Reminder: get in your early game Sekiro thoughts for the first off week BSC tonight!
Added 2019-05-06 23:23:56 +0000 UTCIn response to this post, or the one announcing off week episodes.
Comments
I know you guys recorded already but i just re-played through the beginning on ng+3 and remembered some random things!. - The sculptors idol at the dilapidated temple is different (3 buddhas). - If you go around the back of the temple the sculptor is in there is a hole you can eavesdrop through so check it periodically. - also the sculptor says the golden buddha that takes you to hirata was made by the TRUE sculptor. Seems the true sculptor is prolly who made the SCULPTORS idols. - the temple the sculptor is in is surrounded by a ton of paper tags, those tags are basically japanese 'stay calm' tags semingly keeping the sculptor under control. Along with the buddhas he keeps carving seemingly relieve his 'wrath'. - right in front of the sculptor is a shrine with blood all over it .....strange? - Hanbei the infested has the same armor on as the bandits at Hirata and connections to a place later in the game. - you can kill the dogs in one hit with a shuriken (it’s very nice) - the big sumo are guys are connected to a later area, there’s also a guy wrapped in bandages shooting at you with a canon that is connected to another later area. - it actually seems there is a hierarchy between the lesser Ashina soldiers: the balding ponytail guys with no hats are the lowest/ the guys with hats are next/ then the guys with the hats and straw coats are the group leaders/ the spear and gun guys are just off to the side/ the nightjar would be the highest as they’re isshins personal ninjas. - if you look at the fires around the Ashina outskirts they have human remains and skeletons in them. - anyama the peddler seems to be a bit of an Easter egg. He’s a merchant. He’s a thief. He’s kinda shifty and funny. He has an eye patch AND what is his shirt made out of? PATCHES. - later in the game you can get a skill that allows you to do death blows if the enemy is high enough in the air and you jump up to them, it’s wonderful for the roosters. - and finally for outskirts part one is the phantom kunai.....talks about lady butterfly, she trained in a misty woods (we find misty woods later) bright little butterflies follow the kunai when thrown (you can find these butterflies in the misty woods we find later) - phantom kunai also is a little useful to spam at headless unfortunately you are better off just gitten gud. Hope something here was interesting!
Jessie joy
2019-05-14 09:04:51 +0000 UTCI can’t really think of things unless I’m responding to something you guys say in the episodes themselves so hopefully I’ll say something there interesting enough to get on! I definitely understand disliking the bosses a bit more being on my 2nd play through. The end fights are pure hell.
Jessie joy
2019-05-13 06:19:04 +0000 UTCSadly we just recorded! But we'll include this next time we record one -GB
Duckfeed.tv
2019-05-07 20:51:18 +0000 UTCHey guys, I never stopped listening to the network but welcome back as far as Bonfireside Chat goes. Glad to hear you guys covering Sekiro and I appreciate the coverage so far. I know there are a lot of Souls fans and there's a lot of love for From, but there's also a fair bit of criticism to be leveled at this game, as no one is perfect. (Feel free to edit the hell out of this, of course.) I have a lot of thoughts on Skeiro but my biggest takeaway is that it's probably the roughest, most sadistic beginning to a From game in recent memory. Wolf is extremely fragile and underpowered at the start, not to mention his healing gourd only restores a tiny fraction of life, and when you resurrect you're only good for one hit. I found it frustrating to try and come to grips with the new systems and the new gameplay when the game is all too eager to swat you down in 1 or 2 hits. Honestly, Sekiro does a terrible job of teaching players how to play and I'm at the point in my life where simply “kill the player” is not enough of a teaching tool. Since exploring the world feels like an entirely different skillset from fighting bosses, From would be smart to ease back and be kinder to players into the beginning - I know several people who have bounced off of the first couple of hours, and I had to put the game down due to annoyance and frustration a few times, which was rare for me as a lifetime From player and Souls vet. I think this is probably the most extreme example of From demanding fast reaction times. While there is truth to the idea that practice and getting