Ramble alert.
It's all good dude, I was just being my usual cheeky self with the comment. But yeah you did get the wrong end of the stick, neither of us need much help with these games by now considering how much we play them!
It's controversial I know, but so far I will say I think this will eventually be ranked down near DS2 in the all time lists by people in the near future. It has many of the same problems, and the new fighting mechanic is disappointingly shallow. IMO of course there.
Yeah, pretty much how I see it. Maybe they'll add it though.
PvP was great fun in the other games though, it's a shame that the same old metas get used nowadays though
You need to look again at my definition of a reksin mate, that's not my opinion that's fact. And that's not be being arsey or anything, that literally is what a reskin is. It's a term coined and used in the industry, not from gamers. I don't really know where to begin answering your questions there, because they are fundamentally wrong, however I will say look at what I said about enemy placement and that because they are very similar to level design tropes used in DS2, one of the things that game was slagged off for.
That's basically what I think. A lot of the 'new' stuff could be utilised so much better. The problem with the combat, for example, is as I said above about the big troll thing they've given you two new techniques to look out for, yet their whole movesets look near identical which makes it pointless. The drunk boss for example, fight him again and see that there's no difference between all 3 different sweeps he does. How do I know there's even 3 different sweeps? Because two give off different audio cues and the third has that symbol shit going on. Also, the combat is way to stop-start, you never feel like a smooth cutting ninja because of it. For example, when you fight groups, you can't cut and weave between them with any skill, because the lack of a real poise system coupled with the fact they always put numerous archers (who fire like machine guns to boot) in the mix just messes the whole flow up. On a technical level, the lock-on is broken and the aim when unlocked is too (from a quick thought, I assume they have the camera matrix a little off there). Again though, it's DS2 levels of artificial difficulty which forces you to cheese after a while when you get bored of the same old scenario.
The grappling hook too, let's look at that. It's so wooden and under-utilised because you can only use it on some objects and not completely identical ones right next to you. Sure I don't expect them to work everywhere on everything, but in any one part of a level you might have 2 or 3, which only gives the illusion of choice where to go. Never, at any point, is it worth using them in battle for anything other than running away, there's no real freedom of movement.
I'm going to stop now, because it's beginning to look like I hate this game because I don't, I really like it. I just think it's disappointing the more you play it, as all the cool new stuff that supposed to separate it from the souls series, really feels like add-ons rather than fully thought out systems. BB, despite having flaws to me, still felt fresh and different. This feels a bit linear and same 'ol same 'ol.
From my point of view, I think it's fair if you think the game-design is bad (even if I don't think so, apart from some of course), if you call that the games skin and that's the definition then that's fine. I've never talked about the skin of the game being that way and have never understood others talk about the skin of a game being like that either, so it's a first for me.
big troll thing they've given you two new techniques to look out for, yet their whole movesets look near identical which makes it pointless.
At this point I have to make sure. We're talking about the troll near the bridge where you turn right to find the purple ninja, right?
The only reused asset I've seen of that one is the one with the bell-chain weapon, which has a different moveset entirely.
If you are comparing the bridge-troll with the drunk mini-boss then I suppose it's fair, but it wasn't so similar that I thought of it before it was mentioned. You tend to pay more attention to that kind of thing than I do, from what I've come to understand. I usually enter a game trying to play it on it's premise and I either enjoy it or I don't (or find certain aspects good or bad, but I normally don't stop to consider stuff like enemy-placement beyond if I can use it to my advantage).
The drunk boss for example, fight him again and see that there's no difference between all 3 different sweeps he does.
If I remember correctly, the first down-ward slash he has can be used once or twice. It is used twice if you are still within hit-range when the first hits the floor and it is parryable (right-click parry for me) to give him some stance-damage. He has a flail-attack that hits 3-4 times (can't remember the exact number), which you can hold the guard up for or of course dodge backwards and out of his way, depending on your own stance-bar, I believe them to be parryable as well. Then he has a stabbing attack which you can counter (the skill-counter, more traditional parrying in from-soft games) for great stance-damage. He has a headbutt attack that you can dodge to the side from that he follows up with an attack, I didn't experiment with how to use that as a way to damage him but I'd guess a normal hit after dodging the headbutt before parrying or countering his follow-up attack.
Then there is the "please kill me" time when he takes out the bottle.
Naturally I might have forgotten or not seen all his moves, and my memory tends to be shit so don't take it as gospel but more what I can remember of the fight.
I think the biggest gripe I have with the game so far is some enemies tracking your movement when you dodge to the sides (very noticable on down-ward slashes), making kiting a much more effective tactic than dodging, which forces you somewhat into either kiting or parry & counter-gameplay. It is understandable that a lot of people don't find enjoyment in that (i've seen a lot of negative comment from soulsborne players in a norwegian gamers group on facebook on how dodging feels worthless).
For example, when you fight groups, you can't cut and weave between them with any skill, because the lack of a real poise system coupled with the fact they always put numerous archers (who fire like machine guns to boot) in the mix just messes the whole flow up.
I suppose it depends on the size of the group. I've taken on a group of 7 without issues, 3 of which were archers I believe (the group before the drunk boss). In a closed space it would be absolute hell I imagine, but they are usually placed so I can drop in and one-shot a archer, break the guard of another and deathstrike him (gives invicibility frames) before either retreating to regain my overview of my enemies positions or using whirlwind slash to get the last archer through some other enemies. You get some poise while using whirlwind slash (and I believe other combat arts, although I haven't been using floating passage yet which is the only other combat art I've unlocked so far).
When I see a new place I tend to scout around from edges and stealth-places for archers or potential big enemies or mini-bosses to see how I want to approach it. In the open square before the horse-boss for example a ranged enemy is hiding inside a house. I found him and killed him off before engaging the others by getting down by the wall to the left and up to his house, I was still somewhat bad against the big guys so I escaped when they attacked until I got rid of the smaller enemies. I think it makes it different in how I approach the Dark Souls series where I usually just run in and react and can use invincibility frames with dodging whenever I panic. In Sekiro when I panic (usually against enemies that are fast and have long range, like the spear-miniboss when you return to the tutorial place) i start jumping around like a moron and get hit.
Oh, I remember another enemy that annoyes me, the small guys with hats. I think the axe is supposed to break their hat or the flame is supposed to burn it, but it hasn't worked for me (not upgraded), so those I feel like I have to stealth-kill for now, which feels unfair when there are 3 of them and I can only stealth-kill 2.
BTW
@Ødegaard I forgot to add, I hope you feel better soon mate. Hey, through all my cynicism, at least we have another From Software game to help you take your mind off things for a bit
All the best.
Thanks man.
It's been mixed lately. We've put our appartement out for sale and the response seems great. We've visited my mother late last month, which was nice and we're getting married on the 26th and going to Rome on the 28th, so a lot has been happening. A lot happening however means my heart-rate goes up and the pains have been more or less on extreme-mode all the time so the game dropping and me enjoying it has really helped me get my mind off the depressing thoughts. Our little boy has started to show himself a bit, I felt him kicking her belly yesterday. Just tons of emotions going every way, but ultimately it's mega-positive but tiresome.
Refused myself to log on the caf for a while because I feel like any contribution I can come up with at this point will be a bad one. I started to note down how much I was affected when I saw how badly my response to oneniltothearsenal was in another thread and then seeing someone else explain my point of view much better, to the point where I disagreed with what I wrote myself.
Wish you well, and hope it ultimately is a "click" issue where you start enjoying it more very soon. Otherwise at least as you say, you are enjoying it despite the flaws!
