Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (new From Software game)

[Black Angel]

Kudos to the modders for making Inner Isshin actually challenging. Obviously, it looked wayyyy overkill. However, compared to Inner Genichiro and Inner Father, Inner Isshin actually felt underwhelming and not as aggressive.

 

[MajorMace]

Started this playthrough blind this weekend. I read about how teh hard it was for some plebs and now I know why : no summon, no magic
Game is pretty good though. Nice art direction again. The general who keeps the door of the castle gave me strong golden age berserk vibes smh.

 

[NJClaw]

Started this playthrough blind this weekend. I read about how teh hard it was for some plebs and now I know why : no summon, no magic
Game is pretty good though. Nice art direction again. The general who keeps the door of the castle gave me strong golden age berserk vibes smh.

MY NAME

 

[Ezekiel]

Started this playthrough blind this weekend. I read about how teh hard it was for some plebs and now I know why : no summon, no magic
Game is pretty good though. Nice art direction again. The general who keeps the door of the castle gave me strong golden age berserk vibes smh.

I barely summoned in any of the four Souls games or Bloodborne, because I felt it cheapened the games. My builds were also mostly melee with physical weapons. Still, Sekiro is the only one I never beat. Quit the last boss after no more than ten tries. I'm sure I could have pushed through it, but I didn't care enough. Kind of annoyed the fans made the difficulty so supreme in these games. Didn't feel forced in the earlier Souls games.

 

[MajorMace]

I just beat the gatekeeper of castle Ashina and Lady Butterfly in the memories of the past, so I guess I'm still in the fairly easy part of the game.
I thought people were simply struggling more because they couldn't "cheese" as easily as before, I guess it's legit more difficult then ?
Aight wish me luck boys.

 

[Multidirectional]

If Lady Butterfly didn't present any serious challenge to you then you might not find this game very hard. There are harder bosses than her, of course, but she's supposed to be pretty tough for new players.

 

[MajorMace]

Oh she did provide a challenge, it took me 10 to 15 tries. I also struggled against the shinobi hunter for 5-10 attempts. Overall I died a lot.
But I also struggled like that in most souls games, I don't think it's that much more difficult (so far). Didn't mean to say I breezed through the early game, far from it.
For instance, I forgot his name but the guy in Darks Souls III cathedral weilding blue and orange swords took me even more tries than lady Butterfly here.

 

[NJClaw]

I just beat the gatekeeper of castle Ashina and Lady Butterfly in the memories of the past, so I guess I'm still in the fairly easy part of the game.
I thought people were simply struggling more because they couldn't "cheese" as easily as before, I guess it's legit more difficult then ?
Aight wish me luck boys.

Don't listen to online crybabies, the game isn't more difficult than the other souls. It's harder than the standard third-person action game with RPG elements that's so fashionable in CURRENT_YEAR, but that's a very low bar to clear. Coming from the previous souls games, you just have to adapt to the flow of the combat system, learning when to attack and when (and how) to defend. Once you've done that, you just need to master the prosthetic tools and the game is a cakewalk.

It's the first FS game that I managed to complete without dying, and a friend of mine who never managed to beat DS3 and Bloodborne easily finished it. Hell, another friend of mine, who has only played The Witcher 3 and Crash Bandicoot in her life, completed it in less than a month.

 

[Wunderbar]

Oh she did provide a challenge, it took me 10 to 15 tries. I also struggled against the shinobi hunter for 5-10 attempts. Overall I died a lot.
But I also struggled like that in most souls games, I don't think it's that much more difficult (so far). Didn't mean to say I breezed through the early game, far from it.
For instance, I forgot his name but the guy in Darks Souls III cathedral weilding blue and orange swords took me even more tries than lady Butterfly here.

Lady Butterfly is a wake up call for new players to stop playing this game like they were playing Dark Souls, and Genichiro is basically a final test of player's deflection skill before the game truly opens.
They are really hard at first, but once you finish the game and start it again you will curb stomp them.

The hardest bosses are all in the end-game.

 

[NJClaw]

Oh she did provide a challenge, it took me 10 to 15 tries. I also struggled against the shinobi hunter for 5-10 attempts. Overall I died a lot.
But I also struggled like that in most souls games, I don't think it's that much more difficult (so far). Didn't mean to say I breezed through the early game, far from it.
For instance, I forgot his name but the guy in Darks Souls III cathedral weilding blue and orange swords took me even more tries than lady Butterfly here.