familiar with the systems helps, a part of the game is simply being able to recognize and respond to threats quickly enough. I talked to people who described their experience with certain bosses as” no big deal”, but in my experience as an older gamer (43 here) recognizing the attacks and properly responding often happens too fast in a physical sense. After playing some recent indie games where they give the player the power to slow things down and seeing how beneficial that was in different ways, I would love to see a similar feature here. I'm sure the Git Gudders would scream bloody murder about it, but there is so much good about these games and it seems a shame that something as basic as reaction times could keep out a large number of people who would otherwise enjoy this work. And I know it seems like I've done nothing but complain so far, but there is a lot of great stuff here. Once I got over the initial hump of difficulty and had enough skill, attack power, and life to be able to reasonably survive most encounters, I really started to enjoy the new verticality in levels, and a story that I was able to follow without looking at YouTube videos or a wiki. Wolf is a cool character, the prosthetics are a great idea, and the change of pace away from Souls is very welcome. I find Sekiro to be a tough recommend because I think it's a really big ask to for people get through that rough opening and climb a mountain of difficulty before they can get to a good comfort zone, but I'm glad I made it over and I'm currently having a pretty good time with it in the mid game – I’m exploring areas without dying too frequently, and I've taken down a few bosses without too much trouble. It just goes to show that difficulty is not the key to the work of Fromsoft, and the sooner they realize it and the sooner the “fans” realize it, the better off we'll all be.
Brad Gallaway
2019-05-07 20:36:25 +0000 UTCA short thought from me: so far Sekiro has had the best boss fights but ultimately I think will be the least memorable 'soulsy' game for me. I'm enjoying replaying the bosses but am not really getting caught up in the world (which is beautiful) or exploring.
Alex B
2019-05-07 17:01:22 +0000 UTCWhen I started Sekiro, I really enjoyed the simplified stealth mechanics. Like Uncharted, the stealth system was not especially complex, but it did not impose intolerable boredom if I had to grapple away and hide to reset the enemies; just a few seconds. Finally, the ability to utilize stealth to knock off an energy tank from minibosses was the best video game surprise I'd had in a while. The actual combat was a real problem for me though. After texting a friend that I thought this game may lock me out due to difficult boss combat, I was reminded that I said the same thing about Dark Souls and Bloodborne. I persevered and discovered what everyone else has by this point; you cannot play this like previous soulsborne entries. After forcing myself to stay close and engaged with the human enemies and only doing hit-and-run tactics on beasts and fat guys, I have been rewarded with a very good experience. My final comment on the early game is that the first stealth scene against Whitesnake was awesome! It made me glad to see Fromsoft taking the DragonGod/Bed of Chaos idea and refining it into a quick and impressive sequence. I liked the high tension, stealth-forward play. It lasted a few minutes and didn't require so many retries that it wore out its welcome. Primo! Love your shows, gentlemen. Thanks for your work!
Chris Olmstead
2019-05-07 13:42:16 +0000 UTCI killed the chain ogre in one shot, but also had the flame vent from hirata estates. Sadly I hit a new immediate wall on the general after, and only got by once a friend told me I had missed the crow memorial mob vendor back on the cliff, and then I bought the firecracker. I also completely missed the Tengu after gyobu, until I saw vaati's video. Top notch fromsoft world exploration
Eric
2019-05-07 13:04:21 +0000 UTCMy boyfriend hates watching me play FromSoft games...but he does love watching birds and gave me some insight on Nightjars. Apparently they are notoriously difficult to spot: they lie very low camouflaged in trees and scarcely call or sing. He recently was extremely excited thinking that he had seen one (alas, it turned out to be a pesky great spotted cuckoo). The same logic applies more obviously to Owl. (Side note: this was especially brought home to me as we spent two hours last week searching for a Scops Owl. We knew that it could have been within one of ten trees, but even then still were unsuccessful.)
