Things I don't like about Sekiro

[Kleerex]

There are several things about this game that I don't like:

1. Exploration

Level design and exploration was FromSoft's main feature in Soulsborne games. Each area was quite large with a boss waiting at the end of it and possibly an optional boss hiding somewhere. There were minibosses here and there, but they were completely optional and defeating them meant significant rewards in form of items or upgrades.

Compare it to areas in Sekiro. Extremely linear levels leading to main story boss but with minibosses inbetween, each with its own exit (and sometimes also entrance) fog wall. They aren't optional at all, they often are stronger than main area boss and in many cases they have many additional mobs around them. There are also generals that might as well be considered bosses due to their HP amount and damage output.

2. Lack of motivation

In Soulsborne games, defeating a boss meant opening a way to enirely new area, with new items, weapons, armor sets. Even without all that exploring the area in itself was a reward enough for me. It was a moment of peace after a stressfull boss battle.

Sekiro: Say, you defeat Gyoubu Oniwa . The area after that is rather small with three minibosses in it, two of them blocking your way to next main story boss, and after Lone Shadow Longswordman there are at least two more minibosses waiting ahead. You spend on average 5 minutes exploring the area before encountering a miniboss. That means constant stress leading to exhaustion.

3. Damage-sponge enemies and bosses with regenerating health

I have a theory that all FromSoft games after Dark Souls 2 don't have normal NG, but rather start straight in NG+. Reasons: Bloodborne's max NG is NG+6, and Xbox One pre-release version of Dark Souls 3 had much easier bosses and weaker enemies. FromSoft said that the Xbone version was meant for journalists, but I don't believe that for a second. This is why Sekiro and two previous FromSoft games have damage-sponge enemies even in NG. Satisfied, challenge runners? You got what you asked for.

Sekiro went one step further - posture here partially acts as regenerating health. Regen rate depends on HP amount, which is always higher for enemies and bosses, thus dragging out bossfights even more.

And the last argument - in previous games I always had a feeling that devs offer a challenge yet also want me to succeed. There were little things like Drake sword from Hellkite or various ways to cheese some Dark Souls 2 bosses that definitely was part of their design. Item placement, upgrades, NPCs with their questlines. Secret areas. No game designer wants players to ragequit their game. EVER! They put in small things to keep players motivated and keep them going. I don't feel that in Sekiro. This game hates me, everything is designed to make me fail and quit. Everything is controlled, most of my actions and boss strategies have already been predicted and have counters in place. I'm not fighting enemies and bosses, I'm fighting developers, trying to outsmart them. There is no feeling of accomplishment after defeating a difficult boss/miniboss because I know that I'm going to stumble upon another one in less than 10 minutes. It sucks all the fun out of boss battles, and I only keep going because I have paid €60 for this game and want to squeeze at least some enjoyment out of it.

Sorry for a long rant, but I needed to get this off my chest. Thanks for reading so far!

[Transphobic]

The boss fights are the best part of this game, and posture is not regenerating hp.
Exploration in sekiro is great, im always trying to find all the hidin things

[Kleerex]

Originally posted by Slack:

The boss fights are the best part of this game, and posture is not regenerating hp.
Exploration in sekiro is great, im always trying to find all the hidin things

A good boss here and there is great, but not a boss every 5 minutes.

[Efesell]

I like the regeneration because the way you stop it is by getting in there and MAKING it stop.

Hesitation is defeat.

[Master]

Originally posted by Slack:

The boss fights are the best part of this game, and posture is not regenerating hp.
Exploration in sekiro is great, im always trying to find all the hidin things

Actually the exploration part is quite lacking. I can't bring myself to lie

[Grad]

I can't really help you with the feeling of accomplishment since that is your own burden to bear, but maybe you are too used to Dark Souls having massive empty levels full of fodder to beat in 1-2 hits and not used to having difficult enemies added in that path.

Instead of getting a soul from each boss that turns into a weapon you probably won't use, Sekiro gives you either HP/stance/str boosts after defeating them which imo is vastly better than having 100+ weapons sitting in the chest that are ignored until the next pvp scaling patch comes out.

[Larry]

That entire write up boils down to "I wish this was Dark Souls".
I think you're playing the wrong game, bud.

[MidnightMist]

There's probably only one thing I dislike about this game, and it's what you mentioned. Mini-Boss-Mini-Boss-Boss FIght. There's no sense of just taking in the world. But beyond that, I'm loving this game.

[Dclipp]

Originally posted by Nitrobat:

There's probably only one thing I dislike about this game, and it's what you mentioned. Mini-Boss-Mini-Boss-Boss FIght. There's no sense of just taking in the world. But beyond that, I'm loving this game.

I'm a huge fan of the game as well but I agree about the boss fights. I'm into later game now and I feel like I haven't so much explored areas as just jumped from boss to boss at least for the last few hours. This was made worse by finding an area I thought I was optional. Getting stuck on the mini boss and boss in that area, leaving to finish the last boss I was stuck on. Then realizing I had to go back to that first area to progress and fight the mini boss and boss. So I had three in a row before having to go back to another area and fight a new mini boss and new boss. So I've had 5 in a row and now fighting a sixth boss in a row. It's become a bit of a slog at this part. I understand it's partially my fault for how I handled an area but it's still annoying. I hope there's some more exploring and new areas to go to. I'm still loving the game overall though. Ultimately for me the mark of a good From Software game is finishing the game and realizing you miss the combat of the From Software game while playing anything else for at least a month. I suspect I'll feel the same after this.

[Markierer]

I understand you 100%. I have two problems with this game, the bad controls and the cheese.

Bad controls:
- Step down from an edge doesn’t work when lock on is active. You get blocked by a invisible fence.
- After dodging backwards the use button (dpad up) does a step forward instead of using the item
- Plunge attacks from large heights don’t work 100% even the red dot is visible
- Wall grabs after a double jump are horrible to do
- Wall jumps are horrible
- Mikiri counter is horrible

Cheese:
It’s all about spamming skills in this game. Spam the right skill and the boss gets trivial.

[Lightcraft]

But, it's not even dark souls..

[CrankEye]

Originally posted by Lightcraft:

But, it's not even dark souls..

yes...it is. It will be ranked with the rest of them

https://www.vg247.com/2018/09/11/best-souls-game/