I've made a couple of posts explaining the combat, but they're buried either in the OT or someone else's thread. I watched a lot of videos that explain the combat, but none of them really hits the mark. The people making these videos are very skilled and know the combat very well, but they don't articulate very well. The only other place I found that caught onto this is a single sentence in the Sekiro Guide on Gamefaqs. Here I'm going to hammer that fact into you.
So by the end of this, hopefully, you'll go from this...
To this...
Offense
Your sword swing animation is the key. You can't do anything when you're already swinging your sword. Don't spam the attack button. When you just mash the attack button, you get caught in your own attack animation, and the only way out is when the attack animation is done, or until you get hit. Plan your sword swings. Say you want on swinging your sword 3x, then press the attack button 3x and don't mash the attack. If you mash too quickly, you'll end up getting a 4th swing, and that would be trouble. When you're done with the swings, give yourself a split second to figure out your next move by watching the enemy's patterns and how they reacted to your previous 3 (or however many you pressed) swings. This will allow you to parry, dodge, or jump out of the way.
The key takeaway is that it ISN'T because your reflexes aren't fast enough. The reason you can't respond fast enough is also because you're locked into your animation and can't do anything.
1. I did 3 attacks and was prepared to deflect. I MIGHT have been able to squeeze in a 4th hit, but even if the 4th hit lands, I don't know if it'll give me enough time to react after that.
2. After those deflects, I was able to mikiri counter because I wasn't pressing any other buttons. If I went on the offensive again, I wouldn't have been able to counter that.
3. Another 2 hit followed by a very tight deflect. Again, because I tapped each button just fast enough to do what I want and was prepared for any counters from the boss.
You can only plan your swings after knowing the boss patterns, but even when fighting a new enemy, the key is to not swing wildly. Getting greedy with your attacks will just mean you'll get hit. This strategy also works when something unexpected happens. I just had a run against a boss where I was able to swing my sword 5x in a row and is very unusual (see video below). I did it because I wasn't spamming and gave myself a split second to see what the next move was.
Perilous Sweep Vs Perilous Thrust
If a boss has a weapon and can do thrust or sweep perilous attacks, the best way to determine whether you should jump or mikiri is by looking for the blue flash of light on their weapon. The positioning of that light will tell you exactly what the attack is. You don't need to read the animation. The best part about looking for the light is that you can see the light even through dust and smoke kicked up by combat. The light is designed for easy read on perilous attacks. See the pictures.
Thrust
Sweep
Notice the first image has tons of dust obscuring the boss, but you can see the blue light even through the dust. This takes practice and doesn't apply to all bosses since some of them only have one.
Aggression and Posture
I'm not going to cover how posture works in-depth since it's well explained and understood. I will say that people overemphasize the importance of YOUR posture. 90% of deaths come from you getting hit (usually because you're caught in your own animation and couldn't react properly). Most bosses don't have a follow-up move to capitalize on your broken posture. Your posture recovers quickly when your HP is high, and the bosses can usually kill you in 2 to 3 hits. If you're managing your HP, your posture will never be broken.
Posture matters more on bosses and enemies. Sekiro's combat does something no other game does. A lot of brawlers just requires you to unleash your attack on the bosses since they're wide open. Bosses in Sekiro block often and are rarely open for direct HP damage. In these kinds of fights, you should still swing at the boss even if you're not doing damage. A few swings at the boss causes them to deflect you, and then they counterattack. When they counterattack, you counter with your own deflection causing posture damage on the boss. It's a very tight back and forth of weapons clashing. Not all fights are like this, but still a crucial skill to master. Lady Butterfly is the first boss to teach you this.
You'll notice I was able to respond to every single one of her attacks. Part of the reason is that I know her moves. The other is because I wasn't spamming the attack button. I didn't miss a single perilous attack because I gave myself room to react.
Notice the rhythm of the attacks were either 1, 2, deflect or 1, 2, 3, deflect. I don't know what she's going to do, but I leave myself with a little room to react.
You'll notice I try to back up whenever she's high up. That's to get a better camera angle. I got lucky in this fight and she didn't jump too far causing any camera issues.
Around 1:57 mark I managed to swing my sword 5x. While I know her moves, this is completely unexpected. I reacted like it was natural because once again, I wasn't spamming the attack button.
Around 2:09 I made a mistake and got hit. I saw the attack and knew what was coming, I couldn't react because I was in the middle of my attack animation. This is the only real hit she scored on me. The other damage came from her unblockable butterflies.
Not all fights are like Lady Butterfly. This is the first boss. There's a good deal of deflecting, but the boss also leaves itself wide open for damage. The fight isn't as tight as the Lady Butterfly fight. I use deflect to get my openings. This is a good mixture of HP damage and posture damage. Also, notice I blundered my deflects early in the fight causing huge posture damage on myself. It was completely irrelevant because my HP was full and it went down quickly. I didn't even bother to hold block. In this fight, I let the boss come to me instead of being as aggressive as the previous fight.