Joe
2019-05-07 12:00:26 +0000 UTCThe chained ogre highlights my biggest problem with the combat system: grabs. Making grabs unblockable is fine, the other two classes of unblockables do not give me any significant trouble, I can learn their tells and there’s a direct counter that directly deals with that attack (head jumping low sweeps and mikiri countering thrust attacks). Grabs do not have a direct counter and dodging away from them feels imprecise and the hit box for them is often very large, with the ogre clearly missing me and then teleporting six feet sideways to finish the attack. A game that disincentivises dodging and makes a big deal out of forcing you to counter all your enemy attacks shouldn’t have grabs in this fashion.
John Lister
2019-05-07 11:27:23 +0000 UTCI was hooked from minute 1. The more straightforward storytelling caught me off guard at first, and I was worried that everything would be laid out for me. Thankfully, that doesn't happen. You still have to do a lot of the work yourself, which is good. Although the stealth felt really good, it felt a little like cheating sometimes. I distinctly remember thinking "this game is... Too easy?". I got taught by the first minibosses I tangled with, and I changed my tune. I really loved the serpent sequence, but I could barely forgive the sin of a one hit kill stealth sequence, even if it was a little more free than something like uncharted or the Mary Jane sequences in Spiderman. I found the world refreshingly populated and active, which I've always wanted from souls games. Oh, and it would be a long time before I started using tools or getting posture kills on bosses. I ran around swiping at enemies when I felt safe for a good while, although I really appreciate this game for not letting me get away with that forever.
Brian Perkins
2019-05-07 11:22:22 +0000 UTCThe biggest frustration in the early game in Sekiro - in my humble opinion anyway - is the lack of choice as to what direction you can take from a playstyle point of view. The first Souls game I really got into having bounced off of Dark and Demon's Souls was Bloodborne, but even that took a complete restart because I didn't like the first weapon I chose (the Saw Cleaver - most people's favourite choice I know). I dove back in again, this time choosing the Hunter Axe, and found it suited my playstyle a lot better. This encouraged me to get back into Dark Souls again, choosing a Pyromancer instead of the original Knight I'd chosen first time, and again had a much better time with it and becoming the Souls fan I am now - all thanks to having the option to try something different. But Sekiro doesn't give you that choice. Yes there's a few different tools you can find during the early game to give you different solutions to certain problems, but if the exacting sword-deflect-counter combat and stealth mechanics are something you struggle to get on with, or just don't enjoy, there's really nothing you can do. Yes over time I did improve and make progress, but much more by force than any other Souls game has felt for me. It's a shame, because I feel for a lot of players wh bounce off the game like I did, there's no real complusion to come back again without these alternatives.
Matt Simpson
2019-05-07 10:25:40 +0000 UTCIn the interest of full disclosure, I never play any From Software game completely blind. I only did that once with Dark Souls 2 and that colored my opinion of that game for years and not in a good way. With that said... My initial impression of Sekiro was overwhelmingly positive. After getting over the initial hurdle of learning the controls, I took to the deflection focused battle system very easily. Combined with the excellent stealth mechanics, satisfying grappling hook gameplay and open ended level design, running through the first few areas a couple times really gave that distinct feeling of mastery that From Software games seem uniquely good at. My biggest hurdle and still one of my major sticking points is the perilous attacks. Being able to read them quickly is paramount and since I can't decipher Kanji, I had to rely on tells. The problem with that is that often the camera was in a poor spot or dust and particle effects would obscure the character. This problem is worse later on but it gets it's start here. As for the bosses and mini bosses, interestingly enough I had the hardest time with the 2nd General fight right after the Chained Ogre. Even the enemies in Hirata Estate didn't give me quite as much trouble as that one general and his cohort. I fully admit my experience might not be the normal one. There are some things I knew going in like saving your money by buying pouches, spamming deflect when unsure of an enemie's moveset, the decreased effectiveness of dodging, and the fact that posture regenerates quicker when guarding that really helped make a difference in many fights. Oh, and the snake was really cool too.
