Sekiro Shadows Died for First Impressions

[CritialGaming]

So after spending a good 10 hours with Sekiro I wanted to share some of my first impressions on the game with those that are interested in hearing me rant about the latest FromSoft game.

As you all are well aware, Sekiro is being labeled as the next game in the SoulsBorneSekio? series, but I don't think that is a fair comparison. Aside from the staggering learning curve and unforgiving moment to moment gameplay, I don't feel like Sekiro has much to do with the previous Souls-like games.

For one thing, Sekiro's much more mobility and stealth focused. Not only can Sekiro jump, but there is a grappling hook that can be used anytime there is a grapple spot within range (even in the middle of boss fights). With this mobility comes an emphasis on stealth, it is entirely possible to stealth kill most enemies in the game and even if you stealth kill one enemy only to get spotted by four others, your mobility allows you to escape and hide until the mobs reset sometimes you can even do this to bosses. Being able to sneak up and take away 50% of a bosses HP in 1 shot is a great relief on the grueling fight to come.

The game really wants you to be stealthy, and when you are sneaking around slaughtering every enemy in the area the game is really easy. However when it comes time to go toe-to-toe with a boss or just a tough mini boss, the combat gets really crazy. Unlike in Souls games, you have no i-frames. In fact there are 3 different defensive buttons that the game expects you to master at a whim. Jump over sweeping attacks, parry normal swipes, dodge or side step thrusting attacks or grapples. And 1 mistake will ruin your health bar.

Enemies have two meters (health and poise) hitting the enemy will hurt their hp, bashing into their guard will damage their poise. You only need to break one of these two meters to stagger the enemy and open them up to a deathblow. Normal enemies die in 1 sneak attack or deathblow, and bosses will have two or more deathblows required to end the fight.

Because of all of this. Panic is easy to get into in the mini boss or boss encounters, as the enemy can be relentless at times. It's the kind of combat that everyone will suck at to begin with, but if you can get over the learning curve it is an incredibly satisfying combat to master. And getting REALLY good makes you a god.

There is no stamina meter in this game, which means you can spam attacks forever (though this is sloppy and you'll die) you can run forever, and other limitations that stamina usually brings in a Souls game are gone. This is a great change for this game, because as I mentioned above, if you fuck up stealth you aren't boned, simply run away grapple out of range, let the enemies give up looking for you and try to stealth kill them again.

While there some clear Souls elements in this game, bonfires, loss of currency when you die, enemies returning after a rest or death, that's really where the comparisons have to end.

There are no real stats for you character here. No leveling up. Instead your "exp" is used to fill out a fairly deep skill tree which unlocks new combat moves, like a whirlwind strike, as well as utility skills that make your steps silent to boost stealth or other passives like better healing from your healing drink (estus).

While you do level up your health, attack power, etc. It comes in the from of collection items from bosses. For example most mini bosses and some big bosses drop prayer beads, 4 beads will allow you to increase your health at a bonfire kind of like Breath of the Wild did it. Additionally the bigger bosses drop items that you use at bonfires to increase your attack damage.

Grinding your way into overpowering the content in Sekiro is not possible like it is in Souls games. You can grind for skill points to gather useful skills to make the combat slightly easier or to give you more utility, but you wont outright overpower things.

Sekiro is a very skill based game, and it will surely punish those unwilling to figure out the mechanics.

Personally I love the game, the map design is great and takes wonderful advantage of your new mobility. I still suck at the combat but I'm 6 or 7 bosses in and it's definitely clicking more and more. And because it's so stealth focused, reclearing areas for skill points or just getting back to a boss is really satisfying. This will be a game that watching good speed runners blow through is going to be an incredible sight to watch.

Have you played Sekiro? What do you think? Let me know below.

 

[Marik2]

Can someone explain the plot twist at the end? And the beginning of the video?

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

The game feels like the quintessential "traditional" ninja game. The kind of ninja game without too many superpowers and magical elements, just a lot of skill, sneakiness and speed. It's definitely a lot more free-feeling compared to souls games and I don't think it even needs to be too much like them to the point of not having its own identity.

I'm loving the themes of the world, classic Japan is always ethereal in a sense. Grappling feels like a modern version of Tenchu which makes me both super happy and also kinda nostalgic.

The combat is very simple but is also highly muscle memory reliant and kinda like a fighting game everything has an answer and you gotta just practice until you're good at it. Parry the thrust, jump the slash, sidestep the grapples, it's kinda like kendo. Simple to summarize but deep as all hell.


The stance (they translated it as posture but "kamae" means "stance") gauge is a great take on traditional stamina meters. It shows exhaustion when someone's stance crumbles and it's your chance to kill em. Feels very ninja-ish to be paying attention to such fine details.

