Sekiro is a true "Git Gut" game. Kinda similar to Doom Eternal. You do not upgrade your character, you upgrade yourself, which is immensely satisfying.
I stopped playing the game after the realization that it's basically a rythm game and in the time it would take me to get good I could start playing the piano again and git gud at that and I would actually have a useful skill acquired instead of just a videogame completed.
@@raijinoflimgrave8708 I'm not religious but my local church always offers good money to pianists to visit summer camps to play a few hymns. And one doesn't need to be even that good to get hired.
I've beaten almost all of the FromSoft games and I agree with the general consensus. Sekiro was by a wide margin the steepest learning curve, but once mastered it ruins the combat system of every other game.
Less brain power for Sekiro, more coordination and reaction time based. Not really a Soulsborne combat system tbh, more like CoD for Dark Souls. I preferred the more varied combat from before, it gave the advantage to cunning well read players / invaders
I don't like the dark souls gameplay to be honest. But i do love sekiro really much. Wished they had more games like this. I also didn't like the gameplay from Elden ring, i only played the game because I loved the exploration and the beautifull world you're in. This got me through alot of the game
@@jamesbrains1350 guitar hero is actually a great analogy, both require huge coordination and timing. Dark souls is as much about the time you put in before the fight (builds, play style etc) as the boss fight its self. Its more a game for planning and forward thinking etc, but also more clunky because of that. OnS is either rage quit or cakewalk depending on if you have the right kit / upgrades / build
The Genichiro fight on top of Ashina Castle is probably one of the greatest skill checks in all of video gaming. The amount of times I grappled up to that arena my first playthrough is absurd 🙃
I died a lot to him too, but that's where the combat really clicked for me and I learnt to be aggressive as well as defensive. After that fight, I wouldn't say the rest of the game was "easy" exactly... but I died a lot less and every fight was so much more satisfying
Problem is hanbei only teaches you how to parry using the most tame and easy movesets, and won't really prepare you for what's to come ahead. Kind of like how cemetery of ash was nothing more than just a bunch of hollows but then there's Gundyr as a tutorial boss. Only difference is DS3 plays entirely differently.
@@colossaltitan3546 I disagree. Hanbei was crucial for me to understand the way the game works and how it expects you to fight. I went from struggling against General Naomori Kawarada to beating Gyoubu Oniwa on my first try. The key was spending about an hour with Hanbei and practicing the game mechanics, developing a fundamental understanding of Sekiro. He changed my experience from frustratingly difficult to very enjoyable.
Played this game after Elden ring. I was instantly hooked, didn’t even care that much for the story the gameplay was just so satisfying idk how to explain it. It’s like a dance between two people while fighting and you want that dance to be as flawless as possible.
I played sekiro once 2 years ago and couldn’t fall in love with in. Then elden ring came and quickly grabbed my attention. I then gave sekiro another try and it’s combat system is second to none out there imo
As someone who's quit 3 years ago after dying to genichiro over 40 times and coming back yesterday and finishing half the game with less than 10 deaths total, I can confirm that it was indeed skill issue.
I feel i cheese the game. I got through the entire game baiting out certain moves from bosses, stealthing at every opportunity, and spamming the parry button to some degree.
I think a big reason Sekiro’s combat is more fun when people get the hang of it is because defense and offense are both tied so closely together. This makes it feel more like a back and forth battle than elden rings endless boss combos where you just have to dodge and wait for an opening.
I have played the more modern Fromsoft games (DS, ER, BB, Sekiro, AC) and what I notice the biggest difference is the other games make you dodge and attack but Sekiro rewards you to face the bosses head on making it very exciting and tactical.
Im on my first play through currently as well and I spent 3 hours and over 40 attempts at Genichiro and the combat system finally clicked for me and it became a beautiful dance and I beat him to a pulp and screamed in frustration. You gotta stick through the frustration
Sekiro was my first fromsoft game. Little to no thought went into my choice regarding difficulty or differences in gameplay between their games. I just liked the Shinobi aesthetic and setting way more. I’ve never been more determined to “git gud” at a game because hot damn that is one satisfying combat system. I downloaded it on thanksgiving and beat it on Christmas. And now, every game I play no matter how challenging I go into it with the mantra, “I ain’t scared. I beat Sekiro”
Yeah, but it only tells you. Practicing the maneuver beforehand would have been nice. I also don't know if the scroll tells you that you have to be in the air to do it. It's a tough counter to hit for the first time.
@@CommandPromptGaming The original scroll tells you to hit the attack button before landing (implying you're in the air). Actually putting it into action though was definitely not easy at first. Fantastic video by the way man. I actually got hard stuck on juzou the drunkard for like 3 hours until I realized I can't weasel out of just practicing the parry timings and being aggressive. My next hard lock was genichiro ashina, for about 4-5 hours. I was even looking up whether it was feasible to beat him with the stats I had at that point. Eventually I learned it was literally just a pure skills issue. After those two, I've never been stuck on a boss for more than 1-2 hours now that I understand what the game was forcing me to understand. I beat first guardian ape on my first try. Getting rid of the instinct to try and dodge attacks was very difficult
I did the same thing this week. After a year long break i realized it was much easier after I returned because I had MUCH more patience. It also doesn’t help that I quit upon finding the most noble boss because I also saw the headless and assumed that I’d have to fight both and they’d be hard …and turns out that the mist noble is legit the easiest boss in souls games as well as not needing to fight the headless after the noble.
I love Sekiro, it's the most satisfying game I ever played. It went from being the hardest fromsoft game ever to being the easiest no death run I've ever done
@@benjaminwilliam6643Honestly not that hard. It's definitely by far the easiest From game to no death run as a regular human being. No weapon or build options means that the game is immaculately balanced towards you from the get go, you are basically always optimal, you just have to learn.
Stop lying to yourself. You're talking about a video game like it's the love of your life. No one outside of the Internet cares that you can beat sekiro.
I quit Sekiro after dying to an early boss but your video has made me try and again. Thank you. Because I pushed through this time and am now a true shinobi bad ass. The Genichiro fight was tough but that’s where it all clicked for me. After that, I got it. Just finished the dual apes.
In the arena for the miniboss before Genichiro, there's a tapestry that will tell you how to lightning deflect. In addition, Divine Confetti will let you destroy terror orbs with your sword rather than twirling the shield a bunch of times. Also for anyone wanting to do a second playthrough, I highly recommend "no charm, bell demon." Refusing Kuro's charm at the start of the game makes imperfect deflections deal you chip damage, and of course the bell demon makes the game harder on top of that. You need to be playing at your peak to get through the game this way
@@CommandPromptGaming you can deflect the terror beam with divine confetti, you also need divine confetti to do aerial deathblows against the shichiman warriors.
@@CommandPromptGaming anti air skill which you can buy from smoll boy merchant basicly allows you to beat that void boss in 10 sec. As Well as useing finger shinobi tools aginst headless allows you to beat the shit out of them. So there are ways around the bosses, (Well around side/optional bosses) Just In a diffirent way
The lightning reversal is actually taught to you I think in the room right before the fight, after you beat the ashina elite, there's a banner that talks about the technique in the lore, and then the game gives you a prompt explaining how it works, which it repeats the first time you get hit by lightning in the Genichiro fight, as well as occasionally in the fountainhead palace I think
Being told how to do it is different from learning a move that goes against instincts at the 3rd phase of a difficult fight It's also kind against the Difficult but fair philosophy of the game. Yes you're suppose to die a lot but learning a boss' patterns also stems from within the fight itself. Death is simply the result of too many mistakes or getting hit by a strong move that was blantly obvious and easy to deal with. All of which is on the player What happened with Lightning reversal was not obvious. And requires a bit of practice. Even as someone who knew Genichiro was gonna do that because I watched video before getting my hands on the game, it still felt kinda unfair. Knowing I would've taken more tries to beat him had I not been on YT
@@potatoesblink3299 How is that not also on the player? It’s almost the exact same way perilous attacks are handled. Only difference is you learn about the reversal through a scroll that explains and even has a painting of how to do it, on a wall. Plus, if you know how lightning works in real life, then it should be pretty obvious.
@InTheMindOfDavid You're so right! When there's a thunderstorm outside I grab my katana and start jumping around so I can throw it away from me. ???? The hell are you on about, dude😂?
@@InTheMindOfDavid Perilous attacks are taught to you gradually against sub bosses that aren't as punishing. You have time to breath in these concepts. The Makiri Counter tutorial in Hirata is up against a basic enemy who has lots of stabs, not to mention you do find out about it early on cuz one of the first skills you learn. Also, initiating a counter by pressing one button at the right time is common in video games, right? BUT purposely getting hit midair is NOT. So it's not an "I can just do that, scenario" You don't have time to breath in these concepts when you're worried about the progress you fought for in an intense boss fight. Not to mention the fact that Way of Tomoe is intimidating as fuck, giving players the mentality not to play around (he's easier in hindsight but no way first time players would know that) So no. Lightning Reversal isn't obvious It's not a difficult concept to grasp, but it's difficult to grasp with the context of Genichiro's encounter.
I personally didn't find any problem getting into sekiro after dark souls , I simply treated it like a different game especially with the added jump button , stealth , posture bar and removal of rpg system , I could tell that it is supposed to be played differently from souls Sekiro quickly became my favorite game because it had everything that made me fall in love with dark souls and that is the sense of mastery not just the sense of achievement but mastery , the feeling of being able to destroy a challenge that you previously found difficult , in ds1 and 2 only few bosses gave that feeling , in ds3 most of the bosses gave me that feeling which was why it became my favorite before sekiro and in sekiro the entire game gave me that feeling
Sekiro is my favorite game too and the main reason would be the same as yours, the feeling of mastery that comes with overcoming the game’s challenges. So i will reccomend another game that is unmatched in that regard when it comes to indies: Furi. It’s a boss-rush action game with a bit of bullet-hell, and it’s the only game that has ever come close to the feeling i get when playing sekiro, even other souls games that i consider as masterpieces (DS1, DS3, BB and ER) don’t give me the same absurdly satisfying feeling that i get when playing Furi or Sekiro. Another reccomendation is Nioh 2, the game is completely brutal, especially in the beginning but when you “get good” you become a completely different player and it’s extremely complex and has a very big campaign + great coop (way better than Souls coop). But yeah Furi is an underappreciated hiddengem and Masterpiece of an indie game that deserves way more credit , praise and attention comsidering it’s quality.
@@minecraftgravityguy I heard of furi before but never got time to play it so I might check it out soon , thanks for recommendation Also there's an indie game coming out soon in june called nine sols it's a sekiro like game and it looks really good with it's combat and artstyle
This. You treated Sekiro like a different game. I think the main reason people found it too difficult is because many tried to play the game like a souls/borne game. I remember in the upcoming weeks of Sekiro's release people were playing bloodborne to prepare for Sekiro because they saw fast pased combat. When the game final came out. I saw many streamers try and play like bloodborne and got their buts handed to them then complain about the game being trash rather than learn the mechanics. Many gave up at Genichiro. Some changed their opinion when they actually learned the mechanics
sekiro IS a diferent game, its not a souls like at all. at most it has some of the most basic similarities, but its in noway even close to ds in anything besides the most superficial aspects.
@@marcosdheleno It originally started off as a new Tenchu game and that's what it reminded me of when I saw the trailers. The devs decided to go in a different direct but the Tenchu element is there. People See Fromsoft game, idols for resting/fast travel and sen (superficial similarities like you said) and think it's like a souls game.
In defense of the lightning deflect in Sekiro you are supposed to learn it after the Ashina Elite fight from the scroll on the wall of the dojo room, which prepares you perfectly for the fight.
Problem with that is you can't learn it through text. It's like explaining someone how to swim, throwing them in the pool and expecting that they'll swim. The better (and usual) way to do it is by introducing an enemy that has that mechanic in a lower stakes context, not putting it as a new moveset in the third and final phase of a boss fight, which happened to be hardest boss at that point in the game. The little note that appears during the fight is adding insult to injury, expecting that the player will split their focus between the fight and the explanation on the corner.
@@QuartoModulado if you know how to read, and then apply it in practice when you fight Genichrio, it’s really not that complicated 😂😂. I’m not tryna sound like an ass, but the game literally tells you how to counter it, it’s up to you to learn how to do it and practice until you master the combat
@@BonzerMrT The game tells you how to do it mid fight it's the whole point, it doesn't stop the game to display the message either. The game gives me opportunities to learn many other mechanics the proper way, but they didn't with this. It's something unexpected (parrying a non-physical attack, I can't parry fire for an instance) and executed unlike any other parry (air only, which is something you can't do for normal attacks unless you buy a specific skill). The game gives you one explicit chance to learn it, a prompt that appears once mid fight while the boss is attacking you. It's not easy and I think if you did it on your first try you either got lucky (on execution or because Genichiro gave you time to read) or you already knew how to do it from a video. But you probably didn't do it on your first try or the second. I think most players didn't know how to do it from that prompt alone. No person can concentrate on two things at once like that. Also I think you did sound like an ass by saying that the only requirement is something easy and obvious (reading).
@@QuartoModulado - I'm not a very good gamer, my reaction time is dead average at ~250ms, I suck at learning combos in fighting games, have too low APM for MOBAs or RTSes, and generally get tunnel vision and have horrible situational awareness. Despite all that, I read the scroll, understood that I simply had to jump, block, release and did correctly the first 2-3 times. In fact, I don't think I've ever failed to do it vs Genichiro, but I have failed several times vs the okami warriors. My point is that difficulty is relative and different people have problems with different elements of a game.
@@AlkisGD agreed 100%. Just like you there were others that did it. I think we can guess which parts tend to cause more problem than others though, and we can also discuss design options with a certain margin of confidence if they were good or not. IMO having that one prompt as the only one that's certain mid-fight was a shitty option. I had read the scroll too and I think it took a while before the scroll and actually fighting Genichiro for me because I ended up exploring other parts of the area before the fight AND died a ton of times before even reaching the third phase. The one time you can actually read how to do it is in a scroll with no context that it's something you'll need, that can be missed and that the game has no way to ensure I'll see it before the fight. For an instance I could've beaten the mini-boss that guards the scroll on a sunday, tried to fight Genichiro and died a couple of times before phase too and then only play again on the next weekend. Proper way to do it is either by showing the player how to do it in a lower stakes environment or straight up pausing the game mid fight to display the text.
It's funny and poetic, in a way. Just like Demon's Souls and Dark Souls punished people for playing them like a typical Action RPG, so too does Sekiro punish players for playing it like a souls game. And despite winning many GOTY awards, I will still say Sekiro is one of the most underrated games of all time.
i swear barely anyone talks about sekiro winning GOTY 2019 or even ppl hearing about it especially when it came to 2022s GOTY where it was either GOW ragnarok that was going to win or Elden Ring but some ppl were too biased and kept sticking to one game while bashing the other game
Wtf are you talking about? Is one of the best games made, if you don't like it is your problem the game have amazing animations, character disng bosses, mechanics innovation.
When I first started playing Sekiro, it was extremely difficult. I knew it would be hard since I’d played the souls series, but not that hard. I was stuck on Lady Butterfly and just couldn’t grasp how to play. Then, when I played it at my friends house, he told me to listen to Lady Butterfly and what she says, learn the dance…. And EVERYTHING clicked into place. I realized I was not playing right at all, the game is much like a rhythm game, timing blocks perfectly and attacking inbetween blocks. Figuring the best time to do a weapon art or utility…. It all made sense when I learned ‘the dance’. Since that point on, Sekiro enemies became easy (most of the time at least), there was still a challenge to the game, but i could handle all of it In all, Sekiro has one of the most complex and rewarding combat systems in the game once you understand it. It is not for everyone, but i encourage anyone to play it if you haven’t.
Calling its combat complex is a bit of a stretch. All you have to do is press right click in rhythm until the enemy stops attacking and then keep pressing left click until you see or hear that the enemy is ready to counter attack. Rinse and repeat. Oh it also tells you with giant red text which attacks can't be blocked. Hell I find sekiro to be very easy compared to ER where you have to figure out not only when to dodge but also where to dodge. Also you have to figure out yourself which attacks are grab attacks or which attacks you can and can't parry.
Honestly, the biggest mind shift for me playing sekiro was realising that just as wolf waits to parry enemies for a counter attack, they will also try to parry you. You can see sparks when they’re successful, try to attack first and counter their counter, letting the aggression flow back and forth. It didn’t click until one of the very last bosses but it completely changed the rhythm of the game, and revisiting previous boss fights let me see how it had been giving hints to guide this epiphany all along. Masterpiece
it took me a while to realized that there's a certain sound the opponent makes when they deflect that lets you know they are about to follow up with an attack.
I think this is the main thing that isn't explained well enough, I needed to see a video talk about that AFTER I finished the game to realize this, and it completely shifted how I played in new game +, I feel like it's a core mechanic that should be explained better, it's basically an indication that it's not your turn anymore
@@Laezar1 "explained better" it shouldve been told outright lmao, I was really scared not knowing when my opponent will strike after I try attack back, especially with isshin
@@larrytherustyboii7442 It's technically said, but it's very unclear, they tell you opponents can deflect but they don't really explain you the implication and when they tell you that you don't have a very good grasp on the difference between a block and a deflect so you don't even realize they're talking about different things
I ended up playing this game on again off again for about 3 years before it finally clicked and I finally beat it, most of that time was spent being stuck at the mini boss after the ogre and the drunkard at hirata estate. This was exacerbated by the fact that this was my first souls game and in every other third person action game I had never parried. All that being said, however, hearing “well done sekiro” at the end of the game will probably remain one of my most favorite memories in gaming.
After hearing those words it was literally the the best 30$ I spent in my life. I am currently on my 5th playthrough shitting on every boss and enemy in the game.
When I first got the game at release, I quit the game for 2 years when I went up against the drunk and ogre. I came back 2 years later and fell in love with the game.
This is exactly what happened to me. I got it on launch rage quit at lady butterfly didn’t play for 4 months. Got back into it and then rage quitted again at the true monk fight for 2 months. Then I was finally able to finish it. Now it’s one of my all time favorite games
Same. I was stuck on lady butterfly for months, then came back and did the cheese on her. But after that I'm flying through the game. After her I've now learned and clicked how the game works, so hopefully revenge will be sweet next time.
