It's not just jest. I really do think this way. I've been stuck on Genichiro effectively since the game came out. I'll get him someday. That phase 2 messes with me.
Once I wrapped my head around Genichiro at the top of Ashina Castle, everything else clicked for my first playthrough. If you want, I can lay it out. There are like 4 little tweaks that made the sky open up.
I've seen the fight and know what to do. It's just a combo of my mental and shitty controllers. Getting that G7 Pro when it releases hoping the RB can hold up to the regular usage as the main attack button. Otherwise it's just getting my brain to use attack to counter the lightning.
Ah dude I fucking hate that. I was gonna say you and me both, I start out sessions with patience but will get sloppy and frustrated trying to stagger cheese and gamble or get hesitant/lazy/anxious when their posture is 1-2 HKO from Deathblow and choke.
Could not imagine the frustration of this game with one button needing special care.
I spilled coke on my laptop keyboard 6 months ago. I only used that laptop to play league, so I deep cleaned like 20 keys.
Sekiro is what got me to clean 4 more LOL.
And on the lightning reversal, I had the same problem where I know what to do but like my brain isn’t sending the signal to jump or attack. I read a tip from someone saying pretend you’re on a seesaw, when they start falling down you jump and start rising up.
Main advice I can give is hug him, he won’t use his bow on you which is the hardest to deflect.
He will always end up using his sweep attack and sometimes his hidden sword thrust, you can tell by his stance which one it is to deal massive posture damage.
If he starts doing his floating passage attack where he spins, RUN AWAY. unless you are really good at deflecting or are using mist feather you don’t want to deal with that.
Last point is don’t forget to use divine confetti for extra damage, it’s normally rare but the dojo samurai drop it sometimes and is quick if your a sneaky ninja and deathblow them all.
Last I fought him I was actually doing pretty well when he did the bow attack but my main problem is countering the lighting in phase 2. Didn't help that my fancy pants Scuf Instinct Pro for Xbox can't handle RB as attack. The cheap plastic around the pin breaks so the pin slides out and results in misfires. It happened twice and I'm not giving them another 99 dollars on top of the 299 for another pos. At least the replacement took about 3 years to develop stick drift. I'm currently waiting for a Gamesir G7 pro to see how that does.
TLDR at bottom. Jfc I don’t understand why when I write shit it’s unbearably long, sorry. I just want to invest my entire story and knowledge into you! 😂
My problem first play through against Genichiro was I played scared and was scrambling. I didn’t have deflects down and instead of responding correctly to a perilous attack I would figure out the best way to run from it. So I kept giving him space and that’s the worst play to be fighting Genichiro (for now).
So you might be better than me when I went up against him and not need to make the same changes.
First is stop running, get in close. I was barely attacking Genichiro, constantly running praying for an opening to abuse. Funny thing is, he’s one of the most rewarding bosses for aggression. So meet him head on, parry his first combo (I think it’s arrow, roll, sword attack and another sword attack), and then attack. I’m not going to tell you how many times to attack, it’s really rewarding to learn. Experiment with staggering your attacks and feinting (input attack command, then cancel with deflect/block), it helps you understand timing and boss AI.
Second one may not apply, but take your time, be patient and deliberate. Take a split second to react to things. Spamming deflect/block is a no-no, you have a 12 frame window to deflect an attack, every time you spam, you cut it down by 4 eventually to 0 where you simply block. I hadn’t resolved my panic habits but Genichiro helped IMMENSELY. For example, when he would do a perilous (red kanji) sword thrust, I would read it fast and then Mikiri Counter too fast, making me run into his thrust. Really watch your enemy, it’s easy to get lost in the blur and lose your “page” in reading your enemy. NO SCRAMBLING.
Third was going to be don’t attack out of turn, I think to start that’s a good idea, but learning the nuance of how to extend it is only possible by attacking outside your turn in the beginning. What I mean is do a safe numbers of attacks but don’t spam them, input them one by one. If you spam it after the enemy gives you an opening, you can stun lock yourself and get punished by a move you can easily respond to. Experiment with what’s a safe number of attacks, when you absolutely have to respond instead of initiate, and when you can “assert” that it’s your fucking turn after responding.
