Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (FromSoftware)

CantHaveTkachev

Legends
Nov 30, 2004
49,452
29,190
St. OILbert, AB
just beat Guardian Ape last night and heard he was a tough hombre but he was surprising easy for me...maybe I really am "getting good" at deflecting and attacking

I still think the Chained Ogre and Seven Spears were the toughest enemies in the game (so far)

the absolute key to this game is deflecting and relentlessly attacking to damage posture...still, tougher than Dark Souls and Bloodborne for sure
 

Do Make Say Think

& Yet & Yet
Jun 26, 2007
51,157
9,904
Screw gamers that demand stuff like that.

Evolution is leaving them behind. They are in their final throes, I can't wait for them to die off.
 

Tw1ster

Registered User
Mar 12, 2008
6,856
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West Coast
I tackled the guardian ape yesterday, really had an easy time with his first phase and struggled a little bit with the unpredictable nature of the second phase but ended up beating him in 6 or 7 tries. Went back to the depths and fought him and his wife and beat him easily in two tries. Would have been once if the camera didn’t get twisted while I was trying to finish off the wife. All in all I’m pretty happy with only dying once on the pair.
 

Commander Clueless

Hiya, hiya. Pleased to meetcha.
Sep 10, 2008
15,237
2,922
Screw gamers that demand stuff like that.

Evolution is leaving them behind. They are in their final throes, I can't wait for them to die off.

Are we talking about the parody, or the easy mode? :laugh:


If the answer is easy mode, I'm totally okay with appreciating this game from afar. While I do see the point where FromSoftware could make more sales if there was an easy mode, I think they are doing just fine in the niche they've carved out for themselves.
 
Mar 22, 2010
11,493
6
Mother Base
So, I chose "Obey the Iron Code" in the conversation with Owl, because I'm a good son. ;)

But after reading the endings, it kind of sucks that I'm going to miss an entire area of the game.
 

Do Make Say Think

& Yet & Yet
Jun 26, 2007
51,157
9,904
Are we talking about the parody, or the easy mode? :laugh:


If the answer is easy mode, I'm totally okay with appreciating this game from afar. While I do see the point where FromSoftware could make more sales if there was an easy mode, I think they are doing just fine in the niche they've carved out for themselves.

No the big breasts request. Turns out it was a joke article.

I am getting old because I don't see it being that funny since there are regiments of idiots who actually spew that nonsense.
 

Commander Clueless

Hiya, hiya. Pleased to meetcha.
Sep 10, 2008
15,237
2,922
No the big breasts request. Turns out it was a joke article.

I am getting old because I don't see it being that funny since there are regiments of idiots who actually spew that nonsense.

I thought it was a humorous jab at the original article, but then again I haven't seen those regiments of idiots. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.
 

GlassesJacketShirt

Registered User
Aug 4, 2010
11,398
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Sherbrooke
The entire discussion surrounding Sekiro's difficulty is a parody within itself. I prefer just playing the damn game and letting everyone else go insane (even if I totally agree with FromSoftware's design philosophy).

For the record, I'm about halfway through NG+ and I still haven't died once. Can handle crowds with gusto and bosses like it ain't no thang. It may be hard compared to most games but it really seems to come down to how you approach encounters and progression. Unlike Dark Souls, which could be cheap at times, I can't say Sekiro has ever served me a death I didn't learn from in some way.
 
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Do Make Say Think

& Yet & Yet
Jun 26, 2007
51,157
9,904
Ignoring "The Conversation" around video games is absolutely the best way to enjoy videogames.

It is a real shame what happened to NeoGAF. The place always was filled with abject idiots but it there were a few good posters who were interested in talking game design.

Then the Great Schism happened and GAF went full alt-right while Era was born to be a pretentious hell hole.

The Internet has gone to shit.
 

Pilky01

Registered User
Jan 30, 2012
9,867
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GTA
It is a real shame what happened to NeoGAF. The place always was filled with abject idiots but it there were a few good posters who were interested in talking game design.

Then the Great Schism happened and GAF went full alt-right while Era was born to be a pretentious hell hole.

The Internet has gone to ****.

I barely even follow any actual videogame news sites anymore. They're either insufferable scolds like Kotaku and Polygon, or they're mindless content farms attempting viral marketing like IGN and the guys who left to form Kinda Funny.

I might listen to IGN's gamescoop if I have a long drive or something, but I have fully checked out of any news sources. I get my info from boards like this, reddit, or straight from the horses mouth like Nintendo directs.
 

