Topic: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

[Thursday]

Re: Boston Crab - don't be a dick. We're just trying to be respectful re: spoilers as you asked.

 The mini-bosses I still can't dispatch are AS in the Reservoir

RE: AS, I found dodging attacks to be the most useful and I think firecrackers. Found it odd with him because I was landing Miriki Counters, but they weren't really doing anything as it didn't let you land an attack after doing one.

[brat-sampson]

Fuck you, and fuck your roof. You're dead mate.

God, that felt good.

A little advice for anyone interested re. Boss GA:
You gotta learn the patterns. My method was to stay close, do two attacks then guard to see what he did next and then react to that. Keep on him or he'll try and shoot you. If he jumps guard *immediately* because that arrow salvo is a fucking nightmare that I never quite managed to get down. Also, his general attacks don't really change. Ever. First pip the deadly blows will pretty much always be mikiriable thrusts. Second pip it could also be a swipe you're supposed to jump. Watch out for the different tells, his blade sparks before he pulls off the move, and by where the spark is you can tell the attack and react appropriately. Also, you probably got some information just before you came up here. It's relevant. Be ready.

It's a real test of knowing how the game's combat works. Slash one time too many and you won't be able to block the jump attack and be ready for the thrust, or you'll be hit from your right side when you should be blocking. Otherwise, there's no trick, no cheese, you just have to do the thing.

End. I believe in you all!

[The Boston Crab]

Sorry lads

[Timothy]

Stuck at boss GA (not GA on the roof but the other one with the same initials.) Cant beat him. Seems I will be stuck here forever. One last try today. Seems that boss is near the end.

[Moribunderast]

Fuck you, and fuck your roof. You're dead mate.

God, that felt good.

Likewise! Battle Spoilers: Was getting decent at getting through the first phase but kept getting to the "lightning round" with no health left and kept misjudging the jumps to use his lightning against him while avoiding getting hit myself. You're instinct is to jump when he jumps but you've gotta wait a second and then go, which takes some bravery because if you leave it too late you're toast. Fucking thrilled when I finally got him. Took about two hours, haha.

I will say that as someone who relied on co-op for the harder bosses in Dark Souls and Bloodborne (and thought the lack of co-op in this game would leave me utterly fucked) I am finding it SUPER rewarding when I finally beat a prick that's handed me my arse for ages. I do think the parry/deflect system is MUCH more forgiving than in Dark Souls - where imperfect timing still results in a block on most occasions, as opposed to DS where imperfect parrying leads you to getting fucked up tremendously.

Anyone have any hints for the prannock in the dungeon? That one and Headless in the forest are kicking my arse with their terror attacks and the way you move in their vicinity. I'm sure there's an item I'm meant to be eating to ward off terror/illusion - I tried snap seed and it seemed to do nothing.

Also feel like I need to start keeping a diary of where all the NPCs are. I've got quite a few dragon droplet things and plan to use them only after big boss fights and then try to go visit the NPCs and do/find side stuff but by the time I've trekked on past them I generally forget where the fuck they were!

[Swoz_MK]

HGGGNNN amazing stuff, thank you both. I have a good feeling, down in my PLUMS.

I made that look easy, thank you my dears.

[Timothy]

I did it! I did it! I took me so many tries but I beat GA! The most difficult part of the fight was his second phase. Ouch. .

So I was really happy... I shouted at my TV.... but now I'm stuck again at the Reservoir because you have to fight the guardian ape again. Urgh!

This game is so good. SO GOOD

[Thursday]

Oh right the lightning phase on GA, saw hints of that  and thought it'd be a separate fight. Fuck that.

I was thinking, this doesn't seem too bad, I'll get him soon. Seriously this "actually there's another phase!!!" bullshit can fuck off. Puttting it down now because I'm not happy.

Why even bother, bet it turns out there's 10 more phases after that.

[Barry Admin]

It’s really good then? I might not be able to afford it for a while, is there any Souls-style multiplayer/summoning that I might miss out on?

