It kind of does you can make the game harder

I'll be honest, I don't think I could call most of the time I spent with this game in the first 4 days fun. Even as a "Souls" fan I wasn't prepared for the fucking brutal difficulty curve at the beginning, with every minuscule amount of progress being dwarfed by heaping mounds of rage and frustration. But it all clicked when I beat Lady Butterfly. A really good resource I'd recommend is the youtube channel VaatiVidya. On top of really great deep dives into the souls/born lore he also did a tips video for Sekiro that was super useful.

@trottyvek: My experience was similar, although I did enjoy it from the start. Lady Butterfly was the first thing to give me a lot of trouble (first proper boss I did) but by the time I beat her I felt I had a good grasp on most of the mechanics. Most of the encounters since have been very manageable once I learnt the attack patterns and I owe it all to the lessons Lady Butterfly taught me.

im very happy to see most people dont want an easy mode. The entire point of these games is conquering the difficulty. If you cant handle it then the games are not for you. And I personally like the fact that most people wont be able to beat it. I might not beat it myself as the last couple bosses are insanely brutal. But Ill keep at it. Easy mode is the opposite of what these games are about.

I hate the building in fortnite but I dont cry about it. I just dont play it. I wish Mario Odyssey was more difficult but I dont bitch about it. I just move on. If you dont like the difficulty of from games then dont play them. But dont try and change it for the people that do.

With how From games are open to how you approach them right from them beginning, i believe that a lower difficulty would kill the fun factor. Since the lower difficulty won't keep you looking for different approaches of the game and stick to one until the end. This way their game will feel more repetitive.

From games are like puzzle games, where you follow the right steps for you to pass the hurdles you encounter.

If I had bought the game for the PS4, I probably would have quit. I didn't use the slowdown mod, but I did save scum the hell out of the game. It alleviates the hellish tedium of fighting back to bosses, and more importantly allows me to use special items without the risk of wasting them.

By the by, I know you can save scum on the PS4, but it's extremely convenient on the PC. Alt-F4 when I lose the fight, copy-paste the save game back into folder, start game. I'm back in the action in less than 60 seconds.

@burncoat: the quick slash samurai is the perfect example of why this game needs no easy mode and it would detract from the game.

Even more than in souls or bloodborne this game is about trying different aprouches to a fight. Can you beat him by quick deflects? Yes, i did it that way in ng+. The first time he slaughterd me..a lot. And every time i changed my aproach.

I explored more around the castle, found a shield prostetic that both shields you and makes deflecting way easier. And i destroyed him.

Moral of the story:do you need to get "gud" in sekiro? Why yes selfimprovement certainly helps. But if you are no master of the blade yet, all you need to be is smart/creative/open minded/keep your cool and all challanges in the game are doable. This is no starcraft where you need insane apm's to be good at it.

Summary:In sekiro you dont need to get gud, you need to learn to play smart and be patient.

I started my NG+ the other night. Night and day difference. IMO, it really just demonstrates that the game isn't that hard, you as the player just don't understand it yet.

I nearly gave up in the early game on my first playthrough. Now I'm ripping through it like a hot knife through butter. Knowing when and when not to attack. Knowing enemy behavior. Not panicking. Knowing how much stealth killing you can get away with. Yes, I've got all these buffs from the initial playthrough, but I think it's more coming down to the stuff I mentioned. I did the first castle Geni fight in just a couple tries.

It's a very different, much more relaxed run on NG+

@seikenfreak: NG+ had the same effect on me, all those gradual improvements to the way I play really got thrust to the forefront when tearing through enemies/bosses that initially caused me trouble.

I'm sure the upgrades help, I still die quick if I'm getting hit but that rarely happens any more. Such a great feeling.