Sifu looks so sick, definitely picking it up if hit has a sale this summer. Though I’ll probably suck balls at it.
In other news, I’ve beaten up my abusive dad (in the videogames). Father surpassed was one hell of an achievement to get after mastering (but not fully mastering it, i still got hit quite a lot) the Father, Owl fight. What an incredible fucking fight, once you dare to be more aggressive the fight gets this wonderful rhythm to it that i didn’t quite have while in my failing attempts. And the differences between the first and second phases throw you off so well in a good way. The spirit owl might be my favorite boss-fight mechanic fromsoft has ever done. If inner owl is as good as i hear he is, then i might have a new candidate for best boss. also because i was dying quite a bit, it took a strong 15 attempts, i was completely out of spirit emblems for my later runs. I wanted to go grinding for them but decided against that and just did the fight with mortal draw and firecrackers (two things that helped me learn the fight in earlier stages as it would kill quicker). Owls osst is burned into my brain now too.
I also explored further in fountainhead and it might be my favorite area, alotta favorites today how cliche, but for real. I loved the more stealth focus in the courtyard with the mist nobles that actually are a threat and okami warriors. especially the section with the broken ceiling felt really cool and i wish the game did this more often. The okami women are also fantastically fun to fight, theyre like mini-genichiros showing how far you’ve come. I also killed what was probably an old pet of the palace in the blazing bull reskin that was again, way easier than the original. Probably to show the player how far they came. Also quick question, what do i do with all this bait, can i feed it to the big fish fucker that destroyed a small bridge thinking hes a giant serpent. I also found the waters of the palace and gave it to the red mibu village priest and he turned into the most difficult boss in the game so i sadly had to put him down.
You can feed bait to the carp once you reach the Feeding Grounds. The carp’s guardian will give you carp scales for the first three feedings.
Good job on Dad! Firecrackers and Mortal Draw are perhaps two of the most powerful tools at your disposal in the game. All of the Owl fights give you big windows for combat arts after his jumping or charged overhead slam: that’s something I dislike, so I tend to just R1 him so I can get back into the rhythm. That rhythm break always felt a bit jarring to me.
Firecrackers are just hilarious to me in how powerful they are. They can stunlock half of the game’s bosses for a tiny cost, giving you at least 2 R1s or a Chasing Slice + R1 for free. I honestly think they should have been nerfed a little, or at least had a cost increase; allowing you to have free Vitality damage is silly. The Corrupted Monk literally cannot do anything against firecrackers, the Guardian Ape’s Phase 1 can be beaten with ONLY firecrackers because of their insane posture damage to beasts. I suppose they’re optional to use so I shouldn’t worry about it. Anyway, enough ranting.
Inner Dad isn’t much harder than Dad if you haven’t learned him. If you haven’t got muscle memory of his attacks, you’ll probably just react to things as they come and beat him. I didn’t fight Owl often when I did boss rush before the Gauntlet/Reflection update, so when it came out I wasn’t wrecked by muscle memory for his fight, and first try’d the entire Shura gauntlet (which has come to be my favourite after many runs). There aren’t too many changes to Owl himself, but they are improvements overall, and they definitely test your reaction speed.
Fountainhead is lovely. Cool area with cool enemies. My only complaint is the minibosses: of the three (maybe four depending on if you count a certain encounter), I only enjoyed one. The others had cool designs but were just too easy. The main bosses, though, were simply amazing. You’ve got one of the game’s most cinematic fights ahead of you, get ready!
I’d also like to say something about Owl that other people have discovered: along with using prosthetic tools, he uses the same Mikiri deathblow as Sekiro and even has a combo that is exactly the same as Wolf’s R1 chain. Pretty cool. Inner Owl also gains a few more of Sekiro’s moves, but a lot faster. From’s details never cease to amaze me.
