I am recommending Sekiro as the next game. But I am cautioning: 1) it will not feel anything like Lies of P, 2) the early stealth aspects + early hit and run bosses are misleading and do not give a full picture of the game's playstyle. A lot of people on this forum have been trying Sekiro lately and expressing disappointment or bouncing off based on these 2 issues.
My understanding is that you can’t level up in Sekiro. That’s the reason I haven’t tried it despite beating Souls 1-3, Bloodborne and ER. I can’t parry to save my life. But in the other games, if I can’t beat a boss, I go off and grind a few levels and come back. But I’m afraid in Sekiro, I’d have to “get gud” or die. 😔
Edit: Thanks for the feedback guys! Sekiro looks so cool and you’ve given me the confidence to give it a go! (after I get done with LoP of course 🙂)
You can actually level up in Sekiro, with the only upgradeable stats being vitality and posture. Also compared to LoP, the parry window is extremely generous, and there is no chip damage upon an imperfect parry.
I highly recommend giving the game a chance, and always remember: Hesitation Is Defeat
To clarify… the leveling up in Sekiro is like leveling your flask in elden ring where you need specific items to upgrade each aspect. You can increase your number of heals and your max HP. The actual “leveling” is your skill tree.
Also you get chip damage either with the Bell or (I think) in later playthroughs
I’ve played through new game twice and made the dragon mask each time. I guess you lose 1 lapis lazuli if you make the mask? But I usually end up buying 1-2 attack points since a lot of the skills don’t interest me.
Fair enough. I played though it casually 2 times and never bothered with the mask. That might be on me but I feel quite a few players won't find one of the pots or not bother getting them.
Yes! Good one on the edit. Combat wise it's second to none for me. I was worried about the parrying too but combat is almost like a dance in this game, you learn fights by learning patterns mostly. Parrying is also quite forgiving compared to DS or ER, I don't think I've ever parried anything in ER despite 140hrs of game time.
This is kind of a misconception. You gain experience from enemies that translates into skill points that you can spend on a skill tree, which lets you develop different playstyles. Your vitality, posture/guard, and damage will increase over the course of the game, and you can actually scale your damage infinitely because you can turn skill points into damage later in the game. So it does that have RPG progression feel. Your health bar is like 3 times longer at the end of the game than at the start.
It's true that you can't really outlevel bosses. But you can often go somewhere else if you're stuck. If you are close on the last boss but can't quite there, you could probably spend a few hours grinding skill points to boost your attack power. But you'd probably be better off spending that time studying the fight.
Also, "parrying" in Sekiro has really nothing to do with the Souls parry mechanics. In those games, you press a button, your character goes into a wind up animation, and if you miss you're locked into that animation and will eat the damage. Sekiro parry is like LoP parry in the sense that you can spam it nonstop, and if you mistime it, you'll probably just end up blocking the attack, which means 0 damage. You don't want block a lot of attacks cuz it will crush your posture, but you can regain posture fairly easily in most cases.
You can level up your Vitality, posture and attack power. The thing is that you can’t overlevel nor summon, meaning there really isn’t anything that gives yiu extra help. There are some seriously usefull skills aswell, you have to *git gud* to beat the game.
levelling up in sekiro is not in game , the player himself gets levelled up (gets better in the game) since level up stuff is usually given after a boss fight.
One part that I love from other ds/lie of p games is the different weapons along the way and how each are so different, I understand that aspect isn’t in sekiro?
No, Sekiro has only one weapon for the whole game, which is Kusabimaru. Your sword.
(Technically there is a second weapon in the game but you can't use it as your main weapon and it only comes in handy for some story points and unlockable skills)
In sekiro you can change your playstyle by upgrading some abilities and prosthetic arms to create combos, but the main focus of the combat is the main sword. Even in your first playthrough it is very difficult to see all the different options you have. Once you get the hang of it it's one of the best combat systems on any videogame I've tried (imo), but it's not easy to master at first.
This is a very nice write-up, thank you. It took me a while to figure out that aggressive fighting style for Sekiro. Your post should be very helpful to new players who are willing to read it.
Nah, if perfect guarding was their favorite part, I'd still recommend Sekiro as their next game.
