i have to disagree about Divine dragon being bad and especially being the worst boss in the game (double ape fight is). to me the fight is meant to be a spectacle with one of if not the best piece of music in the game. it doesn't need to be hard, it's just a joy to watch. plus after it you have sword saint Isshin and the Demon which are both very difficult fights.
Hmm, I see your point. I actually agree with you in retrospect; the double apes ARE worse. I just don't think the boss looking great and it being an interesting fight have to be mutually exclusive (Gael is one of my favorite bosses ever, both visually and mechanically). And I don't even think the Divine Dragon looks that special (not the mention that the first phase is completely useless), excluding the final part where you walk up his sword and get the tears, which is admittedly cool af. Otherwise, I definitely think the Guardian Ape, Demon of Hatred, Isshin and even True Monk fights look cooler visually: I actually really, really hate Divine Dragon's color palette. I think it looks bland. And the OST never stood out to me that much. Of course, anyone can like literally any boss as long as they enjoy the visuals, since it's way more subjective in my opinion than what works mechanically... and that's okay!
@@WafeTv Double apes reminds me a lot of Throne Watcher/Defender, where you are given no consistent way to split them up, as both are equally aggressive and have the same speed, with you fighting them in an open area with nothing to split them up with.
@@xuanathan - The two apes aren't equally aggressive at all. The brown ape only attacks as follow up to 3 of the headless one's attacks: terror scream, leaping sweep slash, and sliding slash. In every other attack, the brown one stays back. If you want to split the two up, wait for one of those 3 attacks and run away from the headless one; this will prompt the brown one to approach you and attack, and that's when you can kill the brown ape. - In essence, as I see it, the brown ape only acts to add some more pressure to certain attacks of the headless one; the whole deal of throwing down another ape is to terrify the player and make them panic, allowing the boss to take advantage of the mistakes, pretty effective way to inflict Terror status in real life. - When you realize that the brown ape just stands there most of the time and the fight is mostly the same, it's just another headless ape fight with a bit more pressure on 3 attacks. I beat it on the second try and never understood why people hated it so much.
2 apes is fine its bizarre ppl dont like it. I had no problem w it Dragon is basically a super mario fight, doesnt belong in this game. Does look cool af tho
@@xuanathan the double apes are much worse, they have many attacks with wide arcs that can dead angle you. But what upsets me the most about them is that the story reason for the Guardian ape's return is that you can't kill it permanently because don't have the mortal blade in your possession..... except you CAN actually get the mortal blade BEFORE fighting the Guardian ape the first time.....this whole encounter is so stupid, i hate it, it's objectively awful.
38:30 "What is wrong with these hatted enemies, they never attack." They're there to teach you that against weak enemies that block, you can use a charged stab attack to hit them through it. Fighting them on a fresh file gives you the tutorial prompt to use stab attacks against blocking enemies.
What’s funny is they literally do attack. They killed me once when I thought a good idea to ignore one while fighting another enemy. They attack and kill me when I least expected it.
1:00:30 "He clearly stands back and does nothing, way more than any bosses as far as I recall. Genichiro also gets pretty upset when you hit him during an attack of his and completely stops doing anything. It makes the fight feel scripted." I think it's the opposite. He only steps back without doing anything while his posture bar is below about 25% filled, like he's stepping back to recover posture. If he's more damaged, he becomes more desperate and uses the bow instead. Just like a player, after he gets hit directly, he doesn't try to immediately attack, but recovers his composure and looks at the enemy for the correct reaction. You're supposed to keep attacking after landing a direct hit, forcing him to block.
32:42 I disagree with this part specifically, since I think Pellets in Sekiro are actually much more scarce than Lifegems in Dark Souls 2 because you can simply buy Lifegems for souls infinitely from a merchant after like the second boss in Dark Souls 2 while you cannot do the same in Sekiro
True, but I think it's silly to compare pellets to lifegems in the first place because Sekito is a different type of game compared to Ds2. Sekiro has far less healing items (and you can hold less in inventory) in general because of stealth and how it allows you to insta kill enemies.
I find it a sign of a good video when I only notice I've committed to watching a 2 & 1/2 hour video once I'm already an hour in, of which I only noticed was because I needed to pause to go check on something.
The revive feature is actually quite a drastic design choice in many ways, it is very fitting in fact, let me explain: In Dark Souls, when you die you die, you respawn at the bonfire and have to do it all over again, reclaim your souls etc. However in Sekiro, death works differently and thus it makes sense to change *how* the player dies. The revive opens up an interesting economy, as well as a risk/reward mechanic on your first playthrough. You are exploring a big level, and you have cleared a lot of tough enemies, do you push onwards in hopes of getting your second revive back or do you go rest at an idol? also the way the revives unlock as you score deathblows makes the pace and rhythm of boss fights, how you are rewarded for reviving and pushing onwards by getting a second revive to continue the fight... this kinda removes the stress and panic that comes with making mistakes, It's not the end of the world if you die once in a boss fight as long as you can get the deathblow, and that's a good mechanic because there is nothing fun about continuing a boss attempt in Dark Souls after you have already doomed your attempt by taking too many hits. Of course, this ability to revive was also taken into account when adjusting the difficulty. I played Dark Souls 1 and 3 and I can honestly say Sekiro is harder than both, but also doesn't feel as needlessly frustrating or punishing despite that. It's different from Dark souls, yes, but that's because Sekiro isn't Dark Souls. Sekiro is Sekiro.