 

[EvilRoy]

I'm liking the game a fair bit, although I have been having a hell of a time progressing. Part of that I blame on only just recently finding out about the skill tree (more than 10 points stored away), and part of that I blame on the spiderweb nature of the map. Multiple paths has lead to me getting my ass kicked in one area and my ass only gently paddled in others, and I'm only just now starting to pick up on the fact that similar to other From games, they expect you to slam into a problem a few times and realize to say "maybe I shouldn't be here yet". There's also the fact that I did not know shinobi meant ninja. I honestly thought I was a samurai and I was trying to play the way I expected a samurai would play - skillful blade to blade combat, but not an array of skills that make dealing with spearguys and chained psychos way easier.

When it comes to the very branching wide word system they have going on, I think its pretty rad, but I am distressed by how mobility factors into it. I have found things purely accidentally by falling off a cliff or fleeing from an enemy into a tree. With so many mobility skills (including swimming, which crap man I had no idea), it can make figuring out all the places you can go a little annoying as you have to just try jumping in every hole, pond and zipping to each tree to see what the area has to offer in terms of paths and exits.

I hear you when you say it isn't very souls like combat, although I do feel I'm operating fairly similarly to one of my last DS1 builds that was pure dex/backstab. Dodge, dodge, dodge, parry, strike repeat. I desperately hate the penalty system for resurrections, and I've basically stopped using it at all unless the boss I'm fighting was half a fart away from death. Considering how little hp you get back, and the enemies building poise so quickly, you may as well start fresh with a full estus flask.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I'm liking the game a fair bit, although I have been having a hell of a time progressing. Part of that I blame on only just recently finding out about the skill tree (more than 10 points stored away), and part of that I blame on the spiderweb nature of the map. Multiple paths has lead to me getting my ass kicked in one area and my ass only gently paddled in others, and I'm only just now starting to pick up on the fact that similar to other From games, they expect you to slam into a problem a few times and realize to say "maybe I shouldn't be here yet". There's also the fact that I did not know shinobi meant ninja. I honestly thought I was a samurai and I was trying to play the way I expected a samurai would play - skillful blade to blade combat, but not an array of skills that make dealing with spearguys and chained psychos way easier.

When it comes to the very branching wide word system they have going on, I think its pretty rad, but I am distressed by how mobility factors into it. I have found things purely accidentally by falling off a cliff or fleeing from an enemy into a tree. With so many mobility skills (including swimming, which crap man I had no idea), it can make figuring out all the places you can go a little annoying as you have to just try jumping in every hole, pond and zipping to each tree to see what the area has to offer in terms of paths and exits.

I hear you when you say it isn't very souls like combat, although I do feel I'm operating fairly similarly to one of my last DS1 builds that was pure dex/backstab. Dodge, dodge, dodge, parry, strike repeat. I desperately hate the penalty system for resurrections, and I've basically stopped using it at all unless the boss I'm fighting was half a fart away from death. Considering how little hp you get back, and the enemies building poise so quickly, you may as well start fresh with a full estus flask.

There's no penalty for resurrections.

The penalty comes in whenever you die regardless of whether you choose to resurrect or not so there's no reason to not resurrect.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I'm liking the game a fair bit, although I have been having a hell of a time progressing. Part of that I blame on only just recently finding out about the skill tree (more than 10 points stored away), and part of that I blame on the spiderweb nature of the map. Multiple paths has lead to me getting my ass kicked in one area and my ass only gently paddled in others, and I'm only just now starting to pick up on the fact that similar to other From games, they expect you to slam into a problem a few times and realize to say "maybe I shouldn't be here yet". There's also the fact that I did not know shinobi meant ninja. I honestly thought I was a samurai and I was trying to play the way I expected a samurai would play - skillful blade to blade combat, but not an array of skills that make dealing with spearguys and chained psychos way easier.

When it comes to the very branching wide word system they have going on, I think its pretty rad, but I am distressed by how mobility factors into it. I have found things purely accidentally by falling off a cliff or fleeing from an enemy into a tree. With so many mobility skills (including swimming, which crap man I had no idea), it can make figuring out all the places you can go a little annoying as you have to just try jumping in every hole, pond and zipping to each tree to see what the area has to offer in terms of paths and exits.

I hear you when you say it isn't very souls like combat, although I do feel I'm operating fairly similarly to one of my last DS1 builds that was pure dex/backstab. Dodge, dodge, dodge, parry, strike repeat. I desperately hate the penalty system for resurrections, and I've basically stopped using it at all unless the boss I'm fighting was half a fart away from death. Considering how little hp you get back, and the enemies building poise so quickly, you may as well start fresh with a full estus flask.