[Timothy]

No. Only singleplayer. So you can wait for a sale without missing anything important.

Thursday I can relate to that. That whole multiple phase makes boss fights more annoying then difficult. Especially since you have to start all over again.

Took a look at a walkthrough with level names and Im close to the end of the game. Dreading what the final boss fight might be. If its a four phase boss or something then I never get to the credits. Dont have the patience for that.

I have a weird I enjoy the game but am also annoyed with it feeling about Sekiro. Its good but halfway through it gets a bit cheap and overdone imo. And the story is really dull and almost non existent. 8.0 from me.

[Timothy]

Almost finished the game according to a walkthrough, but I'm done. Can't beat one of the last bosses and it's more frustrating and annoying then fun now. The whole ''parry and deflect'' game is getting incredibly difficult later on because enemies can break your posture easily. That, the whole rock paper scissors game and the fact that they can do one hit kills while you barely seem to hit some off their health off and the multiple phases bullshit put me off the game. Gonna play the Division now.

At least a bit proud that I managed to beat 90% of a From Software game. Never thought that was going to happen. Hats off to Sekiro, but I ain't never gonna git gud enough.

[Moribunderast]

That's a shame. I'm currently in the Mibu Village getting my arse handed to me by the CM. In terms of the fight, I feel like I'm pretty good at parrying his attacks and getting hits in but it seems like hits only count if you get him from behind - and that's difficult because his attacks are huge sweeping things so you risk getting smashed whenever trying to run behind him. Feels like a bloody hard ask when his health is chipped down so slowly while his attacks utterly devastate you - even with five prayer beads and level 15 attack. Ah well - I'm gonna keep at it.

EDIT: Nevermind. Basically figured out how to cheese it on the first attempt after this post. Onward and upward!

EDIT AGAIN: Ooooh... just ran into that OTHER GA you were struggling with, Timothy. Spoilers: WTF. Have tried it a few times and it seems fucken impenetrable, haha. That's an INSANE curveball! Thing moves twice as fast as you can, hits about twenty times as hard and gives the merest of openings to strike back. Even with firecrackers it's insane. Might need to take a rest for the evening.

EDIT AGAIN AGAIN: Okay. This boss is the first time I call bullshit. Most of his moves can be learned and worked against BUT (spoilers) he has two "super" attacks that register with the kanji on the screen, one of which requires you to IMMEDIATELY jump out of the way, the other requires you to run - and if you jump you get destroyed - almost all health gone. The issue with this is that you have no way of knowing which attack is coming aside from a split-second tell, which is useless because if it's the attack that requires you to jump out of the way, waiting for that tell will see you grabbed and massacred. Feels like it should be only one or the other. The 2nd phase is much fairer but I die there constantly because I've used up all my health owing to getting smashed by those attacks in the first phase.

[Swoz_MK]

Speedrun record is now less than an hour - https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/sekiro-shadows-die-twice-speed-runner-beats-game-in-under-an-hour/

[Timothy]

Moribundereast, how did you cheese the CM ? Thats exactly where I'm stuck.

Bit spoilery maybe but you are lucky you did CM before GA because otherwise, You had to fight GA a second time in the pit after snake eyes and this time GA brought a buddy.

Really a BS boss.

[Moribunderast]

Moribundereast, how did you cheese the CM ? Thats exactly where I'm stuck.

Bit spoilery maybe but you are lucky you did CM before GA because otherwise, You had to fight GA a second time in the pit after snake eyes and this time GA brought a buddy.

Really a BS boss.

Re: CM - I basically kept my distance, only parrying when I absolutely had to and waiting for him to do his jumping attack. The moment you see he's about to jump, run straight at him and he'll overshoot you, allowing you to get three or four shots into his back. As long as you can reliably avoid or parry his other attacks and are good at spotting when he's going to jump it becomes a lot easier. I didn't even bother trying to attack him other than from behind after the jump. Also worth bringing firecrackers and Mortal Blow, or whatever it's called.