Btw I died to Guardian Apes terror attack so many times. Especially if you miss a deflect and get cornered, it can mean death if you don't react within a few seconds. I love that move design so much on him!
40:20 "He repeats it sometimes 5 times in a row until he gets you, come on." You're supposed to either kick his face or use the green triangle prompt to grapple to him, also staggering him for 2 free hits.
I used a Halberd for the first playthrough of DS1 and found it really effective, two handed during the late game and with a shield for early game. The wide sweeps and the long range of the thrust made it great for a fragile pyromancer, especially when learning the game.
The inner fights were so fun. I love how they built upon the existing mechanics and wish they did even more. The double redirect for genichero had me audible scream in excitement and surprise when he pulled it out, and the way inner ishinn combos periless attacks is so satisfying. I love the combo that had you jump a sweep into a mid air deflect only to have a thrust follow up. Inner owl wasn't as good imo, but still a really fun fight and I felt great when I finally beat him
I know people complain about how you recover posture quicker when you are guarding, but I feel that this is the more appropriate choice considering how easy it is to just sprint away from an enemy in Sekiro, and the fact that you move very slowly when you are blocking so you can't escape the heat of the battle and have to be strategic about blocking to recover your posture, seeing as how getting hit while blocking will end up hurting your posture! it's kinda clever if you think about it.
Hmm, I see your point. I'd probably agree now, honestly. Being forced to stand in the open sounds cool, but it could also encourage that cancerous and boring playstyle of just running in and out, like you said. But then again, your enemy's posture bar's going down too, so you're just trading. And you can already run out and recover as it is right now, kind of.
Nice video. I agree with almost everything you say here. I love sekiro and I'm on ng 6 and it still never gets old for me. It's the only game I've ever poured so many hours into expect Bloodborne but I feel sekiros combat is the best in any game I've ever played. It's honestly hard for me to go back to soul's combat after sekiro.
@@cletokings4302 I played nioh 1 and I loved the combat system and I liked many aspects of the game but the whole loot system and upgrading gear and soul matching system so convoluted it ruined the game for me. If nioh 2 improved on this aspect I would be all in. Has that part been revamped or changed In any meaningful way? If so I actually have nioh 2 in my back catalog and I will jump on tonight. Matter of fact I appreciate the comment because I have been meaning to play nioh 2 and this is what I needed to quit stalling and do it. Thanks my friend.
@@BaxBoogey22 all the issues you mentioned are still there but tbh, it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the combat. I don’t think it’s necessary to master the games systems (I didn’t) to enjoy the game. It may be necessary for the end game because the late game bosses are much more difficult than sekiro but still possible to beat.
2:11:33 his spirit emblem attack leaves him vulnerable for a long time if you deliberately avoid the emblems while staying close to him, you can get 4-5 hits in before he starts doing an attack, his flame hand slam attack also leaves him vulnerable for quite a while (the single one, not the 3 hit combo that ends with the overhead slam, I for some reason could never dodge that slam attack), also, as soon as the boss fight begins, you can run up to him for a 3 hit combo these are just the ones I remember the most, I'm sure he has more attacks that leave him vulnerable, I think I enjoyed this boss either the most or the second most in the game
I don't know, if a giant snake was writhing about just beyond a castle, it might be difficult to tell what one cacophonous noise is compared to another. Maybe somebody says, "Is the giant snake thrashing more than usual?" but most people would probably be like, "Good, maybe it's choking."
58:41 this was where I got the "Spark" or "Click" in the game. this boss and Genichiro were the "Oh, I get it now!" fights for me. BTW, I did the Genichiro fight seven times before realizing I had the bell demon curse on and after I took it off I killed him in one try lol
idk how you think the second Father Owl encounter was easier than the first... on my first playthrough, I beat present day Owl on my third try, while the past Father Owl took nearly twenty tries and was probably the hardest boss in the game for me first playthrough alongside the first Guardian Ape
Just found your dark souls 3 video today. Even though I've watched countless I still enjoyed yours. I'm sure I like this video as well. Thanks for the content
In my opinion sunken valley should be explored before mibu village and senpou temple . First of all, thats due to significant difficulty drop of the guardian ape after all these locations and attack upgrades. Plus boss arena looks more cool during daylight. Second reason for that is only after defeating ape you get to fight double ape boss, which could be skipped, if you'd go to the toxic lake before.
I was recommended this video after watching AesirAesthetics' retrospective on Sekiro, and I think it's funny how much of a different experience the two of you had. Bosses and areas that you disliked were among his most praised, and perhaps vice-versa. I guess that just goes to show how differently players can experience Sekiro.
I just gave you sub #400, because this video was amazing. Sekrio was the 2nd FROMSOFT game I ever beat, (I can't even describe the feeling of taking down Ishin the sword saint.) with Bloodborne being the first. I've never beaten dark souls 1, never played ds2 or 3...but am looking to check out ds3.
That might be the best order to play FROM's main games in. This way, you won't be indoctrinated into hiding behind a shield all the time, and you can be aggressive and focus on magic spells. DS2 for example was designed around dual wielding weapons or focusing on spells, but many DS1 veterans went with shield and board due to habit and their experience was poor due to that.
@@ixian_technocrat honestly, the souls popularity of the shield, is what kept me away from playing the games in the first place. After fully beating bb twice, and sekiro once,, I had zero interest in hiding behind a shield.