There's no penalty for resurrections.

The penalty comes in whenever you die regardless of whether you choose to resurrect or not so there's no reason to not resurrect.

Apparently if you resurrect too much you cause some form of plague to infect the NPCs. Not 100% sure on how this works yet, but watch out!

 

[EvilRoy]

I'm liking the game a fair bit, although I have been having a hell of a time progressing. Part of that I blame on only just recently finding out about the skill tree (more than 10 points stored away), and part of that I blame on the spiderweb nature of the map. Multiple paths has lead to me getting my ass kicked in one area and my ass only gently paddled in others, and I'm only just now starting to pick up on the fact that similar to other From games, they expect you to slam into a problem a few times and realize to say "maybe I shouldn't be here yet". There's also the fact that I did not know shinobi meant ninja. I honestly thought I was a samurai and I was trying to play the way I expected a samurai would play - skillful blade to blade combat, but not an array of skills that make dealing with spearguys and chained psychos way easier.

When it comes to the very branching wide word system they have going on, I think its pretty rad, but I am distressed by how mobility factors into it. I have found things purely accidentally by falling off a cliff or fleeing from an enemy into a tree. With so many mobility skills (including swimming, which crap man I had no idea), it can make figuring out all the places you can go a little annoying as you have to just try jumping in every hole, pond and zipping to each tree to see what the area has to offer in terms of paths and exits.

I hear you when you say it isn't very souls like combat, although I do feel I'm operating fairly similarly to one of my last DS1 builds that was pure dex/backstab. Dodge, dodge, dodge, parry, strike repeat. I desperately hate the penalty system for resurrections, and I've basically stopped using it at all unless the boss I'm fighting was half a fart away from death. Considering how little hp you get back, and the enemies building poise so quickly, you may as well start fresh with a full estus flask.

There's no penalty for resurrections.

The penalty comes in whenever you die regardless of whether you choose to resurrect or not so there's no reason to not resurrect.

Apparently if you resurrect too much you cause some form of plague to infect the NPCs. Not 100% sure on how this works yet, but watch out!

The thing I read implied it was the act of resurrecting in combat that was causing the disease rather that dying in general. Since I've basically packed it in on resurrection for the time being I'll report back on whether the sickness continues to spread on straight deaths alone.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I'm liking the game a fair bit, although I have been having a hell of a time progressing. Part of that I blame on only just recently finding out about the skill tree (more than 10 points stored away), and part of that I blame on the spiderweb nature of the map. Multiple paths has lead to me getting my ass kicked in one area and my ass only gently paddled in others, and I'm only just now starting to pick up on the fact that similar to other From games, they expect you to slam into a problem a few times and realize to say "maybe I shouldn't be here yet". There's also the fact that I did not know shinobi meant ninja. I honestly thought I was a samurai and I was trying to play the way I expected a samurai would play - skillful blade to blade combat, but not an array of skills that make dealing with spearguys and chained psychos way easier.

When it comes to the very branching wide word system they have going on, I think its pretty rad, but I am distressed by how mobility factors into it. I have found things purely accidentally by falling off a cliff or fleeing from an enemy into a tree. With so many mobility skills (including swimming, which crap man I had no idea), it can make figuring out all the places you can go a little annoying as you have to just try jumping in every hole, pond and zipping to each tree to see what the area has to offer in terms of paths and exits.

I hear you when you say it isn't very souls like combat, although I do feel I'm operating fairly similarly to one of my last DS1 builds that was pure dex/backstab. Dodge, dodge, dodge, parry, strike repeat. I desperately hate the penalty system for resurrections, and I've basically stopped using it at all unless the boss I'm fighting was half a fart away from death. Considering how little hp you get back, and the enemies building poise so quickly, you may as well start fresh with a full estus flask.

There's no penalty for resurrections.

The penalty comes in whenever you die regardless of whether you choose to resurrect or not so there's no reason to not resurrect.

Apparently if you resurrect too much you cause some form of plague to infect the NPCs. Not 100% sure on how this works yet, but watch out!

The thing I read implied it was the act of resurrecting in combat that was causing the disease rather that dying in general. Since I've basically packed it in on resurrection for the time being I'll report back on whether the sickness continues to spread on straight deaths alone.