After giving up on console, on PC when it became available for cheap during a Steam sale years ago now, I recently picked up a Steam Deck, and for some reason, decided I would make another attempt at Sekiro. And yesterday, after three days of grinding small improvements against him, Isshin's immortality was severed. Sekiro will journey to the West, to return the dragon's lineage home. I've never done anything in any game that has demanded so much from me. And now that I'm in my 40s, there was a time where I believed I could never actually beat a "souls" game. I'm too slow, too old, my reaction times are nothing like they used to be. I consigned myself to "respecting" these games, but never having the skill or patience to beat them myself. Now, I feel like I can play anything I want, regardless of the difficulty. I love this hobby even more than ever. If I can beat Sekiro, it was never that I wasn't good enough to play it. It was that I convinced myself to stop trying, convinced myself that failure at the game was somehow an indictment of myself.
I felt so surprised when i wanted to to know what happened next in the story instead of wanting to fight the next boss. Dark Souls really screwed up my image of story in a fromsoft game.
@@jaygopinath1694 Because Miyazaki or whoever it is said they don't do sequels in that regard for the souls series. Dark Souls share the same name, but they aren't sequels in that sense. He could just be talking, and I know he was specifically speaking about Bloodborne and Sekiro, so who knows. It would be a shame if the only other parry based game even close is Lies of P. Even if it isn't a sequel I think another with that combat system in mind would be great.
Once you become good at sekiro you can find lots of creative ways mixing your prosthetics and techniques to beat the enemies in a beautiful manner. You can beat bosses the way it wasn’t intended however it takes a long time to learn the ins and outs of the game to that point
I swear from all I've played and watched people playing I've never found the prosthetics usefull at all, and I am the type of player that likes to use all mechanics so Ive tried very hard
@@Nujabes_TC the base game can be beaten without prosthetics at all. It is arguably easier to do so, since you are not distracted from the swordplay. I found the firecracker the most useful, even against human bosses - while spamming it to do damage felt like cheesing, it can create an opening for healing at any time. Shurikens were more useful for mobs/animals, than for boss battles. The shield was great for defense, but it also felt like violating the git-gud principle. I did not understand the mist raven at all, but it could've been used for defense similar to the shield. Lazulite flame-thrower, Phoenix umbrella and Malcontent are necessary for some end-game bosses/mini-bosses. All tools have niche uses that are entirely optional. Ichimonji can keep your posture low. On NG+ charmless, the shield became useless to me - since blocking is useless. The axe was great for one-shoting mobs, which were otherwise tedious. Shurikens can make bosses chase you, interrupting their posture recovery. The firecracker was still the best of them all. Ichimonji can still keep your posture low. On NG+ charmless, bell demon, base health - well timed umbrella/mist-raven are the only way to survive attacks, which cannot be deflected perfectly by sword. The mist raven feels broken. The shield's reflected force is great for damage. The axe can be used in combination with jumping/some combat arts. The firecracker is mostly useless, together with the healing gourd. Nothing can keep your posture low. The people speed-running the gauntlets use a lot of sen-throw and blue firecracker for quick posture damage. And the shield for cancelling slow "push-back" animations. TL;DR - anything other than firecracker for gourd drinking and Ichimonji/Big Damage is optional, depending entirely on how deep do you want to go.
@@Nujabes_TC I find almost every single boss has a weakness to one of the prostetics and find them extremely useful. Gyoubu, both monks, both apes are all weak to the firecrackers. Tons of mini bosses are weak to the flame vent. The shurikens work great for lady butterfly or any long sword battle to chip at posture.
The firecracker felt like a must for the shura ending when fighting against Isshin with his fire sword that would light the whole room on fire. The umbrella was also a lifesaver when it came to the terror enemies. Also the flash attack was incredibly useful for long range enemies. There was very practical uses of different things but they weren't mandatory, they just made the game easier if you used them appropriately.
4:40 - Same. My problem with levelling in games is that, I’m incentivised to grind and brainlessly stomp challenges. I get to a boss and I always think: did I beat it because I’m overlevel or did I lose because I’m underlevel?
I had this problem recently, in my current first playthrough of Elden Ring I thought that I was going to have a hard time against the Valiant Gargoyles since I've heard that it gave players a lot of trouble, I beat it in 2 tries and thought that I might've been overleveled since I've explored most of Caelid before the fight.
My experience with this was with Code Vein, the game's level cap is 300, but the recommended level I usually hear for the final boss is ~60-75, in the end I decided to do my first playthrough at level 1, as equipment is not gated based on anything to do with levelling up I figured I wasn't loosing out on anything. Was an absolute blast to do, and I am pretty sure it also skewed my idea of which bosses are hard, since what I generally hear agreed as the two hardest boss in the game I found fairly easy, and one that I usually hear as not too bad was the second hardest to me. By the time I was dealing with the first of the two regarded as hard I already had to learn the lesson it was teaching, while the other I mitigated the worst of with my gear. As for the one I struggled with, the issue was stamina, only being able to fit a few attacks into openings. Probably wouldn't have had half as much fun with the game had I not done this challenge because it was such a breath of fresh air. Then for my New Game + playthroughs for the other endings I levelled up as I went and it was like playing an entirely different game in comparison and gave me the context to make those conclusions about why I formed different opinions of the difficulty than the norm. Levelling up boosts your health, damage, stamina and the power of the NPC ally character you are with, at level 1 things quickly get to the point where the most they can really do is give you enough breathing room to better learn the boss AI by watching, with it being a challenge to keep them alive through the whole fight. Meanwhile at a reasonable level the better ones can nearly solo bosses and are able to actually take a beating. the difference between level 1 and 100 is something like twice the stamina, three times the health and half again as much damage. Wow I rambled hard, still it is interesting just how big a difference there is between playing a game able to out power your problems and having your only option being to out skill them, even if the games themeselves are superficially similar or even the exact same game.
At no point in any Souls game should it be REQUIRED to grind to accomplish something, and yet it often is. Why do I need 30 Souvenir of Reprisal to get Moonlight Blade? Why do I need 30 Dragon Scales to get the Dragon Stone Torso. They're not even hard to get, they're just tedious.
ProTip: In pretty much every Souls game, Elden Ring included, if you only level up using the souls you get from bosses you'll stay more or less right in the sweet spot of the difficulty curve for the entire game. A little less true in ER simply because the game is so big & the definition of a "boss" is alot looser but still.
I remember being very excited for sekiro when i saw that first gameplay trailer. i mean, it's all i wanted to play. Upon release, i played it for like twenty minutes and put it down for like two months. It was my first souls experience, btw. So two months later, i told my wife i was going to go to gamestop and she was like "oh hell no" lol she then proceeded to tell me that if i was going to buy another game i needed to at the very least play sekiro for a few hours and if i still didnt like it then i could get something new. So i started my adventure, and now i can confidently say that sekiro is one of my all-time favorite games
For someone who practiced marshal arts, I appreciate sekiro, it gives a virtual feeling of fighting/sparring and being in a meditative focus during action.
thank you, to really no hit a boss with no DB And Charmless, i had to get in a meditative flow state heavily, any outside thoughts i have will have me fumble😂😂
I love Sekiro for the exact same reason, the rhythm, clear headed focus, and most of all pressure required reminds me very much of my kickboxing and Muay Thai spars
I love the moment when you are just in a perfect react mode and suddenly you just flow with the parries, jumps, attacks... its like getting in the zone, you need to enter to that zen state to beat them... its amazing
On my 4th playthrough currently and it doesn't get boring. In games like ER or DS, the more you play the easier the game gets, but in Sekiro it feels like the more you play the better YOU get, which is incredibly rewarding.
If anything made me beat the game for the first time, it would have been after my ego got destroyed watching lilaggy beat the whole game on a dancepad + rockband drum kit. 10/10 content. Highly recommend.
By the time i completed Sekiro, it had me so frustratingly burnt out, that i never played it again. It is the hardest game i played in years and i raged quit so many times playing it but i pushed myself to finish it. In the end, i found the whole experience unenjoyable and more of a chore to finish.
@000ArDiLlA000 No. Not the entire game, yes it got increasingly more difficult but i was still enjoying the game, but the point where it got unbearable was at the very end fighting that damn last boss with his 3 phases, That was what i was referring to...and i wasn't about to just give in when i was right at the end.
Sekiro was my first game from FromSoftware. I started Sekiro back in 2021, and I quit the game just right after beaten to pulp by Leader Shigenori Yamauchi (the very first mini boss) several times. Never looked back, until I picked it up again on June 2022. I began to realise that the game is telling you not to retreat but take your enemy head on and push them backwards. And I can't explain the feel of satisfaction I got after I stomped upon every boss one after the another, until I got to the Guardian Ape. That crazy beast made me to rage quit the game once again. It took me like 40 hours to get to the Guardian Ape. But that twitchy feeling was always there on my fingers, the feel of heart pumping and racing, and your eyes observing and memorizing every moveset were difficult to go away. Then I picked it up once more a month back and restarted a new game from scratch, and tell you what ? I get passed the Guardian Ape in just 15 hours. It took me only 4 tries to kill it. Just one try to kill Lady Butterfly and Genechiro Ashina (as I have already defeated him in the first phase of the game). And now I can easily say Sekiro is the best game I have played literally in years. Sekiro doesn't level up your player It level's you up. Wow just Wow
Fr idk why but i find it easier to parry blades than fist , that ape first phase got me stressed and rage quit a few times then came the 2nd phase and its easy af
You just keep your distance and bait out the right attacks when you follow up you play safe just don’t get your ass kicked in phase 1 by 50%hp he starts doing the leap and it’s very punishable.
So much truth here. And this may be an unpopular hot take, but it's something Elden Ring completely lacked for me. I've "rage quit" every Fromsoft game at one point, though I always came back to beat them later, as just as you described, I couldn't stop thinking about some other way to beat the bastard who killed me over and over again. I've beaten DS3, Bloodborne, and Sekiro multiple times (Bloodborne only once since it was on my friend's PS--where's the PC remaster, Sony???), and always ended up hugely enjoying them, no matter how frustrated I got with them initially. Elden Ring I apathy quit. I got frustrated with it and stopped caring. I uninstalled the game and basically never thought about it again. I don't know why, but the game just never got me to care in the slightest, compared to all the other Fromsoft games.
@@JermyOSwell they do put an item right under the scroll to attract people to it, and often times if your camera is not pointed directly down reading the scroll will be the first prompt. Oh and then they still give you the tutorial anyways after the start of phase 3.
The biggest difference I initially found compared to other From Software games was... no stamina bar! This really helps incentivise aggressive gameplay and blocking and was a big change from the other games...
I got into "souls likes" through Elden Ring. It was my gaming blindspot so to speak, the genre just never interested me. But I finally gave in and I've now finished, Elden Ring, Dark Souls 1-3, Lies of P and am now playing Sekiro. I love the combat and the mechanics of it and I do enjoy the challenge and the moment of finally overcoming it, BUT in my opinion one thing that is truly unnecessary and really interrupts the natural flow of the game, is the punishment for dying. Almost always losing half of your progress leads to SO MUCH grinding, because what am I gonna do when I'm half way or 3/4 through my current level and I'm about to engage a difficult enemy? I'm gonna grind out that level before starting the fight. And I've done that with every single boss so far, every single time, I go back to the gun fort and farm until my level is full. It's stupid and annoying, but I'm not OK with constantly losing half my progress in a game that is THIS difficult.
Honestly? As much as I love the game, this is probably a big critique for me as well, ESPECIALLY when you get up to NG+2 and beyond. That, and the annoying dragonrot mechanic. Because I always made sure to grind to my next skill point before a fight, dying was never very punishing for me. But the times I'd start getting annoyed because I'd died to a boss one-too-many times, just to have an annoying pop-up tell me that yet another NPC just contracted the stagnation STD...it certainly never helped my frustration. Doesn't help that I never used the droplets because of how limited they were and because of just how often I died, so I typically only ever used them if I wanted to progress an NPC's questline. Not exactly fun knowing that your many inevitable deaths have an actual effect on quest progression until you use a droplet
i remember when bloodborn came out it had a very similar issue. People played darksouls one and two and a lot of people turtled behind a shield so when blood born said that's not even an option a lot of people felt scorned, not because these games had bad options, they simply did not have their preferred option.
I was in that boat several years ago but one day I said to myself f it, you can Parry and parrying is a solid option in Bloodborne. And then it just worked. Sekiro though, I call it a rhythm game and I've yet to get the rhythm the game
@@zangy3748dude. My first playthrough Maria took me 6 tries and by the end of it it was a straight parry sesh Definitely the intended method I think.
It still feels a bit out of place. There really is no way of practicing this particular jump and counter without entering the bossbattle, and seeing as it's a 3-phase battle with only the third phase using this particular counter, it comes off as too little too late. What's worse is that you can't really practice it AFTER the bossbattle either until you finally face those lightning enemies in the place with the big fish. Again, too little too late. Though at least here you an get some practice before facing the big dragon, even though the dragon DOESN'T require you to time the lightning counter all that precisely. And after that? It's just Isshin, whose moveset is quite fast and who requires a lot of precise reactions, not to mention it's a huge open area and your vision may be obscured by the grass. I distinctly remember hitting a wall with isshin because of the fact that I hadn't really mastered the lightning counter. Great game though, one of my favorites for sure. But again, some more equal spread for practicing the lightning counter would have been nice.
@@RedFloyd469 the whole point of the game is death and rebirth. You’re supposed to have had played through the fights multiple times to learn the mechanics just like the games prior. Missing the prompt and then not learning the mechanics and blaming the game for not telling you soon enough or to practice is kinda on you.
@@RedFloyd469 I really think the lightning counter was more like a reward. A reward given to you after countering a series of attacks. I probably failed at it about 2-3 times total in the fight with Genichiro and Isshin. Actually I was delighted to find that Isshin is pulling lightning tricks because the failure rate is just so low, and as soon as he jumps in the air I’m smiling
I honestly would rather play that than Sekiro tbh. Even tho, it's similar in terms of learning enemy patterns and parrying. It's just much more engaging because of the combos you can perform and ways you can approach a situation rather than just parrying and deflecting, hit a few times, jump of necessariy, then rinse and repeat. Not my kindof playstyle.
I came to sekiro from Sifu, which I feel from your explanation of elden ring is a much more analogous to sekiro than a souls game is. I found the challenge to be pretty fun actually and my attitude was much more different. It too has the structure gauge that makes it so that the only way to really win is to face the enemy attacks head-on rather than trying to hit and run.
There is 1 exception in sekiro that can make the game easier, although it’s not available at the start. You can get the dancing dragon mask item which lets you convert skill points into attack power. So you can grind that and have your attacks do significantly more posture and normal damage. It can make a mikiri counter do like 50% posture damage against isshin.
True, but IIRC you can first get it at Fountainhead Palace and if you already got this far, you definitely have what it takes to take down Isshin. The quitters quit much earlier than this.
Attack Power has diminishing returns, while skill points have exponential costs. I STRONGLY recommend not using the mask until you've unlocked EVERY other skill, or completing the skill trees becomes a nightmare. Even then, since the mask is only available right before the end of the game, the diminishing returns already make it negligible. The time spend grinding for skill points would be better spent practicing the boss you're stuck on in the first place.
@@66maybe66 I personally found 'practicing' Sword Saint to be like beating my head against a wall. At least with increasing Attack Power, diminishing returns or not, there was change. There was an increase to attack power, however small. Grinding out the attack power ups eventually helped shift the tide in my favor and allow me to beat Sword Saint where I was not able to before. I don't exactly recommend the grind for everyone, but if it's the difference between eeking out the win, or hanging up the game forever, unfinished, I would definitely say it's better to commit to the grind. But, that's just me.
@@YamiadraDJ I think the time of someone struggling with the sword saint who wants an edge would be better used getting some candy attack boost candy for the start of each of his phases, and upgrading and learning some of the shinobi tools and combat arts that can help out against him. The umbrella in particular lets you ignore some of his trickier attacks which is nice, and ichimonji double or empowered mortal draw are great ways to punish his own ichimonji for a tonne of damage. Not to say you were wrong for grinding for those extra attack points, just that because grinding in sekiro is very tedious and not very rewarding, for most people it should be a last resort when there are a lot of other lower hanging fruit that the average player can work on first.
That's the beauty of Sekiro. Your Shinobi prosthetics are completely different than mine, granted I used those, but my go-to was, fire crackers, umbrella, & shuriken.
Mine too although I had the fire crackers, spear, & shuriken when I started playing it and left the game for almost a year. Now that I finally finished it realized how useful the umbrella is.
Okinagas flame vent plus oil is so good. Sabimaru for purple guys on fountain Head. Spears for the ape. I admit my knowledge of prosthetics is lacking even after 5 playthroughs
Great video. Encapsulated exactly how I feel about Sekiro. As someone who initially bounced off Sekiro hard, but came back later, it really was about learning the more complex defensive systems. Especially how those defensive systems flow in to creating offense. For me Genichiro was the boss where I finally had it all click. Also the mental leap your friend made of comparing Sekiro to a rhythm game is spot on. Very good insight by him.
I use to try playing sekiro like dark souls but when I learned how to deflect and parry properly sekiro became my favorite. That clashing sound of the swords is my favorite sound
14:20 I almost quit Sekiro at the 1st "Drunk Guy" as well, I actually asked steam to refund the game, but thankfully I had already played it for 7 hours, so the refund was not an option anymore, then I was left with the option of leaving the game at my library oooor keep trying. Once I beat the drunk guy, I was unstoppable, and got the platinum of the game in just 2 weeks after that. Sekiro is now my 2nd favorite game of all and I love it to heart.
I also recommended my friends to leave that fight and continue playing the main story. People naturally go to Hirata Estate but it's just a side mission. Once they continue the main game and grind some praying beads and groud seeds, they start having an easier time.
