Reused enemies - Anyone else feel like it's more common than usually?

[Sasha Mason]

I mean, I'm not going to pretend like FromSoftware has never reused enemies in their levels before, but in Sekiro it feels like they've done it a lot more commonly even in situations where it makes no sense, like with the Drunkard. Totally gonna believe the same dude with the same face exists three times with a different name.

Or the Taro troop dudes that also seem to be making an appearance in most areas. Hirata Estate bandits casually being at Senpou for a random reason, Purple Ninjas also making a common appearance in several of the areas to the point where they are like the Black Knight of Sekiro ect.

And that doesn't even include all the other minibosses and normal bosses that are reused multiple times. Ape, Monk, Owl, Genichiro and partially Isshin (because he has some reused moves but at least both versions look very different and use different weapons) are all bosses you meet more than once. Some of the areas and boss arenas are reused also.

So how do you all feel about that?

[HighLanderPony]

Didn't mind it, the challenge is still there and in a way it shows how much you've grown. (Some formerly boss enemies become just fodder type.)

[Engels78]

It is done in many games... Even Nioh has recycling 😉 One game I don't remember well, but as far as I remind myself it, has no Boss recycling... It has just less Bosses but all are different... And it is actually the worst of DS like game, however can be fun too! Is Lords of the Fallen.

If it is, let's say, not too much, I can tolerate it and stll enjoy game! In DS3 recycling of Bosses was actually minimal as far as I remeber?

[Sasha Mason]

Dark Souls 3 only recycled one boss, that being Gundyr. Every other boss was completely unique with his own boss arena. Some bosses like the Crystal Sage are reused later as regular enemies though.

I don't mind reusing either, but in Sekiro it felt like I was bumping into stuff I had seen before all the time.

[Artek [General]]

Hm. Yeah, reusage seems to be higher than DS3, but not as bad as it was in DS2 though, but still.
But it doesn't bother me as much since its still makes sense. The reusage becomes annoying when it makes 0 sense as to why it was done, and Sekiro doesn't seem to be doing that bad.
Purple ninjas being everywhere... Well, they are ninjas / shinoby of the ministry and they constantly attempt to infiltrate ashina for obvious reasons.

The drunktards... Well, the 3rd one at least has a unique skin. The 2nd one though... We could argue that they're brothers or something but there's no evidence for it.

Taro Troops only seem to appear as some kind of heavy reinforcements for ashina soldiers and never appear anywhere else outside of that (minus Senpou Temple ones, who thankfully have unique skins).

Owl, Genichiro and Ishin don't seem to be a problem either. There's good story reasons of why you refight them, so i don't complain.

But Ape and the Monk... Those bother me slightly.

The Ape bothers me because you accidentally stumble upon his 2nd boss area even before you fight him for the first time. I wonder if originally you had to fight him there and then he would run away and then you would finish him in his final area.
Because there's ZERO reasons to comeback there. Not even passing by to reach something else. So i call ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on that one.

The Monk... The argument could be made that devs wanted you to fight him even in case if you went for Shura ending and never reached Fountainhead Palace. He also sort of makes sense story wise (like making sure people won't go there no matter what). But still, a weird choice to make a ghost of a real boss and make you fight him. Espeically after the horror show that was Mibu Village. They could have some monster there, someone very badly infected with whatever drove the village insane, but instead... There's Monk, who is weirdly out of place for that area.

And bandits in senpou temple slightly bother me as well, unless they were hired by Senpou monks for some shady stuff. But there's nothing that would expose lore on that, so...

Generally and objectively speaking: yeah the enemy diversity is way lower than in any dark souls game. But i don't want to go straight ahead and call it lazyness or something. Seems to be simply a limitation of the game's setting. We are inside Ashina, so it makes sense that Ashina soldiers are predominant enemy type in the game. And there's really not that many unique areas with unique enemy encounters.

Ashina Outskirts and Ashina Castle are basically the same area setting-wise, with Ashina soldiers infesting everything for good reasons.
Then there's Hirata estates, primarily infested by bandits.
Then there's everything Senpou related, with monks being the predominant enemy.
Then there's Mibu village, which is way shorter than it should've been in my opinion.
Then there's Ashina depths, with monkeys and stuff.
And finally, Fountainhead Palace.

I think the reason why it feels that diversity of enemies is dispraprotional to other games is because we have to clear Ashina Castle 3 times, with but 1-2 new enemy types being thrown into the mix each time.

[Sasha Mason]

Yeah I guess the variety of enemies is why I noticed it so much.

About the Taro troop: There's Senpou and Mibu Village Taro troops. Would be one thing if they were just Ashina related but just like the Rats, there's reskinned versions of these for different areas. Also I'm not complaining about the Ashina Soldiers because those appear in Ashina Outskirts and Ashina Castle for obvious reasons, but never outside of those. You're not going to Mibu Village for example meeting Ashina Soldiers yet again for example.

