Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019)

Well, after hours I finally beat that fucking Corrupted Monk Mk II. I didn't like that boss. It took me ages to get the hang of those perilous attacks, by the end they still got me like 20% of the time. And being stuck repeating the same thing over and over again start to show all the things I don't like.

I didn't like that just after I praised the posture system for solving the tanky boss problem, this boss introduced a mechanic that negates it with it's second phase, which is pure filler. Just the same as the first one but with a stage in which you cannot attack the boss. In any other game that would be annoying, but the posture system makes this double the waste of time because not only I'm not getting damage, but the boss is actually recovering.

I didn't like the camera that thinks that seeing the gorgeous autum leaves is more important that I seeing the huge monster that is about to turn me into mashed shinobi. Or that suddenly decides that the grass is very interesting when I'm near a wall.

I also didn't like that the third phase is so much harder and with a completely different moveset that I couldn't learn because of the long-ass first and second phases. Her posture also recovers crazy fast, so the first and second phase tactics are useless.

I also didn't like that she could be easily stunlocked with ash, making the final phase terribly anticlimactic and unsatisfying.

Owl in the can. Fucking cheater, using the same shinobi tactics that I've been using against me. Tough but fair and consistent (except for when he cornered me against a wall; seriously, what the hell is up with this camera). Again, the second phase surprises with its absence.

And again I go to read people's experiences and feel that I must me missing like half of the game. People suggest using the Mortal Blade and I'm "the mortal what?". I know it's an item and I know that I have a couple of Ninjutsu techniques, but I never used them. I feel like an idiot that only knows how to use a sword and healing items, going through the game parrying and hitting stuff stupidly without taking advantage of all the rest of the game's mechanics. On my defence, a lot of those systems use consumables and I die a lot, so I would run out them before long.

Now with the Corrupted Monk again. Boy, FromSoft is environmentally conscious, huh? All that boss recycling. Nah, but it's fine. Although I'm starting to feel that for every boss there is some attack that fucks up the camera. This one has a leaping attack that literally hits off camera and the leaves might make for lovely scenery but are annoying if they get between the camera and the enemy. What the hell are we doing? These guys have made and remade the same game a million times; you would expect this game to have the best camera in gaming.

But yeah, I'm absolutely stuck here. I can parry everything that that fucker throws at me except for those perilous attacks. For the life of me I just cannot figure out when to mikiri counter and when to jump. I really wish they used different symbols for each of them.

I love the posture system in this game. It "solves" the issue of overly tough bosses that take long to beat even onces mastered.

Just beat the Corrupted Monk in that spooky village. It was a bit anticlimactic, honestly. Her big swings telegraph her attacks so early that I was parrying most of them by the second try. And then she died and I stood there expecting a second phase that never came. I'm a bit surprised to read people having so much trouble with her, but clearly any boss can be hard for different people depending on their playstyle. I'm also a bit surprised to see people praising her as one of the best bosses. It was not bad, but nothing super special for me.

Fought the Elite samurai right before Genichiro. Cool miniboss! rewards observation and quick parrying and the revive thingamajig is right next door. After a few tries I noticed the white light before the attack and defeated him almost perfectly. I googled him to see what people say about him and found a lot of posts complaining about it and with guides on how to cheese him.

Now onto Genichiro. First stage more or less done. Not too hard. Surprisingly I lasted quite a lot the first time (that's what she said) since his attacks are pretty well telegraphed. I noticed that the fucker always attacks you with the bow when you heal, but then that's easy to parry because the timing is always the same.

Nice back-to-back good enemies without any stealth fuckery or annoying mobs. I'll cherish it while it lasts.

What's with that Armored Warrior dude? It was a neat elite that force you to learn to parry. After a few tries, he had landed only one hit or so, which is great. I love that feeling when you finally master the patterns and get an (almost) flawless kill.

But the tutorialising is awful. Yes, the game makes it very clear that attacks are pointless. The heavy armour, the dude bragging that he's impenetrable, the healthbar not going town when you hit it. So my though was that I was supposed to parry until I get a deathblow. I do that, the deathblow clearly penetrates the armour, and then nothing happens. No death, no health lost. Now what?

Well, I had to search the internets to learn that I was supposed to push him off the cliff. How on earth was I supposed to know that? The game not only never indicated that that was a possibility, but up to that point I hadn't thrown any enemy off cliffs. In fact, I'm pretty sure enemies can't be thrown off cliffs. In fact in fact, just two steps after the boss, I fought a normal enemy and I he wouldn't fall of a small ledge!

I'm loving this game's combat, but these kinds of bullshit really throw me off the wall. Also infuriating is the community; every time I have to search for some guide or tip I end up in some reddit post full of assholes replying with "skill issue", "git gud" or some other

I'm at Juzou the Drunkard. Interesting miniboss. Cool mechanics. The fact that even a parry still gets you poisoned is kind of annoying because if furthers reduces the viability of parrying, but still.

I just would really like to fight him without having to go to like two dozen useless minions that are not interesting to fight. Here there's not even a stealth route because you're funnelled through a corridor right in view of the guards that have binoculars for eyes.