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Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice | OT | Borne of Souls

Fbh

Member
Finally got to play around 3 hours.
So far it has been amazing. Unlike Bloodborne which was pretty much souls in another setting, this definitely feels more like it's own thing which is great. You can still tell it's the Souls team but stealth elements and combat make it really unique, it definitely took me a while to get used to not having a stamina bar and that side stepping and circling around enemies is often not the ideal approach. The grappling hook and overall higher mobility also give the level design more verticality which is great.

Console performance (on the Pro) is ok. Not great but like all FROM games on consoles it feels a bit awkward at first but after 10 minutes you get used to it and it's a non issue (at least to me).

Difficulty has felt a bit easier than the souls games to me. It's definitely not an easy game but I think taking advantage of stealth can make a lot of encounters easier. But I guess further on it might change.

Do people really think this game has “unimpressive” graphics? Maxed out on PC at 1440p and I feel it’s very clean and nice looking. Maybe not “gorgeous” but not bad

Playing on a Ps4 Pro so probably not as nice looking as on PC. But it looks good IMO, it's not jaw dropping amazing but like most previous FROM games the graphics seem good enough and the art direction is strong.


would it be silly for me to pick this pick when i have barely touched Bloodbourne?

i bought BB and played it for half an hour, got lost/stuck and that was that. didn't have the will to continue. lost the disc and grabbed it from PS+ but still haven't had the itch to play despite its GOAT status.

i love ninja stuff, fantasy stuff a bit less so, but does this game revel in its difficulty like previous games... From this dev? :messenger_bicep::messenger_beaming:

p.s. isn't there a Sony first party ninja game in the works... or was this it?

I'd say give it a go. So far the level design is more straightforward than Blodborne and both the stealth and parry based combat make it feel pretty different.

And no this isn't made or funded by Sony, it's a multiplatform title you can also get on Xbox and PC. The Sony one is Ghosts of Tsushima which, while cool, looks like it's going to be more of a traditional open world game.

Which is funny because samurai didn't parry. Katanas where not used to parry and if they were, you would not have a sword for long.

I mean sure but samurai also didn't have fully functional and upgradeable prosthetic arms or the ability to revive when killed so it's not like the game was ever going for realism
 

Meccs

Member
I played the first mission. Can't believe I have another "Souls" game to play. Everything I love about the combat is here and more.
 

slade

Member
Game is not for loot whores. The only customization seems reserved for your basic combat options. In a way, it's like a character action game with a limited moveset. Don't know how many more moves we can open up (got one new one so far) and set since I'm only two hours in but the selling point of this game is the traversal and level design..... so far at least.

On the plus, the art design really pops on PC at 4k. Story also seems to be told more in a traditional sense rather the From Soft's usual MO of, 'play the game and then read some internet weeb' s essay about how great the story was.'
 

kraspkibble

Permabanned.
just started it. i'm only at the point where you
wake up after losing your arm and talk to the sculptor.

very early impressions so far as that it is too easy. i had way more trouble dealing with Dark Souls/Bloodborne very early on. only one enemy gave me trouble
the one before the bridge that you need to give 2 deathblows.
parrying is too damn easy and i sucked at it in soulsborne.

that all said i've died about 5 times so far and i do expect it'll get harder.
 
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I agree with all the praise so far, I would like to point out one point of criticism and it's the A.I. It's incredibly stupid when it comes to awareness and going back to patroling right after I slaughtered all their allies.

It's so stupid.
 

HotPocket69

Banned
I agree with all the praise so far, I would like to point out one point of criticism and it's the A.I. It's incredibly stupid when it comes to awareness and going back to patroling right after I slaughtered all their allies.

It's so stupid.

With how difficult the game supposedly is already, I think I'd be fine on baddies not chasing me around relentlessly like assholes if I was spotted.
 

SaniOYOYOY

Member
played up until that stupid orge.

game so fucking good, its illegal. For me it feels like an upgraded bloodborne with so much more verticality
 

Dunki

Member
I am sorry but did anyone get the Ps4 button layout to work on the PC? Some say it is bugged and some got it to work. But I really do not know how...
 

Golgo 13

The Man With The Golden Dong
How difficult this game compared to Dark Souls?

It’s just as, if not more difficult than the Souls games. It’s just a bit different because of the mobility and stealth elements. Also, I’ve only run into Mini-Bosses and not any real bosses yet, so I can’t comment on Boss difficulty, which I’m sure is insane.
 

JimmyJones

Banned
Played it last night up until the first boss in the Hirata Estate. I somehow managed to miss the chained Ogre so I'm heading back to him now. Can't wait to get back into it.
 

JimiNutz

Banned
As expected this game has absolutely ruined both me and my gf today.
We've put in a solid 4 hours but haven't even beaten the first proper boss yet I don't think lol

This is our first time playing a character action or From game though and despite being awful at it we really enjoy it. The whole 'taking a sip of Whiskey every time we die' thing was a big mistake though. We stopped doing that after the first two hours and are only sober now!

Maybe will beat the first boss by end of the day. We don't really want to resort to guides though.
 

Jigsaah

Member
But is the combat outdated or not?

