Correction: The link between vitality and posture *_is_* something the game explains, just before the Lady Butterfly fight with a pop-up box.

I still remember how I was fighting Genichiro for 8 hours straight only to realize there is a second phase haha

"Sekiro is my favorite fromsoft game" a fellow man of culture I see

Is no one gonna talk about that mikiri counter transition at 12:34 thats wild

I feel like Sekiro doesn't get enough credit for its amazing animations. The way that deflections into deathblows chain together in particular is impressive. Especially considering even most basic enemies have unique animations for deathblows depending on if it was a deflection, mikiri counter, or attack that put them into deathblow. It also amazes me how fast From Software puts these games out. In a span of 4 years, we got Sekiro, Elden Ring, and Armored Core 6. All masterpieces in my humble opinion. Truly impressive

The fact that this was a side project while they were working on Elden ring shows how amazing from software is

The sense of accomplishment this game delivers is unlike any other in my opinion. Some of these boss battles feel so real with how much of a struggle the player has to endure.

It’s a crime they didn’t make a part two to this and bloodborne I’m so hurt

It’s crazy how different people experience bosses differently. I found Owl Father to be not only the most challenging boss but also the most satisfying to overcome by far

All of my friends that love souls haven't even touched this game, this video explains why I so desperately push it as my favorite

I remember obtaining the mortal blade in my first playthrough, hearing that it can sever immortality, and immediately going, "wait, that means i can finally end the training guy's suffering" I warped back as soon as i could, and helping him was... bittersweet, for sure

Sekiro is like: Shing clang Ting! Woosh tch Bam! Sound effects so satisfying you cant help but smile. 😅

nother tip: when Owl throws firecrackers, dodge directly behind his offhand (his left shoulder) and youll be safely behind him for free counters

I so often missed the Land of Ashina while wandering around the Lands Between...

The transition from corrupt to true monk with a mikiri was clean asl

Five years later, it is still a masterpiece.

Sekiro was my first Fromsoft game. I loved every moment. After, I played Dark Souls I, II, III then Bloodborne and I loved them all.

Sekiro is one of the best games i played, i was unemployed, so I just played and plat it for two months. Never got so much pleasure and sense of achievement with a game. I still remember it a lot, i relaunch it from time to time and still remembers many fights and patterns. It's a really unique feeling

Sekiro is my favourite fromsoft game. Elden ring had great world exploration but sekiro is just the most fun to master

Good video, can't think of any point you might have missed, beautiful vocabulary, you gained a new subscriber

I love your analysis, but you forgot one important mechanic: If you hold the block button, holding the blocking pose steadys your posture and reduces your built-posture down to zero immediately. It saved my life every time it was too high.

Well...done...Sekiro. You know you've earned that praise when you complete the game.

Shuriken, umbrella, and firecrackers were my go-to's as well. Axe, spear, flame vent, and Sabimaru for less generalized setups. Only used the whistle against DoH to blast through phase 3. Divine abduction just never appealed to me.

Truly the greatest game I’ve ever played. Really hope From either revisits the concept or just makes an outright sequel.

Absolutely excellent video good sir. These are my favorite types of videos I love watching for my favorite games. Please keep up the great content.

Thx for this @acritical. Loved every minute. Thanks to your knowledge, skill and vocabulary

Amazing video man, I recently platted Sekiro and this was a phenomenal capstone on it all.

Great video, kept my attention as I deep cleaned the flat, cheers!

i just platinumed this game 3 days ago n it was one of if not thee best experience i’ve ever had

Worth mentioning about the True Monk fight: her second phase has her warping around the stage, and strangely if you grapple up to the tree branch and she teleports under you, you can actually get a falling death blow and end the phase. Source: replayed the game earlier this year

About the Mist Raven...it's amazing. Learn to use it against Owl. It's a bit weird, you go into a stance, and if you get attacked while in that stance, you counter with a badass attack while not taking any damage. When maxed out, it wrecks. I highly recommend learning that tool.

This game is very wang wang bang wang pow but sometimes it can also be clang clang ding clang bong

this was my first ever fromsoft game. i like the fact that it's based mostly on skills rather than on leveling up the character. i didn't really end up using prosthetics either, just relied on learning the combat. that's a great thing about this game imo

The better YOU get, the better the GAME gets! That's been my recent analysis after now my 6th playthrough, absolute artwork man!🤘❤🤘Indeed Fromsoft's BEST!!

