Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (PS4, XBO, PC) - FromSoftware/Activision

Captain Kinopio wrote:The combat is just so frenetic and minibosses just absolutely cain you. The permanent mechanic for dying I already feel may have broken this playthrough a bit. It feels like the time the game gives you to react to a special attack is not enough and leads you to try and cheese the enemies that do them which defeats any sense of achievement on beating them.

The balance just feels off at the moment.

Permadeath? You mean for enemies right?

IAmTheSaladMan wrote:

Captain Kinopio wrote:The combat is just so frenetic and minibosses just absolutely cain you. The permanent mechanic for dying I already feel may have broken this playthrough a bit. It feels like the time the game gives you to react to a special attack is not enough and leads you to try and cheese the enemies that do them which defeats any sense of achievement on beating them.

The balance just feels off at the moment.

Permadeath? You mean for enemies right?

You can come back, but there must be a catch to it or die and lose half your loot.

Wonder why there aren’t any reviews for this yet?

Wedgie wrote:

IAmTheSaladMan wrote:

Captain Kinopio wrote:The combat is just so frenetic and minibosses just absolutely cain you. The permanent mechanic for dying I already feel may have broken this playthrough a bit. It feels like the time the game gives you to react to a special attack is not enough and leads you to try and cheese the enemies that do them which defeats any sense of achievement on beating them.

The balance just feels off at the moment.

Permadeath? You mean for enemies right?

You can come back, but there must be a catch to it or die and lose half your loot.

Phew! I don’t get on well with permadeath and that might have killed my interest in this.

Captain Kinopio wrote:The combat is just so frenetic and minibosses just absolutely cain you. The permanent mechanic for dying I already feel may have broken this playthrough a bit. It feels like the time the game gives you to react to a special attack is not enough and leads you to try and cheese the enemies that do them which defeats any sense of achievement on beating them.

The balance just feels off at the moment.

Yeah this is where I'm at as well. Combat is nothing special so far, just feels like you have to rely on a much more punishing version of Dark Souls parries (made worse by input lag) to do any actual meaningful damage if you don't want to waste time cheesing enemies and the faux-permadeath mechanic feel like it doesn't really fit this sort of game.

Feels like a huge step back from the Souls games and Bloodborne

IAmTheSaladMan wrote:

Captain Kinopio wrote:The combat is just so frenetic and minibosses just absolutely cain you. The permanent mechanic for dying I already feel may have broken this playthrough a bit. It feels like the time the game gives you to react to a special attack is not enough and leads you to try and cheese the enemies that do them which defeats any sense of achievement on beating them.

The balance just feels off at the moment.

Permadeath? You mean for enemies right?

There’s this thing called Dragon Rot.

Im not entirely sure what it does yet but I think it affects the way NPCs interact with you. You also lose half your stuff when die, but there’s a chance mechanic (it’s called Helping Hand or something) that will stop you from losing stuff, it works on a % basis. The more the Dragon Rot spreads i.e. the more you die, the lower the chance of HH stopping you losing your stuff. It’s a bit weird and as per From Software not very well explained.

It’s supposed to raise the stakes I guess but at the moment it’s compromising the combat system and making me more frustrated when I do die.

To balance out some of the complaints, I think the combat is on a really solid footing, when you’re going up against normal guys the fighting is great and satisfyingly punishing. The world has a weird storybook beauty to it which I’m liking more and more as I play. The grapple hook is brilliant and leads to some fantastic moments. Leaping of a roof and landing a death blow on an enemy below I don’t think will ever not be brilliant. So far the NPCs are great too, easily better than Souls 3 or Bloodbourne, though that might be a setting thing and my personal taste.

I don’t want to discourage anyone getting it, I can absolutely see where the 9s come from I just hope I can find a way to get it to more consistently feel like that.

So ......

I think in years to come this will be seen as a true masterpiece and challenge for expert gamers... For now though...

I'm not a souls expert. I almost finished the main game in DS3 but gave up at final boss. I did finish blood borne multiple time and put many hours into nioh on new game plus.

This is something else though.

In souls or nioh I can grind if I get stuck. Here the enemies are sparce so it's harder to grind. Every few deaths results in punishment. An actual punishment for players who are struggling. So it means if you're trying and trying to beat the stupid strawberry floating ogre boss then the game punishes you with each death.

I had to grind to unlock an ability to get health from a death blow. It took ages and if I had died I'd have lost my xp which I couldn't get back. Unlike normal souls game.

I've unlocked 4 arm attachments and they are enjoyable to use. The game is great but very brutal. Much like Bloodborne I want to keep playing but beyond a lot of attempts at grinding.... I don't know what else to do.

