Brain dead level reaction times .. can I get through this game

[KinkyJohn]

So ... I'm a long time fan of all souls games .. many of which I've played through in the "dex," build equivalent parrying with a crappy rusty sword. However, that was then and this is now. I'm 45 and after 25 years of "alternative," lifestyle my reactions are such that I can drop a plate and then ask"what happened," 2 seconds later.

I exaggerate, but they are "brain damage," bad. I can learn patterns and enact rapidly and accurately ... but it's not gonna work if reactions are needed to learn them. Trial and error isn't a "fun," way to do that.

Do people think I can get through this. For context, I'm completely stuck on the first level of Nioh 2. I can't even time the yokai doing their big red cast thing on the 20th attempt .. and that usually telegraphs for about 3 seconds I ran through Nioh 1 to about the 4th repetition .. with only a couple of bosses with more than about 4 or 5 restarts

Please do not speculate on my "alternative, "lifestyle. I didn't want to lie, but it's not appropraite to discuss that here .. if you have to know PM me from an adult account and I'll give you the "choir boy," version.

[JapanGamer29]

Hi John, I'm 44 and my reaction times aren't great, either. For example, I gave up half way through Katana Zero because I just couldn't see what I was supposed to be reacting to. As for Dark Souls, I beat 3 bosses in DS3, which is my only experience with that series.

I'm 34 hours into Sekiro and have beaten 9 bosses (2 main and 7 mini) out of 41. So my progress is very slow. That said, I am enjoying it. I do a lot of skill point farming and watch boss fights on YouTube to learn the patterns and timings.

The hardest thing for me, reaction wise, is doing what's called a Mikiri Counter. It's luck if I can pull it off, as the cues for it aren't obvious to me at all.

I can't say whether you'd do any better or worse than me, but there's no doubt it's a great game.

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

I am only in my mid thirties, but I consider my reaction times fairly bad (eg, comparing my parry abilities in tekken with those of a younger friend).

I had a hard time getting this game, and for a long time I thought I was nearly physically incapable of reacting to the attacks.

It turns out that I am, it just took over 50 hours before it sunk in.

A tip I have is not to queue too many attacks, they interfere with your ability to react appropriately, and not to doge too much, especially backwards, as a backdodge does not count as a mikiri counter.

[Sokurah]

Only very few attacks actually need fast reaction. And these can be anticipated.

If you are able to read an enemy you should have no problem.

Its more a timing thing. I mean you can also react to early in this game.

[Zinthos]

Sekiro isn't based on pure reactions, it's a more of a rhythm game.

The most "good reaction time" you'll need in Sekiro is the ability to watch the movements of your enemy and recognize that they are starting an attack. For example, some enemies will start doing very rapid sword slashes at you and if you tried to deflect them all on reaction instead of memory, you'd probably die. To balance this, enemies always have a tell before they attack: Whether it's them raising their sword in the air, sheathing it, etc..

All you have to do is memorize what they look like before they attack, and memorize the attacks themselves. If you do that, you can deflect everything in the game except for the moves that can't be deflected (which will have a distinct sound and red kanji appearing over the enemy, along with the enemy's distinct movements).