Two posts ago, I wrote about the Sekiro plat. It’s niggling at me because I have all the rest. And it bothers me that if I had planned it from the start, I could have it by doing the bad ending and grinding for XP to get the skills I needed. Here’s the thing about Sekiro. When you die, you do not have the chance to recover your lost stuff. You lose half your XP (which, by the way, I mistok as you losing it all. Meaning, if you get enough XP to gain a skill point, you ‘bank’ that skill point. You lose half your sen as well, but that never bothered me. Sen was eeasy to get, especially the further into the game you got. I was dripping with sen by the end of my NG+ run.
There’s something called Unseen Aid. If it kicks in, you don’t lose anything. You start with a 30% chance for it to tprock, and that goes down the more you die. Not because you die, necessarily, but because of the Dragon Rot. Once I realized that you could bank skill points, I felt better, but it was still annoying. When people talk about the plat, they mention two trophies that suck. One is the ‘do all the bosses on one save’ trophy (Man Without Equal) and one is the get all skills trophy. Because there is a skill that takes 9 points to get and by the end of the game, it takes forever to get one skill point, let alone nine.
I wanted to like Sekiro so much. I mean, I want to like every FromSoft game so much. But the fact that it was set in feudal Japan really piqued my interest. I was a bit worried about the system even before it came out, and it was with good reason.
One thing I love about the Dark Souls games and Elden Ring is that you can play them in a multiple variety of ways. You can be a caster or do melee. You can dual wield or go with a massive two–hander. You can use incantations/miracles or sorceries. You can tank everything or you can be a glass cannon. There are so many possibilities.
With Sekiro, there is only one way to play. You get one katana for the entire game and you can’t level up stats. I mean, you can, but not individually. You need four prayer beads in order to do an upgrade, and it spreads evenly among your stats. You can also boost yourself after you beat a strong foe (i.e., a proper boss), but it’s so limited.
When I played for the first time, I could not beat the mini-bosses. that mean I did not get prayer beads or gourd seeds, so I was severely under-leveled and had fewer health gourds than I needed.
When I made it to Madame Butterfly, I had one Gourd. One. Maybe two? At any rate, not enough. She kicked my ass so many times and in so many ways. I was contemplating giving up. I did not know she was optional at that time. I think I went away and game back and still could not beat her. I looked up cheese and used it to get her, and I feel just fine about it.
It’s interesting watching people play this game because of the wide range of talent. Nath, in his plat run, was killing everything with ruthless precision. He had no troubles until he came across the–*SPOILERS*–double apes. The chat told him that if he did the Mibu Village first, he would not have to worry about the double apes. He did not listen to them and, lo and behold, he had to deal with the double apes. He only died to them three times, but he was so frustrated by it. *UNSPOILERED*
He did the whole game plus the Shura ending in 4 1/2 hours. That just blows my mind. Yes, he only did the main things he needed to do, but still. My first playthrough took 125 hours. Granted, I did everything possible except the Shura ending, but still.
I know I am rubbish at the games. With the original Dark Souls, Dan Tack, previously the FromSoft guy of Game Informer, said with confidence that it would not take anyone 100 hours to finish the game. It took me 150 hours, including the DLC. It did not take me 50 hours to do the DLC, so I’m estimating that I took maybe 120 hours to play the main game. Maybe 110. At any rate, it was surely over 100 hours.
Someone was complaining about Dark Souls III and saying even exploring completely, she finished it in something like 30 hours. To which I immediately said, “Bullshit.” There was no way she found Archdragon Peak or Consumed King’s Garden. Even if she one-shot every boss, there is no way she finished the game in 30 hours and found the optional areas.
Then, of course, there’s Elden Ring. The game that took me 225+ hours to finish my first time through. I still find it hilarious that the first time I played it, I thought I was near the end at 100 hours in. That was roughly halfway, and I could not imagine the delights and horrors I had not seen yet.
I don’t mind. I really don’t. The fact that it takes me twice as long as most people who play these games is no skin off my nose. Someone in the RKG Discord was saynig she found it annoying when people said that magic was OP, which has been a pet peeve of mine ever since I started playing From games. Yes, magicks can be OP, but anything can be OP if you dedicate yourself to it. If you put a bunch into strength and vigor, then you can tank anything. That’s how I beat Gael, the last boss of the second DLC in DS III. I put on heavy armor and picked up the best shield, Black Iron Greatshileld, and tanked everything as I spelled him. Being a strengthcaster is the cheesiest of all, by the way. In NG+5, it’s really not that big a deal to kill bosses. Except the DLC bosses. I have not tackled them yet. I’m not sure I want to, to be honest. I can’t summon anyone at this point except the NPCs. That’s doable for Sister Freide and the Demon Prince, but not for Gael.
Sekiro is my least-favorite of the games because there is no online component. If I want to hundo chievo it, then it’s all on me. Not only do I have to beat many difficult bosses, several for the second time, but I have to get all the skills. Which means not dying until I bank a skill point. At this point, it takes hours just to get one skill point. It’s just not viable. But it bothers me because I have the rest of them (at least, the ones I can get). Ian has said that he knows I’ll go for it, but I’m just not sure I have the wherewithal to do what it takes to get it done. Only time will tell.