You can die as much as you want. You only need to use a cure when you want to resume a quest whose NPC is sick.
"When should I use this?" is a story decision that impacts the game. I want more of that in games. We all do. I'm for it.
I'm all for story affecting choices so long as I'm not forced to make them, and this isn't really a 'story affecting choice', its a 'haha you died, use this item to unpause the story' choice which is a weak narrative decision at best honestly.
It would have been more compelling if dragonrot opened NEW story content, instead of simply pausing it.
i'm with you on this. not being able to recover your shit is enough of a penalty for dying, it didn't need MORE bullshit on top of that. it just makes you want to play it as safe as possible (going against the intense combat systems) and makes death absolutely frustrating. fighting enemies is just not worth the risk a lot of the time when a lot of them can kill you in two hits or a single combo.
you can have an intense punishment for dying OR enemies that can 2-hit you. having both is just unfair
I agree with the first part and I also very much enjoy the game, but 'bad controls' for me at least has meant awkward moments with grappling hook targeting, especially in hectic moments (I completely gave up on using it during the Guardian Ape boss), and I've also had a couple of psyche moments where the game tried to 'help' me not dodge off an edge while I actually wanted to go over the edge. But otherwise I think the controls are incredibly fluid, the jumping and climbing can feel great when pulling off little tricks to get somewhere or deflecting attacks in mid-air. I'm not sure yet if Sekiro will overtake Bloodborne as my favorite, but it's definitely a great game.
I was about to say that I didn't really think there were many interesting areas that I went to thus far... then. Uh.
Suddenly I'm in a bunch of giant statues fighting fucking monkeys with Tanegashima rifles
tbh as far as I know Dragonrot doesn't really have any effects on the main quest, even the vendors will continue to sell you shit when they are infected with it.
You can always cure the dieases whenever you feel like exploring the character's questlines, just leave them infected and there is no consequences for that.
It's true that the game punish you for dying a lot, but the punishment aren't really stopping your progress. For non-bosses, you can always resurrect and escape back to the sculptures with pretty much no consequence aside from respawning the enemies.
Farming resources are kinda like the same deal as previous games so I don't really have much problem with that, and there aren't really any moment where I find myself completely out of something that I really need with no way of getting more.
Finding the right tool/skill can also make boss fight a lot easier as well. Bosses like Guardian Ape (first phase) and Corrupted Monk can pretty much be stun locked for the whole fight, if you've got the right tool.
Learning which boss can be dealt with by parrying a lot and which by being aggressive also helps a lot.
The game can be really frustrating, but it have been pretty fair so far. Everytime I got stuck at a boss it's usually on my own fault or missing something.
[Death mechanic spoilers]
I think the Dragonrot mechanic was a cool psychological thing at first when I thought the NPCs could actually die from it, but now that I'm familiar with how infrequent it is and how many of the cures you get, it just doesn't bother me anymore. Just don't use them until you specifically need to talk to a quest NPC. It sounds to me like it's less the Dragonrot mechanic causing you anxiety, but the removal of the retrieval system. For me in Bloodborne it was Blood Vials that was a dumb new unnecessary thing - them being limited causes you to think during battles "is it worth using my blood vials here or should i run away?". I feel like the same is true in Sekiro with both experience, sen, and healthy NPCs. The fact that you don't get a chance (well, a chance that's better than just a static 30% dice roll) to make back your loss just makes you prioritize survival instead of just giving it your all. But, yet, Bloodborne has still been my favorite in the series despite this weakness.
Hell honestly, if NPCs could just up and die forever it wouldn't be totally unprecedented for the Souls series, where you can mess up quests just by doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, not talking to them in that one location you'd never have thought of, or by simply making a choice for a different quest. I don't understand how you can call yourself a completionist when it comes to NPC questlines in Souls, for me I've always tried not to think too hard about them until later playthroughs where I will have read the wikis for information. I legitimately thought Dragonrot was Sekiro telling me "you gotta git gud to git the gud ending buddy" and I don't even think that would have been too crazy.
I can see that, but ultimately the bloodvial issue was solved by grinding once to get a healthy backup supply, at which point you functionally never need to care about it again.
At the end of the day its clearly a matter of opinion, and in my opinion I find the game's overtly harsh death punishment, combined with the severe difficulty of the game in general, pushes me away from enjoying it.
I can see how people could enjoy it and all the more power to them, but I merely suggest to others that there might be a good reason why some people may not entirely enjoy this, even despite being fans of fromsoft's previous works.
Oh, just you wait. I wasn't talking about that fight.