I just watched this right after I beat isshin and finished the game and I still keep thinking about his attacks and how I would react to them, after I beat the game I replayed some bosses and the difference in skill level really made me proud definitely one of the best souls games ever hope that they would make a sequel
i feel like the combat arts are just there to add style to your gameplay. not necessary at all but can make the fight more fun to look at. same with prosthetics
I mean apart from the grappling hook nothing is necessary. You can do everything by just using your sword and honestly in the beginning I pretty much did exactly that. I used my sword and the mikiri counter, plus the occasional confetti, since it is necessary at some points. But I mean in Dark souls nothing is necessary either, you can beat the games half naked using nothing but a wooden stick. But honestly prosthetics and even the combat arts do definitely more than just make a fight look more fun. They can make certain encounters easier by a ton. So I wouldn't say they were just added for style. The spear: Very useful against armored enemies but absolutely destroys the second phase of the giant ape once you knock him by pulling out the centipede. Purple umbrella: Blocks the apes scream and imo is most useful against the Shichimen Warrior. If you also have anti air deathblow you can just sit there behind the umberella and wait until they jump to one shot them. Fire crackers: Those can be used in many situations the bull in the divine palace can be triggered into running into a wall, allowing an immediate deathblow. You can also run towards the giant ape in the first phase and use firecrackers plus mortal draw two times and he is more or less dead before he gets up. In the dual ape fight you can run to the place where the second ape spawns before he is there and start spamming firecrackers which will fill up the posture almost immediately allowing you to kill him before the second one attacks you. Shuriken: Those make the lady butterfly fight easier, since you can throw them to get her down from the ropes, and you can also use them to prevent for example owl, to recover posture. Axe: Cracking shields is obvious but you can also use the fully upgraded one to do serious damage on the illusion of the corrupted monk. Fire umberella: Very good against Isshin Ashina and the demon of hatred. Whistle: The fully upgraded one is a blessing for the demon of hatred. Regarding the combat arts, there are some that mainly look cool and don't have that much actual use because they require too much timing or just aren't that strong. But there are some that make your life significantly easier: 1. Whirlwind slash: You get it early and it really helps against junks of enemies especially early on. 2. (Empowered) Mortal draw: Generally super strong, if you know how to approach bosses, this one does really heavy work. 3. Ichimonji double: Seems to be a favorite of a lot of people and it is just excellent, since it recovers posture but here the timing is of essence you need to find the right windows. 4. High Monk: Does good posture damage, it used to be very broken so they nerfed it, so not as good anymore but still usable against enemies with sweep attacks (which are most) 5: Sakura dance: The most recent one and added later but it makes deflecting lightning even easier and also looks cool, 6. Dragon Flash: Sadly you only aquire this after defeating the final boss but it is super powerful for subsequent runs. You can use it early in fights to chip some health off enemies, Helped me a lot against isshin in later runs.
@@mtthew123 You can only spam them against regular enemies and not against bosses, since they require certain windows or will get interrupted. Also prosthetics are strong as hell if the right ones are used.
@@TheTrueVirus22 great explanations. I will just add that if you jump and use a slow combat art, it won't have a wind-up anymore. Great for Ichimonji, fully charges even a normal mortal draw for maximum damage. Firecrackers allow safe healing in any fight. Mist Raven is slept on, great for getting behind enemies. Ongbal killed 7 Seven Ashina Spears using Mist Raven and Mortal Draw. It also allows for lightning deflection without taking chip damage. Lazulite Axe dispels the illusions of Lady Butterfly, saving you the hustle of using snap seeds.
11:35 What do you mean you find them to be inconsistent? You really understate how much easier a boss can be with proper use of prosthetic. 1) The stun to the bull is 3-4 free strikes and can be done 3 times (iirc) which is absolutely massive (you can also heal instead at that time). 2) Shaman's orbs aren't really meant to be dealt with an umbrella since they are really slow and you are probably meant to just dodge them. 3) The flame vent on ogre is also absolutely massive, you literally show yourself hit ogre 8 times while he is being burnt alive and you call it "only a momentary stun", should i remind you that you can stun him 3 times as well? You also failed to mention the 2nd bull which you can literally 1shot by the use of 1 firecrackers. It's pretty obvious that you are cherry picking arguments to fit your premise , that being "prosthetic tools are inconsistent and not too useful.". I really liked the rest of the video and agreed with most other stuff but i felt like this had to be pointed out.
13:16 That's interesting, i see it the exact other way around. In Souls you're always playing reactively, waiting for the boss to execute and then dodging to gain the response window, in Sekiro (once you've clicked with the combat) YOU dictate how the fight goes, it's not the boss overwhelming you with blows, it's you forcing the boss to react to whatever you're doing. Edit: I know they're talking more about choosing different builds and that sort of thing, just wanted to share :)
In dark souls, you hit the dodge button when you see an enemy attacking. In seikiro you hit the parry button when you see an enemy attacking. Y'all can go on and on about how they're sooooooo different, but on the whole they're really not 😂
@@ytsuxmuhd4998 "When shaking someones hand you move you arm forwards. When punching someone you also move your arm forwards. Therefore they are the same"
I beat isshin just a few weeks ago for the first time, and hearing you talk about how the second time through is just how flawlessly you can do it hits so close to home. I love the analogies you made, you had some great points to make!
I remember it tool me ages the first time. I played it again after about a year off and beat him third try. I do miss the struggle sometimes but seeing how much better you can be is super rewarding
The Demon of Hatred and Isshin took me 3 days a piece The headless Monkey another 1-2 I'm happy to be of the camp who actually finished the game. My buddy bought it after watching me play through it and has been stuck on Madam Butterfly for weeks. He wants me to beat her as he is ready to quit but I just keep telling him "If I do this, you won't beat the rest of the game anyway"
My problem with the game was, that the brutal difficulty, especially the early game, made learning the new way of playing much harder. You can take like two hits before you die and heal once. It's hard to learn when even a small mistake kills you. It does get better the further you go, but the beginning was rough.
I find it funny how so many git gud type people even bend the knee to Sekiro 😂 I'm amazed by how many people just want a game they can coast through and not be challenged
They could have put more love into training with Hanbei. Beyond sidestep and mikiri, it would have been nice to train the combat loop in a controlled environment.
my problem was that the game design actively encourages you to avoid combat. fighting the goons, especially when there is more than one of them, is a pain in the ass, pair this with the games really fun stealth mechanics and the fact that ninja are cool and shit, my gamer instinct initially told me that fighting my way through is the inferior strategy to taking enemies out with sneak attacks. this means that whenever i got to enemies who don't die to sneak attacks, the game becomes unimaginably difficult since i got basically zero practice on the games combat mechanics. then, when the first boss, who is, according to a conversation between two guards you can overhear prior to the battle, scared of fire, jumped through a bonfire to drop kick my ass, i got so pissed i dropped the game for a few months.
@@windhelmguard5295 you're talking about the literal first boss right after kuro gives you the sword? His overhead two handed strikes are so unbelievably slow and hard to fuck up that I always interpreted it as a tutorial of parrying
16:32 I’m not sure if you know this, but there is indeed a way to increase your attack power, besides beating bosses, it’s just that you need to grind for it. You need to collect the Dancing Dragon fragments , and at a cost of 5 Skill Points at any Sculptor's Idol, you can spend it on your attack. Also this can be done repeatedly.
I found Sekiro to be shockingly easier than every other Fromsoft games, it was the second to last one I played and I went into it thinking it was gonna be the ultimate challenge for someone who’s used to playing their games, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. In the tutorial it tells you to deflect, so that’s what I did, there was never a single moment of me dodging on instinct, I can’t understand how anyone has that problem, whenever I start a new game I follow the damn instructions! So I go and I fight the tutorial boss and I find out the parry doesn’t even need to be perfect, I’m like WHAT!? This immediately makes it easier, you don’t have to dodge in a particular direction at the exact right time, you just have to press one button at sort of the right time, and the only punishment for getting the timing wrong is more damage to your posture, which even if you get your posture broken, you’re only down for a few seconds, it’s like getting hit normally in any other fromsoft game. 😭 I progress a bit further and find out there’s a feature that lets you come back to life, HUH!? On top of the already easier combat, I can freaking revive on my first death! Knowing you can come back to life if you die completely breaks down that struggle of “oh lord I need to stay alive by all means” that you get in the other games, the panic rolling, the panic healing at times when you really shouldn’t, you don’t have to worry about any of that on the first life. So now I’m trying my hardest to give the people that say it’s the hardest the benefit of the doubt, and they almost have me convinced with Chained Ogre, like ok this actually is pretty difficult, but eventually I found a way to deal with it by using what I learned from Elden Ring, I aggro’d him and hid to wait for him to de-aggro, so I could get a stealth deathblow on him when he turns his back, and it actually worked! You say there’s no ways to trivialize Sekiro like you can with Elden Ring, but the ways are there if you just think about it for a second. Once I beat Gyobu with way less struggle than I did for any early game boss in the other fromsoft games, that sealed the deal, Sekiro is the easiest and remained the easiest one for the rest of the game! Don’t get me wrong, Sekiro is by no means an easy game, I got stuck on Guardian Ape for what was probably half of my total time with the game, you still have to learn the move set of every boss you fight, but it’s just so much easier to do that in Sekiro, spamming the deflect button was alway quite effective at figuring out the timings, and there’s no stamina in Sekiro so sometimes you can just run away and watch what the boss does. I had a lot more fun with Sekiro than I thought I would, it’s a top 5 game for me, and it’s the most replayable of any soulslike game, I went on to perfect and no hit every boss in the game!
I get you bro. It’s cause I played a lot of games that had me using deflect or counter mechanics a lot that made this game easier for me than elden ring. Like once you know the mechanic it’s only the time it takes for you to get used to the move set.
I was trying pinpoint the exact reason why I loved this game so much. I finally nailed it and CP said it, a fast paced action adventure (with a dash of rhythm) game WITHOUT RPG Mechanics, with a lot of replayability.
I remember every getting stuck on almost every new boss and thinking it’d be impossible but slowly getting closer and closer. I also remember thinking I killed the guardian ape but well you know
you can technically learn about lightning reversal before you do the genichiro fight, in the room underneath him, where you fight that mini boss that always spamms the same move you can find a wall scoll that you can interact with that tell you abou lightning reversal (though im not 100% sure it give you the button prompt or just tells you to block in mid air or something)
It does tell you pretty much the same thing as the prompt, though that boss should be a bit more obvious as it's laughably easy if you can press m2 twice whenever he sheathes his sword. But I guess it goes back to the no handholding
Honestly at the end of the time, trying to beat Sekiro is like trying to eat a plateful of broken glass. Yeah if you are determined and have the will power you can overcome the pain and suffering that comes with eating it, but at the end of the day, you're eating glass. I'm sorry but when a game starts having me question my own life choices and decisions, it's crossed the line.
@000ArDiLlA000 It's a broken game. Just admit it to yourself. You wasted hours of your life trying to beat a broken unfair game. This isn't Parapa the Rappa and in all honestly I have no clue why rhythm games are even a thing. Genishiro is a broken unfair boss, Terror is a BS feature. Making enemies immune to regular damage is bullcrap (it wasn't fun in DS1 so why the eff did fromsoftware think it would be fun here). Also I know I'm in the minority but screw the whole deathblow thing. That makes zero sense and turns all the enemies in the Black Knight from Monty Python.
I'm playing Sekiro for the first time and enjoying it, and I'd say that its biggest problem is the initial difficulty curve paired with poor tutorializing. As you say, Sekiro demands that you learn its combat system exactly as-is, but it has way too big a difficulty gap between the easiest enemies and the enemies that wreck you. My experience starting out was that I'd go along killing small guys without much issue, then suddenly I looked at a samurai the wrong way and died instantly. I'd avoid him, do fine for a while, then run into someone else who did way more damage than anyone else for no reason. It's very frustrating and doesn't help the player learn the right lessons. I'm enjoying it much more now (for reference, I just acquired the Mortal Blade), but I do think more people would enjoy the game if the devs had focused more on the new player experience.
You're right, but I also think that would take away from it's charm just a little bit if it had options like the souls games. The fresh new set of rules is what *makes* Sekiro so unique.
I believe it’s curve is just right because I don’t agree with what you said about the samurai( I’m assuming the optional general at the start of the game) the generals are the best tutorial as they’re strong enough to discourage bad gameplay, but not strong enough to completely dominate you whilst having a big enough moveset to go over all the perilous attacks you should watch out for during the game
A couple years ago I got covid and was forced to stay home. I decided I wanted to play through Sekiro again to get additional endings. Since I had beaten the game before I decided to do the Shura ending first to cause a slight disadvantage, start NG+ and then speed run back through it a second time while killing all the bosses to get one of the more complete endings. I feel very proud of the fact that I was able to complete both runs before the end of the week. In hindsight I'm surprised I was able to complete a single playthrough because I was suffering pretty bad covid symptoms at the time. I guess that was a LONG, drawn out way of saying that I really really love Sekiro. The moment the combat system clicks is like Neo realising he is The One and seeing the source code of the Matrix, it's nothing short of mind blowing! I hope someday that FromSoft will make a follow up to Sekiro. It certainly deserves one.
I went into Sekiro after a coming off of Sifu, so parrying was easy for me to wrap my head around, so was the amount of abuse i was taking, dodging less so, but the grab animations are morbidly satisfying to look at
@@arezeus5289 I went into Sifu after Sekiro. After doing a 20 yr old fresh run in Sifu I came back to Sekiro and I no deathed the entire game fresh save. It is a cakewalk for sure,Sifu is brutal
Huh. I am really good at Sifu and have almost gotten the platinum in it, and then went to Sekiro. But I can’t for the life of me get past even Genichiro. I know, Skill Issue, but man is Sifu easier for me.
The problem i had with sekiro was that i kept accidentally finding shortcuts to future areas instead of the main story path, ending up in a midgame area way too early and wondering why i dont do any posture damage and why i keep getting one shot
@@tacosauce0 i guess but i tried and i just couldnt do it and it was too frustrating for me so i just looked up a guide on where im ACTUALLY supposed to go
14:42 "It's not that it's too difficult, it's that it's too different and I don't feel like learning the systems because I don't want to put the work in." Very well said, but you forgot a huge deciding factor about whether or not someone will bother putting up with learning a new combat system in a game, "Am I having fun?" I'll be one of the few people here who will say I borderline despised this game, and I played through almost every soulsborne game except for demon souls. I have no doubt the habits I developed in those games contributed to the miserable experience I had playing Sekiro, but what became the deciding factor that made me quit the game wasn't the difficulty, it was the fact that I realized there was not a single moment playing this game that I was actually having fun. And it all goes down to it just being too different (which is isn't a bad thing). I think it's great that fromsoft experimented with Sekiro and made something different from the souls series, but for me the way the game felt/played either bored me or just straight up pissed me off, and at the end of the day if you're not having fun playing a game that game isn't meant for you and its time to move on.
Video games are all about fun man, I agree with you. Btw I completed all the sekiro endings and its the most fun for me. Whenever I beat a boss, it felt like a hit of heroin. Pure bliss
I beat the game vanilla and HATED it. I got halfway through NG+ and I ended up modding the game to be easier. It absolutely improved the game for me, because the fighting in this game is not satisfying for me. The aggressive blocked attack, deflect, deflect, deflect, deflect, get one hit in, aggressive blocked attack (for five minutes per fight) was so mind numbingly boring for me, when I'd win, I usually zoned out/eyes glazed. With the mods, you can actually fight mobs, buy and use consumables, and I really enjoyed the flow of the game. I finally felt like Sekiro was holding a real genuine sword - and that he was a dangerous shinobi. You might want to try Sekiro-The-Easy mod a try if you hate the vanilla fighting as much as I do.
At first it takes 15-20 tries for me to defeat first mini boss, but i practice and keep practcing i worked on timing & my reflexes. Now it feels so satisfying while fighting enemies .
I tried to get into Sekiro about a year ago and really struggled because I tried to play it like Dark Souls and I wasn't confident in my ability to time my parrying: I made it past Genichiro and then lost interest, by that point, I had spent like 10 hours on the very beginning of the game and after that, I didn't touch the game again until a week ago. Exactly a week ago, I started the game again from the beginning, this time being mentally prepared for how the game works, I breezed through the beginning of the game in about an hour, Gyobu Oniwa killed me maybe 5 times while I got used to the mechanics again and then I beat Genichiro on the very first try, after that, I was hooked. Of course I had a bit of trouble on a few of the later bosses but nothing that I was genuinely stuck on, where I initially struggled with the playstyle of Sekiro, I began to love the rythm of blocking attacks and learning movesets. As of today, exactly 1 week after starting my new playthrough and 22 hours playtime on my save, I am now on the final boss, I don't think I've ever had this much fun playing a game before, I love Sekiro so much, all I needed was to be ready to play it like Sekiro, not like Dark Souls or Bloodborne.
@@johntomaro7202 yeah, unfortunately, I didn't realise I could fight him there until it was too late :( I plan on doing that on my next playthrough though!
One thing I’ll say about the lightning counter, is that it’s not even necessarily talk to the player at a good time. There are several hints that you can get from vendors and/or interacting with readable items in the world that tell you about the necessity to deflects lightning
@@davidm3420 literally this, when i hit that second phase i got soo hyped and was praying i could use the lightning counter after reading the scroll, thankfully i was correct.
I think the issue stems from the fact that lots of players are only playing to enjoy the combat rather than read all the dialogue and hints at stuff earlier in the game.
@@Mr.Slinky thats fair. Im usually that way too, but the scroll is quite literally right behind the item in that room so I guess for this instance I cant really argue.
About the lighting counter tutorial, it actually does teach you right before you fight Genichiro. After you beat the quick draw, blue guy, theres a painting with a scroll that tells how to lighting reversal
High monk and Owls special thrust attack are so underratedd. You can high monk on sweeping attacks. You dont even need to jump. Itll do critical posture damage. Sekiro is my first from software game so i never had the conflicting mechanics of previous souls games. It took me 3 months to beat sekiro the first time. Now i can beat it in under 2 hours. And make it look good. Im not just saying that to sound badass or anything. Ive beaten that game, no exaggeration, at least 20 times. Sometimes i come back and beat it in a day like im just rewatching my favorite movie. When you really learn to use the best moves and combos, you literally turn the game into one of those incredibly animated anime fight scenes. But YOU ARE that overpowered main character doing just absolutely ridiculous miraculous combos and counters. Inner Genichiro is my favorite fight because of that. Using his own Sakura Dance to reflect his lightning is just a work of art. The fact that they added the complete move change if you back up too far during his floating passage combo. Punishing a very well known way around dealing with him. But if you walk backwards, just letting his blade graze your face, he wont switch. You'll just look like a god playing with your food. You can dodge through his map crossing slash if you have good enough timing. You can shuriken him out of the sky during his air attacks. In fact on his specific 4 arrow combo, if you wait for that quarter second pause on the last arrow, you just dodge forward, completely dodge it, and swing on him as he falls, stun locking him for an easy 3 hits. This game is P.E.R.F.E.C.T. Matter of fact i know what im doing this Saturday.
