From Software Lyric Suite's own Sekiro corner

[Lyric Suite]

@cvv , is this the boss you were talking about?

Sure is. Out of curiosity, how many tries?

Around 25 i think, with only 6 or 7 for the second phase. I threw out the fight whenever he got me with one of his grab attacks (which took 80% of my health btw), or whenever i got hit too many times (happened quite a few times when i tried to poison him without setting him on fire first. In hindsight i don't think it was worth it), by which i mean i got intentionally killed as i wanted to try to make the video look good as much as i could, but i still used those for practice (meaning i healed and kept fighting and only lost on purpose at the very end).

To compensate for that, i cheated a bit as there's a little notch on the side of the cliff where you can actually use the Homward Idol to port back. He can still get you there but a lot of times he didn't so i was able to cut down on the rot build quite a bit. Only fair as i could have got him earlier but it wouldn't have been very clean.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Ho btw i intentionally avoided using the crackers. Felt a bit like a cheat. I had to use the fire to poison him though as he moved too fast and too much and i couldn't get a build up any other way. Personally, i wish i hadn't bothered as i think i actually made it harder on myself just to have the satisfaction to use a new tool.

 

[cvv]

Heh I almost got his 1st phase the first try and then it took me like 15 to actually beat him down. For some curious reason it never occured to me to parry him. Probably thought he too stronk or something.

The 2nd phase has always been easy for me mainly bc I've actually figured out the secret spear maneuver by accident. Got him 2nd try.

Not the best boss but my favourite.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Ho if i didn't have the need to show off because i'm making a video i could have had him way sooner. In fact it's hard to say how fast i could have killed him because i essentially threw most of the fights away. This applies to most of the bosses i fought so far. If i have to rez or get hit too many times i forfeit the fight. I almost forfeited this one but i kept it since tomorrow i gotta work and i didn't want to wait until later tomorrow to get it done lol.

 

[Lyric Suite]

~ Naked Lunch ~
​

Spoiler

Planet of the apes is now over, time to move on to pretentious literary reference!

Popping the remnant gets me little bit of lore on the monke, but not much:



I look around and it seems there was a temple here, likely demolished by the big ape:



I now go see what was that monke was protecting. I make it inside that cave he was guarding, and when i emerge i see it was that lotus thing i was actually looking for:




So the lake outside was where the Fountainhead Waters pooled, and i guess that's what made that big ape god kamuy whatever it was cursed with undeath. I also wonder if the sword stuck on its neck belonged to the training partner the Sculptor was talking about, the one that eventually got eaten by the ape. If that's the case she must have been huge as that was a big ass sword. Can you say snu snu?

Anyway, it's now time to report to Kuro about my progress and tell him that i found the thing:




So that was that. Not even a little bit of extra lore, but hey, less dialog to go through, so i'll take it.

Apparently, there was a fourth element to the divine brew the kid needs to make which tied to the Mortal Blade quest, which i completed before this one. Probably a bit of a mix up due to the open nature of the game after the Ashina Castle:




Wolf points out that the Divine Heir cannot bleed. I actually had no idea the kid was not only immortal, but also invulnerable:






Yeah i know where this is going:




Of course, this now leads me to Lady Emma. I ask her if she knows if there is a way to make the Divine Heir bleed, and tell her it's a part of the ritual to obtain the Dragon Tears of the Divine Realm and achieve Immortal Severance. The game apparently aknowledges the fact i already have the Mortal Blade:





She then hands me a page from a book she had been withholding from Kuro this whole time?



You'd think something like this would be kinda of important to tell the kid. Also, what's this about a beheading...

I report to Kuro, and neither Wolf nor he has anything to say about this beheading shit. Why do i get the feeling this is going to be a "shocking" reveal at the end of the game, that i have to actually kill Kuro and take his head off with the immortal blade. Indeed, the game wiggles itself out of bleeding Kuro until later, even though he wants to do it now:





Why do i get the feeling Wolf is making this shit up because he has guessed what this beheading business is all about. Kuro accepts this and i guess it's now time to move on.

I go check if Isshin has some new dialog, and on my way there i notice that everything is yellow now:



He doesn't have any new dialog, but while i'm there, i remember there was a whole section under the stairs next to him i had completely forgotten about:



I try to kill the first nightjar guy, but apparently in the other room there were two more. I kill them with some difficutly, but i'm now free to epxlore this place. Behind me, i see Isshin's own armor:



Lot's of clues and stuff about how to defeat Tomoe's lighting technique appear to be scattered around this castle. I assume this is Isshin's doing.

