I’d like to see this but also the mechanic where you can regain stamina if you hit R1 at the precise time after you attack.

Also, throughout the game I’ve learned to appreciate the input lag but sometimes I wish it was as responsive as a Ninja Gaiden game.


holy fuck the thought of adding nioh or nioh-adjacent mechanics (stances, “active reload”-thingy) to this game viscerally disgusts me lol. why take a simple-but-deep, elegant combat solution and fuck it up with unnecessary wrinkles? it would only make the game more demanding, and it’s plenty demanding already.

i’m surprised people are still finding so many things to criticize about the combat, i guess? it’s by far the best element in the game, and i can’t easily think of a game where i prefer the combat. blocking to regain posture is fundamental and excellent design. it both immediately signals to those paying attention that this is not Souls and works to affect their desired pace and approach. as with nearly every game From has ever made, ignore the game’s feedback at your own peril. i find it extremely natural to block to regain posture. it’s a smart tradeoff - you can dash around and be opportunistic, or you can hold your ground and clash. you can go for a posture victory or chip away at the enemy’s health. contrary to what some have implied, the game supports and encourages both approaches depending on encounter. it’s far from a one-trick deflect pony when looking at the game as a whole.

i think one of the biggest weaknesses of the game is that the boss content feels stretched a bit thin. most of them don’t grate too hard, but the drunkard rematch in mibu except now he uses fire and has a different name is too much, even though i laughed pretty hard at the appearance of the gunmonkey. the placement of the boss doesn’t make sense, nor does his very existence.

the economy is a little off. skills and prosthetic upgrades mostly feel too expensive (especially relative to usefulness), sen purchases mostly feel too cheap (such that there is frequently nothing worth spending sen on).

this thread still causes me to scratch my head and go “huh?” a lot. this game is certainly divisive and polarizing in a lot of ways.


My mention of Nioh’s stances isn’t so much a drag and drop of the same exact thing, I’m exploring the way to marry the complexities and variety of that into Sekiro’s strengths.

Once I stepped back from the basic groove, it could be more demanding and some of it stands fairly repetitive “imo”, I think I have a fair perspective I can explain shortly***. I’m not critiquing as much as I’m coming from an advancing, refining look at things.

***with more time/resource available, shite.


I agree, there’s a beautiful simplicity to the combat but it’s clearly meant to be a starting point. It’s not even a question as to whether they’ll layer on more complexity in the future because they most certainly will.

Given the adjustments they made to the most recent patch it’s clear From would like to see a more varied play style by making upgrades more accessible. This is just the first half-step towards opening the game up even more and I don’t think it would ruin things.

Adding additional weapons, changing the move set and possibly adding stances (hypothetically) would make the combat even more thrilling in my estimation and I think at this point in the game’s life span we’re ready for more.


I don’t think faster posture recovery when holding down guard/block is altogether…fundamentally wrong, but for the sake of deflection, directness, and less constant evasion, I do find just holding the same button down, you pressed to start blocking…too loose. I can reason it elegant form fitting or fluid, then still find the pos recovery rate perhaps more generous than it should be. Or maybe it wouldn’t seem so, if not for the fact there’s no more strain on the player. I don’t have a best recommendation or practice to put forth like “that’s broken, here’s the fix”. Cuz it’s not a big crack or flaw. It’s fine! Good! As an example, yeah another button press/held in theory, addresses my concern. We’re largely used to holding one (or away/back) to block. Now with the added dimension of a posture meter, I want more input on my part to keep and recover it, not just given back the same way I block - something more that reflects greater pressure and tension.

Starting about halfway through my ng+ of Sekiro, I began feeling a small shade of repetition in combat, occasionally a little with level traversal that (far as I can recall)…I didn’t with the neighboring similars (Ninja Gaidens, MGR, DMCs, Tenchu more for its stealth/problem solving). Nor did I with the older relatives (Soulsborne). Now there’s a lot of factors that go into this especially length, level of detail to uncover, and they all have their shortcomings, no doubt.

But where I think next is between Samurai and Shinobi action. The Sekiro they completed has little concern with silent in shadow assassinations, placement tactics, deep hiding, or much subtlety at all in dispatching opponents - compared to flinging about and reveling in glorious combat! Occasional neck plunges to turned backs included. They built and the vision came into sight and it’s gorgeous! However

5 main slashes in the attack combo, looping at the first diagonal strike down.
A running spin horizontal slash.
A mid air attack that can swipe both ways.
A charged thrust attack.

From a certain perspective, that’s pretty meager, though there are I think ~15 combat arts (including powered up variations). Then tools and their sub-uses. Both equippable one at a time, largely expendable (excluding a handful of combat arts then the rest once expended are stripped down versions).

The arts/tools contain many extremely useful skills, but given the full game and opportunities you are presented with, the majority feel like flavor unless you really push for experimenting and variety for the sake of it. As mentioned they had to’ve realized some of the lack in usable options.

