Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

One thing I will say is that I don’t feel it’s significantly better than Nioh. It might be a better game (I’m not sure), but part of that has to do with Nioh’s over-use of assets. If they had dialed back on re-using the same stages/enemies and simply shortened the game a hair, Nioh was a pretty fantastic game. I prefer Nioh’s combat to Sekiro’s. The lack of weapon variety felt sparse compared to Dark Souls, but compared to Sekiro it’s like the possibilities are endless. I think the plot is more up my alley, too. From’s esoteric storylines are fine for what they are, but in this case I think something more straightforward works better. Thing is, by the end of Nioh you’d fought the same enemies hundreds of times. You’d also played the same levels repeatedly and fought the same bosses in varying environments again and again. For every great new map there were 2-3 repeated ones. Team Ninja phoned some things in that could have made Nioh a classic. Maybe these next couple areas will make me feel differently about Sekiro, too. I feel like I’m on the back end of things and nothing has changed for a while, though.

my only real complaint about Sekiro is the way they re-use certain bosses (Corrupted Monk, Guardian Ape, Blazing Bull, Chained Ogre etc)...and also...

I didn't really like when they made you rediscover almost all the idols in Ashina Castle after the ninjas attack...and they make you replay the entire Ashina Outskirts section again as well after the Castle area is set on fire
 
I got the "bad" ending a few minutes ago. I backed up my saves to make sure I'd be able to make both decisions. I also knew I could blow through all of my items in that fight, so I went bonkers with Ako's Sugar, Divine Confetti, Rice, Divine Grass, etc. Feels like I don't use about 75% of the items in the game, which is par for the course with the genre.
It was still pretty tough, but it feels like I keep fighting minor variations on the Genichiro battle.

I don't really mind the 2nd pass through the castle...mainly because it's a pretty short section in spite of the powerful enemies. After Nioh made you re-play the same 5-6 levels a dozen times I think this and the re-use of bosses is no biggie.

I do think this is my least favorite From game since the Souls series, though. Bloodborne grew on my after my second pass, so maybe this one will, too. I still think some DLC with a new main weapon might be nice, too. I have a feeling they're mainly focused on prosthetics, though.
 
there are 3 other endings. right now owl is kicking my ass, gotten through his first phase once. i just do not do well on these fast reflexes pattern memorization type games. why I have always sucked at PvP on DS.
 
there are 3 other endings. right now owl is kicking my ass, gotten through his first phase once. i just do not do well on these fast reflexes pattern memorization type games. why I have always sucked at PvP on DS.

Yeah, I haven't beaten him yet either. At least once I got him stuck against the wall and was able to just keep wailing on him. I did that with Lady Butterfly, too. The bosses in this game are super aggressive, so if you can get them in certain tight spots they flip out. I've been trying to duplicate it to no luck, though.

With PvP in Dark Souls, I feel like with most builds you're essentially waiting for the other person to make the first move. That's one reason I've never loved it. There are some exceptions, but you kinda have to build a VERY specific PvP character to take advantage.
 
NG+ makes the game super easy...I literally blew threw the game with barely any deaths...you're so powerful right from the start and the fact that you get to keep most of your items/gear makes every enemy/boss/mini-boss fairly easy...plus after completing the game once you pretty much have all the timings and mechanics down...so for those complaining about an Easy Mode, NG+ is it :D

I think giving back Kuro's Charm and ringing the Demon's Bell needs to be done to have any sort of challenge in NG+
 
I am farming my last 9 skill points for the last skill. Got everything but the shura ending the associated boss and the upgrade material you can't get in one play. Gonna platinum this sucka on NG
 
Yeah, I haven't beaten him yet either. At least once I got him stuck against the wall and was able to just keep wailing on him. I did that with Lady Butterfly, too. The bosses in this game are super aggressive, so if you can get them in certain tight spots they flip out. I've been trying to duplicate it to no luck, though.

With PvP in Dark Souls, I feel like with most builds you're essentially waiting for the other person to make the first move. That's one reason I've never loved it. There are some exceptions, but you kinda have to build a VERY specific PvP character to take advantage.
I mean the second owl, hirata estates. the first one can be cheesed fairly easily, the second one also has a cheese strategy but I am having a much harder time picking it up (and at that point maybe it is no longer chjjeese). I somewhat follow the tyrannicon videos, he is a pretty funny guy
 
Owl was harder for me to cheese than actually fight in the end. Same with sword saint isshin I tired to cheese him in the end I beat him without cheese. I did cheese demon of hatred though I admit it. It was a DS boss close anyway :p
 
