Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

[Goemon]

I’m up to the last boss on NG+
I think getting all skills is going to be a BIG grind. I’ve still got 7 more skills left to buy and some quick maths guesstimations puts me at 9.5 hours of my local grind point to get everything.

XP will likely go up again starting NG+2 but even then, doubling the XP you get will put you at 5 hours to grind things out. Currently beating a boss nets you about a third to a half of one bar

Other thing that slightly concerns me is that you continue to get memories to up your attack power in NG+, so skipping optional bosses will only make you weaker against the bosses you do have to fight.

Basically I think the Platinum is going to be tough.

[fuse]

I've really struggled to find time for this but the last couple of days I'm doing a little better. I've hit a few brick walls head-on, but I am at least now making progress again after beating a few of the generals causing me a headache. I feel like there's a lot of nuance / technique that I'm missing with them though, as some (see: the Drunkard) I beat in an incredibly scrappy way, whereas others I feel like once I pick up on one particular thing (see: grappling the first 'real' boss) I'm able to have a relatively straightforward, almost clean fight. The next boss I'm fighting is definitely in the former camp; right now it's messy as all hell and I'm not sure what I'm doing so fundamentally wrong.

[Goemon]

Think part of the reason is that the mini boss types are surrounded by standard enemies, so you spend time taking them out first. Then for the main guy and you’re so nervous about having to do everything again if you die that you panic and mash far more frequently.

I’m not sure why they did this for so many early mini bosses, it’s a real baptism of fire.

[Lebowski]

I can barely beat Genichiro today for some reason. I’ve been playing for two hours and beaten him once. I’ve lost all motivation to continue with it. Sad really, but the ramp up in difficulty is just too much for me to care about.

I just got to him on Friday counter counter counter punish was the way i got him in the end, he kicked my Arse the first few times i fought him but i found that if you stay close every time he goes to grab his bow is pretty much a free hit, as are all his unblockable attacks.

I really thought i'd won the first time i was fighting him

->Open Spoiler<-

for him to then get a third health bar and start hitting you with lighting that requires you to learn a completely new mechanic felt super cheap the first time i got to it

I've seen a fair few complaints about the dragon rot system and id have to admit that with a limited supply of scales it's not a great system when put with a game that requires you to experiment and learn bosses and pretty much wants you to die multiple times before getting the hang of encounters.

[MrKirov]

Played this on the weekend more. This last boss can **** off. Really? 4 phases over two fights? It’s just too exhausting when it requires practical perfection.

Can get to the third phase somewhat regularly, but then he’s a dick, and I have no more healing. Having to keep getting through the early phases to learn the patterns of the next phase is boring, especially having to do the easy first phase all the time. Plus cutscenes and loading.

[J0e Musashi]

I just got to him on Friday counter counter counter punish was the way i got him in the end, he kicked my Arse the first few times i fought him but i found that if you stay close every time he goes to grab his bow is pretty much a free hit, as are all his unblockable attacks.

I really thought i'd won the first time i was fighting him

->Open Spoiler<-

for him to then get a third health bar and start hitting you with lighting that requires you to learn a completely new mechanic felt super cheap the first time i got to it

I've seen a fair few complaints about the dragon rot system and id have to admit that with a limited supply of scales it's not a great system when put with a game that requires you to experiment and learn bosses and pretty much wants you to die multiple times before getting the hang of encounters.

I beat him on my first attempt after restarting.

The skill tree is quite important too. You can really put yourself in a bad position if you don’t get certain skills.

[bcass]

What was your atk power Joe? I didn't farm any extra atk power on my NG play through, and it seemed like the amount of posture damage I dealt to Sword Saint was no greater than what I've seen speedrunners deal to him, and they don't kill all bosses like I did beforehand, so they have less atk power. Overall, I still think Bloodborne is their magnum opus. I still class that game as the best game ever made. Sekiro is a lot of fun though, and a huge challenge. I'll definitely do another couple of NG cycles. As a reward for completion, I would have liked the option to replay any boss from a menu, with selectable vitality and atk power. Corresponding leaderboards with best times wouldn't have gone amiss either.

One of my biggest disappointments is the soundtrack. It's perfectly functional, but up to this point I regarded Yuka Kitamura as one of the best VGM composers out there. Her contributions to the Bloodborne and DS3 soundtracks are outstanding. I think the issue is that I just don't find oriental music anywhere near as interesting as Western orchestral music. The frequently occuring "combat" music that kicks-in during non-boss encounters is way too repetitive too. I ended up turning the music off.

