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S2 Ep49: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
68 Plays7 years ago
Join Dave and Jake as they jump into FromSoftware's latest masochist extravaganza!
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Transcript
Welcome and Introduction
00:00:13
Speaker
the the
00:00:39
Speaker
How's it going, everyone? Welcome to another episode of Soapstone. My name is Jake. I'm joined by my co-host, as always, Dave.
Game Reveal: Sekiro
00:00:44
Speaker
How's it going, Dave? It's going good? Yeah. So we are here to talk about a game that I'm excited to talk about.
00:00:53
Speaker
We've talked about Purd Happily, right? Like I've shown you that in Parks and Rec. I actually think so, yeah. And this is the game that we're going to be talking about. And that game is made by people. Yeah. You do very much that. This game is also made by people. I feel like so at one point I actually considered just opening with the name of the game, just being like,
00:01:13
Speaker
Alright, today we're talking about Sekiro, but at this point we've always beat around the bush until there's no bush left. People have clicked the link or been forced to listen to it, Ludovico style. I'm not sure how that worked for Ears, but they know ahead of time. They're always like, hey, what can we talk about? It's like, I'm the one in the title.
00:01:34
Speaker
Yeah, so we're talking about Sekiro. Fuck yeah. Which is, I know we've covered a lot of retro games recently. This one's the last of a retro game, I would argue. Well, to be fair, it did come out three or four weeks ago. Yes. Distant history. So since it is so fresh, we're going to kind of. So clean, clean. So yeah, simple, clean. That's the way I best describe this game and how it makes me feel tonight.
00:02:02
Speaker
But we're not gonna go into crazy spoilers for this opening part We'll let you know when
Spoiler Warning
00:02:07
Speaker
we're gonna jump. There's gonna be a point where you run out of Stuff to talk about where it's like hey, I'm really hyped about this one thing. We talked about how cool that was Yeah, that point will throw like a Warning hazard or something. I just say like hey if you're still paying attention to the sounds of our sultry voices Stop listening if you don't want spoilers 95% of our listeners are just here for the ASMR to fall asleep
00:02:31
Speaker
That's not true But yeah, we're just gonna be covering some really early game content still gonna be some technical spoilers But we'll try to keep it to first couple areas and stuff that was in the trailer the first trailer not the the launch trailer Which was even more spoilery
00:02:47
Speaker
Yeah. Right.
Gameplay Mechanics Overview
00:02:48
Speaker
Yeah. Cause I went back and watched it. I'm like, that fight doesn't happen until the last area of the game. They don't really even, they don't really give much away in the fight. They just kind of be like a teaser of the art style pretty much. Yeah. But we respect our listeners. So this is, uh, this is how we're going to, this is how we're going to play it out for, for Sekiro. So you can also enjoy the game because first spoilers. I like the game. It's really good.
00:03:12
Speaker
controversial opinion. I also liked the game. We've spoiled the whole podcast. So going back though, there was that initial teaser, right? Yeah. And it has the, now what we know as the prosthetic arm, but it was just like a very closeup of the arm and like some blood nearby and like some poor lighting. Yeah. It's like from soft.
00:03:36
Speaker
2019 yeah What what is this blood-borne game? Yeah, everyone kind of assumes maybe another blood-borne Yeah, we weren't sure which direction from soft is going because as we know they have closed off the soul series Yep, they've kind of beaten that horse. They put a bow on it and then they buried it I Think that's the expression Egyptian style I like it They might come back to blood-borne a game which I haven't really played and can't talk too much about I couldn't either but
00:04:05
Speaker
I really like the direction of ancient Japan. Japan, that's the one, yeah. It's the red. There's the red dot. Whether it was inspired by Bill Wertz or me being a weeb, I've always enjoyed that style of feudal Japan. Right. It just seems so...
00:04:25
Speaker
Badass for lack of a better term. Yeah, and like honestly who better to portray ancient Japan than Westerners and then second place is Japanese themselves. So from soft, you know close second. Yeah But yeah, I really like the aesthetic what they went for with Sekiro and part of that's just cuz like you said weeb like the whole ninja shinobi Jumping around killing folk
00:04:53
Speaker
Yeah, that's great. I mean that's all we really want to do in life, but we're forced into the nine-five Men
Sekiro vs Dark Souls
00:04:59
Speaker
only care about one thing. It's fucking disgusting. Yeah, or was it a What's that meme about men in video games? No, that's basically yeah, same one pretty much the same. Okay. Yeah But it's got a very different feel and the locales feel very different to Dark Souls and
00:05:19
Speaker
We're going to, you know, get some of those comparisons out now because it's obligatory. Right. And it is still a Souls like game. A hundred percent. Like the fact that you resurrect in place, which is a really interesting mechanic, it's still you resurrecting. Fucking spoilers, dude. That's trailer. That's why it's covered because it's trailer.
00:05:42
Speaker
If you didn't know about that, then you don't actually know anything about the hero anyway. So there are a lot of things that are very analogous or like kind of like one to ones. You do have what are essentially bonfires with your checkpoints. Yeah. In this game, you can war between them without issue, which is really cool.
00:06:00
Speaker
Yeah, they also give you essentially an eternal homeward bone to go back at any point Yeah, which you can use at any time, but it can be interrupted by damage. Obviously It's actually got a lot of like a huge window to be interrupted by day Oh, yeah, like in dark souls or one of those games you could Homeward bone in a boss fight and as long as you weren't like immediately hit you were out
00:06:21
Speaker
Like you kind of just ghost away. I am feathers, right? And this, it's like, how would you like to start that 15 second load time of the energy coming in on you to teleport you? That's why the load screens are so short. You're actually, it's like buffering this shit. And then the boss hits you and you're like, oh, drop the load, drop the load. I don't need that.
00:06:42
Speaker
But yeah, it's super easy to be interrupted. You could probably be interrupted reliably by over most of the bosses in the game before you can teleport out with that. You're kind of committed as soon as you get into a boss area.
00:06:56
Speaker
But going back to the the bonfire analogies, yeah, they're called sculptors idols. Mm-hmm. So to jump around because I have no sense of writing these things out in a way that makes sense, right? Plot happens. Mm-hmm. You get picked up by a guy called the sculptor who essentially gives you this prosthetic arm because you lost your arm, right? Who knows why? Mm-hmm
00:07:22
Speaker
So that allows you to do like the cool grapple shit and then some other stuff later. Yeah. Um, for my case in point, this guy has made idols throughout the world and those are kind of your checkpoints to balance between. Um, but anytime you would die, uh, you technically have an extra life. Right.
00:07:43
Speaker
Yeah. Um, you can essentially resurrect. Usually you wait till like the enemy who killed, he's like, yeah, I got him. He walks away. Um, so his back to me to you because, um, if you sneak up on an enemy, it's also worked for a lot of bosses. You can essentially get what's called a death blow. Yes. Where you just fucking take out that whole health bar.
00:08:04
Speaker
Exactly and it is As it turns out most normal enemies just have the one health bar. They're poppers really so kind of just kills them fucking pleavians and This this game you mentioned the the grappling hook or grappling arm it really just changes how the levels are designed there's so much more vertical than
00:08:29
Speaker
Not necessarily any Dark Souls level, but the verticality is unlocked. I'm specifically thinking like Duke's archives that had a lot of technical verticality. So yeah, I'm not disagreeing with you in any way, shape or form. I realized that I'm also just responding to your eyebrows, which maybe the listeners don't pick up on. Yeah. Like I knew I was making those like sauce eyebrows at you and you were like, I need to justify my answer today. Um, but yeah, there is verticality to it, but it's in the way of.
