crowtoes | Sekiro Liveblog / First Impressions (Reply)

This game has eaten my brain. I'm not very far in AT ALL (though I've watched some LP bits and cutscenes) but if nothing drastic changes I think this might be my favorite FromSoftware title yet, AND EVERYONE KNOWS HOW MUCH I LOVED DS3. It's so fun even though I suck at it the way I sucked at soulsborne games at first. It'll probably take me a few months to get through it w/ my RSI issues, but that's okay. Anyway, I was talking with a friend about wishing I'd liveblogged MP100 the first time I watched it, so here is (part one of?) my Sekiro impressions haha

Kurowolf is so fucking cute...the loyalty, the concern for each other, the uncountable deaths in Kuro's service, the fact that Wolf gleefully shanks his way across the map with no remorse but is so uncomfortable with the thought of hurting Kuro that he has to turn away to give him a tiny cut, the gentle teasing!!! I love the characters and relationships in the Soulsborne games too, but the fact that this relationship is so central and that both characters have faces, voices, and distinct personalities (rather than the amount of RP/projection you can do w/ your character in Dark Souls) really ramps up the chemistry and heartstring-yanking. Both of them are delightful; Kuro really inspires that 'I'd die for you' feeling of affection (which is good since...you definitely will) and Wolf is such a great PC, equal parts badass and endearing. I'd seen artists talking about how he's the cutest FromSoft PC so far and THEY'RE RIGHT, AHHHH, gap moe all over the place whenever he's around Kuro. Also I love how he jumps, he just springs around like a deer.

4/19

Every time I boot the game up again I have to recalibrate and remember how the combat works differently from DS, lol. I dodge too much, don't deflect enough. I keep forgetting to use the grappling hook and jump mechanics as much as I probably can during fights too. Have to practice practice practice
Beat the Chained Ogre on my sixth try! Now I am ready to die 500 times fighting the Samurai miniboss in the next courtyard, sobs
Watched another dialogue clip on YT and discovered that Wolf just eats uncooked rice by itself?? Omg...and he just grunts when Kuro calls him out on it, lmao. I started to tear up when Kuro asked if he liked sweets and then said he'd make something nice for him and Wolf was like "Something...nice?" like omg baby...please let your tiny wife take care of you 😭
Still CANNOT stop thinking about Kuro moaning Wolf's name in his sleep...I don't know who was responsible for that being in the game but I owe them my life

4/21

hands and wrists really acting up today so have to play in short bursts
I can mikiri counter hanbei pretty well but suck at doing it to anyone else
advanced a bit farther in hirata estate but then got my ass handed to me by shinobi hunter spearguy
beat the samurai general without cheesing! have gotten better at jumping on people 4 posture damage. then i moved to the next area and was so scared of the snake i had to quit as soon as i got into the cave past him LOL
made it to gyoubu as well, jumped down into the boss arena and immediately chugged 2 gourds instead of rotating my prostethic bc i'm too used to dark souls controls....

4/22

beat spearman and gyoubu! but i also died too many times and made Crow Mob sick, which is extra sad since those words are basically my two favorite things 😔
i kept nagami alive through the juzou fight and was so proud of myself because everyone said it was really hard to do anD THEN HE DIED OF POISON IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARD

