Luke Stephens you said it's more like guitar hero and then give your explanation. I fail to see how it's any different than souls or bloodborne. If you want to put it in its simplest terms it comes down to doing defensive actions until there is an opening until you or the opponent die.
Actually Guardian Ape can be deflected and fought the same way than any other boss. The reason why people struggle is they are afraid to get in the mix and trade blows and deflects with a bigger monster.
@@swagwolfgang Yeah I heard you can cheese him with things like that, i’ll find out tomorrow when I start playing. Im excited but i’ll have to relearn how to git gud again which is good because i’ve gotten pretty good at dark souls and it loses it’s luster if it’s too easy.
In regard to 10:30, Isshin does not really fight like you (the player). Owl (especially Father) is a lot closer to using many the tools a player has available.
Owl is the one that fights most similarly to Wolf. He jumps off enemies while throwing shuriken, uses whirlwind slash (first combat art), mist raven, and mikiri counters.
I have to say that I very much prefer the "classic" review style in which you talk over selected gameplay material. It gets somewhat boring to just watch you talking to a camera. In that case a podcast would do as well. Otherwise the critique is as detailed and well-thought-out as always. I just hope the next ones will go back to actually showing what you are talking about. In fact if you'd simply put the gameplay on the TV as the main image the critique would instantly be much better.
Wanted to write the same, totally agree. The critique is great as always of course, but I love to see just the gameplay as he talks about certain aspects of it, it feels more immersive.
@@alecubudulecu then it wouldn't really make a difference to you if he played the gameplay beneath his voice over. what was the point of you disagreeing?
In my experience with Sekiro, the best way to get through a brick wall (Like Ape or Isshin) was to rest. If you don't have your brain mentally sound during those boss fights, your just fucked completely. It will take you weeks to do, rather than 2 days.
I know this is old but I couldn’t agree more…. I spent 60 hours on isshin because of this. Thought I could just force it to work. I spent like 12 hours at a time day after day. When I finally stopped took a couple days, thought about the fight and went back I killed him third try. The breaks really do work
@@Erragouth18 wtf 60 hours!! That is a longgg time and if you’re telling even close to the truth you are very dedicated lmao. I have to admit I struggled with the fight a lot (didn’t take me anywhere near as long as for you no offense) but when I finally defeated him it felt SO good. Pure gratification and wow what an accomplishment it is.
@@wakkjobbwizard I swear it took 60 hours. I don’t know why but I always choked. Usually in the second phase. He got so aggressive with the spear that I just always lost it. Don’t know why I had so much trouble but after I beat him the first time every subsequent try took maybe 3 times. One of my favorite games of all time though!
@@wakkjobbwizard exactly! And learning the combat and eventually getting good at it was one of my favorite experiences in gaming. It was just so damn satisfying!
Bloodborne’s rally system is in Sekiro, but it exclusively works for your own posture. Dealing damage to an enemy repairs your posture, allowing you to go longer before your posture breaks.
I think a lot of people don’t realize that you totally can fight the guardian ape like a normal boss in Sekiro . The only attacks in his first phase that you can’t parry are his throws. Hell even his poop projectile u can parry ( I beat him by parrying all his attacks and just jumping out of throws while getting vitality damage in when I could. ) His second phase I had a lot more trouble with because of the terror. however I can’t blame most people for not realizing that you totally can parry the vast majority of his attacks because he’s so different from the rest
The best way I can describe playing a Fromsoft game is me playing Sekiro and constantly dying to one boss, just cursing angrily at the screen with my wife watching. My wife asks "why are you playing that game, it's making you so agitated and you seem to hate it" and I respond "what are you talking about, I fucking love this game!" And then continue to get my ass kicked. And then you beat it and you feel amazing. Weirdly I actually got bored with Sekiro for a bit when I got to points where I guess I "got gud" and my stats were up that I could take down anyone quickly and even a couple of minibosses and bosses. But then I got to a boss who kept destroying me and I started loving the game again. It's like some weird masochism
Lost me there with "what are you talking about, I love this game!" Hahahahaha!! I finished my second playthrough on ng+ with the bell demon and without the kuro charm, geez, that run was incredible hard but so much satisfactory because my parry needed to be on point! For me this games is a love and hate game... kinda like a romance..
Granted it’s satisfying when you’re good enough to only get stuck in the very hardest bosses. If you get stuck on every boss I imagine it would just be annoying
Honestly I was always put off by Fromsoft games, but Sekiro is so vibrant and beautiful that it drew me in. Pretty much as soon as I platinum it I’ll be moving on to Bloodborne.
How long do you have to go before platinum? Last couple trophies were a bitch for me! Bloodborne is a marvel. You're in for a beautiful and exciting (if frustratingly hard) treat.
Don't platinum bloodborne please, I almost went insane. To platinum bloodborne you have to beat optional enemies that are the hardest in the game (defiled chalice), but the game is perfect.
@@willh9104 I'm trying to plat it too. I haven't found it to be too bad. I think that by the time i finish my third playthrough i'll only need a little grinding for the last skill points.
I thought it was super easy 😂😂 I even kept my character at BL 125 for PvP!! That obviously made it harder on myself. But I obtained the platinum trophy in less than 100 hours, counting my very first playthrough as a part of that. I’d say that isn’t long at all!!
I don't mind watching you Bro, you seem nice. For the next critique though I'd prefere to see more actual footage from the game, not just in the background. Nice critique though. Love the game! Greetings from Germany
@@Smokez360 America, here. I'm pretty sure none of this is supposed to be a visual thing. I think it's one of those videos that you come to after you beat the game.
There is actually a mechanic to recover health by doing deathblows that you can purchase. Plus, there is an item that gives you 5 extra emblems by halving your health, and it's essentially infinite use, recovering every time you use a statue. Very useful if you're willing to sacrifice one health gourd. You can also use spirit emblems to apply the candy buffs, but you have to earn them by beating the headless enemies.
Game of the year for me so far. Initially in the first 30 minutes, I didn't love it, but once I realized it was a different animal than soulsborne, I fell in love. One of my favorite games of all time now after dozens of replays and getting platinum. Love your video man. Some great critique and awesome points you're making. Love your videos, keep up the great work!
Young King Kush DMC5 has an absolutely amazing combat system but honestly they could have just made arena’s with endless enemies cuz the story and the maps are truly uninspiring, the characters themselves still make the cutscenes fun enough to watch but it’s really just filler between enemies. Areas look generic and are hardly explorable. But the combat and bossfights is some of the greatest along with GoW imo. But overall also with a great combat system Sekiro has so much more to offer when it comes to story and visuals and gameplay in between combat
The critique overall was great in my opinion. With that said, comparing the limited spirit emblems to blood vials in Bloodborne was a misstep. Spirit emblems are more closely link to quicksilver bullets. I also felt that the critique on the combat/gameplay was more intentionally reductive that what may have been intended. You can always reduce From Software's gameplay styles into it's simplest ideas. Bloodborne is dodge and hit, dodge and hit. Dark Souls is roll and hit, roll twice and then hit. Sekiro in this case is no different. Parry then hit, parry then hit, counter a perilous attack then hit.
exactly. just saying that it was tedious because one had to learn the patterns of a new boss is incorrect. in each of the souls games we had to learn the movesets of the boss to effectively dodge
Sekiro is an incredible game. I’ve only played DS3, Bloodborne and Demons Souls remastered in addition to Sekiro but Sekiro is my favorite and it’s also the one I’m better at. I like how streamlined it is. Not a crazy variety in things, so it all comes down to how much better you have gotten to the game. It’s difficult for games to be able to show you how much you have improved. Sekiro is the most palpable that skill progression has ever been for me in a game.
totally agree. Although the additional freedom in the other games are cool it does get kinda frustrating when the certain build you're using is really difficult against a boss. In sekiro there is only really one build other than the prosthetics so every boss feels possible and fair, albeit the bosses are sometimes insanely hard. I loved every boss in this game though except for the double guardian ape fight. It would've been much cooler to fight the headless ape again but he had different abilities. Double bosses just seem really lazy.
The rally system wouldn't work here, but later on you get the ability to recover health with deathblows and i think that you should have that from the very beggining. Not to make things easier but to reward aggressiveness from the get go.
I genuinely never found any issue with repeating bosses areas and arenas in this game - in every case that I can remember, there are story/lore reasons why these characters and areas return in later sections or there are multiple eg. headless boss fights. *SPOILER ALERT STOP READING* One of the best best moments of the game for me was the return to the besieged, fiery Ashina Castle and its surroundings with new enemies. Our path is now almost in a reverse spiral of what we did at the start of the game, and previously unlocked paths become blocked off again. In the case of the bosses, specifically the Headless, reading into their lore (gleaned in the classic 'from' fashion: from item descriptions) each one was a hero from a time far gone who lost their way and was ultimately executed (I might have that part a bit wrong, it's been a year+) for their transgressions and then became these headless abhorrences we see throughout the game's different areas. Each has equally distinct and alike reasons for having been cursed with this form and their lore is very interesting, even based on the little of it that we can wring out. Other bosses return after you have defeated them: Genichiro and Owl are the only two that come to mind personally and they both have very specific reasons for and methods by which they came to duel you again which fit with the story dependant on which story path you are following. The Corrupted Monk is a projection of the True Corrupted Monk. Its projection guards the path by which you ascend to the Fountainhead Palace from which the Rejuvenating Waters flow and its true form guards the entrance to the castle grounds directly after that. It tries to stop you from getting there by proxy initially, fails, and so meets you at the bridge before the gate. Its power of projection is even used in the second boss fight - something we don't see in the first - to summon momentary apparitions of iself to swing at you much like we have seen in bosses like Bloodborne's Wet Nurse and Queen Yharnam. Small details like the fact that it can't use its projections against you when it is projecting itself into that area remotely (that's my take at least) really make the game feel *true* - and I mean that in a specific way. They didn't just copy and paste the bosses. The first one is limited, because of its nature as a projection, it has only one phase and we assume we are done with it after that. We soon find out just how wrong we are when we come across its physical form which can now use projections in battle and has a second phase where - like we have seen in the Headless Bloodletting Beast of Bloodborne, the Guardian Ape and some general ADs of Sekiro - fucking centipedey head phase 2. I see why some people could consider these 'reskins' or 'reuses' as lazy or uninspired and I do think people are right in saying there's likely many developmental concerns which encourage their inclusion: time, resources, quality etc. I do also believe, however, that From Software earns the inclusion of these reoccurrences by making them make sense in the world, lore, its story and the mechanics of the game (like the projection's inability to project) as no other developer has. I can remember feeling that I was fighting a lot of the same enemy in The Witcher 3 - my favourite game time immemorial and one i will fight to the death for if I have to - I genuinely never felt that in Sekiro or any other From Software game. So far I've completed Sekiro and Bloodborne. Does anyone have any suggestions for how i should experience the Souls series? I'm probably going to jumpr straight in at 3, to be honest, but I might give the DS1 remaster and DS2 a shot as well if I see fit.
