Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (new From Software game)

[Lutte]

I said HP bloat and that was misleading, I was referring to both HP and posture. Some fights feel like attrition battles, even if you eventually learn the combos you have to play almost perfectly for 5 minutes as you slowly whittle down the boss, with even one mistake almost forcing you to start again.

Shitty movesets with extremely few opportunities for attacks are worse than the HP/posture bloat in this game. The second phase of the guardian ape made me die quite a few times because I got really, really impatient with this garbage. If you're willing to spend like 10 minutes on the fight you suddenly start doing so well you don't even need to heal. During the first phase you can burn him down rather quickly between the opportunities for grappling him, stunning him with firecrackers etc, but then hit phase 2 and you're like parry everything and still can't get the one hit in without being hit yourself, then he roars AoE so often, you spend more time running around like a headless chicken in the arena than actually engaging him in melee. The best moment to get a hit in is when the does the high jump + wide swing unblockable attack.
Once his hp goes down enough, it's easy to build his posture up. But getting there really got me mad with this shitty game design.

Worst boss of the entire souls series so far for me.

 

[Jasede]

I didn't have the spear, and yet it didn't seem too bad for me at all. Just wail on him when he does the weird 4-hit combo, if you stick to his knees 3-4 attacks should miss you.
If you have the spear and parry his overhead smash, you can then tap the spear twice to pull out the insect for huge damage.

 

[cvv]

Headless Ape is one of the easiest bosses for me now. You never attack his HP except when you manage to stumble him by parrying one of his long windup blows. (Those few occassional hits are more than enough, his posture recovers very slowly). If you have the thrusting spear press RT-RT instead of mashing RB and you''ll wreck him. Do it a few times and he's ded.

I beat the double monkey duo on my 1st and 2nd try on NG and NG+. It's one of the best fights in the game bc it makes you use all your tools - jumps, sprints, dodges, swings, consumables and tools. Fantastic.

 

[cvv]

Btw I gave myself a 0,3 damage multiplier against Owl Father and it was all it took. It's actually an enjoyable fight when it doesn't last two weeks, well the 1st phase at least. The second one is p. annoying coz there's so much shit going on you barely see anything.

Tried the Demon with the multiplier and while it was faster it was still shit. A flop of a boss fight.

The purification ending has the best emoshuns btw.

 

[Somberlain]

Shitty movesets with extremely few opportunities for attacks are worse than the HP/posture bloat in this game. The second phase of the guardian ape made me die quite a few times because I got really, really impatient with this garbage. If you're willing to spend like 10 minutes on the fight you suddenly start doing so well you don't even need to heal. During the first phase you can burn him down rather quickly between the opportunities for grappling him, stunning him with firecrackers etc, but then hit phase 2 and you're like parry everything and still can't get the one hit in without being hit yourself, then he roars AoE so often, you spend more time running around like a headless chicken in the arena than actually engaging him in melee. The best moment to get a hit in is when the does the high jump + wide swing unblockable attack.
Once his hp goes down enough, it's easy to build his posture up. But getting there really got me mad with this shitty game design.

Worst boss of the entire souls series so far for me.

G I T _ G U D

 

[toro]

Some ASMR.

 

[Lutte]

The tip about the spear is pretty good, but did I miss something because I don't remember seeing anything about it in game.

G I T _ G U D

Never said it was hard, but obnoxious, you magnificent retard.
Just got the second encounter done first try.

The 2nd ape that came in phase 2 was more intimidating than a real problem. It only takes a few hits before going down so it's a matter of getting some spacing for a bumrush.

 

[Wunderbar]

Second phase is much easier with umbrella. It blocks his terror scream completely.

 

[Jokzore]

Souls games have great gameplay but trying to make sense of a story is futile because of its heavily, heavily japanese spirituality influences.

Because of the non-traditional way the story is being told there will always be room for different interpretations and disagreements, the core of it however always remains the same and is pretty easily understood if you bother to gather all of the pieces. The main plotlines of DS1 and DS3 are both pretty easily understood if you look at the full picture or at least have someone explain it to you (this mostly applies to DS2 as well).

The only time I've felt utterly lost and confused is the Ringed City DLC, while I mostly kept up with the whole Gwyn/Pygmy thing, they lost me with Filianore. Honestly... what the fuck was that egg about?

The other story aspect that's handled in a mostly incomprehensible manner is the Dark Soul itself ... or Humanity .... I mean .. the Abyss ... the Pus of man ... no no I mean the Deep... ughhh... Kaathe!?

