Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Might be the best boss I've fought in a game, ever. The first phase was a tense clash of blades and learning his attack patterns and punishing accordingly was so goddamn satisfying. I went from having a long drawn out war of attrition - which I'd ultimately lose thanks to the twist - to beating this phase without having to use a single healing item.

The second phase though... hoo boy. His range becomes a real problem as having to back off to heal could result in him hitting his leaping lunge or peppering you with lightning attacks. I felt like I'd barely scraped through this on my victorious run as even though his moveset was still mostly the same, the addition of those heavy hitting lightning attacks made the battle feel so perilous and tense. Jas can attest to how sweary I got fighting that bastard.  

Incredible stuff, From.

The Demon of Hatred.

Fuck me, I've not been as angry at a boss as I have fighting this fucker. It felt like fighting a boss from Souls except Wolf is incredibly squishy and doesn't have the bulk to survive more than a hit or two. Combine that with big sweeping hitboxes and lots of fire to make the game's often shonky camera even tougher to follow and you've got a recipe for rage. The worst thing this boss fight did was throw in a massive unblockable charge attack which the boss does when you're in its face on occasion. Normally, this would be fine, but you've got to rely solely on the audio cue for the attack as the little red visual symbol is near-impossible to notice considering the size of the boss and the fact it blends into the colour of the boss too. Miss it and there goes 80% of my life bar.

Couple that with the boss's massive health bar and I genuinely felt like snapping the disc in two. There was one occasion where I literally had one or two attacks left to kill the fucker and he got me with his unblockable charge because I couldn't hear the audio cue behind the music reaching a crescendo in the "epic" last phase of the fight. I hated this. I had to look up a strategy to find out you can use a certain prosthetic tool to stun him a few times, which I suppose makes sense from a lore perspective. But yeah, I've not been a big fan of the non-humanoid bosses in this game.

I beat him though. Eat shit, Demon of Hatred.

Great battle! Really washed away the foul taste of the Demon of Hatred.

I did think I would have a showdown with Genichiro again, but I was surprised to see Isshin pop up. I still don't quite understand why he was the final boss in place of Genichiro. Was he working with Genichiro all along?

In any case, I was concerned a four phase boss battle would prove impossible, but it was actually alright! My thoughts on each phase:

1) Genichiro - A bit of a pushover, all told. His big Mortal Blade slashes to open the fight were dangerous, but I had his regular moveset committed to memory after his initial boss fight. His health and posture felt lower than Isshin's too.

2) Isshin (sword only) - Yeah, this was fine too. After getting over the fear at how fast he was moving, he actually had a predictable pattern. If I parried a slash, followed up with one of my own and then parried the riposte, he would always go for a thrust which was easily Mikuri countered. That left a massive window for an Ichimonji Double, which took a huge chunk of his posture bar. Piece of piss, really.

3) Isshin (sword and spear) - The toughest phase. The range of spear thrusts was deceptively long and the timing to Mikuri counter his thrusts felt awkward too. This phase felt more like a battle of attrition than anything else. Could I defeat him before I ran out of healing items? I found staying in his face to lead to the most success here.

4) Isshin (lightning mode) - A bit easier than the last phase. I found I could consistently nail him with a lightning blast which would lead to a window in which I could hit an Ichimonji Double. So, I didn't need to worry about outlasting him as much in this phase as I could wear him down quicker with lightning counters.

Yep, fantastic final boss. Onwards to the platinum trophy...?

Not sure if you went back to the castle tower or not after demon of hatred or maybe even your ending differed from mine but Isshin was dead for me (remember Emma mentions he's ill early-ish in the story) & with the dark arts/black mortal blade Genichiro summons Isshin in his prime as his final wish to save Ashina.