History YMMV / SekiroShadowsDieTwice

** The use of centipedes as an {{Immortality}} device — those with a passing knowledge of Shintoism will know this arthropod symbolizes ''kegare'', the concept of spiritual defilement. Those who willingly infest themselves with a centipede to become undying, like the monks of Senpou Temple, do so at the cost of decaying both [[BodyHorror physically]] and [[DamagedSoul spiritually]] .

** Unseen Aid, the mechanic that is affected by Dragonrot is capped at a measly 30% and will be lowered to 15% and below when Dragonrot hits any of your [=NPCs=]. The low chance makes it so unreliable that players put off curing Dragonrot until they are past a boss fight (to prevent death accumulation) or have to advance a questline. And when it does trigger, there is usually little to no money and exp left to save which makes it practically pointless.

** The first duel between Wolf and Genichiro, both for the SceneryPorn and for perfectly showcasing the "''Soulsborne'' meets {{chanbara}}" aesthetic of the game.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: A black samurai is more likely than you think.

* 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.
* ToyShip: Kuro with [[spoiler:the Divine Child of Rejuvenation]]. This one is almost canon, since they literally [[spoiler:merge souls]] in one ending.

** There's a few secret shinobi doors located throughout the world, the most obvious one being the secret passage between the Dilapidated Temple and Kuro's Room due to its human-outline. Aside from a few hidden rooms that edge on GuideDangIt since the secret doors are never elaborated on, the mechanic's not very widely used throughout the game.
** Related to this, wall jumping provides an interesting way to get around the environment, but there are few places where it is essential and it's not usually integrated with combat.
** Minor environment destruction is present in the game, where Wolf can slash at boxes, stacks of books, etc. and even bumping into these objects can create noise that alerts nearby enemies of your presence. However, aside from a handful of instances that can lead to a few treasures, environment destruction is almost largely cosmetic.
* ViewerGenderConfusion: A lot of players thought that Kuro was a girl the first time they saw him. It doesn't help that he is voiced in both Japanese and English by a woman. To be fair, he is rather young.
* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: [=FromSoftware=]'s decision to center a game around parrying requires crisp animations and creative ways to telegraph attacks without trivializing its combat. The result? ''Sekiro'' is the studio's most intricately-animated title to date, having warriors transition seamlessly into their next attack, beasts swing with realistically wild abandon, and etc. Once again, [=FromSoftware=] has set a new animation standard for future titles to overcome.

** 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.

** The first duel between Wolf and Genichiro, both for the SceneryPorn and for perfectly showcasing the "''Soulsborne'' meets {{chanbara}}" aesthetic of the game.

** The Headless' grab attack; it teleports behind Wolf and then literally tears part of his soul out ''through his anus before shoving it up their own''.
** The Guardian Ape spends much of its first phase farting massive clouds of noxious gas and pelting you with lumps of shit the size of a station wagon.
** The Senpou Assassins and Taro Troops are, respectively, hideous little dwarf men and hulking babyfaced ogres who both prefer to go around in little more than loincloths.

** A lot of fans became very apprehensive when it was revealed that Activision would be publishing the game, given Activision's reputation as a big AAA publisher that [[ExecutiveMeddling meddles with games]], pushes for [[BribingYourWayToVictory aggressive monetization]] and is relatively quick to [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes delist]] games that aren't ''Videogame/CallOfDuty'' from the digital distribution stores, as happened with the ''Franchise/JamesBond'' games, ''Videogame/GuitarHero'' series, and ''Videogame/TransformersDevastation''. However, [=FromSoft=] has insisted they have full creative control over the final game and, according to the Steam page, it was self-published in Japan and published by Cube Joy in Asia.
** ''Sekiro'' and its lack of character customization and RolePlayingGame elements has turned off some players more accustomed to the Soulsborne experience.
* ThatOneAchievement: Height of Technique requires you to buy all available skills. Considering how expensive each cumulative skill point gets, it will be necessary to [[FakeLongevity finish several playthroughs]] just to get this achievement. That, or [[LevelGrinding grind.]]
* ThatOneAttack: Both the Guardian Ape's grab attacks make the boss extremely difficult on their own. His first is a sweeping grab attack that, while easy to simply jump over, comes out so fast you often won't have the reaction time to avoid it. The other is a leaping grab that, while heavily telegraphed and slow compared to the other grab, has an absolutely ''massive'' hitbox ([[HitboxDissonance larger than it looks, even]]) that is almost impossible to avoid if you don't see it coming well ahead of time. Both grabs do a huge amount of damage, easily enough to kill you if you are at anything less than full health. [[OneHitKill and if you haven't been keeping up with your prayer beads or are in NG+, then they can kill you even at full health]]. The constant possibility of the grabs coming out necessitates the player to constantly keep aware and ready to dodge, making an already challenging boss a lot harder.