00:08:59
Speaker
Let's say you have a horizontal plane and that's what you're working with. Yeah. It gets shifted up. Now maybe it's when the fights in Duke's archives, you're on the stairs, you're running up to kill like a summoner or something, but that's about it. Right. But in Sekiro, a lot of the areas you will have will be fairly open and you can grapple up to high ground or to low ground, or you can jump down and kill somebody. Whoa, whoa, whoa. You can grapple down to low ground. You can't grapple up to low ground. I'm just.
00:09:26
Speaker
I die. No, no, I didn't. I was just messing with you. Okay. You did say that, but I know what you meant. Please call me out. I'm not perfect, Jake. And thank you for pointing that out. It's a Taurus strip. You grapple around the world. But yeah, um, it's nuts.
00:09:44
Speaker
Yeah, and it's it feels really good. It does like In Dark Souls you can run around you can run away Stop at a bonfire enemies reset same deal here You can stop the idols enemies reset, but it's entirely you're so much more agile hold up one distinction I want to point out sure if you stop on an idol You it kind of gives you like a menu option of like some things you can do. Oh, yeah
00:10:07
Speaker
You are not forced to actually
Game Difficulty and Focus
00:10:09
Speaker
rest. That's true. If you rest, then things reset, but if you just wanted to go back to essentially buy more.
00:10:16
Speaker
What's the ammo spirit emblems spirit emblems? Yeah, which can be used for your prosthetic arm items You can just be like I need to buy some more of these and then leave Yeah, and you don't have to get the full reset. So it's nice that you can opt into it. This is entirely true More control like they've just learned so much over the sword soul series and it all shows in Sekiro
00:10:38
Speaker
Which is a single player game. I don't know if we mentioned that. We didn't actually. That's one of the huge differences here is if you're getting your butt beat by a boss, which is a lot of alliteration, but you cannot just bring in summons. There are not like offline summons you can bring in even. You can't just have nice phantoms help you out and make the boss super easy.
00:11:01
Speaker
You kind of have to earn it. Yeah, literally everything Sometimes I'd cheat and like look on YouTube like yeah, and be like hey Here's some obvious combos that this person does yeah, or here's a prosthetic tool. That'll be more useful against them You're like okay good to know
00:11:18
Speaker
Right. But 99% of what I've done in my play through, I'm like at the last boss, I've not yet grinded to beat yet. Right. But like I've earned every fucking thing. Yeah. Every, every time I've snuck up on somebody to backstab them. Um, every time I forget to use a prosthetic, it's usually just me parrying things and then stabbing people and being patient and grinding it out. Yep.
00:11:42
Speaker
It's all your preparation, actually using your abilities. Being stealthy pays off dramatically. Your health is especially in the early game in particular. Some things change it around a little bit, but in the very early game, your health is an essential resource. If you're taking a couple hits every time that you're trying to make a run to a boss,
00:12:07
Speaker
This game's pretty forgiving and the checkpoint, the idle placement near bosses, you can usually go from the idle straight to the boss. Yes. Which thank, thank God. Right. Thank you, Dark Souls. But if you're trying to like make progress through an area and you're getting hit by every group of patrolling enemies and things like that, that depletes your resources so fast. So being a ninja, a shinobi pays off dramatically.
00:12:35
Speaker
cue naruto music yeah it just it feels really good to move through the world and i mean i've always been a fan of like farming and things like that i literally developed like in-game routes for farming in sekiro because man you've never done that in games yeah i've played montana with you jake i remember
00:12:57
Speaker
Like I had, I had literally just a linear branch of backstabbing people, activating stealth buffs, following all the way through, doing a reset, doing it again to farm out money and experience. There was that one time, um, in Sunken Valley. Hmm.
00:13:18
Speaker
I won't say the name of the place because I want to leave that as a surprise. But I went backwards to the boss. And I used that to collect a lot of money. And then I was also grinding up, I guess, the equivalent of souls. Yeah, the experience.
00:13:35
Speaker
So one of the things in the game is you have like an experience bar, which then after each tick, we'll say like, Oh, one, two, or three. If you die, you lose like death, death, not a resurrected.
In-Game Economy
00:13:50
Speaker
Yes. True death. True death. You lose half of your money and flat up straight up, flat up. Yep. Straight, straight down, flat down.
00:14:00
Speaker
left sideways you lose half your money and then you lose half of your experience down to um the last tick mark yeah so like for me if i was at two and a half levels and i died i go back down to two and a quarter yes
00:14:16
Speaker
So it was nice to be like, I'm about to do a boss. I'm not that confident. Maybe I should, you know, kill a couple of guys and get that two mark, lock it in. Exactly. And then I will accept successive deaths. I did that pretty consistently. And another trick is, well, not really a trick, but we were talking about how you can't homeward bone out of boss fights. There's very few fights you can escape that way.
00:14:40
Speaker
So if you're concerned, there might be a boss fight. If you walk up in an arena and you're like, this looks kind of boss fight-y with the shape of everything, you can just step back, farm some enemies, get that extra skill point.
00:14:58
Speaker
You can cash out your money. Sen is what it's called. You've heard of the Japanese currency. Sen. You can cash it out for these coin pouches. Basically the merchants are like, if you give me
00:15:17
Speaker
uh 120 gold or something like that they're like i will give you a bag of 100 gold and you're like that would usually be a really bad deal but for some reason bad bags stick around when i die yeah it saves your inventory so you can be like oh i want to get this one item i will cash in my locked-in money yes
00:15:37
Speaker
So yeah, it's not not the worst thing at all and you can get them throughout the game as well. Yes, but Usually I was just running around a broke boy Yeah, I was I was kind of money bags by the end of it literally just bags of money myself I was poor and like spending cash, but yeah tons of consumable items I could use to get money But I did like a fair amount of farming One thing I want to talk about this game is not
00:16:09
Speaker
But to a point. It's flashy. Holy fuck. So it's like to a point, it's kind of bare bones. You're just a guy with a sword. Yeah. And you have the prosthetic arm. But at the very beginning, you can only use it to like grapple to specific points. Yes. I initially thought as you can grapple anywhere, I'm like, holy shit. I'm like, as a game designer, that would be terrible. Yes. Yeah. I grapple out of bounds. Fixed, fixed issues where Sekiro could grapple to unknown gender locations.
00:16:32
Speaker
I don't wanna say it's not flashy.
00:16:38
Speaker
Oh, what was I saying? You can only grapple specific places. Yeah, but you just have your katana and that's kind of it. You're like, what can I do with this? And then.
00:16:50
Speaker
You hit people and then they start blocking and you're like, what's that bar? So everybody, yourself included, has a life bar and a posture bar. Your posture is like reverse stamina. If your posture gets too full.
00:17:08
Speaker
It gets broken and then you can get death load for free. You'll stagger as soon as the bar fills and you'll have like several sec or like a second or two where you could just be hit by any attack. And some bosses just take advantage of
Combat Systems In-Depth
00:17:24
Speaker
that. And they just instant kill you. As the main character if you're fighting like a standard enemy you can instant kill them. Yes.
00:17:30
Speaker
So that's usually your technique to get through enemies that you have not snuck up on. So if you just take hits, even if you're like blocking, that will damage your posture. I think that's it. Also, if you just get hit in general, you're not blocking. It's like the force of their actual blows hitting your body messes up your posture. Yeah.