Freya N Messinger
2019-05-07 10:16:54 +0000 UTCI think if I charted my enjoyment of Fromsoft games against how increasingly time-poor I'm becoming, it'd be clear why I've been enjoying them less and less. I just feel bad repeating stuff over and over in games now, which is usually the reason I crank the difficulty down to the lowest setting possible. I like a challenge, but usually one I can beat first or second try after learning the core mechanics of a game. Initially I thought I'd hit on my perfect playstyle for Sekiro: when I reached a boss I'd have a stab at it, inevitably die, then go inline and read up how to beat it. A lot of early bosses have some very notable vunerabilities, once you know them, more so than previous games, I felt. Cutting out the middle bit where I had to observe and memorize attacks or work out gimmicks meant that, until Genichiro, it didn't take me more than about 8 attempts to beat a boss. That dude has no gimmick though, he's the purest example of what Fromsoft wants you to learn and feel for this game. Unfortunately, that's not for me. I bet buried in this game is some stuff I'll love, but I think I'll be experiencing that through content creators like yourselves rather than trying to bash my head up against a playstyle I don't much enjoy.
Liam Welton
2019-05-07 06:28:50 +0000 UTCI don't think it's been released yet. I think it's coming out this month though.
Lewis Shaw
2019-05-07 05:42:49 +0000 UTCOne thought on the subject of teaching that birthed in my head randomly, and very recently, in regards to the Chained Ogre was that you could survive the nuclear bomb that was one of his Grab Attacks by having a full health bar. Therefore a possible tactic in engaging with him would be to avoid relying on a bar any less that fully gauged, which meant entering into the combat area with max big pharma healing pellets (Big Pharma - Wu Tang name for the taking). This may be signalled by the appearance of Anayama setting up shop right adjacent to the beginning of the Ogre Feast. I have been soft(ware) bouncing off the game. Despite the curve of difficulty, it’s the tone of vengeance, coupled with the avatar’s stoicism (which the game sets on our shoulders) coupled with most times brutal dispatches of enemies, has settled me firmly into a mode that even when I fell a foe I continue on to through the game, like Ray Liotta after he pistol-whipped his neighbor, hoping to satiate the senses of reconciliation of rage. I get it, this is not new to games and sometimes a story that openly pokes you in the eye makes its point much more than a light slap to the face, however the absence of the wonder of exploration and obtuse storytelling that I’ve laid my hat upon is missed this early in the game. Absolutely top shelf and honest work, very proud to support Duckfeed.tv
Murder She Rothenberger (Wrote In Burger)
2019-05-07 04:27:53 +0000 UTCHey Paul. I know it seems arbitrary, but we're just covering what we've done on the show so far. Save this for the mid game response section! For us, early game is before the castle, and containing the hirata estate (visit one). -GB
Duckfeed.tv
2019-05-07 03:05:29 +0000 UTCSekiro definitly has a really steep difficulty curve in the beginning (later on too) and with no summons or other ways to make it easier, it becomes very unforgiving and hard. Something that the game does better than any other from game though is the introduction of its setting. DS tells you right from the intro cutscene that you can expect dragons and giants and you know right away that you are in a fantasy land. Sekiro keeps you wondering much longer what kind of setting it is. Is it just a samurai game? Is it a full on fantasy game or more magic realism? Discovering the world and the nature of it really kept me engaged. The unusual japanese setting also helped with that. Do you guys have any thoughts on the setting and the more sparsely ued fantasy elements? Love the show
Toke Bruun Jensen
2019-05-07 02:41:47 +0000 UTCGenichiro was my major A-Ha moment of taking a more in your face approach to enemies and clashing swords, looking for those enemy deflections to put me on the defense. I think Kole said it best when he mentioned how you get psychologically prepared to engage enemies in such a head on manner. A pretty elegant approach to combat from a design perspective, I think.
Lasard
2019-05-07 02:34:27 +0000 UTCLoved the early game, everything from the new style of gameplay, stealth mechanics and Japanese setting. But damn those bosses were way too punishing. I of course, was playing sekiro like a souls game, dodging and occasionally jumping away from attacks. I didn’t use deflect much early on, thinking it could only combat weapons. I felt really stupid when I finally learned that you can deflect projectiles and normal attacks. Thanks to Gyoubu, the bull and Genichiro, I started to understand and really enjoy the combat. Oh but fuck headless.
