SEKIRO, Romancing the Football

I won't lie, day one of me playing SEKIRO: SHADOWS DIE TWICE defined the colorful phrase: like a monkey f@#king a football. Some of it is on me. I have no illusions about my abilities as a gamer. I may not be as bad as I was when I started this journey about a year ago, but I am far from good. So far from good that the light from "good" takes a million years to reach me. Okay, maybe not that bad but you get the picture.

That being said, the design of this game is a beast I've never encountered. Never before have I played a game that has me, right from the start, wandering around an open world littered with enemies too copious or too powerful to be taken on. And then there's the stiff penalty for death. Lose half your progress toward your next skill point and oh yeah, all the enemies you managed to defeat have respawned. Enjoy!

I was near tears about the sixth time I died just trying to explore the outskirts of Ashina. Never before have I played a game where most of the strategy for the first few hours is to sprint around and hope you find some loot worth using. The BF assures me it gets better. I hope he's right because I broke my cheapskate rule and splurged on this one. Yep, I paid full price so I gotta finish it.

However, I did manage to find some very helpful YouTube videos that helped tremendously. Shout out to Kyuzo86, PS5Trophies, and Gamer Guru. I'm ending the night with two skill points and the flame vent mod for my prosthetic arm. Imma call that a win and go watch some Netflix. Romancing the football is done for today!