Shit I remember I subscribed to you because the Warcraft 3 retrospective! Hell yeah man glad you’re doing good

Woh I’ve weirdly been getting the urge to replay this a week or so ago, and you release this vid 7 days ago 😂

This is one of my favorite games ever. I loved everything about it. You truly had to git gud but that was not a chore. Once you figured out mechanics it became about watching your opponent and waiting to counter or attack. I know in theory that's how all Souls games are but because of how the game was set up, it felt very different with Sekiro. I felt the way the game guided you to the next challenge, prepared you for it in a different way. BB may still be my favorite and Fallout is up there but Sekiro has such a big place in my game loving heart

Sekiro has the best combat of any game ever made

In terms of gaming, I’ve never felt more accomplishment than finally beating Sekiro. Truly rewarding to get through it.

Five years later and I’m still playing and enjoying this game. Even after the plat.

👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 i love the breakdown and detoand i absolutely loved playing this game… Blocking and deflecting > panic rolling in Elden Ring

Great Video! Great content on the channel all round

What an amazing game. I had such a great time with this one!

Wow dude THANKS for making such a good video now I have to buy it. Gotta catch em all . Souls a mon

SEKIRO serves as pretty strong evidence that the trope “games just take longer to develop these days” is a choice, not an inevitability. This game was cranked out right after DARK SOULS III (and was developed concurrently with early work on ELDEN RING), and it’s one of the GoATs.

After more than 1000 in Elden Ring and waiting on the dlc I played Lies of P and then Sekiro. Sekiro is my favorite game now. Followed by Elden Ring. The combat is superb.

Man I remember spending HOURS fighting Giyobu and now I use Isshin as a warm up 😂. The sense of progression and improvement is unrivaled.

Some players and EVEN journalists. Not sure if that was meant to trigger but it sure as hell did

i used to feel the same way about Unseen Aid and dragonrot but on subsequent playthroughs I really like the mechanic. Is it useless? yeah, pretty much from a game perspective. However, the little bit of world-building it provides really sets the tone of the game. In a lot of games immortality is treated like a pure bonus. Sekiro is eager to remind you of the corrupting side effects of your dance with death. All your friends and allies become progressively ill as you cheat death time after time. It introduces a mild bit of Role-playing into an otherwise role-playing-lite game. An Ethics check. Great video essay! subscribed

ur juzou fight is so clean oml

Before playing Sekiro, I was just beginning with FromSoft games starting with Bloodborne and then Dark Souls, I purchased Sekiro when it came out and spent many hours on the first few bosses but something about the combat makes you want to try one more time. The major hurdle for me was the first Genichiro fight at the Ashina Castle, I spent hours and hours in that fight and got extremely frustrated but once I got to the last few tries before beating him, it really clicked into place. It requires a ton of patience but is extremely rewarding gameplay experience that I rarely have received from other games. I've gotten frustrated at this game many times but I always want to come back to it and try again.

While I agree that Sekiro is the most difficult FromSoft game, the call for an easy mode isn't exclusive to Sekiro. Every FromSoft game gets people to call for an easy mode.

Awesome video. I found that if you like souls games, I highly recommend learning to play an instrument; because they remind me so much of something that does not hold your hands, but becomes easier with practice, time, and observation. After that, you keep looking for a harder challenges in future playthroughs/songs.

Played this for the very first time after beating Elden ring about 6 months ago.... I'm being completely honest when I say I've never loved and appreciated and been so curious/dumbfounded/shocked through the entire game. Such an amazing masterpiece

Sekiro is my favorite game period. You aren't joking about the sense of accomplishment gained from sticking it out. Especially the first time you best Ishin! Then all over again when you replay without the charm.

Someone once said Sekiro’s combat is a rhythm game and that’s when it clicked for me.

+tip -- when isshin does his 2-hit side to side attack; if u parry the first, you can parry the second just by blocking!

53:20 I remember the scream I made the moment the second ape dropped in. I had to pause and take a moment to collect myself because the first one was already terrifying enough. I'm on my second playthrough 5 years later and I learned that if you focus your attention on the first ape and are able to kill it while dodging both, the second ape is automatically is defeated and disappears with the first.

