I think/know that I am in over my head. My gaming experience comes down to completing RedDead2 three times and countless hours on SkyRim.

Seems Sekiro chooses to take things to the level above the next level of difficulty.


Okay so...I’m trying to take this slow and not be bitter that there is no “easy” mode. Hell, in the spirit of all things Samurai, the game, similar to their world:

You are either perfect or you die.

That said, I obviously got killed as soon as I encountered my first enemy. Now I just want to swing the sword for a bit and practice some; I’ve learned that dying too many times gives everyone in the village crotch rot or some shit. (They stop helping you?)

Google Fu say I need to find the Dilapidated Temple so that I can spar with Hanbei the Undying.

Sadly I cannot find a map to the temple, do I need to get to a certain part of the game before I am able to get there?

i accept that the game is stupid hard, but can I at least take a few practice swings with my sword before I face my first enemy?

To add - no “quick save” makes things all that much more interesting

04.23.21 Update

I quit. It just sucks to have to begin from ‘so far back’ to have to try to kill another boss again.

I’m playing Assassin’s Creed Valhalla now and having the time of my life.

Here is a Karma - When I was going to play the game I bought the literal textbook. I’m not going to go back to the game so this book is in like new condition.

If you are SERIOUS about attempting to finish the game, or better yet if you have finished the game and want the book to be an add on to your experience, reply here and I’ll ‘draw’ in a few days and send it out.

https://www.amazon.com/Sekiro-...id=1619227621&sr=8-2

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Ronin1069,

Welcome to the Souls style of game. Die early. Die often. If you have met the one armed old hermit with all the carved wooden statues, then Hanbei is just outside his hut, to the right. Facing away from the old man's hut.

Also try gamefaqs.gamespot.com. Some very helpful guides. https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/...adows-die-twice/faqs

man!

This is so much fun!!!

I still have not passed the first mini boss, but I do not even care.

I’m feeling like I’m getting the timing down on the blocks, I’ve accepted the fact that this will be a game of patience versus frustration, just because it is as hard as it is, makes it that much more “samurai“ to me.

I suck at this, but I don’t care.

LOL

Starting to get the hang of this game. Keeping mainly to rooftop stealth kills and working my way thru the village to the next idol...

I look around...nobody to see other than a few stray dogs....

A few stray dogs....

Jump down and start walking toward the gate and the next idol. The ‘stray dogs’ eat me.

Ummm...that never happened in RedDead or SkyRim when I saw a dog!?!?

LOL

Back to the undying guy for some more practice.

I suck at this, I suck more than anyone has ever sucked before.

At this point, I’m just going to go back to sparring with the “can’t die” guy for a while, venture out to the cliffs every once in a while to kill a few guys, and then go back to the hut.

Rinse and repeat until I can defeat the undead guy pretty handily.

Haven't played this game, but what you say rings true with my experience with Japanese produced samurai/ninja games. They are brutally hard.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is the most recent game I've played that was surprisingly hard. For an RPG, it goes the other way from the typical fare for the genre, which is generally "you're a special character with unique circumstances and the savior of the story" and can more or less whoop ass right off the bat. No sir. You start as a peon who knows nothing (you have to learn to read, ffs) and the combat system is unlike any other game before it. You will die. A lot. Then, you will die some more.

Sekiro looks good, I watched a couple Youtube videos. Thankfully, it's available on Steam for PC, so the next time it pops up on sale for a good deal, I think I'll snag it. I've been thinking lately about digging out the old PS2 and playing some Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven and Onimusha: Warlords, but wondering if I could actually handle how dated the graphics are. This should scratch that itch nicely.

Just about every tutorial and video I can find says the first thing you should grind through to get is the “MIKIRI counter” move.

I did, and I’ve been practicing it, and I may just live in this training village for a while; feeding off of the Samurai I’ve learned to kill without too much effort.

Eventually I will fill up my skill tree enough to where I should be able to take on the initial mini boss and main boss with at least a fighting chance of beating them.

Yep, I’m obsessed. Just bought the hardcover book - an actual book!
Sekiro Shadows Die Twice, Official Game Guide

My 17 YO son:
Dad, can I try that Ninja game you’ve been playing all week?

Me:
Sure can I watch?

Literally an hour later:
“Dad, I just killed the boss you’ve been stuck on...on the first try!”

Me:
...

He rage-quit after not being able to beat General Naomori Kawarada after about 15 deaths in a row. LOL

There is something cathartic about seeing your children fail where you have succeeded.

Now just imagine... This isn't the hardest of the Souls style games...

I found a way to ’sneak up’ and get 1 free deathblow on the red-eyed restrained giant (or whatever they call him), and now I am exploring Hirata Estate. I’ve mined just about everything there is to find, and now I am trying to get to the next save point. (Bamboo: Thicket Slope Idol).

But....you have to travel a bit from the last idol to get to the Shinobi Hunter and you cannot go around him and ‘rest’ at the idol until he is dispatched. That’s fine, I’ve died so much I think my mom has Dragon Rot, but it SUCKS that you have to retrace so much distance just to fight him again. At least with the tied up giant, there was an Idol just a few feet away and only 2 dudes to easily dispatch to trigger that fight again.

I don’t mind the game being hard, but this is silly. The Internet says that the purists want it to remain hard, and I get that....but not all of us are 23 year olds living in our basement and having nothing to do all day but game. I’ve got a few hours a day, (maybe) and it sucks that I’ve been trying to kill the same boss for a week....sucks to the point of just not being fun anymore.

I bought the book (it’s over 500 pages and reminds me of a school textbook) and see that coming up soon is an area where there is some crazy snake that is going to take a significant amount of luck to dispatch....I don’t know.

Thinking maybe I might pause and reconsider buying a PS4 so that I can play Ghost of Tsushima instead.

My 17 year old is reading this over my shoulder and said, “dad you don’t sound like a very committed Shinobi!”

LOL, God I love that kid!

Games like Sekiro and the other "Soulsborne" games by FromSofware are part of a niche style of game that's intended to be punishingly difficult, and require an immense amount of practice (and basically near-perfect timing and pattern memorization) in order to "get good" enough at it to finally beat them. In fact, "Git Gud/Get Good" is the tongue-in-cheek unofficial slogan bandied about by fans of FromSoftware games.

They appeal to a very specific type of gamer, which it sounds like you aren't. (And I'm not either.) Namely someone who enjoys tearing their hair out in frustration for months before reaping the reward of a big sense of accomplishment by finally achieving something that initially seems unachievable, through a combination of intense practice, strict pattern memorization, and luck.


Ghost of Tsushima is a much more "casual" game, while still having the same ninja/shinobi style. Sounds like you'll likely enjoy that a lot more.

The first time you encounter the snake you don't have to kill it. There is an opportunity to death blow it later in the game. An opportunity I missed.

quote:

Originally posted by jmalb:
Now just imagine... This isn't the hardest of the Souls style games...

100% Disagree. I actually quit this game on the last boss because I was so sick of it. Not because I couldn't beat it(heh), but because I didn't want to spend literal hours learning the boss fight like you have to do against Owl. You have to memorize every move of every boss in every fight in Sekiro, and you didn't have to do that in any oter Souls game. You could often win boss fights on the first attempt by being patient and learning how to avoid some of their stuff and winning. That was absolutely not the case against any boss in Sekiro.

I absolutely LOVE the Souls games, but Sekiro was not a fun experience for me and I REALLY hope they leave that style of fighting out of Elden Ring(the next Souls game).

The recent posts got me to remove it from my Steam wishlist. That sounds like an experience I would not enjoy.