Sekiro

Couldn't sleep last night so fired this up. Snakeyes in the Depths is dead, as is the illusionary monk. Took a fair few goes against O'Rin. Good fight though. I noticed they've removed the ability to wangle a stealth backstab death blow on her so actually had to fight her properly through both her phases. Waa quite chuffed when I did it though as by the time I killed her I'd basically learned her moves and deflected like a beast as well as jumping all her swepps. The sabimaru certainly helped at the start of each phase to get her vitality down a chunk. Considering my first play through I could only kill her with a stealth deathblow and the running like an idiot, it was good to fight properly. Same with Snakeyes, just got right stuck in.

I see your avatar as the Sculptor playing (probably DS2) with a controller made from a human head

Have you decided what ending you're going for yet?

I'm trying to make the most of the tools and the combat arts this time. Really enjoying trying stuff out. Even the axe on regular sword goons. I'd always kept it for shield twats but it bloody destroys posture, especially with a fang and blade follow up.

I'll be playing this right up to elden ring. I'm a bit in love with it now.

I unlocked Ashina Cross, but is it worth the two emblems it uses up?

I don't mind so much as I was faffing in bloodborne before starting this again so used to the blood bullets / emblems situation.

Tell you what. It's quite nice being able to swim underwater this early in the game.

I suppose I better go on to Ashina Castle and finally face Genichiro now. Quite curious as to how I'll get on with my new mindset.

And reading about Elden Ring, I think they're just about to step it up a fair notch again.

I love their fantasy settings so my thumbs are oiled and ready. I do want a Bloodborne 2 though. Very muchly.

It's funny there was never a proper DLC for Sekiro. I wonder if that, and the fact they ended up with a smaller game world in comparison to their other offerings, was due to the fact that it was only ever intended as a smaller scale game so they could concentrate on Elden Ring.

As for the setting of Dark Souls, I should say I don't care for fantasy in general. I do enjoy the settings and find some of the lore interesting when I'm playing it, but it's more in the context of being invested and immersed in the game

I've never even understood the origins of the Dark Souls stuff. There was no world before the flame but there was sort of a world with dragons in. Then the flame... just was, and there were Lord souls in it for some reason

Soooo... Thought I'd have a wing at Genichiro for practice and killed the fucker first time. I can't say it was graceful, but it was proper, and bloody fun. Then I killed my way through Senpou and the silly monkeys.

Just rinsed the gunfort and killed the other snake eyes and the other centipede first time each as well (snake eyes got fucked up by sebimaru and centipede by my awesome deflecting) so I'm on my way to big hairy boy.

A lot of it is the learning curve. I found the difficulty trended downward post Genichiro with a couple of spikes at well known bosses. Once you "get" the combat unless it's an enemy that really mixes things up it's not too bad. It's just a question of if it clicks with you.

I don't have a strong opinion on how to play the game - I'm three hours in! It's just fucking hard, innit?

I've used for practice and feel like I've got all the deflect/Mikiri counter shit down... and then I meet a mini boss in the game proper and get reamed.

I've got two strands of progress right now - one is in the main thread that you follow from the start where I've just got beyond a chained up ogre - that's mainly in explore mode of the next area there. There's also another thread, where I've made it to some prick with a spear and I just can't get any rhythm up in the fight. I've but just can't succeed in going toe-to-toe or Mikiri countering, or anything. And it's a polished ball bag of a run of shame, fighting a good half a dozen dudes, before I can have another attempt. Like, I don't have an issue with the fight being a challenge, but a good few minutes between attempts is a really patience sapper.

Feels like it's running at 60fps on the Series X, which is good. In general I'm liking the faster pace. Faster than Bloodborne even, and really makes Dark Souls look like a treacle wading simulator. Plus the feudal Japanese setting is always a big win for me, so I'm digging that.

I'll keep plugging away at the open strands, so it's not like I'm at a dead end, but I haven't even made it a proper boss yet! *gulp*

It takes a while to get Sekiro. I said it somewhere else, but the most difficult part for me was when I wasn't sure if I should be attacking or deflecting against enemies. It's both and it takes a while for you to develop the judgement on when either is appropriate. I also struggled on the spear mini-boss (and hated that you have to clear out about 3 or 4 adds to get another attempt on him just to die in seconds). Bait out their attacks and then back off immediately to get an idea of the timing, then just go all in and try deflecting. Hopefully you'll start to develop some confidence once you get more comfortable and can start enjoying it properly

I think I found it easier to follow the main route through Ashina before doing the memory stuff

As for groups, just try picking them off with stealth to thin them out. You can always kill one or two and then make a tactical retreat until their aggro level resets

It's worth remembering that most enemies will only actually do one type of perilous attack so once you know what they do, you can just counter it correctly each time.

Most bosses only have 2 they do, and they usually do it at specific points - for example, they might do a jumping attack, land then do a sweep. They shouldn't be doing them at random so once you know what 1/2 they do you can kinda autopilot your response to it and they become far less intimidating. You'll see for example, the boss land and you'll know the perilous is coming and what it'll be before the symbol even appears.

I did Ashina all the way to the first "proper boss" then did swapped to the memory and did that to the end before continuing.