Don't worry child, i'm coming to save you!
This game is like NOLF but with cool instead of funny. It appears war is still raging in this land:
I now feel sorry for those guards, as i fear i'll probably end up killing all of the following:
Why do i feel this Gyoubu guy is the next boss i'm going to meet!
As i assess my surroundings, i see there's an alternative route to the side, which allows me to make my way around this whole section. So there's a dead body and some geisha looking character, not sure if friend or foe, i think i'm better off retrace my steps before engaging her:
So after studying the situation a bit, i manage to take out my first guard undetected:
Alas, this patrol worries me:
So i wait for them to make another round and take out another easy target at the base of this building, and almost got spotted by a lone guard that apparently was trailing behind the main group. Not sure if he was part of the group and he split because the AI glitched or if he was meant to just be an extra patrol. After killing him i jump back to where i was to observe if the AI actually aknowledges dead bodies and it does! Kinda of neat:
So i come down to the other side to go kill the guards i eavesdropped on before and Jesus wept some fat zombie dude came out of nowhere and i almost got ghosted:
Of course, the two guards next to me see me since i'm so close and i had to kill them, which alerts the big ogre who quickly comes looking for me, but i managed to elude him:
Now he comes down but the fat bastard doesn't leave and starts making rounds right along one of the sections of this area patrolled by the trio of guards. Out of desperation, i decided to take them out, using one of those stone thingies to try to distract them and maybe split one or two. Didn't end well and had to fight all three:
This of course alerts the fatso but now i got the run of the whole area so it's easy to just sneak around him. I go for a stealth take down, not knowing if i could instant kill him like with the guards, but instead of dying he just disappears in a poof. Unfortunatly i didn't press F12 fast enough so i have no screenshot of the take down. If he respawns i may come back to fish out a screenshot so i can post it here.
So finally, i get to the geisha lady but i'm actually scared of engaging her lmao:
So i go around to check out that dead body to see what loot it may have and turns out he wasn't dead at all. He presents himself as a vassal for some kind of family, not sure how he ended up here, guess those Ashina are kinda of trigger happy and don't do diplomacy, and after presenting himself he wants me to talk to the geisha looking lady who just happens to be some senile granny. Makes me feel like a loser that i was afraid of her:
Of course it begs the question of how those two are even still alive. Once again we see the famed Ashina security in action! So i talk to granny and decide not to lie to her but it doesn't matter, she is crazy and she still thinks i'm her son:
Not sure if the dialogue choices here are like in Souls, where you can fuck things up if you pick the wrong one, or if it's just like Elden Ring where you just pick yes and it works all the time but i'm going to do my best not to look at a wiki and just play it by ear:
Ok granny, whatever you say!
So she mentions a child, whom i assume is my ward, and hands me a charm she made for him, to be offered to Buddha for his sake:
Not that i needed to be told how am i supposed to offer the charm to Buddha, but she spells it out all the same. But i'm not gonna do that right now:
Before moving on, i make sure to sweep the whole place and sure enough i find a secret spot with some nice goodies hidden inside!
As i ponder on my next course of action, i take a moment to chill under this beautiful cherry blossom looking tree:
Anyway, there's some nasty shit ahead and no Sculptor's Idol in sight:
On the top side i spot some guy with a big cannon so a frontal assault is out of the question:
I'll have to plan this carefully so for now i'm going to rest up a bit. As i turn around i see something on top of a ledge, and once i get close turns out its a merchant:
Good thing too so i have a place to dump all my Sens before i make an attempt to get past the gate for the next junction.