@@rbelljr29 2 month old comment so you might have played the games by now, but in all honesty dodging is better than blocking in all the souls games, especially in DS3 where rolling barely takes up stamina (essentially being able to spam it for i frames ) Blocking is basically just an easy , passive way to avoid taking damage but you're rewarded far more for dodging/spacing and parrying . DS3 feels very similar to BB in terms of combat so you'd probably enjoy that side of the game. DS2 is just really wonky, its hard to explain, you just feel very floaty and it just doesnt feel good imo. DS1 has a more varied combat system meaning you can play quite fast and aggressive 2 handing fast weapons and rolling etc, or you can sword and board your way through and tank; armour and the poise mechanic play way more of a role than any of the other games. If you prefer playing fast and aggressively, its not as fluid as DS3 but feels more "balanced" since stamina really does come into affect, you're punished a bit more for spam rolling and wasting stamina. Similarly your stamina regenerates slower if you're tucked behind your shield.
@@chubbsmcgee5393 thanks for the reply. I'm actually at a crossroads on what to play right now while I wait for elden ring. I've yet to play through the souls games, so I might pick them to start.
I struggled so hard in the beginning with this game. I was stuck for 6 months on Genichiro. I died like 20 times to Ogre. I can beat Midir at SL1, but I get wrecked in this game? I beat Orphan of Kos in Bloodborne, but I'm trash here?! It was a huge ego blow. After like the 5th attempt at restarting my playthrough of this game, it happened! I somehow beat Genichiro after the 3rd try!? The game started making more sense intuitively. Then I read somewhere that the idea was to listen for the enemy parrying your attack to know an attack was coming. And it's like the game just made sense at that point. This game made me humble again. Best piece of art I have ever experienced in my life! I rang the demons bell on my first playthrough. I beat Genichiro fairly easily with the Demons Bell rung. I've beaten almost all the mini bosses. I'm either going to fight the demon of hatred or sword saint isshin next. Isshin is super tough.
The reason why Souls games don't have boss rush or anything similar is because they're multiplayer games. Even Ds2 bonfire ascetic's ability to retry bosses is still more tied to the main game (you need to use consumable) and it's online than being more separate thing like it is in Sekiro. If you had the ability to retry bosses in a menu like in Sekiro in a Souls game it would mean that most would just spend their time replaying their favorite bosses instead of going through the game and be part of the online ecosystem.
1:49:26 I think you constantly overestimate the average player. She is one of the hardest Bosses in this game for me and I know that the guardian ape was quite a roadblock for a lot of players (including me), yet you said he is also quite easy. I think you are just above average in these games.
Great critique, finally someone who also finds Demon of Hatred ez ;) Not sure about the inconsistent mikiri's though. Never had an issue with that. Maybe something different I'm doing with the movement direction?
FromSoft makes super frustrating and seemingly pointlessly decisions sometimes. Like forcing you to rest to level up. They got it right with Sekiro, and now pointlessly going right back to the old way in Elden Ring.
Well, I remember ever single area in DS3 with a lot of detail because I found all of them extremely memorable, and you do spend a lot of time at each area, about the same as sekiro does (except sekiro revisits areas) 20:40 "block is near to useless", then proceeds to explain why it isn't.
I played Sekiro for the first time just last year and I quit (for now) at owl. I enjoy exploration more than boss fights and sekiro's balance is definitely more towards the latter. I still want to finish it one day but it took a lot out of me already. I'm nowhere near as good as you are here, maybe I can be, MAYBE.
Loved this video and the Dark Souls 3 one as well. You've certainly earned a new subscriber and deserve many more. I will also watch your Disco Elysium video, after replaying DS3, and actually buying DE
3:47 did you use a shield? DS 1 halberd + 100% physical shield can carry you through 50% of the game, after that I used the Black Knight Halberd fully maxed out until the endgame not using a shield in Dark Souls 1 is pretty much making your time more difficult on purpose, since the rolling isn't as refined as in Dark Souls 3 and the game incentivises you to use it, since a lot of enemy attacks will leave the enemies stunned if you block them, and even for bigger enemies it's easier to circle strafe while blocking since it doesn't cost that much stamina since enemies attack slower and more methodically, you are better off blocking or just backing up from the attack and the halberds are awesome since you will be able to damage enemies out of the range of their own attack due to the halberd having quite a good range for thrust attacks
I liked Sekiro the first time I played it, but I was really frustrated by it and had a lot of problems with the design. I think I managed to beat the game without fully clicking with it and walked away from killing Isshin feeling frustrated. I left it for about 18 months and played it again and I completely fell in love. I think I was somewhat right with most of my criticisms the first time, but a lot of them are mitigated by already knowing the game, such as losing half a level not being an issue if you know something scary is coming up so you farm up to the next level first. It went from my least favourite to being in the top 3 (DS1, BB, Sekiro, DS2 DeS, DS3). I've SL1/BL4 all the pre Elden Ring soulsbourne games but I'm still too intimidated by the final Gauntlet. I'll get it done eventually. I platinumed Elden Ring this week and went to NG++ and I really liked it, but it also made me appreciate Sekiro even more. I really wish Elden RIng had more Sekiro DNA and less Dark Souls DNA. Elden Ring and Sekiro are battling it out in my brain for third place at the moment but Sekiro is really special and I hope it has more influence moving forward. 1:55:40 These 'buddy' fights where you can stealth backstab one (another is the vile shadow dojo boss) lets you use puppeteer on the second enemy and double team the miniboss yourself. 2:10:07 While I still enjoy it, I think Demon of Hate is among my least favourite bosses in Sekiro, primarily due to the camera. I think it might be a little too soulsy as well. It did go a lot better on my second playthrough when I was a lot more confident and figured out I could parry the stomps, but getting disoriented by the camera and missing while swinging up at his dick is something most of the other fights don't suffer from. Midir, on the other hand, is my least favourite fight of any soulsborne game (except maybe Bed of Chaos, but it's close). I beat it twice, once solo and once helping a friend in co-op and I've skipped it for every other DS3 playthrough I've done. He's also a camera fucker, so I guess that's a pattern here. Fromsoft's post DS1 rolling-based games (DS2, DS3, Elden Ring) have suffered from having a lot of pretty meh bosses throughout, where as Bloodborne and Sekiro (dash-based) both had a lot fewer dud bosses. Edit: I saw some information saying that Sekiro was developed by the Bloodborne team while the Dark Souls 3 team worked on Elden Ring, so that might be why Bloodborne and Sekiro share their strengths while DS3 and Elden Ring share their weaknesses.
