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Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Started by Fishfinger, June 12, 2018, 02:03:45 AM

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Swoz_MK

Word on the street (Reddit) is that people, soulsborne veterans, who have played around 5hrs of the full release version are struggling with difficulty. This pleases me.

Vaati streaming two hrs of this shit now/soon/some point

Timothy

Great reviews.

Sounds like it's quite different to Bloodborne which is a good thing for me since I didn't really enjoy that game. Really like this setting. Might buy it tomorrow.


Thursday

Played the first half hour maybe.

Yep it's good. Thanks everyone.


Barry Admin

Bastard, I'm skint until the end of next week. I'm obsessed with Division 2 anyway.

Thursday

God, I'm shit at this. Being shit at a Fromsoft game, it's been so long. Can't even look at myself in the mirror right now.

brat-sampson

Eventually killed the first miniest of mini bosses, some dude with two health spots. I feel like my playthrough is gonna be a whole lot of stealthing someone, accidentally attracting a bunch of mobs, running away for a while, trying it again and dying.

Still, verticality feels great and combat is definitely hardcore.

It's basically like hey, you've had 5 games to learn how to parry properly, so let's hope you made the most of it...

Fishfinger

Maybe 90 minutes in, and there's definitely a learning curve. For mini-bosses, if you can open with stealth it's extremely helpful. Otherwise, baiting and avoiding attacks until you get a feel for their patterns seems like the way to go before attempting split-second parries. "Combat is frenetic, therefore take your time."

Thursday

Well I'm going to have to restart because I knocked a plug out the wall and it fucked my PS4 entirely and I had to reinitialize. Piece of shit console.

Moribunderast

Just played for about two hours. Got up to the Chained Ogre but he's kicking my arse a bit (though I'm getting closer each time - it's just the window to avoid his grab attack can be extremely small). Am weighing up whether I should backtrack and just grind a bit for upgrades. It's sad watching your progress dwindle each time you die.

Definitely difficult - I can easily see this being a game where I hit a wall and simply can't get past a certain bit but I'm digging it so far. It looks great and plays fluidly. Mistakes made feel like mine as opposed to poor design or AI.

Loving the world and layout so far. Exploration is thoroughly rewarded and you can generally avoid a whole buncha bastards if they're in an annoying mob - just about finding the shortcut.

I also appreciate that, thus far, bonfires (I forget what they're called in this, Sculptor's Statues? But they're bonfires) are placed generously right before a boss or mini-boss battle. My least favourite thing in Souls games was being forced to backtrack for five minutes just to try a boss again. Plopping you in the same area is fairer and is more likely to keep pressing that "One more try..." button in me.

Thursday

Dodging seems to require very precise timing, can't just rely on the "dodge into the attack" method that's so effective in other fromsoft games. It's hard to get used to, and even remembering it, it's hard to get the timing right.

Moribunderast

A bit further along now. Feeling like an idiot because the game gives you hints for boss fights (via eavesdropping) but I am yet to convert those hints into knowing exactly what it wants me to do. Got a few upgrades now, one of them being very useful in making thrusting enemies (cor) a lot easier to deal with.

I get the sense that they've made 'trick' ways to beat a lot of bosses - it's just about figuring them out.

brat-sampson

Stuck on a Drunk fella and up to a GIANT creature in another route. I think I'll keep pushing forward and come back for the Drunk later. Parrying is still hard for me, but getting some more skills and equipment for my arsenal has really helped.

There are so many times you can just skirt around enemies thanks to the crazy level design. It's brilliant, but can leave you without the amount of stock or enemy pick-ups you're meant to have. Mini-bosses are a huge struggle, but what they give you is so good.

Thursday

Feel like I should have got the PC version, although my computer is so old now it might run that smoothly, because 60 frames really might help read the enemies attacks.

Only played about twenty minutes because I've felt so ill today (hungover) and I feel I've totally wasted what would have been a really great day while my wife is at work. I really liked what I played, though. The sword fighting feels really frightening and intense and they sure know how to create a sense of impact with them death blows. Brutal. Love the music, too. I'm not into the ledge hanging and the like but I suspect there'll be a lot less of that when I get my grapple on.

TrenterPercenter

It's really good, was little unconvinced at first as it is a big change in some senses to Souls but yet again From have delivered. Fantastic combat and beautiful world.  Really getting into this now (just killed in both senses the Ogre thing fucking hell that was brutal, took him down once, then on his second life I get stuck into him then arrgh disaster he gets me good, I use my gourd and pellets, get a bit more life off him and then bang again he gets kills me so resurrected on half-life hit him with all my shurikens grappled to a tree and shit my pants as I tried to land one killer blow without him totally deading me (which I did).