Yesterday i did so much that i didnt have time to write it all down here before i went to bed. So I’ll write it down now. Rather quickly. I Explored the entirety of fountainhead and even re-explored some older areas before challenging the fountainhead main boss, The Divine Dragon, a spectacular gimmick fight that went over a bit too quickly imo. I also fed the great carp some poisonous bait to set the feeder free and the turn the carp dead as fuck. Which made the pot noble a carp aswell
Upon being teleported out of the divine realm for mutilating the admin for his tears i come back to an ashina ravaged by the interior ministry. Isshin chad mcmassive cock tried to go out and kill them all but succumbed of old age. And man i gotta say, the way sekiro reuses the areas of ashina castle is fantastic and honestly a bit depressing. Even more depressing was finding the bodies of kotaro and anayama. Anayama barely holding onto life but giving me one hell of a good item. The promissory note. I also found the sculptor he wasnt doing too well.
Which brings me to the Demon Of Hatred. I have currently tried this boss 3 times. And man is it a ballbuster, very different from any other sekiro boss which i do enjoy. As i think the variety helps the game. I came prepared with Suzaku’s Lotus Umbrella and the Malcontent finger whistle. I got to his second phase 1 so i think this one is in the bag after a few more attempts.
And then I’m going on a small detour before final boss by killing all the remaining mini-bosses and finding any prayer beads I’m still missing. These are the Faces Of Evil i still have left to kill. Mostly the headless as to be honest fuck those guys. Currently my only issue with sekiro is those fat lards of slow moving terror. (good design though)
I’m surprised with how fast i blasted through my first playthrough, this could be because this is my fourth souls-like and third I’m fully finishing but man did it go surprisingly fast. 20 Hours is still a lot of time for one game but man i expected to be longer with how many horror stories i heard of sekiros difficulty. Though, i still have a full set of gauntlets and the shura ending to go through after this.
Solid work! Time for the cleanup of beads and stuff, which is actually pretty fun. That is, until I had one bead left and had to run around the entire map for ages looking for it (my first playthrough was blind so I refused to look it up, perhaps to my own detriment).
Demon of Hatred is a pretty fun fight. My only issue is how long it can be on the higher NGs. NG+7 DoH is a bit like Fire Giant to be honest, just a big endurance battle. His moveset is pretty basic once you’ve seen it for a while. I’d recommend using the umbrella on anything you’re unsure about, and saving Malcontent for Phase 3.
The final boss is absolutely amazing, prepare yourself for that lol. Shura also has a very fun fight waiting for you, and you’ll need to do it in order to unlock the Shura Gauntlet, which is definitely my favourite and has the best looking skin IMO. Might you go for platinum/all achievements too? I must warn you, it ends up being a pretty colossal grind.
Im not sure, it looks pretty doable. But sekiro has 4 distinct endings and i’ll have to upgrade every shinobi to the max which isnt gonna be simple. I might just leave it at 2 endings (purification & shura) and beating all the gauntlets. I may grind a bit too to get all the shinobi tool upgrades
You need to do 2 non-Shura endings (or rather, 2 non-Shura playthroughs/NGs) to max out your prosthetics. Doing all 4 endings wasn’t so bad, but some of the extended character interactions required for the “secret” ending are long and boring. The trophy that is by far the worst is all skills: the grind for it is incredibly long. You either need to go through NGs as fast as possible for boss XP then farm at NG+7 or just farm for a long time at whatever NG you want. So yeah, not at all hard but mind-numbingly dull.
The Sculptor met his untimely demise after an odd 13 attempts I’d say. What a unique fight, it was really hard switching back into dark souls/elden ring mode for fighting after getting so used to the deflect heavy sekiro but the key of combat was still aggression. Because yer weapon is basically a toothpick for the likes of the Demon Of Hatred so by constantly pressuring the asshole you can make him stagger.
But man what a fight, what a bold move to make it a 3 phase endurance fight too. I loved dodging his moves except the big slam down he does after his charge in phase 2. I loved the music and I loved how desperate it felt. This entire third act feels like wolf scrambling desperately to keep a sense of order in ashina by eliminating the red guard and any other threats while its so obvious that ashina is gone. burned to ashes and probably taken over by the interior ministry after the events of the game.
I also beat the final drunkard. Shigekichi of the red guard. which means I’ve started on my final collect em all of mini bosses and beads. The loneshadow in hirata estate is next. I’m not sure if ill do all the headless because fuck those guys. But I’ll see. I’ve found an excellent farming spot in ashina outskirts and it allowed me to get enough cash in a short time to get a lazulite upgrade.