Some of the bugs and performance issues you were calling out in the video (Blazzing Bull fps drops, Isshin's ai breaking, etc.) are most likely due to your specific pc and the pc port being a bit questionable. (Source: I played several hundred hours of sekiro on my old pc which could just barely run it and experienced quite a few bugs, but these have all almost entirely stopped after getting a better pc. It probably has something to do with hiting a 100% stable 60fps)
In what order would you rate the from soft games. Im pc only so I haven't played blood borne or demon soul's but I would put them as 1. Sekiro 2. DS3 3.DS1 4.DS2 (I really did not enjoy ds2 and I personally see it as a blemish on what otherwise would have been a perfect series.
Sekiro is definetly not a small game, i took a hundred hours to get the platinum, and i also consider the gameplay and design to be superior to Ds3 as well
Is this a must play game for souls fans mostly demon souls, ds1 and bloodborne most of ds3 besides last dlc and final boss. I don't have the best dodge and hardly parry. Looks a bit fast but I do prefer the quick combat of bloodborne. I like katanas but also bigger weapons. The jumping and grappling looks pretty fun though.Also looking forward to elden ring but don't have ps5 or new Xbox. Am I better off sticking to ds3
@@WafeTv that’s wonderful news to hear! It is a personal favorite of mine and I honestly don’t think I can get tired of seeing critiques on it haha Either way, I’m new to your channel man. I loved your DS3 video and really digging this Sekiro video so far! Excellent work
Sekiro pvp is nicce but has a lot of mistakes. Auto target removing by itself, cant target in certain position usually when enemy id very close to you. Also plenty of times i used to attack with target locked but the attacks were directed to the side.
And btw no one recommended halberd, they recommended The Black Knight Halberd. If you couldn't even figure this out, don't talk like you understand anything about Darksouls, because you clearly don't. There's a youtuber called hbomberguy, see how he compares, watch his video on bloodborne and you'll understand how to compare and just use your personal bias, learn from him and make better quality videos.
Quantity can be better than quality just by the sheer amount of things to do in it. You all assume that quantity automatically means it therefore can’t have quality but that’s just a fallacy. It’s not one or the other. Quality without quantity is shit and quantity without quality is shit. Stop picking just quality and start demanding both.
the thing is sekiro is filled with quality, but the actual amount of quality in it is about as smalla nd simple as the game itself, not to mention many parts of ER is laughably higher quality than it, like level design and atmosphere. quality is a delusional subjective term anyway, what ppl say is quality about sekiro i found to be boring, simple and limited, i would much rather elden souls design over sekiro. sekiro is just a single great sandwich, while elden souls is a buffet, many parts of it are far above sekiros sandwich, some parts are less. pretending elden souls doesnt have quality is a delusion that sekiro and bb fanboys love to spew, when theyre both just irrelevant offshoots of souls, while elden ring is the evolution of it, the most innovative game since ds1, it aint just a dark souls reskin with tweaked combat like bb and sekiro.
![Sekiro Is A Masterpiece [A Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Retrospective]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/4PBudh0YNok/mqdefault.jpg)
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i have to disagree about Divine dragon being bad and especially being the worst boss in the game (double ape fight is). to me the fight is meant to be a spectacle with one of if not the best piece of music in the game. it doesn't need to be hard, it's just a joy to watch. plus after it you have sword saint Isshin and the Demon which are both very difficult fights.
Hmm, I see your point. I actually agree with you in retrospect; the double apes ARE worse.
I just don't think the boss looking great and it being an interesting fight have to be mutually exclusive (Gael is one of my favorite bosses ever, both visually and mechanically).
And I don't even think the Divine Dragon looks that special (not the mention that the first phase is completely useless), excluding the final part where you walk up his sword and get the tears, which is admittedly cool af. Otherwise, I definitely think the Guardian Ape, Demon of Hatred, Isshin and even True Monk fights look cooler visually:
I actually really, really hate Divine Dragon's color palette. I think it looks bland. And the OST never stood out to me that much. Of course, anyone can like literally any boss as long as they enjoy the visuals, since it's way more subjective in my opinion than what works mechanically... and that's okay!
@@WafeTv
Double apes reminds me a lot of Throne Watcher/Defender, where you are given no consistent way to split them up, as both are equally aggressive and have the same speed, with you fighting them in an open area with nothing to split them up with.
@@xuanathan - The two apes aren't equally aggressive at all. The brown ape only attacks as follow up to 3 of the headless one's attacks: terror scream, leaping sweep slash, and sliding slash. In every other attack, the brown one stays back. If you want to split the two up, wait for one of those 3 attacks and run away from the headless one; this will prompt the brown one to approach you and attack, and that's when you can kill the brown ape.
