Wow. What an experience.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing. I even took a month break thinking I might not come back to it, but boy I’m glad I did.
I’m new to souls like, only having played Elden Ring before this (which was amazing). Sekiro was a game that I picked up afterwards, and struggled with early on. It felt like a departure to everything I’d learned in gaming to this point. You don’t want to dodge, you want to deflect. Holding block helps you recover. Parrying will beat a boss quicker than trying to drive down their health. Once these things start to click, defeating bosses feels like a true accomplishment.
Fighting the end game bosses had my heart rate going like no other boss battles I can remember. Elden Ring had some memorable and awe inspiring bosses, but the feeling in Sekiro when you’re about to break the posture of a boss for a final deathblow was indescribable.
If there’s anyone left who hasn’t given Sekiro a go, do yourself a favour. It takes some time for it to click, but when it does, it’s something special.
Kind of a small spoiler, but:
Only thing I have to say about anyone trying Sekiro is: don’t worry about dragon rot. It is not a big deal as you first think. Like, at all.
Can you believe that actually put me off of playing it for a year or so?
Sekiro is my favorite Fromsoft game. When I first played it I kinda hated it, but at one point the deflect system just clicked and I couldn’t stop playing after finishing ng+7 all endings…
On Elden Ring, I thought the bosses were one of its weaker points if you include the Gaols. Simply there were too many, of which only a few stand out.
Sounds like I have to give Sekiro a try. Love me a game with satisfying parrying/deflection mechanics over just pure dpsing.
I gave up at the first Owl fight and haven’t come back to it yet, but I had to start DS1 five or six times before I finally finished it (and quickly played the other three Souls games).
Did you stop before or after that point?
I stopped before that point. I think it was around the guardian ape. I had read how the game started to click with people after Genichiro, but that didn’t happen with me, so I thought it never would. It definitely did towards the end game. But hey, it might not be for everyone, and that’s ok too.