I turn around, and i see i am in Isshin's own dojo:



At the end of the dojo, i make a corner and i spot something that isn't suspicious at all:



I hit those wall partitions and now i come face to face with two of those blue samurai. I try to spar with them but i got my shit wrecked and i had to rez and escape. Time to reset.

This time, instead of fighting the nightjar guys head on, i try to make the first ninja guy my own personal servant:



I then kill one of the nightjar guy and watch the other two go at each other lol:




I don't know why my guy always loses though. Eitherway, i kill the last one, and now i make my way to the samuari. I kill both, but then i end in disappointement when i finally recognize where i'm at:



I was expecting some cool shit but instead it was just a secret shortcut to Isshin i missed when i was here early on. Damn.

Before going back to ape land, i go check with the Sculptor, he notices the whistle finger, and i explain to him where i found it. Sadly, he mentions nothing about what he revealed earlier when i gave him the Monkey Booze. All he says is this:



Disappointing, but i get why. Anyway, time for moar monke.

Finally back here. I drop down from where the smelly old lady is, and it seems the bottom of this place is just a sticky poisonous sludge. What else is knew, gotta have one of those in every FromSoft game:





Behind me i spot some wierd white monkey:



Pff, i'm not afraid, time for battle!



Of course, this fucking thing kicks my ass and i had to turn tail and port back to the Idol. Jebus. For now, i opt to just use stealth instead:




Later on i did come back to learn how to spar with it properly, you can watch the video here:

This thing kicked my ass hard enough i thought it was worth making a little video:



FromSoft managed to fool me quite a bit with this little guy but apparently the trick was to press him really hard, harder than usual. On my first attempt, every time i saw the blocking "clank" i gave him some room to riposte, which is usually how this works, but that just allowed him to wiggle himself out of the pressure i was putting on him and launched a couple of combos i hadn't seen before and made me fumble a bit. On my second attempt, i gave him no room to breath whatsoever and eventually succeeded in squashing him.

Anyway, i just thought this little guy warranted a video. Moving on:

Spoiler

After killing the white ape, i come accross a couple of grapple points which i think were meant for you to just jump clear of the monkey in the first place:





More swamp shit, with what appears to be a group of monkeys on that rock:



Yo, Buddha guy, i gotta take a better look at this crap:




I go check out that merchant first, and behind him i spot what looks like a cave. I go take a look before talking to him, and yeah not going in there just yet:




I guess i can talk to the guy now. Apparently, he isn't the one that got rotted, but the merchant in Mt. Kongo, which i had forgotten about. Even so, he doesn't seem to be doing that well being stuck out here surrounded by toxic shit:



I'm getting Caelid flashbacks here. He has a very interesting piece of information to share:





Hoooo, i get it now. Make the monkey dance, and he'll be eaten. So basically lure the monkey inside the cave and the snake will eat that instead of me. Ok, this shouldn't be a problem.

First, let's take care of that group though:




On my left, i see there's another rifle monkey by himself in the distance:



I slowly creep up to it and kill it without alerting the group. I then return to where i was where i get the chance to actually try this thing:



I then watch the chaos happen:



The white monkey now moves within range of the whistle too, and after turning him against the others he makes short order of the whole group, until there's nothing left but him. I now take my time to clean the place up and then i make an attempt to sneak up to the white monkey. This fails, and i'm forced to flee as i need this monkey for the snake. With a bit of work, i manage to lure it within striking range:



After a little bit of brain surgery:



I now have my very own pet samurai monke!



I lure it all the way to the cave, but after dropping down, i turn around and i see the thing won't actually follow me:



Damn, i guess i was being too clever for my own good. I then figured, maybe i need to aggro them here first, then perhaps try to find a way to use that mind control ninjutsu from down here. So after resting at the Idol, i go grab the first samurai monkey and i manage to drag him here in the cave, but it's the same result:



I guess i had this all wrong. Time to move on. But as soon as i start making my way down, some bitch ass ghost thing pops out of a wall and starts pocking holes in my body. This pisses me off so i smack the shit out of him:



Those guys are annoying to kill but they give an hefty amount of XP.

Next there's a bunch of annoying Daikatana lizards. I kill them easily, especially as i figured out you can actually jump stomp on them, and i now finally see snek:



I don't know what that shit about getting a monkey here to feed it to the snake was, but i guess i have no choice but go forward. This place is hell btw. Can't see shit, has those ghost things popping out everywhere and killing those lizards isn't as simple as i thought since they are so close to the snake, who, if hit, starts trembling around which makes poisonous gas come out of the ground. I decide to take out the lizards with some shurikens, and i literally managed to nail one to the wall lol:



I should hang this thing in my car:



Up ahead i come across several more of those ghost bastards. I still struggle not to get hit but i'm starting to figure them out a bit. Just need to lock on to them as fast as possible then if it's a fast jab, deflect it, or if it's a slow one hit them right away. They are easy to stunlock but they can also easily stunlock you instead.

