One Tip For Anyone Struggling With Sekiro

[Something]

Addendum: I wasn't expecting this post to turn into a life's story about how I personally overcame adversity in Sekiro, but seeing as how it did I figured it'd be best to leave a TL;DR section down at the bottom for those of you who don't really feel like reading a book. Feel free to read through all of what I said though if you are interested in my "A-ha!" moment, and how I came to find that this works, at least for me, the best.

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Hello everybody. If you've frequented the Steam forums in the last couple of days, you might've seen me leave some replies talking about how I was done with this game, or that it just was so hard that I considered this game just not for me. I've also seen a lot of people experience this feeling towards Sekiro as well by coming on to the forums and stating the game is too difficult. Well I stuck with it, and eventually broke through the walls that I thought were insurmountable, and I feel the one tip that's been repeated to me over and over again since I was a child back in the 90's has helped me out more than any YouTube video or Reddit, Steam, or Gamefaqs forum post and has allowed me to break through and finally start enjoying the game. The tip is this:

Walk away.

Yes, yes I know. It sounds so simple it's stupid. But like we were taught, or at least my generation was taught growing up, the simplest answer is usually the right one. What do I mean by "Walk Away" though? Like I said, it's really stupid simple when you stop to think about it. When you find yourself at a point in the game you can't get past for whatever reason, whether it be that Seven Spears mini-boss or Genichiro as was the case with me, it's best to just turn the game off, set the controller down and walk away for a bit. For example:

I spent four and a half hours the night I bought Sekiro doing nothing but trying to kill that Seven Spears mini-boss guy in the area you started the game at. I also spent probably a good three and a half hours trying my hardest to take down Genichiro a bit further into the game. It got to the point where every time I got hit and took damage by either of them, or something I tried just simply didn't work, I started calling bull and yelling at either the game for being a broken piece of poop, or the boss/mini-boss for being stupidly overpowered. I have high blood pressure, so every time I get angry I get a headache, which only makes me even angrier and more annoyed.

On the Seven Spears guy I literally gave up on the game. I figured I had reached my limit of what I was capable of in the game, and knowing FromSoftware games being an avid Dark Souls/Bloodborne fan that Sekiro was probably only going to get harder, I threw in the towel and gave up. Damn near uninstalled the game on the spot. But I decided not to and went to bed for the night. Woke up the next morning and hopped back on thinking it was going to be at least another few hours of trying to kill him before I quit the game for real this time, I got him on the second attempt of the day.

I realized then that the reason I was able to get him on the second attempt, and why it seemed so easy to jump over his swipes and Mikiri Counter his thrusts and what have you was because I was no longer frustrated and angry. Going to bed had given my brain the time it needed to reset back to its normal state. So inevitably when I hit the wall at Genichiro I did the same thing. I shut it down for the night and tried it again the next morning, and sure enough I managed to get him first try with only two heals and no resses needed. Now that's just kind of my entire outlook on the game. When I get to a point where it seems I've hit a wall or nothing I try is working, I stop, get off the game and watch some videos or play another, more chill game, take a shower or whatever and allow my brain the time it needs to reset.

When you are angry, your decision making skills go out the window. The angrier you get the more you will mess up your button or key inputs. You'll overcompensate by hitting the correct button too early or too late and you'll get smashed by it.

-------------TL;DR------------

My tip is thus; Walk away. Take a step back from the game for a bit. Grab a bite to eat, watch a movie, play something else, go to bed, whatever. When you get angry, just turn the game off for a bit and come back after you've gone back to your normal emotional levels. When you are angry, your judgement suffers and mistakes begin to be made, which breeds more anger, which breeds more mistakes, and so on and so forth. Stop, take a break, come back and kick whatever it is-es butt with a calm, level mind again.

[slingman]

use firecracker + mist raven + d.ichimonji
makes the game a joke

[JuiceySpice]

Yea you get good at fighting the boss, but fatigue or impatience causes you to not be at your best.

Thats why when coming back its a lot easier to beat the boss.

Same thing happened with the final boss, fought him for over an hour then the next day i beat him on the third attempt

[Something]

Автор сообщения: ROBERTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

use firecracker + mist raven + d.ichimonji
makes the game a joke

I actually got the Double Ichimonji skill and upgraded my firecrackers because I've heard a lot of people say it's an amazing combo, but it just doesn't work for me. Perhaps I'm using the Ichimonji wrong, but it seems like I never have an opportunity during a fight to use it. Every time I try they usually recover from whatever stagger I put them in and hit me before I can get it off. And when I can successfully land both of them, it really doesn't do much posture damage. It's easier just to parry spam imo.

