Sephiroth
is classier than a First Class SOLDIER

Hey how's it going? Yeah I've beaten Elden Ring twice now. First time was an INT run and Ranni ending, second time was STR and Frenzied Flame ending.

I definitely consider it to be one of the best games of all time and certainly my favorite open world game ever. I haven't been so absorbed in a single player game as an adult as I was in my first playthrough of Elden Ring. My second playthrough ended right as the new Zelda game came out, so I was pretty burnt out on open world stuff and haven't put all that much time into it as a result.

As much as I praise Elden Ring I still think I prefer the combat and overall experience of Sekiro. Elden Ring is all about the exploration and Sekiro is all about the combat, which is ultimately what I care about the most.

How about you?

Awesome fight, I watched the whole thing! It highlights something I love about the game, which is the wide variety of ways you can approach a fight. My battle against him and yours look very different, and both of ours would look quite different from a third person. I'm glad to see that you used the Ceremonial Tanto, AFTER I beat him the thought came to me that since half of his moves one-shot me anyways, it probably would have been worth it to use that.

Personally, when I'm fighting a boss with a sword I feel much more in control when I'm in their face the entire time. So that was my strategy with Owl Father too, though in the early attempts this led to me getting destroyed by his gunpowder. I also relied heavily on Double Ichimonji, which turned out to be my number-one used Combat Art BY FAR this playthrough (last time through I basically used Floating Passage and nothing else).

It's gonna be awhile before I run through the Shura ending. I don't think I have it in me do it without Kuro's Charm (or whatever the one is that gives chip damage if you don't perfectly deflect). But I am considering ringing the Demon's Bell when I do play again. What is your opinion on that? Is it worth it, or is the difficulty that it adds more tedious than interesting?

Wanted to update you on my Sekiro progress because my girlfriend doesn't care and I gotta tell someone.

I know in my last visitor message I said I was planning on betraying Kuro but I just couldn't bring myself to do it, I love the little guy. So I decided to go for the Return ending, but I also gathered up the items from the Purification ending so I could fight the optional bosses. I assume the boss you didn't want to spoil for me was Owl Father? If so then yeah I agree that he might be the hardest, he took me a good hour probably to beat. If I played him on my first playthrough it would have been much, much longer.

Breezed through the game after that and beat Sword Saint on my 3rd try! Can't tell you how satisfying that is after he took me days to beat on my first playthrough.

Eventually I gotta suck it up and do the Shura ending, but I need a break from the game for now. Could be another year before I pick it up again, who knows?

/rant

Ah thanks for not spoiling it. That's super impressive that you platinumed it. My first playthrough I got the "default" good ending, and this time I'm just going for the "default" betray Kuro playthrough because I'm too lazy to go through all the stuff for the other ending(s).

Yeah dude! I was stuck on it for days. I actually came closer to quitting the game from fighting Guardian Ape than Sword Saint. Funnily enough though, a bit later in the game when you have to take on another Guardian Ape PLUS a mini brown ape simultaneously, I was able to take them down first try. Who were your toughest bosses?

My dude, just go away

I do however have FFXV on Steam and just beat the main game and I loved it, so yeah

Yes?

Yeah, I'm still not sure what it is that bothers me. I feel I need to see more of her range when dealing with Tifa's personality to tell.

Will see how it goes. My GF has been having issues with both Aerith and Tifa. I have yet to do the iconic meet with Aerith so we'll see how I feel about her VA work overall, but Tifa already feels a bit off to me for some reason. I can't quite ut my finger on it. Not sure if it's the VA or just how she's written.