00:17:54
Speaker
like even projectiles can mess up your posture. Anything that's meant to not be nice to you will fuck up your posture. Insults from across the room. But the other thing is also
00:18:08
Speaker
Like let's say you're, I think if your enemy is attacking you, you have the option to parry their attacks. If you time the block correctly deflect, deflect. Yeah. So that doesn't actually damage your posture because you're not really exerting effort. You're kind of like guiding their blows away. You're, you're not exerting as much effort as they are to put in the attack. Right. It actually hurts their posture.
00:18:30
Speaker
It does. It kind of gets them off balance. So a lot of enemies and then bosses are very susceptible to that. And it is, ooh, it feels so good. It's an awesome sliding scale of difficulty, too. Because if you're really struggling, if you're coming in, and it's worth noting, for posture in dark souls with stamina or something, you want to get outside of a fight, put your shield down, stamina recovers. Secure is the exact opposite.
00:18:57
Speaker
fastest way to recover your posture is hold your sword up, hold block, but don't actually get hit blocking. So basically just sit here in your shinobi stance, like duelist stance away from the other guy and recover your posture. That's the best way to do it. If you run around your posture, it takes forever to recover. Um, so this is a game of dueling significantly more than running around hoping for backstabs, especially for bosses, for bosses in particular.
00:19:27
Speaker
I still want to say there are a lot of bosses. We know how we talked about the death pull earlier. Basically, I'm going to throw a random percentage of like 60% of the bosses will have two health bars. First time you see that you're like, oh shit, what? Cause you didn't know it was a thing. Yeah. Um, but you can actually sneak up on a lot of bosses and like take out that first health bar. Yes.
00:19:53
Speaker
And that evens the fight a little bit more. And in fact, it unevens the fight, because Sekiro, for most of the game, has two health bars. Once you gain resurrection, you have a full health bar. Now, bosses don't behave the same way as standard enemies most of the time, where...
00:20:11
Speaker
If a standard enemy kills you, they're just like, whoo, got him. Shinobis ain't that tough. I'm going to go get my bonus. Turns around, starts locking away. They go back to their static positions so they can T-pose. Yeah, exactly. And then you can resurrect and just run up and backstab them, right? Yeah. Bosses, most of the time are like,
00:20:35
Speaker
I don't really trust that corpse. I'm going to look at that. Or if they do turn around, they'll hear you resurrect and immediately re-engage. So if you want that initial death blow, it has to be when you open the fight.
00:20:50
Speaker
Yeah, it really does. Yeah, but what is nice though? um, there have been lots of bosses who i've been trying to like beat and Struggling with and they kill me and i'm like, well maybe use my resurrection when I use my resurrection They kind of take a step back. Yes, like they're kind of like Whoa. Whoa. Yeah, i'm hoping it's like, you know, it's out of respect, right? Yeah Um, some of the bosses are definitely like i'm gonna line up a shot on this guy I'm gonna wreck this guy's whole career
00:21:20
Speaker
I was afk stop be having But it's kind of nice so like you don't resurrect at full health So I'll usually like I'm up. Let me check a health potion real quick while they're Yeah, and then but they're already kind of like starting their next attack like I hope you're ready bitch Yes, and then they come at you but I did like that a little bit of that small respect jump where it's like I
00:21:45
Speaker
I'll give you a little bit of space get shit together. It's kind of necessary There actually is there's one boss. I won't tell people which one it is There's one boss that will immediately kill you when you resurrect if he is just a little bit too close I've seen it happen. I'm pretty sure it happened to me Look forward to that when you're playing the game Could you mind with your hands which one? Yeah, it's a
00:22:11
Speaker
I don't know if that makes any sense, but no, it's the other one. It's a different one. We'll tell you in the spoiler section. We'll tell you in the spoiler section. I got to say, like, the whole the gesture Jake did with his hands was not indicative of anything, but I appreciate that he did. Yeah, it'll I think it'll make sense once we describe, but we'll save that one for the spoiler section. Yeah, bosses are they're freaking awesome in this game. And this is the original point I was going to say about posture.
00:22:39
Speaker
If you're kicking butt, if you know this boss' moveset, if you can deflect all of his attacks and dodge the ones that are undeflectable, counter the ones that are counterable, which is awesome, you can obliterate someone's posture bar well before you've hurt their health bar.
00:22:55
Speaker
Yeah, like I said, you have a katana and everyone else is usually tougher than you, bigger than you, or has more armor or stuff. So if you're just getting physical damage, it's not a whole lot. But what's cool is that health and posture work in tandem. So if an enemy has lower health, their posture will regain slower. Exactly. It will diminish slower, I guess. It recovers slower. Yeah.
00:23:21
Speaker
Same for you. Yes. Yeah. You actually have noticed. If you're on your last leg, this game just gets harder. If you have no way to heal and you're at like 25% health, your posture is taking a while to recover. I still gotta say like there have been a lot of times
00:23:41
Speaker
certain bosses might have like that you can't necessarily go up in a gank for a health bar, might have like more than one phase where it's like first phase, like a certain style, second phase, you're like, okay, we're doing some other shit. There's been one or two times where I've like gotten through that and had like nothing to work with. Where I'm like, I've accepted death, but I'll just try and like learn the moves. This is the educational phase. Yeah, exactly. Like this is my time to learn. Yes.
00:24:09
Speaker
And then I just like bunker down and I'm like deflect deflect hit and I'm like very very cautious. Yes And like for the one fight, do you know the one I struggle with the most? Yes I just I literally took all of my time and I'd like conserved health items I'm just like I'm only gonna wait to attack in one window Yeah, and then I did it and then I beat him and then I stopped playing the game I
00:24:35
Speaker
yeah it's it's also it's it's very rewarding to make that switch from the defender to the aggressor and Sekiro because if you're sitting back most enemies and there are some exceptions most enemies will also take their reprieve to recover their posture enemies also a lot of times bosses will have a like
00:24:57
Speaker
Centering key move or something where they they regain their posture and
Comparative Analysis with Dark Souls
00:25:03
Speaker
you can interrupt it It's basically like chugging Estus and Dark Souls but if you're playing the aggressor and Like I said, you absolutely know this boss if you know this boss hard
00:25:16
Speaker
There's been, I had one amazing phase against the boss, I won't name yet, that I took out his entire phase when he was at like 75% health. I just destroyed him. I was just, every single move he was doing, I was countering and deflecting and it was just glorious.
00:25:36
Speaker
So, on that note, back to the Dark Souls comparison. Which, like I said, we're going to move past quickly. That's kind of why I smiled when I said it. So, one of the things I forgot to mention, in Dark Souls, you can get souls and you can keep progressing over time.
00:25:54
Speaker
If you're really struggling with orange steaming smell or something else, you have ways around it with either a summon or just getting good, which is not always an option for people. Or you can just be like, hey, I'm going to keep putting so much points in the health where I have this forgiveness buffer where even like a million monkeys on typewriters will figure this shit out, right? I feel personally attacked right now. Good.
00:26:20
Speaker
But in this, you don't get stronger unless you progress. Like you have to literally get good. So if you beat, let's say a standard boss, you get something it's called a prayer bead and you're like, what are prayer beads? If you cash in four of them at one of the sculptor's idols, you can increase your maximum health and posture, but you have to, you make a necklace of prayer beads. They all have a new disc, a description. You can actually learn about the lore as you complete them.
00:26:51
Speaker
Interesting. Yeah, they're their numbers stops reasoning.