This place really sucks i can barely see shit:




Finally, i succeed in coming face to face with the snake:



100% i'm gonna get eaten but since i couldn't drag any monkey here what else can i do? I dash towards that shinto shrine, and of course i get eaten:



Ho well, time to try again. Making my way back isn't so bad now that i know how this place works, except that one ghost guy that grabbed my head and smashed my face against the wall, god damn:



I make it back to the snake and now i notice there's a path on the left:



As soon as i go that way, i start hearing a not so faint monkey whimpering, and soon enough i find the little guy:



I actually feel sorry for this poor thing, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do:



Look at him go!



I rope my way to the grappling point and dash towards the shrine. Once there, i turn around just in time to see the snake trying to eat that poor thing:



Well, technically the thing is already dead so the snake might as well get his meal. So now i make my way inside this shrine where i come across an ominous looking altar, where i finally get to see what this "dried" fruit is (man was i off track big time):




I try to turn back but the snake has blocked the way:



Sure enough, there's a grappling point on top of the statue:



Up above, i find some loot, a bunch of Divine Confetti, which doesn't bode well to me at all:



And i also find another grappling point:



With a quick rope jump, i now emerge on a vast cave where i spot one of those cannon guys:



Ha shit, here we go again.

 

[Lyric Suite]

~ Recycling Is Fun (Part 1): A Tragic Snek & Monke Epilogue ~
​

Spoiler

So, anyway, i'm in this cave now, where to my relief, i see a Sculptor's Idol:



But, before doing this, i need to finish up some leftovers. I remember there was some loot past that bridge that got collapsed by the snake, and i need to find a way there, plus i wanna try to get that carp thing again.

I go check out the bridge, but i pick the wrong Sculptor's Idol to port to. While i'm there, i get ganged by some ghost nightjar guy:



Not sure what the hell was this all about. I look around and there's nothing else out of the ordinary. Wierd.

So i go check out the bridge, but i see no means of getting there. At this point i actually started to think that if i had been off track about the "dried" fruit, it stands to reason i also got it wrong about the "fresh" fruit so i make it back to where the old lady was pointing at when she was at Mt. Kongo. I port there and i find out the racoon guy actually hasn't moved yet:



No wonder i couldn't find him in the Ashina Castle, he hasn't gone there yet. Bitch ass what i gotta do to make this quest move i need that skill text asshole.

I now go check out that wooden beam to see how am i supposed to reach the other side of the bridge and also to see if i missed something as there doesn't seem to be any "fresh" fruits around, and motherfucker:



So what i gave him the monkey to eat and this thing went to sleep it off here? Could i have done this before doing the part in the cave? He wasn't here before so i'm not sure what is happening. I try to lock on him and sure enough it seems i "may" be able to kill him (i hope). I take the plunge and the red dot appears! Ho goodie:





Apparently, one deathblow isn't enough to kill this thing, so i have to do another:





The deed is now done, and i stand there admiring my handiwork, soaked in blood:



So here's the "fresh" fruit in question:



Man was i wrong my speculative powers are fucking shit lol. I'm finally on the other side of the collapsed bridge. In there, i find a cave with some juicy loot, one of those Jizo babby statues, and a Dragon's Blood Droplet. Noice.

I look down at the lake and i actually manage to spot one of those hidden carp things, i'm sure a second one as i remember in the Hirata Estate those things don't swim far from where they are:



This time i succeed in killing both with little trouble, and now i got two extra carp scales. Not sure what's up with this feels totally RNG to me when you try to hit them, as i'm not doing anything different or wrong that i can see, just a wonky ass hitbox i guess.

I'm now free to return to the cave:



I kill the first biggus dickus guy easily:




But while i was up there fumbling my thumbs, i almost get spotted by the one below. In the distance, i also see a third up a platform:




I make my way down to see if i can get the guy there without alerting the one up high. Man, i know you guys live in a toxic swamp but at least fix up the place, sheesh:




Wonder if i gotta repeat what i did in the previous fort to get up there:



I now creep to that rock on my right, and from there i try to look for a possible route to kill the guy, except when i poke my head on the left, i now see a boss:



Fuck, this bitch again. I could technically get a deathblow from here but i'm sure the other two are just going to blow up the shit out of me while i deal with her second life.

