Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (new From Software game)

[Child of Malkav]

So I've been replaying Dark Souls and I've been debating about getting this game.

As I understand it this one is more of an action game than an RPG, right? More similar to let's say metal gear rising revengeance than Dark Souls?

Can you make very different builds? Are there different weapons that play with different styles?

Is there sufficient exploration like DS, or is it more straighforward?

Full action, yes. No stamina bar, no stats except vitality, posture (increased by defeating mini bosses as they drop prayer beads, some can be found in various locations) and attack power (increased by defeating bosses as they drop memories).
No armors, weapons. You can swim, dive, jump, double jump off walls, grapple around on predetermined spots. Has a stealth system. You have consumables as usual and prosthetics (various items, one poisons, one teleports, one is basically a shield, one is a stun, one is a tool for breaking shields, one is a spear with multiple uses, one is a flamethrower, one is a whistle with multiple effects etc.)which consume spirit emblems to use and can be farmed like blood vials.
The combat system revolves around deflecting instead of blocking. Both you and the enemies have a posture meter which increases by a lot when blocking and by a little when deflecting. You do a deathblow when the enemy is posture broken (posture meter is filled) resulting in an instant kill. Same with bosses. This is the core of the combat in this game.
No Coop or multiplayer of any kind, no summons, just pure, raw skill.
Exploration is fun, interconnected world (not to the extent of DkS1 but close), lore is interesting, characters and NPCs well, just as you would expect in a From game.
Idk. It's GOTY for me so far. Until PhoenixPoint, Stygian Reign of the Old Ones, Dying Light 2, Desperados 3, Tow, Vtmb 2 and others come out.

 

[Lutte]

So I've been replaying Dark Souls and I've been debating about getting this game.
As I understand it this one is more of an action game than an RPG, right? More similar to let's say metal gear rising revengeance than Dark Souls?
Can you make very different builds? Are there different weapons that play with different styles?
Is there sufficient exploration like DS, or is it more straighforward?

Gameplay wise it's kinda its own thing. It's a pure action game but it doesn't quite play like others in the genre.
Very little actual build variety, you can just pick skills most of which are utterly useless. There's only the katana as a main weapon. Can use prosthetics tools which will go from useless to overpowered depending on the enemy you face. Their use, when they're effective, is not particularly riveting (for example, throwing a shuriken on an enemy jumping in the air will drop them down and stun them a little) as they act a lot like hard counters.
Exploration is quite garbage because there's never any tension to it. Bonfires idols every 3 meters and your character can back away from any situation including aggroing the entire area worth of enemies pretty easily, the only time that behavior is really punished is when you're dealing with the last area of the game. Your mobility is extreme while the enemy's isn't and the AI doesn't take long to lose interest in you once you run away. It has non linear elements to the exploration like any souls games but the lack of tension, the meh diversity of locales and enemies, the lack of items to find besides prosthetics tools (most of the good ones being found in the first half of the game), the amount of times the game reuses content which is higher than previous From games as it will repopulate and make you traverse again (read: remove your previously unlocked bonfires idols) a certain area three times and even reuse its arena for multiple boss fights.. meh.

The combat system focused entirely in parrying attacks and wearing down enemies posture by maintaining pressure is interesting enough to hold your interest during mini boss and boss fights but the game world is quite the bore.

 

[Sentinel]

Nerf to high monk? Wtf, it was my favourite skill to use. Why even balance a single player only game? What is even the point.

High Monk and Leaping Kicks was/is incredibly overpowered. That said, I'm pretty sure that, in true FromSoft fashion, they completely fucked up the patch or the notes, so you shouldn't really rely on what is written here. Also note that, if the patch notes are to be trusted, they only decreased the damage of the first hit, the others have had their damage increased.
I'm a bit disappointed they only adjusted the axe prosthetic, and in two of those cases only their late game variants.

 

[toro]

OK. I hit the wall also known as Isshin.

I can beat Genichiro without hit, I can beat his 1st phase without hit but then everything goes to shit when he gets his spear.

The thing is: one hit means I need to use 1 Gourd. I have 10 Gourds and I'm not able to perfect parry him during phase2 because he can follow either with the sword and the spear.

My only solution is to punish him when he jumps but that means I have to run like 5 minutes around him which is basically retarded and gives me vertigo.

I would like to finish this run with Demon Bell and Charmless but ... it looks like I will have to delay the fight for a couple of days.

