Luckily this game just clicked for me in that way with the parry system but I get why people would immediately be turned off if they couldn’t get it down.
CleoTheWizard
I wouldn’t say it’s really bugs I experienced, the game just seems to play fast and loose with its hitboxes at times. Some of it is fine and it’s a game that needs to be playable so I understand but I think most souls players have had the experience of being hit by a weapon whose speed is nearly zero at the end of a swing but still does full damage, it’s just how the games have always been from what I can tell.
That and being hit because I’m too close to an enemy so the cylinder hitbox around their sword clips me, that happens. Or being hit while behind or beside an enemy happens sometimes. Just frustrating in this game more than most because when those confusing hits do happen, they do massive damage that is harder to recover than it would be in a souls game.
Also very good to hear the final boss is what I’m working toward. I know Owl 2 is optional but I wanted to push myself. I’m fine with the difficulty but the fight was pretty silly and grindy. Just highlighted some of the issues I had with other enemies but I’m not judging the whole game on either that or the demon.
And yes you’re spot on about the demon lol. My thoughts exactly were that it seems just ported from another game and utilizes few of the mechanics I’ve been honing my skills at.
I did think it was the final boss though so hearing people talk about how the actual final boss is better is giving me hope. The souls games are at their peak when you finish a final boss and feel like a Karate kid moment where the wax on wax off of the systems are showing their merit of teaching you to master them. Looking forward to it and thanks for your input
I think that’s why I don’t enjoy this as much as other souls games. It means you spend a lot less time just wandering and slowly getting to a new room or hallway bit by bit. And there aren’t a whole lot of regular enemies that I have to square off against, just mini bosses. The levels also don’t have the same variance to them that other Souls games do, it’s all pretty locked in reality.
So yeah I can’t say I will super remember the locations like I do with other souls games or remember certain enemies like I would the knight archers of Anor Londo. It feels more like a boss rush game
They are all over the place for certain enemies, you’re probably just used to it and are using sound and rhythm for most of it. Which is something I’ve had to get used to but I noticed many of the enemies make it harder to learn them because what I expect vs what I get out of the parry makes less sense.
I think most of the sword based enemies you’re correct, their attacks are fair and the timings make sense. It’s on the other enemies that I have issues. Specifically any spear enemy or any enemy who puts their weapon in the wall or floor or any enemy who has an exceptionally large weapon.
For enemies that put their weapon in the floor, of which there are quite a few in this game, they are incredibly hard to parry. How are you supposed to parry a weapon you can’t see coming? You just have to memorize the timing on most of them.
Similarly due to how circles work, if you’re close to an enemy with a large weapon you’re going to get hit sooner if you’re closer to them. Works mostly fine if the enemy is still, this makes sense to the brain. But when the enemy is jumping, flying, moving quickly it makes it very hard to even understand when the weapon might land. And if you’re close up to one of these enemies, the hitbox often extends even from the hilt of their sword. For instance I’ve been hit several times while hugging an enemy who thrusts away from me toward the side but the hilt of their sword does damage to me because its hitbox is likely a cylinder.
It’s not the worst thing in the world, it’s an improvement from other souls games. But they even do this intentionally just to mess with you and make swing speed varied at times even though there’s no way you can do it visually for some enemies.
So yes the timings are all over the place but it’s even intentional. Each different weapon used by the different enemies is something you must die and learn to parry. On the whole it’s mostly fair, but certain enemies it’s deliberate and frustrating.
Definitely I appreciate that. I’ll see how the ending goes and maybe give NG+ a shot. Just have a lot of other patient games on the list ya know? Either way thanks for your input!
It’s possible my perspective may change for sure. It’s happened before to me with the souls series. I initially didn’t like bloodborne but it grew on me so we’ll see how the ending works out.
Also, I only found that fight because of a walkthrough. Normally I don’t use walkthroughs but I got the game stuck to where I needed to converse with an NPC before the game would progress. It wasn’t one of the main ones so I got very confused and had to look it up and I read too much lol. I do have a lot of other games to play though so I wanted to experience the harder optional route while I could in case I never came back to it.
Don’t get me wrong, I knew that the steps you take to even just find the owl memory were not something intended for first time players to do but since I found his first fight so easy I wanted to explore it. Not judging the whole game on that fight either for obvious reasons but it did solidify some of these things for me.
