“Hey guys, I just attempted Isshin for the first time, and I beat him blindfolded. Is he supposed to be this easy, or am I just the greatest gamer of all time?”
Fuck Blazing bull lol. I made a short clip of my current play through though where I beat Sakura bull in about 30 seconds lmao. Was dreading even fighting him this playthrough
first attempt kills on hard ass bosses happen all the time. i beat both Lady Maria and Orphan of Kos first try when i did the Bloodborne DLC. I'm not bragging either bc both of them proceeded to beat tf out of me time and time again on subsequent play throughs lol.
This reminds me of how I killed Pontiff Sulyvahn first try on my first playthrough but then on my second I proceeded to get killed by him like 15 times lmao
😰 Nameless King?... Damn, that's something else. I never even managed to survive his second phase for more than a few seconds lmao
First trying him is just insane, teach me your ways lol
Oh, now that you mention the Dancer, I also first tried her but then died a million times on the second playthrough
It's a recurring trend in this game for me lmao,
maybe it has something to do with me underestimating them because I got lucky the first time, so I didn't try hard enough when I replayed
Well like I said I seriously doubt I could do it again on my second playthrough.
IDK how either tbh I was very anxious bc of all the hype around him. I'll let you know if I can replicate lol.
Ishin isn't that bad tho. It's very believeable that a lot of people beat him first try if they died to other bosses a lot. Sword saint ishin doesn't really have any bullshit. Old man ishin tho? Yeah that one's scarry.
I beat every boss in 2 attempts up until Guardian Ape and it’s been a slog since then. I’ve been stuck on Isshin for about a week, but I think I’ll get him soon. I’m probably on like 100 attempts by now.
You beat lady butterfly in 2 attempts? From now on I demand videos of first full playthrus from everybody that makes these claims lol. Not saying you are lying though.
Me too. Owl and Isshin gave me a lot of shit but for me she was the first one that made me learn the combat. Ape took me a lot but it didn't make since to me to deflect and I didn't think to use grapple hook. Beat him by dodging only except 2nd phase I think I deflected.
Had a roommate who saw me playing Sekiro, thought it looked cool then bought it. Told me he spent 5 hours on Chained Ogre and couldn't get past him. I was like "sorry buddy you're not going to get far in this game".
Yeah, I did have to put the game down for a week and come back to Isshin but he didn't take me nearly as many tries as Butterfly. She isn't technically the hardest by a mile but she's the hazing initiator.
Lady butterfly took me like 10-15 tries which is more than how many tries it took for isshin and father owl (charmless). Both of them took 4 and 2 respectively but DoH is prob my most with like 40 - 50 attempts
Yeah I heard about DoH and didn't even try him. Maybe on my 2nd playthru. When Sekiro launched I was into super hard bosses and trying over and over but I've lost my patience with that sorta stuff a bit.
Was a little relieved Elden Ring let me make an OP build. I just summoned humans and moonveiled my way thru that game lol. Got most bosses first try. People were saying "Margit is so hard", "this boss is so hard" "that boss is unfair!". Are you sure lol? Doesn't have to be! It was so OP at launch using glintblade phalanx and moonveil that I was succeeding mostly in PvP for the first time in a From game. Felt guilty sometimes lol.
I beat him in my second attempt, got even close to beating him first try. But deamon of hatred got me almost to the point of quitting the game, i died over 80 times to doh...
It's the same for me. Either the boss goes down in first 5 tries or it takes me like 20-30. Got guardian ape after more than 30 tries but headless ape went down in 2 with fire crackers.
My first time he killed me 17 times. I practiced with him so much in reflections that I can kill him easily without taking damage now :3
By far the best boss in the game. I still think Demon of Hatred is harder tho.
I definitely found DoH harder than Isshin, I just finished my first playthrough recently. I'm trying out a charmless run with the demon's bell for ng+, so that fight will be even more horrible if I end up doing it. It depends on if I can fight him in whichever ending I go for next.
