History YMMV / SekiroShadowsDieTwice

** Despite being a PhysicalGod with divine powers, the Divine Dragon is brought down to a strictly mechanic-based puzzle boss with BossArenaIdiocy, the player will have to shoot 5 lightning bolts at the dragon by using the lightning splashed roots that conveniently grow around the dragon. Despite going down in 5 hits, the fight certainly feels epic.

** Shigekichi of the Red Guard. He is the only named Interior Ministry officer in the game and thus presumably a figure of great importance lore-wise. A whole stage leads up to him with you cleaving through many tough enemies on the way to his camp at the request of the dying Ashina troops who are being [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomped]]. Despite all that build-up, he's pretty trivial. He's functionally identical to Juzou the Drunkard, just with a different model and with poison replaced with fire. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFIayJx7IMw His slow and lumbering swings are very easy to dodge]], he's very vulnerable to stealth deathblows, and his armor can be yanked off with the Loaded Spear, which does a lot of posture damage. The only challenge is that he hits like a train, and if he does kill you, you'll have to clear out his minions again.
** The Mist Noble in Ashina Depths is simply ''pathetic'' - its two deathblow markers are easily removed by first doing a drop attack on it (which is really hard ''not'' to do, since you approach it from above without it being aware of your presence) and then slashing it with a normal sword attack a few times. It poses no threat at all to any even partially competent player; to die from it, you'd have to deliberately stand still and let it attack you without retaliating or defending at all. The Fextralife Wiki page for the boss doesn't even bother listing attack patterns for it, and notes that "all you'll ever see it do is take hits from you".

** Loaded Umbrella is one of the most useful Prosthetic Tools, since it blocks both HP and Posture damage while also having a larger timing window for deflection. Its two elemental versions, Phoenix's Lilac Umbrella and Suzaku's Lotus Umbrella, also allow you to NoSell all Terror and Burn buildup respectively. The Lilac Umbrella turns apparition-type minibosses like Headless and Shichimen Warriors into complete jokes, especially since its Fang and Blade follow-up attack deals [[HolyBurnsEvil holy damage]], eliminating the need to use Divine Confetti (which is pretty rare) to deal more than pitiful ScratchDamage. It's also pretty handy against [[spoiler:the Headless Ape's scream attack]] if you accidentally get caught in it. Meanwhile, the Lotus Umbrella is ''extremely'' useful against [[spoiler:the Demon of Hatred]], whose attacks are mostly fire-based.

** Empowered Mortal Draw, while time-consuming to unlock due to the sheer amount of skill points needed to even have it available to acquire, deals absolutely ridiculous damage even on higher NewGamePlus cycles on top of being quite fast and a very long range.

** The Puppeteer Ninjutsu allows you to possess mooks, especially the [[GiantMook giant ones]], and get them to fight for you. This can turn various challenging areas and certain minibosses into cakewalks, especially because you can possess multiple enemies at the same time.

** Mist Noble has already gained infamy as the easiest miniboss in the whole game, making even previous pushovers like [[VideoGame/DarkSoulsI Pinwheel]] and [[VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}} the Witches of Hemwick]] look NintendoHard in comparison. Fextralife sums it up by writing that "[i]t's more than likely you'll never see it do anything other than take hits from you."

** The Parry Dance[[labelnote:Explanation]]Parrying is an essential part of the game's combat, but if you can't read the timing on the enemy's strike, you can fall back on spamming the deflect button. This makes Sekiro guard and drop his sword in rapid succession, and thus it's been dubbed "The Parry Dance" because of how silly it makes him look.[[/labelnote]]

** The removal and/or heavy de-emphasis of RPGElements compared to the ''Souls'' games and ''Bloodborne''. Some players like how it makes the game much more skill-based and that the skill tree system serves as an effective-enough source of customization, while others lament the loss of the ability to experiment with different builds and play-styles, which they argue also makes the game less accessible to different types of players and reduces replay value, and that many of the skills in the tree are "traps" that reduce a character's overall effectiveness.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: There is a trend where hardcore Soulsborne fans have a somewhat sour opinion on the game due to it not having the features that drew them into the series in the first place (weapon variety, character customization, number-crunching, etc.), and consider what ''Sekiro'' brings (posture system, narrative focus, freedom of movement, etc.) to be insufficient.

* CameraScrew: God help you if you got your back against the wall especially when using the lock-on, as the camera by default would shift into positions that often block you from seeing either you and/or the enemy. During boss fights, this is often the difference between victory and defeat.
* CheeseStrategy: There are a few that make some of the bosses easier. Given that Wolf is a Shinobi, a certain amount of this is to be expected.
** With three Deathblow markers, a massive health pool, and a devastating moveset, the Demon of Hatred is a contender for ThatOneBoss. But by executing a very precise jump its possible to get to the rooftops on the edge of his arena, where he can't reach you. From there, make your way to the end near the cliff's edge, and he will fall to his death attempting to follow.

