Multi Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019)

bloodsnake007

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May 18, 2013
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Finally looks like From Software are really advancing their build for these types of games.. looks way more dynamic in its action. Most interesting game I've seen so far this E3.. the rest has been quite underwhelming imo!
 
awesome game! very (!) steep learning curve, but once youve learned the mechanics, the fights are amazingly fluid and satifying
 
Initially I was into the idea of a leaner, less RPG-bent type of Souls experience but the further I press on the more bored I'm becoming with it. I always played solo so I don't miss any of the co-op stuff but I do feel the game lacks a bit in the atmosphere department - especially after Bloodborne. It all feels a bit by the book visually speaking. Love the verticality but the stealth honestly feels tacked on and regular enemies do a pretty poor job of training you for bosses and and mini-bosses - of which there just seem to be far too many or at least not enough of them have memorable identities in the way I think of characters like Father Gascoigne, Flamelurker or Ornstein and Smough. Then there's this engine still chugging along struggling to keep pace with 30 fps after Nioh's rock solid 60 fps and a camera that somehow feels like it's the worst of all the Soulsborne games. Those patches where a jumping enemy will simply go out of view and you'll lose lock-on altogether.. dear FromSoft, if you're going to encourage near 'perfection' in parrying, dodging and posture control maybe you aught to actually try give us the same and sort these aspects of the game out before you put it out for release. All these reviewers who continue to kiss these guy's asses for fear of the GitGud mob coming after them are doing the developers a disservice by pretending their games aren't worthy of more scrutiny and developing a new engine that would offer more fluidity like say Ninja Gaiden - would make this game amazing. Right now I just don't buy the hype unless things get better in the latter half but typically the more time you put in the easier it gets but being easier or harder alone doesn't directly translate to better.
 
Initially I was into the idea of a leaner, less RPG-bent type of Souls experience but the further I press on the more bored I'm becoming with it. I always played solo so I don't miss any of the co-op stuff but I do feel the game lacks a bit in the atmosphere department - especially after Bloodborne. It all feels a bit by the book visually speaking. Love the verticality but the stealth honestly feels tacked on and regular enemies do a pretty poor job of training you for bosses and and mini-bosses - of which there just seem to be far too many or at least not enough of them have memorable identities in the way I think of characters like Father Gascoigne, Flamelurker or Ornstein and Smough. Then there's this engine still chugging along struggling to keep pace with 30 fps after Nioh's rock solid 60 fps and a camera that somehow feels like it's the worst of all the Soulsborne games. Those patches where a jumping enemy will simply go out of view and you'll lose lock-on altogether.. dear FromSoft, if you're going to encourage near 'perfection' in parrying, dodging and posture control maybe you aught to actually try give us the same and sort these aspects of the game out before you put it out for release. All these reviewers who continue to kiss these guy's asses for fear of the GitGud mob coming after them are doing the developers a disservice by pretending their games aren't worthy of more scrutiny and developing a new engine that would offer more fluidity like say Ninja Gaiden - would make this game amazing. Right now I just don't buy the hype unless things get better in the latter half but typically the more time you put in the easier it gets but being easier or harder alone doesn't directly translate to better.
i have to disagree with some of your points...

the atmosphere is as good as always... headless fight(s), sword saint or the whole ashina castle including its multiple invasions spring to mind instantly...

the enemies do a poor job of training you for bosses thats true, but that has always been the case with souls games kinda... and again isshin the sword saint, owl, genichiro, guardian ape, demon of hatred are great bosses and super memorable....

camera is your worst enemy at times, thats true...

but the fighting system is a) better and more complex than souls and b) *super* fluid and satisfying once youve truly figured it out...
 
i have to disagree with some of your points...

the atmosphere is as good as always... headless fight(s), sword saint or the whole ashina castle including its multiple invasions spring to mind instantly...

the enemies do a poor job of training you for bosses thats true, but that has always been the case with souls games kinda... and again isshin the sword saint, owl, genichiro, guardian ape, demon of hatred are great bosses and super memorable....

camera is your worst enemy at times, thats true...

but the fighting system is a) better and more complex than souls and b) *super* fluid and satisfying once youve truly figured it out...