20:33 I had no idea you could use saukura dance to counter lightning, that was sick af

Ishin demands perfection. He will settle for nothing less. If you succeed, he honors you for your strength

it is worth noting sweeps and thrusts can be parried. but not blocked

I recently got Skeiro on PC after only having played it back when it released, and to me it was riding a bike. The first two hours or so I struggled, but after that, I breezed through every encounter I was familiar with. I am very excited to do the Shura ending in NG+ since I haven't done those fights yet.

After all these years I didn't know you could return back to the carp attendant for additional content

My platinum trophy video has me finishing old isshin with a mikiri counter , I will never delete that video lol

I got used to playing demon bell + no charm and it does feel like the intended way to play. Playing with the two difficulty modifiers off feels incredibly easy now.

Awesome review of the game I'm playing it now I need some advice on these bosses can you help me

Ghost of Thusima is hands down s master piece and in my top 3. But for some reason i haven't played Sekiro yet even though i bought it two years ago. If i love ghost fo you recommend this, will i love it?

Lady butterfly and the ape(s) fight were truly maddening in difficulty

I love this game, i just recently got all of tbe achievements for it

I always said this game was an earthbending simulator. "There is no different angle clever idea or trickty trick thats going to move that rock. You got to face it head on!" When i addopted this method it made me realize how beautiful the combat was and how satisfying it is to smash through oppenents and bosses. Watching as the boss matches your ferocity in combat altering their moveset, using the most appropriate move to end u at a moments notice. It all felt so real and intimate, a deadly dance that feels as if there are actually two people going at it. This combat system defenitely revolutionized gaming.

I have never seen someone deflect the ogres attacks. He’s truly built different.

I didn't use the sabimaru for my first couple playthroughs but found it to be pretty much mandatory for Fountainhead Palace and the nonpoison Snake Eyes fight, since it instantly staggers and poisons any of the warrior women.

Great Video!

Really good video! Just a few days ago I started to replay Sekiro for the first time after 100%ing it at release. Guess I wanted to see if my experience of it still holds up after these years and playing other Souls Likes like Lies of P recently. A lot of what you say in your video resonates with my experience. I really enjoyed the structure and editing. Although it would have been peak if the seamless cut at 12:33 would have happend at the same time as you said 'the seamless blending (of offense and defense)...' But maybe that's just me. I would have enjoyed a section on Sekiro's treatment of items, namely that it relies a lot on consumables, since they are a core part of the game. I think consumables are inherently somewhat flawed with the worst offender being divine confetti, only becoming available infinitely very late into the game. Also spirit emblems which I had a lack of at the very start of the game but later on you have so many that you don't even have to think about using prosthetic tools sparingly. So why have it as a consumable? Especially since you can infinitely buy them, but buying them early on which is the only time you will really do that eats into the economy for purchasing prosthetic tools and gourd seeds. (Rant over) Maybe your opinion differs on this, however, what I intended to say is that I would have enjoyed a section on items, since you are doing a great job of capturing the experience in terms of story, level design and combat already. Keep up the good work!

It's fromsofts greatest title and my favorite game ever you will remember ur first playthrough

Lady butterfly had me shook for a year...I played everything BUT sekiro because I couldn't cut it. Now I'm at NG+7 with the last 2 runs being charmless, and demon bell activated, 1 achievement from 100%. No game instills gamer pride in you like this does. 10/10.

Great review, thanks!

Excellent retrospective. Personally, after a while I just stopped going for the Isshin ending cause I couldn't bear fighting nasty stepdad one more freaking time. Sure, I got a lot of trouble with Genichiro the first time around, or DoH most times, but after several playthroughs I just could not bear another fight with Owl father as I find it simply too boring and begin to develop malaria as soon as I get down those stairs. True fact.

Replaying this actually. It's crazy how easy the game is after multiple play throughs

I actually beat Sekiro for the first time a few weeks ago. I had never played a fromsoft game prior and I left the experience thinking it was probably the greatest game I'd ever played. Then I went and played Bloodborne (bc everyone told me those were everyone's 2 favorite fromsoft games) and I think there are so many interesting parallels but also ways they take different approaches to gameplay. In the end I can't say I loved Bloodborne nearly as much as Sekiro--my objectives were confusing, the combat felt way more jank and unpolished, and the level/weapons progression systems were obtuse, even after watching guides. I think Sekiro is a beautiful case of why game design is so important. When I was done with Bloodborne, I realized that, while the weighty and more patient combat was fun, the real reason why I felt engrossed was the world, just teeming with weird, optional, and troll secrets. That's what I felt the game was designed around: how does the player see x, go to y, and end back up at x. That philosophy is how combat in Sekiro is designed. How does player see an attack, learn the timing of an attack, and come to the same conclusion as always: that relentless attack mixed with parries lead to a win. And it's why combat in sekiro is the greatest combat out of any video game I've ever played.

