It's been almost three months since Sekiro: how do you feel about the game now that the honeymoon's passed?
- Thread starter Lant_War
- Start date
One of the best games there is. Not as good as Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3, but still extremely good.
Game could have been FROMs best title, but there are some little issues here and there :
- Overall the game is too easy after you get used to it. Getting the hang of combat and the timings made the second half and end of the game very easy for me to beat
- The talents and special moves seem somewhat useless and get activated unintentionally during combat
- The graphics are a small step back in my opinion
- Some enemy movements are "cheap" and don't intuitively make sense
- Overall too much focus on just parrying until you win. Combat variety lacks a bit
These may sound like harsh words, but I think the game is amazing. I grew to like it more and more the more I played it. It definitely has flaws, but it felt fresh and rewarding.
Game could have been FROMs best title, but there are some little issues here and there :
- Overall the game is too easy after you get used to it. Getting the hang of combat and the timings made the second half and end of the game very easy for me to beat
- The talents and special moves seem somewhat useless and get activated unintentionally during combat
- The graphics are a small step back in my opinion
- Some enemy movements are "cheap" and don't intuitively make sense
- Overall too much focus on just parrying until you win. Combat variety lacks a bit
These may sound like harsh words, but I think the game is amazing. I grew to like it more and more the more I played it. It definitely has flaws, but it felt fresh and rewarding.
Loved the game and setting, but no patient to learn it. So i quit after 3 hours. I beat every souls game and loved them to death, something about the combat of Sekiro did not pull me in and i found it to difficult.
Come on now, it's a totally different type of game to DMC. You could use that line of reasoning to criticise nearly any melee system if depth were your sole objective. The game was trying to achieve something totally different.
I understand the general comments around replayability in the sense that there are no other builds to use, but the game has four endings and two difficulty modifiers, one of which changes the general gameplay experience significantly.
I wouldn't say it has very little replay value, but perhaps less than FROM's other titles.
Loved it.
Liked it more than any of the Dark Souls games after my initial experience. Still put it behind Demon's Souls and Bloodborne.
I like when FROM goes out of their way and experiments. That's why I have such a soft spot for Demon's Souls as they not only started the formula they've been using the last decade, but did a lot of things that haven't been done since (particularly with boss design). Bloodborne is more streamlined, and consistent from beginning to end than any of their other games - along with being amazing in regards to combat, atmosphere and lore. Sekiro is just as consistent IMO but doesn't have the same highs as the prior 2 I mentioned.
Overall I feel combat, atmosphere, and level design are fantastic. Sculptor idols were too frequent for me however. And I enjoyed most of the bosses. Started off feeling overwhelmed, but once I got my parry timing down (and enough beads lol), it got really fun. All the humanoid bosses in the game are amazing. Most of the beast bosses aren't too bad either, including DoH.
Hoping FROM keeps trying new things for their next one!
Liked it more than any of the Dark Souls games after my initial experience. Still put it behind Demon's Souls and Bloodborne.
I like when FROM goes out of their way and experiments. That's why I have such a soft spot for Demon's Souls as they not only started the formula they've been using the last decade, but did a lot of things that haven't been done since (particularly with boss design). Bloodborne is more streamlined, and consistent from beginning to end than any of their other games - along with being amazing in regards to combat, atmosphere and lore. Sekiro is just as consistent IMO but doesn't have the same highs as the prior 2 I mentioned.
Overall I feel combat, atmosphere, and level design are fantastic. Sculptor idols were too frequent for me however. And I enjoyed most of the bosses. Started off feeling overwhelmed, but once I got my parry timing down (and enough beads lol), it got really fun. All the humanoid bosses in the game are amazing. Most of the beast bosses aren't too bad either, including DoH.
Hoping FROM keeps trying new things for their next one!
It's complicated. The game has fundamental issues in the context of being a souls game. If you consider it to not be a souls game it gets better but the combat is both well designed and poorly designed at the same time.
The blocking and parrying is top notch and that entire system is as close to perfect of any melee combat system I've ever played.
