really good. Matador recommended this after I said I loved fighting the hunters in BB cause it felt like a proper duel, and he's spot on (thanks bro). O'rin of the Water is perfect, Gyoubu Oniwa, Jouzou (the samurai helper only makes the fight more epic), and the first time you find those flying Tengu ninjas on the roofs (while low on estus) ? Amazing. I've read that Shichiman fights are great too but I got scared of them and went the cheese route with Lilac Umbrella.

I also liked the smaller and more intimate story here. Being a bodyguard only minding his master safety felt a lot different than saving worlds. From really nailed the theme. I hope they release a DLC or a sequel at some point. Perhaps situated in the past, showing Tomoe, first divine heir Takeru, young Isshin, the Hirata family, neighbour clans, etc. All this through the eyes of a young Orangutan (the sculptor) in his shinobi days would be fucking cool.

But I digress. Amazing game. 9/10. Going into NG+ next.

 

A fresh run is a much better experience, to really see how much you've improved at it. NG+ is just boring and only worth doing for the evil ending perhaps.

 

Are you sure? A NG+ run where you start with most tools and techniques sounds like the perfect way yo break the game in fun ways. Don't get me wrong, I usually play Souls in the least cheesy way possible (Dex builds) but Sekiro kinda asks to be broken through creative combos. Or at least that's the impression I got from the first run.

 

Silva you can't really break Sekiro, it plays the same on NG+ except easier since you have most of your tools from the get go.

Starting from NG and wrecking bosses first try without NG+ tools/skills and other baggage feels much better.

 

NG+ is just easy mode. If you feel like toying around with tools then go ahead, but even your sword "breaks" the game at that point.
If you really want to be able to play around with tools more - install a Spirit Emblem Capacity mod and go for a fresh run. I always use this one now so I could go ham with prosthetics/ninjutsus/combat arts on regular enemies.

 

kuroless make ng+ bosses much harder, at least it did for me. especially the bull and old isshin.
also make game frustrating as hell . do not recommend

 

I still don't care enough to do a "no Kuro charm" run. I am keeping Demon Bell on always now, but I'm too used to having those perfect blocks at this point I think. No Kuro run would force to become even more of a parry fag than I already am, I'd rather toy around with other stuff game has to offer.

 

some bosses i feel become way too unbalanced if you are do not have korean blood in your vein to perfect parrry almost everything.
the demon bell is fine i found, and doesnt make the game excessively harder

 

the major problem with kuroless is that adds too much pressure and stress on you. knowing that you will take damage ( a lot in case of bosses) if you are not perfect takes the enjoyment out of the game. i made a kuroless ng+ shura ending run and old isshin was insanely difficult and after having done it i felt no satisfaction , only relief and never picked up sekiro again

 

Good to know, I'm keeping the kurocharm then.

What do the bell does?

P.S: Multidirectional I'm on PS4 so can't use mods. A pity as the one you cite sounds right my alley. More freedom to play with tools is exactly what I wanted of the game.

 

Increase enemy HP/posture and damage they deal, also adds better drops to regular enemies.

Does PS4 even run this at stable 60 FPS? I remember seeing a video that claimed it can only manage it at 40s. If true I can't imagine how you're even playing it, doesn't seem like anything below stable 60 would be tolerable in this game for me. And yes, the Spirit Emblem capacity in this game is just way too low, that's why I won't play without that mod anymore.

 

Silva
the bell raise damage and posture of enemies ,if i'm not mistaken, but you will still be able to block without taking damage, unlike without charm

 

Yeah NG+ is p. boring, like in every game Miyazaki has ever done. His autism makes him hate interesting NG+.

But if you care about achievements you have to do at least one NG+.

 

Sekiro NG+ is pointless.

Trust me for once: Try Demon Bell + No Kuro Charm. It's almost like a completely different experience.

 

I loved the NG+. Felt like getting a tourist-mode reward after completing the game once. It's nice having all the tools too, and not having to bother hunting stuff down. I didn't bother pushing past that into 3/4/5/84723098 cycles, but that first playthrough with all the toys (well, apart from the few that required more lapis lazuli to complete) was enjoyable.