On the right i see the guy. I try to use the whistle to see what happens. I know it doesn't enrage humans, only animals, but i wanna see if i can at least lure him here. He just gets alerted and stands there just looking around. I try the whistle a couple more times, but nothing:




Ok then. I go check what's around the corner behind the boss and i find a boss fog:



Interesting so you HAVE to kill minibosses, can't get past them.

I get back up and i guess the only way to get through this is rope my way across those grapple points, make it to the guy on the platform, rope my way down to kill the one down there, and then tackle the boss. Fucking hell this is going to be a complete shitshow, but fuck it, let's get down to it!

This took a couple of tries but it wasn't as hard as i thought it was going to be. If you start right after resting on the Idol, you can time the guy making the rounds below to be at the right spot after you kill the dude on the platform. This means killing the three guys doesn't take as long as i thought and i had the boss patterns figured out already so it was easy sailing after i came up with that fast route to kill the three guys.

Spoiler

So, after killing the boss, i check what was beyond the fog. Just some guy sleeping on the job. Shouldn't be an issue:



But first, i gotta pick this place clean. So i make it back and start exploring. Lol, big shinto babby:




Up ahead i spot some loot on another big statue but it seems i can't really reach it from here, maybe i can make up my way up from behind as i go forward:



I climb all the way up to where the third biggus dickus guy was, the one on the platform, and i end up in a closed up collapsed shaft, with a Sculptor's Idol and some loot:



Ok then, i guess there's only one way to go. Once i get there, i discover i can talk to the guy:



Is this another one of those dudes going through that fake dying routine? It isn't working you know? I pretend to ask him what happened to him. He needs some acting lessons because i'm totally not buying it:





Lol, he ain't even trying with this story.

I go down this cave, and fuck, he wasn't lying:



Jesus Christ, again? At this point, i remember cvv mentioned a "secret" spear manouver. I'm not going to google what it is just yet but i need to take a look at the spear upgrades as the one i have now says nothing that would be useful against this boss. I don't have the sens for it, so go grind some, and then i make a stop to the Sculptor:



Basically just a beefier version of what i already had. The next upgrade seems more interesting though, but i'm short of sens as i grinded just enough for the on upgrade, so i need to get some more. While i'm farming, i actually remember to pop the next Prayer Necklace, which doesn't reveal much in terms of lore:



I now go get the other upgrade:



Mmmh, not sure what this thing is supposed to do, but whatever. No harm in trying. Now i'm ready. I make it back to the boss, and lol, i knew it, this guy was faking too:



Anyway, time to put down this fucking thing down once and for all!

Ok this fucking ape is turning to out to be a real nightmare lmao. When i saw it again i wanted to shoot myself in the face, but i figured this is actually great as it gives me a good chance to practice the second phase right off.

I try my new spear (i mention in my progress narrative i saw cvv talk about a spear "manouver" so i went to get some upgrades), but it doesn't do much of anything. I mean it's good damage sure, but that Mortal Blade weapon art was better if it comes down to just damage. For now i decide to just tuck the thing away and worry about it later. I beat his first phase, which wasn't bad now that i know what to expect, and i'm now wondering what exactly is going to happen next. Is he gonna attach his head back to his neck again? I then hear a scream and a second ape decides to show up and now this boss battle turns into a complete shit show. Unlike with some of the Elden Ring duo fights, the AI doesn't ever seem to take turns at all both apes are super aggressive 100% of the time and i don't see how the fuck am i going to get past this. I mean sure maybe i can just kite them for the next 30 minutes doing chip damage here and there but that's fucking retarded. I get my ass handed to me, so i had to try again. And again. And again. I was actually considering turning that Demon Bell off as i figured i was being damn arrogant to even think i could have kept it on to the end of the game, but i decided to keep it for a bit longer as i loathed the idea i had to chicken out just because of some faggot ass duo fight. I don't consider those fights "fair" as there's too much of a RNG factor to them.

So the spear shit didn't do much, maybe i can try something else. Ho yes, btw, i was dumb enough to try the whistle thinking i could turn the second ape against the headless one lol. So i pick up that crackers prosthetics next, and i think maybe i can just use it to distract the second monkey while i deal with the headless one. No chance the scatter animation doesn't last very long and i can barely use the thing that the headless ape is already doing combos or lounging for perilous attacks even before the crackers animation is finished. So next i figured maybe i should kill the second ape first while i bait headless to get locked into some stupid sequence. I don't have much hope of success, as if the second ape is anything like the Guardian Ape's first phase, he is actually going to be worse than the headless one. I try, and to my excitement i see the second ape is actually very frail. i think i got it now, and after several more tries, and with the help of the crackers prosthetic, i manage to kill the second ape which then makes the rest of the fight easy sailing!