Lady Butterfly is a wake up call for new players to stop playing this game like they were playing Dark Souls, and Genichiro is basically a final test of player's deflection skill before the game truly opens.
They are really hard at first, but once you finish the game and start it again you will curb stomp them.

The hardest bosses are all in the end-game.

Yeah, you can stumble through the first part of the game without adapting to the new combat system, but once you reach Genichiro either you stop playing Sekiro like it was Dark Souls 4 or you stop playing it altogether.

 

[MajorMace]

Many thanks for your feedback gentlemen ! I shall build the necessary mental fortitude to beat this, just like I did when I attempted to solo Ornstein and Smough ten years ago.

 

[Multidirectional]

But I also struggled like that in most souls games, I don't think it's that much more difficult (so far). Didn't mean to say I breezed through the early game, far from it.

Once you git gud at it it's actually more forgiving than Dark Souls games. It's just that it's designed to punish Souls muscle memory. If you try the usual dodge + attack routine you will get raped. Another example - posture replaces stamina in this and while in Dark Souls you needed to avoid holding block button to get stamina back faster, in this posture actually regenerates faster when you hold block. First playthrough of this was long and rage inducing for me because it took me very long to adapt, but now I can finish the game in couple days doing absolute majority of fights on first try.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

But I also struggled like that in most souls games, I don't think it's that much more difficult (so far). Didn't mean to say I breezed through the early game, far from it.

Once you git gud at it it's actually more forgiving than Dark Souls games. It's just that it's designed to punish Souls muscle memory. If you try the usual dodge + attack routine you will get raped. Another example - posture replaces stamina in this and while in Dark Souls you needed to avoid holding block button to get stamina back faster, in this posture actually regenerates faster when you hold block. First playthrough of this was long and rage inducing for me because it took me very long to adapt, but now I can finish the game in couple days doing absolute majority of fights on first try.

Which is actually a fine way of doing a game which is challenging for veterans, but more welcoming for newbies.

 

[Jasede]

It's not more difficult, it just takes getting used to. Eventually you'll see that the game is trivialized by the tools. Even if you avoid them, it boils down to mashing the block button at the right time, which is easy because the party window is so generous.

Once you get used to how forgiving the parrying is you'll fly through the rest.

 

[MajorMace]

After 15~ attempts, Genichiro went down.
I feel like mashing the block button actually works very well against series of fast attacks. Before Genichiro, I downed on first or second tries mobs like some samurai dude in the castle and some big ass skeleton dog, who both displayed the gimmick of having very fast attacks. I just mashed the block and they were immediately exhausted lol.
Genichiro is a very cool fight. I still have no idea how the reverse lightning thingie works though.

Spoiler

I actually beat the first phase on first try and was like "hold on a minute, that was a little too easy". Well yeah. Feels like i'd need another 15 or more tries to kill him again.

So far, bosses (they're more tough mobs than bosses in the early game) that give me the most trouble though are the ones who require to clean the area first. They tend to take a long time to beat because I have to clean all the enemies before starting the fight and get to learn the patterns. Genichiro at least is right in front of the checkpoint.

it boils down to mashing the block button at the right time

legit didn't see it before posting, I feel the same way so far.

 

[Multidirectional]

Genichiro is a very cool fight. I still have no idea how the reverse lightning thingie works though.

You need to be in air when lightning strikes you, then you counter attack when you land. It's pretty easy, really.

 

[MajorMace]

Genichiro is a very cool fight. I still have no idea how the reverse lightning thingie works though.

You need to be in air when lightning strikes you

Never occured unfortunately.

 

[NJClaw]

Genichiro is a very cool fight. I still have no idea how the reverse lightning thingie works though.

You need to be in air when lightning strikes you

Never occured unfortunately.

Usually lightning attacks are very well telegraphed, and you are supposed to jump at the right moment during the animation in order to get hit before touching the ground (you should look at it as yet another type of dodge, like those for thrust and swipe attacks). It's not a mechanic that comes up often, but when it does you make things a lot easier on yourself by exploiting it as much as you can.

 

[MajorMace]

Okay I was supposed to jump "into" the lightning attacks and use the reverse lightning command, get it.
I think it's strange to introduce this mechanic with a boss which requires a rather lengthy first phase to simply try it out. I know I didn't feel like experimenting.
I'll play it again with the memory feature and try it out.