Progression and Skill Development
00:26:54
Speaker
I point their prayer breeds one through X where X is the last priority I feel like from where I'm at in the game right now Aka the end of the game. Yeah, I could probably still get three more periods three necklaces. I think you're right Yeah, it's nuts boys gonna say You cash in those prayer beads to increase your maximum health and posture, but you have to get through four bosses Yeah
00:27:17
Speaker
So typically that's four enemies that have two health bars and you're like, I'm a guy with a stick. But it, it forces you to be like, you have to learn this boss. You have to learn their move set. Like there's no other way around it. And it feels really good when you beat something because you're like, that was me. That was nobody else. Yeah.
00:27:39
Speaker
And that is the playstyle. I guess you can kind of tool around with some of the prosthetic tools for approach on certain things. And that's what you should do. Because this game, even more, I feel like, than Dark Souls did in the past.
00:27:55
Speaker
Bosses have weaknesses, like they have items, they have certain prosthetics that they're probably weak against or that are particularly good at countering their abilities. We can probably talk about some of the early game prosthetics, like your favorite early game prosthetics, but the bosses, like if you're not using prosthetics at all, you're playing not just hard mode, hardest mode, right?
00:28:20
Speaker
just just saying just flexing a little bit that's me a lot of times I forget or like I don't know the good opportunity to do it yeah so a lot of my stuff at least for later game content has been just getting good at deflections and then hitting people yeah but
00:28:39
Speaker
Also, I want to make a joke about, Hey, you know, another game from front from soft. You're welcome body. I know. Right. Keeping that man's career afloat for the show body video. Yeah. Sponsor too. Um, so one of the early prosthetics you get.
00:28:57
Speaker
I'll say the first is the shuriken shuriken. Yeah. Yeah, so you get you can you know shuriken you see an archer Yeah, you just do like a little throwing charge people. It doesn't do It does some damage and if you catch somebody unawares It will just go to their health Yeah, if they're like it's that guy they'll like kind of like block or deflect it and it's not really effective It's kind of like you know how awesome characters in movies and martial arts can like block projectiles with their swords Yeah
00:29:24
Speaker
Literally everybody in this game is a badass apparently because they can all black shurikens with their sword Like you weren't throwing them that fast you kind of like the under It's like not spinning so much is just rotating through the hair on that side
00:29:44
Speaker
I just I put it my palm and it's kind of like Hope for the best no winter resistance maximum maximum winter resistance like a baseball But like it's not Crazy good. Mm-hmm. But like I have used a lot of times like I'm just gonna burn a little bit of health off of this person. Mm-hmm I'm having trouble
00:30:04
Speaker
But the next one that I got which was the most cathartic. Yeah, cuz you find some enemies I mean all games have enemies where it's like it's a dude It's a dude who has ranged potentials. Yeah, it's a dude with the shield. I can't fucking get past fuck him Yeah, so you come up across these shield guys. You're like motherfuck cuz every time you hit them They're blocking the shield their posture doesn't really go down It's hard to get around them because they're fucking paying attention where you go. Mm-hmm
00:30:30
Speaker
But then you get this axe this axe prosthetic it is the white question to axe But when you do it it has this cool animation it comes out kind of blood-borne style from your prosthetic arm Yeah, and you full overhand it yeah, and it breaks through their shield and completely destroys their posture And then you're rewarded with a death blow opportunity mm-hmm, and I'm like this
00:30:56
Speaker
Game yeah, they basically take them from enemies that you should Essentially run past to just save your effort and resources and to enemies you can one-hit kill which is Freaking great. That's a great progression The axe is really good. I do actually really like the axe I didn't use it nearly as much as you did against non shield enemies I think in our playthroughs, but I actually used it against um Try to remember which early boss
00:31:24
Speaker
Oh, one of the first major fights. Yeah. I did use because the ax is also really good at just damaging posture. Cause if you were hit by an ax, your posture would go down. Yeah. And it's like a full arm swing. Yeah. Like it is a hundred percent ripped off from another game developer, um, from softwares, uh, bloodborne with the trick weapons there. Yeah. It's a hundred percent that it is a trick weapon. Um, but please sue from.
00:31:54
Speaker
We really think you have a chance. Familiar with their lawyers. It is a commitment to the attack though. Usually your attacks come out really fast. You can kind of interrupt some of your attacks or at least an attack chain with a block.
00:32:11
Speaker
You can block most attacks by just mashing the block button. Yeah. And you'll get some deflects. It's better than just holding the button by far. If you really want to get deflects, you gotta like, you gotta match the tempo kind of. But the axe is a commitment to an attack.
00:32:28
Speaker
Yes, it does give you a little bit of I want to say hyper armor Because there haven't times I've committed to it and a boss has hit me and I still went through it with the attack I'm like, thank you. God. Yeah, I think it's like I needed it It's got to be closer to poise though because I still feel like you take full damage Yeah, you still take damage. It's not like you take less. It's not like you get I frames for it Yeah, you're gonna take damage, but it doesn't interrupt you which is nice
00:32:51
Speaker
And speaking of iframes, while you technically have a little side hop dodge, a little dodge to the side, this is not Dark Souls. I feel like the iframes on whatever the dodge is in the single digits is very, very low.
00:33:10
Speaker
And you can get clipped like a lot of a lot of bosses have Amazing tracking or not even just bosses just guys have really good tracking with their swords They'll follow you and if they're doing a horizontal slash you do a little hop to the side It's just like my thigh, you know, just yeah take full damage So you kind of have to meet a lot of these guys head-on apply directly to the forehead even if they're gigantic And they're trying to smash you into the ground
00:33:37
Speaker
Yeah, but like that's when you know, you're on your shit is when you're fighting I feel like we can spoil the uh
00:33:46
Speaker
The Chained Ogre. Yes. Well, this was in the trailer. Yes. Yeah. I knew that. Yeah. Um, for the early boss, pretty big guy likes to do a lot of grab, they're like smash attacks because he's fucking huge and that's what huge people do. Yeah. Um, but it feels really good to be like, you just go in and you sidestep. You're like, I'm not going to hang back and wait for you to like, I'm going to set the terms of the fight. Yes. And once you get to that point, Ooh, feels so good. Yeah. And this is a guy that.
00:34:16
Speaker
He's a boss that focuses a lot on grabs, which is like a special, like, Danger Kanji move, which we haven't really talked about. When bosses use Special moves, yeah. When bosses are about to use a Special move, usually you could break it either into just a dangerous thing they do, a Thrust attack or Sweep attack.
00:34:38
Speaker
And one of the dangerous things they can do is a grab. And this guy loves grabs. And he loves killing people off of grabs. So he'll do a two-armed grab, smash you into the ground, and then throw you. And there's a great mechanic here, where if you die, if you lose all of your life off of a ledge, if you're thrown to a death stone, basically, off a cliff,
00:35:06
Speaker
Um, usually, uh, you can use your second life, whatever.
Boss Fights and Strategies
00:35:12
Speaker
In this case, if you lose all your health, doesn't matter if you have your resurrection, just die. Yeah. And I have died to this guy doing that exactly to me. Throwing me off the ledge, taking the last of my health and killing me. Yeah. I've definitely been yeeted off and it sucks. It's pretty freaking great.
00:35:30
Speaker
This game teaches you to respect it, and then it teaches you how to play on its terms. And that's an essential building block of all of the gameplay, all the way up to the end. It's just building that discipline, knowing not to be too aggressive, knowing what you can get away with, and learning the bosses.
00:35:55
Speaker
Which, by the way, is a lot. Yeah. Like, crouching through, being sneaky beaky. I've definitely, like, chain-killed, like, five enemies. Yeah. Who are, like, waiting for somebody on the street corner. I don't know. But you just go behind them. Dead.
