Probably the hardest fight of the game for me.
It's hard because it just requires you be dialed in for 4 health bars. I think I managed to see stage 4 within 10 fights or so, and get there pretty regularly. But sometimes I'd just completely flub even Phase 1. The AI for this fight is pretty savage. It's like it knows when it has you on the ropes and just pressures you relentlessly. All the best runs I had were where I just attacked every opportunity, stuck to them like glue, and pulled off about 80% of deflects, direct counters or jump dodges. Phase 1 and 2 are actually pretty easy when you get down to it. It's just straight sword play, very few fancy moves or combos. Phase 3 and 4 is where the combos start getting really, really long. Multiple times doing the jump on the head trick to dodge big sweep attacks, it'd fuck up for some reason. I'd jump over them, I'd jump around them, I'd skip off their head without landing the counter, and right in to the sweep attack.
So yeah. Relentless, unending pressure, and as soon as your rhythm gets broken, you can be in serious trouble because the AI will turn right around and pressure the fuck out of you. Once you're outside of like 3 Sekrio Distance Units, the AI starts using its more aggressive moves. Phase 3 and 4 ultimately aren't too bad as long as you stay right on top of his ass and keep attacking to interrupt or delay all his fruity moves. As soon as you stop pressuring, they start coming out in droves.
Also the deflecting on this one....yeesh. Feels like the only way to win because regular blocking simply won't cut it for staying alive under those crazy combos, and deflects + forcing constant blocks on the boss is the only way to really break down their posture, unless the AI is being super generous with the Mikiri counterable moves. Which in Phase 3 and 4 usually come at the tail end of a whole bunch of other bullshit.
I think I had the fight in my head after 20 or so deaths. But it took me another 20 to really execute the way I needed to.
I didn't end up using any tools for this at all. Not even shurikens. There just didn't feel like there was time for any of it, the AI just wouldn't let up and certainly wasn't going to stand around waiting for me to charge shit up or do combos. I got some Sabimaru action in there but ultimately not enough that it made a difference.
Anyways, great fight. It really pushed the edges of your skills and asked you to keep it up for a long time. For the kind of game Sekiro is, it felt like a grand send off.
Man, what a meal of a game. I'm stuffed. Maybe it's not as vast or as deep mechanically or in terms of content like Dark Souls, but for a SP action game it was more than I could have asked for. Great setting and level design, variety in play styles (sort of), meaty engaging combat where I couldn't wait to see what new enemy or boss I had to take on, epic and cinematic fights against badass creatures and opponents, enough mechanics and RPG-ness to satisfy without bogging things down. Plenty of exploration, discovery and mystery to keep you guessing and checking and revisiting. All wrapped up in From Soft's kind of signature vision of difficulty and challenge.
While I love the world and setting and the delivery of those things, I can't really say I was a fan of the story. In some ways it was cool and I appreciate Japanese culture and myth to a degree, but it felt a little out there at times and meandering despite being a more straightforward story than "Seek Souls", etc....In some ways I think straight narratives are one of From Soft's weaknesses. Their characters say less than more and it's a very effective technique for some of their stuff. Other times it's a little too airy and distant though. The story of Sekiro did its job in supporting the game and the world, but I won't be watching any lore videos on it like I was with Dark Souls. It's just honestly not as interesting to me. Like, Buddhist temples full of corrupted monks and a palace of half human immortal nobles? Cool! Starchy Japanese fuedal drama mixed in with mythological power and immortality and parasites....maybe not so much.
Taken as a whole, I don't know if it's my favorite recent From Soft game. That first Dark Souls experience is hard to top. But in terms of my engagement with the combat, it blows Dark Souls out of the water. Sekiro manages to feel constrictive where Dark Souls felt open, and flexible where Dark Souls felt rigid. If that makes any sense. Combat in Sekiro wants to be played a certain way, highly aggressive with on point timing. You can get away with not doing that but you will struggle. Versus Dark Souls which basically said "here's this kind of challenge, how you go about beating it is up to you and your tastes." But where Dark Souls would be like "haha I'm going to drop your slow ass in a small room with a bunch of enemies, have fun panic rolling", Sekiro gives you the speed and mobility and usually the space, then asks you to do the most with those things that you can.
I think it's a harder game than the Soulsborne series because everything happens faster and demands active engagement for the best results. You can rarely wait guys out. You can rarely just avoid until you get a safe moment. You have to take risks and bank on your reflexes if you don't want every enemy to be a life or death struggle. Once you realize these things you start to think "maybe it's not so hard after all", until you find that enemy that you struggle to deflect consistently, or whose attacks you just don't understand. And when you finally get everything the game could throw at you, then it goes "Ok, bring it all together and do it consistently." It asks more of the player in combat than Dark Souls ever has, while streamlining all the other experiences so they ask less. Less farming, less understanding, less traveling....and for the kind of game Sekiro is, that all works.
Only question I have now is...what will From Soft do next? I imagine some DLCs aren't out of the question for Sekiro (like, this is the first time I've actively wanted some DLC skins. So many cool looking dudes in Sekiro and the main character goes on looking like a homeless Japanese man that just rolled out of your fireplace.) It's weird to already be wanting another game from them where I went a long time enjoying Dark Souls games without feeling the need for another. And as I clearly said above, Sekiro felt like a meal of a game. But it feels like a stepping stone to something else for them. I sort of wonder if the whole:
Isn't some kind of oblique reference to the Soulsborne series, that they're really truly getting away from it and Sekiro is the first sign of that. But who knows. I'd be tickled pink to get another big Dark Souls game with the combat and action sensibilities of Sekiro blended in to make it more exciting and slightly less cludgy. I watch a lot of Dark Souls PvP and feel like players have gone as far as they can with that design. Would be great to see this kind of amazing, meaty, visceral dueling action in another Soulsborne game.
Anyways....From Soft does it again in my book. Christ, between Tenchu, Armored Core, Kingsfield, Dark Souls, Bloodborne and now Sekiro....I don't think there's a game they've made that I played that I didn't love. Sekiro is a good reminder that SP games rule too when they're done well and thoughtfully. It's a sexy as hell Tenchu for the modern age, and I more than got my money's worth out of it. Actually looking forward to another playthrough soon. (After I gorge on the wiki.)
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Topic: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - With mods you can now Coop and PvP! (Read 17657 times)