Beat Isshin Sword Saint just now
I got up to him maybe about 2 weeks ago and then decided to just give it a rest until today. Took me about 2 hours today.
The two pieces of advice I’d give to anyone trying to beat this is to **** all the guides and strategies, just fight him straight up and you’ll eventually figure it out. Once I started just ignoring everything I’d read (which I did thinking I’d save time instead of having to learn his moves from dying over and over) I knew I can win. You don’t need to study him online or copy someone’s strategy, just fight him and come up with your own solution that feels right to you.
The second piece of advice I’d give is that half of this fight is mental. The 4 health bars is much scarier than it seems and imo the fight is actually fair, considering it’s almost like a final test to graduate. It asks you if you understood what this game is about. If you understood that this isn’t like bloodborne where you dodge until there’s an opening. It’s the embodiment of what sets this game apart in that you need to be on the attack in order to create your own openings. Once you get it down, you get a rare experience of being up to a difficult final boss, and having parts where you get to be the one that puts pressure on and dictates the fight.
The third phase (isshin’s second) was the only one I wasn’t great with, so it’s the one I dumped all my spirit emblems on. Breaking his posture on the fourth phase was very fair, once you get it up it doesn’t recharge.
I know I’m talking to people who already beat it but whatever I’m hype and just wanted to share my thoughts on it
Edit: also wanted to add that it took a lot of restraint for me to not spike my controller in celebration
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