Headless sucks.. worst fight in the game imo.. and you can fight 3 or 4 of them and they're all the same aside from the one underwater which is even easier. I like some of the bosses but I don't think they're very memorable to me personally.. the game is just endless roadblocks with how many bosses you can fight.. I feel like they run out of ideas with this combat system too quick.

And I don't think the combat system is very deep at all.. because unlike Souls/Bloodborne experimentation and alternate styles of fighting are generally frowned upon. The punishment is too strict and too many of the combat arts seem near useless, so there's no room for creativity and it's the same in how you're forced to tackle bosses. Every player has to do it in the exact same way because there's really one single strategy to every boss (generally speaking) since you only have one single fighting style. Again I wouldn't even mind if more of the tools seems useful but it's like.. why even bother using almost any other combat art when the first one available is literally the best in the game.. okay shadowrush is good but whirlwind slash still seems to be better in almost every case I can think of. Try to do something fancy and you're probably going to be punished for it by losing almost your entire health bar.. it's incredibly restrictive and boring to me. Half your prosthetic tools seem useless as well.

Seems like they're taking themselves way too seriously or they're just trolling at this point. Aspects like nerfing dodge (doesn't have to be bloodborne good but should still be more useful than it is) and making you feel forced later down the line into grinding souls because you know chances are you're going to lose a bunch repeating a boss until you learn it.. to me it's just bad design and wastes the player's time.

Haven't actually finished the whole thing yet but yeah.. I'm already over it. :sorry:
 
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Headless sucks.. worst fight in the game imo.. and you can fight 3 or 4 of them and they're all the same aside from the one underwater which is even easier. I like some of the bosses but I don't think they're very memorable to me personally.. the game is just endless roadblocks with how many bosses you can fight.. I feel like they run out of ideas with this combat system too quick.

And I don't think the combat system is very deep at all.. because unlike Souls/Bloodborne experimentation and alternate styles of fighting are generally frowned upon. The punishment is too strict and too many of the combat arts seem near useless, so there's no room for creativity and it's the same in how you're forced to tackle bosses. Every player has to do it in the exact same way because there's really one single strategy to every boss (generally speaking) since you only have one single fighting style. Again I wouldn't even mind if more of the tools seems useful but it's like.. why even bother using almost any other combat art when the first one available is literally the best in the game.. okay shadowrush is good but whirlwind slash still seems to be better in almost every case I can think of. Try to do something fancy and you're probably going to be punished for it by losing almost your entire health bar.. it's incredibly restrictive and boring to me. Half your prosthetic tools seem useless as well.

Seems like they're taking themselves way too seriously or they're just trolling at this point. Aspects like nerfing dodge (doesn't have to be bloodborne good but should still be more useful than it is) and making you feel forced later down the line into grinding souls because you know chances are you're going to lose a bunch repeating a boss until you learn it.. to me it's just bad design and wastes the player's time.

Haven't actually finished the whole thing yet but yeah.. I'm already over it. :sorry:

we were talking about atmosphere and all the headless or rather supernatural fights (orin of the water, that purple spirit warrior,etc.) were super creepy..

i guess they wanted people to play the game as they intended it to be experienced.. lots of ppl just cheesed their way through their previous games by summoning, overleveling or relying on that one cheese strategy that made a boss laughably easy... they completely eliminated all this options (mostly at least.....)... but i guess, thats a valid critique point as they should let people play the way they want to..

and sure you had many different weapons in souls and therefore many different styles, but in the end it was all about iframing enemy attacks, which they improved massively by actually having realistic and varying ways of dodging (thrust attack-> mikiri counter, sweep -> jump+counter, parry, blocking, dodging, etc.)... combat arts arent required to complete the game, but they certainly have their uses (countering with double ichimongi for high posture damage, etc.)... same with prosthetics (firecracker against corrupted monk, loaded spear & firecracker vs guardian ape, stunning leap attacks with shuriken etc)... it just isnt always obvious and instead of trying every single option one relies on just katana play as the game punishes you probably too hard for trying something different/false...

but i admit its probably a little to steep on the learning curve and its true that your basically forced to learn every move of your enemies.. so if you dont like that (especially the latter point), then its probably not your game..
 
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