Paul Arcadia
2019-05-07 02:06:35 +0000 UTCSekiro was the first FROM game that I had to just up and start over again. This was before I realised that dying didn't mean nearly as much as in Dark Souls or Bloodborne, but I found myself just throwing myself again and again and again at the Shinobi Hunter in Hirata Estates and just barely scratching the guy before having to run all the way back and try again. I think I thought that I was supposed to be able to finish this area before I fought the Chained Ogre (since this is where you find his weakness) aaaaannnnddd... No. Just... No. But regardless, my Unseen Aid had crawled so low and I just felt like I'd fallen into such a deep hole that I hard quit, deleted my save and came back again a couple of days later after a short family vacation starting fresh. The next time through I breezed past this guy and I don't know what changed exactly with how I was playing. It didn't turn me off the game for long, and I ended up firmly on the "Sekrio is really good and fun" camp, but... that was very much with an "... eventually" caveat and I wish I didn't have to add that.
Kaleb Pifer Alge
2019-05-07 01:54:02 +0000 UTCThis is more of a general comment than early-game specific, but I found the prosthetic tools to be incredibly disappointing. When I heard the guards talking about the ogre being weak to fire, I felt very clever for having gone to the estate to get the fire barrel. Then I hit him with it and, between the fire and my attacks, got a tiny fraction of a health bar. The same thing happened with Genichiro and the firecrackers and the mini-boss just after him. Given the limited number of emblems that I had, the number of tries each boss was taking, and the minimal help the tools actually provided, I ended up just ignoring them for the rest of the game. This meant that I was exploring solely for the story, and not really to find new gear which, even in Bloodborne, was one of the most exciting parts of Soulsborne games for me.
Steven E Southall
2019-05-07 01:43:55 +0000 UTCHey guys. Love the other podcasts. Can anyone steer me towards the episode that covers Hitman? I heard Gary mentioning that he enjoyed it and would love to hear his thoughts. I’m about to start Hitman for the first time. Thanks in advance. Umbasa!
Lasard
2019-05-07 01:16:38 +0000 UTCThere are a few areas in the early game that remind me of 1-1 of Demon’s Souls in ways that made that area so memorable. The Estates area brought back feelings of breaching Boletaria Castle, and Gyoubu’s arena especially reminded me of the very opening of 1-1, with your character showing up during the aftermath of an intense battle. I’m hoping that the game continues to have occasional “wow” moments like this in between the stealth sequences. I know it’s still early, but I’m also hoping for more area variety.
Billy Richardson
2019-05-07 01:14:32 +0000 UTCHey fellas - I wanted to share some stray thoughts related to Hirata Estate's weird placement in Sekiro's difficulty curve. I think the Shinobi Hunter, Juzuo, and Lady Butterfly are all significantly harder than anything up until Rufio in Ashina Castle, but you can (and are sort of encouraged) to try them even before the Chained Ogre. This got me thinking about similar moments in past From games - the most obvious is the graveyard in the original Dark Souls. One of the things that Sekiro is missing is damage numbers when you hit an enemy. While I think this is a completely reasonable design decision to make, it was very helpful as a calibration point in the other games. You do so much less damage to the skeletons than anything in the Asylum that it's obvious you're not supposed to fight these guys yet. In Sekiro, it took me many tries to eventually figure out that I'm just not intended to do this until I get a few more Gourd Seeds, which was really frustrating. This game hides the fact that your avatar improves substantially, and as a result it was hard to get a feel for where I was supposed to be pushing my limits and where I was supposed to come back to later.
Mitchell Stemple
2019-05-07 01:07:26 +0000 UTCI want to like Sekiro, I really do, but I stopped playing after the Blazing Bull fight. I kept dying so many times without getting a hit in, that it just felt unbeatable. I heard that there was an update to make it easier, but still. The only other FromSoft game I played was Bloodborne and the two hardest bosses were the Orphan of Kos and the Amygdala in the Chalice Dungeon. Both took me 4+ hours to beat, but they felt beatable. This is not the case with the Blazing Bull. I just hit a wall. Even if I did beat it, I wouldn't feel good about it. The reason why I play video games is for the story and because I enjoy the game. It's a shame that I won't experience this story because I wasn't enjoying it. But that's what YouTube playthroughs and this podcast are for, right?