One thing that could've already helped was if Mibu Village and Senpou Temple had unique "heavy" enemies instead of just using a Taro reskin with a twist on it (The Mibu one actually causes terror for example)

The Drunkard is one of the ones that bother me the most because there's zero lore explaination as to why he exists three times (Not including the Hirata revisit, because that's technically the same area more or less).

I guess the Purple Ninjas do make sense but there's only two variants of those. The normal version and then the slightly stronger version using poison attacks but having pretty much the exact same moveset. There aren't really any other variations of these which imo is a wasted opportunity because they appear so commonly that throwing in some more twists could've made them a lil more interesting instead of just resulting in a "Oh more of those guys" moments.

Same with the headless and Shichimen Warrior. Except for those, these guys always gave me a "OH GOD WHY" moment.

And lastly another thing on the topic of reused enemies: All spirit enemies that appear during twilight are also reused and mostly seem to consist of Ashina enemies (Nightjar, sometimes those blue dudes inside the castle itself) but sometimes also Mibu Village dudes, who also for some reason appear as illusions for Lady Butterfly.

[HighLanderPony]

Shichiman aka Shishibullshit Warriors, as I like to call them. Was a relief to be done with all of them lol. (Confetti does help.)

[Goilveig]

Originally posted by Mason™ of Germany:

The Drunkard is one of the ones that bother me the most because there's zero lore explaination as to why he exists three times (Not including the Hirata revisit, because that's technically the same area more or less).

It's exactly the same area, just a little while later the same day.

I guess the Purple Ninjas do make sense but there's only two variants of those. The normal version and then the slightly stronger version using poison attacks but having pretty much the exact same moveset. There aren't really any other variations of these which imo is a wasted opportunity because they appear so commonly that throwing in some more twists could've made them a lil more interesting instead of just resulting in a "Oh more of those guys" moments.

There's the version with the dogs, too, that you fight twice - although that's the same guy, you can kill him in the real world and also in the memory.

[Sasha Mason]

Originally posted by Goilveig:

There's the version with the dogs, too, that you fight twice - although that's the same guy, you can kill him in the real world and also in the memory.

Yeah but I mean, that's just the same enemy with another reused and common enemy to accompany him. He can't perform anything new other than whistling to alert everyone. Since there is one that uses poison, it would've been interesting to have versions of those guys that can use fire crackers, smoke bombs, fire explosions or similar.

[Zu]

Idk about you OP, but it's a nice feeling to spend like an hour until you beat a boi and then later find another such boi so you go "Ahaa, I know your tricks!" without needing to start a new run.

[WhiteLezard]

I personally don't mind recycled enemies. I'll rather fight the same fun enemies over and over and over again than fighting unique but garbage or boring enemies.

[Xande]

I don’t mind, I think that FromSoftware was far more worried about crafting their “challenging” encounters than making sense about their enemy placement. Sekiro’s difficultly is fine tuned to an extent that it’s near perfect, and more variety would ruin it. At least this is my opinion, but I understand your point OP, actually, I’ve felt like you a few times.

[OCTDUMPUS]

Yeah, I don't mind the recycling as much since some of them are still fun to fight against, especially in NG+ runs where you can practically wipe the floor with them and taste revenge for the pain they've cost in your first playthrough.

[TyresTyco]

It... is a bit to much. But I dont mind at all. This game is an experiment. A new franchise. Ofc they dont go full boss funding mode... and try to recycle as much as they can.

I was deeply disappointed with the fake monk. I expected a real full fledged boss at the end from mibu.

I also didnt like the ninja. Bloody 3times the very same fight.

Only with some dogs... or one puppet as adds.

But I understand why they did that.

Unfortunatly this encourages speeding through the game on ng periods.

The last time I fought the 2purple ninja recycle fights was at release lol.

Far to many skips tho.

“Back to bloodborne“

Bloodtinge build is so fun.

[2B FOR TEKKEN 8]

The Bandits being at Senpou Temple might seem out of place until you look at the dead bodies that lay next to the loot that are bags of coin.

[Crestfallen]

Before you bash Sekiro for that, why don't you take a look at DS 3? One reused boss, that being Gundyr. Three bosses that return as normal enemies/minibosses later (Crystal sage, the wyvern, deacons). Lots of reused assets from the previous parts, from armor and weapons to attack animations and certain enemies.
Enemy placements that make zero sense as well: gargoyles from profaned capital in lothric castle, cathedral knights in Oceiros' garden, corvians all over the place. Corrupted guys from Farron legion in Smoldering lake. Omnipresent CRABS. Lycanthropes and a bunch of other enemies from throughout the game in Irithyll dungeon. Minibosses, that were few in number, and also heavily reused. Not to mention the few main types of hollow soldiers that are present in almost every area in the game.
This kind of ♥♥♥♥ is nothing new, really.