All of the weapons and gadgets are much to shallow and cumbersome to use in combat. This leads to flat gameplay of using only the sword for attacking and parrying. Which I'm totally fine with that system is perfect. It carried me through five play throughs for all the endings and one for fun. But still I have to acknowledge the lack of apparent options on the first play throughs of the game. It takes time to find all the weapons and even more time dying over and over while you try to clumsily use them in fights with extremely low caps on spirit emblems. At the end of the day the sword is a much more effective weapon that takes no cost to use.
The blocking and parrying is top notch and that entire system is as close to perfect of any melee combat system I've ever played.
All of the weapons and gadgets are much to shallow and cumbersome to use in combat. This leads to flat gameplay of using only the sword for attacking and parrying. Which I'm totally fine with that system is perfect. It carried me through five play throughs for all the endings and one for fun. But still I have to acknowledge the lack of apparent options on the first play throughs of the game. It takes time to find all the weapons and even more time dying over and over while you try to clumsily use them in fights with extremely low caps on spirit emblems. At the end of the day the sword is a much more effective weapon that takes no cost to use.
It's extremely well-made and in some ways the most polished of all From's games. The animation is sublime.
I think there are some design philosophy issues with it being based around "glass cannon" gameplay with no alternatives since build variety is limited and in comparison to a Dark Souls game, it is focused but shallow.
It is still a great experience.
I think there are some design philosophy issues with it being based around "glass cannon" gameplay with no alternatives since build variety is limited and in comparison to a Dark Souls game, it is focused but shallow.
It is still a great experience.
I love it and hate it at the same time.
I'll freely admit that ultimately the bosses were just too fucking hard for me in hindsight. The stages itself were absolutely fantastic but I just consistently bashed my face against seemingly every single boss, and mini-boss, that popped up. Of course I had moments of levity there as well but overall I felt like there was a huge gulf of difficulty between the seemingly rather short bouts of stage vs. boss cycle.
I dropped the game at the end boss as I just didn't have the will power anymore after having dropped it several times prior before that and picking it back up begrudgingly every time.
I also found the whole prosthetic system kind of underwhelming. Outside of the obvious fire crackers, shurikens and umbrella for interruptions, I rarely thought any of them were really worth the effort over just staying mentally "in the fight" and getting in a few sword swipes. They seemed too...specific?
Okay, love it and hate it is overly dramatic but it popped in my head. The early game glass cannon shit still stands as one of the most infuriating, frustrating and obnoxious gaming experiences of the past 10 years for me though so that was kind of ugly. It was the first time since even Demon's Souls that I felt From had veered into meme territory with their difficulty and if this hadn't been my absolutely most hyped release this year, I would've dropped it.
Edit: That being said, if they ever do Sekiro 2, which I think would actually be very much in order here as there is great room for improvement on this particular formula, I'd still pick it up Day 1.
I'll freely admit that ultimately the bosses were just too fucking hard for me in hindsight. The stages itself were absolutely fantastic but I just consistently bashed my face against seemingly every single boss, and mini-boss, that popped up. Of course I had moments of levity there as well but overall I felt like there was a huge gulf of difficulty between the seemingly rather short bouts of stage vs. boss cycle.
I dropped the game at the end boss as I just didn't have the will power anymore after having dropped it several times prior before that and picking it back up begrudgingly every time.
I also found the whole prosthetic system kind of underwhelming. Outside of the obvious fire crackers, shurikens and umbrella for interruptions, I rarely thought any of them were really worth the effort over just staying mentally "in the fight" and getting in a few sword swipes. They seemed too...specific?
Okay, love it and hate it is overly dramatic but it popped in my head. The early game glass cannon shit still stands as one of the most infuriating, frustrating and obnoxious gaming experiences of the past 10 years for me though so that was kind of ugly. It was the first time since even Demon's Souls that I felt From had veered into meme territory with their difficulty and if this hadn't been my absolutely most hyped release this year, I would've dropped it.
Edit: That being said, if they ever do Sekiro 2, which I think would actually be very much in order here as there is great room for improvement on this particular formula, I'd still pick it up Day 1.
Round about in the meh area. I like Fromsofts games, but none of them have been the transcendental experience other people seem to have with them. I play about 3/4 of the way through them and then something else comes out and I move on.
I was less impressed with the parry heavy game play. I prefer to dodge.
I was less impressed with the parry heavy game play. I prefer to dodge.
