As someone who hadn't really played a From game until Sekiro, I think Jan is doing incredibly well. He's honestly clicking with it way earlier than I did (Snake Eyes) and he could probably steam roll this game in about half the time it took him to beat Bloodborne if he keeps getting better which feels likely. Watching someone go from Sekiro to traditional souls combat is much more a comedy of errors as was my experience going into Elden Ring. That at least left me conditioned for diving into Dark Souls after, but your first souls post Sekiro is a hard surface to get sure footing on.
Glad to see a shoutout for Desperados 3. Felt the changes made between Shadow Tactics and D3 were really smart or just made for a better quality experience (after action timelapse diaorama upon completion is too granular even for me, but you could see how it serves the hardcore stealth fanbase). The missions are on the longer side, but the final mission/bossfight is pretty rad so you should try to push through to end for it.
Watching Crime Crew made me jump in and give GTA Online a try again. Halfway through Doomsday heists and wishing there was another series dedicated to that. What a great job ya’ll (especially Abby!) did.
Gonna go ahead and say it (especially now that Dan isn’t here): Curse of the Moon is better than Ritual of the Night. Didn’t play Simphony back in the day, just watched a friend play it, but the boss fights, music, art style and combat are all (subjectively!) superior in Curse of the Moon. Then again, I think Blasphemous is better than Ritual of the Night, which I know, is blasphemous.
Since I've only played Sekiro, my insights are limited. And since you (Jan) don't tend to summon that much it may be moot. But between the need to get good (ugh, that phrase)... but not perfect at parrying, and the lack of summoning, Sekiro may not be your cup of tea. That said, there is no boss in Sekiro that has as frantic an attack pattern as this orphan fella appears to have. Also, the majority of your buff items are little candies. So there's a plus.
As far as the Sekiro boss comparison question goes, some of the flashy sword swipe moves look similar to maybe one boss (mostly visual). The combat underpinning the whole thing makes the boss fight comparison with other From games a little too apples and oranges. Its fast. Definitely faster than the games that came before. But like Bloodborne, expect to die on your first try with any new boss because you're just starting to learn their pattern and timing. This is key for getting down parrying, which is not tied to a consumable item. And your health items refill between checkpoints. And there's no stamina. But there's no summoning of other players or NPC's. And you'll only ever have the one sword from beginning to end and no new outfits to dress your Sekiro up in. You'll either love it or absolutely hate it.
CracklyKlover's comments