Had a few more tries of other GA because this game is very addictive and I still feel like I'm getting closer but those attacks I mentioned feel really unfair - especially as they seem to auto-correct at times so you think you've avoided it but suddenly the enemy just turns massively in mid-air. As to your spoilery bit about it - if I'd already beaten Guardian Ape once before and then discovered I had to do it again with an ADDED enemy I might just put the controller down, walk out of the room and never return to the game, haha. That just sounds fucking cruel!

[Timothy]

Thanks so much!!!! That did the trick. I killed him!!!!

Re: GA. Absolutely. I quit for the night. Such a shitty trick.

[Moribunderast]

Thanks so much!!!! That did the trick. I killed him!!!!

Re: GA. Absolutely. I quit for the night. Such a shitty trick.

Awesome! Well done.

I'm back trying other GA this morning. Can regularly get to phase two with about 4 health gourds and can get him around half-health but always end up dying to his terror attacks. Such a short window to run away so he always gets me just a bit and it ends up adding up to too much as the fight goes on. Hard as fuck mate.

EDIT: Fucking DONE. KILLED IT. IT'S DEAD. Faaaaark.

[The Boston Crab]

I am really crap at this game. Not had much time with it beyond a couple of evenings and it's really taking me back to the attritional days of Demon's and DS2 as I bounce off the same walls for ages and then have a breakthrough, and the thrill of tentative exploration, before hitting the next wall. It's a very good, singular experience. I'm not as gripped by it as any of their previous games, even the largely pointless DS3, but it's excellent, nevertheless. Most of all, I'm just delighted that there's no easy mode or accessibility options.

[Timothy]

Awesome! Well done.

I'm back trying other GA this morning. Can regularly get to phase two with about 4 health gourds and can get him around half-health but always end up dying to his terror attacks. Such a short window to run away so he always gets me just a bit and it ends up adding up to too much as the fight goes on. Hard as fuck mate.

EDIT: Fucking DONE. KILLED IT. IT'S DEAD. Faaaaark.

Yes! Good to read that. Biggest BS boss in the game for sure.

[The Boston Crab]

I'm at roof GA now. Done a couple of other things in Senp and the Dunny. It sprawls in every direction. It's really quite Bloodborne in places, reminds me of Old Yharnam, especially the GuFor.

It's the best non-Nintendo AAA kind of thing I've played since Bloodborne and takes a colossal shit on the likes of God of War. It's all game. It's better than Dark Souls 3. It's not better than or close to Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2 or Bloodborne. Every fight is basically Sir Alonne crossed with Fume Knight from the DS2 DLC.

[Timothy]

I enjoy(ed) Sekiro but think God of War was miles better in terms of both storytelling and gameplay. The first half of Sekiro was great but everything after that just good or okay imo. While GOW for me was great from start to end.

Gonna try DS after this. Should I start with Remastered or 3?

[The Boston Crab]

God of War is one of the most boring action oriented games I've ever played, personally. A total waste of fifty quid  I still feel conned.

FROM games don't tell their stories like anything else so be prepared to put in a bit of thought to stitch things together yourself, it's a conscious decision on their part. Or just watch Vaati or ENB tell you what was happening, like I do.

Start with Dark Souls 1, Remastered is probably the best bet for the online stuff these days. Don't skip 2 just because of the peasant received opinion brigade. It's wonderful and has more to say about the nature of humanity, life and loss than pretty much anything I've played. DS3 is virtually fan fiction. Bang out a sequel in the Bloodborne engine and have nothing new to say.

[The Boston Crab]

Electronic translucent bugs.

[Thursday]

Roof GA cunt is down. I was probably a bit OP as I'd explored other areas, but then that meant taking down CM while probably a bit underpowered. (Ran past O'RotW as I was having no luck with that at all.)

I was so happy with how it went though, didn't even use a healing item in the first and 3rd phases. (Well technically at the start of the 3rd phase) And no revives.

They still should have told you it would be 3 phases though, I know the 3rd is technically a different encounter, but still.