- In essence, as I see it, the brown ape only acts to add some more pressure to certain attacks of the headless one; the whole deal of throwing down another ape is to terrify the player and make them panic, allowing the boss to take advantage of the mistakes, pretty effective way to inflict Terror status in real life.
- When you realize that the brown ape just stands there most of the time and the fight is mostly the same, it's just another headless ape fight with a bit more pressure on 3 attacks. I beat it on the second try and never understood why people hated it so much.
2 apes is fine its bizarre ppl dont like it. I had no problem w it
Dragon is basically a super mario fight, doesnt belong in this game. Does look cool af tho
@@xuanathan the double apes are much worse, they have many attacks with wide arcs that can dead angle you. But what upsets me the most about them is that the story reason for the Guardian ape's return is that you can't kill it permanently because don't have the mortal blade in your possession..... except you CAN actually get the mortal blade BEFORE fighting the Guardian ape the first time.....this whole encounter is so stupid, i hate it, it's objectively awful.
38:30 "What is wrong with these hatted enemies, they never attack."
They're there to teach you that against weak enemies that block, you can use a charged stab attack to hit them through it. Fighting them on a fresh file gives you the tutorial prompt to use stab attacks against blocking enemies.
What’s funny is they literally do attack. They killed me once when I thought a good idea to ignore one while fighting another enemy. They attack and kill me when I least expected it.
1:00:30 "He clearly stands back and does nothing, way more than any bosses as far as I recall. Genichiro also gets pretty upset when you hit him during an attack of his and completely stops doing anything. It makes the fight feel scripted."
I think it's the opposite. He only steps back without doing anything while his posture bar is below about 25% filled, like he's stepping back to recover posture. If he's more damaged, he becomes more desperate and uses the bow instead.
Just like a player, after he gets hit directly, he doesn't try to immediately attack, but recovers his composure and looks at the enemy for the correct reaction. You're supposed to keep attacking after landing a direct hit, forcing him to block.
32:42 I disagree with this part specifically, since I think Pellets in Sekiro are actually much more scarce than Lifegems in Dark Souls 2 because you can simply buy Lifegems for souls infinitely from a merchant after like the second boss in Dark Souls 2 while you cannot do the same in Sekiro
True, but I think it's silly to compare pellets to lifegems in the first place because Sekito is a different type of game compared to Ds2.
Sekiro has far less healing items (and you can hold less in inventory) in general because of stealth and how it allows you to insta kill enemies.
They can both be farmed but I don't use pellets as much as lifegems. Once I've got a sizable gourd, they become slightly redundant.
they are very easy to farm in the hirata state, or in late game in the red guard drunkard area, i had like 200 of only farming xp for a little while
I find it a sign of a good video when I only notice I've committed to watching a 2 & 1/2 hour video once I'm already an hour in, of which I only noticed was because I needed to pause to go check on something.
The revive feature is actually quite a drastic design choice in many ways, it is very fitting in fact, let me explain:
In Dark Souls, when you die you die, you respawn at the bonfire and have to do it all over again, reclaim your souls etc. However in Sekiro, death works differently and thus it makes sense to change *how* the player dies.
The revive opens up an interesting economy, as well as a risk/reward mechanic on your first playthrough.
You are exploring a big level, and you have cleared a lot of tough enemies, do you push onwards in hopes of getting your second revive back or do you go rest at an idol? also the way the revives unlock as you score deathblows makes the pace and rhythm of boss fights, how you are rewarded for reviving and pushing onwards by getting a second revive to continue the fight... this kinda removes the stress and panic that comes with making mistakes, It's not the end of the world if you die once in a boss fight as long as you can get the deathblow, and that's a good mechanic because there is nothing fun about continuing a boss attempt in Dark Souls after you have already doomed your attempt by taking too many hits. Of course, this ability to revive was also taken into account when adjusting the difficulty. I played Dark Souls 1 and 3 and I can honestly say Sekiro is harder than both, but also doesn't feel as needlessly frustrating or punishing despite that.
It's different from Dark souls, yes, but that's because Sekiro isn't Dark Souls. Sekiro is Sekiro.
just finished your dark souls 3 video which was amazing. glad to see you made one on Sekiro too which is my favorite fromsoft game.
Btw I died to Guardian Apes terror attack so many times. Especially if you miss a deflect and get cornered, it can mean death if you don't react within a few seconds. I love that move design so much on him!
40:20 "He repeats it sometimes 5 times in a row until he gets you, come on."
You're supposed to either kick his face or use the green triangle prompt to grapple to him, also staggering him for 2 free hits.
I used a Halberd for the first playthrough of DS1 and found it really effective, two handed during the late game and with a shield for early game. The wide sweeps and the long range of the thrust made it great for a fragile pyromancer, especially when learning the game.
The inner fights were so fun. I love how they built upon the existing mechanics and wish they did even more. The double redirect for genichero had me audible scream in excitement and surprise when he pulled it out, and the way inner ishinn combos periless attacks is so satisfying. I love the combo that had you jump a sweep into a mid air deflect only to have a thrust follow up. Inner owl wasn't as good imo, but still a really fun fight and I felt great when I finally beat him
just found your channel and I'm honestly impressed by how small it is condering your level of presentation. I could easy see you with 300k subs
I know people complain about how you recover posture quicker when you are guarding, but I feel that this is the more appropriate choice considering how easy it is to just sprint away from an enemy in Sekiro, and the fact that you move very slowly when you are blocking so you can't escape the heat of the battle and have to be strategic about blocking to recover your posture, seeing as how getting hit while blocking will end up hurting your posture! it's kinda clever if you think about it.
