Sekiro: Shadow die twice, holds strong at 90 on Opencritic based on 111 reviewers. GotY?

[Runa216]

John2290 said:

Runa216 said:
beat it. Still hate the end boss and I dread having to do it again.

Only took me an hour or so to get back to Genichiro, though

Gratz, and yeah, The NG+ doesn't start to get hard again until The owl, even The corrupted monk is a push over legit fighting him. I'm on the Owl currently and might go for the shura ending, get all bosses trophy and move onto another game, yet something tells me thst wkn't be so simple as Assassins creed Odessy, The surge and Yakuza all feel a generation old after playing a game of this high quality and artistic standard. Ass creed in particular feels like a mobile generic version of The witcher 3.

Yeah, after playing some games from the last few years I'm kinda shocked at how boring and simplistic so many AAA titles are most of the time. Why play something like Assassin's Creed - which has the same basic gameplay now as it did a decade ago - when I could be playing something with such an intricate, difficult battle system as Sekiro? Why play crap like Call of Duty when I could be playing Red Dead Redemption? There are certainly places for those bland, generic, cookie-cutter AAA games in the market, but there really is so goddamn much choice in the medium that I could never see a loot-box or microtransation and still never catch up with the games I wanna play. 

As for me, I'm almost disappointed in how easy the game is, now. I don't think the game is easy, persay, but after beating Isshin I started NG+ and I don't think I've died once. I haven't died on ANY of the bosses yet - miniboss or full boss - and while I think I did get knocked down a few times (died once), I came back and just returned to the idol. 

Despite dying 50+ times on Lady Butterfly on my first go-'round, I bet her first time with ease this time. Like, I killed her and Juzou in the same life without resting. I beat every miniboss without dying, including The Shinobi Hunter, Seven Blades Samurai, and Snake Eyes Shirahagi - each on my first try, and I even beat Gyobu, Lady Butterfly, and Genichiro on my first attempts. Oh, and I absolutely WRECKED the blazing Bull and Centipede Giraffe without getting hit. Now that I think about it, the only boss I've died at so far was headless. Fuck headless. I will be avoiding HEadless in the future, but as it turns out I did in fact die a handfull of times on NG+.

My first time through was your basic Immortal Severance playthrough. I got all of the gourd seeds, all but two of the prayer beads, all of the Lapis Lazuli I could (allowing me to upgrade 2/4 of the final prosthetic upgrades), and did basically everything I could. My plan is to do this NG+, get to right before the owl and make a save-copy so I can do the Shura ending, get the missable boss trophy (Emma), as well as the Shura ending trophy, then reload the save and go through to the Purification ending where I'll get the lapis Lazuli for making the final upgrades, the final two prayer beads, and Owl (Father) Trophies. I figure by the end of this playthrough I'll get the 'get all skill unlocks' trophy while I'm at it.

I intend to platinum this, so by this point all I'll have left is the 'dragon' ending, which is apparently BY FAR the hardest ending to get. Won't be too hard knowing I'm just playing through quickly, though. 

I am still scared as fuck for my spirit when I have to fight Owl, Owl(Father), and Isshin on NG+ though. However, on the other hand, I'm finding the game so much easier this time around maybe it won't be all bad? I haven't even USED the new memories to increase my strength since starting NG+, got 3 banked and can't be arsed to use them since I'm still wrecking everything. 

The game is luring me into a false sense of security, I know it.

Still love it, even if I absolutely HAAAATE that last boss. Like, I genuinely don't like it; unlike other bosses that I thought were brilliant in retrospect, I still hate Isshin; maybe I'm just not good enough? I don't think it's a poorly designed boss, but I do think it's way too much andI just can't learn in that fight, unlike the others. LAdy Butterfly taught me timing, dodging, proper Shuriken use, deflection, and kiting, The Shinobi hunter taught me Mikiri, Blazing Bull and Gyobu taight me arena combat and beast fighting, etc. I am redoing them all, learning how to adapt, and it feels good because it's clear I've learned. I love it, but at the same time I do fear Isshin. 

Someone hold me and tell me I'm a good burd!