4/24

BEAT LADY BUTTERFLY, YAY. reading about the gold flash when an enemy parries you + getting her combat rhythms down helped a LOT - i went from dying before her first phase was even half depleted to not even using all my gourds on the fight where i finally beat her. i didn't use a single gourd on her first phase! her scary violin music and the TIINK TIINK TIINK sounds of blades whacking each other is gonna be stuck in my head a while tho.
kuro is so cute...so sweet...the memory remnant of him calling wolf with the reed whistle, and the butterfly flashback where he gives wolf the power to resurrect, were both so good. also the memory remnant when you return to the tower from the start of the game! i love how he talks to wolf when he's not there, thinks about him all the time even though it's been so long since they really saw each other outside those brief moments in the tower and the tunnel...ugh, my heart
speaking of memories/remnants/wolf's amnesia...what's up with that. does he remember his birth parents? he apparently forgot meeting emma before too, according to some dialogue i saw on reddit. and wtf was he doing those three years between hirata and the start of the game?
saw someone tweet about wolf saying "centipedes? in my vagina?" and scream-laughed
also beat blazing bull yesterday and samurai general miniboss today, and have made it into ashina castle proper. the nightjars are pains in my ass but not too terrible, but i'm :| at the upcoming ashina elites...hopefully theyre not too much of a wall.
dreading genichiro with every fiber of my being.
imagine fighting sword saint and tripping over your own severed arm

5/1

I MADE IT TO THE WAY OF TOMOE PHASE!! THREE TIMES!!! I can totally beat him i just need. some time. BUT WHOOOHOOOOO I AM MAKING PROGRESS HELL YEAH
had to take a break for a few days bc wrists :(
I also forgot to update here the last couple times i've played but yeah - i'm to genichiro obvs, and have also met doujun, reached sunken valley entrance, and gotten killed by snake eyes a couple times. i have 7 gourd seeds, 3 prayer necklaces, and 1 loose prayer bead. don't particularly want to take on any minibosses rn since the only ones available are all terrible (loneshadow and loneshadow's horrible camera, 7 ashina spears, snake eyes) but we'll see how hard way of tomoe fucks me, haha
the gun fort music is gr8 btw - not that i've lived long enough to hear most of it....
also did some grinding today to see if nightjar slash would help with genichiro (it did not - too slow) and impressed myself with how much better i've gotten at deflecting. i can do the run from ashina antechamber idol down to clear out the entire old grave area without taking any damage, whoo! (most of those kills involve stealth deathblows rather than face-to-face fighting but shhh)
this game is a ton of fun. my wrist was getting sore and i was like 'i'll just try genichiro one more time to practice, then call it for today' AND THEN I GOT HIM TO PHASE 3 AND WAS SO HYPED I FOUGHT HIM FOUR MORE TIMES. And got him to phase three on 2 of those 4! I CAN BEAT HIM I CAN TOTALLY DO IT I JUST NEED SOME TIME. also gotta learn how to dodge/deflect the lightning because that is some hot bullshit
the dialogue between wolf and genichiro when wolf resurrects the second time is so fucking romantic oh my god??? "I'm taking him back..." "Still you stand? Why do you serve him...?" OH MY GODDDDDDDD HE LOVES KURO SO MUCH
forgot to mention I also cured everyone of dragonrot, though anayama and...someone else, i forget who, are sick again because i've died so many times to genichiro haha. i have 3 or 4 droplets so i'm not terribly worried; i'll cure them all again after i clear snake eyes.

5/3

I BEAT GENICHIRO FIRST TRY TODAY. i wasn't expecting it at all, was even thinking 'wow i totally botched this one' since I only had one gourd left when I got to phase3, BUT I DID IT!!!! and it felt fucking AMAZING. my hands were shaking afterward. then of course wolf got to meet up with his tiny boywife again and they were so cute <3
the sakura droplet dialogue is so wildly suggestive omg. WHY DID THEY BOTH GRUNT-SIGH LIKE THAT.
wolf and kuro are married. also i nominated them and reimob for justmarriedexchange >_>
made it to senpou temple and am just before armored warrior! i haven't died at all in this area so far so i'm suspecting robert's dad is going to demolish me haha