My owl drawing is also coming along nicely. I’ve got the linework finished now but I’m afraid ill fuck it up at the coloring stage. Though thats what I’m gonna do now. See yall on the other side.
Well done! Demon of Hatred does feel a bit weird after fighting bosses like Genichiro and going back to something which feels more like Midir, but I adore the design and it’s not a half bad fight.
Shigekichi is, unfortunately, a dull Juzou reskin that feels the same as the original Juzou. Did you work out that you could use the Loaded Spear to rip his armor off?
Are you farming the Ministry soldiers with their backs to you? They are one of the most efficient sen/material farming kills in the entire game, but not quite the best for XP. Out of interest, which lazuline upgrade did you get? I hope it wasn’t the Sabimaru
Edit: Forgot to say, the drawing is looking great so far! Keep up the good work!
yea, id say demon of hatred is probably one of my favorite fromsoft designs period. Though its a rough contest with how many incredible designs those japanese geniuses have made. Love the fight too, it feels out of place, but in a good way and the attacks you can deflect feel fucking awesome to deflect. Also love his poses straight out of japanese theater.
Shigekichi was weird, He felt way too easy for being such a lategame miniboss and pulling the armour of him made him even easier. I do like his funny beard, blue armour and fire attacks. Makes him different enough.
YUP, the ones leading up where you first found the chained ogre. It’s such a good farm, over 1000 sen and half an xp bar per run. when using all the balloons that is. I got the very generic lazulite shurikens. As shurikens are a tool that are pretty decent in any situation. The lazulite flame and axe I’ll probably get next. but jesus why would anyone use the lazuli on the sabimaru, ive never found a use for that thing. Not even on the okami women because theyre so squishy
Nice Drawing @Khakiasp and good playthrough. @Wolfhawk101 After completing the game I did a few study on Sekiro lore.
Interesting to see Sekiro, Sculptor and the Dragon has an amputated left hand. The okami warrior (football team) in Fountain Palace and Gunners in Gun Fort are all females with long range shooting abilities. The mist nobles are the weakest enemy who feeds on your age. The four headless are fallen warriors with unique powers. A lot of crazy lores yet to discover. Elden Ring also has so many lores.
Head Scratching lores from From Software
Alas, not for long. By the time you’ve nearly got all skills, it costs about 70k per skill point
Your cost right now must be about 6-8k judging from the XP they give?
The shuriken is useful, but I don’t remember the Lazulite version doing much more damage than Gouging Top. The Lazulite Flame Vent cooks apparitions and gives you Divine Confetti for 20s, and the Lazulite Axe shreds everything. Oh yeah, and the Lazulite Sabimaru is worse than the Piercing Sabimaru (which is actually quite good against fast enemies like the Lone Shadows, and combos very well with Bestowal or Living Force).
Welp, guess who beat sekiro earlier than expected. I did a fuck ton in 2 hours and its kinda scary how it mirrors my first 2 hour rampage when i beat genichiro for the first time. I beat so much stuff. Starting with the loneshadow spear holder in Hirata estate, I was fucking shocked how quickly i killed this guy. I don’t know if it was the 1 extra attack power from demon of hatred or just my skill but he went down in 1 try without even being able to summon the dogs. After that I easily killed the seven spears in the ashina reservoir by double teaming him with his puppeted buddy. Which brought him down ezpz.
After that I did a little bit of grinding and acquired two things for new game+
Nearly every single prosthethic upgrade & the dragon mask. Though I wont be using the functionality of the dragon mask for a long ass time as I do want to get every skill in the game before i start pumping more attack power. As for the prosthethic upgrades. I can get another lazuli upgrade by killing the shichimen warrior in the fountainhead palace, but I’m unsure if ill do that immediately. As I’m probably gonna do the gauntlets of strength first. Thats right, the gauntlets. Which brings me to the biggest point of today. I beat the game, I beat the final boss. And what a fantastic fight sword saint Isshin is.