** ''Dark Souls'', but everything is a dex build. [[labelnote:Explanation]]After it was revealed that ''Sekiro'' would be set in feudal Japan, many a joke was made as a result of katana being dexterity-based.[[/labelnote]]
** "MY NAAAAAAAAAAAME! IS GYOUBU MASATAKA ONIWA! AS I BREATHE, YOU WILL NOT PASS THE CASTLE GATE!" [[labelnote:Explanation]]As explained in BestBossEver above, the LargeHam tendency of Gyoubu Masataka Oniwa proved to be endearing to a lot of fans.[[/labelnote]]

** Woo Guy [[labelnote:Explanation]]At the top of Ashina Castle, a nightjar ninja launches himself from a kite at the player, typically killing them while yelling "WOOOOOO". Players found this hilarious.[[/labelnote]]
** 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]]

** ''"Mada mada..."''[[labelnote:Explanation]]Roughly means "Not good enough" in Japanese, commonly said in response to deaths and failures in the game. The phrase is said by Lady Butterfly every time she kills you (the full line being "mada mada koinu yo") but can also be said by Hanbei The Undying when you perform a deathblow on him.[[/labelnote]]

** A shinobi would know the difference between honor and victory.[[labelnote:Explanation]]If the player actually manages to "beat" Genichiro during their first battle, a hidden Nightjar will ambush Sekiro and distract him for just long enough for Genichiro to still cut his arm off, after which he says this line. This is often jokingly used by players to justify {{Cheese Strateg|y}}ies like killing the Corrupted Monk by spamming ash at her, tricking the Demon of Hatred into running off a cliff, or getting the Corrupted Monk stuck in a cliff by baiting a combo that ends in a jump attack that would have her fall off a cliff if the programming allowed it.[[/labelnote]]

* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: Deflecting the big overhead slam during the second phase of the Guardian Ape boss battle produces a noticeably louder deflect sound, signaling that you just opened a brief window to deal some serious damage as it lays down stunned.

* QuicksandBox: A large number of players seem to put off fighting Genichiro for as long as humanly possible, when he is intended to be fought fairly early as the third "real" boss of the game. They assumed that he was the final boss and that the game would end after beating him, not realizing he was merely the DiscOneFinalBoss, so they end up exploring everywhere else it's possible to go and even clearing out some mid-to-late-game areas — getting many Skill Points, Gourd Seeds, Prayer Beads, and possibly even a Battle Memory or two in the process — before finally coming back and [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomping]] him with an overpowered character.

** The Dragonrot mechanic penalizes you for dying by making it impossible to progress the questlines of the afflicted characters ''and'' reducing the chance that you won't lose XP and money upon death. It also makes the afflicted characters visibly and audibly suffer. You can cure this using a rare and expensive item... but the cure doesn't prevent any characters from being afflicted again, meaning that the cures become TooAwesomeToUse unless you look up a guide to know when it's actually important to progress a character's questline (and where to find the rare item). This is a particularly bizarre mechanic for FROM, since they've always given the player an easy way to mitigate or strictly limit the degree of penalty for dying in their games, but no such thing exists in this game.

** 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.

** While [=FromSoftware=]'s Soulsborne entries are no strangers to analysis on the cycle of death and rebirth from a Buddhist perspective, the setting in ''Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice'' outright showcases Buddhism's influence on the game's themes and storytelling which reaches all the way to its multiple endings. In general, a working knowledge of UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}} (such as references to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokushinbutsu Sokushinbutsu]]) can make playing through and analyzing the game very rewarding.

** Guard dogs wherever they appear in numbers. They go down easily and deal comparitively little damage, but are agile and often accompanied by stronger enemies who are typically alerted to your presence by the dogs and become far more difficult to defeat with the dogs leaping at you.

* GoodBadBugs: You're supposed to fight Gyoubu Masataka Oniwa — but you can also just climb out of the arena. Follow that up by hanging out on a roof near a ledge, and he'll steer his horse right off a cliff trying to get to you. The exact same strategy works on [[spoiler:the Demon of Hatred]].
** Before it was patched, it was possible to enter a swimming state out of bounds by clipping into a wall near the Guardian Ape and then swim across the game's extensive MinusWorld into Fountainhead Palace. This allowed the player the skip over half the game's content and finish it in under an hour.
** One that hasn't been patch is a SequenceBreak involving clipping out of bounds via a misplaced hitbox in a wall in Senpou Temple to clip out of bounds, and drop across the void into the arena for the Folding Screen Monkeys before fighting Genichiro.

* ItsHardSoItSucks: Some people have criticized the game for being too hard — be it due to [[NintendoHard the punishing difficulty]], the Dragonrot making [[ContinuingIsPainful continuing even worse]], and the [[EarlyGameHell absolute hell that is early game]]. A few even criticize it as being FakeDifficulty. Others dislike the emphasis on parrying and strict timing windows, especially since the game doesn't offer other methods of combat the way similar titles do. Many of these complaints come from streamers [[DamnYouMuscleMemory attempting to play the game like a ''Souls'' title and encountering problems due to incompatible styles]]. Another thing to note is that ''Sekiro'' lacks some of the difficulty mitigating features the ''Souls'' series has, such as being able to grind levels to brute force your way past difficult bosses and summoning co-op partners, as well as boss fights that often limit outside-the-box tactics and force the player to instead win difficult swordfights with few, if any, "shortcuts."