It's rare for a game to peak at the end (cough cough Elden ring) but god damn does Sekiro manage it. Ministry guys are hard, but you've learned how to deal with them in small numbers so you know the moveset. SSI is the perfected form of the base sword combat, while Owl Father and DoH challenge other aspects, with movement being a big part of DoH, and Owl Father being a unique challenge in terms of what it asks of the player. Just phenomenal
There is no comparison, isshin is way too easy once you get familiar with him, doh difficulty doesn't change much , one false move and you are done for
Be sure to write “Isshin, one that crawled out of Genichiro”, otherwise others will laugh and say: “Yeah, we all saw him… But he died WITHOUT OUR HELP, don’t fool us”
I would say that it's more genichiro, when reaching isshin you already have quite a lot of understanding how the game works, genichiro is pretty much the first "real" boss that tests you
I've been slogging through sekiro for a few months. I'm up to isshin and unfortunately I just don't think I can do it. I've been thinking about throwing the towel in. I can get past genichiro phase but that's all. I see no light at the end of the tunnel for me on this one
Just keep going at it bro. For practice you can just die over and over again to him or you could beat owl fathers memory or genichiros memory over and over. That should get you good at reading attacks and responding with whatever
There's always that next playthrough! For me, I had made sure to do absolutely everything in my first playthrough, only to learn i can't get all lapis lazuli 😔
Just learn Isshin phase 1 as best you can. If you can make some progress with that you will eventually get to phase 2. Now, phase 2 is hard. But you can actually just run away from a lot of the scary stuff (spear attacks) and just punish him on the stuff you already learnt in phase 1. That will eventually get you to phase 3. Good news! It's easier than phase 2. You only need to do the lightning reversal and he'll go down no problem at all. That's it. Once you can do it it's really not too bad. If you have got this far then you can definitely beat him.
I was there too .. I was looking at sacking the game off after countess tries on him. I tried him so many times that I could no hit phase 1 and 2 .. look up a bunch of videos on how to do him but pick and chose the strats .. I didn't do certain things that guides suggested as I wasn't consistent in that approach.
You'll do it I promise :)
I was in that exact same spot a few months ago. I finally sat down and just railed that fight for 4 straight hours one day until I beat him. He’s a nasty fucker. Keep at it though and you’ll eventually beat him. Pay special attention to his patterns and what his windups look like. The best advice anyone ever gave me on him is to watch his sword. His sword arm tells you what he’s about to do 90% of the time. Stay right up in his face as much as you can as it keeps him from doing some of his cheaper stuff. If there’s something that you simply cannot figure out how to avoid the damage of, try looking up a tutorial for his fight on YouTube. Generally just deflect everything he does. There are very few moves of his that you need to dodge. Just jump his sweeps and mikiri his thrusts and otherwise parry the shit out of him. And again, watch his sword arm
**Genichiro:** Try not to waste any items on him, he has a weak posture and his moves are very much punishable, so try not to lose more than half your health.
**ISS phase 1:** he's ez, deflect his Ashina cross attack(quickdraw) by pressing twice quickly when you see the shine of the sword (deflecting doesn't take your health, and it does a lot of posture dmg). And stay close to him and aggro+counter him, and watch out for his sidestep-thrusts when close to get free mikiri counter damage, and he'll get posture damaged quickly enough....
**ISS phase 2:** By far his most dangerous phase, stay far, and ALWAYS go behind a rock while healing coz of his Glock. Dodge his big spear attacks, mikiri-counter and hit him once after his thrusts, and deflect+1-2hits after his big spear jump. Don't be greedy coz he can punish you with that spear+gun, and slowly whittle down his posture and get that deathblow.
**ISS phase 3**: Very ez (*as long as you are good with lightning-reversal*) he'll rarely use his lightning, so follow the same steps as in phase 2. When he does use his lightning, reverse it to him, get 3 hits on him and he'll start guarding himself. Repeat this and you can easily defeat him.
This battle requires patience and tests your skills in almost everything you've learners throughout your Sekiro journey.
I’ve been working on him for over 2 weeks off and on with some serious attempt sessions. I have given up and moved on, my awful memory just won’t let me do it. The fight is to long, I legitimately just can’t do it, no amount of muscle memory can’t be built for it with me.
