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[Jopax]

Yeah I figured out the armored dude after a few tries, a neat idea, and the fight really tests your deflect game.

Still haven't figured ashina out tho, firecrackers give one attack, maybe two if you're really fast, but they're hard to deploy and any windows you might have for them you could've just attacked yourself. And I feel the mikiri is a trap in this case, because as you've said you need to have perfect deflects afterwards or you get smacked anyways, my other problem is that it's sometimes wonky in what will register as a counter and what won't so a good number of times I'd desperately hit that dodge to counter but he'd just ignore that because of wierd positioning and take half or more of my hp away :V

[nenjin]

Huh. I think I totally missed Seven Spears.

Really liking that about this game. When you started it felt like a really linear affair. But there's tons of stuff I've only found after a 2nd and 3rd pass at an area. I didn't expect the game to have such exploration value but it really does.

[Cthulhu]

 

Yeah I figured out the armored dude after a few tries, a neat idea, and the fight really tests your deflect game.

Still haven't figured ashina out tho, firecrackers give one attack, maybe two if you're really fast, but they're hard to deploy and any windows you might have for them you could've just attacked yourself. And I feel the mikiri is a trap in this case, because as you've said you need to have perfect deflects afterwards or you get smacked anyways, my other problem is that it's sometimes wonky in what will register as a counter and what won't so a good number of times I'd desperately hit that dodge to counter but he'd just ignore that because of wierd positioning and take half or more of my hp away :V

Youre gonna need to learn perfect deflects anyway.  Later bosses will be impossible if you cant deflect 90% of their attacks or better

[Vibe]

Yeah I figured out the armored dude after a few tries, a neat idea, and the fight really tests your deflect game.

Still haven't figured ashina out tho, firecrackers give one attack, maybe two if you're really fast, but they're hard to deploy and any windows you might have for them you could've just attacked yourself. And I feel the mikiri is a trap in this case, because as you've said you need to have perfect deflects afterwards or you get smacked anyways, my other problem is that it's sometimes wonky in what will register as a counter and what won't so a good number of times I'd desperately hit that dodge to counter but he'd just ignore that because of wierd positioning and take half or more of my hp away :V

I find it interesting reading people struggling with Seven Spears when it was a kill on 2nd try for me, don't misinterpret that as a brag though - I have failed many, many times on Lady Butterfly. But Lady Butterfly beat out the Dark Souls "dodge everything" habit out of me and taught me this game is primarily about parrying/countering. In fact, for most bosses you don't even have to move around much apart from chasing them down. It's a rhythm game, get to know their attack patterns and timing and parry the hell out of them, the parry window is more generous than you'd think. I also want to add that at least for me it is way more fun parrying boss' attack strings (and looks awesome) than it is running around in circles for much longer looking for one opening that appears once in a blue moon.

So I just want to reiterate what the other guy also said, try to learn to parry. It is definitely how the game is meant to be played originally and will make some bosses later on easier.

[ukulele]

Regarding learning parry or sticking to the old dark souls ways, i started the game and advanced dodging almost everything, until lady butterfly, then slowly my playstile began to change to what (i think) its suposed to be, she was dead on the third try once i switched to agresive mode. 
On the other hand genichiro was the hardest boss so far IMO, i felt his pattern was quite easy but maybe the lenght of the fight got the best of me. 
I feel this is a huge improvement to the DS formula to be honest, combat feels super rewarding, im always a sucker for stealth and the exploration is great too.

[Draignean]

Oh Jesus christ, my hands are shaking, my heart is beating, but I'm STILL GETTING HEAD(less) SHOTS!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

So, about the Ape. Apparently, if you do the main quests in the wrong order, you have to fight his white ass twice. And the second time he gets a friend. I killed him, went down to the next quest location feeling like a baller, and then immediately fucking hard noped my way out of the menus when I saw I had to fight him AGAIN. Two days later I come back, grit my teeth, and fight him again.

Kill them both on my first try.

 Had to use a revive when his buddy bodied me into a corner after I sprinted the wrong way to avoid the scream, but it went otherwise smoothly.

I HIGHLY recommended the spear for fighting the ape. When he falls down onto his belly in his headless form, you can send it down his stump and then retract to pull the centipede out and attack it directly for massive vitality and stamina damage.

Also, I don't know what it was, but that boss freaks me out more than any enemy in Souls or Bloodborne.

[nenjin]

Three big points to me that make combat seem to pop much more:

-The sound engineering is, compared to Dark Souls, way better. The deflections have weight and therefore are distinct from blocks just on the sounds alone. But all the other sound are just richer and deeper than a lot of Dark Souls SFX.

-There's a graphical fidelity to things in Sekiro that you only really saw in environments and gear in Dark Souls. Animations are generally much better, most importantly the guy you'll be staring at the whole game, their animations match the awesomeness that before was just lavished specific enemies in Dark Souls. Effects in this game, the ones that it has, actually look like AAA visual effects versus what has always seemed a little quaint and amateurish in Dark Souls, even Dark Souls 3.