Spoiler

Man, this whole ape saga is turning out to be pretty intense. This is the price i had to pay to kill the ape a second time btw:



But you know what? This bastard has it coming for refusing to sell that skill text to me. Screw him. The ape then drops the usual memory thing which doesn't offer a whole lot of lore but also a new knewl ninjutsu ability, ho goodie!




BTW, i think i got it. The Gardian Ape i killed wasn't dead at all. When i beat him the first time, i heard something scream and you can actually see me in the video panic a little bit as i half expected to be attacked again. In the description of the Lotus it says the Guardian Ape had a mate and he was keeping the flower to offer it to his "bride". So the second ape he calls in the second phase was likely the female.

Ho, and yes, the game did catch me by surprise when i saw the headless ape start twitching after the fight. I was frantically trying to lock on it but it wouldn't do anything, so i just hit attack in a panic and i managed to do a final deathblow with the Mortal Blade. I'm glad the ape arc is finally over.

 

[cvv]

I try my new spear (i mention in my progress narrative i saw cvv talk about a spear "manouver" so i went to get some upgrades), but it doesn't do much of anything. I mean it's good damage sure, but that Mortal Blade weapon art was better if it comes down to just damage.

IIR the damage of the spear thrust is slightly smaller than two blade slices but it also costs just 1 emblem while the slices cost 6.

Anyway, double the monkey, double the fun. I usually fucking hate multiple-boss fights but the double monkeys are entertaining.

 

[Strange Fellow]

I had no idea there was a second ape fight. Neat. I couldn't say what triggers it, but when I went through that area it was empty. Maybe the ape doesn't appear if you go through the cave before encountering it the first time.

I would have regretted spoiling this for myself, but there's no chance I would've returned there anyway so no harm no foul.

The game is far from as linear as I'd been led to believe.

 

[Lyric Suite]

~ Recycling Is Fun (Part 2): Ghost Adventures ~
​

Spoiler

After killing the damn ape (i hope for good this time), i make my way forward:



At the end of this small tunnel, i emerge into an open space, where i have another of those ghost nightjar guys waiting for me. I guess it's a thing now. On my left, i also spot that forlon samurai:



Not really happy about this, as i'm kinda of scared of hitting the samurai by accident while fighting that spazzy bastard. It now has dawned on me that i haven't popped the remnant memory i got from the last boss fight yet, so i didn't get my attack power boost. I turn around to do just that, when i now come face to face with another recycled boss fight:



This is the third time since i got into this area. First, the rifle woman. Then the second monkey fight which ok was different but basically a continuation of the previous fight and was indeed the same enemy. And here's now this guy. I hope the rest of the game won't just be recycled bosses in the style of Elden Ring. Before fighting the thing, i want to pop that memory plus i want to give another go trying to get to that damn statue. The lore i get from the remnant thing adds a little clarification:



The monkey the headless ape called in the second phase was indeed his mate, but she must have been a spirit since the female monkey had actually died. In fact, now that i remember, she basically vanished after i killed her during my battle with the headless ape so she was definitely an apparition he called forth.

After killing the cannoneers, i start looking for a way to get up to the damn thing:






I checked every possible way to get up there, and on one of those attempts for a micro second i saw a grappling point popping up in front of me. This drove me crazy as i then started roping my way around like Tarzan for several minutes until i just had to give up. While i was going out of my mind to get up there, i definitely noticed there was some kind of cave behind the statue. Following my original assumption you have to reach the statue from behind, i go back to where the new boss is now to see if i missed something on my way there, a grappling point i didn't see in that boss room, something like that. Turns out, that was exactly it:



I rope up there, and i now see a passage i have to crouch to get into:



At the end of it, i come out of some kind of open cavern where instead of that statue i see a lone monkey:



I kill it, and now i'm left staring at the skeleton of a large ape, i assume the remains of the mate of the Guardian Ape:



Beneath me, all i see is the boss room, so this is another dead end. I loot the thing and it's more Monkey Booze. Noice, more hidden lore i can get out of somebody.

As i make my way back, i discover another hidden path while crawling under that passage from before:



After bouncing my way up that shaft, i finally reach that damn statue!



The loot i get is no joke either:



It's now time to get rid of that stupid repeat boss. BTW, on my way there i find this guy was definitely faking it like i said:



I knew it lol.

Third repeat boss since i got here. What is this, Elden Ring now? This guy is slightly different from the last one, but it's basically the same thing. He now leaves more of those ghost bobbles around (i think, i kept running into them more often than the last time), and is also able to shoot that laser beam twice. With the latter, i tried to block it with the umbrella, which for some reason didn't actually work. Frustrated, i tried to deflect it and that actually worked lmao. Don't ask me how, you can see it in the video.