Tw1ster

Registered User
Mar 12, 2008
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Good lord, I took three days off from playing and came back to it today. I was super rusty and my timing was off, just in time to break the iron code. He kicked my ass probably 10-15 times before I put him away. Feels like Genichiro is still by far the hardest time I’ve had so far against a boss in this game
 

Shareefruck

Registered User
Apr 2, 2005
28,875
3,570
Vancouver, BC
Have I got a rebuttal for you!


I'm not familiar with the guys who wrote this, but that second article, right there, is what annoys me about modern satire. The first one worked-- it ridiculed something that was ridiculous, speaks for itself, and does not hold up under scrutiny at all. But in an attempt to remain fair and balanced (or something-- I'm not sure what the actual point is), these guys awkwardly try to poke fun at the opposite opinion without actually having any real ammunition or irrationalities to work with. Instead, it just relied on a random dong joke at the end that had nothing to do with anything, cheap throwaway jokes/references peppered throughout, and straw-men (making every valid concern seem more unreasonable by tacking on words like "ALWAYS" and "NEVER"). It makes the whole purpose of satire feel lame, aimless/toothless, and unprincipled. SNL pulls that kind of crap all the time.

The accessibility/easy-mode argument has never made any sense to me (AAA games already cater way too much to casual audiences as it is, now you're going to complain about how the remaining niche stuff that's already been somewhat marginalized is not catering to your sensibilities as well? Go **** yourself) and the artistic vision argument seems very reasonable-- I don't see the flaw in it, nor do I see one being successfully made fun of in that joke-article. Maybe the joke is that "obviously things can't have an artistic vision if they're unrealistic, historically inaccurate, and gratuitous to begin with" or maybe "You don't want to see huge t*tties and think it would cheapen the experience rather than improve it? Get over yourself", but I really hope it's not actually making those points, because that would be really dumb criticism.
 
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GlassesJacketShirt

Registered User
Aug 4, 2010
11,398
4,133
Sherbrooke
I'm not familiar with the guys who wrote this, but that second article, right there, is what annoys me about modern satire. The first one worked-- it ridiculed something that was ridiculous, speaks for itself, and does not hold up under scrutiny at all. But in an attempt to remain fair and balanced (or something-- I'm not sure what the actual point is), these guys awkwardly try to poke fun at the opposite opinion without actually having any real ammunition or irrationalities to work with. Instead, it just relied on a random dong joke at the end that had nothing to do with anything, cheap throwaway jokes/references peppered throughout, and straw-men (making every valid concern seem more unreasonable by tacking on words like "ALWAYS" and "NEVER"). It makes the whole purpose of satire feel lame, aimless/toothless, and unprincipled. SNL pulls that kind of crap all the time.

The accessibility/easy-mode argument has never made any sense to me (AAA games already cater way too much to casual audiences as it is, now you're going to complain about how the remaining niche stuff that's already been somewhat marginalized is not catering to your sensibilities as well? Go **** yourself) and the artistic vision argument seems very reasonable-- I don't see the flaw in it, nor do I see one being successfully made fun of in that joke-article. Maybe the joke is that "obviously things can't have an artistic vision if they're unrealistic, historically inaccurate, and gratuitous to begin with" or maybe "You don't want to see huge t*tties and think it would cheapen the experience rather than improve it? Get over yourself", but I really hope it's not actually making those points, because that would be really dumb criticism.

The first article, as you pointed out, ridicules the arguments provided by some journalists who use Sekiro's apparent difficulty as a way to generate clicks.

The "counter" article seems dumb at first, and it might very well be when all is said and done, but I suggest a more meta interpretation: combined with the first article, satire #2 is taking a direct stab at Forbes' double take on Sekiro's difficulty:

'Sekiro: Shadows Dies Twice' Needs To Respect Its Players And Add An Easy Mode

No, 'Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice' Absolutely Does Not Need An Easy Mode

Note the headlines are ripped from each other word for word, outside of the whole easy mode swap for bosoms. Perhaps it's a commentary on the way nontorversies such as Sekiro's difficulty get disingenuously exploited by modern gaming journalism as a way to generate clicks and exposure in the midst of this weird post-GG world............

...and now I personally feel like I spent too much time writing what is likely a bullshit perspective when I could be beating the game for the third time. :D
 

Shareefruck

Registered User
Apr 2, 2005
28,875
3,570
Vancouver, BC
The first article, as you pointed out, ridicules the arguments provided by some journalists who use Sekiro's apparent difficulty as a way to generate clicks.