Hmm, I see your point. I'd probably agree now, honestly. Being forced to stand in the open sounds cool, but it could also encourage that cancerous and boring playstyle of just running in and out, like you said. But then again, your enemy's posture bar's going down too, so you're just trading. And you can already run out and recover as it is right now, kind of.
Tomb of giants is actually one of my favorite places in Dark Souls, it is so scary and ballsy
Nice video. I agree with almost everything you say here. I love sekiro and I'm on ng 6 and it still never gets old for me. It's the only game I've ever poured so many hours into expect Bloodborne but I feel sekiros combat is the best in any game I've ever played. It's honestly hard for me to go back to soul's combat after sekiro.
Have you played Nioh 2? If not I think you’ll like it. I believe it has the best combat system of any souls-like games including sekiro.
@@cletokings4302 I played nioh 1 and I loved the combat system and I liked many aspects of the game but the whole loot system and upgrading gear and soul matching system so convoluted it ruined the game for me. If nioh 2 improved on this aspect I would be all in. Has that part been revamped or changed In any meaningful way? If so I actually have nioh 2 in my back catalog and I will jump on tonight. Matter of fact I appreciate the comment because I have been meaning to play nioh 2 and this is what I needed to quit stalling and do it. Thanks my friend.
@@BaxBoogey22 all the issues you mentioned are still there but tbh, it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the combat. I don’t think it’s necessary to master the games systems (I didn’t) to enjoy the game. It may be necessary for the end game because the late game bosses are much more difficult than sekiro but still possible to beat.
2:11:33 his spirit emblem attack leaves him vulnerable for a long time if you deliberately avoid the emblems while staying close to him, you can get 4-5 hits in before he starts doing an attack, his flame hand slam attack also leaves him vulnerable for quite a while (the single one, not the 3 hit combo that ends with the overhead slam, I for some reason could never dodge that slam attack), also, as soon as the boss fight begins, you can run up to him for a 3 hit combo
these are just the ones I remember the most, I'm sure he has more attacks that leave him vulnerable, I think I enjoyed this boss either the most or the second most in the game
Omg this was so good! Reminded me of mathewmitosis's demon soul's commentary a bit-- the highest compliment one can give to a video.
The fact that you beat Sekiro on mouse & keyboard makes you ever better than the average. I'm still stuck on Doh & Isshin. Great commentary.
@Good Hunter agree. I beat them both thought. I look forward to fightin Isshin, not doh.
I don't know, if a giant snake was writhing about just beyond a castle, it might be difficult to tell what one cacophonous noise is compared to another. Maybe somebody says, "Is the giant snake thrashing more than usual?" but most people would probably be like, "Good, maybe it's choking."
58:41 this was where I got the "Spark" or "Click" in the game. this boss and Genichiro were the "Oh, I get it now!" fights for me. BTW, I did the Genichiro fight seven times before realizing I had the bell demon curse on and after I took it off I killed him in one try lol
We went through the game with such different progression!
This isnt a critique to Sekiro, it's a loveletter.
I got this channel recommended to me by UA-cam .
As a Souls Series fan , I really enjoyed the video .
Subscribed .
idk how you think the second Father Owl encounter was easier than the first... on my first playthrough, I beat present day Owl on my third try, while the past Father Owl took nearly twenty tries and was probably the hardest boss in the game for me first playthrough alongside the first Guardian Ape
Just found your dark souls 3 video today. Even though I've watched countless I still enjoyed yours. I'm sure I like this video as well. Thanks for the content
You did a great job on this! A lot of hard work. Do Bloodborne next :)
Don't have a PS, so I haven't played it yet. Definitely the one game I'm most excited to play though!
@@WafeTv If you do please don't make a review .
In my opinion sunken valley should be explored before mibu village and senpou temple . First of all, thats due to significant difficulty drop of the guardian ape after all these locations and attack upgrades. Plus boss arena looks more cool during daylight.
Second reason for that is only after defeating ape you get to fight double ape boss, which could be skipped, if you'd go to the toxic lake before.
I was recommended this video after watching AesirAesthetics' retrospective on Sekiro, and I think it's funny how much of a different experience the two of you had. Bosses and areas that you disliked were among his most praised, and perhaps vice-versa. I guess that just goes to show how differently players can experience Sekiro.
Very long and cool video! Great job!
I just gave you sub #400, because this video was amazing.
Sekrio was the 2nd FROMSOFT game I ever beat, (I can't even describe the feeling of taking down Ishin the sword saint.) with Bloodborne being the first. I've never beaten dark souls 1, never played ds2 or 3...but am looking to check out ds3.
Definitely do!
That might be the best order to play FROM's main games in. This way, you won't be indoctrinated into hiding behind a shield all the time, and you can be aggressive and focus on magic spells. DS2 for example was designed around dual wielding weapons or focusing on spells, but many DS1 veterans went with shield and board due to habit and their experience was poor due to that.
@@ixian_technocrat honestly, the souls popularity of the shield, is what kept me away from playing the games in the first place. After fully beating bb twice, and sekiro once,, I had zero interest in hiding behind a shield.
