Sekiro-Choa 04

Yeah, I was expecting all regular samurais, too.

And Saints Row 3 was robbed.

And having a guest on was great.

He got good quick

Enjoying this series

So glad to finally be vindicated in my love of this game. It's so sick!!

PLEASE JAN READ THE TEXT AND DIALOGUE IN GAME PLEASE GOD I'M DYING

Jan knowing this is true GoTY material and was robbed brings me great joy! I love it so much.

Also, how the hell did he get passed the snake that easily??? I died there so many times. Every single episode he just flys through areas I struggled with. I can’t even begin to remember how many attempts the horse boss took me either. A true natural.

& please revisit previous years. That sound like a brilliant feature.

Is it just me or does this look choppier/framier than the previous streams?

jan! please don't hide the health bar with your face! i like the tension from seeing where your health is at

Elden Ring and Sekiro are the two FromSoft games that the mere idea of thinking about them makes me want to play them to completion all over again

So glad that I get to watch Jan play through this wonderful game

As with all video game streams, this so much lol. Though I understand streamers generally don't have the time or attention capacity (due to paying attention to chat, trying to make fun commentary/conversations, etc.) to do so. It might be because I'm fluent in Japanese, but the text and dialogue in Sekiro just OOZES with flavor, and it's such a joy to read.

@janman IDK how closely you read these comments, but here's some tips you might have missed:

• There's really no such thing as "saving" revives, and there's basically no benefit to choosing death. Essentially, the revive is your second health bar, and the "real" death is your "game over" screen... at which point you're punished by losing half your money and unfilled EXP bar, and may get further "punished" by having one of the NPCs contract the curse. Trying not to be cheeky here, but this means you want to avoid actually dying lol. There are ways to cure the NPCs of the curse, so don't worry about it too much; but it does lock some of them out of their sidequest lines until you do, IIRC.
  • Also, I don't remember if you ever did what Emma asked about getting coughed up blood from someone that contracted the curse...
• As you saw, important bosses drop memories of battle that will let you increase your attack power (the option to re-fight them was added quite some time after launch, so it might be confusing to see it now. You don't really need to do it). But also, the mini-bosses, like the chained ogre-man, drop prayer beads that let you increase your health, Zelda style in batches of 4. Unless you want to make the game harder for yourself, you actually want to try to kill everything you come across, at least if they seem manageable. For example, that strong samurai dude in the courtyard with the pan-banging dude will drop one.
• Most (but not all) bosses and tough enemies have some level of weakness to a specific prosthetic tool. As such, I highly recommend collecting them when you have the opportunity. The firecracker you guys mentioned a lot is a good example.
• Not to repeat myself... but reading IS really important in this game. It's not just because of the flavor text, because they give clues about what to do and will often times tell you things like how the firecrackers scare animals. The information you get from eavesdropping tend to be particularly useful.
  • just as a personal opinion: one of the most beautiful things about this game is how everything is so intentional. There are really very few texts or dialogue bits that are "pointless" or "wasted" like how some of the mainstream AAA games tend to do to fill an oversized open world. The story is very focused (and relatively easy to understand for a Souls-Like), most characters have a rich side story to tell that directly feed into the main story most of the time, and things like eavesdropping are intentionally placed to give gameplay or story hints. Like you said, this game is really, really good. And it's not just the combat.

Holy shit, I had no idea you could get past the snake without stabbing it in the eye

When Jan says "Why do people want Tenchu games when this exists"

I absolutely loathe the FromSoft game design. I have no patience for the high skill level gameplay it requires, and would absolutely prefer a more casual, easier to pick up and play and less punishing experience.

Sekiro has more stealth mechanics than a Souls game, sure, but it's not a stealth game. It's an action game with stealth elements in some places, especially early on.

I'm not even a fan of the Tenchu games, I never played them back in the day, but I would definitely enjoy a nice stealth focused Ninja/Samurai type game. Ghost of Tsushima was and is, in my opinion, miles ahead of Sekiro because I just don't enjoy the way FromSoft/Souls-like games are designed!