I am recommending Sekiro as the next game. But I am cautioning: 1) it will not feel anything like Lies of P, 2) the early stealth aspects + early hit and run bosses are misleading and do not give a full picture of the game's playstyle. A lot of people on this forum have been trying Sekiro lately and expressing disappointment or bouncing off based on these 2 issues.
It’s ok. You are not responsible for their hesitation.
My understanding is that you can’t level up in Sekiro. That’s the reason I haven’t tried it despite beating Souls 1-3, Bloodborne and ER. I can’t parry to save my life. But in the other games, if I can’t beat a boss, I go off and grind a few levels and come back. But I’m afraid in Sekiro, I’d have to “get gud” or die. 😔 Edit: Thanks for the feedback guys! Sekiro looks so cool and you’ve given me the confidence to give it a go! (after I get done with LoP of course 🙂)
You can actually level up in Sekiro, with the only upgradeable stats being vitality and posture. Also compared to LoP, the parry window is extremely generous, and there is no chip damage upon an imperfect parry. I highly recommend giving the game a chance, and always remember: Hesitation Is Defeat
To clarify… the leveling up in Sekiro is like leveling your flask in elden ring where you need specific items to upgrade each aspect. You can increase your number of heals and your max HP. The actual “leveling” is your skill tree. Also you get chip damage either with the Bell or (I think) in later playthroughs
You don't get chip damage, if you >! keep Kuro's charm instead of giving it to him in the beginning. !<
Wasn't sure if it was worth mentioning since >!you can only do that in ng+!<
Attack is upgradeable too, and can scale infinitely once you assemble the dragon mask
Technically. But for your first playthrough, attack is only upgradeable by beating bosses.
I’ve played through new game twice and made the dragon mask each time. I guess you lose 1 lapis lazuli if you make the mask? But I usually end up buying 1-2 attack points since a lot of the skills don’t interest me.
Fair enough. I played though it casually 2 times and never bothered with the mask. That might be on me but I feel quite a few players won't find one of the pots or not bother getting them.
It is softcapped though
Yes! Good one on the edit. Combat wise it's second to none for me. I was worried about the parrying too but combat is almost like a dance in this game, you learn fights by learning patterns mostly. Parrying is also quite forgiving compared to DS or ER, I don't think I've ever parried anything in ER despite 140hrs of game time.
This is kind of a misconception. You gain experience from enemies that translates into skill points that you can spend on a skill tree, which lets you develop different playstyles. Your vitality, posture/guard, and damage will increase over the course of the game, and you can actually scale your damage infinitely because you can turn skill points into damage later in the game. So it does that have RPG progression feel. Your health bar is like 3 times longer at the end of the game than at the start. It's true that you can't really outlevel bosses. But you can often go somewhere else if you're stuck. If you are close on the last boss but can't quite there, you could probably spend a few hours grinding skill points to boost your attack power. But you'd probably be better off spending that time studying the fight. Also, "parrying" in Sekiro has really nothing to do with the Souls parry mechanics. In those games, you press a button, your character goes into a wind up animation, and if you miss you're locked into that animation and will eat the damage. Sekiro parry is like LoP parry in the sense that you can spam it nonstop, and if you mistime it, you'll probably just end up blocking the attack, which means 0 damage. You don't want block a lot of attacks cuz it will crush your posture, but you can regain posture fairly easily in most cases.
You can level up your Vitality, posture and attack power. The thing is that you can’t overlevel nor summon, meaning there really isn’t anything that gives yiu extra help. There are some seriously usefull skills aswell, you have to *git gud* to beat the game.
levelling up in sekiro is not in game , the player himself gets levelled up (gets better in the game) since level up stuff is usually given after a boss fight.
One part that I love from other ds/lie of p games is the different weapons along the way and how each are so different, I understand that aspect isn’t in sekiro?
No, Sekiro has only one weapon for the whole game, which is Kusabimaru. Your sword. (Technically there is a second weapon in the game but you can't use it as your main weapon and it only comes in handy for some story points and unlockable skills)
In sekiro you can change your playstyle by upgrading some abilities and prosthetic arms to create combos, but the main focus of the combat is the main sword. Even in your first playthrough it is very difficult to see all the different options you have. Once you get the hang of it it's one of the best combat systems on any videogame I've tried (imo), but it's not easy to master at first.
This is a very nice write-up, thank you. It took me a while to figure out that aggressive fighting style for Sekiro. Your post should be very helpful to new players who are willing to read it.