@@rbelljr29 2 month old comment so you might have played the games by now, but in all honesty dodging is better than blocking in all the souls games, especially in DS3 where rolling barely takes up stamina (essentially being able to spam it for i frames ) Blocking is basically just an easy , passive way to avoid taking damage but you're rewarded far more for dodging/spacing and parrying .
DS3 feels very similar to BB in terms of combat so you'd probably enjoy that side of the game. DS2 is just really wonky, its hard to explain, you just feel very floaty and it just doesnt feel good imo. DS1 has a more varied combat system meaning you can play quite fast and aggressive 2 handing fast weapons and rolling etc, or you can sword and board your way through and tank; armour and the poise mechanic play way more of a role than any of the other games. If you prefer playing fast and aggressively, its not as fluid as DS3 but feels more "balanced" since stamina really does come into affect, you're punished a bit more for spam rolling and wasting stamina. Similarly your stamina regenerates slower if you're tucked behind your shield.
@@chubbsmcgee5393 thanks for the reply. I'm actually at a crossroads on what to play right now while I wait for elden ring. I've yet to play through the souls games, so I might pick them to start.
I struggled so hard in the beginning with this game. I was stuck for 6 months on Genichiro. I died like 20 times to Ogre. I can beat Midir at SL1, but I get wrecked in this game? I beat Orphan of Kos in Bloodborne, but I'm trash here?! It was a huge ego blow. After like the 5th attempt at restarting my playthrough of this game, it happened! I somehow beat Genichiro after the 3rd try!? The game started making more sense intuitively. Then I read somewhere that the idea was to listen for the enemy parrying your attack to know an attack was coming. And it's like the game just made sense at that point. This game made me humble again. Best piece of art I have ever experienced in my life!
I rang the demons bell on my first playthrough. I beat Genichiro fairly easily with the Demons Bell rung. I've beaten almost all the mini bosses. I'm either going to fight the demon of hatred or sword saint isshin next. Isshin is super tough.
Happy 500 subs bro
11:05 that's literally what happened to me the first time I played
You make great videos bro, you defo deserve more subs and will get them if you keep it up!
Can't wait for your Elden Ring video
The reason why Souls games don't have boss rush or anything similar is because they're multiplayer games. Even Ds2 bonfire ascetic's ability to retry bosses is still more tied to the main game (you need to use consumable) and it's online than being more separate thing like it is in Sekiro.
If you had the ability to retry bosses in a menu like in Sekiro in a Souls game it would mean that most would just spend their time replaying their favorite bosses instead of going through the game and be part of the online ecosystem.
1:49:26 I think you constantly overestimate the average player. She is one of the hardest Bosses in this game for me and I know that the guardian ape was quite a roadblock for a lot of players (including me), yet you said he is also quite easy.
I think you are just above average in these games.
Great critique, finally someone who also finds Demon of Hatred ez ;)
Not sure about the inconsistent mikiri's though. Never had an issue with that. Maybe something different I'm doing with the movement direction?
FromSoft makes super frustrating and seemingly pointlessly decisions sometimes. Like forcing you to rest to level up. They got it right with Sekiro, and now pointlessly going right back to the old way in Elden Ring.
Well, I remember ever single area in DS3 with a lot of detail because I found all of them extremely memorable, and you do spend a lot of time at each area, about the same as sekiro does (except sekiro revisits areas)
20:40 "block is near to useless", then proceeds to explain why it isn't.
I played Sekiro for the first time just last year and I quit (for now) at owl. I enjoy exploration more than boss fights and sekiro's balance is definitely more towards the latter. I still want to finish it one day but it took a lot out of me already.
I'm nowhere near as good as you are here, maybe I can be, MAYBE.
Oh btw I didn't realize I could eavesdrop on the friendly NPC's! That's a lot of story I would have wanted to hear.
Loved this video and the Dark Souls 3 one as well. You've certainly earned a new subscriber and deserve many more. I will also watch your Disco Elysium video, after replaying DS3, and actually buying DE
3:47 did you use a shield? DS 1 halberd + 100% physical shield can carry you through 50% of the game, after that I used the Black Knight Halberd fully maxed out until the endgame
not using a shield in Dark Souls 1 is pretty much making your time more difficult on purpose, since the rolling isn't as refined as in Dark Souls 3 and the game incentivises you to use it, since a lot of enemy attacks will leave the enemies stunned if you block them, and even for bigger enemies it's easier to circle strafe while blocking since it doesn't cost that much stamina
since enemies attack slower and more methodically, you are better off blocking or just backing up from the attack and the halberds are awesome since you will be able to damage enemies out of the range of their own attack due to the halberd having quite a good range for thrust attacks
I liked Sekiro the first time I played it, but I was really frustrated by it and had a lot of problems with the design. I think I managed to beat the game without fully clicking with it and walked away from killing Isshin feeling frustrated. I left it for about 18 months and played it again and I completely fell in love. I think I was somewhat right with most of my criticisms the first time, but a lot of them are mitigated by already knowing the game, such as losing half a level not being an issue if you know something scary is coming up so you farm up to the next level first. It went from my least favourite to being in the top 3 (DS1, BB, Sekiro, DS2 DeS, DS3). I've SL1/BL4 all the pre Elden Ring soulsbourne games but I'm still too intimidated by the final Gauntlet. I'll get it done eventually.
I platinumed Elden Ring this week and went to NG++ and I really liked it, but it also made me appreciate Sekiro even more. I really wish Elden RIng had more Sekiro DNA and less Dark Souls DNA. Elden Ring and Sekiro are battling it out in my brain for third place at the moment but Sekiro is really special and I hope it has more influence moving forward.