 

[abija]

I barely summoned in any of the four Souls games or Bloodborne, because I felt it cheapened the games. My builds were also mostly melee with physical weapons. Still, Sekiro is the only one I never beat. Quit the last boss after no more than ten tries. I'm sure I could have pushed through it, but I didn't care enough. Kind of annoyed the fans made the difficulty so supreme in these games. Didn't feel forced in the earlier Souls games.

Pointed out the real problem.

 

[praetor]

If Lady Butterfly didn't present any serious challenge to you then you might not find this game very hard. There are harder bosses than her, of course, but she's supposed to be pretty tough for new players.

i roflstomped both her and genichiro in like 3 tries max. but that bull minibos has raped me more than all other bosses combined before i quit on the Owl fight (no ragequitting, nor out of boredom... just a matter of circumstances at the time, and i didn't have the will to fire it up since then)

 

[Tyrr]

If Lady Butterfly didn't present any serious challenge to you then you might not find this game very hard. There are harder bosses than her, of course, but she's supposed to be pretty tough for new players.

i roflstomped both her and genichiro in like 3 tries max. but that bull minibos has raped me more than all other bosses combined before i quit on the Owl fight (no ragequitting, nor out of boredom... just a matter of circumstances at the time, and i didn't have the will to fire it up since then)

People who played other FromSoft games before find other bosses more difficult than people who started with Sekiro. I had to unlearn the way I played their other games. Rolling/evading bosses gets you killed very fast.

That's also why I think the ogre is such a bad (mini) boss right at the start of the game. He teaches you all the wrong lessons.

 

[Ezekiel]

I barely summoned in any of the four Souls games or Bloodborne, because I felt it cheapened the games. My builds were also mostly melee with physical weapons. Still, Sekiro is the only one I never beat. Quit the last boss after no more than ten tries. I'm sure I could have pushed through it, but I didn't care enough. Kind of annoyed the fans made the difficulty so supreme in these games. Didn't feel forced in the earlier Souls games.

Pointed out the real problem.

Not sure what you mean. That under ten tries is too little or too much? I knew it would take me a few times that, so instead of spending more time on a game I had already 90 percent explored, I watched some movies. Hope Elden Ring doesn't try so hard.

 

[MajorMace]

Spent 10+ attempts on guardian ape before killing it. Fast forward a few hours and I meet and first try the headless ape lol.
I also beat the weird death shaman dancing around purple balls after 10+ tries, before watching a vid of a dude using confetti to deal 4x damage. I feel robbed of my time.

I still haven't beat the Dark Souls II dlcs but I feel like I can beat this one this time.

Overall the pace and gameplay is very much to my tastes. The setting and directions are much less cryptic than dark souls, and there are a few cutscenes here and there, but overall the game is just as immersive as the former FromSoftware titles.
Bloodborne is the only game I haven't played from them, is it as good as this ?

 

[NJClaw]

I also beat the weird death shaman dancing around purple balls after 10+ tries, before watching a vid of a dude using confetti to deal 4x damage. I feel robbed of my time.

You fought the Shichimen Warrior without confetti or the umbrella? That's some next level endurance challenge right there.

Bloodborne is the only game I haven't played from them, is it as good as this ?

The short answer is YES.

The long answer would require analyzing and comparing the various elements that make up the two games. The gameplay is more similar to Dark Souls for the most part (more to DS3 than DS1), but there are specific aspects where Bloodborne is even more different from its predecessors than Sekiro. Even if in different ways, both Dark Souls and Sekiro (at least during bossfights) are centered around active defense: you wait for the enemy to make his move (evading it in the correct way), and then attack during the available window; on the other hand, in Bloodborne, you are strongly encouraged to do the opposite: continuously unleashing your attacks on the enemy and switching to dodging only when needed. BB doesn't have the overwhelming set of weapons that's usually available in souls games, but (apart from very few examples) every weapon is truly unique, with unique movesets and gimmicks. The setting, art direction, and atmosphere are top notch: you won't find an objective universal opinion on which game is better in this department, but the fact that someone thinks that BB is even better than DS and Sekiro should tell you enough about how good it is. It's really a matter of tastes. If you already have a PS4, you should play it without even thinking about it. Otherwise, you should consider borrowing one from one of your friends.