From Software Lyric Suite's own Sekiro corner

[Lyric Suite]

i think it's finally time to get this shit over with. It's time folks.

Why do you treat this as a chore or obligation, rather than the joy it should be?

Nah, like i explained i just coincidentally didn't get the opportunity. I also had half a mind of making an actual lets play (now a reality) which delayed my decision to play the game as i'm naturally lazy so i didn't feel like doing it, but i guess i got the ball rolling now. It's the latter that i was thinking of when i worded the sentence you quoted that way. That's why it appears like i felt this was a chore, because i wasn't looking forward to put any effort in making a proper playthrough but now that i'm doing it doesn't seem it was that hard lmao.

BTW, you guys can see the screenshots fine, right? Using steam cloud as a host for them, i hope everything is working properly.

 

[Multidirectional]

Sekiro is designed to punish Souls muscle memory so maybe it's good that you got as much Souls as possible in you before starting it.

 

[Andnjord]

Hell yeah, Sekiro is my favourite From’s game together with Dark Souls 1, good luck and have fun bro, looking forward to your no-hit boss kills.



Briefly judging from your practice round with the zombie bro, you’re gonna need to focus more on training your parrying, but I’m sure you’ll realise that soon enough.

 

[Silva]

The level design, exploration and setting are all pretty cool
But if you're playing this mainly for the combat, then do yourself a favor and play Nioh or Ninja Gaiden instead

Only kids play games for combat alone.

Grow up.

 

[Lyric Suite]

~ Real tutorial boss! ~​

Spoiler

Guy is getting all philosophical now:



I think playing this game is probably a form of paying for some kind of karmic debt lmao.

Trying to get an handle of both flying around and stealthing, and neither are as annoying as i thought they were going to be. Stealth actually works well on this one, mostly because of the indicator and you get some areas where you can avoid detection, even if its just patches of grass etc. Enemies are so weak for now it may not seem worth bothering with but, for one, you are actually compelled to do it since it makes you feel like a ninja, and two, i found a good situation where it became super useful: snaking up on those fucking dogs and murder them in stealth to avoid open engagement. I guess every FromSoft game has to have dogs and they are always frikking obnoxious lol.

The rope jump thingy i'm still not a fan of but i'm getting used to it.

As i make my way forward, i discover there's sons of bitches with guns but i quickly discovered you can actually deflect bullets in this game:



Wasn't even something i found out by accident, just instinctively felt like being a bad ass and tried to deflect his shot and it worked. Hell yeah.

Also found this dead guy who had some upgrade for my robot arm. Strange to find a dead shinobi here wonder if it means something:



As i explore further, i just had this terrying apparition jump in front of me:



Now i'm fighting chickens the hell is this.

Speaking of exploration, so far feels very classic Souls, even if this starting area is small and linear. Indeed, as i look back after my horrific encounter with the chicken, i spot a ledge which sure enough lead to a little secret:




Finally, i arrive at the end of this small section of the castle area, and from afar i spot what is likely to be a boss. I arrogantly approach him, thinking i'll easily be able to dispatch him, everything so far having been fairly easy, and sure enough he beats my ass lol:



Finally an actual challenge and one that FromSoft knew was going to kill most players, hence why they decided to include an explanation for the death mechanic right after he murders you. Pretty funny.

Undeterred by this failure and my first real death, i came back stronger and up to the challenge!

Seems i'm finally starting to get an handle of the fighting system. This guy was definitely a teaching experience and i guess he is the true tutorial boss. It seems in this game deflecting or jumping clear of attacks isn't really the hard part. It's knowing when to do it that appears to be actual difficult part. Everything moves so fast in this game that it's not exactly easy to anticipate his attacks and recognize patterns and lead ups. I can see why a lot of people got stumped. This thing plays nothing like Souls. Also contrary to Souls it seems to encourage wanton aggression but i think this is partially illusory. While you clearly have to keep pressing with the offensive, you still need to be mindful of what you are doing and ironically while aggression is your friend rushing, like in Souls, is your enemy.

This guy could pull a punch too. On my first attempt he killed me with three hits which compared to how much sparring you have to do to break his stance feels somewhat punishing. Very little room for making mistakes with this guy and yet mistakes are easy given how fast everything is.