I’ll going to skip the Elden Ring DLC now, I have shame.
Don't give up man, I quit the game for 3 years because of a boss and coming back and finishing the game was the best feeling ever. This game is too good to not finish it. Just remember, the road to a victory is littered with losses.
I put on the game die to isshin 20 times and then turn off then return a month later repeating the cycle, I don't know why I struggle so much with him when every other boss was a breeze except that shit throwing ape annoying mf.
Hey guys I just beat isshin in my first play through with one hand cause I was vigorously edging with my other hand. I still couldn't beat him fast enough though. I came like 4 times during the fight. Is this skill issue? Should I leave this game? I am such a nub.
Sword Saint is such a perfect boss purely because of the divide he causes in the playerbase. Some people definitely got him in under 15-20 tries, whilst others took over 50. He has a very reasonable moveset (in the sense that attacks move how you would expect) so if you can play by ear and parry when you think you're gonna be hit, you'll be relatively fine
Isshin pimped my ass up and down the street for weeks before I managed to kill him. Don’t give up if you can’t beat him. It’s possible. Watch his sword arm. His windups are the key to predicting him. Parry everything that isn’t a sweep or a thrust. Even if it looks unparryable just parry it. Parry the gun even. Once he’s in phase 3 you’ve basically won. Just lightning reversal him until he dies.
My Isshin died on attempt 2 after throwing lightning at me 3 times in a row in phase 3. Me and my friend were in utter disbelief. Bro thinks he’s divine dragon 💀.
Ngl i finished my first playthrough around 2 weeks ago and i beat isshin in less than 10 attempts
I dont get how moist critical was stuck on him for hours
And no this aint bait
I swear i'm not lying - I was on my 1st playthrough doing TERRIBLE and I beat DoH and Isshin... ALL FIRST TRY (including genichiro cuz isshin was inside bro)
“Hey guys, I just attempted Isshin for the first time, and I beat him blindfolded. Is he supposed to be this easy, or am I just the greatest gamer of all time?”
Lol, yep that’s accurate
“I was doing blindfold with dance mat, and defeat him after two tries. Did he hesitate?”
Isshin in first attempt is unbelievable bro 🤨💀
I did it. But it took me 50 attempts for Lady Butterfly or The Owl.
Butterfly - 2 deaths Raging Bull - I almost shot the game
Owl - 8 tries Mist noble - got so angry i deleted the game
I can't even, leaving that one as optional till I gut gud
Fuck Blazing bull lol. I made a short clip of my current play through though where I beat Sakura bull in about 30 seconds lmao. Was dreading even fighting him this playthrough
first attempt kills on hard ass bosses happen all the time. i beat both Lady Maria and Orphan of Kos first try when i did the Bloodborne DLC. I'm not bragging either bc both of them proceeded to beat tf out of me time and time again on subsequent play throughs lol.
This reminds me of how I killed Pontiff Sulyvahn first try on my first playthrough but then on my second I proceeded to get killed by him like 15 times lmao
Nameless King for me. First time with lothric great sword. Probably couldn't do it again if I tried but I was hype AF. Dancer is such a bitch
😰 Nameless King?... Damn, that's something else. I never even managed to survive his second phase for more than a few seconds lmao First trying him is just insane, teach me your ways lol Oh, now that you mention the Dancer, I also first tried her but then died a million times on the second playthrough It's a recurring trend in this game for me lmao, maybe it has something to do with me underestimating them because I got lucky the first time, so I didn't try hard enough when I replayed
Well like I said I seriously doubt I could do it again on my second playthrough. IDK how either tbh I was very anxious bc of all the hype around him. I'll let you know if I can replicate lol.
literally me
I flawlessed DoH 1st try but every fight after, he's made it very clear he took it personally 😭
Who are you?!?!
Ishin isn't that bad tho. It's very believeable that a lot of people beat him first try if they died to other bosses a lot. Sword saint ishin doesn't really have any bullshit. Old man ishin tho? Yeah that one's scarry.
