Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice | Official Thread

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Sekiro_art.jpg

Developer: FromSoftware
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
Release Date: March 22, 2019
Review Score: 92 (OpenCritic)

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is the latest title from acclaimed developer FromSoftware, creators of the Souls series. It's an action-adventure game set in the Sengoku period of Japanese history.

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Now that Sekiro has finally released, what are your thoughts or impressions of the game so far? Do you plan to play it?

I'll definitely check it out, but it's not a high priority for me at the moment. Looks great, and I trust From Software to deliver.

Major technical shortcomings that are typical From Software. So people will give it a pass when they would roast and other developer. And if the game weren't so pretty and fluid I think people would actually take issue. I was hoping since it's a fast paced skill game it would take more from Bloodborne. But this is definitely samurai Dark Souls. Teleporting into grabs, attack animations changing 45 degrees mid animation just to connect with you, and lots and lots of memorization before you can feel skilled. It's not as fun as I'd hoped. But this will be the Skill game Dark Souls players really wanted, especially those that didn't care for Bloodborne. I'm not personally impressed and wanted better from the studio, but I'm not the gamer they were aiming for. I enjoy From games but am not actually a fan. I think Dark Souls was a fluke they've been unable to replicate and Bloodborne was a fluke they don't even want to replicate

A year and a half late, but I finally acquired this for my birthday recently. Been interesting with a strange Lone Wolf and the Cub meets Onimusha vibe to it.

I oddly find the game goes back to the more defensive roots of the series. The deathblow mechanic is interesting though and I'm liking the characters I've met so far. A little disappointed the grappling hook only seems to be used for movement purposes, but I'm still way early in the game and have not unlocked all of the features yet. Will try to resist playing while I finish my FFX-2 replay but I can see this being the game that's going to get me through December.

Sekiro is definitely my favorite big-name single player game to come out in the past five to ten years. Beating the final boss may have been the most cathartic moment I've ever had in gaming and easily tops anything any of the Dark Souls games made me feel in terms of accomplishment. Just smurfing hours and hours of pure rage - at first feeling like the fight is impossible, then slowly getting a little closer and a little closer and then finally beating it.

I haven't given it a second playthrough yet, but I need to at some point. I feel like I kind of locked myself into certain Combat Arts early-on and just stuck with them the whole game. For example, I made heavy use of Floating Passage from the point I picked it up onwards, then was surprised when I was looking stuff up after I beat the game to find that it's not a very popular Art among other players. There are lots of viable Arts that have cool synergies with the various prosthetics that I'd like to try out.

Typing about it definitely makes me want to play it again. I feel like I have to be in a From-Software-mood to start up one of their games, though. It's like an emotional investment, man. Hope you have a fun playthrough :D

Welp, fell into this game hard. I just reached Ashina Castle and have opened up the paths to a few locations and some optional bosses I'm not ready to deal with. I have also done almost everything I think I can in Hirata Estates except fight the boss whom I am avoiding as well as I spend more time exploring and honing my skills.

This game is a very different beast from previous Souls games. In fact, outside of keeping the whole "die and try" core game mechanics, which itself isn't anything new, it's safe to say Sekiro is it's own thing. Way more of a pure action game than the Action RPG of the spiritual predecessors. The stealth and platforming aspects are also nice as well though some stealth elements could be a bit better like guards being more cognizant of their comrades and having more diverse walking patterns. Probably doesn't help I was playing MGS not too long ago so that is still fresh in my mind.

Combat is good but my Souls experience is certainly hurting me. I had to remap the controls because I am too used to having the item button be the square. Likewise, my years of being a dodge fiend are coming back to haunt me because Sekiro wants you to know this is all about the parry, so I'm certainly getting wasted by bosses and strong enemies that require it since I prefer dodging and hit and run tactics. Getting the Mercuri Counter down was a bit of a struggle at first but I'm getting better. Overall I do love the combat, but it will still be sometime before I get good enough to not struggle. Dragonrot epidemic here I come!

The plot has also been interesting, and I find it interesting how with the exception of the immortality power, the game starts off fairly grounded in its storytelling before it slowly starts to introduce all the more fantastical elements to it. Hell, I would argue the game hits a nice balance of being more forthcoming with its plot with a named main hero and actual dialogue cutscenes as not to scare off the people who prefer more direct storytelling, and yet it holds onto a lot of the lore based elements of the Souls series as well. Nice compromise.

Overall I am having a blast.

You'll get the Dark Souls kicked out of you quickly - relying more on dodge can kind of work early on but there are certain bosses that force you play the combat systems correctly to have a hope of winning the fight. The game does a phenomenal job of teaching you how to play it properly by kicking the trout out of you til you get it right.

Yeah I learned that last night while I was fighting the European Knight mini-boss who you can only stagger since your weapons can't penetrate his armor. I'm also miffed because I came so damn close to taking out the first Headless mini-boss but that terror status effect is bulltrout.

I did manage to beat Lady Butterfly and I'm close to finishing the grave robber merchant side quest. I've gotten pretty far into Senpou Temple and must say this easily one of the most gorgeous locations I've seen in a From Software game. I made a thread ages ago about how disappointing it is that game designers don't use autumn themed locations enough. I may play in the Sunken Valley tonight if I don't finish Senpou Temple soon.

I started up another playthrough to go for a different ending. I'm not usually one to replay single player games but the more-than-a-year gap since I first played Sekiro means it feels really fresh and I'm having a blast. Because it has been so long since I beat it, I decided to go with a fresh run instead of NG+.

Some of the muscle memory has stuck around because bosses that took me hours in my first run are going down in one or two tries. Beating Genichiro on the second try was super satisfying because I consider that to basically be the point where the game forces you to git gud and play it correctly or else die infinitely.

I'm actually also in the Senpou Temple enjoying the autumn foliage as you were in your last post a couple months ago. I should be spending my ability points on more cool combat related stuff but I can't resist the high-cost "healing items are more effective" upgrades.

I'm actually at Genichiro at the moment, and I've come pretty close to beating him a few times. I got distracted and so my PS4 is not even hooked up at the moment. ^^;

I think part of my issue is that I really want to take down that headless in the caves by the front gate and I just got annoyed with his obnoxious Fear status effect as well as having to farm the confetti item to actually hurt the damn thing. I got a bit flustered and quit for awhile and that's turned into a month or two now.

I actually skipped that Headless fight because I found it so frustrating and not really a straight-up test of skill like most other fights. Unless your ego can't handle putting it off for now I'd recommend just coming back once you're more leveled up and have a few more items for dealing with terror. Or, tbh, just skip the fight totally because I'm pretty sure it's optional. Though I know some people can't skip an optional boss if they know it's there, so if that's the case, godspeed to you.

There's a boss coming up soon-ish for me that I was stuck on for days in my first playthrough, and who I considered second in difficulty only to the final boss. So I'm really hoping it's a breeze this time around. It's one of those bosses where other people online didn't seem to have nearly the trouble I did with it. Sekiro is weird like that, because on the flipside some fights that others found hard are ones that I beat first or second try on my first playthrough. I think it speaks to the wide variance in the way you can take on bosses in this game. After you beat the game you should check out the Wiki pages for some of the bosses you faced. You'll realize there are a bunch of unique boss-prosthetic interactions you wouldn't even have considered.

Anyways, I'm interested to see what you think of this boss that gave me so much hell when you encounter it (if you end up picking the game back up). I would say it's one of a few bosses in Sekiro that are actually almost Dark Souls-ish in the way you need to approach the fight.