-Everything is just faster. Of course the rapid deflects and your own attacks, but also your dodge animation. The way you snap in to Deathblows right after a deflect instead of Dark Soul's slowly drawn out synch kills. The rate of your R1s in Sekiro is he closest thing to the pace of Dark Souls, which you immediately out pace as your block or dodge interrupt, use a combat art, use a tool, or get in to deflect, which breaks you out of your slow R1 combo. Again, it's like instead of reserving all the crazy cool shit for their enemies, in Sekiro they give you the kind of speed and badassery you wished you'd have in Dark Souls, but instead settled for precision and judgment and timing.

Sekiro has kind of reminded me that loving Dark Souls so much basically made me accept a lot of its faults, and even begin to sing their praises in some ways. Like accepting the plodding, methodical and largely stodgy combat. Sekiro feels more dynamic and action-y in the way you expect modern AAA games to be....but brings From Soft's brand of storytelling and art and thoughtfulness around the action. It's a more mainstream-feeling game where I don't feel like anything has really be lost over what they've done before. It's not so fundamentally different from Dark Souls that you can't immediately recognize familiar and comforting parallels. But it's different enough to feel fresh and worth exploring like you're a newb all over again in their fucked up worlds.

[Egan_BW]

Feels like Activision actually did a good job of making things a little more accessible and making sure that mechanics are actually, like, explained to the player while not getting in the way of From's signature insanity.

At least, assuming that Activision did some of that work. That seems to be the case, but maybe From just suddenly became good at tutorials.

[Jopax]

The loading screen tutorials do get a bit redundant since they keep repeating the stuff from the actual tutorial. That said, the actual tutorial is suprisingly good at teaching the core basics.

Anyways, I think I'm done with the Senpou temple? For now atleast, there is that one door that opens up from the other side but I have no idea how to get to the other side, my guess is from another zone altogether? The big centipede was a fun fight too, almost killed him on my first try, I just somehow fumbled the deathblow prompt and he went into his flurry before I could realise he wasn't actually dying xD

Also managed to kill Seven Spears, tho I'm not sure if he really clicked or I just lucked out with his moveset the last time :V

Also killed the general dude on the castle steps, that one was fairly standard, refreshingly so even, just a straight up fight without any gimmickry. I'm also guessing that both castle entrances are a later thing, since there doesn't seem to be any other way inside from what I've seen and explored.

So it seems the only way forward for me is either the valley sniper dude or the depths sniper dude.

[Egan_BW]

The loading screen tutorials do get a bit redundant since they keep repeating the stuff from the actual tutorial. That said, the actual tutorial is suprisingly good at teaching the core basics.

Anyways, I think I'm done with the Senpou temple? For now atleast, there is that one door that opens up from the other side but I have no idea how to get to the other side, my guess is from another zone altogether? The big centipede was a fun fight too, almost killed him on my first try, I just somehow fumbled the deathblow prompt and he went into his flurry before I could realise he wasn't actually dying xD

Also managed to kill Seven Spears, tho I'm not sure if he really clicked or I just lucked out with his moveset the last time :V

Also killed the general dude on the castle steps, that one was fairly standard, refreshingly so even, just a straight up fight without any gimmickry. I'm also guessing that both castle entrances are a later thing, since there doesn't seem to be any other way inside from what I've seen and explored.

So it seems the only way forward for me is either the valley sniper dude or the depths sniper dude.

Spoiler: open or do not open spoiler at own discretion (click to show/hide)

There's a window into the castle. Just saying so that you don't end up searching for a way to open the front door forever.
There could be other ways in that I haven't found, but the roofs are certainly the only way I've seen.

[Jopax]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Oh wow, I have no idea how I managed to miss that on my first go around the rooftops. I think it was that kamikaze nightjar bastard that scared the shit out of me before I noticed it properly XD

That said tho, didn't get very far in the castle either, the elite bastard just double tapped my ass, not sure if that shit is even deflectable or is it just a dodge only type of deal.

[nenjin]

Spoiler: Elite Samurai? (click to show/hide)

If you're talking about the guy that only iajitsu strikes you, yes, it's deflectable. Even with no skills unlocked around posture, it's like 3 sets of double deflects and he'll be posture broken.

[Egan_BW]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Piecewise told me that he beat the elite first try just by walking up to the guy and deflecting all his shit. For those of us without absurd luck and/or godlike deflection game, dodge attacks are our friend.

[nenjin]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I beat him on my 2nd try or 3rd try, I think. At first I tried all the normal stuff but it seemed like he'd block or deflect every attack, and he shut me down pretty quickly. But I had just done Centipede Giraffe previoiusly and so was like...."Ok, rather than a flurry of attacks, it's just two quick ones and THAT'S IT." Bingo bango, wrecked this shit. I coulda sworn that even dodge counters had little success against him.

[Cthulhu]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

the ashina elite is also really weak to poison, if you rush in and spam sabimaru he'll take a shitload of damage even blocking the attacks

Spoiler: final boss spoiler (click to show/hide)

The final boss has multiple draw attacks and if youre close when he sheaths you can immediately run past him so he misses and you can counter attack.  That might also work on ashina elite