Ho, i didn't try but from the looks of it i think it might have been possible to sneak up on this one and get a stealth deathblow to start with, but i'm not sure. I was definitely able to attack him before he did that whole routine where i have to run in a circle to avoid all the ghost thingies.

Spoiler

After killing him he drops this thing:



Wonder if i'm going to get new lore from the Sculptor, especially if i give him more Monkey Booze, but for now i don't feel like doing that.

I go back to where the forlon samurai is and i jump into the fray (after making a manual back up of my save, just in case i accidentally smack the samurai and fuck up his quest line or something), and for some reason those nightjar guys go down easier than i remembered. As soon as i drop down in fact i got ganked by another one behind me, so out of necessity i started beating the first relentlessly, and he folded much easier than those guys used to do:



The other one went down just as easily. I think it's because i upgraded my attack power a few times since i first fought them in the Ashina Castle and those haven't been scaled to my level, so to speak, so they are actually easier now.

I go talk to the samuari, who starts muttering his usual ramblings, this time about some skank he saw:





First it was music now it's chicks. This guy is kinda of pathetic. I shove him around and tell him to get a grip:








Dude, i'm telling you for your own good, stay away from strange women. Also, what mist?






Your father was a wise man you should listen to him.





I'm now given the option to send him to the surgeon again. I refuse once more. Whatever fate awaits this guy, it has to be better than to get butchered and turned into a zombie. He now returns blathering about his melody, so i move on.

I now come face to face with the mist in question:



There's apparently two levels here, one where i have to walk across a bunch of branches and platforms:



And one below:



I try the path below first, where i get ganked by a bunch of ghost bandits. I kill them much easier than i was able to when i met those guys in the Hirata Estate:



Despite being easy, i try to be stealthy now as i have no idea where those guys came out of. As i'm crepping forward, one of them suddenly appears out of thin hair right in front of me:



I think i get it now. You cannot see them until you are on top of them. Ok easier or not this is going to be a problem.

I slowly make it up to this guy, but i kill him without being spotted by possible ghosts that are outside my range of vision:




Up ahead i see a group of three with one guy going up and down on a short round. I succeed in taking him out without alerting the other two:



And i then sneak on the second, an axe wielding guy:



Which leaves only the third who goes down easy. No problem. As long as i walk slowly and stay hidden, those ghosts are not an issue.

Feeling confident, i keep moving forward, until i see something that just freezes my blood:



Is that what i think it is?



Oh fuck my life it is. A fourth recycled boss, and had to be this cancerous asshole. I decide to back track for now when i suddenly run into some of the ghosts i had just killed. Damn, not only are they barely visible they respawn too and i had to kill them all over again:



No point turning back i'll have to kill this thing anyway might as well be now what's the point of waiting. With those damn ghosts it's gonna be super dicey. I don't have a lot of room to manouver which means i gotta bring some serious deflection-fu with me as i have to basically fight him on that spot or it's a bust.

Killing him grants me this thing btw which seems pretty damn good:



I only used the one that boosts attack power on regular mooks, and that only sporadically, but i think i'm going to get a lot of milage out of this other one.

A fourth recycled boss and had to be this fucking bastard lmao. I had to bring out some serious deflection skills as you get little room to fight him. If this had been the first time i met him i doubt i could have done it like this but i had some experience with his attacks now so i just had to refine what i had already learned.

 

[cvv]

Ho, i didn't try but from the looks of it i think it might have been possible to sneak up on this one and get a stealth deathblow to start with

Yes you can, did it a few times myself, but IIRC there's a knack to it, you gotta approach him from a certain angle, under certain conditions etc. Can't remember anymore but there's surely a video for that.

 

[Multidirectional]

I don't mind minibosses being recycled few times as long as the actual bosses are all unique. Well ok, I guess the second Ape fight counts as a boss recycle but it's not really the same fight as the first one. And they made it an optional fight. And for a game as short as Sekiro there is a high enough number of unique bosses I think. For Headless I prefer to ignore them altogether, just run past gathering loot nearby. It's not like they drop anything actually useful and I don't find them fun to fight.
The recycled ones in ER should probably also count as minibosses.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Yeah i don't have a problem with it (as long as it doesn't get out of hand), it's just funny that is all happening at once.

The only boss that was recycled before was that general dude (recycled three times, had a blast with him all three) and that wierd one with the claws (i hated him both times and i hope i won't see him again). So it's funny to now see different bosses being repeated one after the other.

It's not an issue just made for a fun title.