Basically, if you die and don't resurrect, you lose half your money and exp, and if you die too much the plague spreads.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I'm liking the game a fair bit, although I have been having a hell of a time progressing. Part of that I blame on only just recently finding out about the skill tree (more than 10 points stored away), and part of that I blame on the spiderweb nature of the map. Multiple paths has lead to me getting my ass kicked in one area and my ass only gently paddled in others, and I'm only just now starting to pick up on the fact that similar to other From games, they expect you to slam into a problem a few times and realize to say "maybe I shouldn't be here yet". There's also the fact that I did not know shinobi meant ninja. I honestly thought I was a samurai and I was trying to play the way I expected a samurai would play - skillful blade to blade combat, but not an array of skills that make dealing with spearguys and chained psychos way easier.

When it comes to the very branching wide word system they have going on, I think its pretty rad, but I am distressed by how mobility factors into it. I have found things purely accidentally by falling off a cliff or fleeing from an enemy into a tree. With so many mobility skills (including swimming, which crap man I had no idea), it can make figuring out all the places you can go a little annoying as you have to just try jumping in every hole, pond and zipping to each tree to see what the area has to offer in terms of paths and exits.

I hear you when you say it isn't very souls like combat, although I do feel I'm operating fairly similarly to one of my last DS1 builds that was pure dex/backstab. Dodge, dodge, dodge, parry, strike repeat. I desperately hate the penalty system for resurrections, and I've basically stopped using it at all unless the boss I'm fighting was half a fart away from death. Considering how little hp you get back, and the enemies building poise so quickly, you may as well start fresh with a full estus flask.

There's no penalty for resurrections.

The penalty comes in whenever you die regardless of whether you choose to resurrect or not so there's no reason to not resurrect.

Apparently if you resurrect too much you cause some form of plague to infect the NPCs. Not 100% sure on how this works yet, but watch out!

From what I've read online from other people it seems that the plague that infects the NPCs happens from reviving at the Buddhas as well. I think it's just supposed to be part of the game story and any dying on your part is going to cause it, regardless of whether you're using the mid-fight resurrect or not.

 

[CritialGaming]

I'm liking the game a fair bit, although I have been having a hell of a time progressing. Part of that I blame on only just recently finding out about the skill tree (more than 10 points stored away), and part of that I blame on the spiderweb nature of the map. Multiple paths has lead to me getting my ass kicked in one area and my ass only gently paddled in others, and I'm only just now starting to pick up on the fact that similar to other From games, they expect you to slam into a problem a few times and realize to say "maybe I shouldn't be here yet". There's also the fact that I did not know shinobi meant ninja. I honestly thought I was a samurai and I was trying to play the way I expected a samurai would play - skillful blade to blade combat, but not an array of skills that make dealing with spearguys and chained psychos way easier.

When it comes to the very branching wide word system they have going on, I think its pretty rad, but I am distressed by how mobility factors into it. I have found things purely accidentally by falling off a cliff or fleeing from an enemy into a tree. With so many mobility skills (including swimming, which crap man I had no idea), it can make figuring out all the places you can go a little annoying as you have to just try jumping in every hole, pond and zipping to each tree to see what the area has to offer in terms of paths and exits.

I hear you when you say it isn't very souls like combat, although I do feel I'm operating fairly similarly to one of my last DS1 builds that was pure dex/backstab. Dodge, dodge, dodge, parry, strike repeat. I desperately hate the penalty system for resurrections, and I've basically stopped using it at all unless the boss I'm fighting was half a fart away from death. Considering how little hp you get back, and the enemies building poise so quickly, you may as well start fresh with a full estus flask.

There's no penalty for resurrections.

The penalty comes in whenever you die regardless of whether you choose to resurrect or not so there's no reason to not resurrect.

Apparently if you resurrect too much you cause some form of plague to infect the NPCs. Not 100% sure on how this works yet, but watch out!

The thing I read implied it was the act of resurrecting in combat that was causing the disease rather that dying in general. Since I've basically packed it in on resurrection for the time being I'll report back on whether the sickness continues to spread on straight deaths alone.

Basically, if you die and don't resurrect, you lose half your money and exp, and if you die too much the plague spreads.

Also the Unseen Aid (which gives a chance at keeping any points and coin you had before death) is reduced more I think by using resurrection. The two red circles above the health bar represent resurrection, where the one on the right can be restored when resting, and the left is gradually filled by killing enemies. Also the skill points are banked whenever you fill the bar, so resurrection may be more enticing if you?re really close to filling it in addition to almost killing a tough enemy. The overarching effects of resurrection vs merely dying haven?t really been explained yet though as far as I?m aware. I got a cutscene for dragon rot essence early on just from dying.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I'm liking the game a fair bit, although I have been having a hell of a time progressing. Part of that I blame on only just recently finding out about the skill tree (more than 10 points stored away), and part of that I blame on the spiderweb nature of the map. Multiple paths has lead to me getting my ass kicked in one area and my ass only gently paddled in others, and I'm only just now starting to pick up on the fact that similar to other From games, they expect you to slam into a problem a few times and realize to say "maybe I shouldn't be here yet". There's also the fact that I did not know shinobi meant ninja. I honestly thought I was a samurai and I was trying to play the way I expected a samurai would play - skillful blade to blade combat, but not an array of skills that make dealing with spearguys and chained psychos way easier.