There are some bosses and enemies with killer tricks to utilize - would’ve liked more!

I think this game’s great! I understand if anyone loves it so much they might scoff at my reservations. But it also tickles my action-rpg brain bits toward certain details. Ruminating on what-ifs or crazy blends, are things I really I dig in wild big game threads.


I actually recorded an entire run (NG) of this game.
However it’s 720p and YT will absolutely destroy the video no matter how good of a bitrate I render.
I’ll still upload it anyway… but after watching @Rudie’s videos I kinda decided to take the damn commentary off the videos. The micro is not the best, and my room is always full of noise.

I’m not convinced at all if anyone is interested in watching, or will actually answer my question here but, what would you guys rather have? With commentary or not?
Or maybe just the 3rd choice like: “Deci… fuck off” witch imo is a perfectly reasonable choice.

[late edit]
BTW… I’m really not trying to be a youtuber, I stream sometimes (mostly whenever I play something streamable on PC), but that’s just it. I would never do the cut of a “Let’s Player” or whatever thing like that

[even later edit]
I was testing different bitrates and shit, fight against first Genichiro (losing arm fight):

Looks pretty horrible but I simply can’t get better than that.



To get better video quality on youtube, you have to upscale the video.

Youtube’s video settings are this:


So based on that, try upscaling your 720p 60fps video to 1440p 60fps, with a bitrate of 25Mbps


Yeah, saw all those setting, the video I show there was uploaded at 720p and 30mbps…
But 720p or/and low views = you get a terrible “recompression”.

Also read around that upscaling to 1440p and uploading that way, it will force the VP9 compression from the part of Youtube… which is the “nice” compression.

This is kinda terrible of youtube imo.
Also, sorry the thread for going off-topic, I’ll start a thread someplace to go over this after a few more tests.
Also, thanks a bunch @Toptube


Does anyone have any good advice for the final boss of this? I’ve spent at least 10 hours on him doing the same recommended strafing strats for the third form only to get annihilated regardless (First form I double ichimonji until his posture breaks and then hit and run for the second phase), and I can’t time the umbrella counters to save my life. I’ve debated grinding out the attack stat just to kill this asshole but there’s got to be something more practical.


in my experience u can play the 3rd phase exactly like the 2nd.


unless you are counting genichiro as phase 1? i cant tell actually…


Third phase of the four total, my bad.


A very slow but generally safe method for the last two phases is frequent running away at medium-far distance locked on (with him in your sights), until he does the leaping spear to the ground attack, he almost always follows up with a sprinted slash in your direction - study how far away you can be to avoid it while still running, but close enough to immediately rush in for an attack or two. This can be tiring and repetitive, so look for a couple other openings like his powered up wide area slash (it’s like jumping over or behind him, you’ll have to observe the trail-arc to see what’s clear).

As for doing it quicker and with deflects, that requires a lot of timing and aggression you may have already tried plenty. The handful of swipes combo that he does followed by a clear Perilous Attack thrust forward with the spear, is a great Mikuri Counter opportunity.


ah ok all good. its confusing to talk about lol. for the whole fight id strongly advocate standing directly in front of the boss and deflecting everything and doing mikiri etc when necessary, and just working out when u can get a hit or two in. for phases 1 and 2 be extremely close. for phase 3 be mid distance, basically just within his weapon’s range, so you can step back if need be (due to high posture or being uncertain about the attack etc) sprint a lot when avoiding the charged spin attack things. or the energy blast attacks.

tbh based on ur description of what ur doing maybe this would be a big change, and i assume you dont wanna totally change ur approach to every phase. but idk, when u get to playing it this way it definitely feels like this is how they intended u to beat it. it feels v doable and consistent.


the hardest boss ive fought in this game has been just a regular lady with a big gun (who lives near some poison goo)


Definitely one they let a little too much slide on the attack patterns and recovery time. Easy enough to juke one way or another and exploit A.I. but of the iron ladies just skewed to face direct one on one!


@Cerium i linked videos of me fighting the last boss twice and I am a real human so there are definitely tips in there!


If you want to fight him the normal way, stay as close as possible to him at all times. Most of his more difficult combos are from range. Strafe, mash deflect, and jump rather than dodge unless the boss jumps.

You might consider watching a strategy video too; they helped me beat a lot of bosses.


Don’t know what level your vitality is at but during phase 3 and 4 I stayed at a medium distance and deflected everything he threw at me until he did the perilous thrust you can mikiri. I only attacked him to keep the posture meter from falling. Also, I used the umbrella and turtled every one of his special attacks because the risk/reward for defending that shit just isn’t worth it.

Basically just bait his perilous and you’ll be surprised at how much his posture builds up, the only other wrinkle with the 4th phase is the lighting.


4th phase is very easy because of the lightning. Jump into it every time (mash attack once it hits you) and he goes down really quickly. Same as the previous fight with lightning.