I know exactly what you mean. My favorite "secret dodge" is in Father Owl's fight. When he does his gun powder slash you can dodge straight through it if you time it correctly. Such a wonderfully put together game🙏.
@@CommandPromptGaming Probably the coolest way to deal with Owls Firecracker slash is to just do a thrust attack. It will stun him and interrupt the actual slash and move you just far enough forward to be behind the crackers when they explode. In phase 2 it even has the bonus that Owl will not transform into his Owl which he often does after the move.
Sekiro was very hard for me in the beginning but after you realise that sekiro is just a rhythm game where you have to recognise attack patterns rather than try to react to fast movements it becomes a much easier game. I recently platinumed sekiro and I’ve got yo say it’s definitely my favourite fromsoft game. The learning curve for the game is certainly hard but after getting good enough I find the game actually becomes a lot easier than some of the other souls games.
Sekiro was my first FromSoftware game and after playing it multiple times, I decided to buy Elden Ring a few weeks ago on sale, and boy do I have to do some unlearning, I've been so used to deflecting lol
The game actually tells you about the lightning counter right before Genichiro on the wall of the room you spawn in, there's a painting that gives you a hint about it which then just leads into a full blown explanation.
5:59 you threw the ceramic shard at a gunner. They are specifically programmed to not leave their position since they have range. This is very common in stealth games so actually it works pretty fine 😅
Okay, but they're getting hit in the face repeatedly and just taking it. It looks ridiculous, and more realistic behavior would have them investigating it and not taking shard after shard😂.
@@CommandPromptGaming To be fair they could at least aim their gun towards the direction they got hit from to show them being in an investigative state. So yeah it really does look kinda stupid but at least it's consistent.
Side note: Anyone getting frustrated on a boss or encounter... just keep reminding yourself of what you improved on and praise yourself for it. Then set a time limit and when you hit that quit the game for a few hours or the day.. Then come back and repeat..You won't rage quit and remember it's not a race.. just have fun!
I did this for about a week for the last boss before realising that I wasn't getting mad, but I wasn't having any fun whenever I played. And that even before getting hard stuck I haddent actually enjoyed playing the game since around the guardian ape fight. I don't think it was a bad game, it's just a game that I didn't enjoy but was forcing myself to play because I liked Fromsofts other games
OR...change your approach. Why beat your head against a brick wall when a hammer exists? Every boss in the game has some way of breaking it and turning the odds in your favor. The game loves to cheat, so cheat right back.
It starts out on easy mode. U can make it harder without taking the kuros charm in the very beginning of the game. Also if u ring the demon bell. U can make it harder. I’ve played this game at least 2500* hours. And have achieved every possible thing. Even all the glitches. Cheesing enemy’s/skipping enemies. I’m actually pretty good at this game. But I saw some dude here comment that he quit playing the game to get good at the piano. Because he was applying himself to the piano. The same way he was applying himself to the game. It made me think. I need to do this with my art. Dude i just had a realization about some major life stuff. Thanks man! Good luck to all the sekiro players out there. I’m officially retired today Saturday August, 24th 2024. I’ll come back in a year and keep u posted about the art
This is literally how I feel and have tried to explain to so many people lol. I think sekiro is best version of a from soft game by far, but I think for those who don't want to adapt and learn and do want an easy button, I think elden ring provides that. I really hope to get some more sekiro-style games that revolve around the visible posture system and forced learning in the future, but for now I guess its back to NG++++++
@@nousername2942 I mean are you even a fan or familiar with the souls series or the formula of it? Because if not why would you even bother playing it?
Btw, the lightning counter gets thought to you before the fight with genichiro, in the room below where you previously fought the ashina dude, on the wall bahind him is an interactive picture which teaches you the lightning counter. Ah and try and use the lapiz firecracker against the shichimen warrior in combination with the in air deathblow :)
The problem with games like sekiro vs other action games is it comes down to memorizing individual enemies' movesets instead of just getting really good at the fundamentals.
No I would disagree, a few players where actually able to beat the final boss, Saint Isshin Ashina, in their first try, because they had mastered the basics of the game, they didn’t know what was coming, yet they beat him.
Wrong, fundamentals is key, but the repetition and memorising is what gives you those fundamentals. You can’t get fundamentals without training, and you can’t train if things are so easy that it doesn’t challenge you in any way.
what’s cool is that certain bosses like genchiro ashina actually reacts to what you do and if you miss your attacks or fake a hit they will take advantage of the situation
For anyone struggling with this game try turning the music off, i found that the music was throwing off the rhythm of the combat for me, it's easier to get parry timing down when the clank of blades is all you hear. When you start playing Sekiro there is a moment when the game just clicks with you, if you never have that moment it sucks, but if you do have it the game is a masterpiece. My favorite game of all time.
For me it wasjust figuring out when to block. Was i knew it became a piece of cake because then i just had to watch where the blade or fist was coming from to block at the right time.
I think if Sekiro is your first Fromsoftware game, it can be easier to enjoy. It was mine and I wasn't held back by prior knowledge, I was able to appreciate the game for what it was and it's certainly my favorite Fromsoftware game yet because of that.
I think this is was made it to my fav from game that i played the other ones a lot. It made me appreciate all the differences that made it to such a different but familiar experience. I feel the whole gameplay profits a lot from being so focused
I played sekiro and i really enjoyed it especially the Compact until the last bosses the learning curve got very steep which bugged me a little but not too Hard. My Main complaint is that i cant just use everything like items revives etc. because i would have to go back and grind again to get them back which felt really frustrating
If Souls games were like Sekiro, I would never be that into them. Sekiro forces you to play a certain way, with no freedom, and I don't like that. If you don't enjoy parrying, the game becomes very unpleasant since you can't avoid it. The Elden Ring approach is perfect.
Interesting video. One of the things I didn't like about Elden Ring was how I could just level up to get past bosses, making it feel like my skills weren't what was getting me through the game, but rather, my willingness to grind runes and come back to a boss with more levels. Sekiro, being my second from software game, has been much more rewarding and enjoyable, because when I beat a boss, I feel like it was all me, not my spirit ashes, my willingness to grind levels to make the boss trivial, or just pure luck sometimes. It's interesting to me that the same reason many players don't like Sekiro, and inevitably quit playing it, is the same reason that many others love Sekiro and are willing to grind it out to get their skills up. Also, I forgot to mention how in Elden Ring, sometimes just getting a better (and sometimes OP) weapon was all that was required to beat a certain area. In Sekiro, it is only my skill, and occassionally, my Shinobi prosthetic that guarantees the victory.
@@CommandPromptGaming yes, it is a certain kind of fun. At first every fight seems completely impossible, after a while you feel you are becoming better - and killing the boss is cathartic. As long as you measure success in number of attacks you can survive, the game is a constant dopamine drip. However, if you only care about how many deaths it takes you to kill a boss, you are going to have a bad time.
Gotta' love how this guy completely downplays the firecrackers as being only effective on a few enemies. No, dude, they're good against about 90% of the enemy roster and they're what you could call, Sekiro's hidden "easy mode".
I knew what Soul games were like, but never played them before, so my first Fromsoft game was Sekiro. I tried Dark Souls and Elden Ring after, and I cannot. I enjoyed Sekiro's mechanics so much that the tedious grind and i-frame dodge is just not for me. I really hope they make more games like Sekiro, where they are very different from their usual formula!
same I just couldn't get into the rpg mechanics of the souls title but I suppose that makes sense considering I've never been big on rpg games very much to begin with. I can see why people like the previous souls games but the sense of mastery I got from playing sekiro is unmatched, elden ring doesn't come close to that.
The problem with returning to elden ring and dark souls after sekiro is that you’re returning to objectively bad games. If you had no reference point then you’d like them but looking back at them from sekiro’s perspective you realise that they’re bad games. I play mostly ds2 bc it rewards a lot of skill like sekiro and has player freedom.
@@zzodysseuszz I've played dragons dogma though and didn't like it. What I'm saying is I'm just not a huge fan of games that have heavy rpg elements and classes and whatnot to spec into.
When I really get stuck on a boss, the thing I use to turn the tide is the button remapping system. If you find yourself getting really frustrated, upmap the attack button so you can’t attack. It sounds counter intuitive but removing the need to think about attacking and deflecting allows you to level up your deflecting skills incredibly quickly!
i thought you were going to say you remapped its awful control layout. first thing i did was switch attack and deflect to the triggers and stuck swap prosthetic to dpad up and use item to y. That way its more natural to attack and deflect and i can heal while moving without having to stop and up on the dpad. having the bumpers for grapple and use prosthetic are quite nice too
I had a hell of a time when I first played this game like 2 years ago. got most of the way through before I just stopped playing. Going into it a second time 2 weeks ago has been a breeze for the most part. I've finally got the blocking down to an art. The seamless fights have been just amazing. This one is definitely my favorite FromSoft game.
@6:46 is exactly what I've been saying since the game came out and people started complaining about the difficulty or saying it's trash. Players were trying to play the game like a Souls game or Bloodborne and as a result got their butts handed to them. I remember the upcoming days to Sekiro's release seeing many players playing Bloodborne to prepare for Sekiro because of fast gameplay. I think many Souls/Borne veterans were expecting a Dark Souls with a Japanese setting and thought they were gonna come in and dominate the game. When it didn't happen the salt came.
Im not alone! DS3 and Sekiro click with me more as well. Def my two favorites. Honorable mentions to Bloodborne and Elden Ring. I agree though, Sekiro has the greatest barrier to entry. It is the strict sensi that makes you want to quit but if you stick with it you realize it just wanted to help you develop your skills to their full potential. No game is for everyone though. This video explains quite well why some people will choose to stop playing. Still, you'll never convince me this game doesn't at least belong in Fromsoft's top 3 best souls-like games.
generally good take. my favourite pve experience not counting nostalgia. as the singular focus they had in this game really shine through right to the end. its great for souls veterans looking for that old challenge again for the first time as well. having to start from ground zero and get rag dolled for a while until it clicks and it goes from trying to survive.. to how much can i style on this boss
I had a good time with this game, just started 2 weeks ago. But.. Im stuck at the end (demon boss). I hate fighting huge opponents while you only have a melee weapon. The only thing sekiro did wrong is the fact that you normally loose 50% of money after being killed. Yes i know you can buy bags to store but they are limited
For DoH, make sure you have the suzaku lotus umbrella. When he jumps immediately deploy it. When he hits you'll take no damage, then wait a second, hack away. If you don't wait for that second you'll get blown backward. Also you want the ceremonial tanto, use that before the battle starts. You'll want the Finger Whistle to be upgraded to Malcontent. If you get to phase 3, use Malcontent 3 times, each time hackin at him. By that point you should be able to finish it yourself. It's a tough fight, but once you learn his rhythms it's just a matter of time. Lastly, you can dodge his unblockable charge just by jumping away. Even if you don't clear him it will negate damage.
Sekiro is a true "Git Gut" game. Kinda similar to Doom Eternal. You do not upgrade your character, you upgrade yourself, which is immensely satisfying.
I stopped playing the game after the realization that it's basically a rythm game and in the time it would take me to get good I could start playing the piano again and git gud at that and I would actually have a useful skill acquired instead of just a videogame completed.
@Otto JK cringe. Piano is useful? Lol
@@raijinoflimgrave8708 I'm not religious but my local church always offers good money to pianists to visit summer camps to play a few hymns. And one doesn't need to be even that good to get hired.
@@otto_jk talking bout church camp and pianos in the TH-cam comments there’s no way you’re real
Y'all are killing me fr💀
I've beaten almost all of the FromSoft games and I agree with the general consensus.
Sekiro was by a wide margin the steepest learning curve, but once mastered it ruins the combat system of every other game.
Yup. Ghosts of Tsushima felt like an arcade sword game after Sekiro.
And I love them both but man the combat of Sekiro is more relentless and fierce.
Less brain power for Sekiro, more coordination and reaction time based. Not really a Soulsborne combat system tbh, more like CoD for Dark Souls. I preferred the more varied combat from before, it gave the advantage to cunning well read players / invaders
I don't like the dark souls gameplay to be honest. But i do love sekiro really much. Wished they had more games like this. I also didn't like the gameplay from Elden ring, i only played the game because I loved the exploration and the beautifull world you're in. This got me through alot of the game
@@tobiasmccallum9697 it's less reaction time and more like learning each enemy combination like a difficult riff in guitar hero.
@@jamesbrains1350 guitar hero is actually a great analogy, both require huge coordination and timing. Dark souls is as much about the time you put in before the fight (builds, play style etc) as the boss fight its self. Its more a game for planning and forward thinking etc, but also more clunky because of that. OnS is either rage quit or cakewalk depending on if you have the right kit / upgrades / build
The Genichiro fight on top of Ashina Castle is probably one of the greatest skill checks in all of video gaming. The amount of times I grappled up to that arena my first playthrough is absurd 🙃
I died a lot to him too, but that's where the combat really clicked for me and I learnt to be aggressive as well as defensive. After that fight, I wouldn't say the rest of the game was "easy" exactly... but I died a lot less and every fight was so much more satisfying
Same I hate that first grapple
nah monkeh is worse
same dude
I'm currently at this exact spot on my first play through 😂 it's definitely teaching me to "git gud"
A lot of people ignore Hanbei, but he's pretty good to learn the game fundamentals. And to perfect it, fight genichiro again in memories.
Problem is hanbei only teaches you how to parry using the most tame and easy movesets, and won't really prepare you for what's to come ahead.
Kind of like how cemetery of ash was nothing more than just a bunch of hollows but then there's Gundyr as a tutorial boss. Only difference is DS3 plays entirely differently.
@@colossaltitan3546 I agree, but there are several gamers who struggle with generals or some common enemies too.
inner genichiro and isshin both help me hella with perfecting deflects
agree 100% i would beat genichiro in memories over and over again even if i won
@@colossaltitan3546 I disagree. Hanbei was crucial for me to understand the way the game works and how it expects you to fight. I went from struggling against General Naomori Kawarada to beating Gyoubu Oniwa on my first try. The key was spending about an hour with Hanbei and practicing the game mechanics, developing a fundamental understanding of Sekiro. He changed my experience from frustratingly difficult to very enjoyable.
Played this game after Elden ring. I was instantly hooked, didn’t even care that much for the story the gameplay was just so satisfying idk how to explain it. It’s like a dance between two people while fighting and you want that dance to be as flawless as possible.
Agreed
exactly like an actual life and death sword duel. do it perfectly or die
I played sekiro once 2 years ago and couldn’t fall in love with in. Then elden ring came and quickly grabbed my attention. I then gave sekiro another try and it’s combat system is second to none out there imo
Good advice for any challenge in general
A true Shinobi hones his mind, body, sword and spirit to perfection.
As someone who's quit 3 years ago after dying to genichiro over 40 times and coming back yesterday and finishing half the game with less than 10 deaths total, I can confirm that it was indeed skill issue.
Congrats, my brother💪.
I feel i cheese the game. I got through the entire game baiting out certain moves from bosses, stealthing at every opportunity, and spamming the parry button to some degree.
@@RealityBasedits not a cheese when the game hands you the mechanics to do what you do
@@sortasour2964 fair enough
@@RealityBasedyou probably didn't cheese as much as you think as many are patched
Even then, cheesing is more difficult to me at least
I think a big reason Sekiro’s combat is more fun when people get the hang of it is because defense and offense are both tied so closely together. This makes it feel more like a back and forth battle than elden rings endless boss combos where you just have to dodge and wait for an opening.
I have played the more modern Fromsoft games (DS, ER, BB, Sekiro, AC) and what I notice the biggest difference is the other games make you dodge and attack but Sekiro rewards you to face the bosses head on making it very exciting and tactical.
It feels like an anime battle
@@anonfinally1692and bloodborne really rewards trading blows and immense aggression with the rally system
@@Nyarly-san I agree with you it's my second favorite behind Sekiro. It is very good.
Boring Ring is rubbish
Bought this game two days ago!!I have INVOLUNTARILY unlocked levels of frustrations and emotions i never knew human beings had.
Wait until you are so good at it that you enter a zen like state during combat and can defeat bosses blindfolded.
Yeah, the next step is "I'm getting it" and the next step after that is "the flow". And suddenly you are a sword saint.
Im on my first play through currently as well and I spent 3 hours and over 40 attempts at Genichiro and the combat system finally clicked for me and it became a beautiful dance and I beat him to a pulp and screamed in frustration. You gotta stick through the frustration
For each boss
Gyobu: firecrackers (highly recommended) whichever depletes first (posture or health)
Lady Butterfly: Shuriken (highly recommended), Whirlwind Slash (recommended), snap seeds (borderline requirement)
Genichiro: Ichimonji Double (highly recommended), Axe (recommended), firecrackers (if you want I guess)
Way of Tomoe: Mist Raven Feathers (recommended), Sakura Dance (highly recommended)
Folding Screen Monkeys: speedrun strategy (requirement)
False Monk: snap seeds (borderline requirement), firecrackers (borderline requirement), fist full of ash (borderline requirement)
Ape: oil and flame vent (highly recommended), firecrackers (highly recommended), spear (recommended), lazuli umbrella (recommended)
Owl: ako sugar (recommended), divine confetti (recommended)
True Monk: firecrackers (borderline requirement), fist full of ash (borderline requirement), High Monk (highly recommended)
Divine Dragon: a big bag of marijuana (highly recommended)
Way of Tomoe: ako sugar (recommended) Mortal Draw (recommended)
Sword Saint Isshin: Ichimonji Double (highly recommended), Mortal Draw (recommended), Floating Passage (recommended), Sakura Dance (highly recommended), umbrella (recommended), firecrackers (recommended), raven feathers (recommended), yashariku sugar (recommended), ako sugar (recommended), divine confetti (highly recommended)
@@notproductiveproductions3504bag of marijuana? Xd
Sekiro was my first fromsoft game. Little to no thought went into my choice regarding difficulty or differences in gameplay between their games. I just liked the Shinobi aesthetic and setting way more. I’ve never been more determined to “git gud” at a game because hot damn that is one satisfying combat system. I downloaded it on thanksgiving and beat it on Christmas. And now, every game I play no matter how challenging I go into it with the mantra, “I ain’t scared. I beat Sekiro”
Stop the cap.
What?
"Cap" is slang for "fabrication" or "lying."
🙂👍
Go play Furi, Celeste and Super Meat Boy ☠️
@@DaBlackFrieza I also beat sekiro as my first from soft game, I doubt they’re capping
The lightning reversal skill is indicated before your fight with Genichiro. you have to defeat the Elite Ashina and just read the room after.