** You cheated not only the game, but yourself. You didn't grow. You didn't improve. You took a shortcut and gained nothing. You experienced a hollow victory. Nothing was risked and nothing was gained. It's sad that you don't know the difference. [[labelnote:Explanation]]Related to the above controversy, in a [[https://www.pcgamer.com/i-beat-sekiros-final-boss-with-cheats-and-i-feel-fine/ PC Gamer article]], the writer recounts beating the game's final boss using a cheat mod. A Twitter user who had not played the game [[StopHavingFunGuys opposed him]] with that [[FelonyMisdemeanor melodramatic]] quote. His speech is jokingly juxtaposed with popular tricks and skips as well as instances of EasyModeMockery through video game history, and many have made video edits where the speech is inserted into a video directly after demonstration of said tricks (such as [[http://twitter.com/skittflash/status/1114805607599464448 using a cannon in the first Koopa the Quick race]] in ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'', [[http://twitter.com/SSBReed/status/1116146712593272834?s=19 Gelato Skip]] from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'', [[http://twitter.com/sonic_hedgehog/status/1115674026628636673?s=19 Marble Zone 2 Skip]] from ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1'', [[http://twitter.com/MegaMan/status/1116071342636290050 the Hadouken one-hit kill of Sigma]] from ''VideoGame/MegaManX1'', [[http://twitter.com/TetraxZ/status/1116531052485455873?s=19 skipping Mermaid Man's slide challenge]] in ''VideoGame/SpongeBobSquarePantsBattleForBikiniBottom'', and [[http://twitter.com/ZyflairGriffane/status/1116095964228415488?s=20 setting "Baba is Win"]] in ''VideoGame/BabaIsYou''). ''Creator/CamClarke'' also joins the fun with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFJqOlYaJbs him reciting the phrase]] using his [[Videogame/MetalGearSolid Liquid Snake]] voice.[[/labelnote]]

** Due to Combat Arts being activated pressing the attack and deflect buttons simultaneously, it is very common for players in high-speed fights to trigger their equipped Combat Art by accident when trying to attack after deflecting or vice versa, usually leaving them wide open for hits and breaking their momentum. Not surprisingly, this is another reason why pro players go without Combat Arts equipped ''at all'' in {{Self Imposed Challenge}}s.

** The ultimate challenge is stacking all known handicaps (Demon bell/Charmless/no items/no arts/no prosthetics/hitless) on top of being at NG+7 (7th playthrough and beyond) in boss fights, which is the highest difficulty cap possible.

** Many players will end up using Double Ichimonji throughout the whole game without ever equipping another Combat Art. It inflicts heavy Vitality and Posture damage, recovers your ''own'' Posture on hit, charges up relatively quickly, and costs no Spirit Emblems, making it one of the most effective Combat Arts in the game.

** Due to Combat Arts being activated pressing the attack and deflect buttons simultaneously, it is very common for players in high-speed fights to trigger their equipped Combat Art by accident when trying to attack after deflecting or vice versa, usually leaving them wide open for hits and breaking their momentum. Not surprisingly, this is another reason why pro players that go without Combat Arts equipped ''at all'' in {{Self Imposed Challenge}}s.

** The ultimate challenge is stacking all known handicaps (Demon bell/Charmless/no items/no arts/no prosthetics/hitless) on top of being at NG+7 (7th playthrough above) in boss fights, which is the highest difficulty cap possible.

** Players who found out that Divine Confetti does extra damage vs everything rather than '''just''' to apparitions such as the headless are not amused by the fact that the umbrella slash technique removes the buff immediately. This wouldn't be an issue, however, if not for that fact that said slash is easy to do, and is often done by muscle memory.

* SelfImposedChallenge: There are two in-game methods that allow the player increase the game's difficulty if they so choose to:
** There is a location in Mt. Kongou that can be accessed as early as Ashina Outskirts known as Bell Demon's Temple. There, Wolf can ring an iron bell and be possessed by a Bell Demon that boosts enemy health, posture, and damage (likely simulating the next NG+ cycle). In exchange, foes have improved drop rates. Wolf can opt out of the sinister burden by dispelling the demon from his inventory.
** Going into New Game+ will reveal that Wolf was possessing a key item called Kuro's Charm by default, preventing all damage from going through his blocks. Giving the charm back to Kuro at the beginning of the game will remove that effect; Wolf must maintain ''consistently'' perfect deflections to avoid taking damage, while holding the block button and spam-blocking become riskier to perform. If it proves too much, Wolf can ask for the charm back by talking to Sculptor.