Mike S

I think we shared a same approach and appreciation of the other games and would agree that Bloodborne is, obviously, far and away the best thing ever but that all of the Soulsborne games were fantastic, immensely rewarding, solo challenges so, whilst I've not completed this yet (I am at the end boss now, albeit with a few other things to go round and explore) I feel I can offer a little feedback. The core gameplay mechanics are very different to Soulsborne and, probably for that reason, I have found it to be consistently more challenging than soloing any of those games, masochistically so in places. Unlike other FROM games the experience of conquering a significant obstacle never felt anywhere near as rewarding as it did in Soulsborne - maybe because the pleasure of every hard won victory is tempered by he knowledge that there is highly likely to be yet another boss right around the corner. It might even be a better game for someone who never played Soulsborne as it takes a fair bit of time to unlearn previous play styles and embrace how FROM wish the player to engage with the environment and enemies but, once everything you knew is forgotten, the parry v attack feedback loop can be very satisfying and there are plenty of toys to play with to add variety to teh comabt as you get deeper into the story. The setting isn't somewhere that particularly excites me, and there's not really a huge amount of variety, but it is still an exceptionally beautiful world, one that is very cohesive and absolutely believable, and FROM's character design remains peerless so I'd not be deterred by not caring for 16th C Japan. Whilst I can appreciate what FROM have done here and doubt I'll play a better single player game this year, I'm finding it a hard game to love. The combat is really rewarding when it gels but I just can't see me coming back for repeated plays as there just isn't the scope for experimentation that Soulsborne offers. It has that same compulsive need to push on and see what is round the next corner that other FROM games excel at but the speed of traversal makes for far less tension and stress when exploring the environment. In conclusion - Bloodore, Dark Souls, Sekiro, Demons Souls, Dark Souls 3, Dark Souls 2 but this is a game that you definitely need to play.

That's great. I very rarely use items in these games as, obviously, I worry too much about running out so have stacks of things that I've piked up and then never given a second thought to. Having read the description of this one I couldn't imagine a use but that looks incredibly useful..

Please, please can we stop with these initialisations as SAS is yet another that I have no clue of despite having certainly defeated them already. Instead, and to make this thread less painful to read, can we please use some common sense descriptive names? Such as Horseman? Mad Cow? Lady Bastard? or suchlike? I'm sure we can all be trusted enough to work out story spoiler bosses and be more careful around them..

Sekiro player who cheated to alleviate the challenge makes the BBC. Article accompanied by bizarrely huge SEGA logo as the lead photo.. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47900904

No, they weren't! Hence my confusion!

See that has confused me as I thought @cohen205 was behind me in the game as he's approaching CM... I'm only at the GSO. Which I am hating - first boss that has required me to rage quit and which I can only cope with in five minute sessions before switching off.

Is it easy? I want a different coloured jacket!

She has been my favourite boss so far as she is closest to a Soulsborne boss and, thus, much easier for me to cope with. There is a significant window after most of the attacks which can be exploited but a certain combat art is pretty much essential too.. These acronyms are as infuriating as the game can be and way more obtuse. Based on conversation on this page, I seem to be further along than @cohen205 who appears to recognise who you are referring to here but I have absolutely no idea.

Why is your jacket red?!

The real Sekiro starts at the top of Ashina Castle...

That is the problem though isn't it? All you are doing is comparing Sekiro to Dark Souls and asking why it can't be like that as you are seem to not be getting on with the game. It's a redundant, and pointless, comparison though and, as has been said plenty of times, it is better to forget everything you know from playing the Soulsborne games. I prefer Dark Souls and much prefer Bloodborne to this but accepted that this is a very different beast and, consequently, that I needed to learn to modify my approach in order to try and accommodate the new mechanics.

This is not Dark Souls though.

This is now all I want from the patch. I hope it's possible to choose the dog type. If so, I will choose sausage dog as they are the funniest.