From Software 'n such

[rapoon]

In NG+ you take vastly increased posture damage even on successful parry & chip damage on block so the upgrades get even more important there.

I enjoyed my first playthrough of sekiro a lot. NG+ cycles feel a little weird since a lot of what you do is block enemy attack patterns and those are exactly the same. If NG+ changed the enemy behaviour like a more fleshed out hard mode that could be really exciting. You can definitely play without using tools but that makes the combat even more restrictive, why not use different weapons in different runs etc.

Anyone else end up barely using the piercing hold R1 move by the end of the game?

Spoiler

Would be cool if you could switch around combat arts faster. and they feel a little clunky in general. grounded R1 spam does more damage than most of them so what's the point (ichimonji though..)

I found O'rin a massive pain on NG+. I think on +2 you'll run out of posture and die if you try to fully parry her flurry of attacks. I was positively surprised how different the hidden 2nd Owl fight is from the first one. Flame vent + living force is really strong for some fights, you can stun bosses with the flame status.

I watched a streamer last night play NG+, he said pretty much the same thing: he had to constantly be dodging, jumping and deflecting; relying on deflection alone was insufficient. I'm considering starting a whole new game and spending my points more wisely, instead of transitioning into NG+ or grinding. The charged thrust attack was my bread & butter through a large portion of the game.

Spoiler

ichimonji is fantastic. I made the mistake of making High Monk my first mastery. Not recommended. Senpou Leaping Kicks is actually pretty good to punish sweeps or initiate from the air, and it looks cool as hell. High Monk though *sigh*, I was never able to land all the hits and the posture damage is pretty bad (other than the initial kick). Praying Strikes - Exorcism is pretty good.

Spoiler

I did fight Demon of Hatred but I opted for a high mobility strategy. I never found the resin in Mibu Village on my first blind playthrough so Suzaku’s Umbrella was not an option.
Here’s the vid.

Spoiler

Impressive, like all your other videos. I doubt I'd of beaten him without the umbrella or devoting the entire day towards the task

[Sumez]

Man I really should stop revealing all those spoiler tags - they are there for a reason. I think I know of almost every upcoming boss fight at this point. >_<

You guys are progressing through the game way too fast. Don't you have a job or something?
I think From should move their release schedule so that more games come out during the winter... Like Dark Souls, most of Sekiro is so dark it's basically impossible to play during daylight hours, which is until like 9pm at this latitude.

[Blinge]

Maybe I did things too out of order by exploring basically all of kongo before beating Genichiro in the Tower (is that a mario 64 boss?)

I feel like my buffed health wouldn't have made thaaaaat much of a difference in this case.

Spoiler

His tomoe lightning form was way easier than i thought, you can just get deliberately jump into the hit and mash R1 to deal with it, right?

Love the story and bits of development there but..

Spoiler

That shortcut.. from the castle to the dilapidated temple.. just no.
How even. That would have to be a loooong interconnected series of tunnels. Couldn't Kuro have just gone down it at any point? ffffuuuu

I enjoyed the folding screen boiz. I'm always up for moments like that when From experiments a bit more with fights.

Spoiler

Although I ended up not using the dark or loud rooms at all

Spoiler

Snake eyes in the poison pit made me really fucking rage. I couldn't get a good set up to wipe out the goons first. Or if I did, she'd make short work of me anyway. I know the sabimaru poison blade is supposed to work on descendants of the wolf women.. right? I guess this snake eyes isn't vulnerable to poison? Or did I just give up too early..
Cause the last thing I did was reach Snake Eyes in the sunken valley with all the snipers, and fucked her up very quickly with the sabimaru.

[Sumez]

Spoiler

That shortcut.. from the castle to the dilapidated temple.. just no.
How even. That would have to be a loooong interconnected series of tunnels. Couldn't Kuro have just gone down it at any point? ffffuuuu

That was so weird. And essentially useless too, considering the game lets you fast travel from the get go.

I enjoyed the folding screen boiz. I'm always up for moments like that when From experiments a bit more with fights.

Spoiler

Although I ended up not using the dark or loud rooms at all

Same... I feel like something didn't work as intended with that fight - I just hit them till they died, and missed most of the intended puzzles.

Spoiler

Snake eyes in the poison pit made me really fucking rage. I couldn't get a good set up to wipe out the goons first. Or if I did, she'd make short work of me anyway. I know the sabimaru poison blade is supposed to work on descendants of the wolf women.. right? I guess this snake eyes isn't vulnerable to poison? Or did I just give up too early..
Cause the last thing I did was reach Snake Eyes in the sunken valley with all the snipers, and fucked her up very quickly with the sabimaru.

