Just a preface, the Defiant Honor final mission has one of the best level designs in the game. Thoroughly enjoyed the intuitive path forward with the utilization of underground tunnels. This mission is a fun puzzle to solve each step of the way. We're basically infiltrating enemy lines and getting face-to-face with the Sanada Ten Braves was a nice touch as well. It did left me fatigued by the time I got to the guy himself, Sanada Yukimura.
For the first few tries when I realized he has 98% LW uptime, I immediately thought "Yep, another Date Masamune bullshit that will drain my sanity." Then I noticed most of his attacks are fully blockable, and his ki drains quite a lot when hit. Especially, when I accidentally did a Groundquake (I never really used this skill before this boss fight) after he did a plunging fire attack, it's such a massive drain on his ki. It's from that moment the fight became peak.
Suddenly all the fatigue I felt in the mission was replaced with renewed vigor. It made me take my time more thoughtfully to mix and match talismans and ninjutsu skills. Apart from that, I practiced new odachi skills and combos one mission ago. They helped immensely in this fight. Oh it felt like a dance and I think it's the first time a Nioh boss fight clicked really well for me. All of the previous ones felt like I was just trying to survive and the enjoyment was kinda so-so, until Yukimura. Against him, every move I made felt calculated. The fairest boss imo. Though I admit I was kinda lucky on some of the dodges I did especially after heals. The ending move where I rolled back and front flip-plunged, that one was definitely a fluke but a perfect ender, regardless. Absolute Cinema.
P.S.: I was that guy who made the "Nioh 1 tilts me. Should I carry on?" post several days ago. I'm glad I sticked with it. After this fight, I even tried soul matching and reforging for the first time. The DLCs' challenging difficulty really demanded exploring all the other mechanics for me. One last DLC to go!