The problem is that the instruction isn't clear enough
@@MadZwe1How is it not? It literally says which buttons you need to press
Yeah, but it only tells you. Practicing the maneuver beforehand would have been nice. I also don't know if the scroll tells you that you have to be in the air to do it. It's a tough counter to hit for the first time.
@@CommandPromptGaming The original scroll tells you to hit the attack button before landing (implying you're in the air). Actually putting it into action though was definitely not easy at first. Fantastic video by the way man. I actually got hard stuck on juzou the drunkard for like 3 hours until I realized I can't weasel out of just practicing the parry timings and being aggressive. My next hard lock was genichiro ashina, for about 4-5 hours. I was even looking up whether it was feasible to beat him with the stats I had at that point. Eventually I learned it was literally just a pure skills issue. After those two, I've never been stuck on a boss for more than 1-2 hours now that I understand what the game was forcing me to understand. I beat first guardian ape on my first try. Getting rid of the instinct to try and dodge attacks was very difficult
@CommandPrompt you can just practice the counter in the genichiro fight 💀 it's not like you are going to best him first time
I dropped Sekiro for months, I’m glad I cameback to it and was patient enough to really get the combat down, a beautiful experience
Ill be on that soon sadly stuck on 7 spears im doomed
I'm stuck on both Lady Butterfly and the Blazing Bull. Holy fuck, how the fuck am I supposed to beat them?
I did the same thing this week. After a year long break i realized it was much easier after I returned because I had MUCH more patience.
It also doesn’t help that I quit upon finding the most noble boss because I also saw the headless and assumed that I’d have to fight both and they’d be hard
…and turns out that the mist noble is legit the easiest boss in souls games as well as not needing to fight the headless after the noble.
And after coming back I had so much patience that I was in shock that people thought owl was a hard boss because it was easy to me after returning 😂
@@wariokhabib245 I'm stuck on the Guardian Ape. Almost have him down but always end up getting killed on second phase half health.
I love Sekiro, it's the most satisfying game I ever played. It went from being the hardest fromsoft game ever to being the easiest no death run I've ever done
Damn no death run? Touch grass man but sick achievement
@@benjaminwilliam6643 Dude no death run is easily doable compared to no hit runs
the goal of Sekiro is to make you a better gamer, and congratulation for you.
@@benjaminwilliam6643Honestly not that hard. It's definitely by far the easiest From game to no death run as a regular human being. No weapon or build options means that the game is immaculately balanced towards you from the get go, you are basically always optimal, you just have to learn.
Stop lying to yourself. You're talking about a video game like it's the love of your life. No one outside of the Internet cares that you can beat sekiro.
I quit Sekiro after dying to an early boss but your video has made me try and again. Thank you. Because I pushed through this time and am now a true shinobi bad ass. The Genichiro fight was tough but that’s where it all clicked for me. After that, I got it. Just finished the dual apes.
LET'S GOOOO!!!! That's awesome news, dude!!!!
Yeah basically how everyone experiences trh game. Genichiro is the stop where you have to learn the game.
@@zakanyimen Exactly, but sword saint isshin is a different story.
By the end of the game you’ll be laughing at Genichiro
Fuck yea, keep on keeping on. There's way more in store for you.
In the arena for the miniboss before Genichiro, there's a tapestry that will tell you how to lightning deflect. In addition, Divine Confetti will let you destroy terror orbs with your sword rather than twirling the shield a bunch of times. Also for anyone wanting to do a second playthrough, I highly recommend "no charm, bell demon." Refusing Kuro's charm at the start of the game makes imperfect deflections deal you chip damage, and of course the bell demon makes the game harder on top of that. You need to be playing at your peak to get through the game this way
Oh cool, I didn't know about the confeiti thing! And I agree. The charm and bell demon are TOUGH.
actually Ongbal showed that you even can PARRY the terror orbs lol.
No thank you :D :D
@@CommandPromptGaming you can deflect the terror beam with divine confetti, you also need divine confetti to do aerial deathblows against the shichiman warriors.
@@CommandPromptGaming anti air skill which you can buy from smoll boy merchant basicly allows you to beat that void boss in 10 sec. As Well as useing finger shinobi tools aginst headless allows you to beat the shit out of them. So there are ways around the bosses, (Well around side/optional bosses) Just In a diffirent way
“The first game you can’t weasel your way through”
That’s spot on
There are a few boss skips tbf.
@@maximusstorm1215 yeah but they are more so glitches than actual skips.
You can still weasel your way through with kiting, but you have to learn just as much as the normal game
Become the one armed weasel
Yeah, like most bosses requiring 2+ deathblows so rly the only cheese you can get is doing one stealthed and the rest is again still up to you
It just hard to CHEESE this game.
The lightning reversal is actually taught to you I think in the room right before the fight, after you beat the ashina elite, there's a banner that talks about the technique in the lore, and then the game gives you a prompt explaining how it works, which it repeats the first time you get hit by lightning in the Genichiro fight, as well as occasionally in the fountainhead palace I think
You’re absolutely right. You read the wall scroll that’s right behind the Elite and it tells you directly how to do it.
Being told how to do it is different from learning a move that goes against instincts at the 3rd phase of a difficult fight
It's also kind against the Difficult but fair philosophy of the game. Yes you're suppose to die a lot but learning a boss' patterns also stems from within the fight itself.
Death is simply the result of too many mistakes or getting hit by a strong move that was blantly obvious and easy to deal with. All of which is on the player
What happened with Lightning reversal was not obvious. And requires a bit of practice. Even as someone who knew Genichiro was gonna do that because I watched video before getting my hands on the game, it still felt kinda unfair. Knowing I would've taken more tries to beat him had I not been on YT
@@potatoesblink3299 How is that not also on the player? It’s almost the exact same way perilous attacks are handled. Only difference is you learn about the reversal through a scroll that explains and even has a painting of how to do it, on a wall. Plus, if you know how lightning works in real life, then it should be pretty obvious.
@InTheMindOfDavid You're so right! When there's a thunderstorm outside I grab my katana and start jumping around so I can throw it away from me.
????
The hell are you on about, dude😂?
@@InTheMindOfDavid Perilous attacks are taught to you gradually against sub bosses that aren't as punishing. You have time to breath in these concepts. The Makiri Counter tutorial in Hirata is up against a basic enemy who has lots of stabs, not to mention you do find out about it early on cuz one of the first skills you learn.
Also, initiating a counter by pressing one button at the right time is common in video games, right? BUT purposely getting hit midair is NOT. So it's not an "I can just do that, scenario"
You don't have time to breath in these concepts when you're worried about the progress you fought for in an intense boss fight. Not to mention the fact that Way of Tomoe is intimidating as fuck, giving players the mentality not to play around (he's easier in hindsight but no way first time players would know that)
So no. Lightning Reversal isn't obvious
It's not a difficult concept to grasp, but it's difficult to grasp with the context of Genichiro's encounter.
I personally didn't find any problem getting into sekiro after dark souls , I simply treated it like a different game especially with the added jump button , stealth , posture bar and removal of rpg system , I could tell that it is supposed to be played differently from souls
Sekiro quickly became my favorite game because it had everything that made me fall in love with dark souls and that is the sense of mastery not just the sense of achievement but mastery , the feeling of being able to destroy a challenge that you previously found difficult , in ds1 and 2 only few bosses gave that feeling , in ds3 most of the bosses gave me that feeling which was why it became my favorite before sekiro and in sekiro the entire game gave me that feeling
Sekiro is my favorite game too and the main reason would be the same as yours, the feeling of mastery that comes with overcoming the game’s challenges. So i will reccomend another game that is unmatched in that regard when it comes to indies: Furi. It’s a boss-rush action game with a bit of bullet-hell, and it’s the only game that has ever come close to the feeling i get when playing sekiro, even other souls games that i consider as masterpieces (DS1, DS3, BB and ER) don’t give me the same absurdly satisfying feeling that i get when playing Furi or Sekiro. Another reccomendation is Nioh 2, the game is completely brutal, especially in the beginning but when you “get good” you become a completely different player and it’s extremely complex and has a very big campaign + great coop (way better than Souls coop). But yeah Furi is an underappreciated hiddengem and Masterpiece of an indie game that deserves way more credit , praise and attention comsidering it’s quality.
@@minecraftgravityguy I heard of furi before but never got time to play it so I might check it out soon , thanks for recommendation
Also there's an indie game coming out soon in june called nine sols it's a sekiro like game and it looks really good with it's combat and artstyle
This. You treated Sekiro like a different game. I think the main reason people found it too difficult is because many tried to play the game like a souls/borne game. I remember in the upcoming weeks of Sekiro's release people were playing bloodborne to prepare for Sekiro because they saw fast pased combat. When the game final came out. I saw many streamers try and play like bloodborne and got their buts handed to them then complain about the game being trash rather than learn the mechanics. Many gave up at Genichiro. Some changed their opinion when they actually learned the mechanics
sekiro IS a diferent game, its not a souls like at all. at most it has some of the most basic similarities, but its in noway even close to ds in anything besides the most superficial aspects.
@@marcosdheleno It originally started off as a new Tenchu game and that's what it reminded me of when I saw the trailers. The devs decided to go in a different direct but the Tenchu element is there. People See Fromsoft game, idols for resting/fast travel and sen (superficial similarities like you said) and think it's like a souls game.
In defense of the lightning deflect in Sekiro you are supposed to learn it after the Ashina Elite fight from the scroll on the wall of the dojo room, which prepares you perfectly for the fight.
Problem with that is you can't learn it through text. It's like explaining someone how to swim, throwing them in the pool and expecting that they'll swim.
The better (and usual) way to do it is by introducing an enemy that has that mechanic in a lower stakes context, not putting it as a new moveset in the third and final phase of a boss fight, which happened to be hardest boss at that point in the game. The little note that appears during the fight is adding insult to injury, expecting that the player will split their focus between the fight and the explanation on the corner.
@@QuartoModulado if you know how to read, and then apply it in practice when you fight Genichrio, it’s really not that complicated 😂😂. I’m not tryna sound like an ass, but the game literally tells you how to counter it, it’s up to you to learn how to do it and practice until you master the combat
@@BonzerMrT The game tells you how to do it mid fight it's the whole point, it doesn't stop the game to display the message either. The game gives me opportunities to learn many other mechanics the proper way, but they didn't with this. It's something unexpected (parrying a non-physical attack, I can't parry fire for an instance) and executed unlike any other parry (air only, which is something you can't do for normal attacks unless you buy a specific skill).
The game gives you one explicit chance to learn it, a prompt that appears once mid fight while the boss is attacking you.
It's not easy and I think if you did it on your first try you either got lucky (on execution or because Genichiro gave you time to read) or you already knew how to do it from a video. But you probably didn't do it on your first try or the second. I think most players didn't know how to do it from that prompt alone.
No person can concentrate on two things at once like that. Also I think you did sound like an ass by saying that the only requirement is something easy and obvious (reading).
@@QuartoModulado - I'm not a very good gamer, my reaction time is dead average at ~250ms, I suck at learning combos in fighting games, have too low APM for MOBAs or RTSes, and generally get tunnel vision and have horrible situational awareness. Despite all that, I read the scroll, understood that I simply had to jump, block, release and did correctly the first 2-3 times. In fact, I don't think I've ever failed to do it vs Genichiro, but I have failed several times vs the okami warriors.
My point is that difficulty is relative and different people have problems with different elements of a game.
@@AlkisGD agreed 100%. Just like you there were others that did it.
I think we can guess which parts tend to cause more problem than others though, and we can also discuss design options with a certain margin of confidence if they were good or not.
IMO having that one prompt as the only one that's certain mid-fight was a shitty option. I had read the scroll too and I think it took a while before the scroll and actually fighting Genichiro for me because I ended up exploring other parts of the area before the fight AND died a ton of times before even reaching the third phase.
The one time you can actually read how to do it is in a scroll with no context that it's something you'll need, that can be missed and that the game has no way to ensure I'll see it before the fight. For an instance I could've beaten the mini-boss that guards the scroll on a sunday, tried to fight Genichiro and died a couple of times before phase too and then only play again on the next weekend.
Proper way to do it is either by showing the player how to do it in a lower stakes environment or straight up pausing the game mid fight to display the text.
It's funny and poetic, in a way. Just like Demon's Souls and Dark Souls punished people for playing them like a typical Action RPG, so too does Sekiro punish players for playing it like a souls game. And despite winning many GOTY awards, I will still say Sekiro is one of the most underrated games of all time.
i swear barely anyone talks about sekiro winning GOTY 2019 or even ppl hearing about it especially when it came to 2022s GOTY where it was either GOW ragnarok that was going to win or Elden Ring but some ppl were too biased and kept sticking to one game while bashing the other game
How is it underrated?
Wtf are you talking about? Is one of the best games made, if you don't like it is your problem the game have amazing animations, character disng bosses, mechanics innovation.
Yeah Sekiro is the best FromSoft game imo
When I first started playing Sekiro, it was extremely difficult. I knew it would be hard since I’d played the souls series, but not that hard. I was stuck on Lady Butterfly and just couldn’t grasp how to play. Then, when I played it at my friends house, he told me to listen to Lady Butterfly and what she says, learn the dance…. And EVERYTHING clicked into place. I realized I was not playing right at all, the game is much like a rhythm game, timing blocks perfectly and attacking inbetween blocks. Figuring the best time to do a weapon art or utility…. It all made sense when I learned ‘the dance’. Since that point on, Sekiro enemies became easy (most of the time at least), there was still a challenge to the game, but i could handle all of it
In all, Sekiro has one of the most complex and rewarding combat systems in the game once you understand it. It is not for everyone, but i encourage anyone to play it if you haven’t.
Yօʊ ʄʀօʍsօʄᴛ αռɖ ꜱᴏʊʟꜱʙօʀռɛ ꜰαռʙօʏꜱ αʀɛ ꜱօʍɛ օʄ ᴛɦɛ ꜱᴛʊᴘɨɖɛꜱᴛ αռɖ ʍօꜱᴛ ɛʟɨᴛɨꜱᴛ, ʊռᴘʀօɖʊᴄᴛɨᴠɛ αռɖ ʊꜱɛʟɛꜱꜱ ᴛʀօɢʟօɖʏᴛɛꜱ օꜰ ᴛɦɛ cʊʙɨᴄʟɛ օꜰ ᴅᴏառꜱᴄʟօառꜱ ᴄαʟʟɛᴅ ʀɛɖɖɨᴛ ᴊʊꜱᴛ ʟɨᴋɛ DSP! Yօʊ ɖʊʍʙ ᴛʀօɢʟօɖʏᴛɛꜱ ꜱɦօʊʟɖ ꜱᴛɨᴄӄ ᴛօ աɦɨռɨռɢ օռ ʀɛᴅᴅɪᴛ, ɨᴛ'ꜱ ᴛɦɛ ᴏɴɛ ᴛɦɨռɢ ʏօʊ'ʀɛ ɢօօɖ αᴛ ɨռ ᴛɦօꜱɛ օӼʏɢɛռ-աαꜱᴛɨռɢ ʍɨꜱᴛαӄɛꜱ ʏօʊ ᴄαʟʟ "ʟɨᴠɛꜱ", աօʀᴛɦʟɛꜱꜱ ɨᴅɨᴏᴛꜱ աɦօ ᴛɦɨռᴋ ʏօʊ'ʀɛ ꜱօᴍɛᴛʜɨռɢ, աɦɛռ ʏօʊ'ʀɛ ꜰαɨʟɛɖ αռɖ ᴛօχɨᴄ αʙօʀᴛɨօռꜱ! 🤣
Calling its combat complex is a bit of a stretch. All you have to do is press right click in rhythm until the enemy stops attacking and then keep pressing left click until you see or hear that the enemy is ready to counter attack. Rinse and repeat. Oh it also tells you with giant red text which attacks can't be blocked. Hell I find sekiro to be very easy compared to ER where you have to figure out not only when to dodge but also where to dodge. Also you have to figure out yourself which attacks are grab attacks or which attacks you can and can't parry.
Honestly, the biggest mind shift for me playing sekiro was realising that just as wolf waits to parry enemies for a counter attack, they will also try to parry you. You can see sparks when they’re successful, try to attack first and counter their counter, letting the aggression flow back and forth. It didn’t click until one of the very last bosses but it completely changed the rhythm of the game, and revisiting previous boss fights let me see how it had been giving hints to guide this epiphany all along. Masterpiece
it took me a while to realized that there's a certain sound the opponent makes when they deflect that lets you know they are about to follow up with an attack.
I think this is the main thing that isn't explained well enough, I needed to see a video talk about that AFTER I finished the game to realize this, and it completely shifted how I played in new game +, I feel like it's a core mechanic that should be explained better, it's basically an indication that it's not your turn anymore
@@Laezar1 "explained better" it shouldve been told outright lmao, I was really scared not knowing when my opponent will strike after I try attack back, especially with isshin
@@larrytherustyboii7442 It's technically said, but it's very unclear, they tell you opponents can deflect but they don't really explain you the implication and when they tell you that you don't have a very good grasp on the difference between a block and a deflect so you don't even realize they're talking about different things
@@Laezar1 fromsoft really do be treating us like baby chicks XD
mother bird: you good bro? ok good, get tf off the nest then YEET!
I'm on NG+7 and I didn't know the "jump+deflect" trick for the spear monks.
Always something new to learn with this game.
Yeah, I didnt learn that instead of blocking/deflecting you can even dodge torward till I fought Owl father
I ended up playing this game on again off again for about 3 years before it finally clicked and I finally beat it, most of that time was spent being stuck at the mini boss after the ogre and the drunkard at hirata estate. This was exacerbated by the fact that this was my first souls game and in every other third person action game I had never parried. All that being said, however, hearing “well done sekiro” at the end of the game will probably remain one of my most favorite memories in gaming.
After hearing those words it was literally the the best 30$ I spent in my life. I am currently on my 5th playthrough shitting on every boss and enemy in the game.
When I first got the game at release, I quit the game for 2 years when I went up against the drunk and ogre. I came back 2 years later and fell in love with the game.