If anybody wants, I have a last boss video where I can do a breakdown of everything that happened and the strategy that I used.
So by the end of this, hopefully, you'll go from this...
To this...
Offense
Your sword swing animation is the key. You can't do anything when you're already swinging your sword. Don't spam the attack button. When you just mash the attack button, you get caught in your own attack animation, and the only way out is when the attack animation is done, or until you get hit. Plan your sword swings. Say you want on swinging your sword 3x, then press the attack button 3x and don't mash the attack. If you mash too quickly, you'll end up getting a 4th swing, and that would be trouble. When you're done with the swings, give yourself a split second to figure out your next move by watching the enemy's patterns and how they reacted to your previous 3 (or however many you pressed) swings. This will allow you to parry, dodge, or jump out of the way.
The key takeaway is that it ISN'T because your reflexes aren't fast enough. The reason you can't respond fast enough is also because you're locked into your animation and can't do anything.
1. I did 3 attacks and was prepared to deflect. I MIGHT have been able to squeeze in a 4th hit, but even if the 4th hit lands, I don't know if it'll give me enough time to react after that.
2. After those deflects, I was able to mikiri counter because I wasn't pressing any other buttons. If I went on the offensive again, I wouldn't have been able to counter that.
3. Another 2 hit followed by a very tight deflect. Again, because I tapped each button just fast enough to do what I want and was prepared for any counters from the boss.
You can only plan your swings after knowing the boss patterns, but even when fighting a new enemy, the key is to not swing wildly. Getting greedy with your attacks will just mean you'll get hit. This strategy also works when something unexpected happens. I just had a run against a boss where I was able to swing my sword 5x in a row and is very unusual (see video below). I did it because I wasn't spamming and gave myself a split second to see what the next move was.
Perilous Sweep Vs Perilous Thrust
If a boss has a weapon and can do thrust or sweep perilous attacks, the best way to determine whether you should jump or mikiri is by looking for the blue flash of light on their weapon. The positioning of that light will tell you exactly what the attack is. You don't need to read the animation. The best part about looking for the light is that you can see the light even through dust and smoke kicked up by combat. The light is designed for easy read on perilous attacks. See the pictures.
Thrust
Sweep
Notice the first image has tons of dust obscuring the boss, but you can see the blue light even through the dust. This takes practice and doesn't apply to all bosses since some of them only have one.
Aggression and Posture
I'm not going to cover how posture works in-depth since it's well explained and understood. I will say that people overemphasize the importance of YOUR posture. 90% of deaths come from you getting hit (usually because you're caught in your own animation and couldn't react properly). Most bosses don't have a follow-up move to capitalize on your broken posture. Your posture recovers quickly when your HP is high, and the bosses can usually kill you in 2 to 3 hits. If you're managing your HP, your posture will never be broken.
Posture matters more on bosses and enemies. Sekiro's combat does something no other game does. A lot of brawlers just requires you to unleash your attack on the bosses since they're wide open. Bosses in Sekiro block often and are rarely open for direct HP damage. In these kinds of fights, you should still swing at the boss even if you're not doing damage. A few swings at the boss causes them to deflect you, and then they counterattack. When they counterattack, you counter with your own deflection causing posture damage on the boss. It's a very tight back and forth of weapons clashing. Not all fights are like this, but still a crucial skill to master. Lady Butterfly is the first boss to teach you this.
You'll notice I was able to respond to every single one of her attacks. Part of the reason is that I know her moves. The other is because I wasn't spamming the attack button. I didn't miss a single perilous attack because I gave myself room to react.
Notice the rhythm of the attacks were either 1, 2, deflect or 1, 2, 3, deflect. I don't know what she's going to do, but I leave myself with a little room to react.
You'll notice I try to back up whenever she's high up. That's to get a better camera angle. I got lucky in this fight and she didn't jump too far causing any camera issues.
Around 1:57 mark I managed to swing my sword 5x. While I know her moves, this is completely unexpected. I reacted like it was natural because once again, I wasn't spamming the attack button.
Around 2:09 I made a mistake and got hit. I saw the attack and knew what was coming, I couldn't react because I was in the middle of my attack animation. This is the only real hit she scored on me. The other damage came from her unblockable butterflies.
Not all fights are like Lady Butterfly. This is the first boss. There's a good deal of deflecting, but the boss also leaves itself wide open for damage. The fight isn't as tight as the Lady Butterfly fight. I use deflect to get my openings. This is a good mixture of HP damage and posture damage. Also, notice I blundered my deflects early in the fight causing huge posture damage on myself. It was completely irrelevant because my HP was full and it went down quickly. I didn't even bother to hold block. In this fight, I let the boss come to me instead of being as aggressive as the previous fight.
If anybody wants, I have a last boss video where I can do a breakdown of everything that happened and the strategy that I used.
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