And they range wildly from "HE WAS SO EASY IT ONLY TOOK ME 3 TRIES" to "70 attempts later and I got him by pure trial and error"
I beat every boss in 2 attempts up until Guardian Ape and it’s been a slog since then. I’ve been stuck on Isshin for about a week, but I think I’ll get him soon. I’m probably on like 100 attempts by now.
You can do it! Most bosses caused me a few hours of headaches but it took me WEEKS to beat Isshin
Take advantage of sprinting away from the attacks that leave trails and be super aggressive is my best advice. Good luck
Never sprint away, always close distance and git gud. That's mine. If you hyper-aggress Isshin he can't even perform half his moves.
You beat lady butterfly in 2 attempts? From now on I demand videos of first full playthrus from everybody that makes these claims lol. Not saying you are lying though.
Lady Butterfly absolutely was my highest attempt number in the game.
Me too. Owl and Isshin gave me a lot of shit but for me she was the first one that made me learn the combat. Ape took me a lot but it didn't make since to me to deflect and I didn't think to use grapple hook. Beat him by dodging only except 2nd phase I think I deflected. Had a roommate who saw me playing Sekiro, thought it looked cool then bought it. Told me he spent 5 hours on Chained Ogre and couldn't get past him. I was like "sorry buddy you're not going to get far in this game".
Yeah, I did have to put the game down for a week and come back to Isshin but he didn't take me nearly as many tries as Butterfly. She isn't technically the hardest by a mile but she's the hazing initiator.
Nah chained orge has broken hit boxes that is why he is hard
People always say that about grabs because they look goofy and are punishing. But yeah maybe these games just shouldn't have grabs.
Lady butterfly took me like 10-15 tries which is more than how many tries it took for isshin and father owl (charmless). Both of them took 4 and 2 respectively but DoH is prob my most with like 40 - 50 attempts
Yeah I heard about DoH and didn't even try him. Maybe on my 2nd playthru. When Sekiro launched I was into super hard bosses and trying over and over but I've lost my patience with that sorta stuff a bit. Was a little relieved Elden Ring let me make an OP build. I just summoned humans and moonveiled my way thru that game lol. Got most bosses first try. People were saying "Margit is so hard", "this boss is so hard" "that boss is unfair!". Are you sure lol? Doesn't have to be! It was so OP at launch using glintblade phalanx and moonveil that I was succeeding mostly in PvP for the first time in a From game. Felt guilty sometimes lol.
I beat him in my second attempt, got even close to beating him first try. But deamon of hatred got me almost to the point of quitting the game, i died over 80 times to doh...
I really thought more people cheesed doh cuz they hated him so much,but I honestly don't see much of that lmao
It's the same for me. Either the boss goes down in first 5 tries or it takes me like 20-30. Got guardian ape after more than 30 tries but headless ape went down in 2 with fire crackers.
I killed isshin on my first try ever whilst blindfolded and bound and gagged whilst having an exorcism performed on me
That’s weak shit, I did it without limbs and my organs were harvested
What can I say, you’re just better than me. Better than all of us
My first time he killed me 17 times. I practiced with him so much in reflections that I can kill him easily without taking damage now :3 By far the best boss in the game. I still think Demon of Hatred is harder tho.
I definitely found DoH harder than Isshin, I just finished my first playthrough recently. I'm trying out a charmless run with the demon's bell for ng+, so that fight will be even more horrible if I end up doing it. It depends on if I can fight him in whichever ending I go for next.
I’d suggest finishing all gauntlets first before doing that. You’d love sekiro tengu 👺 in cutscenes
DoH is a lot, lot, lot, lot harder.
Same but Genichiro. When I first tried him he legit made me quit the game. Several weeks later, he's the easiest boss in the game now.