 

[cvv]

I don't mind minibosses being recycled few times as long as the actual bosses are all unique. Well ok, I guess the second Ape fight counts as a boss recycle but it's not really the same fight as the first one. And they made it an optional fight. And for a game as short as Sekiro there is a high enough number of unique bosses I think. For Headless I prefer to ignore them altogether, just run past gathering loot nearby. It's not like they drop anything actually useful and I don't find them fun to fight.

I guess I didn't mind the recycled Shichimen and Headless because they all drop different and unique lewtz. I've always seen them as cursed "brothers" or some shit.

But yeah, Headless are the only enemy I don't bother with on my runs. I don't use sugars anyway and they're obnoxious. I do like to fight Shichimen tho, they fun.

 

[cvv]

The only boss that was recycled before was that general dude

There are 3 katana generals, I think, and one spear one. And IIRC the katana ones don't have the same moveset, some are much more tricky. So I've never seen them as recycled.

IIRC the clawing enemy is exactly the same in both instances but I actually like him a lot. It's always short, whether you lose or him, and it gives you a nice rush of adrenaline.

There are also two ogres, don't like those dildos.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Yeah, ogre is probably my least favourite boss fight, if you don't count the folding screen monkeys.

 

[Multidirectional]

I don't have anything against ogre, find him really easy. Even without the flame prosthetic. With it he's just a joke. Does require to be more dodge oriented than most other fights though.

 

[Lyric Suite]

~ Recycling Is Fun (Part 3): Ghost Busting ~
​

Spoiler

Alright, last chapter in the recycled boss saga!

I do my best to pick the place clean, as much as i can since i can't see shit because of the fog, and now it's time to move top side. I now come face to face what is definitely a Buddha statue:



Guy at its feet can barely even talk, let alone walk. I know those Buddhist monks are into suffering and asceticism but this is a bit much:




Is there anybody in this place that even knows how Buddhism works? Then again i am a killer for hire so whatever. Someone is opposing Buddha around here?




An abandoned (well not anymore i guess if he lives in there) temple, got it.




Alright then.

I look around but there's not much to see, just some loot:





etc etc

This place isn't as large as i thought it was going to be. I still take my time to look under every nook and cranny, and i now see there's two possible paths to the next section. One after a couple of chickens that leads to more ghosts:



Another one hidden in fog:




I decide to pick the latter, as i'm curious to see where it leads. After crawling over a ledge:



I now come face to face with a FIFTH recycled boss. It's like they decided to just put them all in one place:



Well, time for battle i guess.

Fifth recycled boss in a row. I guess they figured they might as well pick a place and put them all in there. This guy is a bit wayward to deal with because of his size. Sometimes his swings can catch you on the side, sometimes they clear over your heard and won't connect for a deflection. Adding his grab attacks this creates an uneven rhythm which makes my deflections a bit wonky. I could probably make it perfect with enough practice but it doesn't matter, i think i got him figured out as it is.

Ho, i didn't have to sic his monkey friends on him i just through it was hilarious to watch it happen lol.

Spoiler

So this guy was so drunk he ended up living in some dilapidated shack with only monkeys for friends. Kinda of sad to be honest:



Around the broken shack there's a little nugget:



Just some worthless pellets. At this point, i'm just finding loot more for the fun of discovering secrets than any need to pick up some consumable i'll never use.

After jumping over some ropes, i now find myself within reach of the second floor of what i assume is the "abandoned" temple that monk dying of malnutrition was talking about:



At this point i get the totally hairbrained idea of just backtracking and return to the other path with the ghosts. I figured i should pick the place clean before facing the boss. If only i knew.

Like the moron i am, i make may way back:



Scouting around i see i'm on the bottom side of that temple:



This guy was sweeping the dirt for some reason. I can only assume he just took an ectoplasmic shit and was covering it:



Scouting further ahead, the game even flat out tells me to kill myself for being such a retard:



I scoff at the game and decide to approach the temple anyway. I pick the left side:



When suddenly i hear a dog growl. Of course, ghost dogs. Why didn't i think of that. I bolt out of there just in time to catch the thing jumping at me, still barely visible:



Well, sneaking around this place just went out the window, since the dogs can make my position way before i can even see them. So i just charge in to clean the loot and bolt out and while i'm dodging dogs and bandits some fucker even starts shooting arrows at me:



I was literally up there a few moments before i'm thinking his appearance was scripted. At this point i just decided to fight my way out of this. It wasn't pretty but i pulled through, and i'm now in front of the temple:



At this point i start hearing music, and the ghost bandits appear to be enthralled by it. Was this what the samurai was hearing the whole time? I go take a closer look:




But as i'm pondering those questions, dogs again:



Ok now i'm getting more than a little bit fed up with this place. I make one final round of the temple, where i spot what is obviously a trap:



I sneak around him to make sure there's nobody there, but as soon as i hit him, i get ganked by bandits and dogs out of nowhere and i die:



Ok, that fucking does it. There's no way those guys were hiding anywhere as i checked which means this was a scripted event and that shit is just irritating to me. Time to deal with this boss and get the hell out of here.