When it comes to the very branching wide word system they have going on, I think its pretty rad, but I am distressed by how mobility factors into it. I have found things purely accidentally by falling off a cliff or fleeing from an enemy into a tree. With so many mobility skills (including swimming, which crap man I had no idea), it can make figuring out all the places you can go a little annoying as you have to just try jumping in every hole, pond and zipping to each tree to see what the area has to offer in terms of paths and exits.

I hear you when you say it isn't very souls like combat, although I do feel I'm operating fairly similarly to one of my last DS1 builds that was pure dex/backstab. Dodge, dodge, dodge, parry, strike repeat. I desperately hate the penalty system for resurrections, and I've basically stopped using it at all unless the boss I'm fighting was half a fart away from death. Considering how little hp you get back, and the enemies building poise so quickly, you may as well start fresh with a full estus flask.

There's no penalty for resurrections.

The penalty comes in whenever you die regardless of whether you choose to resurrect or not so there's no reason to not resurrect.

Apparently if you resurrect too much you cause some form of plague to infect the NPCs. Not 100% sure on how this works yet, but watch out!

The thing I read implied it was the act of resurrecting in combat that was causing the disease rather that dying in general. Since I've basically packed it in on resurrection for the time being I'll report back on whether the sickness continues to spread on straight deaths alone.

Basically, if you die and don't resurrect, you lose half your money and exp, and if you die too much the plague spreads.

Also the Unseen Aid (which gives a chance at keeping any points and coin you had before death) is reduced more I think by using resurrection. The two red circles above the health bar represent resurrection, where the one on the right can be restored when resting, and the left is gradually filled by killing enemies. Also the skill points are banked whenever you fill the bar, so resurrection may be more enticing if you?re really close to filling it in addition to almost killing a tough enemy. The overarching effects of resurrection vs merely dying haven?t really been explained yet though as far as I?m aware. I got a cutscene for dragon rot essence early on just from dying.

From the fextrlife wiki:

Each time you die and respawn at a Sculptor's Idol each NPC has a chance to gain Rot Essence. They all have their individual chance, with some being higher than others. The Sculptor will always be affected first. It does not matter whether you Resurrect or not, you can still gain Dragonrot if you respawn at a Sculptor's Idol, so there is no point in not Resurrecting if you can.

So it actually seems like resurrecting mid fight and then escaping and backtracking to an idol to rest is better than allowing yourself to die and respawning at a buddha because you won't spread dragonrot that way.

That seems like an awful mechanic if that's how it's intended to work though.

 

[CritialGaming]

I'm liking the game a fair bit, although I have been having a hell of a time progressing. Part of that I blame on only just recently finding out about the skill tree (more than 10 points stored away), and part of that I blame on the spiderweb nature of the map. Multiple paths has lead to me getting my ass kicked in one area and my ass only gently paddled in others, and I'm only just now starting to pick up on the fact that similar to other From games, they expect you to slam into a problem a few times and realize to say "maybe I shouldn't be here yet". There's also the fact that I did not know shinobi meant ninja. I honestly thought I was a samurai and I was trying to play the way I expected a samurai would play - skillful blade to blade combat, but not an array of skills that make dealing with spearguys and chained psychos way easier.

When it comes to the very branching wide word system they have going on, I think its pretty rad, but I am distressed by how mobility factors into it. I have found things purely accidentally by falling off a cliff or fleeing from an enemy into a tree. With so many mobility skills (including swimming, which crap man I had no idea), it can make figuring out all the places you can go a little annoying as you have to just try jumping in every hole, pond and zipping to each tree to see what the area has to offer in terms of paths and exits.

I hear you when you say it isn't very souls like combat, although I do feel I'm operating fairly similarly to one of my last DS1 builds that was pure dex/backstab. Dodge, dodge, dodge, parry, strike repeat. I desperately hate the penalty system for resurrections, and I've basically stopped using it at all unless the boss I'm fighting was half a fart away from death. Considering how little hp you get back, and the enemies building poise so quickly, you may as well start fresh with a full estus flask.

There's no penalty for resurrections.

The penalty comes in whenever you die regardless of whether you choose to resurrect or not so there's no reason to not resurrect.

Apparently if you resurrect too much you cause some form of plague to infect the NPCs. Not 100% sure on how this works yet, but watch out!