The poison knife didn't work for me in this fight either. For this one I just took out the two small guys by the tent, stealthed her, and then drew her over to where the other guys were, so the remaining ones wouldn't be joining the fight.
But yeah that fight was one of the biggest show-stoppers for me too. Especially since blocking or even trying to deflect her attacks will make you feel bad very fast, so running around a lot will make the fight much more manageable, which is where the game's camera and lock-on issues really start to show, and add a very unwelcome metagame layer...

[Blinge]

I enjoyed the folding screen boiz. I'm always up for moments like that when From experiments a bit more with fights.

Spoiler

Although I ended up not using the dark or loud rooms at all

Same... I feel like something didn't work as intended with that fight - I just hit them till they died, and missed most of the intended puzzles.

Well I did sneak up but it was using line of sight/ hanging off ledges etc.

The poison knife didn't work for me in this fight either. For this one I just took out the two small guys by the tent, stealthed her, and then drew her over to where the other guys were, so the remaining ones wouldn't be joining the fight.
But yeah that fight was one of the biggest show-stoppers for me too. Especially since blocking or even trying to deflect her attacks will make you feel bad very fast, so running around a lot will make the fight much more manageable, which is where the game's camera and lock-on issues really start to show, and add a very unwelcome metagame layer...

Complaining about FromSoft's camera in 2019 lul

Sorry, back to seriousness..
I didn't know the term showstopper had that function too! huh..
Ah man I tried that a couple of times early on but she kept seeing me. How did you sneak up on her? I only have one layer of suppress presence. going up to the buddha in the middle got me seen also.

I actually found a lot more success when I managed to just stand in the pocket and bang it out with her, any sort of distance got my ass shot. I'd only move away to get behind cover and heal. Went alright once I figured out I had to dodge past THEN jump to evade that horrific command grab. Also it benefited me to stop trying the divekick punish..

Finally put sashimi wanker down, used a confetti on the second phase and was absolutely shitting myself because I only had two left. Fuck them terror enemies. When i got the final deathblow I nearly pushed my R1 button through the controller.

[Sumez]

I didn't know the term showstopper had that function too! huh..

English isn't my first language, so my grasp at it isn't ecactly the best. What I meant is just, I was stuck there for a while.

Ah man I tried that a couple of times early on but she kept seeing me. How did you sneak up on her? I only have one layer of suppress presence. going up to the buddha in the middle got me seen also.

I only got the first one too, good enough to stealth most of the game. I just sneaked all the way along the wall, she didn't see me coming.

any sort of distance got my ass shot.

The gun is punishing. Even blocking it still eats a lot of vitality. But she will always stop tracking you shortly before firing, so as long as you keep moving, it will never hit you. It's a good time to get some retaliation hits in.

[Blinge]

I didn't know the term showstopper had that function too! huh..

English isn't my first language, so my grasp at it isn't ecactly the best. What I meant is just, I was stuck there for a while.

It is mine, and I wasn't being sarcastic, I really didn't know that use and had to look it up :]

I only got the first one too, good enough to stealth most of the game. I just sneaked all the way along the wall, she didn't see me coming.

That might be it, I might've got the stealth upgrade between trying that strat and my much later attempts after Genichiro and the mountain.

[Necronopticous]

You guys are progressing through the game way too fast. Don't you have a job or something?

I took two weeks of PTO so that my wife & I could do basically nothing but play Sekiro all day every day. Sadly, I return to work tomorrow.

I think From should move their release schedule so that more games come out during the winter... Like Dark Souls, most of Sekiro is so dark it's basically impossible to play during daylight hours, which is until like 9pm at this latitude.

Blackout curtains! How have you gone this long without them?

[Necronopticous]

Kill ingeniously.

[Blinge]

boss name spoilu

[Necronopticous]

Oh it’s just a miniboss don’t worry! Just one of those purple assholes.

[Sumez]

The video itself slightly spoils some late-game events though Fortunately I've already been there.

[Durandal]

Spoiler

That shortcut.. from the castle to the dilapidated temple.. just no.
How even. That would have to be a loooong interconnected series of tunnels. Couldn't Kuro have just gone down it at any point? ffffuuuu

When I first came across that by accident I was like THAAAAAT EXPLAAAAAAINS EVERYTHING when considering how

Spoiler

Emma can move between the Temple and Castle top so quickly

[Sumez]

Kill ingeniously.

Ok just checked out the video, and damn... why didn't I think of using the puppet skill?? That's obviously what the game wants you to do, even.
Could have made the fight so much easier if I wasn't trying to take them both on at the same time. In general I'm not a fan of when this game tries to mix two enemies in the same boss fight.