 

[Jokzore]

The tip about the spear is pretty good, but did I miss something because I don't remember seeing anything about it in game.

Because there isn't anything about it in game. The only clue you get is that the spear is capable of pulling out pieces of armor. There's actually a few fights with hidden mechanics like that.

For example

Spoiler

Armored Warrior (ROBEERTTT) you're supposed to push off the bridge. This was quite counter intuitive for me, seeing as this is the only boss in the whole game that actually dies in this manner. I've had mini-bosses fall off ledges before, but they never died or took any damage, they'd just despawn until I rest again.

or

Spoiler

The True Corrupted Monk you can actually deathblow TWICE! taking out 2/3 of his health dots before the fight even truly begins. This is the only boss in the game that will let you perform a stealth kill after the battle has already begun.

 

[RapineDel]

Btw I gave myself a 0,3 damage multiplier against Owl Father and it was all it took. It's actually an enjoyable fight when it doesn't last two weeks, well the 1st phase at least. The second one is p. annoying coz there's so much shit going on you barely see anything.

Tried the Demon with the multiplier and while it was faster it was still shit. A flop of a boss fight.

The purification ending has the best emoshuns btw.

Disagree that the Demon is a flop. Considering it's not yet another humanoid enemy it actually makes sense that you can't use conventional means to beat it and have to think outside the box (aka verse it like it's a Bloodborne boss).

For me the worst 'bosses' would have to be the Bull and the Chained Ogre since they don't add all that much. There's less poor bosses in this game though then some of the others, not really any gimmick bosses (things like Wolnir etc.).

 

[Somberlain]

Aren't the monkeys a gimmick boss?

 

[Child of Malkav]

What do you do to get to fight Owl in Hirata Estates?

 

[RapineDel]

Aren't the monkeys a gimmick boss?

True, they were at least interesting though and I thought it was well done how each of the huts had a unique way of "weakening" each monkey.

I guess to rephrase I don't feel there's bad gimmick bosses in the game (to use another example, Bed of Chaos).

 

[Kruno]

I like green crayon.

 

[cvv]

What do you do to get to fight Owl in Hirata Estates?

It's better to watch a guide on Youtube. The sequence of events starts after you beat Owl in the castle.

I guess to rephrase I don't feel there's bad gimmick bosses in the game (to use another example, Bed of Chaos).

Monkeys are even worse than BoC.

 

[toro]

Isshin, the Sword Saint is the most retarded boss fight ever. Honestly beyond my level of autism.

I've spent 2 hours on this shit, got to phase 3 a couple of times but then I died with almost all my Gourds.

 

[RapineDel]

Isshin, the Sword Saint is the most retarded boss fight ever. Honestly beyond my level of autism.

I've spent 2 hours on this shit, got to phase 3 a couple of times but then I died with almost all my Gourds.

The safest way to go about it is by being ultra aggressive against Genichero and Sword Saint phase 1, you want to lose no more then 1-2 health pots during this period and if you're struggling to do that just focus on practicing on those.

If you can comfortably make it to phase 3, the key is to change your play style and be far more defensive which can feel like doing a 180 but is necessary if you want to avoid too much damage. In this phase you want to bait out the big jump attack he does and the attack which ends with a thrust so you can mikami counter (honestly, mikami countering him is very easy since you're waiting for a long attack to finish, just make sure you press the button while not pressing on any of the analogue sticks and wait until the thrust attack is actually happening, don't just press it as soon as the "red" thing appears).

If you block the jump attack, I found that 50% of the time he'd follow up with a one of thrust which you could mikami counter, these are the best sources for doing posture damage, just ensure you're also getting a hit into his health bar when you do because you want to wear down his health where you can so that playing defensively works, if you dont' do this you'll be at it a while because high health means his posture will recover quicker.

Finally, with the last phase I'd advise just playing it safe if you're having trouble. You CAN counter his lightning attack by jumping and pressing R1 (or your button for attack) at the right time but it has its risks despite being very, very effective so you might be better off just dodging, same with when he flings those sword attacks at you, just dodge to the left and you'll be fine.

Easily the toughest fight in the game but it just does come down to doing the opposite of what you did in the first 2 phases to make it manageable, once I started doing that it only took a few tries.

EDIT: Also when you do make a mistake against phase 3/4 you need to be really careful with when you heal, if you heal at the wrong time you'll end up wasting 2-3 health pots after he counter attacks you which can kill the run, even if you take damage don't panic and try and heal straight away, wait until he's in the midst of an attack. Some of this stuff is probably common knowledge but still worth mentioning.