Owl was harder for me to cheese than actually fight in the end. Same with sword saint isshin I tired to cheese him in the end I beat him without cheese. I did cheese demon of hatred though I admit it. It was a DS boss close anyway :p
DS just seems tons easier than this game. like owl, he can oneshot you if you don't block avoid his running slash attacks. and his mikuri counters are brutal and will do the same unless you are close to max health. The DS stuff is much more forgiving, like attack this leg, move over there on certain attacks, etc. this is more click the right button or die lol
 
DS just seems tons easier than this game. like owl, he can oneshot you if you don't block avoid his running slash attacks. and his mikuri counters are brutal and will do the same unless you are close to max health. The DS stuff is much more forgiving, like attack this leg, move over there on certain attacks, etc. this is more click the right button or die lol

mikiri counters are easy to hit because the timings are very generous...I actually want enemies to do thrusts so I can counter it...it gets tricky when enemies do 2 different perilous attacks (thrust and sweep) where you have to read their tells really quickly to react...but once you learn their movements it gets a lot easier...Corrupted Monk is one of the bosses that does multiple perilous attacks and I still sometimes get caught because I'm anticipating one but get the other...sometimes you just have to get lucky and guess
 
Once I'm done with second playthrough I'm firing up dark souls. I played it on PC with mods only ever. Is it dumb to buy the remaster on PS4 pro? What you guys think ?
 
Once I'm done with second playthrough I'm firing up dark souls. I played it on PC with mods only ever. Is it dumb to buy the remaster on PS4 pro? What you guys think ?

did you defeat all the bosses?...1 boss is exclusive to the Purification ending while another 2 are exclusive to the Shura ending...I'm with you in that I also feel like replaying the Souls games now...I beat Sekiro 3 times (one time with NG+) to get all the endings/bosses and now I'm burnt out and need a change but can't go back to any game- it needs to be another From Software one
 
did you defeat all the bosses?...1 boss is exclusive to the Purification ending while another 2 are exclusive to the Shura ending...I'm with you in that I also feel like replaying the Souls games now...I beat Sekiro 3 times (one time with NG+) to get all the endings/bosses and now I'm burnt out and need a change but can't go back to any game- it needs to be another From Software one

Yeah I don't even play much else. I did all but shura ending, the other 3 endings can be done together. Shura needs a separate play through.
 
for those having difficulty with Hirata Estates Owl (or any boss), use the Mortal Draw combat art...it's really powerful against pretty much any boss
 
Hmm I never thought about trying Mortal Draw on Owl, funny thing is I used Bestowal Ninjutsu on a NPC in the hallway then running to the boss a few times, worked decent but still wouldn't get him out of stage one. Does Mortal Draw damage decrease after running out of spirit emblems? I hardly used that skill. I'd like to recommend Mist Raven + Ichimonji: Double if you're having trouble with Mortal Draw on Owl at Hirata. Also remember you can dodge into his fireworks and keep up pressure, if you back off make sure you Mikiri counter, because half the time he throws his fireworks he Mikiri he will follow up with a stab. I think keeping pressure in this fight is the fastest way to break his posture.
 
I ended up killing Owl (the one on top of the tower) by kiting a whole lot and only attacking him after he did an attack. The fight took forever, but it was way easier than anything else I tried.

While not that tough when confronted normally, I don't think the second Corrupted Monk can be dive bombed at the beginning anymore. I must've tried it 50 times and it never once worked. There are videos galore showing it, but I have a feeling they removed that or made it work differently.
 
Hmm I never thought about trying Mortal Draw on Owl, funny thing is I used Bestowal Ninjutsu on a NPC in the hallway then running to the boss a few times, worked decent but still wouldn't get him out of stage one. Does Mortal Draw damage decrease after running out of spirit emblems? I hardly used that skill...

Mortal Draw is pretty OP...pretty much kicks every boss' ass...it interrupts any attack as well...I just finished the Shura ending and Isshin Ashina's 2nd phase was fairly easy with it...he never got to use any of his flame attacks because I stuck close to him and anytime he started up a flame move I just used Mortal Draw and it interrupted those attacks making the fight much easier...the great thing about Mortal Draw is that even though it uses Spirit Emblems it still works even after you run out...it might be less effective but it seems to work fine

Dragon's Homecoming is most likely the canon ending but I thought the Shura ending was the coolest...plus the Emma/Isshin boss fight at the end was one of the best fights in the entire game (pretty challenging too)
 
While not that tough when confronted normally, I don't think the second Corrupted Monk can be dive bombed at the beginning anymore. I must've tried it 50 times and it never once worked. There are videos galore showing it, but I have a feeling they removed that or made it work differently.