Or I could install Cheat Engine and I give myself 2.0x damage!? I will sleep over this question.

Honestly this stupid and retarded fight almost ruins the entire game for me. Good job Miyazaki.

 

[Somberlain]

It's a good fight

 

[cruel]

Nice plunge

https://gfycat.com/spicyflickeringheifer

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

 

[Jasede]

Sekiro made me want to play another From game, so I got Bloodborne for the first time. It's okay. Quite good. Really good. But I am not enjoying it much. The camera is worse than I remember in Souls games. At least bosses have low HP so they die quickly. But I don't enjoy fighting them. Their cool designs mean that the camera can't really work with them and I very often get hit by something I had no chance to see because the camera is zoomed in too close. So I thought, cool. Maybe try Dark Souls 2 and 3 again (beat them before). I installed both and they felt too slow. 3 was pretty, and 2 has that nice Majula theme, but I couldn't enjoy them for more than 30 minutes before getting burnt out.

Now I am just sad that I still consider Demon's Souls my favorite. I think this could be a little controversial because it's clearly mechanically bad, and almost every boss is a 'gimmick'. Dark Souls 1 is technically better in every way: the animations are heavier, the lore is more thorough, the world is wonderfully interconnected, there's more bosses, etc. But despite how strong the atmosphere in DS1 is (stronger certainly than 2 and 3 and even BB I think), it's still nothing compared to how well it works in DeS. There's just something so very cohesive about that game. The music really makes it. There's many NPCs but I felt much more alone playing DeS than any of the other games. There's something so empty about it all. In Dark Souls, the world is always dying, and everyone is forlorn and a little insane. But in DeS, there's just nothing. People just... exist in this void. They don't even have anything to go insane about. They're just shells, and it touches me in some way.

Now, a week or two after playing Sekiro (I can't remember) I think I can confidently, 100% say that this is From's mechanically most perfect game - and yet it's also the most forgettable. I don't think we'll remember much of this in a few years. If Demon's Souls is a strange, rare food you often think back on, Sekiro is a perfectly made Gordon Ramsay's Restaurant in Las Vegas Hamburger: technically flawless, delicious as you eat it, but are you gonna remember it in ten years? In the end, even if it was a great one, it was just a hamburger.

 

[Parabalus]

How exactly does Bell Demon increase difficulty in NG?

I turned it on and can't tell the difference, apart from more loot.

 

[Child of Malkav]

How exactly does Bell Demon increase difficulty in NG?

I turned it on and can't tell the difference, apart from more loot.

Damage from bosses I think. I was fighting DoH and I rang the bell and when I fought him again, every one of his attacks 1 shotted or 2 shotted me. After that I turned it off. I will test it again soon.

 

[Strange Fellow]

I think this could be a little controversial because it's clearly mechanically bad, and almost every boss is a 'gimmick'.

Controversial opinion: I've come to value gimmick bosses much more highly after playing Dark Souls 2 and 3. They're not the bosses you remember fondly, like Artorias and O&S (I have no examples from Demon's because I haven't played it), and there have been some real stinkers (Bed of Chaos, duh). But what gimmick bosses do, as well as bosses with gimmicky elements such as the tiny room in the Capra fight, is to create a sense of unease and make you feel unprepared in a way that no dude with sword in a featureless arena could, no matter how fast he swings. The best Souls levels are as much obstacle courses or puzzles to be figured out as they are homes to dangerous foes, and while it's true that From kind of sucks at gimmick bosses, I appreciate them as natural obstacles to be overcome rather than yet more entertaining but predictable tests of my twitch skills.

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS FUCK FUCK

BARELY GOT ILLUSTORY CORRUPTED MONK

FUCKING TWO DIVINE CONFETTII TWO SNAP SEEDS ALL MY KUNAI

NEXT ILL TRY SOME DIVINE CONFETTII ON FAGGOT APE

 

[Sentinel]

why are people being memed into spending divine confetti on bosses not specifically weak to it

 

[BLOBERT]

BRO THE MONK IS DEFINITELY WEAK TO IT

ILL CHECK FAGGOT APE

 

[Child of Malkav]

why are people being memed into spending divine confetti on bosses not specifically weak to it

Confetti increases damage done to illusory monk as well as Demon of Hatred.

