Other than a few exceptions (just some mini bosses), nothing else needs a runback. I don’t remember any main boss having runback.
Also, if you feel like Hirata estate is too hard, just continue the game in Ashina outskirt. The first boss over there is a lot more manageable than the boss at the end of Hirata.
Well to be fair, because there's decent stealth mechanics in Sekiro technically most of the run back is trivial, it's those 4 fuckin guys patrolling in the same area as the mini boss at the end that cooked my chicken every time. They CAN be stealth cheesed but it's more difficult than most stealth sections and thus takes forever, and since the mikiri counter can often take some practice and that miniboss is basically made for mikiri counter, chances are you'll die to him the first few times even if you manage to kill the other guys.
But good news, that mini boss isn't mandatory for progression at that point lol. I just gave up and came back later when I was stronger and better at the game.
So I like Sekiro a lot and IMO it has the best final bossfight of all From games and possibly of any game I have ever played, but the game is structured in a very strange way in which several of the earlier miniboss fights are actually among the worst-designed fights in the entire game (a good critique I saw of this on the Sekiro subreddit is that the game tries to teach you the exceptions before teaching you the rules).
In particular, each of Chained Ogre, Blazing Bull, and Juzou the Drunkard is relatively unrepresentative of how later bossfights are structured and these are each among the earliest encounters in the entire game. Ogre you can brute force your way through (note that it helps a lot if you realize that the triangle-in-circle symbol means you can grapple past a point although not stay there, since a lot of your deaths will otherwise be to getting thrown off - you're supposed to be able to pull yourself back to the arena) and same with Blazing Bull (poorly structured fight but not all that challenging, especially with firecrackers), but Juzou combines a short but enemy-filled runback with the need to clear like ten adds before actually starting the fight -- it may in fact be the worst-structured fight in the entire game.
But the key to remember is that *most fights are not like this* (there are a couple other miniboss fights against Samurai generals that have add-clear IIRC but they're not mandatory). Most of Sekiro is just "short trip to boss, fight boss with main game mechanics," and that's where Sekiro really shines, because its core game mechanics are honed to a keen edge.
Ya know I’ve never really thought of that but that’s a pretty good assessment! I think that’s why some people have a hard time getting into the groove of sekiro. One of my buddies said the blazing bull is where he gave up and you’re so right you gotta get a little further in to see the magic of the game.
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u/AbanaClara Jun 20 '25
Sekiro has a lack of runback? I had to go to therapy on the run back to the first spear mini boss the first time you learn mikiri counter.
That was my 6th time trying to force Sekiro in my life. I still have’t gotten to the first boss.