 

[Villagkouras]

Latent skills stack, I recover a lot of health and posture after picking them and winning a couple of specific fights.

 

[toro]

... snip ...

Next time I meet him.

 

[Jaedar]

I beat the double monkey duo on my 1st and 2nd try on NG and NG+. It's one of the best fights in the game bc it makes you use all your tools - jumps, sprints, dodges, swings, consumables and tools. Fantastic.

I also beat double monkey duo on my first try, but mainly because headless monkeys dashes are fabulously exploitable. Still fun though.

I am getting real pissed about grabs in this game though. I feel like half the time, unless I start dodging before the red icon appears, it doesn't matter what I do, I will get caught. Jump, dodge back, left, right, attack, it doesn't matter, the enemy will get me either way.

Spoiler

Also, all the enemies on ashina castle revisit are way too hard for me. Fuckers are so fast, so high range and so high damage.

 

[RapineDel]

I beat the double monkey duo on my 1st and 2nd try on NG and NG+. It's one of the best fights in the game bc it makes you use all your tools - jumps, sprints, dodges, swings, consumables and tools. Fantastic.

I also beat double monkey duo on my first try, but mainly because headless monkeys dashes are fabulously exploitable. Still fun though.

I am getting real pissed about grabs in this game though. I feel like half the time, unless I start dodging before the red icon appears, it doesn't matter what I do, I will get caught. Jump, dodge back, left, right, attack, it doesn't matter, the enemy will get me either way.

Spoiler

Also, all the enemies on ashina castle revisit are way too hard for me. Fuckers are so fast, so high range and so high damage.

Consider jumping out of the way instead when you know a grab is coming, if you jump diagonally away you'll be fine 99% of the time. If you try dodging and miss the timing, then he'll likely follow you as you do it and get you anyway.

 

[Somberlain]

If you can comfortably make it to phase 3, the key is to change your play style and be far more defensive which can feel like doing a 180 but is necessary if you want to avoid too much damage. In this phase you want to bait out the big jump attack he does and the attack which ends with a thrust so you can mikami counter (honestly, mikami countering him is very easy since you're waiting for a long attack to finish, just make sure you press the button while not pressing on any of the analogue sticks and wait until the thrust attack is actually happening, don't just press it as soon as the "red" thing appears).

If you block the jump attack, I found that 50% of the time he'd follow up with a one of thrust which you could mikami counter, these are the best sources for doing posture damage, just ensure you're also getting a hit into his health bar when you do because you want to wear down his health where you can so that playing defensively works, if you dont' do this you'll be at it a while because high health means his posture will recover quicker.

He will pretty much always do the jumping overhead attack if there is enough distance between you. You can deflect it but you can also dodge behind him and get two attacks on his back which might be more effective.

 

[cvv]

I am getting real pissed about grabs in this game though.

Depends. Most grabs are really slow and well telegraphed. I found the Ogre grabs to be utter bullshit because the standing one you can't react to, you just have to already not be there when he does it, and for the lunging one you have to have a lot of space to dodge. Which is an issue in the castle encounter.

The second example is the Snake Eyes grab. It's the only one you can deflect but the timing on that is so extremely finicky I suspect it might be a bug. Otherwise it IS slow but again, if she decides to pull it off while you're not in an ideal position she will get you. Again, an issue in the small space in the Gun Fort.

These two examples are complete BS, everything else is fine.

 

[RapineDel]

If you can comfortably make it to phase 3, the key is to change your play style and be far more defensive which can feel like doing a 180 but is necessary if you want to avoid too much damage. In this phase you want to bait out the big jump attack he does and the attack which ends with a thrust so you can mikami counter (honestly, mikami countering him is very easy since you're waiting for a long attack to finish, just make sure you press the button while not pressing on any of the analogue sticks and wait until the thrust attack is actually happening, don't just press it as soon as the "red" thing appears).

If you block the jump attack, I found that 50% of the time he'd follow up with a one of thrust which you could mikami counter, these are the best sources for doing posture damage, just ensure you're also getting a hit into his health bar when you do because you want to wear down his health where you can so that playing defensively works, if you dont' do this you'll be at it a while because high health means his posture will recover quicker.

He will pretty always do the jumping overhead attack if there is enough distance between you. You can deflect it but you can also dodge behind him an get two attacks on his back which might be more effective.

For sure, I just find if someone's struggling though blocking the jumping attack and getting in extra posture damage can help. If you're not the best with timing and are late on the jump attack you'll lose half health which can be a pain when you then need to worry about healing.

I agree though that dodging and getting in the attacks is the quickest/most effective method if you know what you're doing.