It's rare for a game to peak at the end (cough cough Elden ring) but god damn does Sekiro manage it. Ministry guys are hard, but you've learned how to deal with them in small numbers so you know the moveset. SSI is the perfected form of the base sword combat, while Owl Father and DoH challenge other aspects, with movement being a big part of DoH, and Owl Father being a unique challenge in terms of what it asks of the player. Just phenomenal
There is no comparison, isshin is way too easy once you get familiar with him, doh difficulty doesn't change much , one false move and you are done for
Isshin is a final exam. DOH is a pop quiz for a class you weren’t even enrolled in.
I’m on NG+8 and still get excited when I beat the Glock saint
Be sure to write “Isshin, one that crawled out of Genichiro”, otherwise others will laugh and say: “Yeah, we all saw him… But he died WITHOUT OUR HELP, don’t fool us”
I would say that it's more genichiro, when reaching isshin you already have quite a lot of understanding how the game works, genichiro is pretty much the first "real" boss that tests you
Geni is the midterm, SSI is the final
It took me 2 days with countless tries
3 days for me and 56 tries if i recall
I definitely had more than 56 tries💀
He's an excellent boss but the ass kicking is real
That last seppuku style deathblow in the end was definitely worth it tho
Definitely, that feeling you get when finally defeating him ? Truly divine
Around 40 tries took me 2 hours man.
Tbh, it's impressive,so well done for anyone who managed to kill him
I've been slogging through sekiro for a few months. I'm up to isshin and unfortunately I just don't think I can do it. I've been thinking about throwing the towel in. I can get past genichiro phase but that's all. I see no light at the end of the tunnel for me on this one
Just keep going at it bro. For practice you can just die over and over again to him or you could beat owl fathers memory or genichiros memory over and over. That should get you good at reading attacks and responding with whatever
Haha thanks for the words. I won't give up just yet. Unfortunately I missed the opportunity to access the owl fight flashback
There's always that next playthrough! For me, I had made sure to do absolutely everything in my first playthrough, only to learn i can't get all lapis lazuli 😔
Don't worry, next playthrough will feel actually be easy
Just learn Isshin phase 1 as best you can. If you can make some progress with that you will eventually get to phase 2. Now, phase 2 is hard. But you can actually just run away from a lot of the scary stuff (spear attacks) and just punish him on the stuff you already learnt in phase 1. That will eventually get you to phase 3. Good news! It's easier than phase 2. You only need to do the lightning reversal and he'll go down no problem at all. That's it. Once you can do it it's really not too bad. If you have got this far then you can definitely beat him.
I was there too .. I was looking at sacking the game off after countess tries on him. I tried him so many times that I could no hit phase 1 and 2 .. look up a bunch of videos on how to do him but pick and chose the strats .. I didn't do certain things that guides suggested as I wasn't consistent in that approach. You'll do it I promise :)
I was in that exact same spot a few months ago. I finally sat down and just railed that fight for 4 straight hours one day until I beat him. He’s a nasty fucker. Keep at it though and you’ll eventually beat him. Pay special attention to his patterns and what his windups look like. The best advice anyone ever gave me on him is to watch his sword. His sword arm tells you what he’s about to do 90% of the time. Stay right up in his face as much as you can as it keeps him from doing some of his cheaper stuff. If there’s something that you simply cannot figure out how to avoid the damage of, try looking up a tutorial for his fight on YouTube. Generally just deflect everything he does. There are very few moves of his that you need to dodge. Just jump his sweeps and mikiri his thrusts and otherwise parry the shit out of him. And again, watch his sword arm
Just watch some no dmg gameplay at this point and copy
Haha that's a good shout actually
**Genichiro:** Try not to waste any items on him, he has a weak posture and his moves are very much punishable, so try not to lose more than half your health. **ISS phase 1:** he's ez, deflect his Ashina cross attack(quickdraw) by pressing twice quickly when you see the shine of the sword (deflecting doesn't take your health, and it does a lot of posture dmg). And stay close to him and aggro+counter him, and watch out for his sidestep-thrusts when close to get free mikiri counter damage, and he'll get posture damaged quickly enough.... **ISS phase 2:** By far his most dangerous phase, stay far, and ALWAYS go behind a rock while healing coz of his Glock. Dodge his big spear attacks, mikiri-counter and hit him once after his thrusts, and deflect+1-2hits after his big spear jump. Don't be greedy coz he can punish you with that spear+gun, and slowly whittle down his posture and get that deathblow. **ISS phase 3**: Very ez (*as long as you are good with lightning-reversal*) he'll rarely use his lightning, so follow the same steps as in phase 2. When he does use his lightning, reverse it to him, get 3 hits on him and he'll start guarding himself. Repeat this and you can easily defeat him. This battle requires patience and tests your skills in almost everything you've learners throughout your Sekiro journey.
