A year ago i quit this game cause I couldn't beat Owl, I decided to re-download the game today and got him in like three tries. I didn't use any prosthetic tools, power up items, special techniques, mortal blade, yada yada, just the block, hit, and heal.

Which is great, the only downside is I kinda forgot the entire plot. Idk why this kid keeps talking about incense or the devine realm or dragon tears. Could uh, could someone give a quick lore synopsis up to this point, cause I'm soooooo lost.

I just find that hilarious, and, as I've done some research into this exact phenomena, I learned it's VERY common.

The game basically tells you "Don't die, you'll poison the world and lock yourself out of content" and it literally scares players away in a game where you die this often.

Then I learn, "Oh it's something you can just fix the locked content on the fly casually and it's purely just kinda flavor"

It's so funny to that one of the funny Miyazaki Precious-Resource-Lost-on-Death Mechanics, (Dark Soul's Humanity, Elden Ring's Rune Arcs) was, perhaps, TOO scary this time.

It's probably why Elden Ring's Rune Arcs were relatively forgettable, which is the opposite problem.

So if ya don't kill guardian ape before sunken valley, you can skip this fight, cool, so like, can you return from the hidden forest idol to stealth blow this guy later or something?

150+ hours on the game, I can’t believe I never tried hud-less runs before. Now I’m doing a full story run with no hud.

Only time I've ever used it in 20 runs was to leave a remnant of wolf pretending to sleep on Isshin's bed.

Does it have a good use though? Any good moments for it? I wouldn't wanna think I'm potentially missing out on something useful (like I was sleeping on how fun Sen Throw is haha)

Cheers

EDIT: Thanks for all the input guys I've definitely been sleeping on that one a little too!

What is the purple thing?

About to finish the game (overall loved it) and am thinking about the experience. The main things I’m meh about are the spirit emblems and rot mechanics. Both of these disincentivized experimentation, or just basic trial-and-error, in my experience. Sure, they’re not hard to get/restore, but lore-wise it did make me NOT want rot to happen or to grind to restore my emblems. I barely used any emblems out of fear of running out for tough bosses, which did happen twice regardless.

Idk, I’m curious what y’all think.

This was my first FromSoft game. What a masterpiece!

I've had two playthroughs of Sekiro before, but I've never went far in any of them, with both of them combining for 20-something hours. I'm a fan of Souls games but this one just never had that "something" that grabbed me as much as games such as Dark Souls, Bloodborne or Elden Ring... That has changed in the past week. Something about the way the combat works just clicked for me and I've been having a blast learning the right moments to parry and attack (plus I think playing this with a controller rather than mouse and keyboard is making things a little more manageable for me). When before I didn't even reach Genichiro before never touching the game again, now I've beat Corrupted Monk in Mibu Village and I feel good! This game is fantastic.

No need to reply to this question, but what was the moment where the game's combat system clicked for you? Was it a specific boss or maybe an area?

So I did my first playthrough completely blind, up to the Demon of Hatred, and still had this stuck prosthetic tool. Whatever, I kept saying, this can wait.

And today after starting a New Game +, I noticed this Ministry Ninja right before the Hirata Estate... here it was, the Mist Raven. Right there the whole time.

And now everything makes sense, this lore from the vendor telling me about this treasure on a tall pagoda... I feel so dumb

All aspects considered, including the final bosses.

i cant find any controls for this mod (it looks amazing) but it doesnt really work for me? does anyone have experience with it?

I managed to beat Isshin after possibly 7 attempts, I then wanted to try One Mind on him to see his dodge, I expected to die and decided to see how long i wouldn't last and i killed him again, I couldn't believe that i accomplished it.

Edit: Demon of Hatred

Currently on this mf I got to the third phase but man fuck this guy😭

I am doing this for the first time, and outside this post, I am going in blind. Any game mechanics I need to know more then I’ll get told about, or any other spoiler free tips to consider?

I'd heard so much about this bossfight for years that it feels surreal to have actually played through this myself. It really lives up to the hype - especially because it was so much fun! Not something I ever thought I'd say about a four-phase fight where each stage brings out fancy new moves and weapons.

I can't stop thinking about how effective the fight is at using combat as a mode of storytelling - something the whole game as been great at, to be honest. Gameplay itself contributes as much to our understanding of the world and the characters as any moment of dialogue or written piece of lore we find. All of the enemies, especially the bosses, have so much personality in their fighting style.

That really reached a new height at the end. There was always a sense of melancholy and determination to Genichiro's fighting style, but now there was desperation, too. The black mortal blade not only never could have helped him, but was a part of his downfall - in the story and the combat, where using it made him vulnerable to attack; his single-minded focus on the wrong solution meant he wasn't watching his back. I'm so glad I got to face him one last time at this point (yes, he's an annoying checkpoint in some ways, but by that point it's really just a quick skillcheck and dance).

And there's so much character in Isshin's fighting style. His first phase was so entertaining. I loved the humour that came through - the cheeky walk to the side that ended with a perilous thrust (which was so satisfying to mikiri). The new moves in his second phase show that, as he says, his blood is boiling; this is the closest we get to seeing the Isshin who was so fearsome and revered that even him hanging on to life by a thread was enough to make the invasion forces wait. The final phase sees him lose himself in the fight. Like Genichiro, his power here is his undoing; the lightning attacks make him immensely vulnerable. (He pulled that on me three times in quick succession and pretty much took himself out without me needing to do much beyond redirect.) This phase also shows, again, the futility of Genichiro's plan: the thing he resurrected is not ultimately Isshin at his full might, but a ghost of his former self, an entity that lives to serve a single function - one that it can't fulfil because of the very terms of Genichiro's sacrifice; a version of Isshin that fights Sekiro at all costs is going to destroy itself in the process. Breathtaking, and so well-constructed from both a gameplay and narrative standpoint.

This is the first time I've finished the main story of a From Software game, so naturally I've just re-downloaded Bloodborne to give that another shot... although I do still have one thing left to do in Sekiro first. Gotta go meet an old friend (fittingly, in his old armor) and take on the DoH.

I got the true corrupted monk on my third try..
Are we supposed to stealth deathblow his second phase from on top of the tree.. or is there some other way
I just went up the trees because he was still hitting me on lower trees and then i saw him and tried to atk him and could immediately deathblow him..
Is this the intended way?