I rage quit for 3 months and then came back and beat the games main ending and shura ending, and now 4 months later im trying to get all achievements
This is exactly what happened to me. I got it on launch rage quit at lady butterfly didn’t play for 4 months. Got back into it and then rage quitted again at the true monk fight for 2 months. Then I was finally able to finish it. Now it’s one of my all time favorite games
Same. I was stuck on lady butterfly for months, then came back and did the cheese on her. But after that I'm flying through the game. After her I've now learned and clicked how the game works, so hopefully revenge will be sweet next time.
After giving up on console, on PC when it became available for cheap during a Steam sale years ago now, I recently picked up a Steam Deck, and for some reason, decided I would make another attempt at Sekiro. And yesterday, after three days of grinding small improvements against him, Isshin's immortality was severed. Sekiro will journey to the West, to return the dragon's lineage home.
I've never done anything in any game that has demanded so much from me. And now that I'm in my 40s, there was a time where I believed I could never actually beat a "souls" game. I'm too slow, too old, my reaction times are nothing like they used to be. I consigned myself to "respecting" these games, but never having the skill or patience to beat them myself.
Now, I feel like I can play anything I want, regardless of the difficulty. I love this hobby even more than ever. If I can beat Sekiro, it was never that I wasn't good enough to play it. It was that I convinced myself to stop trying, convinced myself that failure at the game was somehow an indictment of myself.
Hell yeah, dude. Now you can take on the world!
Sekiro is an absolute masterpiece. Awesome story, gameplay and art direction. Really wish they made a sequel
I felt so surprised when i wanted to to know what happened next in the story instead of wanting to fight the next boss. Dark Souls really screwed up my image of story in a fromsoft game.
@flirexgaming5549how do you know you know what game fromsoft will do in the future
@@jaygopinath1694 Because Miyazaki or whoever it is said they don't do sequels in that regard for the souls series. Dark Souls share the same name, but they aren't sequels in that sense. He could just be talking, and I know he was specifically speaking about Bloodborne and Sekiro, so who knows. It would be a shame if the only other parry based game even close is Lies of P. Even if it isn't a sequel I think another with that combat system in mind would be great.
yeah but no customization, so its trash compared to Souls games
Once you become good at sekiro you can find lots of creative ways mixing your prosthetics and techniques to beat the enemies in a beautiful manner. You can beat bosses the way it wasn’t intended however it takes a long time to learn the ins and outs of the game to that point
I swear from all I've played and watched people playing I've never found the prosthetics usefull at all, and I am the type of player that likes to use all mechanics so Ive tried very hard
@@Nujabes_TC Dude i feel you 1000%
@@Nujabes_TC the base game can be beaten without prosthetics at all. It is arguably easier to do so, since you are not distracted from the swordplay. I found the firecracker the most useful, even against human bosses - while spamming it to do damage felt like cheesing, it can create an opening for healing at any time. Shurikens were more useful for mobs/animals, than for boss battles. The shield was great for defense, but it also felt like violating the git-gud principle. I did not understand the mist raven at all, but it could've been used for defense similar to the shield. Lazulite flame-thrower, Phoenix umbrella and Malcontent are necessary for some end-game bosses/mini-bosses.
All tools have niche uses that are entirely optional.
Ichimonji can keep your posture low.
On NG+ charmless, the shield became useless to me - since blocking is useless. The axe was great for one-shoting mobs, which were otherwise tedious. Shurikens can make bosses chase you, interrupting their posture recovery. The firecracker was still the best of them all.
Ichimonji can still keep your posture low.
On NG+ charmless, bell demon, base health - well timed umbrella/mist-raven are the only way to survive attacks, which cannot be deflected perfectly by sword. The mist raven feels broken. The shield's reflected force is great for damage. The axe can be used in combination with jumping/some combat arts.
The firecracker is mostly useless, together with the healing gourd.
Nothing can keep your posture low.
The people speed-running the gauntlets use a lot of sen-throw and blue firecracker for quick posture damage. And the shield for cancelling slow "push-back" animations.
TL;DR - anything other than firecracker for gourd drinking and Ichimonji/Big Damage is optional, depending entirely on how deep do you want to go.
@@Nujabes_TC I find almost every single boss has a weakness to one of the prostetics and find them extremely useful. Gyoubu, both monks, both apes are all weak to the firecrackers. Tons of mini bosses are weak to the flame vent. The shurikens work great for lady butterfly or any long sword battle to chip at posture.
The firecracker felt like a must for the shura ending when fighting against Isshin with his fire sword that would light the whole room on fire. The umbrella was also a lifesaver when it came to the terror enemies. Also the flash attack was incredibly useful for long range enemies. There was very practical uses of different things but they weren't mandatory, they just made the game easier if you used them appropriately.
4:40 - Same.
My problem with levelling in games is that, I’m incentivised to grind and brainlessly stomp challenges.
I get to a boss and I always think: did I beat it because I’m overlevel or did I lose because I’m underlevel?
Yeup. It's why games like Sekiro are at least breathes of fresh air.
I had this problem recently, in my current first playthrough of Elden Ring I thought that I was going to have a hard time against the Valiant Gargoyles since I've heard that it gave players a lot of trouble, I beat it in 2 tries and thought that I might've been overleveled since I've explored most of Caelid before the fight.
My experience with this was with Code Vein, the game's level cap is 300, but the recommended level I usually hear for the final boss is ~60-75, in the end I decided to do my first playthrough at level 1, as equipment is not gated based on anything to do with levelling up I figured I wasn't loosing out on anything. Was an absolute blast to do, and I am pretty sure it also skewed my idea of which bosses are hard, since what I generally hear agreed as the two hardest boss in the game I found fairly easy, and one that I usually hear as not too bad was the second hardest to me. By the time I was dealing with the first of the two regarded as hard I already had to learn the lesson it was teaching, while the other I mitigated the worst of with my gear. As for the one I struggled with, the issue was stamina, only being able to fit a few attacks into openings. Probably wouldn't have had half as much fun with the game had I not done this challenge because it was such a breath of fresh air.
Then for my New Game + playthroughs for the other endings I levelled up as I went and it was like playing an entirely different game in comparison and gave me the context to make those conclusions about why I formed different opinions of the difficulty than the norm. Levelling up boosts your health, damage, stamina and the power of the NPC ally character you are with, at level 1 things quickly get to the point where the most they can really do is give you enough breathing room to better learn the boss AI by watching, with it being a challenge to keep them alive through the whole fight. Meanwhile at a reasonable level the better ones can nearly solo bosses and are able to actually take a beating. the difference between level 1 and 100 is something like twice the stamina, three times the health and half again as much damage.
Wow I rambled hard, still it is interesting just how big a difference there is between playing a game able to out power your problems and having your only option being to out skill them, even if the games themeselves are superficially similar or even the exact same game.
At no point in any Souls game should it be REQUIRED to grind to accomplish something, and yet it often is.
Why do I need 30 Souvenir of Reprisal to get Moonlight Blade? Why do I need 30 Dragon Scales to get the Dragon Stone Torso.
They're not even hard to get, they're just tedious.
ProTip: In pretty much every Souls game, Elden Ring included, if you only level up using the souls you get from bosses you'll stay more or less right in the sweet spot of the difficulty curve for the entire game. A little less true in ER simply because the game is so big & the definition of a "boss" is alot looser but still.
I remember being very excited for sekiro when i saw that first gameplay trailer. i mean, it's all i wanted to play. Upon release, i played it for like twenty minutes and put it down for like two months. It was my first souls experience, btw. So two months later, i told my wife i was going to go to gamestop and she was like "oh hell no" lol she then proceeded to tell me that if i was going to buy another game i needed to at the very least play sekiro for a few hours and if i still didnt like it then i could get something new. So i started my adventure, and now i can confidently say that sekiro is one of my all-time favorite games
For someone who practiced marshal arts, I appreciate sekiro, it gives a virtual feeling of fighting/sparring and being in a meditative focus during action.
thank you, to really no hit a boss with no DB And Charmless, i had to get in a meditative flow state heavily, any outside thoughts i have will have me fumble😂😂
Are you Chief? Captain? Sheriff?
No. I am Marshal. Marshal Arts. Nice to meet you.
@@tydendurler9574😭😭😭
I love Sekiro for the exact same reason, the rhythm, clear headed focus, and most of all pressure required reminds me very much of my kickboxing and Muay Thai spars
I love the moment when you are just in a perfect react mode and suddenly you just flow with the parries, jumps, attacks... its like getting in the zone, you need to enter to that zen state to beat them... its amazing
On my 4th playthrough currently and it doesn't get boring. In games like ER or DS, the more you play the easier the game gets, but in Sekiro it feels like the more you play the better YOU get, which is incredibly rewarding.
If anything made me beat the game for the first time, it would have been after my ego got destroyed watching lilaggy beat the whole game on a dancepad + rockband drum kit. 10/10 content. Highly recommend.
By the time i completed Sekiro, it had me so frustratingly burnt out, that i never played it again. It is the hardest game i played in years and i raged quit so many times playing it but i pushed myself to finish it. In the end, i found the whole experience unenjoyable and more of a chore to finish.
@000ArDiLlA000 No. Not the entire game, yes it got increasingly more difficult but i was still enjoying the game, but the point where it got unbearable was at the very end fighting that damn last boss with his 3 phases, That was what i was referring to...and i wasn't about to just give in when i was right at the end.
Sekiro was my first game from FromSoftware. I started Sekiro back in 2021, and I quit the game just right after beaten to pulp by Leader Shigenori Yamauchi (the very first mini boss) several times. Never looked back, until I picked it up again on June 2022. I began to realise that the game is telling you not to retreat but take your enemy head on and push them backwards. And I can't explain the feel of satisfaction I got after I stomped upon every boss one after the another, until I got to the Guardian Ape. That crazy beast made me to rage quit the game once again. It took me like 40 hours to get to the Guardian Ape. But that twitchy feeling was always there on my fingers, the feel of heart pumping and racing, and your eyes observing and memorizing every moveset were difficult to go away. Then I picked it up once more a month back and restarted a new game from scratch, and tell you what ? I get passed the Guardian Ape in just 15 hours. It took me only 4 tries to kill it. Just one try to kill Lady Butterfly and Genechiro Ashina (as I have already defeated him in the first phase of the game). And now I can easily say Sekiro is the best game I have played literally in years.
Sekiro doesn't level up your player
It level's you up.
Wow just Wow
Fr idk why but i find it easier to parry blades than fist , that ape first phase got me stressed and rage quit a few times then came the 2nd phase and its easy af
You just keep your distance and bait out the right attacks when you follow up you play safe just don’t get your ass kicked in phase 1 by 50%hp he starts doing the leap and it’s very punishable.
only one ape? i take two
@@MrWinczakos dat fight is ez cos the ape already in its 2nd phase, the other ape is basicly a dumb ai version of the male ape
So much truth here. And this may be an unpopular hot take, but it's something Elden Ring completely lacked for me. I've "rage quit" every Fromsoft game at one point, though I always came back to beat them later, as just as you described, I couldn't stop thinking about some other way to beat the bastard who killed me over and over again. I've beaten DS3, Bloodborne, and Sekiro multiple times (Bloodborne only once since it was on my friend's PS--where's the PC remaster, Sony???), and always ended up hugely enjoying them, no matter how frustrated I got with them initially.
Elden Ring I apathy quit. I got frustrated with it and stopped caring. I uninstalled the game and basically never thought about it again. I don't know why, but the game just never got me to care in the slightest, compared to all the other Fromsoft games.
Before fighting Genichiro you can find out about lightning reversal by reading the board behind the shinobi boss right before him
Yeah, but is not exactly well presented and many people just ignore it or forgot about it.
@@JermyOS oh I know that I found it unintentionally I was mainly commenting it in order to let others know where to find it tbh
@@JermyOSwell they do put an item right under the scroll to attract people to it, and often times if your camera is not pointed directly down reading the scroll will be the first prompt.
Oh and then they still give you the tutorial anyways after the start of phase 3.
Indeed the reversal of the lightening in the lore of the game is considered a legend
Ppl really ignored that ? Man i search every corner in sekiro
The biggest difference I initially found compared to other From Software games was... no stamina bar! This really helps incentivise aggressive gameplay and blocking and was a big change from the other games...
I got into "souls likes" through Elden Ring. It was my gaming blindspot so to speak, the genre just never interested me. But I finally gave in and I've now finished, Elden Ring, Dark Souls 1-3, Lies of P and am now playing Sekiro.
I love the combat and the mechanics of it and I do enjoy the challenge and the moment of finally overcoming it, BUT in my opinion one thing that is truly unnecessary and really interrupts the natural flow of the game, is the punishment for dying.
Almost always losing half of your progress leads to SO MUCH grinding, because what am I gonna do when I'm half way or 3/4 through my current level and I'm about to engage a difficult enemy? I'm gonna grind out that level before starting the fight.
And I've done that with every single boss so far, every single time, I go back to the gun fort and farm until my level is full. It's stupid and annoying, but I'm not OK with constantly losing half my progress in a game that is THIS difficult.
Honestly? As much as I love the game, this is probably a big critique for me as well, ESPECIALLY when you get up to NG+2 and beyond.
That, and the annoying dragonrot mechanic. Because I always made sure to grind to my next skill point before a fight, dying was never very punishing for me. But the times I'd start getting annoyed because I'd died to a boss one-too-many times, just to have an annoying pop-up tell me that yet another NPC just contracted the stagnation STD...it certainly never helped my frustration. Doesn't help that I never used the droplets because of how limited they were and because of just how often I died, so I typically only ever used them if I wanted to progress an NPC's questline. Not exactly fun knowing that your many inevitable deaths have an actual effect on quest progression until you use a droplet
i remember when bloodborn came out it had a very similar issue. People played darksouls one and two and a lot of people turtled behind a shield so when blood born said that's not even an option a lot of people felt scorned, not because these games had bad options, they simply did not have their preferred option.
I was in that boat several years ago but one day I said to myself f it, you can Parry and parrying is a solid option in Bloodborne. And then it just worked.
Sekiro though, I call it a rhythm game and I've yet to get the rhythm the game
@@zangy3748dude. My first playthrough Maria took me 6 tries and by the end of it it was a straight parry sesh
Definitely the intended method I think.
You can actually find a wall scroll that tells you about the air lightning counter before the boss fight. The prompt is more of a reminder.
It still feels a bit out of place. There really is no way of practicing this particular jump and counter without entering the bossbattle, and seeing as it's a 3-phase battle with only the third phase using this particular counter, it comes off as too little too late.
What's worse is that you can't really practice it AFTER the bossbattle either until you finally face those lightning enemies in the place with the big fish. Again, too little too late. Though at least here you an get some practice before facing the big dragon, even though the dragon DOESN'T require you to time the lightning counter all that precisely.
And after that? It's just Isshin, whose moveset is quite fast and who requires a lot of precise reactions, not to mention it's a huge open area and your vision may be obscured by the grass. I distinctly remember hitting a wall with isshin because of the fact that I hadn't really mastered the lightning counter.
Great game though, one of my favorites for sure. But again, some more equal spread for practicing the lightning counter would have been nice.
@@RedFloyd469 the whole point of the game is death and rebirth. You’re supposed to have had played through the fights multiple times to learn the mechanics just like the games prior.
Missing the prompt and then not learning the mechanics and blaming the game for not telling you soon enough or to practice is kinda on you.
@@RedFloyd469 I really think the lightning counter was more like a reward. A reward given to you after countering a series of attacks. I probably failed at it about 2-3 times total in the fight with Genichiro and Isshin. Actually I was delighted to find that Isshin is pulling lightning tricks because the failure rate is just so low, and as soon as he jumps in the air I’m smiling
@@liuby33 I managed to beat Isshin relatively quickly and I’m convinced it’s because he basically gave me his last phase by using lightning twice
Was getting bored of video games. Sekiro made me like video games again. It's a really fun game. Hope they do a sequel
Try Sifu, if you haven't already
@@anthonygarcia8749 I've already played it. Very fun game
I honestly would rather play that than Sekiro tbh. Even tho, it's similar in terms of learning enemy patterns and parrying. It's just much more engaging because of the combos you can perform and ways you can approach a situation rather than just parrying and deflecting, hit a few times, jump of necessariy, then rinse and repeat. Not my kindof playstyle.
I came to sekiro from Sifu, which I feel from your explanation of elden ring is a much more analogous to sekiro than a souls game is. I found the challenge to be pretty fun actually and my attitude was much more different. It too has the structure gauge that makes it so that the only way to really win is to face the enemy attacks head-on rather than trying to hit and run.
I much prefer Sifu than Sekiro lol and would rather play that
There is 1 exception in sekiro that can make the game easier, although it’s not available at the start. You can get the dancing dragon mask item which lets you convert skill points into attack power. So you can grind that and have your attacks do significantly more posture and normal damage. It can make a mikiri counter do like 50% posture damage against isshin.
Glad someone else actually mentioned this.
True, but IIRC you can first get it at Fountainhead Palace and if you already got this far, you definitely have what it takes to take down Isshin. The quitters quit much earlier than this.
Attack Power has diminishing returns, while skill points have exponential costs. I STRONGLY recommend not using the mask until you've unlocked EVERY other skill, or completing the skill trees becomes a nightmare.
Even then, since the mask is only available right before the end of the game, the diminishing returns already make it negligible. The time spend grinding for skill points would be better spent practicing the boss you're stuck on in the first place.
@@66maybe66 I personally found 'practicing' Sword Saint to be like beating my head against a wall. At least with increasing Attack Power, diminishing returns or not, there was change. There was an increase to attack power, however small.
Grinding out the attack power ups eventually helped shift the tide in my favor and allow me to beat Sword Saint where I was not able to before. I don't exactly recommend the grind for everyone, but if it's the difference between eeking out the win, or hanging up the game forever, unfinished, I would definitely say it's better to commit to the grind. But, that's just me.
@@YamiadraDJ I think the time of someone struggling with the sword saint who wants an edge would be better used getting some candy attack boost candy for the start of each of his phases, and upgrading and learning some of the shinobi tools and combat arts that can help out against him. The umbrella in particular lets you ignore some of his trickier attacks which is nice, and ichimonji double or empowered mortal draw are great ways to punish his own ichimonji for a tonne of damage. Not to say you were wrong for grinding for those extra attack points, just that because grinding in sekiro is very tedious and not very rewarding, for most people it should be a last resort when there are a lot of other lower hanging fruit that the average player can work on first.
That's the beauty of Sekiro. Your Shinobi prosthetics are completely different than mine, granted I used those, but my go-to was, fire crackers, umbrella, & shuriken.