The thing I read implied it was the act of resurrecting in combat that was causing the disease rather that dying in general. Since I've basically packed it in on resurrection for the time being I'll report back on whether the sickness continues to spread on straight deaths alone.

Basically, if you die and don't resurrect, you lose half your money and exp, and if you die too much the plague spreads.

Also the Unseen Aid (which gives a chance at keeping any points and coin you had before death) is reduced more I think by using resurrection. The two red circles above the health bar represent resurrection, where the one on the right can be restored when resting, and the left is gradually filled by killing enemies. Also the skill points are banked whenever you fill the bar, so resurrection may be more enticing if you?re really close to filling it in addition to almost killing a tough enemy. The overarching effects of resurrection vs merely dying haven?t really been explained yet though as far as I?m aware. I got a cutscene for dragon rot essence early on just from dying.

From the fextrlife wiki:

Each time you die and respawn at a Sculptor's Idol each NPC has a chance to gain Rot Essence. They all have their individual chance, with some being higher than others. The Sculptor will always be affected first. It does not matter whether you Resurrect or not, you can still gain Dragonrot if you respawn at a Sculptor's Idol, so there is no point in not Resurrecting if you can.

So it actually seems like resurrecting mid fight and then escaping and backtracking to an idol to rest is better than allowing yourself to die and respawning at a buddha because you won't spread dragonrot that way.

That seems like an awful mechanic if that's how it's intended to work though.

Actually that makes it better than if resurrection had additional negative consequences, because being under that impression had me using it less than I would?ve liked to so far.

Whether you want to go back to an idol or try defeating whoever you died to kinda depends on how far you?ve gotten and what you have to lose in terms of points/coin. In any case it?s a bit of risk assessment.

 

[CritialGaming]

Regarding the Dragonrot. Yes dying a lot can cause NPC's to get sick, however there are items in the game that you can burn at a shrine to completely heal all the dragonrot in place.

Dragonrot isn't as much of a problem as it sounds because it does take a lot of deaths to cause any of it to happen, and there seems to be plenty of dragon tears in the game to keep the npc's okay. The game expects you to die a lot, so the mechanic is pretty forgiving honestly. I'm quite a ways into the game and died a lot and only the sculpter is sick, which I healed and then died a shitload more and the dragonrot has yet to come back. So I dunno. I still have 4 of the healing dragon tears left for when the rot returns and I'm progressing in the game at a decent pace it seems.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I'm only very early in the game but I'm enjoying the combat far more than I ever did in a Souls game because Sekiro is more than just 'dodge, hit with stick'. Pretentious bullshit I heard about Souls games going in like 'you have to study every enemy to succeed' applies to Sekiro. And unlike Souls, Sekiro actually evolves and changes by giving you new shit to do (and learn and master) whereas Souls was just leveling stats to literally keep the game the same throughout. Those people that thought Souls was some amazingly hard game that they probably put beating them on their resumes are in for quite the rude awakening.

So far I'm really liking the flow of combat and the posture system, especially with the tougher enemies. The movement overall feels just a tab bit floaty, though I've never died or got hit because of it. Grappling and jumping around does feel really solid and fun. I don't get why From's combat relies so much on lock-on, can't they make combat without lock-on? I unbound the 'camera reset (R3)' because I never got the point of that in like any game but then that disabled lock-on completely; little nitpick. I'm not sure if the Souls-y mechanics will translate that well to Sekiro. Is all the stuff like bonfires, estus flasks, etc. in the game just because that's only what From knows how to do or did they actually evaluate each one for Sekiro? I do really like the estus flask for a health system because it gives the player a set amount of mistakes they know they can make while not having to search the environment for health nor not being able to carry a million health potions around removing difficulty completely. Graphically, I feel the game is overall drab/washed-out.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I'm only very early in the game but I'm enjoying the combat far more than I ever did in a Souls game because Sekiro is more than just 'dodge, hit with stick'. Pretentious bullshit I heard about Souls games going in like 'you have to study every enemy to succeed' applies to Sekiro. And unlike Souls, Sekiro actually evolves and changes by giving you new shit to do (and learn and master) whereas Souls was just leveling stats to literally keep the game the same throughout. Those people that thought Souls was some amazingly hard game that they probably put beating them on their resumes are in for quite the rude awakening.

Is it though, because this is pretty much Soulsborne in a different jacket. Just like with Dark Souls and Bloodborne it's hard till you realize it isn't really. On the surface Sekiro is harder (well, the Bosses anyway, since regular enemies are the easiest out of any Miyazaki game), but then you discover a similar system of exploits that sheds a lot of the game's perceived difficulty. One Boss seemed hard as balls until I came to the conclusion that I could just do this one thing, and then he was surprisingly easy.