It starts of phenomenally with a third fight against a Genichiro. And I love how much the tables are flipped in your favor. Not only do you know his moveset like you know your own pants. You are also way more powerful than him as he’s just the prelude to Isshin. His new mortal blade attacks are piss easy to dodge and overal he’s become as weak as Wolf in the beginning of the game. He him self realizes this making him cut open a portal to the great beyond from his neck letting his grandpa come out. And man is gramps fun to fight.
Out of all the bosses I heard horror stories about, Sword Saint Isshin stood above them all. fromsofts hardest final boss, literally impossible, super difficult. But I don’t know what happened but I really clicked with him. His first phase has 2 attacks that are tough to deflect/dodge. But for the rest he is a really fun fight with unique deflect timings. And then phase 2 comes and holy shit. This is my favorite part, the polearm and gun create so many fun combos and the fact you can deflect most of it is so fucking fantastic. And then his phase 3 is a victory lap where his posture is dramatically lowered so you can just finish the old man off. His lighting was probably also intended for that victory lap but the one lighting i did get and didn’t accidentily dodge had super weird timing so I’m gonna go back into reflections of strength to figure out how to reverse it in case isshin shows up in any of the gauntlets.
all in all 4 tries.
With Isshin down, Ashina in ruins and Kuro down on the ground. I had the option to pick my ending and i chose purification. Game complete. I didn’t choose to go to new game #2 immediately as I do want to clean up some stuff in this game. I don’t know if I’ll kill all the remaining headless, as i absolutely despise the fight and I don’t wanna grind money for divine confetti despite how easy it is. I do want to kill the shichimen warrior in fountainhead though, especially with my new found 14 attack power. I will also do all the gauntlets and get the final 4 prayerbeads I’m missing before heading to do shura. What a game, objectively the best fromsoft game, subjectively a 9/10 slightly below elden ring. Prepare for a boss ranking of the severance memory bosses and some minibosses soon. Also, I’m nearly finished shading the Owl artwork. So that’ll be up soon too
Nice Game, note that there are 4 endings in Sekiro depending on your descision.
Meanwhile I am planning to buy Dark Souls 3 as AC Odyssey is over.
Does anyone know the difference between general and GOTY Fire Fades edition of Dark Souls 3?
Agreed, the Fire Fades Edition is definitely worth it. As you said, AoA is short and sweet with some top-notch bosses and enemies. The Ringed City is my favourite From DLC, it’s quite long with some of the best bosses, enemies, areas and music in the DS series. DS3 itself is an incredible game, and I pretty much guarantee that playing the base game will make you want the DLC.
Fair warning, that might take some time. If you’re not bothered about platinum, the attack power is probably better value than most skills for NG+ and beyond (although anything above 27 AP is a waste). The skills I would recommend are High Monk, Empowered Mortal Draw and Living Force. I wouldn’t worry about the Mushin arts like Shadowfall (or even Shadowrush) and Spiral Cloud Passage. If you do now intend to go for platinum, the Dragon Mask is utterly useless to you. By the time you get all skills, you’ll have so much attack power from bosses that levelling AP barely increases your damage.
If you want to farm XP, make sure that you get to a suitable NG and when you’re there, kill the Divine Dragon. After this, never kill the Chained Ogre at the bottom of Ashina Castle: he’s the secret ingredient to the most efficient XP farm in the game.
So quick update on sekiro, I have decided not to go through the severance gauntlet before doing ng+ as i really was craving a bit of regular gameplay interspurced with bosses. Instead of all bosses all the time. So i started New Game+ and man, what a rush. In 2 hours today I’ve beaten gyoubu and grabbed everything i wanted from ashina outskirts, killed lady butterfly and grabbed everything i wanted from hirata estate 1.0 and i killed genichiro and did most of ashina castle. even unlocked the sections to the sunken valley and depths. Sekiro’s new game+ is such a rush as you not only get a slight boost in power but your improved skill just lets you fly by bosses that were giving you extreme trouble. I 1 shotted every single miniboss and boss i encountered and man does that feel good. Beating tutorial genichiro was also really funny and playing with the ashina skin makes this new playthrough feel fresh.
There’s really nothing like flying through part of the game you struggled with the first time around. It’s so bloody satisfying that I didn’t mind doing it 7 times
he wasnt doing too well.
