Topic: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (PS4)

Anyone that has put some time into this game, can you let me know the difficulty. I am a souls fan, but not a consistent "get good" player. I had the comfort of knowing I could just get stronger and eventually beat an area, not just by skill alone. I.e. I'm bad at parrying. Would this game be worth it for me or would it just be too frustrating.

@Elodin I'll let you know for defo later, but some reviews have mentioned it is easier than previous games but some say it is more difficult. 🤔

Suppose it depends on the individual, I found parrying difficult and only got to grips with it when playing Dark Souls Remastered.

@kyleforrester87 Running around in cardboard boxes with half-naked ladies? Count me in!

@Octane I hope he doesn't mean 3 hour cut scenes and a plot that makes no sense!

From have upgraded! They actually have lip syncing!

@JohnnyShoulder thank you, I look forward to hearing what you think. I too saw both easier and harder claims. I was always better at dodging then parry timing. This game does look great though.

@Elodin It’s pretty hard so far. I’m still getting used to it and getting the first upgrades, but so far it’s almost or as hard as Bloodborne. Dodging is also a second to parrying in this game. You can block so many hits in addition to deflecting, but trying to dodge like it’s Bloodborne has messed me up.

@Elodin The combat is more closer to Bloodborne than the Dark Souls as you have no shield. However, it does feel a bit slower than Bloodborne. I think parrying (or deflecting as it is called in Sekiro) was always regarded as almost an advanced technique in the Dark Souls games, and you didn't really need to use it to overcome them. In Sekiro it is one of the main moves you have, so it feels a bit easier to pull off than in the Dark Souls games. To pull off a Deathblow you still have to get the timing tight, but it does feel more achievable from what I have played with the the more basic enemies I have faced so far.

EDIT: Plus this feels more user friendly and accessible than previous games. The prologue section is pretty much a tutorial and then there is a bloke who you can train against in the temple afterwards.

The grappling hook is soooo good to use! Opens up a lot more options to you as well.

@JohnnyShoulder @Jaz007 Thank you both for the early review. I think I will have to pick it up. Fromsoftware has always been great so your advice tipped me over to a purchase.

@Elodin No worries, hope you enjoy it! Just be prepared to unlearn most of your bad habits from the Souls games. Like most enemies if you back off em they will regain their Posture, meaning that it will be harder for you to whittle them down for a critical strike later on.

Sekiro has proved a hit on Steam and Twitch. With over 108,000 peak concurrent players on launch day, Sekiro is the biggest new game launch on Steam this year, and the third biggest Steam launch of a Japanese game ever, behind Monster Hunter World and Dark Souls 3. On Twitch, more people are watching Sekiro than Fortnite right now.

The normal enemies in Sekiro I'm fine with, but man mini bosses seem to be more common in this game! In typical From fashion, it feels so good when a tough one goes down!

I reccomend getting some new skill moves as they come in well handy. Especially the counter move for thrusting moves, and it looks cool too.

Well I just played a bit past the first mini boss and it is tough. Died a fair bit, seemed to have given someone some sort of std or something.

I am struggling not to play this game like Bloodborne and my brain gets the whole posture thing but in the heat of combat it seems to go right out the window. This is all my problem, I need to just play and play and play.

One question, when enemies respawn because you have healed at a bonfire/lamp/blue thing, is it ok to skip them and jog on past to get to the next set of enemies?

@Rudy_Manchego Train with the bloke at the temple. I keep going back to him train as he will sometimes have new moves to practice with.

And yes it is a viable tactic to just run past the enemies, I used to do it all the time in the Soulsborne games. Just be careful as if you get spotted they will follow you, and the last thing you need is a bunch of standard enemies after you when fighting a boss.

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah I've been back after I unlocked some schemes and I can kick his backside but I think that is because I am good at learning his moveset.

I think I will approach this as I did bloodborne. Defeat all enemies, skill up, find all items then scramble past enemies to get to the boss (without being spotted).

I fear I may get obsessed with this game...