Like with all of the Soulsborne games a lot of the difficulty comes from the jankiness; a camera that isn't always great, a lock-on that can have mood swings etc.

OT: It's quite good, and I'm digging the skills system. I still find the block on L1 a bit too cumbersome for an action that's so vital in activating fast. I tried changing it to one of the face buttons, but that only helped out in the first real Boss fight. Speaking of, more than in Soulsborne, the Boss fights here feel like they're designed to kill you in order for you to figure them out. Like the horseback guy; how are you supposed to figure out his moves without getting killed multiple times? It's just not possible, and this never really sits right with me. Especially here where there's somekind of karmic 'fuck you for dying' system active. I've chosen to completely ignore the whole dragonrot business and just focus on my own enjoyment - I'm not going to get guilt tripped by a damn game. The Lady Butterfly fight is the one Boss fight as of yet that feels fair, like you'd be able to figure it out and win on your first try while still being very tough.

So yeah, pretty good, but with intervals of frustration. Also, Fromsoft jank.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I'm only very early in the game but I'm enjoying the combat far more than I ever did in a Souls game because Sekiro is more than just 'dodge, hit with stick'. Pretentious bullshit I heard about Souls games going in like 'you have to study every enemy to succeed' applies to Sekiro. And unlike Souls, Sekiro actually evolves and changes by giving you new shit to do (and learn and master) whereas Souls was just leveling stats to literally keep the game the same throughout. Those people that thought Souls was some amazingly hard game that they probably put beating them on their resumes are in for quite the rude awakening.

Is it though, because this is pretty much Soulsborne in a different jacket. Just like with Dark Souls and Bloodborne it's hard till you realize it isn't really. On the surface Sekiro is harder (well, the Bosses anyway, since regular enemies are the easiest out of any Miyazaki game), but then you discover a similar system of exploits that sheds a lot of the game's perceived difficulty. One Boss seemed hard as balls until I came to the conclusion that I could just do this one thing, and then he was surprisingly easy.

Like with all of the Soulsborne games a lot of the difficulty comes from the jankiness; a camera that isn't always great, a lock-on that can have mood swings etc.

I am really early in the game but the first mini-boss fight after the tutorial section was far better than any fight in DS1 or BB because the combat is far more involving than Souls. Exploits or cheese don't ruin single player games because you can house-rule that stuff out. Sure, the cheese does so very much ruin the reputation of Souls difficulty, never got why anyone considered them hard to begin with. Plus, the cheese was so blatantly obvious like shields or magic or arrows. However, not cheesing in Souls doesn't make the combat good either because it's so simplistic. I'm sure there's exploits in Sekiro too, but you at least have a good combat system (it seems) when you choose not to be cheap that Souls never had.

 

[EvilRoy]

I'm only very early in the game but I'm enjoying the combat far more than I ever did in a Souls game because Sekiro is more than just 'dodge, hit with stick'. Pretentious bullshit I heard about Souls games going in like 'you have to study every enemy to succeed' applies to Sekiro. And unlike Souls, Sekiro actually evolves and changes by giving you new shit to do (and learn and master) whereas Souls was just leveling stats to literally keep the game the same throughout. Those people that thought Souls was some amazingly hard game that they probably put beating them on their resumes are in for quite the rude awakening.

Is it though, because this is pretty much Soulsborne in a different jacket. Just like with Dark Souls and Bloodborne it's hard till you realize it isn't really. On the surface Sekiro is harder (well, the Bosses anyway, since regular enemies are the easiest out of any Miyazaki game), but then you discover a similar system of exploits that sheds a lot of the game's perceived difficulty. One Boss seemed hard as balls until I came to the conclusion that I could just do this one thing, and then he was surprisingly easy.

Like with all of the Soulsborne games a lot of the difficulty comes from the jankiness; a camera that isn't always great, a lock-on that can have mood swings etc.

OT: It's quite good, and I'm digging the skills system. I still find the block on L1 a bit too cumbersome for an action that's so vital in activating fast. I tried changing it to one of the face buttons, but that only helped out in the first real Boss fight. Speaking of, more than in Soulsborne, the Boss fights here feel like they're designed to kill you in order for you to figure them out. Like the horseback guy; how are you supposed to figure out his moves without getting killed multiple times? It's just not possible, and this never really sits right with me. Especially here where there's somekind of karmic 'fuck you for dying' system active. I've chosen to completely ignore the whole dragonrot business and just focus on my own enjoyment - I'm not going to get guilt tripped by a damn game. The Lady Butterfly fight is the one Boss fight as of yet that feels fair, like you'd be able to figure it out and win on your first try while still being very tough.