No, the combat feels fresh with the emphasis on defense this time around. There are combat arts that allow you to do special skills too, but I am a bit concerned that you can't equip more than one at any one time. It doesn't make a lot of sense.
 

Mega Man

Member
Based on everything I've read, it appears Sekiro is a bit more accessible for the SoulsBorne Rookies with enough of a change in pacing/combat to make it feel fresh to the Vets.

As someone who has the game sitting in his center console, patiently waiting.. I'm beyond excited to get home and start this journey.
 
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Ellis

Member
But is the combat outdated or not?

That would be impossible to answer as there is no such thing as a dated game mechanic. It either works or it doesn't. Time doesn't change that.

In Sekiro it works, and it works real fucking good.

Give it a go. You might just like it.
 
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Ulysses 31

Member
Do people really think this game has “unimpressive” graphics? Maxed out on PC at 1440p and I feel it’s very clean and nice looking. Maybe not “gorgeous” but not bad
I wouldn't call it ugly but from what I've seen so far it's a lot of green, brown and grey areas which tend to look a bit samey and drab after a while, especially when the whole area is overcast with barely distinguishable shadows.
 

BizzyBum

Member
Maybe it's because I just started and haven't unlocked many combat skills but I'm not really a fan of the parry system to stagger then deathblow enemies every time.
 

Golgo 13

The Man With The Golden Dong
That fucking Shinobi hunter is annoying. His attacks are

A) Unblockable
And
B) Track your movement


What the fuck?
 

Arachnid

Member
That fucking Shinobi hunter is annoying. His attacks are

A) Unblockable
And
B) Track your movement


What the fuck?
Yeah, he's a dick but I get him a little closer every time I tackle him. Just stealth away one of his bars and then use that miraku (sp?) upgrade to stomp him. I almost had him with the upgrade but I'm still trying to get the timing down.
 

Golgo 13

The Man With The Golden Dong
Yeah, he's a dick but I get him a little closer every time I tackle him. Just stealth away one of his bars and then use that miraku (sp?) upgrade to stomp him. I almost had him with the upgrade but I'm still trying to get the timing down.
That counter thing does work, but only on the thrusting attacks, right?

And it’s a bit hard to tell which attack he’s going to do. I know one time I was able to circle around him quite easily and wear him down, but other times, his attacks track me (the hit box is HUGE) and stop me when I try to sidestep.
 

RedVIper

Banned
I think I'm almost done with the game, but I'll only talk about the stuff that was previously shown in trailers because I don't want to spoil anyone.

A few disclaimers first,
I've put over a thousand hours into the souls series, some things that might be a negative for me probably don't bother most people.
Second, I'm playing on the high difficulty "mode".

The good:
The grappling hook and verticality, it definitely ads a lot to the game and can make moving around the levels extremely fun. Using it on enemies is equally satisfying. And the animations are top notch.
The game looks pretty good, it's still a fromsoftware game so from a technical standpoint you shouldn't be expecting anything mind blowing but they make up for it with style. I still think BB is slightly better in some areas, but since I'm playing on PC I get much better IQ and performance.
The combat feels great and deflecting 10 attacks in a row feels fucking satisfying.
There's an enemy that fatrolls, this is very important to me because reasons.

Nitpicks:
The UI, oh god this pissed me off, I'll probably mod it eventually and I'm sure I'll enjoy the game a lot more then.
I preferred the way story was told in the other entries, but I understand people have lots of different opinions on this one
I don't like the dodge animation.
I think there's too many "kill" animations, they could have been saved for more important enemies, sometimes I'll deal deathblows to enemies that are already dead anyway, why?


The bad:
Hitboxes are as ever fucked, which is a complain on all the others game too I know, but I feel like the dodge is weaker (Less iframes) than in previous titles which makes it more obvious, although I'd have to test it so don't take my word for it.
One of the early game mini bosses (Chained ogre I think) really showed this to me, he has a kick that can hit you when you're standing behind him and three different grab attacks that track you.
I feel like the warning that appears before dangerous attacks are sometimes just useless,they come out way too fast so you need to react to the animation instead, also some of the warning attack can still be countered, others can't, so you need to look at the animation regardless.
Way too many bonfires, it's not even funny, I found 4 bonfires in the span of 5 minutes to the point I had to go back because I assumed I must have skipped an entire area or something.
The lack of RPG elements is definitely a negative for me, I found myself exploring for the sake of it, even though most of the time I'll get a consumable I know I'll never use anyway, the game won't have the same replay ability as previous titles IMO.

Now this part I know is very divisive, the game is too easy, once I got comfortable with deflecting and miriki counters I just started shitting all over enemies, unless you get yourself heavily outnumbered you're untouchable, I just play hyper agressive and enemies can't do shit. One of the bosses (Mild spoilers but this was shown in the trailer), the one that walks on strings, can become completely trivial if you're just aggressive, I didn't even let her do anything on her second phase, just kept attacking until her posture broke. The fights are also lot longer if you aren't aggressive because enemies will recover their posture.

I'm going to back track now and try to find stuff I invariably missed now, I'm still having lots of fun with the game despite my gripes with it.
 
