Easy, eh? I'll stab a bitch up in here.

...I'm joking, I'm a failure, this game has thought me that. I know this now, I will never forget that I am a sub human and shouldn't even consider that I have the ability to beat a boss in a video game. 

We're you on NG+ when you beat Owl in Hirrata and if so, do you know what the increase in difficulty is as opposed to you own stats? Is it the same 40% then 10 and 10 and so on or is it different here? Is it odd set and can you upgrade your VIT to 40 on NG+ then 60 on NG++?

I turned off my combat arts, Whirlwind slash which I thought was helping was actually causing an animation or at least a frame that Owl was able to catch me on when alternating to block, this has allowed me to greatly increase my pressure on him without having to back off, I'm just going ham and hoping posture build up doesn't get me fucked... which it often does and the divine confetti is also helping for he second phase but fuck man... This terrain and wonky camera is rightly fucked. 

This shit is driving me sideways. 

.

Oh my God I done it. I fucking done it. I'm never playing a Souls game again, never, I'll finish this and that is that, the games are ruined for me by this. That was the hardest boss I have ever in my life encountered in a video game as an adult, The Nameless Kind or the bosses in the BB DLC had nothing on this guy, they were crash Bandicoot levels compared.. but I did it. Fuck, I mean that was rough as all hell, FromSoft need to dial that shit back about 10-20%, I don't know what they are thinking but they'll sell a fuck ton less copies of Sekerio 2 if Activision wants to franchise and that will hurt single player games in general when they are seen to 'decline'.

I'll upload it and embed here in hopes it helps someone, even a small bit, although it isn't nearly by cleanest attempt.

Possibly, I see a lot of talk online about this game being too hard, I was not inclined to believe it until I have faced some of these late game bosses. Perhaps I am getting old and my reflexes are aging but I do sense that this type of difficulty will only harm sales going forward, it matters not though cause I can't see them franchising this, it is a one off for sure  hopefully not bound by contract for sequels. Perhaps you are right though and I'm too close to the owl fight just yet to make a comment like that. 

I know one thing for sure though, Bloodborne will release and it will look like a modern super Mario is comparison. 

.

I started NG+ and it doesn't seem like you can increase VIT anymore but I could be wrong. I was rewarded a bulging coin purse for an anemy that I thought would have rewarded a bead.

What's the difference in NG+? I'm at the end boss and sort of dicking around doing side missions to extend the game because I know once I finish the game I will be going right into NG+

How much of your stuff carries over? how much of your stuff do you leave behind? How much harder is it? 

As for the difficulty, I personally love it but have to remind myself regularly that I have to think like a shinobi. Use all your abilities, prep, think, run when you need to. Shinobi hide if it becomes necessary, you're expected to be a coward, take on most enemies from behind, etc. yeah, the bosses are hard as hell, but again, you can run! (I beat Great Shinobi Owl with ease by controlling him and taking potshots). 

Possibly, I see a lot of talk online about this game being too hard, I was not inclined to believe it until I have faced some of these late game bosses. Perhaps I am getting old and my reflexes are aging but I do sense that this type of difficulty will only harm sales going forward, it matters not though cause I can't see them franchising this, it is a one off for sure  hopefully not bound by contract for sequels. Perhaps you are right though and I'm too close to the owl fight just yet to make a comment like that. 

I know one thing for sure though, Bloodborne will release and it will look like a modern super Mario is comparison. 

.

How do you feel your grasp of the game mechanics are? Is it possible you're not fully using some of the game mechanics to their fullest, namely deflections. If an enemy performs a flurry of attacks on you, an L1 for each part of the flurry attack will produce deflections which stack. They are also fairly forgiving. I assume you knew that, or maybe it's just been so long since you played through a Soulsborne game that you forgot about what their difficulty was like.

I would say the difficulty of this game's boss fights is about equal to the other games in the Soulsborne series. Sekiro, however, is much more forgiving in that you never have to travel to a boss fight. Every major fight in the game is right next to an idol, and the idols are frequent.  (Granted, loading times seem a bit slow. Or maybe that's me being anxious to get back in the arena.) Also, the regular, non-boss mobs in this game seemed to be a lot easier than those of Bloodborne, which I would say had the toughest mobs in any game of the series (those werewolves come to mind).

I do think Sekiro has a very high skill cap, though. Combat is very complex and rewarding, maybe the most in the series. Not sure if I prefer it over Dark Souls combat, as the Souls games have a lot more variety, but I do think that there is a lot of depth to this game.

Freaking loved the hell out of this. I probably won't do a NG+ playthrough just yet, as I have so many other games I need to play.

Oh, and on a separate note: I really enjoy difficult games. I play a lot of roguelike dungeon crawlers and bullet hell shooters. Regardless of whether or not I'm good at them, they tend to be my favorite type of game. BUT... It is nice to play a relaxing game like Yoshi after a stressful encounter with a tough boss in a Soulsborne game.

Only variety I can remember in those games are the different weapons and magic you can use, but whatever they are they will almost always hit an enemy, that is the very reason those games are easier than sekiro where enemies actually block and parry.