Mine too although I had the fire crackers, spear, & shuriken when I started playing it and left the game for almost a year. Now that I finally finished it realized how useful the umbrella is.
Its really the only way to beat the demon of hatred.@@sebastianc2077
I cannot live without sabimaru or flame vent
I feel like veterans finds the umbrella so much mire helpful
Okinagas flame vent plus oil is so good.
Sabimaru for purple guys on fountain Head.
Spears for the ape.
I admit my knowledge of prosthetics is lacking even after 5 playthroughs
Great video. Encapsulated exactly how I feel about Sekiro. As someone who initially bounced off Sekiro hard, but came back later, it really was about learning the more complex defensive systems. Especially how those defensive systems flow in to creating offense. For me Genichiro was the boss where I finally had it all click. Also the mental leap your friend made of comparing Sekiro to a rhythm game is spot on. Very good insight by him.
I use to try playing sekiro like dark souls but when I learned how to deflect and parry properly sekiro became my favorite. That clashing sound of the swords is my favorite sound
14:20 I almost quit Sekiro at the 1st "Drunk Guy" as well, I actually asked steam to refund the game, but thankfully I had already played it for 7 hours, so the refund was not an option anymore, then I was left with the option of leaving the game at my library oooor keep trying. Once I beat the drunk guy, I was unstoppable, and got the platinum of the game in just 2 weeks after that. Sekiro is now my 2nd favorite game of all and I love it to heart.
I also recommended my friends to leave that fight and continue playing the main story. People naturally go to Hirata Estate but it's just a side mission. Once they continue the main game and grind some praying beads and groud seeds, they start having an easier time.
I started my soulsbourne adventure with sekiro, after getting the platinum on all of them I’d have to say I completely agree. Sekiro is the goat 👀
I just watched this right after I beat isshin and finished the game and I still keep thinking about his attacks and how I would react to them, after I beat the game I replayed some bosses and the difference in skill level really made me proud definitely one of the best souls games ever hope that they would make a sequel
Yօʊ ʄʀօʍsօʄᴛ αռɖ ꜱᴏʊʟꜱʙօʀռɛ ꜰαռʙօʏꜱ αʀɛ ꜱօʍɛ օʄ ᴛɦɛ ꜱᴛʊᴘɨɖɛꜱᴛ αռɖ ʍօꜱᴛ ɛʟɨᴛɨꜱᴛ, ʊռᴘʀօɖʊᴄᴛɨᴠɛ αռɖ ʊꜱɛʟɛꜱꜱ ᴛʀօɢʟօɖʏᴛɛꜱ օꜰ ᴛɦɛ cʊʙɨᴄʟɛ օꜰ ᴅᴏառꜱᴄʟօառꜱ ᴄαʟʟɛᴅ ʀɛɖɖɨᴛ ᴊʊꜱᴛ ʟɨᴋɛ DSP! Yօʊ ɖʊʍʙ ᴛʀօɢʟօɖʏᴛɛꜱ ꜱɦօʊʟɖ ꜱᴛɨᴄӄ ᴛօ աɦɨռɨռɢ օռ ʀɛᴅᴅɪᴛ, ɨᴛ'ꜱ ᴛɦɛ ᴏɴɛ ᴛɦɨռɢ ʏօʊ'ʀɛ ɢօօɖ αᴛ ɨռ ᴛɦօꜱɛ օӼʏɢɛռ-աαꜱᴛɨռɢ ʍɨꜱᴛαӄɛꜱ ʏօʊ ᴄαʟʟ "ʟɨᴠɛꜱ", աօʀᴛɦʟɛꜱꜱ ɨᴅɨᴏᴛꜱ աɦօ ᴛɦɨռᴋ ʏօʊ'ʀɛ ꜱօᴍɛᴛʜɨռɢ, աɦɛռ ʏօʊ'ʀɛ ꜰαɨʟɛɖ αռɖ ᴛօχɨᴄ αʙօʀᴛɨօռꜱ! 🤣
i feel like the combat arts are just there to add style to your gameplay. not necessary at all but can make the fight more fun to look at. same with prosthetics
I mean apart from the grappling hook nothing is necessary. You can do everything by just using your sword and honestly in the beginning I pretty much did exactly that. I used my sword and the mikiri counter, plus the occasional confetti, since it is necessary at some points. But I mean in Dark souls nothing is necessary either, you can beat the games half naked using nothing but a wooden stick.
But honestly prosthetics and even the combat arts do definitely more than just make a fight look more fun. They can make certain encounters easier by a ton.
So I wouldn't say they were just added for style.
The spear: Very useful against armored enemies but absolutely destroys the second phase of the giant ape once you knock him by pulling out the centipede.
Purple umbrella: Blocks the apes scream and imo is most useful against the Shichimen Warrior. If you also have anti air deathblow you can just sit there behind the umberella and wait until they jump to one shot them.
Fire crackers: Those can be used in many situations the bull in the divine palace can be triggered into running into a wall, allowing an immediate deathblow.
You can also run towards the giant ape in the first phase and use firecrackers plus mortal draw two times and he is more or less dead before he gets up.
In the dual ape fight you can run to the place where the second ape spawns before he is there and start spamming firecrackers which will fill up the posture almost immediately allowing you to kill him before the second one attacks you.
Shuriken: Those make the lady butterfly fight easier, since you can throw them to get her down from the ropes, and you can also use them to prevent for example owl, to recover posture.
Axe: Cracking shields is obvious but you can also use the fully upgraded one to do serious damage on the illusion of the corrupted monk.
Fire umberella: Very good against Isshin Ashina and the demon of hatred.
Whistle: The fully upgraded one is a blessing for the demon of hatred.
Regarding the combat arts, there are some that mainly look cool and don't have that much actual use because they require too much timing or just aren't that strong.
But there are some that make your life significantly easier:
1. Whirlwind slash: You get it early and it really helps against junks of enemies especially early on.
2. (Empowered) Mortal draw: Generally super strong, if you know how to approach bosses, this one does really heavy work.
3. Ichimonji double: Seems to be a favorite of a lot of people and it is just excellent, since it recovers posture but here the timing is of essence you need to find the right windows.
4. High Monk: Does good posture damage, it used to be very broken so they nerfed it, so not as good anymore but still usable against enemies with sweep attacks (which are most)
5: Sakura dance: The most recent one and added later but it makes deflecting lightning even easier and also looks cool,
6. Dragon Flash: Sadly you only aquire this after defeating the final boss but it is super powerful for subsequent runs. You can use it early in fights to chip some health off enemies, Helped me a lot against isshin in later runs.
I agree with the prospetics but u can sorta spam floating passage or Ichimoni
@@mtthew123 You can only spam them against regular enemies and not against bosses, since they require certain windows or will get interrupted.
Also prosthetics are strong as hell if the right ones are used.
ill take that over rolling like a dumb ass in heavy armor
@@TheTrueVirus22 great explanations.
I will just add that if you jump and use a slow combat art, it won't have a wind-up anymore. Great for Ichimonji, fully charges even a normal mortal draw for maximum damage.
Firecrackers allow safe healing in any fight.
Mist Raven is slept on, great for getting behind enemies. Ongbal killed 7 Seven Ashina Spears using Mist Raven and Mortal Draw.
It also allows for lightning deflection without taking chip damage.
Lazulite Axe dispels the illusions of Lady Butterfly, saving you the hustle of using snap seeds.
11:35 What do you mean you find them to be inconsistent? You really understate how much easier a boss can be with proper use of prosthetic. 1) The stun to the bull is 3-4 free strikes and can be done 3 times (iirc) which is absolutely massive (you can also heal instead at that time). 2) Shaman's orbs aren't really meant to be dealt with an umbrella since they are really slow and you are probably meant to just dodge them. 3) The flame vent on ogre is also absolutely massive, you literally show yourself hit ogre 8 times while he is being burnt alive and you call it "only a momentary stun", should i remind you that you can stun him 3 times as well? You also failed to mention the 2nd bull which you can literally 1shot by the use of 1 firecrackers. It's pretty obvious that you are cherry picking arguments to fit your premise , that being "prosthetic tools are inconsistent and not too useful.". I really liked the rest of the video and agreed with most other stuff but i felt like this had to be pointed out.
13:16 That's interesting, i see it the exact other way around. In Souls you're always playing reactively, waiting for the boss to execute and then dodging to gain the response window, in Sekiro (once you've clicked with the combat) YOU dictate how the fight goes, it's not the boss overwhelming you with blows, it's you forcing the boss to react to whatever you're doing.
Edit: I know they're talking more about choosing different builds and that sort of thing, just wanted to share :)
17:32-18:00 i've been playing sekiro for quite some months and I just learn that...
Hesitation is defeat
In dark souls, you hit the dodge button when you see an enemy attacking.
In seikiro you hit the parry button when you see an enemy attacking.
Y'all can go on and on about how they're sooooooo different, but on the whole they're really not 😂
@@ytsuxmuhd4998 "When shaking someones hand you move you arm forwards. When punching someone you also move your arm forwards. Therefore they are the same"
@@ytsuxmuhd4998”in dark souls, you press R1 to hit something, in Sekiro, you press R1 to hit something. They are the same.”
I beat isshin just a few weeks ago for the first time, and hearing you talk about how the second time through is just how flawlessly you can do it hits so close to home. I love the analogies you made, you had some great points to make!
I remember it tool me ages the first time. I played it again after about a year off and beat him third try. I do miss the struggle sometimes but seeing how much better you can be is super rewarding
8:50 - if you read the giant painting in the dojo before going up to Genichiro it will explain everything about lightening reversal
The Demon of Hatred and Isshin took me 3 days a piece
The headless Monkey another 1-2
I'm happy to be of the camp who actually finished the game.
My buddy bought it after watching me play through it and has been stuck on Madam Butterfly for weeks. He wants me to beat her as he is ready to quit but I just keep telling him "If I do this, you won't beat the rest of the game anyway"
I'm the rare specimen who found Sekiro easier than dark souls games. I just find the dark souls hit boxes so bizarre and unpredictable.
True
My problem with the game was, that the brutal difficulty, especially the early game, made learning the new way of playing much harder. You can take like two hits before you die and heal once. It's hard to learn when even a small mistake kills you. It does get better the further you go, but the beginning was rough.
I find it funny how so many git gud type people even bend the knee to Sekiro 😂 I'm amazed by how many people just want a game they can coast through and not be challenged
They could have put more love into training with Hanbei. Beyond sidestep and mikiri, it would have been nice to train the combat loop in a controlled environment.
my problem was that the game design actively encourages you to avoid combat.
fighting the goons, especially when there is more than one of them, is a pain in the ass, pair this with the games really fun stealth mechanics and the fact that ninja are cool and shit, my gamer instinct initially told me that fighting my way through is the inferior strategy to taking enemies out with sneak attacks.
this means that whenever i got to enemies who don't die to sneak attacks, the game becomes unimaginably difficult since i got basically zero practice on the games combat mechanics.
then, when the first boss, who is, according to a conversation between two guards you can overhear prior to the battle, scared of fire, jumped through a bonfire to drop kick my ass, i got so pissed i dropped the game for a few months.
@@windhelmguard5295 you're talking about the literal first boss right after kuro gives you the sword? His overhead two handed strikes are so unbelievably slow and hard to fuck up that I always interpreted it as a tutorial of parrying
@@erich1380 that was a boss fight?
16:32 I’m not sure if you know this, but there is indeed a way to increase your attack power, besides beating bosses, it’s just that you need to grind for it. You need to collect the Dancing Dragon fragments , and at a cost of 5 Skill Points at any Sculptor's Idol, you can spend it on your attack. Also this can be done repeatedly.
I found Sekiro to be shockingly easier than every other Fromsoft games, it was the second to last one I played and I went into it thinking it was gonna be the ultimate challenge for someone who’s used to playing their games, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
In the tutorial it tells you to deflect, so that’s what I did, there was never a single moment of me dodging on instinct, I can’t understand how anyone has that problem, whenever I start a new game I follow the damn instructions!
So I go and I fight the tutorial boss and I find out the parry doesn’t even need to be perfect, I’m like WHAT!? This immediately makes it easier, you don’t have to dodge in a particular direction at the exact right time, you just have to press one button at sort of the right time, and the only punishment for getting the timing wrong is more damage to your posture, which even if you get your posture broken, you’re only down for a few seconds, it’s like getting hit normally in any other fromsoft game. 😭
I progress a bit further and find out there’s a feature that lets you come back to life, HUH!? On top of the already easier combat, I can freaking revive on my first death! Knowing you can come back to life if you die completely breaks down that struggle of “oh lord I need to stay alive by all means” that you get in the other games, the panic rolling, the panic healing at times when you really shouldn’t, you don’t have to worry about any of that on the first life.
So now I’m trying my hardest to give the people that say it’s the hardest the benefit of the doubt, and they almost have me convinced with Chained Ogre, like ok this actually is pretty difficult, but eventually I found a way to deal with it by using what I learned from Elden Ring, I aggro’d him and hid to wait for him to de-aggro, so I could get a stealth deathblow on him when he turns his back, and it actually worked!
You say there’s no ways to trivialize Sekiro like you can with Elden Ring, but the ways are there if you just think about it for a second.
Once I beat Gyobu with way less struggle than I did for any early game boss in the other fromsoft games, that sealed the deal, Sekiro is the easiest and remained the easiest one for the rest of the game!
Don’t get me wrong, Sekiro is by no means an easy game, I got stuck on Guardian Ape for what was probably half of my total time with the game, you still have to learn the move set of every boss you fight, but it’s just so much easier to do that in Sekiro, spamming the deflect button was alway quite effective at figuring out the timings, and there’s no stamina in Sekiro so sometimes you can just run away and watch what the boss does.
I had a lot more fun with Sekiro than I thought I would, it’s a top 5 game for me, and it’s the most replayable of any soulslike game, I went on to perfect and no hit every boss in the game!
I get you bro. It’s cause I played a lot of games that had me using deflect or counter mechanics a lot that made this game easier for me than elden ring. Like once you know the mechanic it’s only the time it takes for you to get used to the move set.
I was trying pinpoint the exact reason why I loved this game so much. I finally nailed it and CP said it, a fast paced action adventure (with a dash of rhythm) game WITHOUT RPG Mechanics, with a lot of replayability.
I remember every getting stuck on almost every new boss and thinking it’d be impossible but slowly getting closer and closer. I also remember thinking I killed the guardian ape but well you know
you can technically learn about lightning reversal before you do the genichiro fight, in the room underneath him, where you fight that mini boss that always spamms the same move you can find a wall scoll that you can interact with that tell you abou lightning reversal (though im not 100% sure it give you the button prompt or just tells you to block in mid air or something)
It does tell you pretty much the same thing as the prompt, though that boss should be a bit more obvious as it's laughably easy if you can press m2 twice whenever he sheathes his sword. But I guess it goes back to the no handholding
Honestly at the end of the time, trying to beat Sekiro is like trying to eat a plateful of broken glass. Yeah if you are determined and have the will power you can overcome the pain and suffering that comes with eating it, but at the end of the day, you're eating glass. I'm sorry but when a game starts having me question my own life choices and decisions, it's crossed the line.
@000ArDiLlA000 It's a broken game. Just admit it to yourself. You wasted hours of your life trying to beat a broken unfair game. This isn't Parapa the Rappa and in all honestly I have no clue why rhythm games are even a thing.
Genishiro is a broken unfair boss, Terror is a BS feature. Making enemies immune to regular damage is bullcrap (it wasn't fun in DS1 so why the eff did fromsoftware think it would be fun here). Also I know I'm in the minority but screw the whole deathblow thing. That makes zero sense and turns all the enemies in the Black Knight from Monty Python.
I'm playing Sekiro for the first time and enjoying it, and I'd say that its biggest problem is the initial difficulty curve paired with poor tutorializing. As you say, Sekiro demands that you learn its combat system exactly as-is, but it has way too big a difficulty gap between the easiest enemies and the enemies that wreck you.
My experience starting out was that I'd go along killing small guys without much issue, then suddenly I looked at a samurai the wrong way and died instantly. I'd avoid him, do fine for a while, then run into someone else who did way more damage than anyone else for no reason. It's very frustrating and doesn't help the player learn the right lessons.
I'm enjoying it much more now (for reference, I just acquired the Mortal Blade), but I do think more people would enjoy the game if the devs had focused more on the new player experience.
You're right, but I also think that would take away from it's charm just a little bit if it had options like the souls games. The fresh new set of rules is what *makes* Sekiro so unique.
I believe it’s curve is just right because I don’t agree with what you said about the samurai( I’m assuming the optional general at the start of the game) the generals are the best tutorial as they’re strong enough to discourage bad gameplay, but not strong enough to completely dominate you whilst having a big enough moveset to go over all the perilous attacks you should watch out for during the game
A couple years ago I got covid and was forced to stay home. I decided I wanted to play through Sekiro again to get additional endings. Since I had beaten the game before I decided to do the Shura ending first to cause a slight disadvantage, start NG+ and then speed run back through it a second time while killing all the bosses to get one of the more complete endings. I feel very proud of the fact that I was able to complete both runs before the end of the week. In hindsight I'm surprised I was able to complete a single playthrough because I was suffering pretty bad covid symptoms at the time.
I guess that was a LONG, drawn out way of saying that I really really love Sekiro. The moment the combat system clicks is like Neo realising he is The One and seeing the source code of the Matrix, it's nothing short of mind blowing! I hope someday that FromSoft will make a follow up to Sekiro. It certainly deserves one.
I love that Sekiro feels like really training a martial art, it's very immersive in that regard
Sekiro is so hard i can't beat the first mini boss after 2 hours of trying. Well done Miyazaki, you robbed me of money.
I went into Sekiro after a coming off of Sifu, so parrying was easy for me to wrap my head around, so was the amount of abuse i was taking, dodging less so, but the grab animations are morbidly satisfying to look at
I was told it's a cakewalk from Sifu (i call it BS) but as my first souls game it's still doable for me (I'm currently near to isshin at 60 hours)
@@arezeus5289 I went into Sifu after Sekiro. After doing a 20 yr old fresh run in Sifu I came back to Sekiro and I no deathed the entire game fresh save. It is a cakewalk for sure,Sifu is brutal
Huh. I am really good at Sifu and have almost gotten the platinum in it, and then went to Sekiro. But I can’t for the life of me get past even Genichiro. I know, Skill Issue, but man is Sifu easier for me.
@@Lii_ Same. I don't "get" Sekiro, I guess.