I'm thinking specifically of those two red eyed bastards that have showed up in the abandoned dungeon after proceeding with the NPC's questline down there.

[Sumez]

Let's not feel bad about sucking terribly at Sekiro.
As a counter-movement to all of Necro's smart-ass videos, here's my own super scrubby Monk kill, spending 7 minutes slowly stabbing away at her vitality...

Spoiler

ie. first fight against the Corrupted Monk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLZ6BJQFF0s

It's probably not advised to waste divine confetti on this fight, but I just really wanted it over with.

[Necronopticous]

No shame in that win! Solid victory. Cool to see you using that Whirlwind Slash—I feel that combat arts are not really getting a lot of love.

[Blinge]

Flowing water poetry cut dance
or whatever it's called, the skill you can buy off pothead i think.
That's an awesome combat art, it's been my bread and butter for basically the whole game so far.

I'm just making inroads into the sunken valley atm, past the gunfort, into the goo. Haven't played today which makes it the first such day since it came out haha.

[Sumez]

Ugh. So apparently there's one specific "bossfight" after which things change around a lot and a few of the bosses I'd been postponing for a while just aren't available anymore. I don't know if I should be happy or annoyed about that.
I'm actually a little surprised at From making this specific move.

Spoiler

seems like a cheap way to pad out the game for the endgame

[Illyrian]

So I am at the final boss now.

Spoiler

Isshin, the Sword Saint

Oh boy, does it make every other boss in the game look like a total wuss. Going to take a while

I also thought that:

Spoiler

The Divine Dragon boss fight, while very cool was disappointing as it is over so quickly. Looks totally amazing though, has a cool soundtrack but is really brief, which is a shame.

[Necronopticous]

Oh boy, does it make every other boss in the game look like a total wuss.

Yeah. It is actually insane. It’s the rare case where the final boss is actually probably just the hardest thing in the game. A true test.

Earlier tonight I beat a boss who really had me stuck on my no upgrade/no tool run and have now found myself in the final area of the game. I might actually beat this!

[Sumez]

So to those of you guys who have already beaten the game, or at leas reached the final boss...

I'm at a point now where I'm getting a strong feeling that the moment

Spoiler

I walk through the passage that ended the tutorial segment

, I will be at a point of no return.
Is that a safe assemption? Because I still have a ton of unfinished business, and I kind of want to postpone most of it as much as possible.

[Illyrian]

So to those of you guys who have already beaten the game, or at leas reached the final boss...

I'm at a point now where I'm getting a strong feeling that the moment

Spoiler

I walk through the passage that ended the tutorial segment

, I will be at a point of no return.
Is that a safe assemption? Because I still have a ton of unfinished business, and I kind of want to postpone most of it as much as possible.

If you have been sent to that place by emma, then that is going to the final boss.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Starting a Bloodborne run. Is there a general consensus about this game here?

[Sumez]

It's like Dark Souls but without blocking, it's fun. Expect good times.

[Necronopticous]

So to those of you guys who have already beaten the game, or at leas reached the final boss...

I'm at a point now where I'm getting a strong feeling that the moment

Spoiler

I walk through the passage that ended the tutorial segment

, I will be at a point of no return.
Is that a safe assemption? Because I still have a ton of unfinished business, and I kind of want to postpone most of it as much as possible.

It is the final boss, but not a point of no return. Even after you beat the final boss you are allowed to stay in NG until you choose to move to NG+ from a sculptor’s idol option.

[Necronopticous]

Starting a Bloodborne run. Is there a general consensus about this game here?

A lot of people consider it to be Miyazaki’s magnum opus. Phenomenal game.

[Sumez]

It is the final boss, but not a point of no return. Even after you beat the final boss you are allowed to stay in NG until you choose to move to NG+ from a sculptor’s idol option.

Ok, that's a very important detail! Thanks.

Very "un-From", but in this case it's very welcome! Are there any things I can do now, but not after I beat the final boss?

[Necronopticous]

Very "un-From", but in this case it's very welcome! Are there any things I can do now, but not after I beat the final boss?

I don’t believe so but I’m actually not quite that familiar with the game to be able to say with 100% certainty yet.

[Blinge]

Very "un-From", but in this case it's very welcome!

DS2 did it also

[Necronopticous]

DS2 did it also

There is quite a bit of Dark Souls 2 DNA in Sekiro, actually! The healing system, for example, down to Pebbles & Rice as this game's version of lifegems to supplement the slower acquisition of "Estus" throughout the game.