Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice has just received its first proper update since launch. And possibly in response to the countless aired comments about the game’s perceived difficulty, the studio has made parts of it easier. But only parts, and only slightly.
That’s probably because From Software are not known for their ‘walk in the park’ titles, and don’t wish to stray off the beating track. I guess we’ll just have to git gud, eh?
The changes come in varying forms – from an increase in posture damage and drop rate to a reduction in Spirit Emblem cost and Blazing Bull combat duration. But it must be stressed that these changes do only take effect in very small segments of the adventure, and are likely to have a very slight impact on the overall challenge.
In addition to this peace offering, of sorts, patch 1.03 will also fix a number of bugs that have been plaguing its dark world, namely visiting areas deemed out of bounds and incoherent text. A glitch that would see enemy leaving players unscathed has also been addressed, we’re sorry to say..
The full patch notes for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice are copied below.
In the meantime, be honest, how long did it take for your shadow to die twice? We’re thinking, quite soon after starting.
Patch 1.03: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – Patch Notes
Improvements to Strategic Approaches
- Adjusted the efficiency and Spirit Emblem cost of the following to encourage usage and diversity of approach:
- Prosthetic Tools: “Lazulite Sacred Flame,” “Loaded Axe” series, “Sparking Axe,” “Lazulite Axe”
- Combat Arts: “Ashina Cross,” “Dragon Flash,” “One Mind,” “Floating Passage,” “Spiral Cloud Passage,” “Mortal Draw,” “Empowered Mortal Draw”
- Items: “Spiritfall” series
- Reduced the Posture damage dealt by the first hit of the Combat Arts “Senpou Leaping Kicks” and “High Monk” as it was causing more damage than intended in certain cases. Posture damage dealt in the latter-half of the combo has been increased.
- Increased the Poison build-up dealt by the Prosthetic Tool “Sabimaru” against enemies that were intended to be weak against it.
- Increased the drop rate of “Divine Confetti” for Fencers in Ashina Castle.
- Adjusted loading screen tips and tutorial text, as well as adding new text.
Other Fixes
- Slightly reduced Posture and Vitality of Blazing Bull in order to improve game pacing and balance time in combat.
- Lowered the price of information sold by Anayama the Peddler.
- The Chained Ogre inside Ashina Castle is now Red Eyed.
- Fixed a bug where “Gokan’s Sugar” and “Gokan’s Spiritfall” were not mitigating player Posture damage taken while guarding or deflecting enemy attacks.
- Fixed a bug where system crashes could cause save data to become corrupted on PC.
- Fixed a bug where certain enemies would sometimes stop attacking the player.
- Fixed a bug where certain actions could not be performed after reconfiguring the controls.
- Fixed certain bugs that were allowing the player to access unexpected areas, which could result in becoming unable to obtain items or make further progress.
- Fixed cases of certain text being displayed incorrectly.
- Improved stability.
- Improved performance.
- Other various bug fixes.
Source: Sekiro