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scalman

Member
So game cant even recognise that i have controller, ohh this bs again with their game? Cmon . so its ds4 controller game wont see it as ds4 controller no as x1 controller. So its no way to play . tried couple colutions and nothing worked. What year we live in?
 

Terenty

Member
So ive palyed for about 30 mins, but so far the game is kinda underwhelming.

It feels and looks cheap compared to previous games. The graphics is an obvious step down from BB (playing on max settings pc).

From soft.
unfortunately stooped down to using modern popular elements such as hiding in grass ala countless games and painted climbable places.

The levels became more vertical and spaceous, but the AI unfortunately migrated unchanged from previous games. You can climb high places or go under the floor only to witness their inadequacy in fool glory.

And such little details as a sword bouncing off the wall if its hit are missing too.

All in all not what i expected so far
 
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Golgo 13

The Man With The Golden Dong
People talking about how easy the game is haven’t gotten past the first 3 hours, I’m guessing.

I absolutely coasted for the first 3-4 hours then you kind of hit a brick wall, depending on the order you do things, whereas games like Bloodborne and Dark Souls were HARD right from the beginning.
 

Arozay

Member
Took a while for me to learn the game compared to the other From games, partially because it was running like ass with OBS open until I changed my CPU settings (encoding), was struggling on medium, now I can max it no problem.

The exploration is great with the added vertical aspect, though it hasn't come into play with fighting apart from hiding but it's still early days I think (a few "bosses" in). It feels familiar but there's enough new stuff to shake it up, especially with the skill system and upgrades.

90% of my deaths have been me being impatient and not bullshit (except for the literal bull). Still not going to use half the on-use items and free-aiming projectiles still sucks balls though.
 
People talking about how easy the game is haven’t gotten past the first 3 hours, I’m guessing.

I absolutely coasted for the first 3-4 hours then you kind of hit a brick wall, depending on the order you do things, whereas games like Bloodborne and Dark Souls were HARD right from the beginning.

I am 11 hours in.

I would't go as far to say it is as easy as Viper said, but I agreed with him in the sense that it's the easiest From game I have played. I die all the time, but again, just simply utilizing all options available to me. I couldn't get very far in any Souls game, and finally gave up with BB after 25+hours. We'll see what happens here.

Maybe I just fit better with this style, who knows.
 
Played a few hours of this earlier on PS4. I struggled with Bloodborne but loved the atmosphere. I am also loving the atmosphere in this game and the setting. I know this will be a serious challenge but I already can’t wait to jump back in as soon as I can.

The mechanics certainly take a bit of getting used to.

it took me maybe 9-10 goes to kill the first general guy once the main hub opens and get the first prayer bead. He was really tough but so satisfying when I beat him.

Going to take me a while to get used to the posture system. Dodge and evade seem to be less important than correctly timed deflection.
 
Holy cow this game is HARD!

Threw together some guides in case someone needs help. Spent 3 hours trying to figure out Enshin lol.







Keep up the good work, love your videos man. I am graciously skipping these though as I’m determined to go as far as I can blind...... until I end up breaking a controller. But seriously want to try and complete without a guide if possible, never done that with a From game before.
 

ultrazilla

Member
The game is on my radar and I'd grab it on PC but I'm concerned with some apparent bugs the game shipped with. ACG on Youtube(no video from him yet on the game, just reading his Twitter posts
[B]ACG[/B]‏ @[B]JeremyPenter[/B] Sekiro really does have a large number of bugs. The infinite death falling then respawning over the fall point and falling again is tiring

[B]ACG[/B]‏ @[B]JeremyPenter[/B] It is tough to admit but the number of bugs and oddities in Sekiro really hurt it. Especially in a title prepped for challenge. The latest is no damage whatsoever being applied to a boss then a hard crash on console. uhg not a great look
I’m with you.

This will be the first From game I actually beat

This is a good thing and I'm relieved to read it! :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 

Fbh

Member
Played some more.
I actually think this has gotten a harder. Specially some parts that seem optional. There's a part in the Hirata Estates where
You go down an optional path and there's 2 monk type enemies. One can be stealth killed but the other one kicked my ass quite a few times, though I did eventually kill him
.

Also I need some help a bit further down after the Chained Ogre.
I beat the general and then you go down a path and find some weird dark creature that takes away your dash and slows you down and seems to kill you with a status effect after 3 or 4 hits regardless of block or parry. I'm supposed to kill that thing? how?
 
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RedVIper

Banned
Played some more.
I actually think this has gotten a harder. Specially some parts that seem optional. There's a part in the Hirata Estates where
You go down an optional path and there's 2 monk type enemies. One can be stealth killed but the other one kicked my ass quite a few times, though I did eventually kill him
.

Also I need some help a bit further down after the Chained Ogre.
I beat the general and then you go down a path and find some weird dark creature that takes away your dash and slows you down and seems to kill you with a status effect after 3 or 4 hits regardless of block or parry. I'm supposed to kill that thing? how?

You need an item that lets you damage that type of enemies(Apparitions). The status effect is terror I believe
 
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