What game are you playing?

[MFB]

That Snake Eyes feels MUCH harder than the one on the bridge before the gun fortress. I'm assuming you also cleared out the RPG enemies before engaging them? If not, then that's like, priority #1.

It took me a decent amount to do the run between Guardian - Snake Eyes - then the boss that's not too far from there; I remember that moment almost broke me as the back-to-back-TO-BACK of bosses.

 

[wankerness]

Yeah, I always cleared out the area first. Something about its attack patterns just made it so it was impossible for me to either do vitality or posture damage. Like, most of its attacks couldn't be deflected to increase posture (ex the gun shots), it always spammed the grab move which you just had to dodge and thus also couldn't effectively capitalize on, and it always blocked the sabimaru which was the super-easy way to kill the first one. I'd fight it for 2 minutes and get like 2 hits on it, not even coming close to taking down a full health bar. There's also the problem where you either have to stealth deathblow it or kill all the other mobs, you can't do both! Well, maybe you could if you ran away instantly after doing so and managed to take out the other several cannon guys with it shooting at you the whole time.

 

[MFB]

Yeah, I always cleared out the area first. Something about its attack patterns just made it so it was impossible for me to either do vitality or posture damage. Like, most of its attacks couldn't be deflected to increase posture (ex the gun shots), it always spammed the grab move which you just had to dodge and thus also couldn't effectively capitalize on, and it always blocked the sabimaru which was the super-easy way to kill the first one. I'd fight it for 2 minutes and get like 2 hits on it, not even coming close to taking down a full health bar. There's also the problem where you either have to stealth deathblow it or kill all the other mobs, you can't do both! Well, maybe you could if you ran away instantly after doing so and managed to take out the other several cannon guys with it shooting at you the whole time.

IIRC, there's what, two soldiers on the ground by the statue before SE right? I would always go to the guy at the very top of the arena above the sculptor's idol, and then trees to cut across and take out the other guys up top. Once that was done go back to ground level, wait for SE to go down towards the cave on his path, and rush the two guards to kill them while he's on his way back up to me.

I think you can time it right so that they're dead and you're hidden behind the statue so you can get the free deathblow, or just pop a sugar for invisibility and run by to the end of the cave and fight him in close quarters.

 

[wankerness]

I'm sure this is going to be one of those situations where I kill it in 30 seconds on my first try the next time I play the game. But damn, that thing seemed invincible yesterday.

 

[MFB]

Nothing like having an enemy with legitimately one hit to go and you die, only to realize you still have your resurrection to use; so you get back up and pop him for the last hit to break posture and bam - Gyobu is down in the first attempt on this run.

He got me with two of those big whirlwind attacks he does in the very beginning and I use two pellets to come back from that. But because I was so close to death I legit thought I used my revive already so I was going all out.

Edit: the two little gwee-gwohs in the garden tag teamed me and killed me, what a fucking shit

 

[Werecow]

Nothing like having an enemy with legitimately one hit to go and you die, only to realize you still have your resurrection to use; so you get back up and pop him for the last hit to break posture and bam - Gyobu is down in the first attempt on this run.

He got me with two of those big whirlwind attacks he does in the very beginning and I use two pellets to come back from that. But because I was so close to death I legit thought I used my revive already so I was going all out.

Edit: the two little gwee-gwohs in the garden tag teamed me and killed me, what a fucking shit

I've talked about my addiction to Sekiro before, but man it's still a strange game for me.

I sort of always have a run-through on the go, and i actually chill out while playing it now (yeh i know). What's weird is that it really relfects my state of mind like no other game. Last week i had a run where i no-damage defeated three bosses, and had one death through the whole game (to Isshin). A couple of days later on the next run, i've died from full health to a giant chicken, died three times just getting to Drunkard, then got to Gyoubu and all of a sudden just couldn't beat him. I died completely three times to him, and it was because my deflects just weren't working at all. Not just mis-timed so it was a block, but full hits on me. He is usually one of the bosses i usually don't need a gourd with. It was like i had to re-learn him from scratch.