BTW, speaking of the death penatly, not sure how heavy it is. You lose half your money, which in this game aren't needed to level up so its value is uncertain for me, and you also lose that wierd meter thing which i'm still not sure if i understood completely. I'll have to play the game more to see how punishing death really is in this game and i'll have to see if i like this resurrect mechanic.

 

[Multidirectional]

Surprised you found dogs to be problem. They get posture broken with single deflect, it's really just a matter of waiting for them to jump at you. It's the first enemy I learned to perfectly deflect because of how easy it is.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

I am glad you are following in my footsteps, lyrical dunce. Level up a few hundred times and you will be at my level when I destroyed Sword Saint Isshin:

 

[Lyric Suite]

Surprised you found dogs to be problem. They get posture broken with single deflect, it's really just a matter of waiting for them to jump at you. It's the first enemy I learned to perfectly deflect because of how easy it is.

They are not hard, they just irritate me. It's my most hated enemy in all FromSoft games, not because they are hard to kill, but because of how fucking annoying they are lol.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I am glad you are following in my footsteps, lyrical dunce. Level up a few hundred times and you will be at my level when I destroyed Sword Saint Isshin:

Not watching that for now. I always like to keep myself in complete dark the first time i play a FromSoft game, especially the bosses. Usually once i beat them i go check out what other people did so you'll have to wait until i beat him myself before i can comment on your exploits.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

I am glad you are following in my footsteps, lyrical dunce. Level up a few hundred times and you will be at my level when I destroyed Sword Saint Isshin:

Not watching that for now. I always like to keep myself in complete dark the first time i play a FromSoft game, especially the bosses. Usually once i beat them i go check out what other people did so you'll have to wait until i beat him myself before i can comment on your exploits.

Fair enough.

Surprised you found dogs to be problem. They get posture broken with single deflect, it's really just a matter of waiting for them to jump at you. It's the first enemy I learned to perfectly deflect because of how easy it is.

They are not hard, they just irritate me. It's my most hated enemy in all FromSoft games, not because they are hard to kill, but because of how fucking annoying they are lol.

Maxie will destroy you.

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW i had a little misadventure today with OBS. I tried to tinker with it for a bit to see if i could record something with HDR turned on. Couldn't do it, but what i ended up doing was mess up my original settings for encoding. I had it set up in a way that could record big but not too big and fairly detailed videos, which of coruse got butchered by youtube but i liked to keep a good version of the video as back up.

After trying various settings, i noticed my Sekiro vidoes were fuzzy or blurry. I can't remember the settings i had and spent almost all afternoon trying to fix it and eventually had to give up and just used a very high quality set up, which doubled the size of my videos but i had to record this damn boss. I then had some doubt and went back recording Armored Core 6 with a lower quality encording set up and sure enough the video came out sharp and detailed.

So it wasn't that i couldn't find the setting i was using, it's Sekiro itself that for some reaosn requires an higher quality setting to look decent. No idea how that works, and i just wish i remembered what settings i had originally so at least i could be sure.

 

[Andnjord]

Good progress! Not sure if Zombie bro taught it to you yet, but when an opponent does a sweeping low strike (one of the two types denoted by the red kanji) you can do a double jump to boop the head of your enemy for extra posture damage.

And in case you haven’t noticed it yet, the sound of your parry tells you how precise it was, the sharper the sound, the better (more posture damage to the enemy and less posture damage to you if I remember right).

 

[Lyric Suite]

No i didn't know either. Zombie dude didn't teach me shit yet. I did get a pop up about the red sign when i first faced this general dude and it did mention something about a special attack but i had no idea how to perform it and the tutorial pop up didn't say. Standard FromSoft stuff i guess i'll learn as i progress (or as i read wikis lmao).

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW, one question, is it possible to miss out on conversations? Because if that's the case that's an other incentive to use stealth.

 

[Lyric Suite]

~ Sekiro: The Dark Project (Part 1) ~​

Alright, decided to actually take a look at the stealth mechanic, turns out it's pretty fun:

Spoiler

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.