[Moribunderast]

I must be pretty late into the game given an achievement that just unlocked. About 36 hours into my playthrough. Downed a couple more bosses - late game spoilers (after other GA and CM battles) : The Owl was very difficult - a real war of attrition. There's no way to cheese him that I could find - it's just a LOT of parrying and having to learn his every attack and when you can sneak a shot or two in. The Kumai ability came in handy towards the end of the battle. After that, having arrived in Fountainhead, I was immediately confronted with Corrupted Monk AGAIN - this time with three health bars and an ability to summon ghost versions of itself! That was daunting at first but you can parry his attacks and chip at his posture pretty quickly. It's just a matter of deflecting his VERY FAST attacks. And when the ghosts appear, just jump to the tallest tree (near the end of the arena) and they can't get at you, thank fuck.

Excited by and dreading what late-game fuckery waits ahead.

One complaint/suggestion I've seen leveled towards this game that I think is fair enough: people saying they should have colour-coded the perilous attack warnings, so it's not so much of a rock-paper-scissors situation. I feel like that's a decent suggestion and wouldn't have impacted the difficulty TOO much, given you still have a very short window with which to react.

Tough choice between this and REmake2 for my GOTY thus far.

[The Boston Crab]

I've seen plenty of people say similar about the colour coding, because they've not realised that it's the exact same character. It doesn't say 'jump' or something. Just imagine that! It simply says 'danger'.

[Thursday]

Yeah at first, I was looking at it thinking "Is it the same character for each attack, or am I just stupid?" I feel like I might like the colour coding thing sometimes, but then again if it's giving you that much information it's basically a QTE isn't it? Might as well tell you what button to press then.

[The Boston Crab]

It's actually a classic gamer complaint. Uninformed and completely one-eyed. Just IMAGINE what they think the game is like for Japanese players, like it flashes up 'Jump' when you need to jump or whatever. Hahaha.

[Moribunderast]

Yeah, I see the point about it edging too close to QTE territory but there are a few enemies that come along that have varying perilous attacks that require VERY different evasion techniques and you have no real fair way of knowing which one to do as the visual "tell" (hidden behind the warning, often) is very quick and quite often waiting to read that tell can require you to get smashed if the perilous attack is a fast one. It's one aspect of the game (along with some grab attacks and occasional camera fuckery) that feels a bit unfair. It might just be that some people have the hand/eye co-ordination to read those tells and react in time but I just can't.

I'll be interested to hear your takes, Thursday and BC, as you get a little bit further as I think you guys may be approaching areas where I really struggled with that aspect of the game.

It's actually a classic gamer complaint. Uninformed and completely one-eyed. Just IMAGINE what they think the game is like for Japanese players, like it flashes up 'Jump' when you need to jump or whatever. Hahaha.

I didn't think that at all and I knew it was the same symbol.

[Timothy]

Ha Moribundereast, were still following the same path. Im in the exact same spot as you.

I also completely agree about the rock paper scissors thing. It is poor design. In some situations later in the game you just have to guess because the animations for the attacks are the same and that makes for an unfair advantage for the AI.

But after almost completing the game I have come to the conclusion that Sekiro has a lot of bad gameplay designs. The fact that the AI can get hit but still can finish their attack animation is a poor gameplay move. They can also change direction mid attack or suddenly change their attacks while you as a player cant always do that.

Stealth is also very poorly implemented. Its a poor stealth action game. Enemies hear a deathblow from miles away. It sucks.

The difficulty in this game doesnt always come from the gameplay but also comes from poor camera angles, guesswork, bosses that can insta attack when attacked when you an a player cant  and enemies huge hitboxes give them an unfair advantage.

Without the difficulty being so hard (and or options for easier modes) this game would have been quite a shitty action adventure game. And since a lot of the difficulty comes from either putting the gamer in unfair position or due to bad camerawork I don't think the game deserves such praise and high reviews.

My final verdict is a 7.5 because imo everything after Horsey was quite disappointing and the bossfights werent creative or clever or inspired after the horse.

Curious what you think Moribundereast.