00:36:14
Speaker
Then you chain that or you like jump down on somebody Like death from above. Oh, yeah, you see like that little reticle come up and it's like Strike him down the red orb of death Yeah, I'll take that Yeah, it's uh It it just feels so good to play superhero like Dark Souls 3 is amazing
00:36:38
Speaker
Yeah, it was super tuned like so freaking good just the the peak of that kind of sword and shield combat slash Everything Dark Souls is but like Sekiro just brings so much to that To that formula like to that template that it's it's completely earned
00:36:58
Speaker
Let's let's stop the circle jerk for a minute. Okay. Do you have any complaints about the game? I actually do. So the one complaint that basically stands out and this exists for like all other Souls series is the camera. I really, really wish
00:37:14
Speaker
that somehow there is a universe we could live in where you could fight a boss in an arena and not have the camera lose you or the boss or both and just die miserably due to lack of information.
00:37:29
Speaker
It doesn't happen a lot, but some of these bosses move really quickly and the areas aren't always gigantic. And it does the kind of like, I don't know if it was established with Mario 64 or whatever, but you hide, you're the protagonist when the camera's right behind you, between you and a wall. And you're just like, I really hope I'm blocking in the right direction right now. Cause he just jumped out of the screen and I lost target. That's my main gripe with it though.
00:37:58
Speaker
I think other than that, it's it's a really, really solid experience. And I'm not really talking about all the locales. I'm not usually a huge one for visual differences and things like that, but it is it feels really distinct to go through the game as well. That's another another perk for it. Did you actually check out the the overworld map? I mean, like online? No, there's
00:38:27
Speaker
Is it an optioning game? It is, yeah. What? Yeah, there's an overworld map and it's not super useful, but it does visually show you like this idol is in this area. It spatially tells you where the areas are. Okay. Which is kind of cool. That sounds pretty dope. Yeah.
00:38:47
Speaker
I like any time, I mean Dark Souls obviously, uh, Dark Souls 1 is a big, big proponent of this. But, so I was working through like the first major boss.
World Design
00:38:58
Speaker
Oh, by the way, when you kill like major bosses, which are like set piece bosses, you get a memory, which you can cash in to increase your attack power. Yes. That's the only other way to do that. But again, you have to get good for that to happen.
00:39:13
Speaker
Yeah, but I killed like this one guy and then it was like three hours later I go around like a corner and i'm at some higher elevation and I look to my right and like Oh my god, that's where I was like three hours ago Yeah, like it's connected like I saw this place from when I had that battle and now i'm looking back. Yeah, and so much of it is I'm doing a gesture with my fingers where they're going into each other. They're they're really going at it
00:39:39
Speaker
But it's just it's cool how fucking connected it is. Like that is a universe and it helps build that out. Yeah. Versus like you go down this long corridor followed by another long corridor where you have like these random hub worlds which aren't really connected. Yes. It just like teleport to. I want to make some Kingdom Hearts 3 joke. That's the name of one of the places. Twilight town. Twilight town. Fucking if I right.
00:40:08
Speaker
It's probably about as cohesive as they can get it while still just letting you teleport as much as you want. Because that was one of the things that made Dark Souls 1 really hammered in that the areas were connected. It was just not being able to teleport.
00:40:24
Speaker
This one, the areas are pretty well connected. I feel like it's probably the best they've done since Dark Souls. It doesn't feel as connected as Dark Souls 1, but that's because you don't have to walk everywhere. And that's a concession I'll take any day, because holy crap, sometimes I just don't want to walk everywhere.
00:40:42
Speaker
No, I like that part is really streamlined and then the grappling maneuvering through areas And just like the exploration like I didn't expect I didn't know what to expect. I first started playing it right? Yeah, I'm just like I Want to get this game at some point, but like someone else like Jake would have to get it first Yeah, Jake's like I bought the game like you fuck and I bought the game
00:41:03
Speaker
And then i've just been enjoying it ever since I think like some of my my early impressions on it for you were just like this game is really hard I mean it is it's definitely challenging but like looking back And even for like where i'm at now at the last boss. I don't feel like anything's unfair Yeah, I feel like everything is something that maybe it's just like at me doing like a self challenge, right? But it's something that I can do. Yeah
00:41:29
Speaker
I just need to like be patient and learn certain things. But then I get rewarded when I actually do complete that. Yeah, it is an immense feeling of satisfaction. The only I think I talked about this in the previous episode. The only thing that sometimes undercuts it, and I do believe this is kind of distinct to me, is after I beat a boss and if I encounter another boss too quickly,
00:41:53
Speaker
I'm just like, oh, my accomplishment. It's taken from me. I've got to learn this. And I'm not the best at these games. Without talking about anything about the final boss, it took me four hours of attempts one night.
00:42:10
Speaker
And I just like, I literally turned the music off and like, I got like a Zen kind of like Spotify loop going of something that just was really relaxing to me. And I'm like, I'm going to sit down and I'm going to learn this boss. Like he's the teacher and I am the student. And four hours later, he's dead. Standard student teacher. But I mean, that's not for everybody. I've definitely talked to some people who are just like,
Perseverance and Learning
00:42:40
Speaker
How hard is it again? And you're just like well, I think if you like that style of game Mm-hmm. It's within the realms of feasibility Yeah, if you're taking somebody who's like I'm really comfortable with like first-person shooters I've not really done third-person fighting stuff. Mm-hmm or something. It's more designed to be Punishing like from software. It'd be like hey, here's this free thing right on the corner You're like that is so nice of you Dark Souls. Yeah, and then you're gonna get punished by something Yeah
00:43:09
Speaker
Um, it just it's a question of personality too. It's like if you are up against a guy if you're if you're fighting a boss for three hours Do you want to stop? I mean everyone wants to stop do you want but would you push through that and beat it? If the answer is like I wouldn't stop the game and never play the game again Then it's not a good game for you because
00:43:31
Speaker
you may not make it like halfway through the game depending on what boss you got stuck on. So like Jake has beaten the game and I was trailing behind because I have other things to do with my life and I was also just want to take a little bit of a break.
00:43:44
Speaker
And he's like, do you want me to tell you how much you have left? I'm like, no, I'm going to clear it. I have to clear it. And like for me, I still have this goal of wanting to beat all bosses and unlock all things. I don't know why, but I just, I have that urge. It is a good game for it. So to that end, I want to mention the prosthetic tools that you get. You can unlock, I think like seven or eight different types. Yep.
00:44:09
Speaker
And then there's like a fucking tech tree for them. So like your axe, you can upgrade into another type of axe. I won't tell you why. You have to figure it out. But you get all these like cool tools and then like they build upon each other or maybe like interact in some way. And that's like a part of your toolkit you can use. And then also you unlock these weapon arts. So as you know from like Dark Souls, if you have like a spear, if you do like an R2 or L2,
00:44:37
Speaker
I think it was like an L2 and Dark Souls 3. I think it was mana at that point. Yeah, it would be mana entry. It does like a special type of attack that's outside of like the standard... Estus. Right, not Estus, whatever it's called. Blue Estus. Blue Sun-ED.
00:44:59
Speaker
I used some of those early on because they're essentially like actual katana fighting styles. Yeah. Um, some of them are a little bit magic, but those come later. Yeah. Like there's one called like water dance and you're kind of just jumping here or slashing around and like, all right, that's a little bit. It's a little too Naruto, right? But those are really cool to see. Cause you can like do standard attacks. And then if you do your attack and deflect button at the same time, it would go into whichever weapon art you had selected.