 

[Andnjord]

I had initially completely missed that merchant on my first run through and only found him after asking for the Codex Sage Advice after getting stuck later on

BTW, one question, is it possible to miss out on conversations? Because if that's the case that's an other incentive to use stealth.

Yes, but you won’t lock yourself out from finishing the game by missing conversations. You’ll probably miss out on the Obscure From Endings (which is for repeat playthroughs anyways) as is typical though. So don’t sweat it too much.

 

[Multidirectional]

There's only one ending that gives you a full set of bosses/minibosses, which makes it so you cannot max out Vitality without going for it. That would be my only complaint about endings. Not that final boss becomes unbeatable by having 9/10 vitality upgrades, of course.

 

[Andnjord]

There's only one ending that gives you a full set of bosses/minibosses, which makes it so you cannot max out Vitality without going for it. That would be my only complaint about endings. Not that final boss becomes unbeatable by having 9/10 vitality upgrades, of course.

As far as I remembered there’s no ending that provides you with all the bosses.

DO NOT OPEN, LYRIC SUITE!

Since the Shura ending stops you right then and there and that’s the only way to kill m’lady and Grandpa version of Ishin

 

[Lyric Suite]

Don't worry, i ain't spoiling shit!

I'm starting to get a Dark Souls 1 vibe from this game. Not in the sense it's similar to it but that it has that same inspiration and cohesion. Doesn't feel as "tired" as Dark Souls 3 was.

I'm also noticing that some of the blood of this one ended up in Elden Ring as well as Armored Core 6. Small little things mainly like the way you talk to NPCs, some interactive options, the way the engine looks and so on. I also get why there was even stealth in Elden Ring, guess it's just something it inherited from this game.

I think i'll make another update about stealth than i'll drop it otherwise i'll have to describe the whole game that way. I'm a Thief junkie so i'll just play the game like this, try to ghost enemies as best as i can even though it would probably just be easier to dispatch regular mooks head on.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Oh boy, you are in for a treat now. We'll be watching your progress and rage. Sekiro sure have some nasty suprises.
I should replay this one in near future.

Edit: Hımm, maybe I should try Lies of Pi first.

 

[Andnjord]

I think i'll make another update about stealth than i'll drop it otherwise i'll have to describe the whole game that way. I'm a Thief junkie so i'll just play the game like this, try to ghost enemies as best as i can even though it would probably just be easier to dispatch regular mooks head on.

I've found stealthing around useful for scouting a group of enemies rather than straight up ghosting. Identify the enemies and plan an angle of attack, saves you from a lot of nasty surprises.

 

[cvv]

Making me want to replay Sekiro. Such a supremely phenomenal game. There is really nothing like it.

Yeah, so jealous of LS, I wish I could selectively erase my memory so I can replay Sekiro like the first time. Sadly, after about 6 replays it doesn't have the allure anymore.

 

[Multidirectional]

As far as I remembered there’s no ending that provides you with all the bosses.

DO NOT OPEN, LYRIC SUITE!

Since the Shura ending stops you right then and there and that’s the only way to kill m’lady and Grandpa version of Ishin

Spoiler

I don't like that fight and don't consider it worth the bother anyway. Maybe you enjoy killing Emma over and over again, not me. Also I find this version of Isshin a lot less fun, fuck that second phase.

 

[Multidirectional]

I'm starting to get a Dark Souls 1 vibe from this game. Not in the sense it's similar to it but that it has that same inspiration and cohesion. Doesn't feel as "tired" as Dark Souls 3 was.

It was a first game of theirs since DS1 that really made me git gud all over again. So it was a comparable experience to me in that regard. And for sure it's way more inspired than DS3.

 

[cvv]

I'm starting to get a Dark Souls 1 vibe from this game. Not in the sense it's similar to it but that it has that same inspiration and cohesion. Doesn't feel as "tired" as Dark Souls 3 was.

It was a first game of theirs since DS1 that really made me git gud all over again. So it was a comparable experience to me in that regard. And for sure it's way more inspired than DS3.

I just can't, for the fucking life of me, understand how can anyone hold DS3 as their favourite FS game.

They don't...see it?