I want the Sekiro plat/hundo chievo. There I said it. I won’t get it, but I want it. Here’s the thing. if I want to do it, then I have to do both endings at least once. Why? Because I did not think to save-scum. So I have to do each ending (good and bad, I mean) at least once. I have never done the Shura ending. And, I have to kill my nemesis–*SPOILERS*— Owl (Father) again. I tried him for a few hours post-hospital, and I did not fair well. *UNSPOILERED* It was probably the biggest evidence of my even slower reflexes because I could not react to his combos. Not that I ever could, but it was even worse post-medical crisis.
I will admit, I cheesed him the one time I beat him, anyway. I baited out the one attack I knew I could deal with and then countered it and only it. It was slow and tedious, but it got the job done. There was one attack he did that I just could not get into my brain that I was reacting the wrong way. I would move to the right when it should have been the left every goddamn fucking time. Honestly, it was the cheese that was recommended in videos–and it’s pretty much the cheese for all the bosses in this game. Find the one attack you can reliably counter and bait it out.
So. If I want to get the plat, I have to do it on my first save. Which is already on NG+ and past the point where I can choose the bad ending. That means I have to do my nemesis on this playthrough and then do the Shura ending on NG++. Plus one more ending. Honestly, if I can actually manage to get to the point of choosing an ending, I will definitely try to save-scum. But I doubt I’ll get to that point, which is distressing me. There is no reason I should be upset about it. I mean, I have done all the things I need to do to get the plat except beat the bad ending bosses. I can grind to get the skill points with a lot of time. There’s no reason for me to be cranky about it or to think it means I’m lesser because I haven’t gotten it.
But I can’t help thinking about the fact that I have all the Dark Souls plats, the BB plat, and the Elden Ring plat. Weirdly, the last was the easiest to get. Or maybe not weirdldy beacuse they were quite open about making this game more accessible. Still. It’s astonishing that you can get the plat for Elden Ring in one playthrough if you save-scum. You have to plan it from the start because it’s very easy to miss a few things, but it’s doable. In the other games, there are trophies/achievements that span NG+2, so you can’t get around those. There is no such achievement/trophy in Elden Ring. I managed to get everything I needed during the first playthrough and then when the save-scumming didn’t work, I resigned myself to two more playthroughs. I was fine with it because I knew I was going to be playing the game at least that many more times, anyway.
Back to Sekiro. Watching Nath zip through it, it really is very few bosses you NEED to do to get through the game. If you’re going for the bad ending, you need to get through Gyobu Oniwa, Blazing Bull, Genichiro, Folding Screen Monkeys, the Guardian Ape, and the Corrupted Monk. Then, Emma and Isshin. Eight bosses. Then, for the good ending, You need everyone up to the Corrupted Monk, then Great Shinobi Owl for the good ending. then, the True Monk and the Divine Dragon before taking on Genichiro, Way of Tomoe, and then, finally, Isshin, the Sword Saint.
Here’s the thing. Genichiro, Owl (Father), and Isshin, the Sword Saint are three of my five hardest bosses in the game. I would put Guardian Ape up there and since I never have to fight the Demon of Hatred again, he can come off the list temporarily. The Gaurdian Ape was not that hard on NG+ (I got him first try, if I remember correctly), but it was grueling. My point is that I am not sure I want to go through all this again for the plat. I did not enjoy this game. I enjoyed beating the game, yes, but that was one moment in time.
Even as I beat Isshin, I knew that were I to go back and fight him again, I would die. Many, many, many times. Luke from Outside Xtra made the same point in a video about Soulsborne bosses–why is it that the hundreds of time you died, you got to revive, but if you killed the boss once, that boss was dead for good?
Obviously, it has to be that way because it’s a video game. I’m not arguing that a boss should be able to come back time and time again, though that would be…interesting. What I AM saying is that I don’t want to go back and beat my head against the wall over and over and over again.
If there was a way I could go back and think about the plat before I even started Sekiro, well, I probably wouldn’t have. That’s not my style. Yes, I grinded for the Souls plats, but they were games I was going to play over and over again, anyway. Same with Elden Ring. I was going to play that game several times regardless. BB? Not so much, but by the time I decided to do the plat, I was pretty much there, anyway. Will I play it again? Probably not. I’m more likely to play that, though, than Sekiro again out of my free will.
If it had an online component, it’s a no-brainer. I would do it in a heartbeat. I would do the Shura ending bosses by myself, but I would happily co-op every other boss. For me, personally, once I beat a boss on my own, then I don’t care about co-oping on them in the future. I will note that I have not soloed three of the five DLC bosses for BB, but that just goes to show how much I did not click with that game. Also, I played the whole thing with the DLC in one go, which was not a smart choice.
Am I going to do the Sekiro plat? I honestly don’t know. I will say that the RKG Discord is planning a Return to Drangelic (DS II) in February, so I’ll probably do that first. It’s been a while since I played SotFS.