That boulder has ruined me.
Anyways here is my ranking of the bosses.
15. Folding Screen Monkeys
More of a nuisance than anything. I guess I felt bad killing them the first time, but after that I just wanted to get it over with on subsequent playthroughs.
14. Headless + Guardian Ape
I don’t really like being ganked, although this fight actually took fewer tries than the single ape fight. It was an alright fight, but I consistently avoided it on subsequent playthroughs. Just didn’t feel like doing it again I guess.
13. Gyoubu Masataka Oniwa
I actually have nothing against him. He’s just very easy. There are minibosses that are leagues ahead of him in difficulty. Very cool concept though.
12. Great Shinobi Owl
I don’t actually dislike this fight at all. Thematically and aesthetically, it’s beautiful. The music is cool, and even though Owl is kind of a piece of sh
it person, there is something to be said about fighting your adoptive father. However, I thought this fight kind of just dragged on. He never really did many attack that I could punish, so I had to slowly chip away at his health until I could reasonably fill his posture bar. Maybe there was a better way, but I didn’t really feel the need to try to find it. Also, there were times where he literally flooded the arena with poisonous sh
it after doing that attack twice in a row, and that was not my jam.
11. Genichiro Ashina
I fought him so many times over four playthroughs (tutorial, Ashina castle, and right before Isshin), so I’m kind of over this guy. He otherwise wouldn’t be this low, because I remember really liking his first fight atop Ashina Castle when I first did it. Felt like one of my first skill checkpoints In the game.
10. Genichiro, Way of Tomoe
See above. He’s only slightly higher because he’s part of the Isshin gauntlet of health bars.
9. Lady Butterfly
Stylistically, she’s very cool. This was my first skill checkpoint in the game, and she’s the one boss responsible for me finally understanding how to play Sekiro. Prior to her, I wasn’t feeling the game, so I have to give this boss some credit where it’s due. Plus, it was really fun playing her again on NG+2.
8. Demon of Hatred
As said before, this is basically a Soulsborne boss. He’s like Manus or the Flamelurker, and I always liked those bosses. Some say he doesn’t really have a place in a game like Sekiro, but I disagree. I think defeating him required a similar type of learning as any other boss. I also just feel really bad for the Sculptor.
7. Divine Dragon
This fight was very easy, but I just thought it was stunningly beautiful. It’s such a lore-heavy fight, and it’s where **** starts to go down. The music is incredible too. When I talked about wanting From to try new things with bosses, this is what I meant (not Micolash, Matosis).
6. Corrupted Monk (+Illusion)
I love fighting her. The deflects are so satisfying to nail. I also didn’t realize that Snap Seeds destroyed her illusion form. Firecrackers also makes it easy to cheese, but even without those, I always thought this fight was super dope.
5. Guardian Ape
A total classic. I love fighting this guy so much. He also just always finds a way to surprise you on your first playthrough. First, it’s with his initial fakeout death. Then he shows up with his wife. Granted I didn’t care about the last fight, but the shock of encountering it has stayed with me. Regardless, the original one is always super fun. I suppose if there was a spectrum with Souls bosses on one end and Sekiro on the other, Demon of Hatred would be much closer to the Souls side, while this guy would be a healthy balance of both types of games. He requires to rely on deflects more so than DoH, but I think some of my Souls instincts also paid off here.
4. Emma, the Gentle Blade
She isn’t too difficult in my opinion, but the emotions run high in this fight. Almost gives me Maiden Astraea vibes, except she’s a legitimate challenge. The song that plays is among my favorites in the game as well. I love that her style is akin to Isshin, which makes sense since he trained her. She’s just a better warmup to Isshin Ashina than Genichiro was to Isshin SS.
3. Isshin Ashina
I love this old man. Definitely the best fight on top of Ashina Castle. He’s similar enough to the Sword Saint so that your skills transfer over if you fought SS first, but he has new tricks up his sleeve that you need to learn and master, keeping it completely fresh. If I didn’t fight SS first, I think Isshin Ashina would’ve totally thrashed me around. He also made me feel like a piece of sh
it for killing Emma, so there’s that.
2. Owl (Father)
In a way, it’s kind of fitting that this was my last fight. I had so much fun with this guy. He constantly keeps you on your toes, and there’s so much action that it never really felt like it dragged as much as the other fight. Learning and mastering his moveset was immensely satisfying. Music was also incredible.
1. Isshin, the Sword Saint
Defeating this guy was when I actually started to master Sekiro. Prior to that point, I was just playing the game, but after I beat him, my subsequent playthroughs were very easy. The second time I fought him in the Purification route, I beat him after maybe 4 or 5 tries. But the final route took me about 2 tries, and at that point I could confidently say that I knew his moveset well enough to deflect most of his attacks, and being able to reach that point is so satisfying. Such an amazing fight, easily among my favorites in a video game. I would at least tie him with Ludwig.