Exhilarating indeed.

Thursday

Ahh fuck,  got to the first HAHA 2ND PHASE boss. Fuck off.  Grave/10

TrenterPercenter

Medicinal Gourd is a pretty snazzy concept.

Thursday

Welp, ran into a big snakey boi

Thursday

This is incredible. I was feeling a bit unsure, because there's quite a few bosses that are surrounded by regular enemies and there's this weird thing where you can clear some enemies, run out of the arena and then come back and get a stealth blow on them, and it felt a bit ridiculous that I was allowed to exploit that, but it also felt necessary to get a proper shot at the boss, and it was taking too much time. But I've had a couple of purer encounters now and got that souls rush that I thought I've never felt for a long time, and I worried I'd become immune to it.

Also happier about going back to that secret 2 phase one a bit later now, which makes a couple of shitty moves on the player, but it is a good fight.

Moribunderast

Still pretty early into this due to not being very good at it, haha. Did some grinding around Hirata to get the very useful upgrade that replenishes health whenever you kill someone. At the moment grinding seems to be pretty generous - you can rack up a skill point in about five minutes just running around killing easy enemies. Still stuck on two fights (the horse-riding fella and the mini-boss that's surrounded by grunts just past the Chained Ogre.) Trying to work out the trick to "easily" knock a deathblow point off the horsie boy - something to do with gunpowder, apparently.

Also have no idea if I'm meant to keep fighting the giant snake after he goes berserk (I only stabbed him in ONE eye!).

Very challenging but still really enjoying it. It looks lovely too. And combat, while being rock hard, is very fulfilling when you get it right. Feels genuinely weighty and violent.

Any chance of some more subtle names or descriptions for stuff you've seen or done, please? A part of the fun of these games is the discussion of discovery along the way but it's not really possible when stuff is just described in precise detail before you see it for yourself.

I hope that doesn't sound too sniffy.

Moribunderast

Quote from: The Boston Crab on March 24, 2019, 09:48:56 AM
Any chance of some more subtle names or descriptions for stuff you've seen or done, please? A part of the fun of these games is the discussion of discovery along the way but it's not really possible when stuff is just described in precise detail before you see it for yourself.

I hope that doesn't sound too sniffy.

Yeah, sorry - I've tried to be mindful of that but I'll use clear text when discussing more specific stuff in future.

Speaking of — Just reached Lady Butterfly. Hoo boy. Think I've got to beat a boss to progress further - either Lady Butterfly or the fella on the horse. Terrifying to think the hard battles I've had that I THOUGHT were boss fights were just sub-bosses. Not seeing much "git gud" commentary online - just people commiserating and congratulating others when they get past certain bits. It seems most Souls veterans are a bit stunned by the learning curve/difficulty.


brat-sampson

#56
It's getting more open and I don't know where to go :s I've managed to access like two or three entirely new areas at the same time, not wanting to push too far forward with each. Might take a break and pick one later. I haven't even finished my work in Ashina yet, so should probably focus on that first.

Still getting a rush from fighting more than 1 enemy mob, or a miniboss, let alone some of the actual bosses. This game is gold.

EDIT: Shoutout to traversal too. Linking grapple-jumps feels so fucking cool.

Fishfinger

#57
The only friend I know who bought the game - a huge FromSoft nerd and Souls veteran - returned this after 24 hours.

I don't have that urge, but I do find myself wishing it was a different beast. I'm missing the character generation, fashion souls, co-op opportunities and funny messages.

Anyway, several hours in now and I've beaten four mini-bosses, but two of them I killed with Soulsborne tactics: stay close, step-dodge around and exploit openings. I think I'm abusing the absence of stamina restrictions, and haven't mastered what the game's been trying to teach me, which I'm sure will bite me on the arse as the difficulty ramps up even more. It still feels wrong to essentially stand there and wait for a potentially lethal spear thrust to almost land before executing a mikiri counter, even though doing it perfectly might get you an instant kill.

Having fun so far but bitching while I do it.

LB and horse cunt are kicking me in the bollocks.

Timothy

Beat first mini boss in the Estate, went back to main storyline and beat two mini bosses and two proper bosses there. Horse and the bull werent that difficult with the proper skills enabled. Flying ninja rope slash and a lot of patience combined with fireworks for the horse and the sprint button and fireworks for the bull.

Loving this game so far even though I know there is going to be a point where I cant beat a boss and cant continue the game. Goty so far.