Overall, a solid 9 from me. Not quite a masterpiece, but definitely a necessary and welcome change of direction from the studio, who I still regard as being the best games developer of all time. Bloodborne and DS3 were released exactly a year apart from each other, so I recon we will see something new from the studio in another 12 months time.

[Lebowski]

I beat him on my first attempt after restarting.

The skill tree is quite important too. You can really put yourself in a bad position if you don’t get certain skills.

I'm about half way through the game and feel like some serious farming is required if i want to fill out the skill tree before the game's end. I've found Sign posting is big issue at present, there are so many ways to go and so many dead ends that its really easy to miss stuff or not find that a path isn't a dead end, I've also died a few times to bosses that i can encounter but shouldn't be tackling yet.

It's also easy to **** up parts of the npc quests too, take the crying large monk on the mountain I've brought both his flowers back to him but didn't tell him to move on after giving him the first, he now says the same bit of dialogue over and over.

[J0e Musashi]

I'm about half way through the game and feel like some serious farming is required if i want to fill out the skill tree before the game's end. I've found Sign posting is big issue at present, there are so many ways to go and so many dead ends that its really easy to miss stuff or not find that a path isn't a dead end, I've also died a few times to bosses that i can encounter but shouldn't be tackling yet.

It's also easy to **** up parts of the npc quests too, take the crying large monk on the mountain I've brought both his flowers back to him but didn't tell him to move on after giving him the first, he now says the same bit of dialogue over and over.

You can only use one pinwheel per play through. White is the best choice for your first time.

It’s easy enough to get lost, but if you end up against a boss that you simply cannot beat; then head in a different direction. You always end up on the right path. Basically stay away from any headless as a general rule.

[chopemon]

I'm about half way through the game and feel like some serious farming is required if i want to fill out the skill tree before the game's end. I've found Sign posting is big issue at present, there are so many ways to go and so many dead ends that its really easy to miss stuff or not find that a path isn't a dead end, I've also died a few times to bosses that i can encounter but shouldn't be tackling yet.

It's also easy to **** up parts of the npc quests too, take the crying large monk on the mountain I've brought both his flowers back to him but didn't tell him to move on after giving him the first, he now says the same bit of dialogue over and over.

I think they get stuck repeating dialogue if they have the dragonrot. I couldn't progress an NPC quest until I healed dragonrot and then he stopped his repeating dialogue and got on with it.

[Lebowski]

I think they get stuck repeating dialogue if they have the dragonrot. I couldn't progress an NPC quest until I healed dragonrot and then he stopped his repeating dialogue and got on with it.

hes not coiffing i needed an item to advance him which i hadn't picked up yet silly me

[Goemon]

I'm about half way through the game and feel like some serious farming is required if i want to fill out the skill tree before the game's end. I've found Sign posting is big issue at present, there are so many ways to go and so many dead ends that its really easy to miss stuff or not find that a path isn't a dead end, I've also died a few times to bosses that i can encounter but shouldn't be tackling yet.

It's also easy to **** up parts of the npc quests too, take the crying large monk on the mountain I've brought both his flowers back to him but didn't tell him to move on after giving him the first, he now says the same bit of dialogue over and over.

I can tell you right now, I’m on NG+3 and I was still grinding skills this morning.
You get to the point where it’s 80,000 xp for 1 level.

[fuse]

Had a good 4 hours on this last night and made a tonne of progress - something like 5 or 6 bosses downed, some of which I was expecting (based on what I've read here and elsewhere) to be much more significant roadblocks. That's good! That's also not to say that some of those hadn't been utterly stomping me for hours previously, before getting an upgrade or two.

What I'm now starting to worry about are the questlines and NPCs. I've read absolutely nothing about any of these things, most characters are now blighted with dragonrot, and I'm not sure when is a good time to look at healing folks (I've just horded the items for this so far), what I need to do to see as much content as possible, etc. If anyone has any reasonably spoiler-free tips to share that would be appreciated.

[Lebowski]

There are 17 healing tears you can get in the game so there should be more than enough to get you through all the NPC quest lines. I'm currently sat on a load and have a clean bill of health for my npcs for quite a bit, despite taking on a few bosses, its like somethings clicked and i'm dying a lot less on bosses so not falling foul of the dragon rot issues.

[fuse]

Didn't get to play much over the weekend, but I did have an incredibly representative experience of: finding a new boss, being incredibly surprised at getting the first deathblow... and then the second! First time, woo! But... that seemed too easy... so of course, here comes the cutscene, the actual second phase, and my entire ass getting handed to me.