 

[BLOBERT]

AND BRO IVE READ SECOND PHASE OF FAGGOT APE

 

[Sentinel]

why are people being memed into spending divine confetti on bosses not specifically weak to it

Confetti increases damage done to illusory monk as well as Demon of Hatred.

it increases the damage dealt to anything. so does sugar, which is more plentiful.

 

[BLOBERT]

BRO THE SUGAR DIDNT DO FUCKING SHIT FOR THE MONK BUT THE CONFETTII DID

I MEAN MAYBE A LITTLE BUT NOTHING GAME CHANGING

THE CONFETTII WAS HUGE

 

[BLOBERT]

BRO I WANT TO KNOW WHO MEMED YOU INTO NOT KNOWING WHAT THE FUCK YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT LOLOLLOLLOL

NO WERE COOL THOUGH BRO ILL BROFIST YOU A BUNCH NOW

 

[Child of Malkav]

why are people being memed into spending divine confetti on bosses not specifically weak to it

Confetti increases damage done to illusory monk as well as Demon of Hatred.

it increases the damage dealt to anything. so does sugar, which is more plentiful.

Yes, to anything. It's a general damage buff, at least according to various testers. It's 12% I think and for apparitions, which includes DoH and illusory monk, it's 27-37% so....yeah.
And I think it stacks with ako sugar/spiritfall.

 

[Multidirectional]

Orin of the Water down on first try. I love them second runs. Expecting to die at least few times to Illusory Monk though.
*edit* Monk down on 5th attempt with help of 1 Snap Seed and 1 Confetti. Very nice fight. I can parry all his attacks now almost without fault. Almost.

 

[toro]

Sekiro made me want to play another From game, so I got Bloodborne for the first time. It's okay. Quite good. Really good. But I am not enjoying it much. The camera is worse than I remember in Souls games. At least bosses have low HP so they die quickly. But I don't enjoy fighting them. Their cool designs mean that the camera can't really work with them and I very often get hit by something I had no chance to see because the camera is zoomed in too close. So I thought, cool. Maybe try Dark Souls 2 and 3 again (beat them before). I installed both and they felt too slow. 3 was pretty, and 2 has that nice Majula theme, but I couldn't enjoy them for more than 30 minutes before getting burnt out.

I agree. Bloodborne is edgy shit and it will always be shit.

Now I am just sad that I still consider Demon's Souls my favorite. I think this could be a little controversial because it's clearly mechanically bad, and almost every boss is a 'gimmick'. Dark Souls 1 is technically better in every way: the animations are heavier, the lore is more thorough, the world is wonderfully interconnected, there's more bosses, etc. But despite how strong the atmosphere in DS1 is (stronger certainly than 2 and 3 and even BB I think), it's still nothing compared to how well it works in DeS. There's just something so very cohesive about that game. The music really makes it. There's many NPCs but I felt much more alone playing DeS than any of the other games. There's something so empty about it all. In Dark Souls, the world is always dying, and everyone is forlorn and a little insane. But in DeS, there's just nothing. People just... exist in this void. They don't even have anything to go insane about. They're just shells, and it touches me in some way.

No PS4. No Demon Souls. Although I've played a little bit and of course it's quite easy after I've been spoiled with DaS games.

Now, a week or two after playing Sekiro (I can't remember) I think I can confidently, 100% say that this is From's mechanically most perfect game - and yet it's also the most forgettable. I don't think we'll remember much of this in a few years. If Demon's Souls is a strange, rare food you often think back on, Sekiro is a perfectly made Gordon Ramsay's Restaurant in Las Vegas Hamburger: technically flawless, delicious as you eat it, but are you gonna remember it in ten years? In the end, even if it was a great one, it was just a hamburger.

Agree 100%.

 

[toro]

I needed 3 full runs and somewhat speed-running cheese to win because if you try to perfect parry this motherfucker then he will break you.

I simply cannot perfect parry him all the time (just look at his fucking posture bar) therefore I still believe this fight is bullshit. I did not enjoy winning. Owl (Father) is a better fight than this.

Spoiler

Last fuck given about Isshin.

Dragon's Homecoming baby!

Posing for DLC

 

[Lutte]

therefore I still believe this fight is bullshit. I did not enjoy winning. Owl (Father) is a better fight than this.

 

[toro]

therefore I still believe this fight is bullshit. I did not enjoy winning. Owl (Father) is a better fight than this.

I lied on utube.