As mentioned in a previous post, even if there's no donation incentive marathon goal met, I'll still try and do some kind of mini marathon once a month. Since no goals have been met at time of writing I'm announcing the mini-marathon for January. Since it's following the stream schedule and therefore I get to pick whatever the heck I want for the variety stream, I'm going to roll with 12 hours of Sekiro.
I doubt I'll be able to finish it in a single sitting but my plan is to find a guide and get the names of all the bosses and try to do all that game has to offer before reaching the end.
I'm late to the Sekiro party but I'm extremely excited to finally be able to give it a full playthrough after all this time. So, if you don't already, follow me at www.twitch.tv/taurinensis and come join me in my adventures in ye olde Japan.
The marathon will take place on the 18th/19th of January, hopefully I'll see you there!
I was hoping this would die down, but it's been about a week and its still cropping up on my Twitter feed so its time for my hot take on the Sekiro easy mode debate.
If you don't know what's going on then thank your lucky stars but allow me to fill you in. Sekiro was released not too long ago, a game that's basically a Souls title but set in feudal Japan. Instead of fighting demons like in Souls or Lovecraftian horrors like in Bloodborne, you fight ninjas and shit. My experience with the game at time of writing is extremely limited but it's fun as all hell and extremely challenging.
I can pinpoint this controversy starting when some daft cunt called David Thier on Forbes wrote an article titled "Sekiro: Shadows Dies Twice Needs to respect its players and add an easy mode". Now lets ignore the fact that this guy is so stupid he cant even get the title right but this article sparked a bit of a thing on Twitter where a bunch of people who suck at games agreed wit him, and anyone with motor functions above that of a 4 month old baby thought that those people should fuck off.
I will take the top 3 arguments that I saw that these idiots on Twitter were making and tell you why your opinion should be thrown in the bin and you should never be listened to again.
1. The game should be accessible to everyone. It's too hard and drives people away
The short answer to this one is that the game just isn't for you. From Software made the game THEY wanted to make and THEY made an extremely challenging game that requires you to get to know it pretty well in order to win. This isn't about From respecting you, it's about you respecting that a group of artists wanted to make a game that's hard as shit and that's what they did. You crying about it is directly disrespecting the vision of these people who brought a game to the market with a very specific audience in mind.
Now I'm not saying don't play it, you just have to "git gud" (more on that later). If gitting gud at Sekiro is too much for you, go play Breath of the Wild, go play Skyrim, go play The Witcher or any of the other hundreds of games that are more than happy to hand hold, quest marker, auto save every 30 seconds your way to victory for you. There's nothing wrong with those games, I like those games, but sometimes I want to beat my face off a brick wall and for that reason I'm glad that Sekiro and SoulsBorne and as unrelenting as they are.
If From Software WANTED to put in an easy mode, then fine, no complaints from me. But saying that From are "disrespecting their players" because you can't figure out how to parry correctly and learn a boss pattern are too just makes you look like an entitled little prick. Their game, their rules, step up or step off.
2. The "git gud" mentality is "gate keeping" and turns people off the game
This point always makes me chuckle for two reasons. The first being that this is the internet where people will call each other the most horrible, racist, bigoted shitty things at the drop of a hat for almost NOTHING. People who play souls tell you get good at the game your playing instead of whining about it and THAT'S "gatekeeping"? Are you insane?
The second funny thing is that if you go into a Souls community with actual questions for advice, tips, how you should set up a character and things like that, they are more than happy to help. If you go in there with a positive, can do attitude, I GUARANTEE you that 9 times out of 10 you'll get some genuine help. You are right in saying "git gud" is an insult but its not aimed at the lesser skilled looking to get better. It's aimed at people like Thier and everyone who agreed with him, who got killed by the first few enemies and threw a strop screaming "this game needs to be made easier for ME!" on social media.
3. Making Sekiro hard is ableist
BAM! THERE IT IS! It's 2019 so everything has to be some kind of -ist or -phobic, right?
This point is interesting because I do sort of agree that it would be nice if games COULD be a bit more accessible to people with limited functions so that more people could enjoy these games. It's a big world of super fun media and it would be a shame to miss out on it because you were in an unfortunate accident or you were born with some kind of defect that leaves you unable to play.
But the game that you decided to pick on for this point was a Souls game.......are you really that fucking stupid?
Souls games ARE hard as hell, everyone knows that, but because of that people have done incredible things with it, they, got gud so to speak.
You think Souls is discriminating against you because you have no use of your arms? Well it's been provably done with feet only
and not just that guy.
People have beaten these games in all manners of ways with all manners of objects from Guitar Hero pads to Frying pans. You might have a point if you went against literally ANY OTHER GAME with this point, but you chose a Souls game, you are just ASKING to be clowned on.
Sekiro doesn't need an easy mode, end of story. Complaining that Sekiro needs an easy mode is like me complaining that a romantic comedy movie doesn't have enough horror elements. Those movies aren't FOR me, there are plenty of other movies to watch. Just the same, Sekiro might not be for you, there are plenty of other games you could play instead. If you want to take the time to build your skills and achieve victory, the community will welcome you with open arms, but just don't cry when your caustic whinging makes people tell you to fuck off instead
Usually when there's a big upcoming release I try to not get myself too excited for it. Call me elitist or snobby or whatever but big AAA games, while enjoyable, don't usually live too long in my memory after all the release hype has died down. However if there's one thing that does consistently impress me with every release it's From Software and it's Souls games. Now from what I gather Sekiro isn't STRICTLY Souls, but it plays close enough for me.
Just straight off the bat I love the setting and the general look of the game. Not because it's all Samurai and I'm a huge weeb (that much is only partly true) but I kind of like the idea of having a From Software covering as many thematic bases as possible. We've got the high fantasy setting of the Souls games, the Euro-Horror feel of Bloodborne and in Sekiro we get a nice eastern touch, it's pretty cool. Ni-Oh was great and all but now we have an ACTUAL Souls type game in an eastern setting rather than just a souls flavored action game from another company.
Setting aside though, I heard that this game has no real kind of leveling system which excites me greatly. Some might lament the loss of this but as much as you might hate to admit, stats play a HUGE role in the way a Souls game progresses. Sure, you CAN go fight those skeletons at the start of Dark Souls 1 but you're going to die in 1 hit and deal no damage in return just because your stats aren't there. With Sekiro it sounds like it really is a true test of skill. No more complaining about "artificial difficulty" if that's even still a thing, if you suck at Sekiro it sounds like it'll be because you ACTUALLY suck and now you have no excuse.
The feature that seems to have replaced straight up leveling is the prosthetic thing where you can equip different arms that do different things like a sort of grim-dark samurai Megaman. I've been avoiding stuff because I want to experience as much of it for myself as possible but there seems to be one item in particular that acts like a grappling hook. That alone is interesting because Souls have never really had much verticality so how the level design changes to suit this new found mobility is really exciting.
If you've never played a Souls game before then you should go try one. If you can't be bothered trying to get into a series 3 games deep then Sekiro (or Bloodborne really) might be a good place to start. Fingers crossed that From really knock this one out of the park.