My first from software game was elden ring! Finished it 3 times! Then finished lies of p, armor core 6, God of war, hogwarts legacy, now im playing sekiro, I beat it last week . I love sekiro amazing game. I'm so happy elden ring came around and opened my eyes to from software. Next up is dragons dogma 2 coming out March 22nd.

I just saw him use the lilac umbrella to block the damn terror thing. I’m gonna try that.

Finally found the motivation to play the game and finished Sekiro in 3 days this week. It's very fair in difficulty I'd say, other than the bosses that had companions. This was the first souls game I played when it came out, and I played it blind- somehow ended up in mt senpou after finding Kuro lmao. I had the same problem in Darksouls 1 when I ended up descending through the graveyard straight from spawn. . I find that souls games get easier the more of them you've played through. After beating mortal shell, darksouls and elden ring; I finally started paying attention and found the right path to the sunken valley. I think that the game giving you clear hints of where to go is a godsend and made it easier than my initial experience with Darksouls

Noticed you didn’t mention the friendly npc samurai while fighting juzou. You never find him?

Did you notice that inner Genichiro has basically a variation of Malenia’s waterfowl dance special move from Elden ring? It looks kinda similar. @12:34

Sekiro is really cool. The way i see it, it isn't a souls game at all in its gameplay. It's an action game with souls level design

Dude the chain ogre was so hard on my first playthrough took me a couple hours if I remember right. Way harder then some of the bosses lol

I beat Sekiro in 2 weeks.... Best game I've ever played.

i originally tried playing on PS4 at launch and just couldn’t get past Lady Butterfly. I decided to give it another stab on the Steam Deck and I’m up at Father Owl now. Absolutely loving it.

The best way to beat the blazing bull is to scare it into charging the wall, same as the palace variant.

I already platinum this game and currently at NG+6, Blazing bull and Sakura bull of the palace mini boss still scare me to this day lol

I wanna see more content on the details of games 😊

Sekiro with mouse and keyboard sounds psychotic to me. I can’t imagine anything outside of FPS or MMO being ‘easier’ with m&k.

i went from ragequitting the game at Lady Butterfly to platting the game a month later, quickly skyrocketed to my fav game of all time even after my bad first impression of it it's too good.

No souls/game quiet makes you feel the way sekiro combat does , it is indeed a very special masterpiece and my favourite souls game hands down closely followed by bloodborne and darksoul no game since has quiet took the innovation parry/deflect and progressed it , imagine Elden ring with Sekiro deflect mechanics (Sekiro is the only souls game I have platinum) and the hardest in my opinion bring on bloodborne 2 and Sekiro 2

Sekiro demands the best from you, but it also gives the best. If you fail to master it's combat it will chew you up and spit you out without a second thought, but if you do master it's combat, you become unstoppable.

This game kicked my arse so much on my first ever playthrough that by the time I got to the Sword Saint I just didn't have the energy to finish. I put it down for a couple years then came back to it. I quickly figured out I had been playing it wrong before. I was playing it like a Soulsborne, dodging all the time. Figuring out the parry system was a Eureka moment. The rest of the game fell into place. I still had difficulty, but damn I enjoyed the hell out of it. It's also my personal favourite FromSoft game. Only surpassed by my new besty Lies of P.

Firstly, I love this game, but one thing I recently noticed, and I don't know if it's cheap or just confusing, but the Headless is 1000 times easier when you don't target him. It's as if the target keeps him facing you too, not just you facing him. But when you don't target, you can easily run behind him and slice him up. So yeah, it feels like sometimes the game forces you to play a certain way, but in other instances, it's like, "forget everything you know."

Sekiro is the only FromSoft game I didn't bounce off, complete and actually had fun with

I think you undersold how different Owl (Father) is from Great Shinobi; the way those fights flow are really distinct from each other to me. The first uses way more items and trickery, while the second fight is all about his sword techniques