The "counter" article seems dumb at first, and it might very well be when all is said and done, but I suggest a more meta interpretation: combined with the first article, satire #2 is taking a direct stab at Forbes' double take on Sekiro's difficulty:

'Sekiro: Shadows Dies Twice' Needs To Respect Its Players And Add An Easy Mode

No, 'Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice' Absolutely Does Not Need An Easy Mode

Note the headlines are ripped from each other word for word, outside of the whole easy mode swap for bosoms. Perhaps it's a commentary on the way nontorversies such as Sekiro's difficulty get disingenuously exploited by modern gaming journalism as a way to generate clicks and exposure in the midst of this weird post-GG world............

...and now I personally feel like I spent too much time writing what is likely a bull**** perspective when I could be beating the game for the third time. :D
Oh, that makes more sense and I wasn't aware of that.

I can't say I buy the need to ridicule that aspect of it, though, personally. If journalists want to bring up genuinely divisive viewpoints in order to drum up readership, I have no problem with that nor do I find it insulting the same way that click-bait is. Hell, IRL, it's fun to have heated conversations about stuff like that in general. Given that many people actually do feel that way about it (and they do) rather than it being fabricated out of thin air and leaving everyone confused (which I don't agree is the case), I actually think it's an important point worth thinking about and addressing, personally.

I mean, I can maybe see skepticism about the back and forth of those two articles being one big manipulative fake thing to generate attention, but I don't know-- Taken at face value, I kind of enjoy the fact that the second article popped up.
 
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GlassesJacketShirt

Registered User
Aug 4, 2010
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Sherbrooke
Oh, that makes more sense and I wasn't aware of that.

I can't say I buy the need to ridicule that aspect of it, though, personally. If journalists want to bring up genuinely divisive viewpoints in order to drum up readership, I have no problem with that nor do I find it insulting the same way that click-bait is. Hell, IRL, it's fun to have heated conversations about stuff like that in general. Given that many people actually do feel that way about it (and they do) rather than it being fabricated out of thin air and leaving everyone confused (which I don't agree is the case), I actually think it's an important point worth thinking about and addressing, personally.

I mean, I can maybe see skepticism about the back and forth of those two articles being one big manipulative fake thing to generate attention, but I don't know-- Taken at face value, I kind of enjoy the fact that the second article popped up.

I agree with you for the most part, though it's worth noting that there's this weird, petty subtext that always infiltrates every debate in gaming these days.

As Pilky said above, ignoring the conversation about games is always the best way to enjoy them. Sucks but it's true, and Sekiro is something of footnote in all of this. Shame, as no other game manages to capture the thrill of clashing swords like this one.
 

RempireStateBuilding

Registered User
Dec 13, 2009
3,407
1,368
NY
Game got surprisingly "easy" as I went on. Had very little difficulty with any of the final bosses/mini-bosses. True Monk took maybe 30 minutes, Seven Spears an hour or 2, about an hour for Owl, Genichiro/Isshin took about 3-4. Isshin was daunting fight just due to the initial unpredictability and tricky timing of his attacks, and learning when follow-up attacks were possibly incoming.

Just have to clean up a couple mini-bosses/Headless here and there and on to playthrough #2.
 

Tw1ster

Registered User
Mar 12, 2008
6,856
4,855
West Coast
Owl at the Hirata Estate Is by far the hardest boss for me so far.Felt so good to defeat him though. I got gud apparently
 

syz

[1, 5, 6, 14]
Jul 13, 2007
28,862
12,259
...I think you might have to beat every boss in the same save file to get the trophy. Oops.
 

TheCanasianfrasian

Registered User
Aug 18, 2006
1,625
34
Montreal
ad very little difficulty with any of the final bosses/mini-bosses. True Monk took maybe 30 minutes, Seven Spears an hour or 2, about an hour for Owl, Genichiro/Isshin took about 3-4. Isshin was daunting fight just due to the initial unpredictability and tricky timing of his attacks, and learning when follow-up attacks were possibly incoming.

Once we all stopped playing like this was a DS game it does get easy.

i notice when fighting bosses i rarely use my analog sticks, i just stand and deflect everything.

Genichiro and Ape are really good skill checks for this game imo
 

TheCanasianfrasian

Registered User
Aug 18, 2006
1,625
34
Montreal
Once we all stopped playing like this was a DS game it does get easy.

i notice when fighting bosses i rarely use my analog sticks, i just stand and deflect everything.

Genichiro and Ape are really good skill checks for this game imo

Ape is so easy when you understand him...one of the prosthetics deal major posture damage if you use it right
 

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