Yeah I loved Witcher 3 as well but I do feel as though the enemies lacked the variation and horrifically beautiful art direction that we see in From games.
If you still haven't played Dark Souls and are planning to I definitely don't recommend going for 3 first. Even though 3 will fit better with you since it's just as fast paced as Bloodborne you'll be missing/spoiling yourself some stuff. DS2 you can skip since it takes place in a completely different place and has a ton of issues. It's a great game but it really has nothing to do with DS1 and DS3's story or world while not being as consistent as the other games (although some areas are absolutely amazing, both in terms of fun, gameplay and visuals/athmosphere). DS1 is really sturdy and slow paced, meaning that you won't get that "rush head on" playstyle. Still, it's a lot more athmospheric than the other From games and has way better worldbuilding imo. It's also a really freaking good game that rewards players being careful and learning how to play. DS3 is the more fast paced and flashy DS game, although its also fairly linear and focusses way more on combat. DS2 gameplay wise is a middle ground between DS1 and DS3 although it clearly shows how Miyazaki didn't take part in it (he actually was working on Bloodborne at the time lol).
Headless require "gimmicks" because of lore and before you find that first one you find a note that says swords and spears don't work against him, DON"T fight him. They don't give achievements, are totally optional and the item they give is okayish and not unique (same as sugars).
I FINALLY got around to playing Sekiro (just beat Sword Saint last night), and I left the Headless until basically very last. Went at them hard with sugars and confetti and the malcontent whistle, and just melted them. Didn't care for them much as enemies to fight because Terror kinda sucks, but I still wanted to clear everything out.
You say tedious but I say rewarding. Vs Dark Souls, you feel like you are actively engaged in a fight. I never felt as rewarded for beating a DS boss because I didn't feel like I was "getting gud". I was just rolling and attacking vs here where the combat has much more to it with timing and dodging/parrying the right way. The combat of Sekiro is by far my favorite but DS exploration/world design and RPG elements are definitely more fun.
@@Pontif11 interesting my findings are different, I have managed to go through all the ninja trigger generaters in ashina like regular enemies while on some dank ass "influence"
@@false_idol__ Ugh its one of the easiest storylines to follow actually. The Scultor was in a similar situation before you, a friend to Isshin who was being consumed by hatred so Isshin cut his arm in an attempt to save him. Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry is coming to reclaim Ashina now that Isshin is at his weakest, and Genichiro wishes to prevent that. So he wants the Divine Heir's oath so he may come back from the dead without any backlash (in contrast to the way which he uses). Sekiro acts as Kuro's guard, and you aim to break the link between the Divine Heir and the Dragon so that Kuro's troubles can end and Dragonrot can bite the dust since the Heir's powers is the reason for its existance.
@@markellapapatzima7424 the story is way easier to follow than a darksouls game thats for sure because the story is told much more through dialogue and bosses. And it makes sense why because unlike a dark souls game you aren't playing after all the major stuff already happened but instead you are playing while its all happening.
I beat Isshin for the first time a month or so ago and the level of pride I still feel at having done it is immense. I don't think another boss-fight will ever compare to it.
Tedious? As far as I can tell you describe every soulsbourne game with what follows after 13:08. Soulsbourne games have always been rhythm games if we follow your reasoning. Soulsbourne games are focused around the dodge roll, Sekiro is focused around deflection. Both mechanics are used as time and execution challenges that rely on reading the telegraphed movements of enemies. In this respect, the core gameplay is identical, they just remapped the button. The main addition to this gameplay system in Sekiro are the unblockable attacks and the increased speed.
Thoroughly enjoyed this video, but the portion where you mention Isshin's boss fight being a reflection of yourself fell flat when considering the Owl (Father) fight in the game, where Sekiro fights his father and mentor, who fights using literally the same techniques that you do. He uses firecrackers to stun you to hit you, he uses Shadowrush against you, he uses the Mikiri Counter to break your posture and deal a Deathblow to you. Just felt that Owl (Father) was much more fitting for the point.
I’m in the middle of the video but I wanted to say one thing: Calling Sekiro tedious rather than challenging simply because it puts less emphasis on reflexes is a little bit disingenuous to me. For example, is guitar hero on higher difficulties not “challenging” because memorization is emphasized?
@@KaNoMikoProductions OK, let's say you were living under a rock and hadn't heard all of the songs on guitar hero. Even then, the brain and memory work very differently with melodies than with visual movement. There's a tempo and a time signature that is at a constant and works as a guideline that's without going into logical cadences in music that we are all accustomed to. You don't get any of that in a fighting game, it's just "these events occurred and the same or similar variant will occur again" A "rhythm" by definition is a "regular repeated pattern" and in music those patterns fit those guidelines of tempo and cadence and they don't in video games. Not outside of music based ones. You only need to hear a song once to be able to sing along to it on a repeat play. You don't just need to have one fight in order to react accordingly. Let me know if you'd prefer the long answer... lol
I kind of get irritated when people dismiss comparing Sekiro to Soulsbourne. They are extreamly similar. Sekiro feels like the formula just taken in a new direction, but anyone claiming it's a completely unique experience is blind. -Level design is straight out of DS3 and BB, with it's semi open but linear connected world with branching paths. Resting at manually activated check points that resets the level, enemies, and your items (in BB it's the same but you have to go to the Hunter's dream). -Losing your "progress" in death. Parrying. The camera angle. Lore being told through world design, npc interaction, and item descriptions. Challenging mini bosses. Bosses being in open arenas that lock you in through unexplained fog so you can't escape. -Enemies being able to track in their attacks so they defy physics when they attack you. New areas that throw new enemy types that compeltely throw you off your rhythm that you have to adapt to. Raising your stats just by enough to keep up with the difficulty but not enough to be overpowered. -Limited healing items. Lots of useless items. Obscure npc side quests. Multiple endings. The insane difficulty and learning curve. Even stealth isn't new, it's just more focused on. And while you can grapple, Fromsoft games always were pretty vertically design, just how you get places is a bit different. Sekiro feels like the Fromsoft formula just set in feudal Japan and with a more catered character action experience instead of RPG and no multiplayer. It's a game if you didn't know was by Fromsoft you'd think "wow, this is really similar to dark souls or bloodbourne". Saying they're not comparible is like saying Final Fantasy 10 isn't comparible to 7 bc they're in a different setting and the combat is a bit different. Or can't compare Bayonetta to Devil May Cry bc Bayonetta is a girl and Dante is a guy.
Given that dark souls and bloodborne is so heavily tilted towards dodging rather than parrying (in the sense that you dodge mostly and parry occasionally) I think it's kinda fair. It's a long road to the "click" even for soulsborne fans. also I think throwing in jumping as another dodge really trips a lot of people up, so to speak :-D
@@NickHunter That's really the only difference and it's just more of a shift from existing mechanics. DS always had parrying that was super useful (speedrunners predominantly use it as a way to get quick kills) and BB had viceral attacks that was also extreamly useful. But really almost everything else is the same as any Fromsoft game. It's the fromsoft formula but with altered combat mechanics
@@Crazelord91Well yeah and the key difference is from a damage perspective you have to get, for example, 16 successive parries to get the same result as a single parry in soulsborne
@@NickHunter Right. I'm not saying that isn't different, but it's just a variation than a whole new game. I'd say 80-90% of it is similar to the rest of Fromsoft games but with a different paint job
@@Crazelord91 Well in boss fights maybe, but there was no way to run round and just tactically one shot enemies in the general levels in Soulsborne. And while there's not a LOT different in the boss fights, that "10%" difference really tripped me up personally for a long time. Basically I think that despite their huge similarities, the differences are significant enough to be a problem difficulty wise. I think that's where the "dismissiveness" comes from
At 14:00 you've missed an imported quirk of Armored Warrior: You can only successful defeat him with a deathblow if it pushes him off the bridge. If performed in the middle of the bridge for instance, you can do a deathblow 20 times and it will do nothing, the fight just continues.
Since prosthetics are nowhere as useful as a last ditch heal, letting players heal with spirit emblems would result in most players never using the prosthetics
I can see a version of the healing system in Kingdom Hearts two healing system working here. In that game you have magic, one of which is the healing spell, everything costs MP(the the spirit emblem equivalent) but the cure spell costs whatever you have left. So the way its recommended you heal is to use as much magic as you need to before going for the heal. In Sekiro the gourd would have to be nerfed in some way to make this fair and the spirit emblem on some prosthetics would have to be increased. I don't know if it would be worth it though, i'd rather have a little more spammability from my prosthetics than a last-ditch heal. I think an extra resurrection may work better. Limit the normal resurrections to two and make that third one cost you all your remaining spirit emblems. That would put the players that rely on prosthetics at a big disadvantage since that third resurrection the game is designed to have is now going to cost them their entire playstyle so i'd also make it a full heal resurrection. Now this makes the tanto you get form one of the shichimen warriors a very valuable iteam since it gives you a few more uses of your tools. Making it seven extra emblems instead of five sounds good too.
Adi Jain I disagree completely. The axe is fantastic for shielded enemies and even just doing a ton of posture damage. The shields are useful in a variety of situations. Terror is a joke with the purple one. My point is each prosthetic is extremely useful in specific situations so I'd say overall they are way more useful than a last ditch heal.
Its the fact that I'm playing Sekiro for the first time right now. Flipped on a random video essay type video of Luke's from FOUR YEARS ago while cleaning and got a whole ass tidbit that is likely going to help me take down the 'sichimen' enemy. Love this lmao. God bless Luke!
