With the upcoming free update/patch at the end of October, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is about to see a brand new resurgence of players. Could this be hinting at a future expansion? Who knows, but with all the new fans this game is about to get, it seemed like the right moment to go over the bosses again.
Bosses in Sekiro are very different than what Souls-game fans are used to, whether it's their range of difficulty, mechanical implementation, or their designs. It's part of the reason the game takes so long to complete. But, From Software does have some tricks they rely on that poke their way through and make a few of the encounters feel recycled, Smelter Demon style. So, let's look them over.
10 Unique: The Guardian Ape
First and foremost is one of the fan-favorite boss fights in the game, the Guardian Ape. This beast guards the Lotus of the Palace at the bottom of the Sunken Valley, and he's a real tough cookie. FromSoft is known for nailing their boss fights against beast-type enemies, but the Guardian Ape is the first one who acts like a specific animal rather than simply a "rabid beast." This primate throws tantrums, storms around on all fours as a Gorilla would, and even chucks feces at the player.
9 Recycled: The Second Guardian Ape Fight
Sekiro's been out for a long time now, so it's fair game to talk about the second phase of its fight. Basically, the Immortal Centipede hidden within the Guardian Ape takes over and the second phase of the fight is against this insect controlling the ape's body. It's a whole different encounter now with entirely different tells and body language. But, sadly, there's another fight later in the game against this specific phase of the Guardian Ape, only this time its mate is there fighting with it. FromSoft likes to do this from time to time when they run out of ideas where they'll recycle a boss and just throw in another version of it to ramp up the difficulty to unforgiving levels. And quite frankly, it's no fun.
8 Unique: Great Shinobi Owl
The multiple fights against Wolf's surrogate father Owl are by far some of the most frustrating and satisfying encounters in Sekiro. Owl is a Shinobi, just like Wolf, and arguably he's a more renowned/skilled one. In every variation of the fight whether it's at the top of Ashina castle or at the Hirata Estate, Owl fights dirty. But, that's exactly how a Shinobi would fight, as the only thing that matters, in the end, is victory. Still, having a boss fight where the enemy is using every dirty trick in the book such as disabling healing and using Mikiri Counters is such a neat concept that actually works quite well in practice.
7 Recycled: The Corrupted Monk Illusion
Wolf's fight against Priestess Yao (better known as the True Monk) is one that many players argue about. Some hate it, while others adore it. But we can all agree that the Corrupted Monk fought in Mibu Village is purely a copy+paste of this fight given to the player early, and really doesn't serve much of a purpose in the game overall.
Because frankly, for someone who hated the Corrupted Monk, it must have been horribly frustrating to have to fight it again at the entrance to the Fountainhead Palace, especially when the True version has multiple phases. This boss is recycled just like how FromSoft recycled the Dragon Riders, the Smelter Demon, and especially Ornstein.
6 Unique: The Armored Warrior
The Armoured Warrior is a creative encounter in a multitude of ways. For one, he has a European design aesthetic rather than an Eastern one. Second, he's a boss who can't be killed with a deathblow unlike every other encounter in the game. And three, he feels a lot like an enemy ripped out of a Souls game and tinkered around with until he fit the Sekiro gameplay mechanics decently enough. And, while that might sound like something recycled, this Knight is one of the most unique interactions by far for Wolf and for the lore of Sekiro overall.
5 Recycled: The Demon Of Hatred
Similarly to the Armored Warrior, the Demon of Hatred is basically a Bloodborne Boss Fight pasted into Sekiro (comparing the two is a whole separate matter). But, unlike the Armored Warrior, the dev team really didn't mesh the gameplay and design aspects of this boss fight well enough. It might be one of our personal favorite encounters, but most other fans dislike it quite a bit simply because the way this Ashura-filled beast attacks doesn't work well with the Parry/Deflect system Sekiro is built around.
4 Unique: The Ashina Elite, Jinsuke Saze
Unlike all of the entries up until now, this next one is a mini-boss rather than a fully-fledged boss in of itself. Jinsuke Saze is a master of the Ashina style of swordplay and can be found within Ashina Castle sitting alone within a dojo. This encounter surprised most players, and many were immediately cut down by Saze's lightning-fast sword strike. But these strikes can also do an insane amount of posture damage if parried, and a player with quick reactions can end this battle in 15 seconds flat (it's the devs way of hinting at ways to make the game easier). It's a truly unique counter built upon the posture system that doesn't have much else like it within Sekiro's story.
3 Recycled: Sakura Bull Of Fountainhead
Much like the Smelter Demon comparison, we keep falling back on, the Sakura Bull of Fountainhead is just the Blazing Bull encounter with a new coat of pain. Granted, the Sakura Bull is a lot more appealing to the eyes with the bright pinks contrasting the skeletal appearance, but the Blazing Bull felt much more ingrained into the narrative.
Plus, this new Bull doesn't really do anything new, it's just the same battle over again with increased damage and health pools.
2 Unique: The Multiple Underwater Headless
The Headless encounters are another polarizing aspect of Sekiro as a good portion of the fans hated them and how they always required Divine Confetti to attempt them. But, the underwater encounter with the Headless really exemplified just how decent the aquatic controls for Wolf felt. And while these confrontations were still quite frustrating, it made it pretty clear that FromSoftware could pull off an Underwater Boss battle that felt fun with little to no issue. All the systems are there, they really just need to commit to it. Maybe if that DLC/Expansion ever comes to fruition, there will be an underwater boss in it?
1 Recycled: Tokujiro the Glutton
And finally, we'll end things on another copy-pasted encounter, except this time it's a mini-boss rather than a boss. Jinzou the Drunkard was a neat little barrier to put up in front of the Madame Butterfly encounter as players would have to decide on circumventing him or taking on the challenge of fighting him before each Butterfly attempt. But, Tokujiro hangs out with Monkeys instead of other people. Other than that though, these two are basically the same character, and might as well serve the same purpose. It would've been fine if Tokujiro looked different from Juzou, but the fact that these two literally share the same character model is what really puts the recycled nail in the coffin here.