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The game has fantastic combat. I'm amazed at how From Software managed to iterate on already brilliant combat system, without sacrificing their wonderful design ethos that complexity should come from the enemies, not from the player's options for self-expression.
Sekiro has flat-out the best bosses I've seen in any game. I thought Soulsbourne was good, but 70% of Sekiro's bosses I loved more than 90% of Soulsbourne bosses. These fights are just incredible. A serious gaming highlight.
The worldbuilding is lacklustre; the world feels smaller and less interesting than previous titles. I view Sekiro less as a well-rounded masterpiece, and more as something that does everything related to combat better than any other game.
Sekiro has flat-out the best bosses I've seen in any game. I thought Soulsbourne was good, but 70% of Sekiro's bosses I loved more than 90% of Soulsbourne bosses. These fights are just incredible. A serious gaming highlight.
The worldbuilding is lacklustre; the world feels smaller and less interesting than previous titles. I view Sekiro less as a well-rounded masterpiece, and more as something that does everything related to combat better than any other game.
Apart from gameplay thinking back now reminds me of how little the aesthetics stuck with me. I have fond memories remembering Dark Souls & Bloodborne, not so much with Sekiro. Level repetition is a big part of that and the environments didnt have enough variety. First impression was wow but today, not so much.
Gameplaywise the fluid movements were brilliant and make it somewhat hard to go back to the other games (especially DS1&2 for me).
Gameplaywise the fluid movements were brilliant and make it somewhat hard to go back to the other games (especially DS1&2 for me).
Yeah, I wasn't quite that blown away. When it's good it's great, but high points are always counter-balanced by flaws: level design is fantastic, but there's not all that much to find. Combat is slick and responsive, but mechanically quite restricted. Art and visuals are better than ever, but performance is still patchy on consoles.
The biggest thing though is the disconnect between stage phases and boss phases and the difficulty gulf betwixt. Stages encourage one type of play - stealthy, fluid, hit & run shenanigans - while bosses demand close, disciplined duels with few of the tricks you've picked up in the stages benefiting you.
I found it oddly unbalanced in that way - I would love to have seen FROM rip up their arena boss fights design philosophy and iterate on the main game mechanics rather than whittling it down (for the most part) to just the core sword play. I guess what I'm trying to say is that they should have committed to their new vision, rather than keeping one foot in their comfort zone.
The biggest thing though is the disconnect between stage phases and boss phases and the difficulty gulf betwixt. Stages encourage one type of play - stealthy, fluid, hit & run shenanigans - while bosses demand close, disciplined duels with few of the tricks you've picked up in the stages benefiting you.
I found it oddly unbalanced in that way - I would love to have seen FROM rip up their arena boss fights design philosophy and iterate on the main game mechanics rather than whittling it down (for the most part) to just the core sword play. I guess what I'm trying to say is that they should have committed to their new vision, rather than keeping one foot in their comfort zone.
Liked it a ton upon release and it's my only platinum, having said that I doubt I'll ever pick it up again, it doesn't have the same reply value as the souls games.
I loved it. I loved the more focused approach to combat instead of the wide amount of stat based/armor/weapon based customization of the past From games. I totally get people wouldnt like that though. I loved the block/parry system, and the game always made me feel confident going into boss battles. Whereas, in every Souls game and bloodborne, I usually always dreaded fighting a boss. In this game you always feel like you have the tools you need to succeed, and you do.
I also loved that there was a lot of low key music in the game, which is one thing I never liked about the souls games(lack of music). It helped elevate the sights and feel of the game world.
I also loved that there was a lot of low key music in the game, which is one thing I never liked about the souls games(lack of music). It helped elevate the sights and feel of the game world.
Ive bounced off every souls title and this one was the same. I love From's art and world building, but the gameplay loop gets stale after a few hours for me. This one I got past the first snake part and just never went back to it. Bloodborne I sank the most time into, but never went back after I beat the Blood Starved Beast.
After banging my head against the wall for two weeks trying to beat Genichiro, and after picking up my 82nd candy, I stepped away from the game and have zero desire to finish. I appreciate that it brought From out of their comfort zone a bit and does show that they can do something other than Souls, but man I'm never going to finish the game and I likely won't play another From game if it follows this formula.