Learning boss patterns is tedious? I don't understand this bit at all...I thought that was the point in a boss, you learn its moves so you know how to react. If you can beat a boss just willy nilly without knowing its move set...doesn't that mean it's easy? I thought that was the point in any action game, you learn enemy move sets so you know how to deal with them. But apparently, if you know how to attack, block and dodge you should just win? You even say something to the effect of, "I had to do my time to learn the bosses before I even stood a chance." Yes, and that's not a good thing...? That's exactly how it should be. Boss fights shouldn't be a freebie just cause you know how to play the game. Especially in a FROMSOFT game...it's supposed to be hard, you are supposed to die, you aren't supposed to beat the bosses your first try. You are supposed to pay attention and learn, then go back and apply what you learned.
BALDORF BREAKDOWNS My thoughts exactly. You do essentially the same thing in the Soulsborne games only you’re just learning attack windows in Souls instead of deflect timing like in Sekiro. Heard this critique before and I never understood it.
First two or three runs at a boss in a FromSoft game are always about learning dodge/parry/attack windows. Sometimes you click right away and breeze through them, sometimes you bang your head against the wall for hours. But it's all about learning applicable skills for the next set of areas/enemies. I don't understand how this is tedious, it's a fundamental learning mechanic in these games.
@@hollandscottthomas Exactly! I spent many days on Demon of Hatred, and I never want to fight him again, but I don't think he's badly designed or anything. Just how a hard boss fight goes.
@@BaldorfBreakdowns I beat him on my second try! The first run taught me he was basically a Dark Souls boss, so I just switched to my default attack style XD If you have the flame umbrella and the Malcontent it's pretty simple: Get right under his butt, keep moving. Hack away until you see a wind-up and then dodge or deflect, and then get right back to hacking. If he jumps away: chase immediately back underneath. If he jumps up for the firebomb: turtle under the umbrella until the shockwave passes and then go straight back to hacking. Back off after a deathblow to avoid the blast, or turtle it so you can get some early hits. All his worst stuff is in ranged attacks, so if you stay super close he can't use them. Sprint away in third phase to avoid the ring of fire (i did this by accident!), but then get close and Malcontent him for a solid 1/4 damage. Repeat as soon as he comes to. Final 1/4 of health is same as phase one but he's just angrier. I actually broke his posture because of all the damage I'd inflicted so quickly and a few really lucky deflects.
Great video/critique as always. I really struggled with Sekiro, and my “click moment” took a long time to arrive. After Bloodborne and Souls I hit a wall with what it felt was a restrictive char progression and options to tackle bosses. But then I started using items, sugars, and more importantly, the right prosthetics, different moves... and I realised that I could win the fights a lot easier. My first run took me forever but I was stubborn, and enjoyed the challenge of discovering a way to beat the boss. I was so impressed when I watched some guides and how simple it was, lol, but I found my way. It challenged me, but I platinum it and loved it. The story was refreshingly simple and subtle, and loved every little touch that the world told. The snippets were there for the player to find (ex is a certain red mask on a wall, you know if you noticed it).
I come from the opposite end , instead of a dark souls and bloodbourne player I am a tenchu fan , tenchu is my favorite game and game series , Even though I think from soft was the weaker of the 3 publishers when it came to tenchu , they are by far awesome with the souls Bourne games , even though to me the stealth could be better and seems to play much like tenchu z type of stealth , the combat is awesome and I love their lore and storytelling and their dark themed games , I already accepted that this was a blend of soulsbourne and tenchu z style gameplay and overall I think it makes for an awesome title , so I can see how many soulsbourne players could wish for similar things they are use to , much like me wishing for more tenchu style gameplay , overall I think we should all be happy that we got this blend of stealth and awesome combat with badass boss encounters , I love this game !
Your critique on the bosses is very bias and I ultimately I respect it but I disagree. The bosses that show up twice are very different. Guardian ape brings his wife so you have to fight two apes instead of one. Owl second fight is completely different than his first and is a secret fight that not all players will find. Corrupted monk goes from being an illusion with a posture bar that is ridiculous to being a three phase fight once only phase that is similar to the illusion monk is the first one. I think yes they could have been more diverse boss fights but at the same time, doing them twice was a conscious decision. Not laziness...
Yeah, second Owl is him in his prime with a completely different moveset. The two Monk fights are complete remixes of one another with different focus on vitality/posture breaking. Second (third?) Genichiro is a perfect measure for how far you've come since mid-game, right before you fight a brand new challenge. Second Ape fight I beat on the first try, because the brown ape isn't as aggressive or dangerous as the original Guardian was, and it was an interesting split-focus.
I think the consideration between using your sword/parrying and using your prosthetic/dirty tools is perfectly in line with the consideration you (Sekiro) makes as a shinobi. He has to balance himself between choosing to honour his master (the honourable path) or follow the Iron Code (the dirty path).
I think one thing repeating bosses like owl and genichiro as many times as they do gives on the positive side is the player gets more time with those characters to get to know them and develop their lore. Its possibly a design choice to go along with the decision to have more solid lore and story compared dark souls games with their kinda ethereal myth like lore. I remember on my first playthrough i wasn't really sure who all was allied with who or why. like why is isshin not angry that i killed his grandson? but then fights to the death when resurected by his grandson even though he doesn't seem to agree with genichiro's goals for ashina. meeting them more times helped me figure out their character motivations, and also it was really cool to notice throughout the actual fights who shared similar abilities with who else. often time i found myself thinking "o that makes sense, because so and so trained this guy he of course has this move." idk if i would get the know the bosses as well with only 1 fight.
Stumbled on this channel by accident with some shorter videos. Never got around watching these long critiques until finally jumped in with Vampyr. Now I can't get enough. You have a very fair and reasonable when talking about games. What I really admire is tying in your education with these topics you do videos on. After a month of getting pulled deeper and deeper into your channel I can safely say: my favourite "gaming" and "game review" channel out there. Keep up the good work.
I was stuck on isshin for like 4 hours total over a span of a few sittings. He's a really awesome fight! His second phase got so much easier after I started integrating step dodges and closing gaps with the dash. The 3rd phase on the Saint wasn't bad at all because the lighting attacks were significantly helpful when you threw them back at him. I loved the fight so much I immediately started new game plus😁
Probably one of my fav of all time, I loved so much the purity of it, stripping all RPG elements, weapons, and forcing you to focus and discipline. No other game lead me to do self-analysis of my playstyle and force to adapt and discover new approaches. I never approached a DS or Bloodborne boss telling myself, « stay calm, lean back but don’t let him breathe ». It also taught me greater patience than the usual DS. To not be too harsh on myself and accept some fights are going to be a long process and there’s no reason to rush into it. I felt very subtle emotions that no other Game brought me ever.
The game didn't click for me until my 5th or 6th attempt against genichiro because I went from playing dark souls and bloodborne so this game was very difficult for me at first.. but when the combat actually clicked for me I fell in love with this game.. this game has the greatest combat system ever made imo
I loved the section about the guardian ape boss. You were spot on. Genichiro took me about 3 hours to beat and then I beat the Ape on my second try. I guess that shows that I’m better equipped for dark souls gameplay than rhythm game play. I still love both games though.
Guardian ape fight has just as much rhythm as Genichiro, it's just that Genichrio is the battle that truly tests whether the player has grasped the mechanics of the game, or are they still spamming dodge. It's why so many people struggled with him, and once they got over that hump, the rest of the game became easier.
I remembered Tenchu fondly and when I saw From Software putting this game together I decided to buy day one. It was the first time I've ever bought the first day before, no regrets and especially after I got the parry system. Great critique!!!! Thanks for your hard work!
Once you master this game and go into NG+, it is incredibly satisfying. I remember doing Genichiro first time and dying dozens of times, fighting him on NG+ I only healed once and had him dead within 3 or 4 minutes. I even killed him at the start of the game too.
I completely agree about the bosses being exhausting in some cases. I'm very glad I took on the demon of hatred before Isshin as I'm not sure I would have wanted to go back and fight a boss like that lol. Both of them took me several hours to beat and I took breaks between them that were days long just to give myself a break but Isshin at least was and is one of the most satisfying souls bosses I've ever fought.
Almost all the boss fights do change and evolve on their second fight and most of them are part of the story. Headless is more of a buffed fodder enemy.
Idk man to me souls really boils down to dodging no matter the build because you get to be completely immune to damage, when shit gets hectic it’s the spam rolls that git us good
I love your content, re your critique of not having a mechanism to replenish spirit emblem with a toll of vitality similar to the blood borne health for silver bullets, the Ceremonial Tanto in Sekiro converts vitality to spirit emblem.
23:05 Yes, spirit emblems are a finite resource but you neglected to mention that they are mainly gained through defeating enemies. And the finite resource used to heal as a last ditch effort? Pellets, divine grass, and rice.
They're only finite if you never revisit places you've been to. You get them from killing enemies, and the Ashina Outskirts is a perfect place to get more emblems
The reason spirit emblems to heal is probably because of the Ceremonial Tanto. Using it makes you take your health in ~half to get extra spirit emblems. You could use those in a loop[ if you could also use them to heal. They then could've taken the Tanto out but I think the "health for emblems" thing make a bit more sense with the gourde being a thing. A lot of enemies drop them too and, due to a couple farming instances, I had the max by the end and kept digging into the pool a little. Also, hey, Horse and Dragon! I did a "tour" there once. It was only, like, one big-ish room (apart from the front) but the two owners were nice and it was a neat brewery. Incredibly knowledgeable about mythology (focusing on Chinese, obviously) which was pretty rad.
I'm just finishing Sekiro cause I am a FromSoft noob and discovered I love these games with Elden Ring. Sekiro is incredible, but I do feel it's tedious as well. I'm maybe not so talented reflexes wise and I have to learn every boss like a song. It does feel great to own them after a while, but it was just to hard reach that point. But the game is truly stunning. The design is perfection. Best combat I ever played in any game, period. And it looks gorgeous. Can't praise it enough.
Completely agree with you about the click moment - Genichiro was mine, and right after him, I started to TRULY experience the game as it was meant to be.
Truly an excellent review. On point, fair and balanced, well spoken. Gotta say, you know your craft. Also, thanks for driving home the point that this is no Soulsborne and never was intended to be.