So yeah, pretty good, but with intervals of frustration. Also, Fromsoft jank.

Y'know I'm right there with you on the not really feeling bad about "nondescript coughing sickness" getting the npc's, its just that I read that the stories of the npcs won't progress if they're sick and that has me kind of pissy. My favorite parts of DS was things like just randomly finding Seig in the pit and talking about how we're both just makin progress in our own directions and then splitting up again. The potential for me to be barred from that kind of thing because I got my ass handed to me slightly more often than the game feels is acceptable has me a little frustrated. I don't even know what form story progression takes in this game, but I know I want all of it, and game mechanics standing in my path doesn't feel right.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

NPCs offer some sort of sidequests apparently, and you need em to be healthy for that, but I dunno if you can outright miss any of that. I guess if you run out of dragon tears.

I'm liking the game a fair bit, although I have been having a hell of a time progressing. Part of that I blame on only just recently finding out about the skill tree (more than 10 points stored away), and part of that I blame on the spiderweb nature of the map. Multiple paths has lead to me getting my ass kicked in one area and my ass only gently paddled in others, and I'm only just now starting to pick up on the fact that similar to other From games, they expect you to slam into a problem a few times and realize to say "maybe I shouldn't be here yet". There's also the fact that I did not know shinobi meant ninja. I honestly thought I was a samurai and I was trying to play the way I expected a samurai would play - skillful blade to blade combat, but not an array of skills that make dealing with spearguys and chained psychos way easier.

When it comes to the very branching wide word system they have going on, I think its pretty rad, but I am distressed by how mobility factors into it. I have found things purely accidentally by falling off a cliff or fleeing from an enemy into a tree. With so many mobility skills (including swimming, which crap man I had no idea), it can make figuring out all the places you can go a little annoying as you have to just try jumping in every hole, pond and zipping to each tree to see what the area has to offer in terms of paths and exits.

I hear you when you say it isn't very souls like combat, although I do feel I'm operating fairly similarly to one of my last DS1 builds that was pure dex/backstab. Dodge, dodge, dodge, parry, strike repeat. I desperately hate the penalty system for resurrections, and I've basically stopped using it at all unless the boss I'm fighting was half a fart away from death. Considering how little hp you get back, and the enemies building poise so quickly, you may as well start fresh with a full estus flask.

Shinobu means "to sneak around", the Japanese had a single word for that hahah. Shinobi is "the one who sneaks around", and ninja was a term that came after, using the composing characters of shinobi in a new way. Ninja is basically hired shinobi allied with some ruler or despot who do their bidding. The distinction drawn here by the game not calling you a ninja is that you're basically a lone wolf doing what you believe to be right.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

NPCs offer some sort of sidequests apparently, and you need em to be healthy for that, but I dunno if you can outright miss any of that. I guess if you run out of dragon tears.

If it uses the Dark Souls method of NPC story progression of needing to talk to an NPC at the exact right time and making main story progress locking you out of NPC sidequests, then yes it would seem that dragonrot preventing you from progressing their sidequests would absolutely lock you out of them.

It seems that at least the doctor's side quest requires characters in the game to get dragonrot, so that's 1 sidequest you won't get locked out of.

It also seems to be random when and which NPCs get dragonrot (other than the sculptor being first). Like each time you die the game rolls to see whether an NPC gets dragonrot, and then rolls for which NPC, and each one has different probability values for each roll.

Either way, I think all my NPCs are going to be zombies by the end of the game because I'm dying just about every 5 feet.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I am really early in the game but the first mini-boss fight after the tutorial section was far better than any fight in DS1 or BB because the combat is far more involving than Souls. Exploits or cheese don't ruin single player games because you can house-rule that stuff out. Sure, the cheese does so very much ruin the reputation of Souls difficulty, never got why anyone considered them hard to begin with. Plus, the cheese was so blatantly obvious like shields or magic or arrows. However, not cheesing in Souls doesn't make the combat good either because it's so simplistic. I'm sure there's exploits in Sekiro too, but you at least have a good combat system (it seems) when you choose not to be cheap that Souls never had.

The problem with Sekiro as I see it as that it's overall unbalanced. The difficulty between the regular goons and (mini) Bosses is stagering. And the reason for that is because every regular enemy can be stealth killed or pummeled into submission. I can't say I'm that far into the game, only being on my third proper Boss fight, but every regular enemy thus far barely required me to deflect in order to break their posture. I either stealth killed them or just wailed on them till their posture broke. And then a Boss comes along and suddenly I feel like I need to learn the game again. The Bosses thus far don't feel like a culmination of the skills you learned fighting regular enemies prior, because the regular enemies can be insta-killed.