As I continued to play Sekiro, it made me appreciate something in the Souls games that Sekiro lacked. Souls games seemed to allow me more breathing room between punishing boss battles, whereas Sekiro felt like I was constantly butting heads with frustrating bosses. Beat one, get that shot of adrenaline, but there is really no time to savor that victory because there is another boss just right around the corner. The relentlessness of the boss battles is what made me eventually move away from the game. I need to feel like I am making progress in the game outside the brick walls a lot of the bosses represent. What I would want for the next Sekiro is more content to fill out the spaces those walls.
Exact same feeling! The fact that RE2make materialized kind of boxed everything else out, but, Sekiro might as well tie it tbh
Better than Dark Souls 2 and 3 that's for fucking sure!
Reminded me a lot of what I loved most about Bloodborne- a layered labyrinth that changes with progress, filled with challenging enemies and multiple upon multiple approaches.
It's not my favorite From title ever, but it's Top 3 for sure for me. Easily.
I really hope they announce DLC for it.
I really hope they announce DLC for it.
An absolutely extraordinary game that exceeded my rather lofty expectations. The only problem with it is that there's not enough of it. The game lacks content, plain and simple and only makes up for it due to the fact that what there is, is so good.
I'm hoping we get a good 10-15 DLC later this year which would alleviate this somewhat, but there's no denying that the game needed at least one whole extra area and a few more bosses and mini bosses. The
I'm hoping we get a good 10-15 DLC later this year which would alleviate this somewhat, but there's no denying that the game needed at least one whole extra area and a few more bosses and mini bosses. The
corrupted Monk, for example, is great, but having to fight her twice in what is already a short game is... weird. Same with Genichiro (3 times!) and even arenas get reused to often.
Didn't quite topple Bloodborne for me, but I absolutely loved it. I don't often get sucked into games and play them almost non-stop anymore, but Sekiro definitely did that.
Even tho i ultimately beat it on X1X, it felt like utter shit at points. The framepacing combined with the horrid input delay makes the experience gross. That, coupled with the framerate tanking in key areas such as: Ashina castle rooftops, when kneeling in grass, when smoke fills the entire screen, etc.
It's really sad the care wasn't given to the xbox version like the ps4 version (then again, i kinda expect it from a Japanese studio sans Capcom, who are awesome at optimization). There's no reason they couldn't have just gone with a resolution reconstruction method and netted a better framerate.
I loved it. It is one of FromSoft's best games and is one of the best "character action" games out there imo. They outdone themselves with the combat system, the animations and the art direction. Incredible game.
EDIT:
Sounds like you just want more action RPG if you're more concerned with "build variety". I agree that Sekiro could have had multiple weapons types like Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden but imo whats special is that no other action game does "swordfighting" quite like Sekiro and that was the goal.
EDIT:
First of all "the camera can get atrocious in close quarters" can be applied to like any action game with free moving camera, and I've seen it complained about in every action game without a fixed camera haha. At this point its to be expected.
Sounds like you just want more action RPG if you're more concerned with "build variety". I agree that Sekiro could have had multiple weapons types like Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden but imo whats special is that no other action game does "swordfighting" quite like Sekiro and that was the goal.
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My main thought now is that I want dlc. Even though it had some issues (boss recycling is a pet peeve of mine), I still had a blast with it and want more. The only big rpg element from the Souls series I miss is the ability to create different builds. Outside of that I don't really miss stats or customization.
Concurred
I ADORED Sekiro during its stage-phases/Tenchu-successor moments... then every other corner was another mini-boss that pushed the design philosophy in the othee direction. Sometimes i legit enjoyed the change up/challenge... but the majority of the time, i resented it.
I loved it. I finished it a few weeks ago, and I still think back fondly about certain boss fights.
The game really made me feel like a clumsy mess for the first few hours, but once I got to a certain landmark early boss, everything suddenly clicked and the game got amazing.
I really like the combat system. No stamina to worry about, much faster in general, more threats and answers to them, and you can fucking jump for once.
The game really made me feel like a clumsy mess for the first few hours, but once I got to a certain landmark early boss, everything suddenly clicked and the game got amazing.
I really like the combat system. No stamina to worry about, much faster in general, more threats and answers to them, and you can fucking jump for once.