Whenever i wanted to grind for new skill points i got a lot of extra money that i spent on spirit emblems. I had 999 for most of the time even though after several boss fights i could be down to 500 some time. I have 999 now and 2 bosses left. I never lost a lot of money in this game because i made sure i was poor. Giant ape was hard but demon of hatred was a bit worse to me. True corrupted monk's second phase insta killed me by hitting me off the bridge a lot of times, that fight was the most boring one so far because it took so long to get him to his 3rd phase and that was actually the phase i wanted to play.
Guardian Ape is the biggest curveball? Did you miss the Demon of Hatred? He's a giant inferno beast that plays like a DS3 boss. Deflecting for the entire fight will get you burned so evasion works best since his tracking isn't as accurate as other bosses. But that makes pressuring him for a deathblow much tougher. You gotta stick and move doing chip damage and wait for openings until his HP is low enough that you can posture break him easier. Then repeat that process again without getting killed in 2 hits. You basically have to throw everything the game has taught you out the window for that fight. I think that's the biggest curveball in the game. Maybe I just suck and he's easy for everyone else. That's just my small brain opinion.
I think spirit emblems are more comparable to bullets in bloodborne, since in bb the hunter tools also use bullets. But ultimately I like the way you phrased it. They limit your usage as a way to discourage essentially spamming them, and that if you just desperately WANT to use them, you have to decide between them and your health (blood bullets in bloodborne, ceremonial tanto in sekiro). It makes every usage of them all that more meaningful.
Also the part about unintended mechanics or strategies is interesting because, well so I just beat my first playthrough of sekiro last night, and I pretty much went through the game using a strat that most speedruns use which is jumping mortal draws. There's a skill in sekiro that lets you use combat arts while in the air, and for some reason, when using this in combination with mortal draw, it gives you the exact same damage as *empowered* mortal draw, a skill that doesn't become available to you until you fully unlock 2 separate, specific skill trees. For me, this made the game way more fun, and didn't feel cheap at all as I still needed to figure out when it was safe to use. But something like AI freezes, like what you can do with Shadows of Yharnam or whatever, I was never the biggest fan of them. As annoying as a boss is, I don't like completely nullifying that experience, whereas others feel no qualms about cheating a boss if they catch the faintest whiff of bullshit. I dunno, just an interesting point I never thought about, because at the end of the day we do all beat the boss, in whatever weird way we used to get there.
In response to the critique of guardian ape: The guardian ape was the hardest part of my first playthrough. I ended up kiting the first phase (which took forever) and then took it like the rest of the game when the sword came out: deflection time. I found out in later playthroughs that the first phase can totally be taken like the rest of the game. Each attack hits like a truck, but as long as there's no red symbol, the deflection system is still there. He may be a big erratic ape, but he's just like every other boss in terms of learning attack patterns and getting down the deflection timing
I love these long videos. I know your views aren’t very high but just know that the people who watch your videos love them and enjoy your perspective on things very much
I think the terror bosses train you to use the umbrella. Even the non-purple umbrella blocks all terror and many of the other over-powered boss attacks. Once you get that, things like Guardian Ape's scream or Isshin's combat arts go from penalty to opportunity for counter-play.
Yeah, I used the fire umbrella to block all the Demon of Hatred's jumping attacks while I stayed underneath him hacking away, and I beat him on the second try.
Sekiro is epic! As epic as every other From Soft ip. The way From Software can change so much in their next game and it still be an amazing game and experience shows why they are up there with the best, and most respected development teams in gaming. I love From Softs games! Can't wait for Elden Ring!
19:00 i think a big reason why blood vials are finite is also the story, as from software does value its story a lot and how it factors into gameplay. That healing blood is a controlled substance of the church and the blood being finite reinforces the idea of it being valuable as opposed to something that regenerates on its own.
The boss I've had the most trouble with by far was the Demon Of Hatred, probably because the focus on a Bloodborne style gameplay, as you said. It really does feel like one of the Bloodletting beasts from bloodborne but with a few AoEs and projectile attacks added. Most of the game's new tricks dont work on him ( like parrying and most of the prosthetic tool) and the main focus really is on just getting all of his health down in a long endurance fight. It feels like with I-frames on the dodge that fight would've been a cakewalk.
I beat him on the second try! I saw flames so had the fire umbrella on standby, and he'd mentioned the malcontent whistle when he was the sculptor so I had that ready for the third phase. Just sprinted right under his butt, hacked away until he wound up an attack and then circled away from it, then straight back to choppin'. When he does the leap/firebomb: turtle under the umbrella. Same for second phase. If you're under him he can't do his ranged attacks and they're all the worst ones. Third phase use the ring to drive him crazy and just hack away with a sugar active. After the third one he goes a bit nuts, but if you get underneath him again it still works just the same.
" Tedious "? I don't get how many of these bosses " felt Tedious "! To me they felt epic! U can love Bloodborne, DarkSouls and Sekiro at the same time! It doesn't have to be I love this so I can't love that. Maybe u just didn't click with the game and couldn't get the parrying down if u thought all bosses were " Tedious ". It got GOTY and definitely deserved that title. It felt so different to other From Soft games but still, it felt so familiar! If I went into Sekiro not knowing it was a From Soft ip I would of guessed because it drips the amazing world building, brilliant story telling and epic gaming mechanics of a From Software ip. What a game!!!!!
As a BIG fan of both stealth games and From software, I love the game. This is a really different game than DS. It also adds that i love the parry on DS, and a combat centered on parries? Take my money.
Dude all of these games are rhythm games. It’s just waay more obvious in sekiro. While I don’t agree with your take on how tedious the game is, because you can kill bosses in many ways if you are creative enough, I do respect the way you have conveyed your opinion. You can do prosthetic runs, you can treat spirit emblems like blood bullets, not viles.
This is what I wish people would realize more. Every single let's play I saw on YT simply ignored the prosthetic tools, or they limited themselves to firecrackers and or shuriken. I've beaten Sekiro like 20 times now, and I've done various runs using all of the prosthetic tools/combat arts/ninjutsu skills.
I exploit the mortal blade in several instances and I don't feel bad about it. Wait for the right opening and punish the guardian ape or either owl. Even the sword Saint. It's part of the game, use the tools given to you.
葦名 弦一郎 = あしな げんいちろう = Ashina Genichirou [GEN - EE - CHEE - ROW] I had to post this to appease my OCD. Genichirou is also his given name (first name for English speakers), which makes it weird why they translated it that way. "General Ashina" would be the better translation. The current translation is like saying "General Norman" instead of General Schwarzkopf.
Regarding FromSoft sometimes putting out unfinished work, and rushing out content..... that makes me a bit nervous for Elden Ring. If they’ve done that for their smaller-scaled games, I can imagine it happening even more in their largest project yet.
For those of you asking about Demon of Hatred, don't worry. I have a very special video specifically for him in the pipeline :)
God I hated that fight, really punished you if you played it like a Souls boss... which sadly I did lol.
Ahh i was wondering about that
Luke Stephens you said it's more like guitar hero and then give your explanation. I fail to see how it's any different than souls or bloodborne. If you want to put it in its simplest terms it comes down to doing defensive actions until there is an opening until you or the opponent die.
Jager..... student confirmed. How do you endure all the r3tardation on college campuses rn?
Is it out already?
Actually Guardian Ape can be deflected and fought the same way than any other boss. The reason why people struggle is they are afraid to get in the mix and trade blows and deflects with a bigger monster.
This.
Fire crackers, yash or ako, jumping mortal draw you can finish the entire fight within 2-3 mins not even
I just bought Sekiro and headless ape is like the only boss i’m not looking forward to
@@grimreefer213 yash or ako sugar, firecrackers, jumping mortal draw
@@swagwolfgang Yeah I heard you can cheese him with things like that, i’ll find out tomorrow when I start playing. Im excited but i’ll have to relearn how to git gud again which is good because i’ve gotten pretty good at dark souls and it loses it’s luster if it’s too easy.
In regard to 10:30, Isshin does not really fight like you (the player). Owl (especially Father) is a lot closer to using many the tools a player has available.
Frank O a lot of his abilities are abilities you can use, in fact most of them (specifically his sword form)
Wolf has adopted both of their styles. Ergo they both fight like wolf
Owl is the one that fights most similarly to Wolf. He jumps off enemies while throwing shuriken, uses whirlwind slash (first combat art), mist raven, and mikiri counters.
Owl uses Shinobi tools and your movements, but Isshin uses the sword techniques you use.
@@noamias4897 that’s a good way to put it. When Isshin pulled out the double ichimonji I thought he was fighting just like me lol
Spirit emblems aren't bloodvials but literally silver bullets since you can sacrifice health to get more of them.
I could be wrong but isn’t the Tanto item a limited consumable?
@@ryanmcwilliams8784 nope its unlimited as long as ur health is above half
@@papaemeritus8721 You can only use three of them. However, it refreshes when resting, so it's not a consumable.
@@amarakon1243 yeah like the gourds
Not a consumable? Like because sekiro doesn't eat it or because of a different reason?😂
Luke: “I’m not very good at these games”
Also Luke: “I beat Bloodborne in 3 hours”
Also Also Luke: “I beat Genichiro on my second try”
Me:🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃
Luke got lucky the second try he fought Genichiro. I don't think he'd won that quick on a second play through. Haha.
It's because he knew
That hesitation is defeat
He said he isn’t good at speedrunning blodborne
i died to chained ogre 9 times
I have to say that I very much prefer the "classic" review style in which you talk over selected gameplay material. It gets somewhat boring to just watch you talking to a camera. In that case a podcast would do as well.
Otherwise the critique is as detailed and well-thought-out as always. I just hope the next ones will go back to actually showing what you are talking about.
In fact if you'd simply put the gameplay on the TV as the main image the critique would instantly be much better.
I agree
Wanted to write the same, totally agree. The critique is great as always of course, but I love to see just the gameplay as he talks about certain aspects of it, it feels more immersive.
Fair enough. I disagree. I don’t watch. I listen RUclips while at gym in background. This format works for me
I like watching the face cam video
@@alecubudulecu then it wouldn't really make a difference to you if he played the gameplay beneath his voice over. what was the point of you disagreeing?
In my experience with Sekiro, the best way to get through a brick wall (Like Ape or Isshin) was to rest. If you don't have your brain mentally sound during those boss fights, your just fucked completely. It will take you weeks to do, rather than 2 days.
