Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - The Bear and Badger

Djornson

God this game is good. It's so different to Souls! It's forcing me into an aggresive playstyle which is interesting. Currently getting my arse kicked by Shinobi Hunter Enshin of Misen, General Tenzen Yamauchi and Juzou the Drunkard

voices

I finally worked up the courage to start playing this, given all the hype about it being harder than the other Soulsbourne games. It's.... glorious. I can't stop thinking about it while I'm not playing.

I think the stuff about it being difficult is true, though it's difficult to unpick the actual difficulty from the punishment of trying to dodge and roll like you would naturally in other From games.

Spoiler:

Tempy

Yeah it’s not as bad as all the drama surrounding it. I’m playing Nioh at the minute and it’s far, far harder IMO.

There’s actual tactile purchase to Sekiro’s combat which, when it clicks, makes it easier to hold
onto. Nioh remains a slippery effervescent beast throughout.

voices

It makes me feel like a real ninja, despite trash enemies being absolutely dumb as fuck. At least dark souls had the excuse that general enemies were undead, or ethereal/detached from existence to some extent.

Kernowgaz

I was stuck on the

Spoiler:

and haven’t gone back because I’m crap and died sooo many times and gave up.

Tempy

He’s tough. Never try and thrust him, he always punishes it. It’s mainly about keeping calm and learning which attacks you parry, which to punish, which to dash through etc.

Djornson

Djornson wrote:

God this game is good. It's so different to Souls! It's forcing me into an aggresive playstyle which is interesting. Currently getting my arse kicked by Shinobi Hunter Enshin of Misen, General Tenzen Yamauchi and Juzou the Drunkard

2 out of 3 down (the first 2.) I think i have just realised you are supposed to be aggresive in this. Not frantic but certainly hasty. Hit, dodge, hit, parry like a man possessed. Makes sense now that i think about how posture works. It's hard getting out of the Dark Souls methodical mindset but its fun.

Spoiler:

Djornson

Proper embraced the offensive style now, it's mad, love it. I miss the dark atmosphere and weird story of souls and bloodborne though, this feels like a more traditional storyline told in a more traditional way (so far.)

Spoiler:

Tempy

It has a more straightforward narrative but there is plenty of weirdness running under the surface, it’s just told in a far less oblique manner then the Souls games. It makes sense though, it’s From coming home to roost in their native narrative, they don’t need to dress to their history and folk tales in any way, they’re just telling a well
worn story in a new manner, which is what I wrote about on yon kotkau ages back.

Dinostar77

Djornson wrote:

Proper embraced the offensive style now, it's mad, love it. I miss the dark atmosphere and weird story of souls and bloodborne though, this feels like a more traditional storyline told in a more traditional way (so far.)

Spoiler:

Wow that purple ninja. I lucked out. Ran the fuck away into the river, went back up and he was walking back to the house, snuck up behind him and bam, dead.

Lol

Spoiler:

Rev

Renting this and glad I didn't buy it.
Bouncing off it in a big way unfortunately.
Shame. Was really looking forward to charging through this after playing ds3 and blooders so recently.

Tempy

No no, they’re supposed to bounce off your sword - not the other way around

Rev

Ahhhhh. That'll be why then

voices

Still super loving this -

Spoiler:

voices

Rev wrote:

Renting this and glad I didn't buy it. Bouncing off it in a big way unfortunately. Shame. Was really looking forward to charging through this after playing ds3 and blooders so recently.

Maybe a tired cliche now, but being so fresh from those games might be why you've bounced. BB was different, but still pretty close to the normal Souls fare. Sekiro's combat feels pretty different.

Djornson

MYYYY NNNNNAAAAMMMME ISSSSS!!

(he dead)

Verecocha

Really wanted to give this a go but not sure if I’d like it, picked up an account with it for £6.50, cheap enough to try it.

Verecocha

Quite enjoying this so far. Only played for a little time. Got my prosthetic and now it’s bed time. I’m hoping it’s rather story lead and not too open worldly?

Tempy

It's a typical Souls game in structure so you have your mid point and your branches and so on, but it's not an open world per se.

Verecocha

Never played a souls game for more than 5 minutes as really dislike them...but I’d like to get into this.

voices

Spoiler:

Minnesänger

Well done, voices.

Dinostar77

Verecocha wrote:

Never played a souls game for more than 5 minutes as really dislike them...but I’d like to get into this.

Mate you suprise me. I would have thought souls games would be up your street as you tend to like the games i like. Maybe this will be different?

Verecocha

Dinostar77 wrote:

Verecocha wrote:

Never played a souls game for more than 5 minutes as really dislike them...but I’d like to get into this.

Mate you suprise me. I would have thought souls games would be up your street as you tend to like the games i like. Maybe this will be different?

I don’t really know what it is. Might be that I don’t really have the patience not to make significant progress every session, might be that I don’t ever really get into the story or lack of story, might also be that it’s a bit too open for me and I like a pointer to the next ‘objective’. They might have all these but I never give them time to significantly show me them. But I’m really gonna try with this.

voices

All done. 3 more endings to get is quite a few play throughs. I've managed to end up with 39 beads too, so missed one somewhere.

hylian_elf

3 endings are doable with just one save, by using cloud save swap malarkey if you have PSPlus.

Djornson

Fuck me these bald guys in the blue dresses are hard

voices

Spoiler:

Djornson

I don't know if i am enjoying this now. I don't enjoy the constant offense tactics seemingly required. I can currently start abondoned dungeon or sunken valley or fight lady butterfly. Can't be bothered with any of them, don't really feel an incentive to try. Time to play something else for a bit i think. It's great, i just dont know if it's for me.

voices

If you've killed the boss after the blue daddy mini-boss then I think you've got the run of it - certainly enough to form a view on whether you like it or not.

For me, the combat is the tightest that's ever been put into a game, and I preferred it to the very positional combat in both Dark Souls and Bloodborne. Whether it's a better game or not is open for debate, and I'd argue it is not as strong as DS3 or Bloodborne as an overall package. I don't know (and it doesn't matter enough to dwell on).

Howdy, Stranger!

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