Having slept on it and had Sekiro dreams, I think I’ve got a firmer idea of what I do and don’t like so far. I like exploring the world, and picking off small groups (well, one or two) of grunts. Planning out stealthy routes through areas feels like a natural evolution of that thing of figuring out the most efficient route back to a boss in Souls games, but with added deathblows.
The two big bosses I’ve done so far were really hard but ultimately satisfying, and stupidly easy, respectively. No prizes for guessing which one’s which.
I also like having the option of tackling areas in a different order, which is hardly revolutionary but is kind of necessary for a game this hard.
Mini-bosses are the mixed bag so far, in that they’re mostly good once you’re there (didn’t particularly like the bull fight though) but the approach to them can, as has been said already, be Quite Annoying. Packs of grunts in general are just fucking irritating. I thought that the game would give you the option to “solve” those by figuring out a clever approach route, but that doesn’t really seem to be the case. Picking one or two off, running away, re-engaging when they’ve split up etc just feels bad, and time consuming, when I’d rather be doing more interesting things.
The combat flow is obviously excellent, too.