I did her not long ago. I did not realize that people were able to nuke her first phase so I missed out on trying that. The second phase I always successfully nuke, you just got to lock off and get on the right tree in time.
 
I don't think I've ever used Mortal Draw. I'll have to give that a shot tonight. I've been using Shadowrush most of the time.
 
how many playthroughs does it take to get the achievement for 'obtain all skills'...I'm at the end of a NG+ run (did Purification during NG and Shura in NG+) and still am 5 skills short of obtaining all of them...
 
I grinded them out obtaining skill points. Got the last one today. Some you find texts for ? Some you don't ?

"Height of Technique. Acquired all skills"
 
Those final skills take like 9 points to obtain and there are 5-6 of them. Hopefully NG+ greatly boosts the XP you get or those are going to be a hell of a grind. Even getting to 3 is now taking me forever. I want to get the last medicine boost with 5, but that feels like hours away.

FWIW, Mortal Draw does seem pretty badass. It definitely still works when you run out of emblems, but it seems to lose priority/damage. The swipe is much smaller and enemies are no longer semi-stunned by it. Feels like the Tanto is practically made for that ability, though.
 
what place are you farming? fountainhead palace is a very good one, there are several different methods depending on how boring you want things to be. even better is (supposedly) ashina castle stairway. I calculated I need some 45 points to max. NG+ does increase the XP. The final points require some 80k exp each, so... yeah. I'd advise getting the big point items first then the small point stuff will be faster even though the total xp will be the same.
 
what place are you farming? fountainhead palace is a very good one, there are several different methods depending on how boring you want things to be. even better is (supposedly) ashina castle stairway. I calculated I need some 45 points to max. NG+ does increase the XP. The final points require some 80k exp each, so... yeah. I'd advise getting the big point items first then the small point stuff will be faster even though the total xp will be the same.

The quickest spot I could find was killing the first few flute playing guys in Fountainhead. It's quick to kill 4 of them and then run back to the statue, but it's still a drag. Backstabbing the ninja in the Ashina Castle Dojo is also kinda quick, but tedious as hell. I'd be open to anything better/faster than those two things. I'd like to get the final medicine upgrade, which is a 5-point upgrade.
 
Those final skills take like 9 points to obtain and there are 5-6 of them. Hopefully NG+ greatly boosts the XP you get or those are going to be a hell of a grind. Even getting to 3 is now taking me forever. I want to get the last medicine boost with 5, but that feels like hours away.

FWIW, Mortal Draw does seem pretty badass. It definitely still works when you run out of emblems, but it seems to lose priority/damage. The swipe is much smaller and enemies are no longer semi-stunned by it. Feels like the Tanto is practically made for that ability, though.

there's an upgrade for Mortal Draw (I forget the name of it) which makes it even more powerful...I never noticed any big change with the effectiveness of Mortal Draw even after running out of emblems...it's pretty OP...as far as getting all skills, I'm still going to be short after completing NG+ so it's either on to NG++ or grind it out...there are some nice farming spots in Ashina Castle at the very end of the game
 
There's 3 good end game farm spots... Stairway idle in ashina. Flowers idle in fountainhead and the other one that goes up to the tomb or whatever it is where you pray. You can farm those 3 weirdo dudes that sound like lu Kang. Also there's only one skill that's 9. The rest are 6 or lower.
 
I made it to the door in front of the final boss last night. None of my gear is maxed out, but I have everything to the "purple" level, which is the next-to-last upgrade level. I'm short on a couple ingredients and I don't really feel like grinding for that.
I got all but 2 prayer beads, which looks like all you can get unless you do the obscure eavesdropping thing. I saw that whole thing in a walkthrough last night. Seems like something you'd never notice on your own IMO.
I figure I'll give NG+ a run while I'm in practice and "in the groove." Not sure I'll go back to this game any time soon after that, though. At least unless there is some DLC on the way. Have they mentioned anything about any?
 
I got every achievement except for the 'obtain all skills' one...way too much grinding required for that...it'll probably take around NG+4 to get it comfortably without the grind...I'm not into grinding...either way the most important thing for me was beating every boss and getting all the endings...
 
I decided to do a bit of grinding in NG+2 and got all the skills...so I got 100% of the achievements...it wasn't too bad of a grind- Outskirts Wall- Stairway is the best spot as you can easily get ~20,000 XP each run...and it's super easy to backstab most of the enemies
 
I thought it was said no DLC was planned or announced. I'm fine with that game was awesome and one of the best I've played. Started second playthrough yesterday.
 