The problem i had with sekiro was that i kept accidentally finding shortcuts to future areas instead of the main story path, ending up in a midgame area way too early and wondering why i dont do any posture damage and why i keep getting one shot
Those are all beatable at the earliest stages of you're good enough
@@tacosauce0 i guess but i tried and i just couldnt do it and it was too frustrating for me so i just looked up a guide on where im ACTUALLY supposed to go
It's simple. If the areas too hard look for easier areas.
Sekiro is low key a rhythm game. Every fight is a dance.
True.
original take
14:42 "It's not that it's too difficult, it's that it's too different and I don't feel like learning the systems because I don't want to put the work in."
Very well said, but you forgot a huge deciding factor about whether or not someone will bother putting up with learning a new combat system in a game, "Am I having fun?" I'll be one of the few people here who will say I borderline despised this game, and I played through almost every soulsborne game except for demon souls. I have no doubt the habits I developed in those games contributed to the miserable experience I had playing Sekiro, but what became the deciding factor that made me quit the game wasn't the difficulty, it was the fact that I realized there was not a single moment playing this game that I was actually having fun. And it all goes down to it just being too different (which is isn't a bad thing). I think it's great that fromsoft experimented with Sekiro and made something different from the souls series, but for me the way the game felt/played either bored me or just straight up pissed me off, and at the end of the day if you're not having fun playing a game that game isn't meant for you and its time to move on.
Video games are all about fun man, I agree with you. Btw I completed all the sekiro endings and its the most fun for me. Whenever I beat a boss, it felt like a hit of heroin. Pure bliss
@@yugantbeniwal I get it. It's that way for me when playing through dark souls and bloodborne. Sekiro just isn't a game that's for me.
I beat the game vanilla and HATED it. I got halfway through NG+ and I ended up modding the game to be easier. It absolutely improved the game for me, because the fighting in this game is not satisfying for me. The aggressive blocked attack, deflect, deflect, deflect, deflect, get one hit in, aggressive blocked attack (for five minutes per fight) was so mind numbingly boring for me, when I'd win, I usually zoned out/eyes glazed. With the mods, you can actually fight mobs, buy and use consumables, and I really enjoyed the flow of the game. I finally felt like Sekiro was holding a real genuine sword - and that he was a dangerous shinobi. You might want to try Sekiro-The-Easy mod a try if you hate the vanilla fighting as much as I do.
At first it takes 15-20 tries for me to defeat first mini boss, but i practice and keep practcing i worked on timing & my reflexes. Now it feels so satisfying while fighting enemies .
I tried to get into Sekiro about a year ago and really struggled because I tried to play it like Dark Souls and I wasn't confident in my ability to time my parrying: I made it past Genichiro and then lost interest, by that point, I had spent like 10 hours on the very beginning of the game and after that, I didn't touch the game again until a week ago.
Exactly a week ago, I started the game again from the beginning, this time being mentally prepared for how the game works, I breezed through the beginning of the game in about an hour, Gyobu Oniwa killed me maybe 5 times while I got used to the mechanics again and then I beat Genichiro on the very first try, after that, I was hooked. Of course I had a bit of trouble on a few of the later bosses but nothing that I was genuinely stuck on, where I initially struggled with the playstyle of Sekiro, I began to love the rythm of blocking attacks and learning movesets.
As of today, exactly 1 week after starting my new playthrough and 22 hours playtime on my save, I am now on the final boss, I don't think I've ever had this much fun playing a game before, I love Sekiro so much, all I needed was to be ready to play it like Sekiro, not like Dark Souls or Bloodborne.
Did you skip owl father at hirata?? 22 hours is brisk my man.
@@johntomaro7202 yeah, unfortunately, I didn't realise I could fight him there until it was too late :(
I plan on doing that on my next playthrough though!
One thing I’ll say about the lightning counter, is that it’s not even necessarily talk to the player at a good time. There are several hints that you can get from vendors and/or interacting with readable items in the world that tell you about the necessity to deflects lightning
Like the scroll, front and center, given light to draw the eye, on the wall just around the corner from your first lightning encounter.
@@davidm3420 literally this, when i hit that second phase i got soo hyped and was praying i could use the lightning counter after reading the scroll, thankfully i was correct.
I think the issue stems from the fact that lots of players are only playing to enjoy the combat rather than read all the dialogue and hints at stuff earlier in the game.
@@Mr.Slinky thats fair. Im usually that way too, but the scroll is quite literally right behind the item in that room so I guess for this instance I cant really argue.
About the lighting counter tutorial, it actually does teach you right before you fight Genichiro. After you beat the quick draw, blue guy, theres a painting with a scroll that tells how to lighting reversal
High monk and Owls special thrust attack are so underratedd. You can high monk on sweeping attacks. You dont even need to jump. Itll do critical posture damage. Sekiro is my first from software game so i never had the conflicting mechanics of previous souls games. It took me 3 months to beat sekiro the first time. Now i can beat it in under 2 hours. And make it look good. Im not just saying that to sound badass or anything. Ive beaten that game, no exaggeration, at least 20 times. Sometimes i come back and beat it in a day like im just rewatching my favorite movie.
When you really learn to use the best moves and combos, you literally turn the game into one of those incredibly animated anime fight scenes. But YOU ARE that overpowered main character doing just absolutely ridiculous miraculous combos and counters. Inner Genichiro is my favorite fight because of that. Using his own Sakura Dance to reflect his lightning is just a work of art. The fact that they added the complete move change if you back up too far during his floating passage combo. Punishing a very well known way around dealing with him. But if you walk backwards, just letting his blade graze your face, he wont switch. You'll just look like a god playing with your food. You can dodge through his map crossing slash if you have good enough timing. You can shuriken him out of the sky during his air attacks. In fact on his specific 4 arrow combo, if you wait for that quarter second pause on the last arrow, you just dodge forward, completely dodge it, and swing on him as he falls, stun locking him for an easy 3 hits. This game is P.E.R.F.E.C.T.
Matter of fact i know what im doing this Saturday.
I know exactly what you mean. My favorite "secret dodge" is in Father Owl's fight. When he does his gun powder slash you can dodge straight through it if you time it correctly. Such a wonderfully put together game🙏.
@@CommandPromptGaming Probably the coolest way to deal with Owls Firecracker slash is to just do a thrust attack. It will stun him and interrupt the actual slash and move you just far enough forward to be behind the crackers when they explode. In phase 2 it even has the bonus that Owl will not transform into his Owl which he often does after the move.
Sekiro was very hard for me in the beginning but after you realise that sekiro is just a rhythm game where you have to recognise attack patterns rather than try to react to fast movements it becomes a much easier game. I recently platinumed sekiro and I’ve got yo say it’s definitely my favourite fromsoft game. The learning curve for the game is certainly hard but after getting good enough I find the game actually becomes a lot easier than some of the other souls games.
Sekiro was my first FromSoftware game and after playing it multiple times, I decided to buy Elden Ring a few weeks ago on sale, and boy do I have to do some unlearning, I've been so used to deflecting lol
The game actually tells you about the lightning counter right before Genichiro on the wall of the room you spawn in, there's a painting that gives you a hint about it which then just leads into a full blown explanation.
5:59 you threw the ceramic shard at a gunner. They are specifically programmed to not leave their position since they have range. This is very common in stealth games so actually it works pretty fine 😅
Okay, but they're getting hit in the face repeatedly and just taking it. It looks ridiculous, and more realistic behavior would have them investigating it and not taking shard after shard😂.
@@CommandPromptGaming To be fair they could at least aim their gun towards the direction they got hit from to show them being in an investigative state. So yeah it really does look kinda stupid but at least it's consistent.
Side note: Anyone getting frustrated on a boss or encounter... just keep reminding yourself of what you improved on and praise yourself for it. Then set a time limit and when you hit that quit the game for a few hours or the day.. Then come back and repeat..You won't rage quit and remember it's not a race.. just have fun!
or just cheese the boss
Very good advice.
I did this for about a week for the last boss before realising that I wasn't getting mad, but I wasn't having any fun whenever I played. And that even before getting hard stuck I haddent actually enjoyed playing the game since around the guardian ape fight. I don't think it was a bad game, it's just a game that I didn't enjoy but was forcing myself to play because I liked Fromsofts other games
OR...change your approach. Why beat your head against a brick wall when a hammer exists? Every boss in the game has some way of breaking it and turning the odds in your favor. The game loves to cheat, so cheat right back.
Y’all play games like other people work on projects or a job
This is exactly how I feel too and once you get the learning curve the game is so fun! I got the platinum trophy
It starts out on easy mode. U can make it harder without taking the kuros charm in the very beginning of the game. Also if u ring the demon bell. U can make it harder. I’ve played this game at least 2500* hours. And have achieved every possible thing. Even all the glitches. Cheesing enemy’s/skipping enemies. I’m actually pretty good at this game. But I saw some dude here comment that he quit playing the game to get good at the piano. Because he was applying himself to the piano. The same way he was applying himself to the game. It made me think. I need to do this with my art. Dude i just had a realization about some major life stuff. Thanks man! Good luck to all the sekiro players out there. I’m officially retired today Saturday August, 24th 2024. I’ll come back in a year and keep u posted about the art
Good luck with the art brother
This is literally how I feel and have tried to explain to so many people lol. I think sekiro is best version of a from soft game by far, but I think for those who don't want to adapt and learn and do want an easy button, I think elden ring provides that. I really hope to get some more sekiro-style games that revolve around the visible posture system and forced learning in the future, but for now I guess its back to NG++++++
It isn't RPG, that is a huge deal breaker for me.
The sheer conceited arrogance of some people shines right through statements like this.
Sekiro just turned rolling into parry... Or perhaps jumping in rare occasions. Its different in style, but not much in difficulty
Elden Ring was also a game I put down after like 15 hours of fruitlessly trying to enjoy it. I just don't like games like these at all.
@@nousername2942 I mean are you even a fan or familiar with the souls series or the formula of it? Because if not why would you even bother playing it?
Btw, the lightning counter gets thought to you before the fight with genichiro, in the room below where you previously fought the ashina dude, on the wall bahind him is an interactive picture which teaches you the lightning counter.
Ah and try and use the lapiz firecracker against the shichimen warrior in combination with the in air deathblow :)
I mean you don't need lapiz firecrackers, just running and anti air deathblow is enough to turn shichimen warrior into 2 seconds fight
The problem with games like sekiro vs other action games is it comes down to memorizing individual enemies' movesets instead of just getting really good at the fundamentals.
It's both, and it's not a 'problem'; it's a core facet of all the Souls games and obviously has been extremely successful
No I would disagree, a few players where actually able to beat the final boss, Saint Isshin Ashina, in their first try, because they had mastered the basics of the game, they didn’t know what was coming, yet they beat him.
Wrong, fundamentals is key, but the repetition and memorising is what gives you those fundamentals.
You can’t get fundamentals without training, and you can’t train if things are so easy that it doesn’t challenge you in any way.
what’s cool is that certain bosses like genchiro ashina actually reacts to what you do and if you miss your attacks or fake a hit they will take advantage of the situation
For anyone struggling with this game try turning the music off, i found that the music was throwing off the rhythm of the combat for me, it's easier to get parry timing down when the clank of blades is all you hear. When you start playing Sekiro there is a moment when the game just clicks with you, if you never have that moment it sucks, but if you do have it the game is a masterpiece. My favorite game of all time.
For me it wasjust figuring out when to block. Was i knew it became a piece of cake because then i just had to watch where the blade or fist was coming from to block at the right time.
syncing geni’s attacks with his theme >>>
I think if Sekiro is your first Fromsoftware game, it can be easier to enjoy. It was mine and I wasn't held back by prior knowledge, I was able to appreciate the game for what it was and it's certainly my favorite Fromsoftware game yet because of that.
I think this is was made it to my fav from game that i played the other ones a lot. It made me appreciate all the differences that made it to such a different but familiar experience. I feel the whole gameplay profits a lot from being so focused
I played sekiro and i really enjoyed it especially the Compact until the last bosses the learning curve got very steep which bugged me a little but not too Hard.
My Main complaint is that i cant just use everything like items revives etc. because i would have to go back and grind again to get them back which felt really frustrating
Lies of P brought me back to sekiro. lies of P really clicked and I wanted more of a parry fight system. Enter sekiro.
If Souls games were like Sekiro, I would never be that into them. Sekiro forces you to play a certain way, with no freedom, and I don't like that. If you don't enjoy parrying, the game becomes very unpleasant since you can't avoid it. The Elden Ring approach is perfect.
Interesting video. One of the things I didn't like about Elden Ring was how I could just level up to get past bosses, making it feel like my skills weren't what was getting me through the game, but rather, my willingness to grind runes and come back to a boss with more levels. Sekiro, being my second from software game, has been much more rewarding and enjoyable, because when I beat a boss, I feel like it was all me, not my spirit ashes, my willingness to grind levels to make the boss trivial, or just pure luck sometimes. It's interesting to me that the same reason many players don't like Sekiro, and inevitably quit playing it, is the same reason that many others love Sekiro and are willing to grind it out to get their skills up. Also, I forgot to mention how in Elden Ring, sometimes just getting a better (and sometimes OP) weapon was all that was required to beat a certain area. In Sekiro, it is only my skill, and occassionally, my Shinobi prosthetic that guarantees the victory.
Okay, but is that really fun to you? Fighting the same boss for hours using only weak punches? Genuinely asking.
@@ELpeaceonearth Having fun isn't the point..?
@@CommandPromptGaming yes, it is a certain kind of fun. At first every fight seems completely impossible, after a while you feel you are becoming better - and killing the boss is cathartic.
As long as you measure success in number of attacks you can survive, the game is a constant dopamine drip.
However, if you only care about how many deaths it takes you to kill a boss, you are going to have a bad time.
Gotta' love how this guy completely downplays the firecrackers as being only effective on a few enemies. No, dude, they're good against about 90% of the enemy roster and they're what you could call, Sekiro's hidden "easy mode".
Yeah, it works on more than just beast enemies, the likes of Lady Butterfly are affected too.
you forgot 1 thing about the game... the memories, so you can play over and over again any boss you want again, amazing feature!
And the gauntlets, which let you fight even harder versions of some bosses ;)
I knew what Soul games were like, but never played them before, so my first Fromsoft game was Sekiro. I tried Dark Souls and Elden Ring after, and I cannot. I enjoyed Sekiro's mechanics so much that the tedious grind and i-frame dodge is just not for me. I really hope they make more games like Sekiro, where they are very different from their usual formula!
same I just couldn't get into the rpg mechanics of the souls title but I suppose that makes sense considering I've never been big on rpg games very much to begin with. I can see why people like the previous souls games but the sense of mastery I got from playing sekiro is unmatched, elden ring doesn't come close to that.
The problem with returning to elden ring and dark souls after sekiro is that you’re returning to objectively bad games. If you had no reference point then you’d like them but looking back at them from sekiro’s perspective you realise that they’re bad games. I play mostly ds2 bc it rewards a lot of skill like sekiro and has player freedom.
@@ハーフ-r1m nah dark souls are a terrible example or rpg. Dragons dogma is a superior example of a dark souls rpg game
@@zzodysseuszz I've played dragons dogma though and didn't like it. What I'm saying is I'm just not a huge fan of games that have heavy rpg elements and classes and whatnot to spec into.
Dude. Do you know what the word "objectively" means?
When I really get stuck on a boss, the thing I use to turn the tide is the button remapping system. If you find yourself getting really frustrated, upmap the attack button so you can’t attack. It sounds counter intuitive but removing the need to think about attacking and deflecting allows you to level up your deflecting skills incredibly quickly!
This is a great tip! Add Ungo and Gokan sugars or spiritfalls, and tank any uncertain parts and make sure to experiment if it's too difficult!
Interesting strategy! I can see the value here.
i thought you were going to say you remapped its awful control layout. first thing i did was switch attack and deflect to the triggers and stuck swap prosthetic to dpad up and use item to y. That way its more natural to attack and deflect and i can heal while moving without having to stop and up on the dpad. having the bumpers for grapple and use prosthetic are quite nice too
I had a hell of a time when I first played this game like 2 years ago. got most of the way through before I just stopped playing. Going into it a second time 2 weeks ago has been a breeze for the most part. I've finally got the blocking down to an art. The seamless fights have been just amazing. This one is definitely my favorite FromSoft game.
@6:46 is exactly what I've been saying since the game came out and people started complaining about the difficulty or saying it's trash. Players were trying to play the game like a Souls game or Bloodborne and as a result got their butts handed to them. I remember the upcoming days to Sekiro's release seeing many players playing Bloodborne to prepare for Sekiro because of fast gameplay. I think many Souls/Borne veterans were expecting a Dark Souls with a Japanese setting and thought they were gonna come in and dominate the game. When it didn't happen the salt came.
Im not alone! DS3 and Sekiro click with me more as well. Def my two favorites. Honorable mentions to Bloodborne and Elden Ring. I agree though, Sekiro has the greatest barrier to entry. It is the strict sensi that makes you want to quit but if you stick with it you realize it just wanted to help you develop your skills to their full potential. No game is for everyone though. This video explains quite well why some people will choose to stop playing. Still, you'll never convince me this game doesn't at least belong in Fromsoft's top 3 best souls-like games.
generally good take. my favourite pve experience not counting nostalgia. as the singular focus they had in this game really shine through right to the end. its great for souls veterans looking for that old challenge again for the first time as well. having to start from ground zero and get rag dolled for a while until it clicks and it goes from trying to survive.. to how much can i style on this boss
I had a good time with this game, just started 2 weeks ago. But.. Im stuck at the end (demon boss). I hate fighting huge opponents while you only have a melee weapon. The only thing sekiro did wrong is the fact that you normally loose 50% of money after being killed. Yes i know you can buy bags to store but they are limited
For DoH, make sure you have the suzaku lotus umbrella. When he jumps immediately deploy it. When he hits you'll take no damage, then wait a second, hack away. If you don't wait for that second you'll get blown backward. Also you want the ceremonial tanto, use that before the battle starts. You'll want the Finger Whistle to be upgraded to Malcontent. If you get to phase 3, use Malcontent 3 times, each time hackin at him. By that point you should be able to finish it yourself. It's a tough fight, but once you learn his rhythms it's just a matter of time. Lastly, you can dodge his unblockable charge just by jumping away. Even if you don't clear him it will negate damage.
If you search enough you can find lightning parry on the wall inside castle