 

[Spaced Out Ace]

I was playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, but I finished that last weekend. I like action RPGs, but most of them seem to be pretty bright and kid friendly. I wish I enjoyed Super Metroid, though I don't quite gel with something about it.

 

[MFB]

Wow, I really can't beat Genichiro now even though I've had no issues up through this entire first portion? Guess I have to put it down for the night then.

 

[wankerness]

Well, I did beat Snake Eyes first try today, after rushing to her and backstabbing, and then the cannon guy kept hitting her when he tried to shoot me and that made it a joke. Accidental cheese!

Headless Ape/his girlfriend took three tries, the real difficulty is just finding openings to attack the ape with a head, it dies in like 10 seconds of sustained attacks but that can take minutes to achieve.

O'Ren of the water or whatever also took one try. Drunkard #2, one try. Corrupted monk took two. Tried one headless once and died after wasting tons of consumables and then asked myself "why am I even bothering." The rewards for those things are not worth it, at all. I think you only need to kill one of the wizard guys for the upgrade material and can skip all the others along with ALL the headless and still get platinum.

And then I tried to fight that red-eyed asshole on the island in the dungeon and got killed AT LEAST 10 times. That guy is the fucking worst. Even by himself!

Then I scrambled around for a really long time trying to figure out how to get back in Ashina Castle and quit at that save point. My girlfriend comes back tomorrow though so I probably won't get a chance to play much again until my muscle memory is all gone again.

 

[Werecow]

And then I tried to fight that red-eyed asshole on the island in the dungeon and got killed AT LEAST 10 times. That guy is the fucking worst. Even by himself!

Had no idea what you were talking about at first, then found a video of someone fighting two people with red eyes at once there. Is that what happens if you send people to the creepy surgeon guy? I've sent the samurai guy to him before, but i've never seen the outcome.

 

[gabito]

Mortal Kombat XL.

It's been fun so far, but after playing MK9 for a while it feels kind of slower paced. Not that unusual for MK games (they usually are that way, compared to other fighting games at least), but MK9 felt faster.

Not complaining though, the game is good.

 

[gabito]

Yay, Kratos and his annoying kid are finally back!

 

[wankerness]

Had no idea what you were talking about at first, then found a video of someone fighting two people with red eyes at once there. Is that what happens if you send people to the creepy surgeon guy? I've sent the samurai guy to him before, but i've never seen the outcome.

Yeah. It's the quest with that medical guy if you send the Mibu Village NPC to him. He turns the NPC into a redeye and he has a big 2H sword and he hits like a truck and is relentless. Was taking off 80% of my health per attack with 7 prayer necklaces.

If you go to the island slightly early in the quest chain you only have to fight them one at a time, that's what I did, but was still getting WRECKED. I think on my first playthrough I did it like normal where you have to fight them both and had to do shenanigans with popping the stealth sugar, swimming over there, climbing up the side of the area, and deathblowing one of them so I didn't have to fight both at once. But yeah, the sword NPC is NASTY. And the rewards are crap.

I played for an hour or so this morning, beat the two purple ninja asshole minibosses before Great Owl (one in the serpent temple in the woods, the other right before the window to get to Owl). I think in this game I'm just REALLY bad at fighting any enemy that kicks you instead of hits you with a sword. For some reason I suck at properly parrying these guys. I'm blocking everything, but my posture always gets built up super-fast and I rarely get a chance to counterattack cause I'm always getting shoved back by their attacks. I hate them. The "real" bosses tend to be much easier than the minibosses I think, partly cause the minibosses usually only have one health bar so they tend to be way overtuned in comparison. I hate these ninja guys and if memory serves the worst is still to come (the one that chain summons dogs in Hirata Estate 2).

 

[MFB]

I can kick the absolute fuck out of any spear enemy with the Mikiri Counter, and enemies with sword/rifle are quick enough to beat as the default, but the dudes with the heavy axes screw up my timing compared to the rest. Someday I'll remember what it is, but they attack so erratically compared to the typical weapons, that I just always take at least two hits from them.