I thought it was said no DLC was planned or announced. I'm fine with that game was awesome and one of the best I've played. Started second playthrough yesterday.

every FromSoft game since DS1 has received at least 1 DLC and it's usually fantastic...so I'm pretty sure Sekiro will get at least one...plenty of lore to explore in DLC...my guess is one of the bosses will be Lady Tomoe...Bloodborne was also released in March and the Old Hunters DLC came out in November...so I'm expecting something similar
 
eh, they are a bit limited in what they can do with DLC. The other games you get new weapons, enemies, spells, etc. Here, what you maybe get a new prosthetic and shinobi arts tree? there are enough useless arts as is, and most of these cost emblems to use. I kind of wish that for the abilities that use emblems and have a weaker version without, that they just allowed you to use the weaker version all the time and then you could use the emblems for other things.
 
Whew. Finally killed the Sword Saint. I'm *really* glad they let you save after that to get both endings without having to kill him twice. While not Sister Friede, Lud and Zallen, or Midir - he's rough. Probably on par with Gael or the Two Princes. It's such a long fight and if you screw up in the 3rd or 4th phases you can die really fast. When I finally won, I actually didn't end up using most of my rare healing/buff items and I managed to use 2 Ako's Sugars along the way to help out. That's basically the only item I found myself using all that much...at least other than divine confetti and healing items.

As far as DLC goes, I'd like to see another main weapon. There's no real reason they couldn't do it, plot-wise. That would open up a whole new set of skills, too. The game world isn't that big, either. Ashina castle gets retread several times. I new area akin to the size/scope of Mount Kongo would be nice. Don't even tie it to the storyline - just make it whisk you away and you have to survive it to escape.
 
Whew. Finally killed the Sword Saint. I'm *really* glad they let you save after that to get both endings without having to kill him twice. While not Sister Friede, Lud and Zallen, or Midir - he's rough. Probably on par with Gael or the Two Princes. It's such a long fight and if you screw up in the 3rd or 4th phases you can die really fast. When I finally won, I actually didn't end up using most of my rare healing/buff items and I managed to use 2 Ako's Sugars along the way to help out. That's basically the only item I found myself using all that much...at least other than divine confetti and healing items

now replay the game with the Shura ending ;) ...I actually liked the Shura ending better then the canon Dragon's Homecoming one
 
now replay the game with the Shura ending ;) ...I actually liked the Shura ending better then the canon Dragon's Homecoming one

Does that change the game at all...at least beyond giving you a new attack? I went ahead and got that ending via a backed up save on my first pass. I think it was the best ending I've seen thus far, although I haven't seen the one where you have to eavesdrop on Kuro either. That's my current plan.

So far NG+ has been a breeze. I'm already about 40% of the way done and have only legit died once. I had a bad jump kill me another time, but I still blame the game's inconsistency with the grappling hook on that. Being able to heal more and just having a better feel for blocking and countering goes a long way. I rang the bell ASAP for supposedly better drops, but still haven't gotten any Fulminated Mercury. That's literally the only thing I need to upgrade my last 3 weapons. Once you upgrade everything all the way is there any point to money? I have like 25K in gold and another 50K in bags with at least 50 of every buyable item.
 
fulminated mercury is a pretty easy pickup at ashina outskirts invasion. it is the best xp farming location and the materials are a bonus. to get all weapons though you need I think 10 lapis luzi. 4 + 2(hatred demon) per playthrough.
As for money, buy tons of snap seeds and divine confetti. Not sure there is much else that is really useful.
Some people have complained that endgame is lacking in sekiro, since once you have all the unlocks materials, XP and money are useless.
 
I killed the Hatred Demon and upgraded 2 Luzi-required prosthetics on my first pass, so I think I'm good to go on that front. I did all of the carp stuff.
At my current pace I'll probably complete the game in NG+ this week. I might drop the Bell Demon approach if I'm not going to get any Fulminated Mercury from random enemies. Not that I've really noticed much, but it does feel like my posture gauge skyrockets vs. enemies that attack a lot.
 
I managed to take out Genichiro on the first try, although I did admittedly use a divine grass in the fight. Luckily I have like 15 of them since those and Jizo Statues take the place of most major items in NG+.
Jizo statues don't seem to work for me 1/2 the time, so I wish the game would give me something else instead. Being able to hold more pellets or rice would be nice.
I cleared out the sunken valley, so the Guardian Ape is my next target. It'll be interesting if I can replicate how I beat him the first time. Genichiro is a pretty typical humanoid opponent with some twists, but the Guardian Ape was a totally unique battle reminiscent of Bloodborne or Dark Souls.
 
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