5/6

i love this game so much. the characters continue to be great; kotaro surprised me with how emotional he made me. i was undecided about where to send him at first, waffling between anayama and halls of illusion. then he called wolf a good man when he gave him the red and white pinwheel and i teared up and was instantly like 'okay happy ending for you'...his dialogue in the halls also made me misty. (though i wish they'd translated his 'miko-sama' as something other than 'the kids' since he's specifically talking about the murdered divine children and that isn't as clear in english.) i also looked up what happens if you send him to doujun and got teary again upon learning his dad was the one who wrote the note in the dungeon and kotaro calls for him when he dies. :'(
i eavesdropped on sleeping kuro and then watched him sleep for a while and it was. so much. also if he's sitting on the table in the library you practically put your head in his lap if you kneel close and??? wow
senpou temple was really...easy? armored warrior took me 3 or 4 tries but after him i didn't permadie even once through the rest of the area. i've been grinding there a bit over the past couple days too since the monks are so easy to kill and there are so many of them. the long-armed centipedes in the temple and the gun fort were also unexpectedly easy despite how freaky they look
folding screen monkeys took AGES and i had to look up how to finally get the green and invisible monkeys, but i didn't die so that's good?
wolf's night vision is...sexy
i beat snake eyes shirafuji! and took on shirahagi in the depths too when i was trying to avoid fighting guardian ape. she killed me, uh, very fast.
beat 7 ashina spears and got my next prayer necklace! also went back to hirata and grabbed the mist raven prosthetic. so far the only minibosses i can access and haven't beaten are: headless, shirahagi, and shichimen warrior (whew that one seems hard - i tried him twice and died before i could even make it a third of the way through his first health bar, so my plan is to wait until after guardian ape and then come back with the lilac umbrella).
i got guardian ape down to maybe a fifth of his health bar on phase 2 and then was unceremoniously diced to death...RIP. just like genichiro, i can totally do it i just need a few more practice runs. on the downside this fight is actually physically painful for me; holding the joystick to the side to run away from him fucking hurts after a while. i didn't notice it during the actual fight but as soon as i died i was like 'oh.' so i probably won't play any more today, which is a bummer since i've been having a lot of fun running around and making progress the past few days.
[several hours later] I LIED, I WENT BACK AGAIN AND BEAT HIM ON THE NEXT TRY. with lots of running away and munching on candy and pellets. and now i'm in pain again so that's it for now.

5/7

started the steps for purification and return endings! and even though i've seen the endings and already know the spoilers I know actually playing through it is going to destroy me. Kuro wants me to decapitate him 😢
I fed the Divine Child a persimmon and gave Kuro his special rice and he used it to make a treat for Wolf...what a sweet boy, using a gift meant for him to pamper his feral bodyguard who just runs around eating candy off the ground and eating raw rice and slaughtering people left and right <3 i love him...
my second try for snake eyes shirahagi was way less difficult than i expected, but i also stealth'd her first lifebar away so... :P
beat guardian ape 2.0 on my second try, which really surprised me - i figured it would be way worse. i only took 3-5 (don't remember) tries for part one but since i ran away so much i was expecting to have lots of trouble in a smaller arena with two (two!!!) apes, but it wasn't so bad. i died the first time bc i got trapped in a corner and he terror'd me to death with his scream, so once i learned to stay away from the walls that wasn't as much of a problem. and parrying his sword is way easier than dealing with his leap-flail-convulse moves from stage 1 of his regular form.
made it to the creepy misty woods and FUCK it is scary. people popping up left and right, creepy music... i quit for the night just now when i fell off a tree DIRECTLY ON TOP OF A HEADLESS
wolf being concerned about the divine child is so cute...also the soft way he talks about kuro, and the concern he shows when jinzaemon has dragonrot and he tells him not to strain himself with talking <3

5/8

the way wolf flails around when the mibu villagers grab his legs...cute. also i'm an idiot and didn't realize they popped out of the ground at specific points that can be easily avoided, so i got grabbed and mobbed half to death about a dozen times. seeing a bunch of tiny mutant old people whacking this shinobi with rakes was pretty hilarious though
o'rin was a fun fight. i have 6 prayer necklaces now
me: hm, everyone says to use divine confetti on the monk but surely it's not THAT necessary, right? *dies* *dies* *dies* *dies* ... *tries confetti* *wins first time*
all the underwater stuff is so pretty
even though i know spoilers and know he's fine, seeing kuro's room grayed out in the travel menu and then seeing ALL the ashina idols grayed out was still a big 'oh, shit' moment. the tension is so high and everything is so chaotic with the red-hat dudes running around, it's genuinely stressful. like "WHERE IS KURO, I NEED TO GET BACK TO HIM AND MAKE SURE HE'S SAFE." it doesn't help that red-hat dudes keep kicking my ass.

