Topic: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (release due: 22/3/19)

[Buck Pete]

NG++ took me 10~15% of the time my first go round did, you'll sail through it

I just can't face battling the final boss again mate

Having a break for a few weeks but will defo pick it up again and finish NG+.

Gonna chill and watch Dench's progress and help him where I can. 

[Dench57]

I think I've made pretty big inroads since last time, kind of lost track of what I've killed, think this is it roughly:

1x armored warrior (funny)
2x centipedes
2x snakeeyes
2x guardian apes
2x headless
1x chained ogre
couple of lone shadow longswordsmen
o'rin
ghost monk


I've now retaken Ashina Castle and defeated Dad, cool fight but probably not as hard as I was expecting, he has 2 super telegraphed slow attacks (the bomb and the big jump attack) that regularly left him open to heavy attacks. The fight I definitely struggled with most out of all these was the first phase of Guardian Ape, the lone one in Sunken Valley. I read Pete's experience with this and had much the same one, really took me a while to get through that first part. Was so hard trying to keep pressure up on him with all the crazy flailing, sweeping and stomping he was doing. Once you've got his Vitality down and his Posture isn't recovering you can relax a little bit, and Phase 2 was much more manageable, pretty much just a case of waiting for that Loaded Spear opening and dodging most else. I went straight onto him and his girlfriend after that and got it down in a few tries once I realised blasting his mate first was the play.

O'Rinn was a close second, very fun but frustrating. I feel a bit cheap about that win because I went and got the Mortal Blade after dying to her several times, then completely blew through her with Mortal Draw - it's broken isn't it? Seems way too powerful. I've stopped using it to try out some other less cheesy arts, but I do love how it looks and I know I'll start using it again when I get to a boss that's really fucking me off

Though I'm getting better I'm still utterly dreadful at dodging sweeps - they always seem to come after I've used a heavy attack and I can barely jump before my animation has ended. Either that or I do everything else but jump!

I've collected all the items for Kuro and he's sending me off to Fountainhead Palace now. I'm off to have a look around the castle first and hopefully find some new mini-bosses? Any suggestions welcome if it looks like I've missed anything, it kind of feels like I have and I'm progressing the main story too much. Am I near the end!? I hope not because I'm loving this. I know there was another purple/spectral boss in Ashina Depths that I noped straight past earlier on but now I cannot remember where he was, will prob need to watch a vid to find him again.

[Buck Pete]

Yep, you are getting towards the end game now mate.

Have you been back to Hirata Estate in the second memory?  There's a tough optional boss at the end there.  You do need to beat him for Platinum though and an item for one of the alternative endings

Your very first boss at FHP is a fun but quite tough fight  The boss has 3 death blows but there is a method to VERY easily get the second death blow.

I heard O'Rin was tough but I just went in with Mortal Draw and shredded her easily.  I should go back and try and fight her conventionally one day.

[Skagger]

Mortal draw is for casuals  senpou leaping kicks and ashina cross is where it's at.

Dench, stick to the right when you go down into that dungeon and you'll find him again, aerial death blow makes your life easier with him, you get it from one of the little fellas in the hats who's friendly in ashina where you're at in the game now  near the grave site of grace, there's another mini boss if you turn 180 from that grave and take first right and follow the path

[Buck Pete]

Mortal draw is for casuals

Skagger used divine confetti, Yashariku's Sugar, and Mortal Draw on Mist Noble.

[Dench57]

Monk v2 was fun! Fountainhead Palace is very pretty and seems like a good spot for farming with all these 1-shot mobs. I've been surprised generally how good this game looks in parts, it felt a bit washed out at the start.

Was gonna try DS3 after this but I'm worried with how fucking good this deflect/posture mechanic is that it's ruined other Souls games for me, it's gonna be hard to go back to rolling. Struggling to think of another game where I've enjoyed the combat this much.

Also just realised Armored Core VI (FromSoft's new game) is out August 24th! That crept up on me, thought it wasn't out til next year or something.

[Dench57]

Daddy is kicking my head in.

[Dench57]

Demon of Hatred can fuck right off. Plonking a full-blown Souls boss in the middle of my shinobi adventure. What do I do against this bastard? Please don't tell me I should be using Divine Confetti or some shit

[Skagger]

Skagger used divine confetti, Yashariku's Sugar, and Mortal Draw on Mist Noble.