With the caveat that I haven't finished it yet (I've made it to the second of four phases of the final boss fight), Sekiro had some real high highs and some real low lows for me. Unfortunately, I think it's mostly the lows that are sticking in my brain. I have no desire to replay it or to attempt NG+ at this time.
I absolutely loved the level design, the way the world opens up when you reach Ashina Castle, the look of Senpou Temple and the Fountainhead, and I even enjoyed some of the more notorious first-timer boss fights like Genichiro and Great Shinobi Owl because they felt like appropriate capstones to the principles of combat the game was trying to teach me.
But so often, I felt like the game only superficially wanted me to play that way, and it would then throw in bosses who completely circumvent that training. I ended up cheesing both Corrupted Monk and Guardian Ape by running in circles and dashing in for occasional strikes. It was tedious, unfun, and surely not what the designers intended, but it was also more effective than trying to play as I felt the game had been teaching me.
Past Soulsborne games have had a flatter difficulty curve; standard grunt enemies are strong enough to warrant caution, and bosses are challenging but can usually be overcome in a few attempts once you learn their patterns. By contrast, many of Sekiro's grunt solders can be brute-forced by mashing R1, and then bosses are a steep wall of difficulty. So you end up with this weird staccato rhythm of play that makes the game frequently feel like a glorified boss rush mode.
I have conflicted feelings on character growth. I was initially disappointed that you only get the one primary weapon for the whole game, and that there isn't really any notion of different character builds (save for maybe which skills you pursue first). But I do think there's an elegance to the design that sort of makes Dark Souls feel like a messy kitchen sink of features and ideas by comparison.
I don't like to be negative towards games, especially games that are as fantastically well-made as Sekiro is (and it is, it's just not necessarily made for me). Maybe someday I'll finish it, and maybe someday I'll revisit it and discover that it's less frustrating and more satisfying on a second attempt. But not today.
I absolutely loved the level design, the way the world opens up when you reach Ashina Castle, the look of Senpou Temple and the Fountainhead, and I even enjoyed some of the more notorious first-timer boss fights like Genichiro and Great Shinobi Owl because they felt like appropriate capstones to the principles of combat the game was trying to teach me.
But so often, I felt like the game only superficially wanted me to play that way, and it would then throw in bosses who completely circumvent that training. I ended up cheesing both Corrupted Monk and Guardian Ape by running in circles and dashing in for occasional strikes. It was tedious, unfun, and surely not what the designers intended, but it was also more effective than trying to play as I felt the game had been teaching me.
Past Soulsborne games have had a flatter difficulty curve; standard grunt enemies are strong enough to warrant caution, and bosses are challenging but can usually be overcome in a few attempts once you learn their patterns. By contrast, many of Sekiro's grunt solders can be brute-forced by mashing R1, and then bosses are a steep wall of difficulty. So you end up with this weird staccato rhythm of play that makes the game frequently feel like a glorified boss rush mode.
I have conflicted feelings on character growth. I was initially disappointed that you only get the one primary weapon for the whole game, and that there isn't really any notion of different character builds (save for maybe which skills you pursue first). But I do think there's an elegance to the design that sort of makes Dark Souls feel like a messy kitchen sink of features and ideas by comparison.
I don't like to be negative towards games, especially games that are as fantastically well-made as Sekiro is (and it is, it's just not necessarily made for me). Maybe someday I'll finish it, and maybe someday I'll revisit it and discover that it's less frustrating and more satisfying on a second attempt. But not today.
I'm surprised by the negativity of this thread. Souls gamers always had this 'git gud' mentality and this game is kinda the epitome to that, you can't grind to 'git gud', I wonder if many people dropped it because of that.
tbh, the game is not that difficult at all. I'm old, bad reflexes and usually suck and was able to finish it.
I'm also surprised by people loving the stages more than the bosses. To me stages in sekiro were super boring and the bosses were great. The opposite of Souls, where stages are amazing and the bosses are a mess and not fun.
tbh, the game is not that difficult at all. I'm old, bad reflexes and usually suck and was able to finish it.
I'm also surprised by people loving the stages more than the bosses. To me stages in sekiro were super boring and the bosses were great. The opposite of Souls, where stages are amazing and the bosses are a mess and not fun.