I know this is old but I couldn’t agree more…. I spent 60 hours on isshin because of this. Thought I could just force it to work. I spent like 12 hours at a time day after day. When I finally stopped took a couple days, thought about the fight and went back I killed him third try. The breaks really do work
@@Erragouth18 wtf 60 hours!! That is a longgg time and if you’re telling even close to the truth you are very dedicated lmao. I have to admit I struggled with the fight a lot (didn’t take me anywhere near as long as for you no offense) but when I finally defeated him it felt SO good. Pure gratification and wow what an accomplishment it is.
@@wakkjobbwizard I swear it took 60 hours. I don’t know why but I always choked. Usually in the second phase. He got so aggressive with the spear that I just always lost it. Don’t know why I had so much trouble but after I beat him the first time every subsequent try took maybe 3 times. One of my favorite games of all time though!
@@Erragouth18 yeah such a great game and despite my struggles (and because of them) I absolutely loved the game!!
@@wakkjobbwizard exactly! And learning the combat and eventually getting good at it was one of my favorite experiences in gaming. It was just so damn satisfying!
Bloodborne’s rally system is in Sekiro, but it exclusively works for your own posture. Dealing damage to an enemy repairs your posture, allowing you to go longer before your posture breaks.
I think a lot of people don’t realize that you totally can fight the guardian ape like a normal boss in Sekiro . The only attacks in his first phase that you can’t parry are his throws. Hell even his poop projectile u can parry ( I beat him by parrying all his attacks and just jumping out of throws while getting vitality damage in when I could. ) His second phase I had a lot more trouble with because of the terror. however I can’t blame most people for not realizing that you totally can parry the vast majority of his attacks because he’s so different from the rest
You can deflect any attack in the game that does not have a perilous symbol, though fire attacks will still do chip damage.
The best way I can describe playing a Fromsoft game is me playing Sekiro and constantly dying to one boss, just cursing angrily at the screen with my wife watching.
My wife asks "why are you playing that game, it's making you so agitated and you seem to hate it" and I respond "what are you talking about, I fucking love this game!" And then continue to get my ass kicked.
And then you beat it and you feel amazing. Weirdly I actually got bored with Sekiro for a bit when I got to points where I guess I "got gud" and my stats were up that I could take down anyone quickly and even a couple of minibosses and bosses.
But then I got to a boss who kept destroying me and I started loving the game again. It's like some weird masochism
Crazelord91
Can relate, man. Can relate.
Totally relatable.
Lost me there with "what are you talking about, I love this game!" Hahahahaha!! I finished my second playthrough on ng+ with the bell demon and without the kuro charm, geez, that run was incredible hard but so much satisfactory because my parry needed to be on point! For me this games is a love and hate game... kinda like a romance..
Granted it’s satisfying when you’re good enough to only get stuck in the very hardest bosses. If you get stuck on every boss I imagine it would just be annoying
Honestly I was always put off by Fromsoft games, but Sekiro is so vibrant and beautiful that it drew me in. Pretty much as soon as I platinum it I’ll be moving on to Bloodborne.
How long do you have to go before platinum? Last couple trophies were a bitch for me!
Bloodborne is a marvel. You're in for a beautiful and exciting (if frustratingly hard) treat.
Don't platinum bloodborne please, I almost went insane. To platinum bloodborne you have to beat optional enemies that are the hardest in the game (defiled chalice), but the game is perfect.
@@willh9104 I'm trying to plat it too. I haven't found it to be too bad. I think that by the time i finish my third playthrough i'll only need a little grinding for the last skill points.
@@FugieGamers honestly the chalices were by far the worst part. Everything else is okay but the defiled Amygdala was the worst thing ever.
I thought it was super easy 😂😂 I even kept my character at BL 125 for PvP!! That obviously made it harder on myself. But I obtained the platinum trophy in less than 100 hours, counting my very first playthrough as a part of that. I’d say that isn’t long at all!!
You also get Spirit Emblems when you kill things. That’s important to know.
Like in Ashina Outskirts. I've had like 300+ at a fine
Jared Greathouse get on my level, I had it maxed out to 999+ souls
I don't mind watching you Bro, you seem nice. For the next critique though I'd prefere to see more actual footage from the game, not just in the background. Nice critique though. Love the game!
Greetings from Germany
I treat these more like a podcast, so it's not not a problem for me, but I see where your coming from.
Greetings from Ireland.
@@Smokez360 America, here.
I'm pretty sure none of this is supposed to be a visual thing. I think it's one of those videos that you come to after you beat the game.
I love both styles and trying to master all prosthetics was such a fun challenge! Sekrio is my favorite game of all time!
There is actually a mechanic to recover health by doing deathblows that you can purchase. Plus, there is an item that gives you 5 extra emblems by halving your health, and it's essentially infinite use, recovering every time you use a statue. Very useful if you're willing to sacrifice one health gourd. You can also use spirit emblems to apply the candy buffs, but you have to earn them by beating the headless enemies.
Game of the year for me so far. Initially in the first 30 minutes, I didn't love it, but once I realized it was a different animal than soulsborne, I fell in love. One of my favorite games of all time now after dozens of replays and getting platinum.
Love your video man. Some great critique and awesome points you're making. Love your videos, keep up the great work!
@Fenix Anime BG not much surprisingly! Just stayed up pretty late playing a lot.
Will Holder GOTY is between this & DMC5 so far IMO. Borderlands 3 & MHW: Iceborne are looking to be strong contenders as well.
Young King Kush DMC5 has an absolutely amazing combat system but honestly they could have just made arena’s with endless enemies cuz the story and the maps are truly uninspiring, the characters themselves still make the cutscenes fun enough to watch but it’s really just filler between enemies. Areas look generic and are hardly explorable. But the combat and bossfights is some of the greatest along with GoW imo. But overall also with a great combat system Sekiro has so much more to offer when it comes to story and visuals and gameplay in between combat
can we have a moment to reflect on luke's geniKiro?
I just don’t understand how you can pronounce Genichiro wrong after you just played the game?! Did he have the sound off or what? Makes me crazy
The critique overall was great in my opinion. With that said, comparing the limited spirit emblems to blood vials in Bloodborne was a misstep. Spirit emblems are more closely link to quicksilver bullets. I also felt that the critique on the combat/gameplay was more intentionally reductive that what may have been intended. You can always reduce From Software's gameplay styles into it's simplest ideas. Bloodborne is dodge and hit, dodge and hit. Dark Souls is roll and hit, roll twice and then hit. Sekiro in this case is no different. Parry then hit, parry then hit, counter a perilous attack then hit.
exactly. just saying that it was tedious because one had to learn the patterns of a new boss is incorrect. in each of the souls games we had to learn the movesets of the boss to effectively dodge
Sekiro includes both dodging and parrying, I believe.
Also, pellets do exactly the thing he wants from a consumable health item.
Sekiro is an incredible game. I’ve only played DS3, Bloodborne and Demons Souls remastered in addition to Sekiro but Sekiro is my favorite and it’s also the one I’m better at. I like how streamlined it is. Not a crazy variety in things, so it all comes down to how much better you have gotten to the game. It’s difficult for games to be able to show you how much you have improved. Sekiro is the most palpable that skill progression has ever been for me in a game.
totally agree. Although the additional freedom in the other games are cool it does get kinda frustrating when the certain build you're using is really difficult against a boss. In sekiro there is only really one build other than the prosthetics so every boss feels possible and fair, albeit the bosses are sometimes insanely hard. I loved every boss in this game though except for the double guardian ape fight. It would've been much cooler to fight the headless ape again but he had different abilities. Double bosses just seem really lazy.
In Bloodborne I always spent leftover echoes on vials so I never ran out.
In sekiro I ended up with 999 emblems at the end.
The rally system wouldn't work here, but later on you get the ability to recover health with deathblows and i think that you should have that from the very beggining. Not to make things easier but to reward aggressiveness from the get go.
That's a very good take. I wish they would have included that.
If you’re efficient you can grind out that skill right away. I had it before I fought any main boss
I genuinely never found any issue with repeating bosses areas and arenas in this game - in every case that I can remember, there are story/lore reasons why these characters and areas return in later sections or there are multiple eg. headless boss fights.
*SPOILER ALERT STOP READING*
One of the best best moments of the game for me was the return to the besieged, fiery Ashina Castle and its surroundings with new enemies. Our path is now almost in a reverse spiral of what we did at the start of the game, and previously unlocked paths become blocked off again.
In the case of the bosses, specifically the Headless, reading into their lore (gleaned in the classic 'from' fashion: from item descriptions) each one was a hero from a time far gone who lost their way and was ultimately executed (I might have that part a bit wrong, it's been a year+) for their transgressions and then became these headless abhorrences we see throughout the game's different areas. Each has equally distinct and alike reasons for having been cursed with this form and their lore is very interesting, even based on the little of it that we can wring out.
Other bosses return after you have defeated them: Genichiro and Owl are the only two that come to mind personally and they both have very specific reasons for and methods by which they came to duel you again which fit with the story dependant on which story path you are following.
The Corrupted Monk is a projection of the True Corrupted Monk. Its projection guards the path by which you ascend to the Fountainhead Palace from which the Rejuvenating Waters flow and its true form guards the entrance to the castle grounds directly after that. It tries to stop you from getting there by proxy initially, fails, and so meets you at the bridge before the gate. Its power of projection is even used in the second boss fight - something we don't see in the first - to summon momentary apparitions of iself to swing at you much like we have seen in bosses like Bloodborne's Wet Nurse and Queen Yharnam. Small details like the fact that it can't use its projections against you when it is projecting itself into that area remotely (that's my take at least) really make the game feel *true* - and I mean that in a specific way. They didn't just copy and paste the bosses. The first one is limited, because of its nature as a projection, it has only one phase and we assume we are done with it after that. We soon find out just how wrong we are when we come across its physical form which can now use projections in battle and has a second phase where - like we have seen in the Headless Bloodletting Beast of Bloodborne, the Guardian Ape and some general ADs of Sekiro - fucking centipedey head phase 2.
I see why some people could consider these 'reskins' or 'reuses' as lazy or uninspired and I do think people are right in saying there's likely many developmental concerns which encourage their inclusion: time, resources, quality etc. I do also believe, however, that From Software earns the inclusion of these reoccurrences by making them make sense in the world, lore, its story and the mechanics of the game (like the projection's inability to project) as no other developer has.