 

[Skagger]

Demon of Hatred can fuck right off. Plonking a full-blown Souls boss in the middle of my shinobi adventure. What do I do against this bastard? Please don't tell me I should be using Divine Confetti or some shit

Stay under him as much as possible and hit his arse, use the flame umbrella when he jumps up in the air and release it when the fire begins to clear for some free damage, save enough emblems to use the furled finger x3 in stage three as it stun locks him, and good luck he's a tough bastard

[Buck Pete]

Big DOH Tip. I loved fighting him btw.

When the big guy creates distance. Just chill, back off and heal. Let him launch his ranged fire attack and avoid easily. Then sprint advance on the bastard.  As Skaggs says, keep under him and attack his balls relentlessly. Forget combat arts just spam R1

Great fight and so satisfying when you learn to counter all his moves.

I had tons of trouble with that double-fire sweep/stomp combo he does when you are up close.  All these moves are deflectable. In fact, everything he does is deflectable except that pesky charge attack.

Loads of great opportunities for dodge/punish too.

[Dench57]

OK that wasn't too bad actually, like you said once I just started sticking to his leg spamming RB instead of trying to fit in Ichi's it all clicked. Ended up killing him with only 1 Gourd used, very satisfying! Malcontent was big for P3, pretty much had him stunned for most of it. Fire Umbrella doing absolute work on the belly flops.

Next guy is last boss right? And the hardest?

[Dench57]

Also, I should have 10 Gourds at this point right? Seemed to missed one along the way but cannot figure out where. And I've got 1/4 Prayer Beads so...guess I probably missed 3 of those.

[Buck Pete]

Also, I should have 10 Gourds at this point right? Seemed to missed one along the way but cannot figure out where. And I've got 1/4 Prayer Beads so...guess I probably missed 3 of those.

I missed 1 gourd too. I beat the final boss with just 9 Gourds.  Did you buy the seed from the merchant situated up the steps close to the big battlefield?   Near to where you get the mini side quest from the guy who asks you to go kill some "rats".  That's the one I missed.  The merchant is around the back.

[Skagger]

There's one in the attic of the house before ghost monk that's easily missed and one near the beginning of the sunken valley if you head left that's pretty hidden but to be honest if you've dealt with DoH using one gourd then 9 should be enough for you with the last boss, impressive work Dench!

[Buck Pete]

There's one in the attic of the house before ghost monk that's easily missed and one near the beginning of the sunken valley if you head left that's pretty hidden but to be honest if you've dealt with DoH using one gourd then 9 should be enough for you with the last boss, impressive work Dench!

Need all 10 Gourds for the trophy though if that's your thing.

[Dench57]

Found it, was tucked away in the Sunken Valley, fairly easy to miss looks like!

[Dench57]

All done. Sword Saint was hella fun but I was expecting it to be a lot rougher, definitely thought he was easier than Owl Father. Took about 30 mins as opposed to the 2 hours or so I spent on Geni v1. Phase 2 definitely the hardest but I only got to P3 twice and then he was dead. Reverse lightning kind of trivializes that phase. I think the amount of time I spent on Geni v1 really taught me how to git gud because I found things progressively easier as I got further in. Like I spent more attempts on that first Seven Spears than I did on ISS.

Having said that, I was using Ichi-Double a lot which cheeses things a bit with the Posture recovery. I'm gonna try NG+ without using it at all - I guess I can pretty much skip all the trash and just plough through bosses in NG+?

Loved every minute of it though, no idea why I waited so long to play it. Pretty close to a perfect game for me. Wonderfully balanced. Only criticism is that it was over too soon! Off to watch the Vaati lore videos (wasn't quite sure why Isshin was climbing out of his grandson for example!).

[Buck Pete]

Which ending did you do Dench?

[Dench57]

Which ending did you do Dench?

Purification! Felt like the "right" one. How many are there? I've seen already in Vaati's video that there's Shura and Dragon's Return also.

[Dench57]

Also found it funny how this renowned master swordsman is bringing a fucking gun to a sword fight. Cheeky git.

[Dench57]

Swear to god these c*nts were the worst enemies in the game

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[Malaysian Kopite]

Swear to god these c*nts were the worst enemies in the game

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Those aren't the Headless...

Absolutely hated those fuckers and just ended up not bothering. Madness is a stupid af status effect.

[Buck Pete]

No no no

These fellas are the toughest regular enemies in the game.  3 or 4 of these In a boss arena would have been insane.

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[Buck Pete]

Purification! Felt like the "right" one. How many are there? I've seen already in Vaati's video that there's Shura and Dragon's Return also.

4

Purification, immortal severance, dragons homecoming and Shura.

And that’s why they call him “Glock Saint”