I’m sad we didn’t get ant DLC for this game.
Ok, so I have played the shit out of this game for the last 2 weeks on account of vacation time followed by a foot injury. I beat it a couple of days ago and am now almost finished with my first NG+. Here’s my thoughts:
I really enjoy the game. As an old school Tenchu fan and a fan of challenging action games, this really hit a nice spot. That said, I feel there are a few things that detract from the experience:
-Experience penalty on death was a stupid addition that seems to be more of a From Software signature than something that adds to the game. In practice, it forces you to either grind to bank your next skill point before a boss or accept the risk of losing that progress when you fight a tough boss. Since you don’t level up like you do in a souls game, this is just hurts the pacing. Would have been better to have the idols bank your XP.
-Further on that note, even barring the penalty on death, skills end up as too much of a grind. You don’t end up overpowered with more skills. Grinding is just boring, it hurts the pacing of what is an otherwise pretty great action game.
-I feel it’s too cruel starting out with such tight resources. You really have to get a few gourd seeds and at least a prayer bead set to be able to survive anything. Coupled with the steep learning curve of the combat and typical erratic FS enemy attack animations, getting the hang of things was tough. I like plenty of games with a cliff shaped learning curve, but goddamn. I went to Hirata Estate before fighting the first real boss and found the drunkard and his army of goons to be ri-goddamn-diculous to learn. Spending 5-10 minutes luring out the goons to get 1-2 shotted by the fatass before you get much time to learn his attacks was really shitty. Fortunately, there weren’t too many bosses like that, but that one was especially bad so early on.
-The focus on parries is fun, but I do wish the timing was a little more in line with the usual perfect defense/issen mechanics. Years of Onimusha and DMC royal guard timing (hitting it right at the moment of impact) took a while to break, feels like you have to block earlier in this one to avoid damage. The window is actually much wider than those, it just closes earlier in the attack.
-Some of the later bosses have a ridiculous amount of heath/phases with how damaging/relentless/erratic they are. The Owl Father (second owl fight) fight took me hours to beat. The game demands near perfection, and very long stretches of it. I ended up consulting videos on a bunch of tough bosses, learning the moves of a second/third/fourth phase that can one shot you the old fashioned way was a tall order. I think this could have been better balanced if those long fights were broken up with checkpoints or something. Just takes a long time in some cases to get back to that point (similar to the early drunkard fight and the army of goons). Interestingly, since I already made the Tenchu reference, this was an annoying point in those games- getting to a boss and losing meant you lost a ton of time if you played through a level very meticulously. But none of those bosses held a candle to Sekiro’s bosses, so it wasn’t a huge deal.
But yeah, despite those complaints I do really like the game and have had a great time playing it. NG+ is a lot of fun since you don’t need to worry about finding items or grinding so much (although XP banking before a boss is still a factor). More of a pure action experience on the second run, and you can’t really get overpowered for it like a souls game.
I don’t think winning anything from The Game Awards means anything but Sekiro was probably the most deserving game of the nominees. The game is masterfully crafted in level design, gameplay, and presentation. There really aren’t any flaws in the game… and it accomplished all of this without an easy mode.
What is the context?
Basic context is ringing in the New Year early sentiment; the bell ringing being a traditional practice for those who visit temples/shrines at New Year’s.
I restarted the game a few days ago and went straight to Hirata Estate before fighting the chained ogre (the first time I played it, I beat the ogre and that’s about as far as I got). I made it to Lady Butterfly and I’m getting my shit pushed in. I only have 2 uses of the healing gourd, Attack power 1, Vitality 11. Am I trying to fight her too early?
I’m wondering if I should go explore the Outskirts more to get more healing gourd seeds and unlock more skills.
Or do I just need to git gud?
Hmmm…
You could probably get by with hit/run tactics and staying mobile in general to avoid/evade her attack stuffs.
IIRC, ‘Whirlwind Slash’ is pretty good for offense stuffs, while firecrackers and shuriken can be used to create openings, when applicable.
Exploring to find upgrade stuffs is okay, too, depending on where you go and what you find along the way.
I’d advise completing a prayer bead set and beating the other actual boss you can get to at this point (horseback guy) before coming back. Beating the hag is possible, but it will be much easier with a little more resources.
Word up. I decided to go back the the Ashina Outskirts and explore a bit more. I noticed that the bad guys are a little easier in this area than at the estate, and they give a little less EXP for skill points, too. I’m thinking this is the more natural progression for the game. I beat the ogre no problem and tonight I’ll go deeper into the outskirts and see what’s there.
I beat her first before the other boss. Personally I feel like it helped me understand the game a lot sooner that way. That is to say deflecting is king and dodging/jumping is really just for unblockables
That’s a bigass fucking snake 
That fucking flaming bull is flaming BULLSHIT 
Deflect. Just focus on deflecting it
I’m going to try again tonight. I’ll use a dousing powder to help with his fire before the fight, and focus on deflecting his charge. I wasn’t sure if you could do that because he’s so freakin huge and MEAN. Tonight, I dine on blazing filet mignon.