Corrupted Monk was a huge chump. At least the reward is cool.
But that's almost exactly the same argument we're making for the Dragonrot curing mechanic here. You get so many and you don't really need to use them until you need to engage with a specific NPC that functionally you never need to care about it. It's a psychological effect that causes some anxiety and makes you think about unrelated shit like "ah, i'm gonna grind up to the next skill point and see if i can do something easier before engaging this new area/boss" or in Bloodborne's case "i'd rather die and save my blood vials, this was a lost cause anyway". In both cases it takes focus away from just doing your best and practicing, and also in both cases you can eventually ignore it when you know how to deal with it.
Oh shit.
Once you heal a character of Dragonrot they can never get it again anyway so it's not a big deal.
Are you sure? The sculptor got it twice in my game.
Just run back to the nearest idol and rest if you’re unsure of what to do. Yes dragonrot sucks but it’s a choice when to deal with it.
So? What about corpse running is more fulfilling than idol runs?
Did you fight the real one?
When you get down to Bodhisattva Valley for the first time.
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/57978/ec2f6ec5-1991-45d0-a1a5-13f6a5362b54/2cc.jpg
Yeah this is bullshit. The surgeon got it twice in my playthrough.
Just found a really, really cool boss... that has some just utterly fucked hitboxes. It's all fine and dandy but sometimes I get grabbed when I'm nowhere near, while other times I can just... waltz through his hand and he can't even touch me.
Weird, both me and a friend have never had duplicate rots but I guess we might've been lucky. I do feel I've been getting them less quickly the further I'm into the game though.
TheIchimonji combat artshave some really questionable hitboxes near the tip of the sword.
I feel like I'm doing something wrong against most bosses and minibosses. I just beat The Corrupted Monk and it felt super unsatisfying because I felt like I fought them a way I wasn't "intended" to fight them.
I literally spent most of the fight just dodging every single attack but two, and just throwing in a thrust attack after they did those moves. I tried being relentless, I tried defecting and counterattacking every attack, but the boss would just instantly block and deflect everything I threw at it before I just fought it like a regular Souls boss. I'm not sure what the game expects from me when the boss just instantly regains Posture after every attack and blocks everything.
The game tells you some types of enemies don’t break posture very well until they’re at low health.
By instantly regains posture I guess you're fighting the boss in Sunken Valley. In my experience Divine Confetti makes the fight a whole lot easier as that boss is a phantom/apparition. Using Divine Confetti will cause the posture damage to stay rather than disappearing rapidly.
That's another thing I don't really care for. Every main boss I fought so far, I never got close to every breaking their posture except for when they had almost no HP left (Gyoubu was the only exception).
It kind of feels like they were too afraid people would just posture break every boss easily and just made it almost never factors into the actual fight. At least, from my experience at least.
The rate enemies regain posture depends on their health. With enemies who recover rapidly you want to chip their health down. Once it reaches 3/4 their recovery will have a decent delay, below 1/2 and it'll be pretty easy to build a posture break, below 1/4 their posture pretty much stops recovering. I was having real problems with it at first but once you know what to do it isn't that bad.
I beat that boss without using any items just by deflecting and getting in a couple of hits during the boos' recovery animations. Just a tip, when it does the jumping overhead you can deflect it and get two quick hits in, when it does the short double spin you can get a hit in as the second spin is ending.
Also in case anyone missed it holding guard causes your posture to recover much more quickly than standing around. If you're playing by Souls rules you're fucking yourself pretty badly.
I wish the game would keep you crouching after completing a stealth deathblow. I always forget afterwards that I'm standing up now.
For some bosses you can pretty much get their whole posture gauge to full by parrying. For example, you can posture break Genichiro without even damaging 1/5 of his health if you parry/mikiri/stomp most of his moves.
2 NPC spoilerish questions:
Is it really worth it to send someone to the surgeon? I've read that he gives you some wax but I didn't wanna kill those two NPC's on my first playthrough. He also sounded like an asshole so I killed him instead.
There's this guy in Mibu Village who slurps some Divine Water. I've talked to him but he doesn't do anything besides sounding like a drug addict. Do I have to give him something? I seriously don't know what to with him but he looks like an important NPC.
I guess I'm just bad. :c
that being said tho, i think the game does feel a tad bit too demanding at times when it comes to reacting to bosses/minibosses imo
The game is fantastic, I just played pretty much straight over the weekend and I still have a bunch to do.
I will be doing a 2nd run for sure, just so I can try and beat the tutorial boss.
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