I guess the game is a true souls game as the get good is truly the only option here.

I'm gonna hop back into it now. Hopefully I'll get better but it's hard to recommend as a game right now as unless you're very good at games (especially souls games) this game will cut off your arm and slap you with it.

Captain Kinopio wrote:

IAmTheSaladMan wrote:

Captain Kinopio wrote:The combat is just so frenetic and minibosses just absolutely cain you. The permanent mechanic for dying I already feel may have broken this playthrough a bit. It feels like the time the game gives you to react to a special attack is not enough and leads you to try and cheese the enemies that do them which defeats any sense of achievement on beating them.

The balance just feels off at the moment.

Permadeath? You mean for enemies right?

There’s this thing called Dragon Rot.

Im not entirely sure what it does yet but I think it affects the way NPCs interact with you. You also lose half your stuff when die, but there’s a chance mechanic (it’s called Helping Hand or something) that will stop you from losing stuff, it works on a % basis. The more the Dragon Rot spreads i.e. the more you die, the lower the chance of HH stopping you losing your stuff. It’s a bit weird and as per From Software not very well explained.

It’s supposed to raise the stakes I guess but at the moment it’s compromising the combat system and making me more frustrated when I do die.

To balance out some of the complaints, I think the combat is on a really solid footing, when you’re going up against normal guys the fighting is great and satisfyingly punishing. The world has a weird storybook beauty to it which I’m liking more and more as I play. The grapple hook is brilliant and leads to some fantastic moments. Leaping of a roof and landing a death blow on an enemy below I don’t think will ever not be brilliant. So far the NPCs are great too, easily better than Souls 3 or Bloodbourne, though that might be a setting thing and my personal taste.

I don’t want to discourage anyone getting it, I can absolutely see where the 9s come from I just hope I can find a way to get it to more consistently feel like that.

Sounds a little similar to world tendency in Demon’s Souls where the more you die the harder the game gets, it’s not all bad as certain NPC quests only trigger under black world tendency ie you died a lot.

Beat the ogre boss by finding a little cheat

Godzilla wrote:Beat the ogre boss by finding a little cheat

Save the game just before it and then farm the rooster next on the need by roof top so you can use your flame attack max times.

Now go to the orge, kill the two guards and the one on the top left. Then run away. Back to the save point. Don't save. Head back away from the orge til the music changes. This means he is ignoring you and walking back up the hill. Head back in. Sneak up on him and stealth attack for one life point gone. Now use the flame tool. And batter him. Each time you have a chance use it once or twice to fry him. If he hits you run away and heal with the potion. Then keep going. Much easier fight when it's one life bar instead of two.

I knew you could get a stealth stab on him but not the rest. I used the flame arm thing and oil since they were really effective on him. The hotbox on that grab attack was an absolute nonsnese

I've now reached the first proper boss....

The fact that I keep coming back to it says it's a good game. And to be fair to it it does have a tutorial which is a massive leap forward for a From Software game.

Can't wait to defeat this guy as the game apparently opens up from then on.

What do you call the first proper boss?

Which section are you in?

Godzilla wrote:I've now reached the first proper boss....

The fact that I keep coming back to it says it's a good game. And to be fair to it it does have a tutorial which is a massive leap forward for a From Software game.

Can't wait to defeat this guy as the game apparently opens up from then on.

I think I'm at the exact same bit as you now. Got killed in two hits and turned it off

Mafro wrote:

Godzilla wrote:I've now reached the first proper boss....

The fact that I keep coming back to it says it's a good game. And to be fair to it it does have a tutorial which is a massive leap forward for a From Software game.

Can't wait to defeat this guy as the game apparently opens up from then on.

I think I'm at the exact same bit as you now. Got killed in two hits and turned it off

A lot of normal enemies will kill you in two hits.

I've gone through a couple of mini-bosses and arrived at my first boss fight. Don't think it's the same one as Mafro and Godzilla. It's a brilliant fight, bloody tough though and losing stuff when I die means I have to go and grind elsewhere to get money so I can buy necessary items to retry.

There have to be a bank somewhere you can put your money in, right?

Wedgie wrote:There have to be a bank somewhere you can put your money in, right?

No, but there's items similar to the soldier's souls in Dark Souls that give you money when you use them.

I'm at the ....



It's gonna be a long day...

That went well.....

Not really. Dead in 2 hits

I think there is a loaf of places I have yet to find in the bits I have unlocked so will grind a lot. And hopefully find something useful.

Captain Kinopio wrote:There’s this thing called Dragon Rot.

There's a way to get rid of that apparently that isn't too rationed.