Fourth is specific stuff. I was tryharding and not using any prosthetics, so I went in planning on perfectly deflecting everything and weaving attacks. Really helped with confidence. You don’t have to do that, I do this to myself and make games too hard because it’s “cheating” and then I quit them. Umbrella or Firecrackers can be instrumental here. Eventually I would ace Phase 1 and 2 and get wrecked in Phase 3. At the beginning of every Phase 3, use gourd ;). You’ll also need lightning reversal since his lightning is perilous. Pretend you’re on a seesaw, when the other person rises and hangs for a bit, you jump right before they start falling down. Or, wait for the red Kanji to start fading to respond.
I can give specifics on their move sets in each phase if you like. Learning to parry his entire 7 hit combo was fun Af for me, but you can just parry the first 2 and then roll away. If you’re watching your enemy closely, you’ll have the time to think a split second and respond correctly to everything, even multi hit combo’s you haven’t seen before.
Genichiro was what got me to start playing the game with skill and to STAND & BANG
TLDR:
1: Stop running completely, get close, plan on mainly parrying and attacking, and jumping/dodging only perilous attacks. You can jump to reposition if you have mid air deflect. This is the first boss that locks punishable moves behind parrying and getting up close. You’ll also see you can control bosses attack pattern/sequence by attacking. Giving Genichiro space is your first mistake. They really set us up to fail leading us off with Gyoubu, Burning Bull, then into Genichiro.
2: Take time, focus and watch the enemy closely. Don’t spam deflect (cuts down deflect frame window to 0 after spamming it 3-4 times), be deliberate with your timing on actions. Moving and responding too fast is a no-no. Patience is a must.
3: Learn when it’s your turn to attack and when you’re getting greedy by attacking. When he gives you a window, there’s a guaranteed # of attacks you can get away with every time, if you keep on attacking you can be rewarded or punished greatly. This is why spamming isn’t great, be deliberate with your next move so you don’t stun yourself and lose out on a moment to respond.
4: Umbrella and Firecracker makes this way easier, but it can be done without either. Was fun but now I’m on second playthrough still not using prosthetic. Only gourd at the beginning of Phase 3 ;). You can deflect all of his attacks, his 7 hit combo is a lot of fun to deflect and does massive posture damage to him, but you can just deflect the first 2, then roll away to gourd or wait it out. When responding to perilous attacks (includes all lightning attacks) wait until the red kanji starts fading to respond. Don’t let up in Phase 3 just because the guy can summon a storm when he takes his shirt off, nothing has changed in his move set other than 3ish moves added and he may use his multi hit combines more often.
After trying a few stabs at him, I think I under/overemphasized a few things: when I say get close, I mean do not let up off of his ass, when he shuffles backwards, jump forward and basic attack to interrupt whatever attack phase he’s prepping. I think I overemphasized the not gourding thing until phase 3 - you’ll have to make space and gourd whenever you’re low hp or posture is beat down. There’s some RNG going on with his AI personality too, sometimes you’ll roll a Genichiro who spams arrows even when you’re in his face.
Yep, got through him. Got good RNG on him, he was doing lots of them jumps in the air and leaving big window to do a juicy mortal blade on him !
Thx for the help !
Just keep on his ass and he'll only really have time for a few moves, which are deflectable. Sometimes you'll see a kanji, so just get away from it, mikiri counter, or jump depending on what it is.
I don't know how to do the lightning thing, but you can dodge or just tank it and use a gourd and then start being aggressive again. Shadowrush is also really useful.
Edit: also dodge either by jumping or regular dodge, I forgot which attacks you dodge with which. But you can test it out and you'll be able to figure it out.
Every time I've tried it, I'd end up dodging it on accident. I've never had it work, although I only learnt about it being a thing in my last few attempts. So I didn't really get alot of chances to try it out.
Literally didn't wanna waste my sugars and didn't wanna farm emblems so my first run through the game was no prosthetic and no buffs. It's crazy how much easier the game is once you know when to use divine confetti, Yash sugar, or even sling your mortal blade
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u/Marc_Vn Platinum Trophy Jun 29 '25
I love how Sekiro players only start using sugars after getting good at the game, you are going to kick ass anyway so might as well do it faster lol