I can remember feeling that I was fighting a lot of the same enemy in The Witcher 3 - my favourite game time immemorial and one i will fight to the death for if I have to - I genuinely never felt that in Sekiro or any other From Software game. So far I've completed Sekiro and Bloodborne. Does anyone have any suggestions for how i should experience the Souls series? I'm probably going to jumpr straight in at 3, to be honest, but I might give the DS1 remaster and DS2 a shot as well if I see fit.
Yeah I loved Witcher 3 as well but I do feel as though the enemies lacked the variation and horrifically beautiful art direction that we see in From games.
If you still haven't played Dark Souls and are planning to I definitely don't recommend going for 3 first. Even though 3 will fit better with you since it's just as fast paced as Bloodborne you'll be missing/spoiling yourself some stuff.
DS2 you can skip since it takes place in a completely different place and has a ton of issues. It's a great game but it really has nothing to do with DS1 and DS3's story or world while not being as consistent as the other games (although some areas are absolutely amazing, both in terms of fun, gameplay and visuals/athmosphere).
DS1 is really sturdy and slow paced, meaning that you won't get that "rush head on" playstyle. Still, it's a lot more athmospheric than the other From games and has way better worldbuilding imo. It's also a really freaking good game that rewards players being careful and learning how to play. DS3 is the more fast paced and flashy DS game, although its also fairly linear and focusses way more on combat.
DS2 gameplay wise is a middle ground between DS1 and DS3 although it clearly shows how Miyazaki didn't take part in it (he actually was working on Bloodborne at the time lol).
Also, except for the Headless, all the "re-used" bosses have different movesets each time you encounter them.
Headless require "gimmicks" because of lore and before you find that first one you find a note that says swords and spears don't work against him, DON"T fight him. They don't give achievements, are totally optional and the item they give is okayish and not unique (same as sugars).
I FINALLY got around to playing Sekiro (just beat Sword Saint last night), and I left the Headless until basically very last. Went at them hard with sugars and confetti and the malcontent whistle, and just melted them. Didn't care for them much as enemies to fight because Terror kinda sucks, but I still wanted to clear everything out.
You say tedious but I say rewarding. Vs Dark Souls, you feel like you are actively engaged in a fight. I never felt as rewarded for beating a DS boss because I didn't feel like I was "getting gud". I was just rolling and attacking vs here where the combat has much more to it with timing and dodging/parrying the right way. The combat of Sekiro is by far my favorite but DS exploration/world design and RPG elements are definitely more fun.
As an amateur boxer sekiro combat felt more like real fighting to me...absolutely loved it
I can confirm playing Sekiro while under the influence does NOT make you better
I dunno. Lost to Genichiro 7 or 8 times, drank 5 Two Hearted Ales, and then won without using my rez.
Barbiturates relax you and give you "courage", so sure they do
I disagree sir and or madam
@@Ultimime Bryan is pretty much a sir name. Anyway, i've done through empirical research, my findings are solid.
@@Pontif11 interesting my findings are different, I have managed to go through all the ninja trigger generaters in ashina like regular enemies while on some dank ass "influence"
Thanks for another fantastic critique bro!...Keep up the good work! ❤
I wish you'd talked about the structure of the narrative and the actual story more in this video, personally.
No one really understands it.
@@false_idol__ Ugh its one of the easiest storylines to follow actually. The Scultor was in a similar situation before you, a friend to Isshin who was being consumed by hatred so Isshin cut his arm in an attempt to save him. Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry is coming to reclaim Ashina now that Isshin is at his weakest, and Genichiro wishes to prevent that. So he wants the Divine Heir's oath so he may come back from the dead without any backlash (in contrast to the way which he uses). Sekiro acts as Kuro's guard, and you aim to break the link between the Divine Heir and the Dragon so that Kuro's troubles can end and Dragonrot can bite the dust since the Heir's powers is the reason for its existance.
@@markellapapatzima7424 I know all that, though it's not exactly simple anyways. I mean the lore and the backstories.
@@markellapapatzima7424 the story is way easier to follow than a darksouls game thats for sure because the story is told much more through dialogue and bosses. And it makes sense why because unlike a dark souls game you aren't playing after all the major stuff already happened but instead you are playing while its all happening.
I beat Isshin for the first time a month or so ago and the level of pride I still feel at having done it is immense. I don't think another boss-fight will ever compare to it.
Tedious? As far as I can tell you describe every soulsbourne game with what follows after 13:08. Soulsbourne games have always been rhythm games if we follow your reasoning.
Soulsbourne games are focused around the dodge roll, Sekiro is focused around deflection. Both mechanics are used as time and execution challenges that rely on reading the telegraphed movements of enemies. In this respect, the core gameplay is identical, they just remapped the button. The main addition to this gameplay system in Sekiro are the unblockable attacks and the increased speed.
Thoroughly enjoyed this video, but the portion where you mention Isshin's boss fight being a reflection of yourself fell flat when considering the Owl (Father) fight in the game, where Sekiro fights his father and mentor, who fights using literally the same techniques that you do. He uses firecrackers to stun you to hit you, he uses Shadowrush against you, he uses the Mikiri Counter to break your posture and deal a Deathblow to you. Just felt that Owl (Father) was much more fitting for the point.
I’m in the middle of the video but I wanted to say one thing:
Calling Sekiro tedious rather than challenging simply because it puts less emphasis on reflexes is a little bit disingenuous to me.
For example, is guitar hero on higher difficulties not “challenging” because memorization is emphasized?
on guitar hero you kinda already know the "song" There's no melody in Sekiro which is why people saying it's a rhythm game doesn't really make sense
Nick Hunter yeah I disagree with calling it a rhythm game too. It’s as much a rhythm game as cuphead is if you think about it (it’s not)
@@NickHunter Well, no, 'cause there are different songs, some of which you don't know.
@@KaNoMikoProductions OK, let's say you were living under a rock and hadn't heard all of the songs on guitar hero. Even then, the brain and memory work very differently with melodies than with visual movement. There's a tempo and a time signature that is at a constant and works as a guideline that's without going into logical cadences in music that we are all accustomed to. You don't get any of that in a fighting game, it's just "these events occurred and the same or similar variant will occur again" A "rhythm" by definition is a "regular repeated pattern" and in music those patterns fit those guidelines of tempo and cadence and they don't in video games. Not outside of music based ones. You only need to hear a song once to be able to sing along to it on a repeat play. You don't just need to have one fight in order to react accordingly. Let me know if you'd prefer the long answer... lol
I kind of get irritated when people dismiss comparing Sekiro to Soulsbourne. They are extreamly similar. Sekiro feels like the formula just taken in a new direction, but anyone claiming it's a completely unique experience is blind.
-Level design is straight out of DS3 and BB, with it's semi open but linear connected world with branching paths. Resting at manually activated check points that resets the level, enemies, and your items (in BB it's the same but you have to go to the Hunter's dream).
-Losing your "progress" in death. Parrying. The camera angle. Lore being told through world design, npc interaction, and item descriptions. Challenging mini bosses. Bosses being in open arenas that lock you in through unexplained fog so you can't escape.
-Enemies being able to track in their attacks so they defy physics when they attack you. New areas that throw new enemy types that compeltely throw you off your rhythm that you have to adapt to. Raising your stats just by enough to keep up with the difficulty but not enough to be overpowered.
-Limited healing items. Lots of useless items. Obscure npc side quests. Multiple endings. The insane difficulty and learning curve. Even stealth isn't new, it's just more focused on. And while you can grapple, Fromsoft games always were pretty vertically design, just how you get places is a bit different.
Sekiro feels like the Fromsoft formula just set in feudal Japan and with a more catered character action experience instead of RPG and no multiplayer. It's a game if you didn't know was by Fromsoft you'd think "wow, this is really similar to dark souls or bloodbourne".
Saying they're not comparible is like saying Final Fantasy 10 isn't comparible to 7 bc they're in a different setting and the combat is a bit different. Or can't compare Bayonetta to Devil May Cry bc Bayonetta is a girl and Dante is a guy.
Given that dark souls and bloodborne is so heavily tilted towards dodging rather than parrying (in the sense that you dodge mostly and parry occasionally) I think it's kinda fair. It's a long road to the "click" even for soulsborne fans. also I think throwing in jumping as another dodge really trips a lot of people up, so to speak :-D
@@NickHunter That's really the only difference and it's just more of a shift from existing mechanics. DS always had parrying that was super useful (speedrunners predominantly use it as a way to get quick kills) and BB had viceral attacks that was also extreamly useful.
But really almost everything else is the same as any Fromsoft game. It's the fromsoft formula but with altered combat mechanics
@@Crazelord91Well yeah and the key difference is from a damage perspective you have to get, for example, 16 successive parries to get the same result as a single parry in soulsborne
@@NickHunter Right. I'm not saying that isn't different, but it's just a variation than a whole new game. I'd say 80-90% of it is similar to the rest of Fromsoft games but with a different paint job
@@Crazelord91 Well in boss fights maybe, but there was no way to run round and just tactically one shot enemies in the general levels in Soulsborne. And while there's not a LOT different in the boss fights, that "10%" difference really tripped me up personally for a long time. Basically I think that despite their huge similarities, the differences are significant enough to be a problem difficulty wise. I think that's where the "dismissiveness" comes from
At 14:00 you've missed an imported quirk of Armored Warrior: You can only successful defeat him with a deathblow if it pushes him off the bridge. If performed in the middle of the bridge for instance, you can do a deathblow 20 times and it will do nothing, the fight just continues.
Since prosthetics are nowhere as useful as a last ditch heal, letting players heal with spirit emblems would result in most players never using the prosthetics
I can see a version of the healing system in Kingdom Hearts two healing system working here. In that game you have magic, one of which is the healing spell, everything costs MP(the the spirit emblem equivalent) but the cure spell costs whatever you have left. So the way its recommended you heal is to use as much magic as you need to before going for the heal. In Sekiro the gourd would have to be nerfed in some way to make this fair and the spirit emblem on some prosthetics would have to be increased. I don't know if it would be worth it though, i'd rather have a little more spammability from my prosthetics than a last-ditch heal.