1:55:40 These 'buddy' fights where you can stealth backstab one (another is the vile shadow dojo boss) lets you use puppeteer on the second enemy and double team the miniboss yourself.
2:10:07 While I still enjoy it, I think Demon of Hate is among my least favourite bosses in Sekiro, primarily due to the camera. I think it might be a little too soulsy as well. It did go a lot better on my second playthrough when I was a lot more confident and figured out I could parry the stomps, but getting disoriented by the camera and missing while swinging up at his dick is something most of the other fights don't suffer from. Midir, on the other hand, is my least favourite fight of any soulsborne game (except maybe Bed of Chaos, but it's close). I beat it twice, once solo and once helping a friend in co-op and I've skipped it for every other DS3 playthrough I've done. He's also a camera fucker, so I guess that's a pattern here.
Fromsoft's post DS1 rolling-based games (DS2, DS3, Elden Ring) have suffered from having a lot of pretty meh bosses throughout, where as Bloodborne and Sekiro (dash-based) both had a lot fewer dud bosses.
Edit: I saw some information saying that Sekiro was developed by the Bloodborne team while the Dark Souls 3 team worked on Elden Ring, so that might be why Bloodborne and Sekiro share their strengths while DS3 and Elden Ring share their weaknesses.
Some of the bugs and performance issues you were calling out in the video (Blazzing Bull fps drops, Isshin's ai breaking, etc.) are most likely due to your specific pc and the pc port being a bit questionable. (Source: I played several hundred hours of sekiro on my old pc which could just barely run it and experienced quite a few bugs, but these have all almost entirely stopped after getting a better pc. It probably has something to do with hiting a 100% stable 60fps)
0:00 Are you going to show a baby cat too ? 😂
i played sekiro 8 times and i can play it 8 more
In what order would you rate the from soft games. Im pc only so I haven't played blood borne or demon soul's but I would put them as 1. Sekiro 2. DS3 3.DS1 4.DS2 (I really did not enjoy ds2 and I personally see it as a blemish on what otherwise would have been a perfect series.
Sekiro is definetly not a small game, i took a hundred hours to get the platinum, and i also consider the gameplay and design to be superior to Ds3 as well
you’d be doing yourself a huge favor playing bloodborne my dude 🤘🏼
Don't have a PS. Let's just hope it comes to PC lol.
probably my favourite game ,and an example of less is more nice vid
What are you top 5 games of all time?
1. Witcher 3
2. Disco Elysium
3. Sekiro
4. Minecraft
5. The Binding of Isaac
Definitely a very generic list lol
Is this a must play game for souls fans mostly demon souls, ds1 and bloodborne most of ds3 besides last dlc and final boss. I don't have the best dodge and hardly parry. Looks a bit fast but I do prefer the quick combat of bloodborne. I like katanas but also bigger weapons. The jumping and grappling looks pretty fun though.Also looking forward to elden ring but don't have ps5 or new Xbox. Am I better off sticking to ds3
Sekiro is harder than The Ringed City at certain points imo, but if you've beaten all those games you can definitely do it.
watching the camera movement with a mouse is making me feel sick lol
Commenting for the algorithm
Yes
You'll be playing elden ring right ?
Of course. If there's one developer I trust to make a good game, it's them.
Have you played Bloodborne?
Nope, don't have a playstation
Have you considered a Hollow Knight video?
Yep, will most likely get to it eventually. I've played through the whole game with the DLCs and loved it.
@@WafeTv that’s wonderful news to hear! It is a personal favorite of mine and I honestly don’t think I can get tired of seeing critiques on it haha Either way, I’m new to your channel man. I loved your DS3 video and really digging this Sekiro video so far! Excellent work
Quilty content
Sekiro pvp is nicce but has a lot of mistakes. Auto target removing by itself, cant target in certain position usually when enemy id very close to you. Also plenty of times i used to attack with target locked but the attacks were directed to the side.
And btw no one recommended halberd, they recommended The Black Knight Halberd. If you couldn't even figure this out, don't talk like you understand anything about Darksouls, because you clearly don't. There's a youtuber called hbomberguy, see how he compares, watch his video on bloodborne and you'll understand how to compare and just use your personal bias, learn from him and make better quality videos.
quality? QUALITY?
SINCE WHEN DID THEY POLISHED THE COMBAT MECHANICS?
Quantity can be better than quality just by the sheer amount of things to do in it. You all assume that quantity automatically means it therefore can’t have quality but that’s just a fallacy. It’s not one or the other. Quality without quantity is shit and quantity without quality is shit. Stop picking just quality and start demanding both.
“I haven’t played bloodborne”
Wow
Turns off video… you have no rights to comment on FROMSOFT
I love Bloodborne, hope this is a joke 😭
Ah yes smug elitism. Lovely!
the thing is sekiro is filled with quality, but the actual amount of quality in it is about as smalla nd simple as the game itself, not to mention many parts of ER is laughably higher quality than it, like level design and atmosphere.
quality is a delusional subjective term anyway, what ppl say is quality about sekiro i found to be boring, simple and limited, i would much rather elden souls design over sekiro. sekiro is just a single great sandwich, while elden souls is a buffet, many parts of it are far above sekiros sandwich, some parts are less. pretending elden souls doesnt have quality is a delusion that sekiro and bb fanboys love to spew, when theyre both just irrelevant offshoots of souls, while elden ring is the evolution of it, the most innovative game since ds1, it aint just a dark souls reskin with tweaked combat like bb and sekiro.