Robby H.
2019-05-07 00:33:30 +0000 UTCI personally had great first impressions, with a few places that bothered me first time round, mostly due to my most difficult enemy across all games, the camera. More often than not an indoor fight would leave me pressed up against the wall waiting for death, God help me if there was two enemies or more. I also spent half of my first play through running and taking pot shots thinking I couldn't deflect the larger enemies, (sunken valley boss) and some fights would take upward of 10 minutes. Once I somehow flicked a switch that allowed me to understand the consistent deflection mechanic and it was like a wall opened up. I think if anyone skips our friend Hanbei, they're always going to have a rougher time. I didn't even know his tutorials unlocked even more tutorials once completed, I'm sure if they were all visible from the start I may have picked the "consistent deflection" option. That being said I think the Hirata estate was almost definitely meant to be attempted/finished around the time you would fight the next boss of Ashina Outskirts. Its in this weird zone of tutorial and difficult, as if undead burg and lower burg were merged. My only real complaint about the game now is that most people won't enjoy it until their second play through when they truly "Get it" and while I love the game to bits and have already maxed out achievements, not many others will put 50+ hours to start enjoying a game more. (That hirata estate segue was terrible I'm sorry)
Josh
2019-05-07 00:26:50 +0000 UTCMy first impressions were positive. The combat was fun because the deflecting reminded me of Metal Gear Rising. The stealth was easily the highlight for me. My first sticking point was the general after the Chained Ogre. I spent over half an hour on him before finally getting through his second bar. After him I hit my stride and breezed through the rest of the Outskirts including acing Gyoubu which almost never happens to me in From games even on subsequent playthroughs. After this I went to finish the Estate, got to Lady Butterfly and understood why people were talking about the difficulty of the game. I still think she is the second or third hardest boss in the game due mostly to how early she is in the game and how few gourd uses you have. It took me over an hour to get to the second phase and I had wasted a couple snap seeds thinking that her illusions were the invisible wires she jumps to. It was at least another hour before I finally beat her and I was immediately concerned with how the rest of the bosses would be.
Warren Michalski
2019-05-07 00:14:33 +0000 UTCEarly impressions I really dig this game I never played Tenchu but just a little bit of Ninja Gaiden. The opening scene had me at go. Fromsoftware really captured the brutality and violence of warfare in that era. I didn’t mind the start being under powered. The feel of the game was kind of like stepping into a new super car. You learn how to play thought time and errors. I took my time got different skills along the way the boss fights are thrilling for me and get my heart pumping. The feeling of victory after a boss fight is amazing. It's a master class of a game in my eyes. I want to thank you Cole and Gary for bring back BSC. Don’t sell yourself short for the hard work you guys do to make this show happen. This game isn’t for the mainstream for sure and that's ok it’s what I wanted a real challenge.
Mcav86
2019-05-07 00:11:05 +0000 UTCOnce I found out that From owned the Tenchu license, all of the pieces kinda fell into place for me. It’s not a Souls game, but it’s in the same genus if not the same species.
Mark Mahler
2019-05-07 00:10:50 +0000 UTCSomething interesting I noticed about the opening of the game is that it nods to the opening of the original dark souls. Your character sits, despondent, in a prison. You are only roused when a figure drops something into your cell to begin you on your quest.
Matt DiTomaso
2019-05-07 00:04:27 +0000 UTCFeel free to cut if you have lots of other reactions! As you get more and more experience with the game, do you guys still feel positively about the tutorial zombie? I found it really dull and inelegant that I was expected to practice the basic combat with him so much in the early game vs. the levels which are so much more geared for stealth. I ended up soft-bouncing on the game so far because it felt like marginal amounts of content sandwhiched between bossfights that required dense combat experience. Very different from 1-1, Undead Burg, all other levels, etc. where the levels are explicitly all tutorials for nearly every encounter in the game.
Julia
2019-05-06 23:47:01 +0000 UTC