 

[Werecow]

Yeah. It's the quest with that medical guy if you send the Mibu Village NPC to him. He turns the NPC into a redeye and he has a big 2H sword and he hits like a truck and is relentless. Was taking off 80% of my health per attack with 7 prayer necklaces.

If you go to the island slightly early in the quest chain you only have to fight them one at a time, that's what I did, but was still getting WRECKED. I think on my first playthrough I did it like normal where you have to fight them both and had to do shenanigans with popping the stealth sugar, swimming over there, climbing up the side of the area, and deathblowing one of them so I didn't have to fight both at once. But yeah, the sword NPC is NASTY. And the rewards are crap.

I played for an hour or so this morning, beat the two purple ninja asshole minibosses before Great Owl (one in the serpent temple in the woods, the other right before the window to get to Owl). I think in this game I'm just REALLY bad at fighting any enemy that kicks you instead of hits you with a sword. For some reason I suck at properly parrying these guys. I'm blocking everything, but my posture always gets built up super-fast and I rarely get a chance to counterattack cause I'm always getting shoved back by their attacks. I hate them. The "real" bosses tend to be much easier than the minibosses I think, partly cause the minibosses usually only have one health bar so they tend to be way overtuned in comparison. I hate these ninja guys and if memory serves the worst is still to come (the one that chain summons dogs in Hirata Estate 2).

The key to the ninja that summons dogs is to interrupt him with shuriken if he's about to whistle.

 

[wankerness]

The key to the ninja that summons dogs is to interrupt him with shuriken if he's about to whistle.

Yeah, that was how I beat him on my first playthrough, it's just annoying that not only is he the same infuriating to fight purple ninja, he'll summon dogs that are virtually guaranteed to kill your ass if you let him get away for a few seconds.

Weirdly the guy by the serpent temple only buffed himself on a couple of attempts this time. I thought that was unavoidable based on my first two playthroughs. Maybe I just got really lucky this go-around, maybe the PC version is on a different patch than PS4 was.

 

[MFB]

Mmm, nothing like having the final blow against Genichiro be a lightning reversal into a deathblow. Tried maybe a handful of times right after dinner, then went to the gym, came back home and got him on the 2nd or 3rd try.

Also took down Drunkard Jinzo AND kept the dude alive afterwards, which has never happened. Gonna go after Madam Butterfly next and fuck up that old broad's shit.

 

[Werecow]

Weirdly the guy by the serpent temple only buffed himself on a couple of attempts this time. I thought that was unavoidable based on my first two playthroughs. Maybe I just got really lucky this go-around, maybe the PC version is on a different patch than PS4 was.

After doing so many runs, i've noticed that enemies can have "patterns" of behaviour, where on some runs they'll do things repeatedly that they don't do a single time on other runs. I've noticed it mostly against Owl Ashina and Genichiro. Sometimes Owl will use firecrackers in Ashina, and it took me about 5 runs for him to do that the first time to me. Genichiro will also sometimes decide to do just unblockable swipes instead of the usual unblockable thrust that he normally does after his leap attack.

 

[MFB]

I think this run was the first time Genichiro did the grab attack on me, I don't recall ever seeing it on my first playthrough or even my NG+ run. He also only thrust maybe once or twice, something I don't recall him doing before either; luckily for me, I had trained with Hinabe for thrusts as I forgot those were unblockable even with Mikiri.

 

[wankerness]

Yeah, Genichiro did the grab attack ONCE in my 5 or so attempts this playthrough, I'd forgotten about it too. The thrust thing is guaranteed to open phase 3 though, so I always remembered that. It's just kind of rare the rest of the time.

I played for about 30 minutes yesterday - beat Shinobi Owl on my first try (only 5 gourd uses, and only got hit by his stupid healing bomb twice despite the fight dragging on for probably five minutes, but did use Rice which is super overpowered), then did all the tons of running around and talking to NPCs till they move and doing the specific missable eavesdrops to set up the various optional endings. Stopped in front of the dog-summoning ninja jerk in the V2 Hirata Estate.