I find the game extremely well-made and precise, but near the end I was exhausted by the melee gameplay entirely based on parry. You have between 30 and 40 moves per weapon to land a hit in Souls game, here... one, plus the whirligig evade hit and eventually the jump. While I still found motivation to grind my platinium, I am not sure to be interested by a DLC. But it's cool if From can now manage "smaller" projects with that degree of polishing between bigger one like DS3.
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It's a great game that's held back by a few flaws (lack of meaningful rewards for exploration, lack of replayability, difficulty discrepancy between enemies and bosses). A Sekiro 2 could be a masterpiece. Still near the top of the From Software heap for me though, under Bloodborne and Dark Souls 1.
Massive dislike, worst from game.
Lack of customisation both in character customisation and armour, arms where a gimmick, too much focus on items, poor enemy variety, lack of creativity in approaches, samy worlds and environments, poor traversal system and awful stealth mechanics, more direct yet duller story that lacks the intrigue and open interpretation of previous games, limiting ways to approach combat.
So much more i could go in depth for, but i just cant stand tslking about my disappointment anymore. Just wanted to have my two cents
Lack of customisation both in character customisation and armour, arms where a gimmick, too much focus on items, poor enemy variety, lack of creativity in approaches, samy worlds and environments, poor traversal system and awful stealth mechanics, more direct yet duller story that lacks the intrigue and open interpretation of previous games, limiting ways to approach combat.
So much more i could go in depth for, but i just cant stand tslking about my disappointment anymore. Just wanted to have my two cents
Sekiro ranks below Dark Souls and Bloodborne, but above DS2 DS3 and Demons Souls for me.
I just can't get over the fact that it felt like two separate games where in one you spend an hour or two being a ninja, being stealthy as shit, and occasionally fighting minibosses, and in the other you spend three hours learning a bosses' animations so you can get through a battle pitch perfect via parries and dodges.
I had a lot of fun with the majority of the game, but most of the bosses took it out of me and I just couldn't hit my head on that wall any longer.
I just can't get over the fact that it felt like two separate games where in one you spend an hour or two being a ninja, being stealthy as shit, and occasionally fighting minibosses, and in the other you spend three hours learning a bosses' animations so you can get through a battle pitch perfect via parries and dodges.
I had a lot of fun with the majority of the game, but most of the bosses took it out of me and I just couldn't hit my head on that wall any longer.
I think it's interesting that quite a bit of what people seem to dislike (from reading posters) is that the game cuts or minimizes things that people feel were better done in other From games. (Notable examples: leveling up/progression, ng+, playstyle variety). As someone who cared far less about these aspects of other From titles (GS squad 100% of the time) I absolutely loved Sekiro. Also, I've been replaying DS3 since and even going back to that combat (which I think is the best of all the previous games) just feels slow and awkward after Sekiro.
I feel like it's a perfect example of a game that benefitted from not trying to do "too much" because everything in it is nearly perfect. Unlike Souls where you would cheese some bosses depending on your build and find it nearly impossible to do others, every boss until the final (with a few notable exceptions) teaches you something important that you need to be able to do later, and each area requires you to have mastered more of the stealth/traversal mechanics. Because of this I don't think that even the best final bosses in Soulsbourne up to this point feel as good as the final
fight, where you really have to do everything you've done in all of the other boss fights (including the random lightning mechanic). It very nearly felt metroidvania-like in terms of how well the game asked you to master one thing before you get the next.
I also love love love the art design.
I feel like it's a perfect example of a game that benefitted from not trying to do "too much" because everything in it is nearly perfect. Unlike Souls where you would cheese some bosses depending on your build and find it nearly impossible to do others, every boss until the final (with a few notable exceptions) teaches you something important that you need to be able to do later, and each area requires you to have mastered more of the stealth/traversal mechanics. Because of this I don't think that even the best final bosses in Soulsbourne up to this point feel as good as the final
Isshin
I also love love love the art design.
It is the worst from software game since Dark Souls 2. Personal ranking;
1. BB
2. DS1
3. DS3
4. DmnS
5. Sekiro
6. DS2
1. BB
2. DS1
3. DS3
4. DmnS
5. Sekiro
6. DS2