 

Some neat tidbit I've found out while watching a Vaatividya vid in YT:

"One interesting bit of info that is fundamental to all of Miyazaki's works: a broken/severed left arm is the symbol of failure of duty, which he got from Guts and put consistently in most games; Artorias is one of the greatest examples, and in Sekiro there's three more: Orangutan, Sekiro and the Dragon. Pretty sure there are more, but can't recall. So, to extend your information, the Divine Dragon not having his left arm is a 100% certain symbol that he, too, has failed his duties, which is likely to be the reason why he fled East to Japan."

Someone else also implied the traditional look of ronin wearing dogi/kimono with loose arm sleeves (while the arm sits comfortably inside) would also be related to this. Apparently, while withdrawing the arms helps with the cold and everybody in Japan did it, it wasn't cool for proper samurai do that it in the presence of important people, while ronin didn't give a crap. (but I can't check the veracity of this)

I think it's between 30 and 45 fps here. It's definitely better than BB which was capped at 30. It's doable but yeah, it makes the game a little harder. I know because I've played For Honor both on PC and PS4 (60 x 30 fps) and it makes difference.

 

It's way more likely that it was done by owl, who ripped off the sakura tree branch and thus severed the arm.

 

Prosthetics, and to an extent combat arts and latent skills, does opens up new avenues of approaching and engaging enemies and bosses. While at a glance the skill trees and prosthetic upgrades gave an impression that there's some sort of RPG mechanics in there, ultimately you would want to take most, if not all, of the skills and prosthetic upgrades, for the sake of opening up as much option as possible when trying to approach certain fights.

This guy, for example:

Made me realize that Umbrella deflection can actually be used to deflect attacks which, if deflected normally, would push Sekiro back like Owl's charged slash after a single shuriken or Monk's last spinning slash, without actually being pushed back. You can also see in this video and the others where he deliberately *NOT* using Mikiri Counter against perilous thrusts, to keep the flow of deflection going and build up the posture bar slowly but surely, instead of using Mikiri which would cause bosses to step back and regain their posture.

And then there is an extreme example such as this:


Also, if you experiment a bit, for example the jump after Shadowrush can be followed up with a mid-air prosthetic, such as the Loaded Axe, which would inflict significant posture damage while staggering most targets, allowing you to continue your offensive to either whittle down vitality or posture, and the Loaded Axe actually connect faster from mid-air than while on the ground.

But yeah, the Loaded Spear in particular is very limited in its application. There's only 2 bosses where the spear is actually useful, the Headless Ape (which would count as twice encounters), and Shigekichi (?) the Red Guard boss which is just another variation of Juzou the Drunkard sadly, and even then only until his armor is completely stripped. However, I still think it's fun trying to find which combination of skills, combat arts, and prosthetic tools can yield most fun out of experimentation.

Anyway, while I agree with others that NG+ is just easy mode because you gain access to all skills, combat arts, and prosthetic tools you unlocked in previous run, I think it's still fun seeing how you can change your approach against early game bosses with combat arts and prosthetic tools you gained later, with prosthetic later upgrades. Lady Butterfly, for example, is an early boss whom a lot of times you'll fight with base shuriken, so to me finding out she's completely vulnerable to charged Spring-top(?) Shuriken/Gouging Top when she jumped was very satisfying.

 

My NG+ run became pretty boring. While the possiblity to troll early bosses with prosthetics felt good, the lack of exploration for prosthetics & skills & prayer beads meant the game became super empty, like a Boss challenge.

So I ended up restarting it from scratch and it's super fun again. Something I'm more conscious this time is the mini/bosses health and it's relation to posture. In my first playthrough I became too focused on the posture blan-blan-blan and ended up ignoring this detail. Now I'm exploring it much better.

I'm going to the Purifying ending this time. I've heard Papa Owl is a nice guy.


Edit:
Oh, and I think FROM really fucked up certain things here. Only 15 slips for prosthetic use is nonsensic, and having to spend lots of points just to increase it to 20 is bullshit. They could leave the base at 15 yeah but at least let us go to 30 or something. If I was on PC I would mod this shit away with no remorse.

Also, some skills like "slide to cover" and "air parry" are sooo bullshit. These should come learned from the start. I can understand this representing Wolf remembering his abilities and stuff but come on, it's too much. Miyazaki is such a miserly fucker.