5/10

I BEAT OWL. took...eight tries maybe? his shitty little "wait, please!" when you deathblow him the first time was such a dick move haha. it was not a pretty fight at all - i used a jizo statue, all my gourds, all pellets, and all gokan sugars and still came VERY close to permadying, especially since toward the end i let myself get freaked out and got hung up on dodging/running away which got me very quickly killed (would have permadied if not for the jizo statue). kinda dreading owl (father) since he's supposed to be way harder, haha
i completed the steps for the return ending! i'm leaning toward picking that one over purification, though i'm still undecided. the divine child is a cutie. her telling her dead siblings that wolf is a kind man really got to me. ;-;
the sculptor also told me that i'm the one who has to kill him, so i'm HOPING that even though i didn't realize i could eavesdrop during the conversation between him and emma when he first comes down w/ dragonrot that i still managed to eavesdrop enough to get wolf to recognize him in the demon of hatred fight.
yesterday i got my 7th prayer necklace. i think i still have one or two loose prayer beads too, so tomorrow i might go take on the shichimen minibosses or maybe a headless if i run into a wall in hirata 2.0 or facing true corrupted monk. the minibosses i still have to face are, IIRC, headless x3, loneshadow masanaga in the great serpent shrine, and both shichimen dudes. plus masanaga and juzou in hirata 2.0, which i have accessed but haven't attempted yet.
ALSO!! I hadn't seen any spoilers that kuro will give you a THIRD rice ball, so when i found him in his room fretting about wolf's safety i was so unprepared for cuteness that i had to literally close the game and just process for a bit when he gave wolf another rice ball with this description: "A sweet, sticky rice ball made by Kuro. Slowly grants medium Vitality recovery and constant Posture recovery over time. Wolf senses it was created with feelings of resolve and a reluctance to part ways. Such deep emotions tend to be mumbled to oneself rather than shared." OH MY GODDD From went so hard for this ship i can't believe it...also i eavesdropped on him and he was talking about how strong wolf is and how he wishes he was that strong and AHHHHHHH

5/12

dw logged me out and didn't save what i'd written yesterday 😔
killed hirata!masanaga and juzou 2.0 first try, got my 8th prayer necklace, and made it to owl (father) yesterday. and died to owl A LOT. whoo boy. but i beat him this morning! i was so shaky afterward too; it was another really intense, not-pretty fight where i was on my last legs haha. i didn't use a jizo statue this time at least? but my pellets/fine snow/gokan sugar were all gone. so now i can choose between return and purification ending as i please. i kinda want to do return but also if i do decide to go for platinum, fighting dad!owl on ng+ sounds like a nightmare so maybe i should do purification first so i don't have to fight him again, LOL. then again fighting him was kinda fun in a way, despite its brutality...hm.
i also beat the underwater headless in the moat next to the old grave. regular headless in the forgotten woods still kicked my ass though
got true corrupted monk to phase 3 first try, so hopefully i won't be stuck on her for terribly long? i'm so close to the end of the game now...i don't want it to be over but i want to WIN yknow

lol i got too into playing the game and didn't finish this oops....but I platinumed Sekiro on June 18 and yes, it's officially my very favorite game. currently trying to decide if i should do ng+4 or just start a new save file and go from the beginning...purification (which is what I ended up picking on my first playthrough) is my favorite ending so i'll probably pick that as my default from here on, but return (which was the one I did last) was also very sweet.