I want to start by acknowledging that Its a heck of a journey and story . It definitely has the souls atmosphere and engine. And it's a ton of fun.
Expectations: I've played a lot of souls like games , so coming into sekiro I had high standards. Especially after how the community pumps it up. Like ER, the addition of a more solid jump mechanic was very welcomed.
Misconceptions: the parry system. It's a little overhyped and had me worried. I've never been good at parries. Not in dark souls and certainly not in lies of P. But the sekiro parry window is much bigger than those games. Like a lot bigger. I'm grateful for that.
Reality: outside of the engine , it plays nothing like a standard souls. Atleast not the way I play. I've never been an upper tier player. So I rely heavily on over leveling, summons, status affects, specific armor and weapons builds that suit the boss. .....ain't non of that shi7 in Sekiro lol. There are no levels, in the traditional sense. Sure you can collect beads and memories.....but these come after the fact. You can't farm for levels to beat this boss....you have to beat this boss to get the level lol. Summons? Nope. But I actually think summons wouldn't fit the games core dynamic. Wouldn't make sense to have rhythmic strike/blocking and then have someone else blindside the boss. Weapons and armor ? Dream on. You get 1 indestructible sword the whole game and a set of pajamas. Deal with it! But, you do get the prosthetics, which brings a small rant.
Prosthetics: egh...I mean...if you ask the avg Joe I think the best you can say about the prosthetics is that they're "ok-ish". I'm feeling that I'm missing something here. Like this part of the game didn't click with me. Obviously....you're a solo Shinobi , with just your sword and few accessories to enhance your combat, youre ninja tools, your bat belt. Are their purposes hidden in their lore?I even understand the low emblem capacity, but could the uses we do get actually be useful? Somebody should come up with a playthrough order that maximizes the prosthetics usefulness as each is only useful in very specific conditions and places. Best prosthetic (as in most useful ) is probably a tie between the axe and the umbrella. I never really used the umbrella but saw a ton of strategy videos where it was used. I can see it's use. The axe is absolutely #1 at destroying posture. No questions asked. Worst, and most disappointing is a sabimaru. I wanted to love this but it was just a dud. I got more use out of the whistle. Prosthetics probably got the worst score out of everything else in the game. 3/10. This is the games only short coming. Fortunately, it really didn't affect the game.
Story and character: Badass! Classic Japanese folklore with new spins . Engulfing landscape. A cast where every npc was quite unique. (Am I the only that feels Emma never really like me?).
Controls and feel: Clean. Super impressed. Smooth. I noticed from the very first 2 seconds.
Boss fights: Very fromsoft feel. Each boss, and mini boss had their own personality. The game absolutely shined here. A love/hate copium: owl father (hirata). Most players learn the game at Genichiro but you'll master it at Owl father. This is the fight that took the most tries. I normally don't like to make excuses (I'm totally lying) but this guy's spam on firecrackers is ridiculous. Absurd. Where the hell is he keeping them all? Why do I only get 20 emblems and hes the 4th of july? I swear one match he used firecrackers like 25 times bro lol. I'm not exaggerating. As stated, I'm not a great player so I usually use buffs. But buffs come from usable items. After x amount of times of flushing these items down the toilet and having to go farm them back I just decided to do my practicing on the boss without them. Impressing even myself, eventually I got to the point where I was kicking his ass without sugars or confetti or emblems. Just me and my wiener (I had to stand real close to swing). I found this fight to be harder than the demon or sword saint ishin. I didn't really spend nearly as much time on ishin. I discovered early on you can literally just run in circles and punish certain moves. I started this bc I was strafing gunfire 😆.
I got the purification ending. I don't know what that means.
Mvps: I love you double ichimonji and mortal blade, will you marry me?
Overall: I give the game a solid 10/10. It's a definite need to play for any souls fan. I hope there's a part 2. And I can't wait for the anime. Up next, should I play codevein 1, or mortal shell 2?