After rezzing, i make my way up to the boss:





He appears to be surrounded by monks, this might be dicey. Time for bravery!

Lmao, just what the fuck was this. I mean i get it, the "boss" battle was the ghosts outside, sort of like a mini-boss version of the Folding Screen Monkeys puzzle boss fight (the puzzle being that if you killed this guy right away you didn't have to deal with either fog or ghosts), but i think it was totally unecessary to make this guy a non-boss fight. I honestly was waiting for some surprise to happen as i couldn't believe it was supposed to be this easy. I figured, ok, in the second phase he is actually gonna turn dangerous, but nope lol.

Spoiler

Ok this was just retarded. No only was this boss not actually a boss, but killing him cleared this entire area of both ghosts and the fog. All the sneaking shit i did to explore the area outside and pick all the loot while avoiding the ghosts was pointless. I could have have just come here to kill this guy right off the bat and i would have had the whole place for myself, no mist or ghosts. As i go outside, it even seems i wasn't as thorough as i thought either:



The temple was of course an illusion too, as were all the monks inside around the "boss":



After taking one last spooky shot:



I go talk to the monk guy, who doesn't have much to say:




I'm not even gonna bother trying to get any of the lore around this place, as i've lost the plot completely at this point. Time to get the hell out of here:



Following this trail, i now come on an opening:



I assume this is the path towards that village everybody is talking about:



I now make my way down the tree branch, and i come face to face with a couple of ghost nightjar guys. This is starting to get irritating am i just going to meet those things constantly through out the rest of the game now?



I make my charge and try to overpower the first as fast as possible like i did the last time, relying on that rope jumping point to flank them, but this time the game was more clever than i expected as while i was killing the second guy the first just started to throw ninja blades at me and i got killed. I managed to pull through all the same:



I now see there's a Sculptor's Idol below this tree, so i might as well make my way there before the game throws any more surprises at me!

 

[cvv]

Ok this was just retarded. No only was this boss not actually a boss, but killing him cleared this entire area of both ghosts and the fog. All the sneaking shit i did to explore the area outside and pick all the loot while avoiding the ghosts was pointless. I could have have just come here to kill this guy right off the bat and i would have had the whole place for myself, no mist or ghosts.

Welcome to the club.

Retards who always blindly sprint through games, not exploring anything, were rewarded for once.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Except the coughing dude tells you exactly what's going on. Kill the dude, lift the fog and free the villagers. Game rewarding retards? More like game punishing illiterates

 

[Lyric Suite]

I just assumed killing him would just clear the path forward, possibly the mist but definitely not the ghosts.

I'm thinking even if they wanted to make him so weak they could have had some tough set piece. Maybe have him surrounded with ghost enemies. Have him spawn bosses, like the snail thing in Elden Ring. Anything to make this feel like an actual boss.

Ho well, i guess they thought the "surprise" to the player was worth the anti-climax.

 

[cvv]

Except the coughing dude tells you exactly what's going on.

If you, on your first run, understood immediately and flawlessly what you have to do after talking to that chainsmoker then I'm truly illiterate compared to your towering magnificence.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Not sure what to tell you. The fact that the villagers are ghostly made the connection for me at once. I was actually surprised they could be killed in that form, as I was expecting them to be invincible until their master was taken care of. FROM has pulled this trope several times before, like with the necromancers in Dark Souls 1 and 2.

As for the boss itself, it didn't bother me. The idea of a being with such powerful magical abilities being completely impotent once you actually come face to face with it is another classic trope that FROM likes to use. Wizard of Oz and all that. It's not like this game has a shortage of bosses that are actually serious.

 

[cvv]

As for the boss itself, it didn't bother me. The idea of a being with such powerful magical abilities being completely impotent once you actually come face to face with it is another classic trope that FROM likes to use. Wizard of Oz and all that. It's not like this game has a shortage of bosses that are actually serious.

With that I can agree. I actually love little quirks like that.

Not all bosses have to be "BWWWRAAAAHH SAINT ISSHIN GOES BRRRRRR!!1!1!1"

 

[Egosphere]

A throwback to shaded woods in DS2. They should have simply left the mist noble as a regular enemy and not a mini boss.

 

[Multidirectional]

Mini-bosses are the ones that drop prayer beads. Mist noble is just some shit you have to hit few times to lift the fog.