I think an extra resurrection may work better. Limit the normal resurrections to two and make that third one cost you all your remaining spirit emblems. That would put the players that rely on prosthetics at a big disadvantage since that third resurrection the game is designed to have is now going to cost them their entire playstyle so i'd also make it a full heal resurrection. Now this makes the tanto you get form one of the shichimen warriors a very valuable iteam since it gives you a few more uses of your tools. Making it seven extra emblems instead of five sounds good too.
also, for the exact purpose he said, there is stuff like pellets, rice and divine weed in the game
Adi Jain I disagree completely. The axe is fantastic for shielded enemies and even just doing a ton of posture damage. The shields are useful in a variety of situations. Terror is a joke with the purple one. My point is each prosthetic is extremely useful in specific situations so I'd say overall they are way more useful than a last ditch heal.
You...have not been using prosthetics correctly.
Any chance we'll get a Bloodborne and Dark Souls critique/long winded review?
Its the fact that I'm playing Sekiro for the first time right now. Flipped on a random video essay type video of Luke's from FOUR YEARS ago while cleaning and got a whole ass tidbit that is likely going to help me take down the 'sichimen' enemy. Love this lmao. God bless Luke!
for those people trashing this game , id just like to say "get gud"
Learning boss patterns is tedious? I don't understand this bit at all...I thought that was the point in a boss, you learn its moves so you know how to react. If you can beat a boss just willy nilly without knowing its move set...doesn't that mean it's easy? I thought that was the point in any action game, you learn enemy move sets so you know how to deal with them. But apparently, if you know how to attack, block and dodge you should just win? You even say something to the effect of, "I had to do my time to learn the bosses before I even stood a chance." Yes, and that's not a good thing...? That's exactly how it should be. Boss fights shouldn't be a freebie just cause you know how to play the game. Especially in a FROMSOFT game...it's supposed to be hard, you are supposed to die, you aren't supposed to beat the bosses your first try. You are supposed to pay attention and learn, then go back and apply what you learned.
BALDORF BREAKDOWNS My thoughts exactly. You do essentially the same thing in the Soulsborne games only you’re just learning attack windows in Souls instead of deflect timing like in Sekiro. Heard this critique before and I never understood it.
@@YetiCoolBrother It's so confusing how much he seems to understand the game but somehow doesn't understand how bosses work...
First two or three runs at a boss in a FromSoft game are always about learning dodge/parry/attack windows. Sometimes you click right away and breeze through them, sometimes you bang your head against the wall for hours. But it's all about learning applicable skills for the next set of areas/enemies. I don't understand how this is tedious, it's a fundamental learning mechanic in these games.
@@hollandscottthomas Exactly! I spent many days on Demon of Hatred, and I never want to fight him again, but I don't think he's badly designed or anything. Just how a hard boss fight goes.
@@BaldorfBreakdowns I beat him on my second try! The first run taught me he was basically a Dark Souls boss, so I just switched to my default attack style XD
If you have the flame umbrella and the Malcontent it's pretty simple:
Get right under his butt, keep moving. Hack away until you see a wind-up and then dodge or deflect, and then get right back to hacking. If he jumps away: chase immediately back underneath. If he jumps up for the firebomb: turtle under the umbrella until the shockwave passes and then go straight back to hacking.
Back off after a deathblow to avoid the blast, or turtle it so you can get some early hits.
All his worst stuff is in ranged attacks, so if you stay super close he can't use them.
Sprint away in third phase to avoid the ring of fire (i did this by accident!), but then get close and Malcontent him for a solid 1/4 damage. Repeat as soon as he comes to. Final 1/4 of health is same as phase one but he's just angrier. I actually broke his posture because of all the damage I'd inflicted so quickly and a few really lucky deflects.
Great video/critique as always. I really struggled with Sekiro, and my “click moment” took a long time to arrive. After Bloodborne and Souls I hit a wall with what it felt was a restrictive char progression and options to tackle bosses. But then I started using items, sugars, and more importantly, the right prosthetics, different moves... and I realised that I could win the fights a lot easier. My first run took me forever but I was stubborn, and enjoyed the challenge of discovering a way to beat the boss. I was so impressed when I watched some guides and how simple it was, lol, but I found my way. It challenged me, but I platinum it and loved it. The story was refreshingly simple and subtle, and loved every little touch that the world told. The snippets were there for the player to find (ex is a certain red mask on a wall, you know if you noticed it).
I come from the opposite end , instead of a dark souls and bloodbourne player I am a tenchu fan , tenchu is my favorite game and game series , Even though I think from soft was the weaker of the 3 publishers when it came to tenchu , they are by far awesome with the souls Bourne games , even though to me the stealth could be better and seems to play much like tenchu z type of stealth , the combat is awesome and I love their lore and storytelling and their dark themed games , I already accepted that this was a blend of soulsbourne and tenchu z style gameplay and overall I think it makes for an awesome title , so I can see how many soulsbourne players could wish for similar things they are use to , much like me wishing for more tenchu style gameplay , overall I think we should all be happy that we got this blend of stealth and awesome combat with badass boss encounters , I love this game !
Your critique on the bosses is very bias and I ultimately I respect it but I disagree. The bosses that show up twice are very different. Guardian ape brings his wife so you have to fight two apes instead of one. Owl second fight is completely different than his first and is a secret fight that not all players will find. Corrupted monk goes from being an illusion with a posture bar that is ridiculous to being a three phase fight once only phase that is similar to the illusion monk is the first one. I think yes they could have been more diverse boss fights but at the same time, doing them twice was a conscious decision. Not laziness...
Yeah, second Owl is him in his prime with a completely different moveset. The two Monk fights are complete remixes of one another with different focus on vitality/posture breaking. Second (third?) Genichiro is a perfect measure for how far you've come since mid-game, right before you fight a brand new challenge. Second Ape fight I beat on the first try, because the brown ape isn't as aggressive or dangerous as the original Guardian was, and it was an interesting split-focus.
Posture is the real heath,and health is posture,specifically on high power enemies
And on Sekiro himself. I always see health as something which decides how quickly my posture comes back and not as my health in different games
I think the consideration between using your sword/parrying and using your prosthetic/dirty tools is perfectly in line with the consideration you (Sekiro) makes as a shinobi. He has to balance himself between choosing to honour his master (the honourable path) or follow the Iron Code (the dirty path).
Just because you can exploit a boss doesn’t mean you should. Approaching the boss in different ways adds to the replay ability.
I think one thing repeating bosses like owl and genichiro as many times as they do gives on the positive side is the player gets more time with those characters to get to know them and develop their lore. Its possibly a design choice to go along with the decision to have more solid lore and story compared dark souls games with their kinda ethereal myth like lore.
I remember on my first playthrough i wasn't really sure who all was allied with who or why. like why is isshin not angry that i killed his grandson? but then fights to the death when resurected by his grandson even though he doesn't seem to agree with genichiro's goals for ashina. meeting them more times helped me figure out their character motivations, and also it was really cool to notice throughout the actual fights who shared similar abilities with who else. often time i found myself thinking "o that makes sense, because so and so trained this guy he of course has this move."
idk if i would get the know the bosses as well with only 1 fight.
Their movesets are also really different depending on when/where you battle them.
Stumbled on this channel by accident with some shorter videos. Never got around watching these long critiques until finally jumped in with Vampyr. Now I can't get enough. You have a very fair and reasonable when talking about games. What I really admire is tying in your education with these topics you do videos on.
After a month of getting pulled deeper and deeper into your channel I can safely say: my favourite "gaming" and "game review" channel out there. Keep up the good work.
Super looking forward to this! Love that smooth talking.
Published in my birthday for my #1 favorite game of the year, thanks so much 😭😭
RE: using the spirit emblems for healing -- that's exactly what pellets are for.
"finite resources" as soon as you're in ng+, you buy max and never run out ever again
I was stuck on isshin for like 4 hours total over a span of a few sittings. He's a really awesome fight! His second phase got so much easier after I started integrating step dodges and closing gaps with the dash. The 3rd phase on the Saint wasn't bad at all because the lighting attacks were significantly helpful when you threw them back at him. I loved the fight so much I immediately started new game plus😁
I hate that everyone thinks sekiros combat system is unique, because it's just the old school prince of persia combat in 3d
Probably one of my fav of all time, I loved so much the purity of it, stripping all RPG elements, weapons, and forcing you to focus and discipline. No other game lead me to do self-analysis of my playstyle and force to adapt and discover new approaches. I never approached a DS or Bloodborne boss telling myself, « stay calm, lean back but don’t let him breathe ». It also taught me greater patience than the usual DS. To not be too harsh on myself and accept some fights are going to be a long process and there’s no reason to rush into it.
I felt very subtle emotions that no other Game brought me ever.
Gets Anti Air Death Blow, takes 2 minutes to kill Shichiman, wait what?
The game didn't click for me until my 5th or 6th attempt against genichiro because I went from playing dark souls and bloodborne so this game was very difficult for me at first.. but when the combat actually clicked for me I fell in love with this game.. this game has the greatest combat system ever made imo
I loved the section about the guardian ape boss. You were spot on. Genichiro took me about 3 hours to beat and then I beat the Ape on my second try. I guess that shows that I’m better equipped for dark souls gameplay than rhythm game play. I still love both games though.
Guardian ape fight has just as much rhythm as Genichiro, it's just that Genichrio is the battle that truly tests whether the player has grasped the mechanics of the game, or are they still spamming dodge. It's why so many people struggled with him, and once they got over that hump, the rest of the game became easier.
@@JakeJupiter spot on.. Sekiro is either really hard or really easy, there's no middle ground
I remembered Tenchu fondly and when I saw From Software putting this game together I decided to buy day one. It was the first time I've ever bought the first day before, no regrets and especially after I got the parry system. Great critique!!!! Thanks for your hard work!
When Luke talks about the tedium creeping into boss fights, it pretty much captures how I feel about Elden Ring. Roll, stab, roll, stab.
Once you master this game and go into NG+, it is incredibly satisfying. I remember doing Genichiro first time and dying dozens of times, fighting him on NG+ I only healed once and had him dead within 3 or 4 minutes. I even killed him at the start of the game too.
I completely agree about the bosses being exhausting in some cases. I'm very glad I took on the demon of hatred before Isshin as I'm not sure I would have wanted to go back and fight a boss like that lol. Both of them took me several hours to beat and I took breaks between them that were days long just to give myself a break but Isshin at least was and is one of the most satisfying souls bosses I've ever fought.
Almost all the boss fights do change and evolve on their second fight and most of them are part of the story. Headless is more of a buffed fodder enemy.