00:45:29
Speaker
And I used some of them early on yeah, you pick a good one or two views. Yeah like ichimonji is the Like you have like the kendo staff and you just like quick take a step forward and pop somebody on the head. Yeah, that's thing It's really freaking good It has special properties. Some of the others don't have which makes it even better. So look forward to that one. Yeah
00:45:52
Speaker
wherever you find it. I did like the arts and it's just another element you can apply to some of the bosses. I try not to look up strategies for a boss unless I've really, really given up on life or if I've already beat the boss.
00:46:20
Speaker
And some bosses like have kind of intuitive weaknesses or like very significant downsides against certain prosthetics. They're just like, that actually makes complete sense. I literally never thought of that because usually I'm just like apply sword to boss until boss ceases to exist, right? Yeah. Sword, apply directly to the boss.
00:46:45
Speaker
But it really encourages you to kind of experiment with that. And I found like the game actually taught me to start doing that for some of the later bosses. I was like, all right, I'm going to equip three prosthetics, go in this fight, try out these things a little bit, mix them up, try other stuff, figure out what actually works and then work my way to an actual attempt to beat the boss. It's good, though. I think it's on.
00:47:16
Speaker
You'd recommend this game? I would recommend this game. If you aren't turned off by needing to learn boss fights and overcoming them, I would say it's a solid recommend.
00:47:29
Speaker
Also, another thing, uh, the game actually has personality. Like it's not, again, have to make the quick and bearish back to Dark Souls. You're not a character and you have to like infer storyline.
Story and Character Development
00:47:42
Speaker
Like there's an actual plot happening. There are characters, there are events and like, you're a part of that. Yeah.
00:47:51
Speaker
It's awesome. I actually like that a lot more than the you. We're going to make you unvoiced so you can put your own voice on. I don't care. I don't care. Give the guy a personality, give him place in the world. I'm fine with it. But like a lot of the boss fights, especially later, they have more meaning because I'm like, oh, I understand like this character. I understand my character's place in this setting. Exactly. And like why this is important versus just like, that's a big dude.
00:48:20
Speaker
Also the fucking boss variety a lot of the bosses you will encounter are are dudes like you Yeah, and they're like around the same size. They're just they're just good at what they do. Yeah, which is usually killing you But it's cool. Like you have a range of like, oh maybe like a ninja maybe like a samurai Maybe like a really big dude. Yeah with like a big ass sword. Maybe it's a monster maybe it's something else and it has a really good variety and
00:48:47
Speaker
There are certain Archetypes of bosses in the same way. There's like It's a giant. Yeah, it's a horse. Yes, it's a dude yours that type thing But it just has really good Variety where I've never like coming to like two bosses and been like oh, it's exactly this. Yeah The bosses are not all like a lot of Dark Souls bosses boil down to dodge the account dodge the attack counter-attack dodge the attack counter-attack
00:49:16
Speaker
That doesn't work when dodging isn't super reliable for one, but so much more than Dark Souls. Learning the movesets is just essential. There's only so far you can cheese people. I remember, like, Ornstein and Smough.
00:49:34
Speaker
I'm like a magic user. I just stand on the opposite side of one of these pillars and they're like, I'm going to get you running at the base of the pillar. I'm like magic though and magic though. And I can't beat them. Got them. I don't know why people think this boss is so hard, but I literally stood here and let they get confused. Secure was like, I'm going to kill you though. I'm going to kill you a lot. Yeah.
00:49:56
Speaker
So I think that's basically all I have for the non-spoilery thoughts. And my brain has been accumulating spoilery thoughts. Yeah. Obviously, I give my blanket blessing to the game. Yeah. This is pretty spoilers. We're not there yet. Yeah, we're not there yet. I love the art design, the music's good, the level design, the character design, the boss fights. Yeah.
Final Thoughts and Recommendations
00:50:24
Speaker
It's really just fun, flexing. Yeah. I have, I have no complaints. I've thoroughly enjoyed this game and I would like to see more of this type of stuff in the future. I mean, I'm not going to be jumping into another FromSoft title anytime soon. Unless they release one. That's true. But it's been so cool playing this game and going back and exploring areas and stuff and then getting that progression and then also being limited to like,
00:50:55
Speaker
The prosthetics, they're not really meant for damage. Some of them, some of them can do significant damage. Yeah. But a lot of the times not. Yeah. Cause I remember like, I'm going to do sure. And then the guys are like, what? Yeah. I'm like, oh shit. And it really, it rewards you for being good because you have to be to progress. Yeah. And it's solid fucking game. It is really freaking solid.
00:51:25
Speaker
Oh my god, is it that time? Yeah, so I'm gonna I'm gonna do the outro for the people just leaving now I understand I would rather you come back. No, no, no outro. Okay. All right. No, fuck them They know the they know there should be right. There's Facebook. There's Gmail. You'll find it
00:51:40
Speaker
Yeah, it's literally in the description So spoilers official warning like we're gonna just ruin this game for you Spoilers are so freaking good. These are the spiciest spoilers Yeah, but you should stop listening like right now if you care about bosses and mechanics and okay, so boss fights
00:52:03
Speaker
What gave you the most trouble in the game? Like what for you was like the hardest thing or the most pain in the ass? Whether it be like a common enemy or like a boss. Yeah. Full spoilers. We're going. Oh, Jake, they know. They know. Okay. You stop listening. Good. Good job. All right.
00:52:19
Speaker
uh sword saint for sure yeah it shouldn't sword saint final boss of the game he is a freaking pain and i mean no other boss was just like sit down for four hours and try to beat him i really hope i beat your time oh my gosh because like there's certain fights that like you did
00:52:37
Speaker
Like um that you did way faster than me because like great ape took me So long. Yeah until you told me like oh he does this one like tummy dive move and like slash with a sword Yeah, which you can just like jump and attack him. I literally use that window nuts was referring to earlier Yeah, yeah, where I'm like, oh, let me jump over and get two hits and back the fuck up until he does it again Yeah, that's what I did because I was having that much trouble
00:53:01
Speaker
But then like some other bosses, I feel like you did Where you're like, that was kind of hard. I'm like, what are you talking about? Yeah, that was a boss Yeah, there is a little there is some different experiences cuz like um, you said you know, it's your oh, the first one took you a bit Yes on the castle. He was he was the second hardest boss for me in the game
00:53:23
Speaker
Very first one. Yes first encounter with him. Yes. Um, so like I had some issues with him early cuz I'm like an actual boss. Yeah So challenging, but like he's a gatekeeper exactly. Yeah, like this was a legit fight. I'm like, oh shit. Okay So it definitely took me a couple of tries, but then I use the axe to like get down his posture. Mm-hmm fuck him up and
00:53:47
Speaker
and i got him to that phase and like i got him and he's like flex phase three takes off his shirt like oh damn it but when he did that yeah i beat the phase three on the first try oh jeez nice so as soon as like we got there buh-buh i think it was third or fourth attempt and it was phase three for me to get him um
00:54:07
Speaker
But you actually you didn't even use the lightning counters we talked about this like I read it i'm like Good to know for later. Yeah, but then when it came up to it I just I jumped dodged and then i'm like I went up and slapped them It does look really cool If you've never looked up the lighting counters, you should just see a video of it because it's awesome Jake You literally have to do it later. Do you have to?
