What the hell jusy happened? Low quality asf and evn i cant tell, but seems nice 💀

I know that FromSoft lead female characters very often seem to be cut from a similar cloth.

But Emma just seems a cut apart.

Got tired of getting my ass kicked and resorted to desperate measures

Credit to majinbuuhehe on TikTok for this meme.

I love Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Elden Ring, all of them. But man, Sekiro just hits different.

The combat feels so clean that once it clicks, every fight becomes this intense rhythm game. You’re not hiding behind builds, summons, overleveling, or a giant health bar. You either learn the fight or you get folded.

And that’s what makes beating bosses in Sekiro feel so good. It never feels like you cheesed your way through. It feels like you actually improved. Other games in the genre are amazing, but Sekiro has this level of precision that I still haven’t seen matched. Have you ever had this feeling about game ?

So, my friend got Sekiro and has been constantly humble bragging about how good it has made him in video games. I wanted to try it out for myself, but the steep 60 dollar price was very out of budget. That is, until a recent xbox store sale, where it's Half off. I want to buy it, but at the same time am wondering if it is even worth buying for someone of my skill level. For context, I play mainly single player games, specifically metroidvanias like the hollow knight series, and the blasphemous series.

I'd played all of From's games except Demon's Souls and after hearing about it for a long time, finally dipped my toes in the world of Sekiro. It was an amazing experience... Getting to master the bosses and their moves without getting to rely much on build variety made for such a fun combat system and a fresh change of pace compared to all the other entries... The deflection system was so satisfying to pull off. I also loved sneaking in whenever I could to get one deathblow meter off. Also loved the atmosphere of the locations... The day night cycle and how the locations change throughout the game. The experience did make me yearn for the more familiar RPG approach at times, but it was honestly a really fun game overall. Wish I could have gone in spoiler free

Some of the ashina solders (mostly katana wielding regular dudes) kinda look like neanderthals. Since the beginin I have thought about this.

Omg, I don't even know where to start. I had a leave from work today because of my birthday ( yay!! ). So i booted up sekiro with only demon of hatred and isshin remaining. I defeated them both today and finally felt like I've gotten good lol. I went with the purification ending which was beautiful imo.

Don't know if I have the energy left in me to do NG+ and remaining endings, but definitely one of my topmost gaming experiences. Elden ring and sekiro both are just so beautiful experiences.

That's why I don't get tired of playing this game

I owe an apology to the 2 people who told me to use MB and I was like "nuh uh". Once I mastered his patterns, I was able to exploit his blindspots.

Not only that, but I also went back to Hirata estate, humiliated Lady Butterfly, humbled the Headless ape and his girlfriend, and then slimed the True Monk

Now I am out there ruining the life of the fishmen at Fountainhead palace

I had mastered his 1st phase, somehow got through his 2nd phase with mortal draw and the third phase was easy. What an amazing boss!
i hadn't even managed to reach his 3rd phase before this run, so happy that that I got through both the 2nd and 3rd in the same run.
Used: Keyboard and a mouse

I just finished the game yesterday I did the immortality severance ending and I started my 2nd playthrough to see the other endings but I genuinely can't get past this gentleman literally one grab kills you and one his grabs is almost instant and keeps hitting me while I'm hitting him, and the lunge his head traps me from jumping or dodging so I get grabbed like dang

But you’ve been infected by the funky flute of calmness and find yourself powerless, so must chill.

So I beat Sekiro for the first time last night. Very rarely do I jump right into a new game plus but I needed more.

What a feeling going through the early game remembering how I was sneaking around like a scared little cat and now I’m going full assault like the terminator. I feel like a god. This applies to normal enemies as well as spanking bosses like butterfly and genichiro without breaking a sweat.

For clarification this is NOT an insult to Sword Saint, it's an incredible fight. Getting bronze at the olympics still means you're an olympic athlete. This is a compliment to Owl Father and Demon of Hatred.

Sword Saint, in my experience, is a very straightforward fight. He has long combos that you deflect. He has thrusts with varying timing that you have to mikiri deliberately, sweeps you jump, lightning you reverse. Fail any of these tasks and he hits like a freight train. He makes for an excellent final exam of the majority of the game's core combat and leaves room for skill expression with your tools and arts. But nevertheless, Isshin tells you what he's doing, then does it, and your job is to execute a specific counter flawlessly.

Owl Father is tricky. His combos vary in length and he can mix up the order he strings certain attacks together in. He can animation cancel or switch up what he's doing in reaction to what you're doing. For perilous moves he has a sweep in which he moves so far you don't usually get the stomp in, and a thrust he only pulls out after trying to stun or distract you with something else; he makes it difficult to execute the clear counter for those kinds of moves. Owl to me demands... not necessarily more attention but a different kind of attention. He demands more improvisation and creativity.

Demon of Hatred is a fantastic spectacle and showcase of the lessons the game teaches you. He tests your ability to deflect big combos, to deflect moves you think you couldn't deflect, to handle chip damage, to pick good arts/tools for the situation, to be intentional with positioning and use your step dodge. He tests your ability to pressure a boss without getting greedy and your ability to close gaps. And he also demands you use your movement and grappling hook mid-combat in a way that bosses like Gyoubu and Ape taught but which Demon takes to a higher level of difficulty and variety.

In various other circles I've seen bosses like Sword Saint described as waltz bosses, and bosses like Owl Father or Demon of Hatred described as swing dance bosses. And idk, for as fun as it is to get into a flow vs Sword Saint, I think the tricky qualities and variety in the Owl and Demon fights appeal to me more. I like the swing dancin. It's a good time.

What are your opinions/ranking on these three? Am I alone in my placement of Sword Saint or do I have a comrade out there somewhere