Either way we’ll see how I get on and what I think of the final boss, thanks for the comments
Oh no worries, I should clarify that I’m not finding the game to be too difficult. If anything, it’s been kind of easy because I got the combat down pretty quickly. I haven’t been dying to bosses very often at all until I hit that second Owl fight.
As crazy as NG+ 13 is, I don’t think I’m going to go through it again for NG+. Even with the higher difficulty enemies, I just think the combat is almost too straightforward.
I agree 100%, parrying is the way to go with combat like this though I wish for a bit more of a balance between parrying and other things that this game doesn’t quite hit. Still when it works, it works well.
As for difficulty it’s not that I find the enemies easy per se, it’s that I find the game loop easy and kind of dull. Those problems I don’t expect a harder difficulty to fix. For instance I fought Owl for the second time and the tedium of that with his high damage convinced me pretty well that the difficulty wasn’t the issue. Enemies in this game are already extremely deadly so harder must be like playing a no hit run right? Lol
That is indeed a decent boss battle. But I do think the game has a wide range of battles. Most of the sword battles are great, I really liked the first Owl fight. But the other fights? They kind of feel like filler at times.
I will say that the game is mostly fair but I’ve died a fair bit to some things beyond my control. The camera in particular is a real struggle at times particularly when fighting indoors.
As for me being too good, I actually think that’s probably fair. The Genichiro fight I think I cleared on my first or second attempt. The other bosses mostly were 10 attempts or less. The only one that has given me trouble so far is the second Owl fight that took me dozens on dozens of attempts. And the fire demon doesn’t seem so easy.
Even then though maybe I’ve played too many souls games. They don’t feel as fresh anymore. Like being honest I don’t think the world design is all that great in Sekiro when comparing to bloodborne or DS3. Same with enemies. I can’t really name too many places from Sekiro that have stuck with me or feel different. Whereas with dark souls; Anor Londo will be seared into my brain along with various swamps and boss arenas. But hey, at least the story is great in sekiro so it’s got that in spades.
I’ll be honest, that may be one of the issues. I found about 90% of Sekiro to be easy for a souls game. Most bosses I attempted 10 times or less. Until the last few bosses I had no issues so maybe I just find it boring because I don’t die very often?
But even the hard fights didn’t feel like huge achievements because I knew the very next boss was 5 minutes away. Maybe the game is a bit too boss heavy for my tastes, I don’t know.
Appreciate the detailed response. I think there are merits to what you’re saying about the combat being very tight but it’s extremely demanding of the player on those specific skills and that’s exactly what I find incredibly boring about it actually.
Sekiro is at its best for me when there are sparks flying and I’m fending off a flurry of blades left and right, getting those perfect timings and sussing out the beat to which the enemy is coming at me with. Even some of the regular enemies do a great job at showcasing what’s possible with the system.
But then I hit the second Owl fight. In this fight you are fending off attacks that it does not matter if you fend off or not. You will spend minutes fending off attacks for a one or two hit window to chip at damage. You will do this over and over again for 15 minutes. It’s boring. And if you get clipped by a hitbox or dodge at the wrong time, instant death. It makes all of the flaws of the game including the camera and lock on system just come out in full force.
Let me put it this way: I feel like a speed runner trying to execute what I know are the exact right moves over and over again for 10-15 minutes without making minor mistakes. As opposed to other souls games where the combat would ebb and flow, this game is one speed and you must approach enemies a few ways at most. That’s the part that gets boring is that I can’t go in going “I’m going to try to dodge this differently” and instead I’m going back in thinking “I sure hope I hit jump at this one part faster” or “don’t miss that one parry or you die” or “how do I avoid that broken hitbox?”
Specifically I had to take a break after fighting the fire demon and seeing it about to charge forward so I dodge behind it, only to die from it charging away from me despite have multiple feet of distance between us. This isn’t the first fight this type of thing has happened in either. The sumo dude in the memory is pretty bad for this as well.
Have you ever noticed that about these games? Maybe I’m off base but I feel like FromSoft is almost like Bethesda in the way that they have some rough edges to a game demanding perfection from you but a lot of people just say it adds to the difficulty or that it’s expected. It’s not massive issues but I’ve lost many fights in this game to stuff that wasn’t my fault at all.
Sorry to hear that but I can definitely understand why that would happen lol. That button is getting a lot of action.
Have you figured out any way to mitigate the arthritis issue? I know there are accessibility controllers out there to help with that. Would hate to hear that it causes you to play games less if that’s the case.