00:54:27
Speaker
There's a specific boss oh Yeah, you're exactly right. Yeah, I was like you can fight him the second time and not do it for sure but yeah
00:54:39
Speaker
Yeah, he was he was a freaking pain So the guy that the guy that kills you when you resurrect that I was alluding to earlier in the podcast He's the I don't think he's the lone samurai guy But he's the first one you encounter like in the dojo and he does a horizontal swing with his a double swing with his sword like two-handed swing and
00:55:00
Speaker
Yeah, and he just carves through you. There's like a chance, I don't know if it's related to maybe if he's like up against a wall or something when you resurrect, but you resurrect and he immediately does the swing and just kills you because you're at full half health and it's freaking great. I think, I don't think that was intended to happen. I think bosses are all supposed to give you space, but sometimes he just death blows you immediately and it's freaking great.
00:55:26
Speaker
He's also a pain and there's there's the one thing I loved about this but I've been dipping into spoilers which we're talking about now, but there's bosses like the The the life-stealer looking guys the chain They have the claws on I know what you mean by I've noted the cult. Yeah But their entire mechanic is Just survive the posture damage. Yes, just just deflect their attacks just deflect their attacks if you're using posture candy
00:55:56
Speaker
done like you just beat him good job if you're not using posture candy then you have to be like more creative with trying to like jump out of between his attacks and stuff but you can just stand there and smash deflect if you're using the candy and he does and I love that like that's a non health bar boss
00:56:14
Speaker
Yeah, and it's cool because like Again, there's like a lot of varieties of bosses like how many I think we looked up in Dark Souls There's like 30 bosses like Dark Souls 2 and 3 there's there's a stupid amount into but like in this one. I feel like there's
00:56:29
Speaker
Just as much, if not more bosses. There's, there's a lot, I don't know if there's as many as two, but like half of the bosses are kind of like a general kind of type character. Like an actual general in the army, not like a, yeah, just some guy who's like, if you count all the people with pair prayer beads as bosses, there's a lot. If you count, uh, any of everyone with memories, there's probably like eight or nine.
00:56:55
Speaker
Yeah, ethernet I call those set piece bosses. Yeah, but I don't know. It just feels so fucking good meekery counter. Oh my gosh. It's like the That's that's what we're supposed to give me an erection. It would for anybody's against directions actually I'll do that next time my boyfriend tries to fuck me But I should describe what I'll describe it for people who are listening to spoilers, but don't know what fucking meekery counter is
00:57:22
Speaker
but if somebody comes at you with a thrust attack just full-on stabbing at you no like swinging horizontally or vertically you essentially lift your leg up step on their weapon and push it into the ground yes and it gets you really fucking choice posture damage oh yeah and it's so cool you can get like a counter attack all the time in
00:57:42
Speaker
Yeah, I like to get a good slap afterwards like hey style it on you That shit just feels super good. We also didn't even talk about fucking trees Because we said like you can like level up or you get points, but we didn't say what you can put them in Yeah, there's like four trees three four or five. I think main skills. There's four Technically, yeah, I'd say there's the monk one Ashina the shinobi And then there was what was the other one? There's another one
00:58:14
Speaker
I'm trying to think of a thing prosthetic.
00:58:16
Speaker
Oh, yeah prosthetic. Yep. Pretty important, you know your other arm, but shinobi obviously deals much more with like Stealth related shit. It's kind of the essential tree I think if you if you don't put points in shinobi like it's gonna hurt it's gonna hurt But I went pretty hard in ashina that I maxed it out. I haven't maxed anything else yet. Yeah, that's a lot more Sort of combative stuff. So when I was like fighting genoichiro or fucking owl
00:58:46
Speaker
Yeah, we talk about that shit. Yeah It's really rough but that was That was a badass thing. Mm-hmm because like as soon as it like you went up and talked to him I'm like, oh no. Yeah, I knew where I was going and they had that cutscene Yeah, and then he has a sword and just dashes like
00:59:08
Speaker
It's like It's a freaking it's a freaking great fight Yeah, we didn't talk about like a lot of the prosthetics obviously because they come in later in the story Yeah, there's some I literally have never used and some of them are good. I've used all of them at least once
00:59:23
Speaker
the the fan i've never used but apparently it's freaking amazing against certain bosses because one of the upgrades for the fan allows it to build damage like as you block it builds damage and then your counter attack out of it does damage based off of how much it built and there's a certain giant flaming boss so that's good against
00:59:51
Speaker
Yeah, have I not done it yet? I don't think you've actually fought him yet. If you might have encountered him. If you've not found a giant flaming boss, then...
01:00:02
Speaker
It's pretty obvious. He's from Dark Souls. Yeah, there's so much optional stuff. They're like, I have not even gotten to yet. Yeah. Or that you'll find like certain things. If I hit like a roadblock, I might go back and explore a little bit or maybe try and like grind up a level. Like, Hey, just kind of stretch my legs. Maybe I can get a slight buff in this, but it's not, it doesn't progress my, it doesn't make me better.
01:00:30
Speaker
It might make some things, it gives me more options. I have more tools in the arsenal. It's a horizontal improvement more than a vertical one. Yes. There are some things that are straight upgrades like your health potion heals you more. Yes. That's pretty good. I can still have the option to do that for another section. Yeah.
01:00:49
Speaker
That one's really freaking good. Oh my gosh, what was I going to say? Yeah, I won't talk about the boss you haven't got to yet. Thank you. Sword Saint is freaking amazing. I love that fight so much. It completely destroyed me, and I love that fight so much, because it's all about finding the little windows where you can fight him. I like that. His thing where, if you're further away from him in his phase two,
01:01:19
Speaker
Or no, it's his first phase as actual sword saying he'll like run at you and then do his Like weapon art thing that like has a delayed sword hit in front of him and I just like learned the distance he would run and then use the move So I'm just like run run run stand here. He'll come at me and attack then we go in and hit him. Yeah
01:01:43
Speaker
It's it's it's great though What was one of your favorite and then he ramps up you you've got into his last phase, right? I got to his second phase second phase. So is that his Dual wielding he's got the halberd other ground
01:01:59
Speaker
Yeah, it's like he rips it out of the ground and was just like found this thing I didn't actually remember how he got it. It's like he's like I have this now like all right Yeah, he actually hit me with it when he because he rips the halberd out of the ground If and you can delay his phase transition You can actually delay his transition to that phase if you keep the pressure on him He'll keep trying to fight you with his like closer range moves
01:02:22
Speaker
I don't know if it's hugely advantageous, but I got like a little extra damage in um before uh because the sky starts to storm like as things are accelerating and uh But yeah, I I didn't realize that he ripped the halberd out of the ground So I ran up i'm like i'm gonna hit him a couple times. I was just sitting here trying to do something He's just halberd out. There I go Oh man shooting stars plays. Yeah
01:02:53
Speaker
Yeah, so freaking good, but what was your like Biggest aha moment whether it's like well, I'll categorize into two things. Yeah, I'm gonna stop talking because right I need date quill for my throat. That's understandable What was your biggest like I have now learned this new thing? Oh, and what was your like? There's a genie. Oh, holy fucking shit. That's really hype moments. Oh
01:03:16
Speaker
it was it was the fight versus janetrios so that was my second hardest one before sword saint um and that was specifically not his phase three which i think actually isn't that hard especially if you know the lightning counter it's awesome but it's like not that hard yeah uh his phase two where he's like we're just gonna be really fast and we're gonna use thrust attacks and the thing that was most obnoxious to me is he has very few weaknesses he has very few windows where you're like actually gonna be able to get some damage in
01:03:46
Speaker
And if you don't know counters at that point in the game Then you'll spend as long on him as I did until you learn counters because I just like avoided stabs I would like a wuss out and not go for the Makiri counters Makiri counters completely changed the fight. He's the guy that I got at 75% The time that I actually beat him
01:04:07
Speaker
So I think it was his phase two into his phase three at his vitality to 75% But I had kicked his butt so much with counters by that point that I have maxed out his posture like it went in for the death. I was like hold up This runs going really well and I finally beat him, but
01:04:29
Speaker
That guy. Yeah. To answer your question. It's basically him, the guardian ape and, uh, Eshin sword saying like, are the three standout boss fights in my mind. Um, they're just like milestones for get good at this. Yeah.