[Teddy]

Автор сообщения: Mahboobehs

When you are angry, your judgement suffers and mistakes begin to be made, which breeds more anger, which breeds more mistakes, and so on and so forth. Stop, take a break, come back and kick whatever it is-es butt with a calm, level mind again.

This should be stickied for rage quitters to prevent "game needs ez mode" or "I don't like the game and I'm a soul veteran " posts from being created.

[SlitheryDee]

I think a lot of people are so used to powering through games more or less unopposed that actually taking a breather from the game feels bad to them. Getting your ass handed to you by a boss and then going to bed with that boss still strutting around on the battlefield feels like a personal insult.

I work every day, so I can only throw myself against a particularly difficult part so many times before I have to go to bed. That means that a lot of my boss fights have gone the same way. Spend an hour of so being frustrated, but learning their moves and how to counter them, then come back fresh the next day and beat them in a couple tries. It definitely works, but it's going to stretch my playtime of this game out considerably. Last night I ran up against the Guardian Ape. Today I'll probably beat him. If not, then maybe tomorrow. Genichiro was a more than two day affair for me as well. Whatever though, I'm fine with it taking as long as it takes. If I get a little frustrated I might go bang my head against the part with the house and the snake for a while and see whats there.

[Something]

The Guardian Ape is where I ended my session last night as well.

[Tarnished]

The harder thing for me in Sekiro is the lack of real explanation of how the controls work. Hanbei is not so good to train.

[vXViper]

Автор сообщения: ROBERTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

use firecracker + mist raven + d.ichimonji
makes the game a joke

not everybody wants to use cheese.. there is no reward in that when you know yourself the only way you won the fight is by abusing what can be considered overpowered tools. In a game were the challange is a major focus. Lets say you found a boss were if you spamm left dodge hit, left dodge hit, over and over and win by simply doing that. How would you feel insteed of acctualy learning how to overcome a boss's mechanics.

[Something]

Автор сообщения: vXViper

Автор сообщения: ROBERTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

use firecracker + mist raven + d.ichimonji
makes the game a joke

not everybody wants to use cheese.. there is no reward in that when you know yourself the only way you won the fight is by abusing what can be considered overpowered tools. In a game were the challange is a major focus. Lets say you found a boss were if you spamm left dodge hit, left dodge hit, over and over and win by simply doing that. How would you feel insteed of acctualy learning how to overcome a boss's mechanics.

It's like in old school Street Fighter 2 backing your opponent up into a corner and just tornado kicking over and over again.

[Goilveig]

Well, that's not surprising. Gaming is fundamentally a motor task, and like any motor task, you actually improve more from a good night's sleep after practice than you do during the practice session itself. Once you've practiced a task for more than a certain amount of time, you get very little additional benefit from more practice on the same day, but you get a huge benefit from motor pattern consolidation during sleep.

Sleep, particularly REM sleep, is critical to refining motor skills. Probably the optimal would be to practice for 30-60 minutes and then come back the next day after a good night's sleep.

[Ward]

This goes for lots of things in life. Some drum beats id spend a lot of time on trying to get it down and couldnt, but then id take a break/sleep on it. Come back to it the next day and have it down. Something happens to your proficiency after a rest. You basically level up in RL after breaks.

Edit: Dude above me knows whatsup

[Washing Machine]

Each their own. I rage and call bull on much everything in every video game until I figure it out sometime after. Feels like part of the process.

[Goilveig]

Автор сообщения: Ward

This goes for lots of things in life. Some drum beats id spend a lot of time on trying to get it down and couldnt, but then id take a break/sleep on it. Come back to it the next day and have it down. Something happens to your proficiency after a rest. You basically level up in RL after breaks.

Yup, sleep is great for learning.

Sleep is still not very well understood, but learning essentially involves two "phases" - acquisition, which happens when you gain new information or practice a skill, and then consolidation, which happens during sleep and essentially processes and stores the acquired information.

Learning any task is really a matter of acquisition, consolidation, acquisition, consolidation, etc. Once you've done a certain amount of acquisition, future practice won't help much, and you need to get some sleep and consolidate what you've learned before you go and practice again.

[DangerMouse]

TL:DR

Rage quit. Then come back.
Same old stuff really.

[隻狼]

Hesitation is defeat