Idk man to me souls really boils down to dodging no matter the build because you get to be completely immune to damage, when shit gets hectic it’s the spam rolls that git us good
I love your content, re your critique of not having a mechanism to replenish spirit emblem with a toll of vitality similar to the blood borne health for silver bullets, the Ceremonial Tanto in Sekiro converts vitality to spirit emblem.
23:05 Yes, spirit emblems are a finite resource but you neglected to mention that they are mainly gained through defeating enemies. And the finite resource used to heal as a last ditch effort? Pellets, divine grass, and rice.
They're only finite if you never revisit places you've been to. You get them from killing enemies, and the Ashina Outskirts is a perfect place to get more emblems
The reason spirit emblems to heal is probably because of the Ceremonial Tanto. Using it makes you take your health in ~half to get extra spirit emblems. You could use those in a loop[ if you could also use them to heal. They then could've taken the Tanto out but I think the "health for emblems" thing make a bit more sense with the gourde being a thing. A lot of enemies drop them too and, due to a couple farming instances, I had the max by the end and kept digging into the pool a little.
Also, hey, Horse and Dragon! I did a "tour" there once. It was only, like, one big-ish room (apart from the front) but the two owners were nice and it was a neat brewery. Incredibly knowledgeable about mythology (focusing on Chinese, obviously) which was pretty rad.
All the bosses you mentioned except headless have new attack patterns when you meet them again, so they aren't really repeated
Yeah, and the updated movesets are relevant to the time/place you encounter them.
Every day I learn more about the game design genius of From Software
I'm just finishing Sekiro cause I am a FromSoft noob and discovered I love these games with Elden Ring. Sekiro is incredible, but I do feel it's tedious as well. I'm maybe not so talented reflexes wise and I have to learn every boss like a song. It does feel great to own them after a while, but it was just to hard reach that point. But the game is truly stunning. The design is perfection. Best combat I ever played in any game, period. And it looks gorgeous. Can't praise it enough.
Completely agree with you about the click moment - Genichiro was mine, and right after him, I started to TRULY experience the game as it was meant to be.
I like that the TV in the back shows the footage of the game or the scene you are talking about at the moment.
Truly an excellent review. On point, fair and balanced, well spoken. Gotta say, you know your craft. Also, thanks for driving home the point that this is no Soulsborne and never was intended to be.
One does not simple “ go and play “ a from soft game
You should record and sell bootleg audio books posing as Paul Rudd
I wouldn't count Owl as a straight reskin because both fights actually have very different movesets, only a couple of attacks are repeated.
Whenever i wanted to grind for new skill points i got a lot of extra money that i spent on spirit emblems. I had 999 for most of the time even though after several boss fights i could be down to 500 some time. I have 999 now and 2 bosses left. I never lost a lot of money in this game because i made sure i was poor. Giant ape was hard but demon of hatred was a bit worse to me. True corrupted monk's second phase insta killed me by hitting me off the bridge a lot of times, that fight was the most boring one so far because it took so long to get him to his 3rd phase and that was actually the phase i wanted to play.
Guardian Ape is the biggest curveball? Did you miss the Demon of Hatred? He's a giant inferno beast that plays like a DS3 boss. Deflecting for the entire fight will get you burned so evasion works best since his tracking isn't as accurate as other bosses. But that makes pressuring him for a deathblow much tougher. You gotta stick and move doing chip damage and wait for openings until his HP is low enough that you can posture break him easier. Then repeat that process again without getting killed in 2 hits. You basically have to throw everything the game has taught you out the window for that fight. I think that's the biggest curveball in the game. Maybe I just suck and he's easy for everyone else. That's just my small brain opinion.
lady butterfly was my click moment... other people say Gyoubu Masataka was theirs
You can deflect Guardian Ape as well. You just need balls to stay close to it.
Title: Sekiro Critque
Luke: LeT's tAlK aBoUt HoRrOr MoViEs
I think spirit emblems are more comparable to bullets in bloodborne, since in bb the hunter tools also use bullets. But ultimately I like the way you phrased it. They limit your usage as a way to discourage essentially spamming them, and that if you just desperately WANT to use them, you have to decide between them and your health (blood bullets in bloodborne, ceremonial tanto in sekiro). It makes every usage of them all that more meaningful.
Also the part about unintended mechanics or strategies is interesting because, well so I just beat my first playthrough of sekiro last night, and I pretty much went through the game using a strat that most speedruns use which is jumping mortal draws. There's a skill in sekiro that lets you use combat arts while in the air, and for some reason, when using this in combination with mortal draw, it gives you the exact same damage as *empowered* mortal draw, a skill that doesn't become available to you until you fully unlock 2 separate, specific skill trees. For me, this made the game way more fun, and didn't feel cheap at all as I still needed to figure out when it was safe to use. But something like AI freezes, like what you can do with Shadows of Yharnam or whatever, I was never the biggest fan of them. As annoying as a boss is, I don't like completely nullifying that experience, whereas others feel no qualms about cheating a boss if they catch the faintest whiff of bullshit. I dunno, just an interesting point I never thought about, because at the end of the day we do all beat the boss, in whatever weird way we used to get there.
In response to the critique of guardian ape: The guardian ape was the hardest part of my first playthrough. I ended up kiting the first phase (which took forever) and then took it like the rest of the game when the sword came out: deflection time.
I found out in later playthroughs that the first phase can totally be taken like the rest of the game. Each attack hits like a truck, but as long as there's no red symbol, the deflection system is still there. He may be a big erratic ape, but he's just like every other boss in terms of learning attack patterns and getting down the deflection timing
I love these long videos. I know your views aren’t very high but just know that the people who watch your videos love them and enjoy your perspective on things very much
You should never need to buy Spirit Emblems, basically every enemy you kill drops at least a couple. If you’re killing things, you’re getting Emblems.
I think the terror bosses train you to use the umbrella. Even the non-purple umbrella blocks all terror and many of the other over-powered boss attacks. Once you get that, things like Guardian Ape's scream or Isshin's combat arts go from penalty to opportunity for counter-play.
Yeah, I used the fire umbrella to block all the Demon of Hatred's jumping attacks while I stayed underneath him hacking away, and I beat him on the second try.
Sekiro is epic! As epic as every other From Soft ip. The way From Software can change so much in their next game and it still be an amazing game and experience shows why they are up there with the best, and most respected development teams in gaming. I love From Softs games! Can't wait for Elden Ring!
19:00 i think a big reason why blood vials are finite is also the story, as from software does value its story a lot and how it factors into gameplay. That healing blood is a controlled substance of the church and the blood being finite reinforces the idea of it being valuable as opposed to something that regenerates on its own.
Wow this critique is so precise and accurate. :D
The boss I've had the most trouble with by far was the Demon Of Hatred, probably because the focus on a Bloodborne style gameplay, as you said. It really does feel like one of the Bloodletting beasts from bloodborne but with a few AoEs and projectile attacks added. Most of the game's new tricks dont work on him ( like parrying and most of the prosthetic tool) and the main focus really is on just getting all of his health down in a long endurance fight. It feels like with I-frames on the dodge that fight would've been a cakewalk.
I beat him on the second try! I saw flames so had the fire umbrella on standby, and he'd mentioned the malcontent whistle when he was the sculptor so I had that ready for the third phase. Just sprinted right under his butt, hacked away until he wound up an attack and then circled away from it, then straight back to choppin'. When he does the leap/firebomb: turtle under the umbrella. Same for second phase. If you're under him he can't do his ranged attacks and they're all the worst ones. Third phase use the ring to drive him crazy and just hack away with a sugar active. After the third one he goes a bit nuts, but if you get underneath him again it still works just the same.
He feels like Laurence mixed with Manus to me.
" Tedious "? I don't get how many of these bosses " felt Tedious "! To me they felt epic! U can love Bloodborne, DarkSouls and Sekiro at the same time! It doesn't have to be I love this so I can't love that. Maybe u just didn't click with the game and couldn't get the parrying down if u thought all bosses were " Tedious ". It got GOTY and definitely deserved that title. It felt so different to other From Soft games but still, it felt so familiar! If I went into Sekiro not knowing it was a From Soft ip I would of guessed because it drips the amazing world building, brilliant story telling and epic gaming mechanics of a From Software ip. What a game!!!!!
I got the platinum trophy and while I think it's a great game, it's short and doesn't have the replayability. Back to Soulsborne pvp!
sandy ayyyyyy :)
As a BIG fan of both stealth games and From software, I love the game. This is a really different game than DS. It also adds that i love the parry on DS, and a combat centered on parries? Take my money.
so what luke means by "nerfing" ist just being good at the game.hey luke,thats how games work. Kasparov really nerfed his opponents at chess.
You probably said bloodborne more than sekiro in this review.
I thoroughly enjoy watching your critique videos and that quote at the end sums up Sekiro quite nicely haha.
Dude all of these games are rhythm games. It’s just waay more obvious in sekiro.
While I don’t agree with your take on how tedious the game is, because you can kill bosses in many ways if you are creative enough, I do respect the way you have conveyed your opinion.
You can do prosthetic runs, you can treat spirit emblems like blood bullets, not viles.
This is what I wish people would realize more. Every single let's play I saw on YT simply ignored the prosthetic tools, or they limited themselves to firecrackers and or shuriken. I've beaten Sekiro like 20 times now, and I've done various runs using all of the prosthetic tools/combat arts/ninjutsu skills.
I exploit the mortal blade in several instances and I don't feel bad about it. Wait for the right opening and punish the guardian ape or either owl. Even the sword Saint. It's part of the game, use the tools given to you.
葦名 弦一郎 = あしな げんいちろう = Ashina Genichirou [GEN - EE - CHEE - ROW]
I had to post this to appease my OCD. Genichirou is also his given name (first name for English speakers), which makes it weird why they translated it that way. "General Ashina" would be the better translation. The current translation is like saying "General Norman" instead of General Schwarzkopf.
The finite resource to recover health that is an alternative to healing gourd that you wanted, is pellets.
they just need to make a pure Tenchu style game. sekiro was not tenchu so i'm still waiting.
Did you like ghost of tsushima...as a tenchu fan I loved it...dream game
Regarding FromSoft sometimes putting out unfinished work, and rushing out content..... that makes me a bit nervous for Elden Ring. If they’ve done that for their smaller-scaled games, I can imagine it happening even more in their largest project yet.