01:04:53
Speaker
It's freaking great though. What about, what about for you? Did you have like a turning point where you're just like, all right, I have to level up my personal skills in order to, to keep going. Not really. Nope. I mean, there's certainly certain things I struggled with probably like guardian A was like my biggest one. Cause.
01:05:16
Speaker
I didn't respect ever. Yeah. Um, I had like really bunker down on that cause I'd get punished by dumb things. And he's like really aggressive. It's a hundred percent learning his moves because he literally has moves where he looks vulnerable. Like when he's lying on the ground and then starts flailing about with all these hit boxes. Yeah. And that stuff is rough. There are definitely other things like I've struggled with, but like it weirdly enough for this game, it doesn't keep me down. Yeah.
01:05:47
Speaker
You feel like you're making progress. Yeah, it's like when we play smash if I ever like Die or like lose I'm like, okay. This is what I did wrong Yeah, this is what I need to improve on right? I'm like, okay, let's go again and I really like that about this game because I
01:06:03
Speaker
I feel motivated in a weird way. Like, if I fail at other things in life, I'm like, I'm a piece of shit. And I'm just like, duh. But for whatever reason, I'm able to separate this. I'm like, okay, I need to learn. I need to adapt. Adapt. The fuck was I saying? Adapt, yeah. I need Starcraft protoss units. Bring them in.
01:06:25
Speaker
uh yeah i i completely agree and i think it's those little progresses like little points of progress that makes the boss fights tangible because like you get to an extra phase on a boss and you're just like that is a victory there's your melatonin surge if you're not the kind of player that gets a melatonin surge uh when you got to a new phase in the boss this game's gonna be really really hard for you yeah
01:06:50
Speaker
Because it's a victory. It's immediately. I've got further than I did before. I'm just going to learn and try to get further next time. Unless you're like Dave here and you beat Genetrio way of Tomo and like immediately, as soon as you get to the next phase. To be fair, there've been so many things like where I've gotten to, I got to the last phase and the next attempt I can't get past phase one.
01:07:13
Speaker
It it varies the game does I won't talk about Any possible endings that you wouldn't have encountered but we already talked a little bit on the side about the one you skipped over by your choice Which is you to join owl obey the iron code follow your father's order and refuse to protect Lord Kuro or defend Lord Kuro and
01:07:43
Speaker
I was this this is a point I couldn't really follow up on you were talking about like how important how cool it is to have an actual character instead of just an avid higher plane as and Sekiro or like wolf has this this like consuming hunger
01:08:01
Speaker
essentially behind his eyes that characters reference multiple points in the game and they talk about how They're afraid especially Lord Ishin if he gives you if you give him some sake he'll tell you a little bit more about like his past and things and he'll say like if you If you ever become Shura, I'm going to cut you down like I will kill you remember that and
01:08:26
Speaker
And you're like, all right, that seems ominous. And there's other references to it. Sure, this idea that if you've ever engaged in too much killing, you live just to kill, just for this, just to seek it out.
01:08:46
Speaker
an oni of sorts exactly yeah you literally become a demon and that's the the ending if you choose to side with owl is um after you side with him uh emma comes out and shows you like all of the training she's had with a blade the the doctor literally the doctor who's like helped do the whole game it's like i will protect uh kiro and uh
01:09:12
Speaker
It's a cool fight. It's awesome. But she only has one health bar. She's like, it's kind of a little bit of a home run. And in the cut scene, when you when you kill her, Sekiro smiles because he's he's changing a bit. Yeah. Then you get to fight the one and only Ishin in elderly form. Interesting.
01:09:39
Speaker
Yeah. And he lights stuff on fire when he attacks. It's freaking dangerous. But he's not as strong as Sword Saint because that's him in his prime. Yeah. That's reincarnated, right? But after that, it's you and Al. And Al is just like he tells he says his real name, which I don't know. It's something Japanese. And and without any prompting, you get no choice whatsoever. Sekiro stabs him in the back.
01:10:06
Speaker
And he's just like, why? And he's like, no, Shura.
Conclusion and Feedback Invitation
01:10:12
Speaker
Then Kuro climbs out, stuff's burning down, and he sees you there with like glowing blood on the prosthetic. He's just like, you can't be Shura. Because he's literally created an undying, immortal demon that just lives to kill things.
01:10:32
Speaker
Yeah. So I just want to talk about that ending because it's so freaking good. That's the bad end.
01:10:39
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, obviously I can't fight those fights. Right. But after I fully complete the game to my whatever level of tryhardiness I want to do, I'm definitely going to go back and rewatch some stuff. It's really good. See some other stuff because there's a lot to explore. Yeah. And you can obviously like with Dark Souls, like there are different quest lines for characters where you can do certain things. It's not as crazy, I think, as Dark Souls. Dark Souls was just like, here's a bunch of arbitrary things.
01:11:08
Speaker
Oh, were you here at 3 p.m? Oh, K.K. Slider comes out and sings you a song. I will say it is without saying what you have to do. It is harder to get other endings other than like the main ending that I got. Yeah. You have to look for it. Yeah. You push into.
01:11:27
Speaker
But so freaking good. That is, that is, those are the spoilers, everything, uh, that I really wanted to talk about, um, and this amazing game that, uh, body will be talking about for months to come. And I look forward to hearing all of the lore.
01:11:45
Speaker
Even more so than Dark Souls ever in the past. It's just fleshed out and awesome. So freaking good. Yeah. I'm a huge fan. Like I was thinking at the very beginning, like an hour ago, man, it's been a bit, um, do I like this game more than Dark Souls? Yeah. It's a tough question in a sense. Yes. I actually do. What about guilty? Hmm.
01:12:08
Speaker
What about guilty? In a sense, yes you do. But what about guilty? Oh, fuck you. Wrap it up. Not even gonna say I was gonna say that. Thanks everybody for listening to Soapstone Podcast. We have a Gmail account. It's linked. You're not gonna email us. If you wanted to. It's soapstonepodcast.gmail.com. And if you like us on Facebook,
01:12:29
Speaker
Cool. Yeah. Just search soapstone. Yeah. Well, that's where I will be posting links to our audio boom. You can also access it through Spotify, which uses the same thing pretty much. It really, if you just use Google.
01:12:46
Speaker
Yeah, you'll figure it out. Yeah, you have to do explicitly say podcast though. Just soapstone's not enough. Yeah, because otherwise you'll just get the Dark Souls soapstone. Yeah, which is completely unrelated to us. We should sue FromSoft after that suit from FromSoft and FromSoft results. We can get in queue. I really hope nobody's listening at this point. There's no chance. No one has time for this nonsense.
01:13:10
Speaker
But yeah, even if you're not like a super social person and you're actually just listening to this point, just let us know your thoughts, honestly, like on if you played this game or if you're thinking about playing this game. Yeah. Because seriously, Jake and I are still very much gamers at heart because
01:13:27
Speaker
We played games, we've been talking about it. Yeah, emphasis on the game. But we'd love to hear your opinions and thoughts on this or other titles that we either have covered or have not yet covered. Right. There's more in the second category. But we're getting there. I feel like I'm now starting to hear a Patreon ransom ended here. Yeah. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you in the next one.