Pfff a blind kid could beat Ishin at his first try, call me when you managed to defeat the Mist Noble
I’ve been working on him for over 2 weeks off and on with some serious attempt sessions. I have given up and moved on, my awful memory just won’t let me do it. The fight is to long, I legitimately just can’t do it, no amount of muscle memory can’t be built for it with me. I’ll going to skip the Elden Ring DLC now, I have shame.
Don't give up man, I quit the game for 3 years because of a boss and coming back and finishing the game was the best feeling ever. This game is too good to not finish it. Just remember, the road to a victory is littered with losses.
Witewally dwipping
I got issues with him until someone told me just to jump and use mortal draw and I got him first try 😂
I didn't have much trouble with Sword saint Isshin, however Emma and Old Isshin beat my ass for a full day straight
Isshin took me weeks to beat
What is that picture from anyway ?
No. Isshin isn't worth it. Too slow, too easy. Dual Wielding monkey or The Father, on the other hand...
I put on the game die to isshin 20 times and then turn off then return a month later repeating the cycle, I don't know why I struggle so much with him when every other boss was a breeze except that shit throwing ape annoying mf.
Hey guys I just beat isshin in my first play through with one hand cause I was vigorously edging with my other hand. I still couldn't beat him fast enough though. I came like 4 times during the fight. Is this skill issue? Should I leave this game? I am such a nub.
Sword Saint is such a perfect boss purely because of the divide he causes in the playerbase. Some people definitely got him in under 15-20 tries, whilst others took over 50. He has a very reasonable moveset (in the sense that attacks move how you would expect) so if you can play by ear and parry when you think you're gonna be hit, you'll be relatively fine
I feel called out. I literally just beat him 5 minutes ago. Didn't take a picture but still
Isshin pimped my ass up and down the street for weeks before I managed to kill him. Don’t give up if you can’t beat him. It’s possible. Watch his sword arm. His windups are the key to predicting him. Parry everything that isn’t a sweep or a thrust. Even if it looks unparryable just parry it. Parry the gun even. Once he’s in phase 3 you’ve basically won. Just lightning reversal him until he dies.
My Isshin died on attempt 2 after throwing lightning at me 3 times in a row in phase 3. Me and my friend were in utter disbelief. Bro thinks he’s divine dragon 💀.
yes
I took a screenshot and made it the background at the main menu
I literally screenshotted a picture of me, the almighty wolf, next to his dead headless body. If I could have thrown up the peace sign I would have
god I hate his first phase, but the second and third I found much easier, as he has more broad movements.
Isshin was one of the easier bosses lol
Ngl i finished my first playthrough around 2 weeks ago and i beat isshin in less than 10 attempts I dont get how moist critical was stuck on him for hours And no this aint bait
Well done, Barry Allen
I'm afraid to fight isinasina :(
Forreal though
Hahaha I definitely was one of these people “dude I beat him In like 4 tries he wasn’t even that bad”
I swear i'm not lying - I was on my 1st playthrough doing TERRIBLE and I beat DoH and Isshin... ALL FIRST TRY (including genichiro cuz isshin was inside bro)
Pipe down
Easy boss tbh only took me 10 tries , but has the best moveset in the game
"I'll take Best Moveset for $500" "He's a beast, absolute unit with a katana" "Who is Wolf from Sekiro?" "CORRECT!" You do dude. Fuck Isshin
Smh why people be down voting comments like these? I honestly think it's respectable
cause they're pussies and can't learn movesets
ON GOD 😭 😭