@Rudy_Manchego Unless I'm farming so that I can spend skill points that's what I generally do, although you can't do that with mini bosses I've faced so far as there are a bunch of standard enemies around em.

Farming is less useful in this game as you can only spend the xp you gain from defeating enemies on new skill moves, which are handy but you still need skill to use em. So no levelling up 10 levels and piling it into strength so you are OP. The only way to level up your health and attack power is use the beads you from defeating bosses, and you need 4 of them. There are a few that work in the background like the one that gives some heath back when you perform a death blow.

So after being left a bit frustrated as I was stuck on two mini bosses and a main boss last night, i finally defeated two of them. Huzzah! I think the combat may have clicked for me. It can be pretty brutal at times, with some of the bosses being so quick they will punish you if you make a small mistake.

One hand you need to know when to be super aggressive but on the other you got to know when to not get too greedy with your hits and either back out or go on the defensive. Yes it can be very frustrating and sometimes you think there is no way to beat the feckers. But when you do, the adrenaline rush and satisfaction you get is almost unrivalled.

I’m so bad at this game. I’m half way through the burning estate but can’t beat the Shinobi hunter or that drunken guy. The Shinobi hunter in particular absolutely mauls me. He comes at you fast from a huge distance, sticks you like a pig and takes out 90% of your vitality in one move.

I beat the big ogre mini boss after about 15 attempts, then got stomped by a dude with a big sword in the next section. It’s nuts when you have more than 2 people on you, it all gets a bit Benny Hill actually.

Any tips? I guess I just gotta.. git gud?

@kyleforrester87 Yeah git gud scrub.

If you are struggling with the shinobi Hunter with the spear, just leave him till a bit later, but you will need to purchase the Mirki Counter from the skills menu. It basically lets you stamp on the spear and stab them in the head. I've not beaten him yet but he is next on my hit list.

For the masked dude after the ogre you are best clearing out the enemies around him. But you are better off doing that from the next idol save point, as most of the enemies will have your back to you making them easier to kill. Especially that annoying dude on the roof that bangs the drum, take him out as ones as.

Once all the enemies are gone you can take on the mini boss. He is tough as he is so fast and difficult to read his moves. But you can sneak up behind him and perform a Deathblow to get rid off one of his health bars. You can try to jump over his sweep move (when the red sign appears) and kick him in the face to do some beefy damage, but it quite tricky to read. I mostly deflected his standard moved and hit him whenever I could a couple of times and move out the way quickly when he does on of his killer moves. If you have the axe for your arm that will help as it staggers him briefly allowing you get some more hits in. When I got his health to about half down I went super aggressive using the axe and standard moves, but always deflecting his standard moves.
Edit: make sure you keep an eye on your health and back out to heal up if required.

Or you just go to the next area if you get sick of facing him and come back to him later. You do not need to kill him to progress.

@JohnnyShoulder I have Mirki counter, it’s difficult to judge when to use it as the Shinobi Hunter closes in so fast and causes so much damage. Yeah, I have side lined him for now. I’ll probably keep going past the ogre, thanks for the tip regarding the next shrine I’ll run through to that and go back on myself. It’s a bugger slowly stealth killing all his cronies just to get owned by him in seconds 😂

@kyleforrester87 I was the same with the masked dude, he kept destroying me, along with the next boss and the shinobi hunter. So I was stuck on 3 bosses! I watched a couple of YouTube vids which helped. I think I was trying to counter his killer moves, whilst that is possible it is quite tricky as he is so fast. When I saw the vid they just backed away when he did this which I found much easier. But think the combat clicked for me then as I defeated the next boss after a couple of goes.

And yeah the Mikiri counter works well on the standard enemies, but not so much for the Shinobi hunter.

@Rudy_Manchego You commented on the review page that you've come up across a a mini boss you can't get passed. Give us a shout if that is still still the case, I might be able to help.

I wish I could jump in and actually assist you guys in the game. Something that is missing from the SoulsBorne games, even if you played offline you could still call upon the help of a npc or two sometimes. The bosses seem just as difficult so would have been good to help others out. I know some didn't like being invaded, but I didn't mind it too much.