** [[spoiler: Usui Ukonzaemon, better known as The Great shinobi "Owl", is a talented ninja who once stood alongside the Ashina Clan. Betraying the clan to hunt the Dragon Heritage manifest in Lord Kuro, Owl directs the Interior Ministry and bandits to assault the Hirata Estate while faking his death. Suspecting his partner, Lady Butterfly of treachery, Owl has his adoptive son Wolf deal with her while disappearing so he can play all sides against one another. Returning to claim Kuro, Owl plans to seize all Japan with the dragon heritage and even upon his defeat, uses his final breath to express his pride in the ninja Wolf has become.]]
** [[BigGood Isshin Ashina]], the Sword Saint, was a [[GeniusBruiser brilliant combatant and general]] whose strategies and martial skill brought about a revolution that saw the Ashina domain restored to glory. Now in his twilight years, it is only [[TheDreaded the fear]] of Isshin that keeps the Ministry of the Interior out of Ashina. Disagreeing with his grandson Genichiro's warlike desires, Isshin sends his student Emma to assist the shinobi [[Characters/SekiroShadowsDieTwiceSekiroWolf Wolf]] and acts as a secret mentor to him behind the scenes. Even when revived by Genichiro's sacrifice in his prime, Isshin honors his wishes to battle Wolf, who he names "Sekiro" to the end in a final battle and faces his end with stoic honor.

** Since he is so easy to beat, fans have taken to jokingly treat the Mist Noble miniboss in Ashina Depths as the game's biggest ThatOneBoss, collectively coming up with various reasons why he's so difficult, like having a ridiculous amount of deathblow markers.

** 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."

* AccidentalInnuendo: When you defeat Hanbei the Undying upon your first meeting, he tells you to make use of his immortality as a punching bag. The way he worded it, however, [[ILoveTheDead sounds like something else instead]]:

** 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".

** [[spoiler: Opinions on the game’s resident {{Superboss}}, The Demon of Hatred, are heavily mixed. Some think it’s an intense, challenging, and emotional battle that’s a fitting sendoff to the sculptor and one of the game’s highlights. Others think it’s one of the worst battles in the series due to the Demon being a DamageSpongeBoss to absurd degrees that punishes you for fighting the way the game taught you to the entire time.]]

** Before that, expect many to use the Whirlwind Slash; Easily spammable, good Area of Effect, and free, not to mention the very first combat art you'll probably find. Unlike the Ichimonji however, it does relatively low damage and falls closer towards BoringButPractical.
** As mentioned below under GameBreaker, many players don't use any shinobi tool other than the Firecrackers, simply because stunning enemies and attacking them while they are stunned is the epitome of BoringButPractical and if they don't have another weakness it's potentially just the most efficient means of killing them.

** The dwarf assassins may not be particularly durable, but their tiny limbs make it difficult to effectively anticipate their attacks; combined with their agility and poison attacks, it means that even just a pair of them can quickly shred any careless player. In addition, several of them wear large hats that double as shields but are still far faster than normal shield-bearing enemies, which means that hitting them with the Loaded Axe is much tougher.

** For the majority of the game, Lone Shadows are rare enemies that appear only on a singular basis in out-of-the-way areas, [[BossInMookClothing usually as a mini-boss]]. And for good reason — they hit like a truck, have long combos, are as disgustingly quick as they are acrobatic, and can easily parry Wolf's attacks from affecting their generous health pool. What makes them so awful is that halfway into the game's second act, [[spoiler:during the Ministry's first invasion of Ashina]], they become a common sight in Ashina Castle. Good luck fending off as many as ''four'' Lone Shadows at once!
** Fencers, the blue shirted swordsman that like to do that thrusting stab with little warning are certainly a force to be reckoned with if you haven't mastered the Mikiri counter, they inflict massive damage and come in numbers, fortunately you can backstab most of them.
** The Shotgun wielders at the Sunken Valley Gun Fort. Huge damage, high posture bar, and low probability chances of being flinched. One is bad enough, but two of them, or at least one backed up by the not-as-bad normal riflemen are a recipe for disaster.
** Senpou Temple's Spear Adept. Those elite monk warriors with double-glaive spear will give you a very bad day: high damage, huge vitality and posture and unpredictable attack patterns. They can be easily defeated if you have Anti-Air Deathblow skill text, but if not, then be prepared for a long and frustrating fight.

** Fans have already taken a liking to referring to the game as "Ninja Souls" or "Samurai Souls".
** "[[VideoGame/DwarfFortress LMAO 2Ape]]" for the rematch against the Guardian Ape where it calls in a second Ape for backup.
** "[[VideoGame/SoulSeries Voldo]]" for the Long Arm Centipede enemies, due to their similar fighting styles.

* FriendlyFandoms: With ''Anime/Dororo2019''. This is due to the fact that not only are their settings being nearly identical, but both have protagonists that have prosthetic limbs who are accompanied by a TagalongKid.
* FountainOfMemes: Gyoubu Masataka Oniwa, due to having [[LargeHam the most memorable performance]] in the entire game. Pretty much every one of his battle cries has become a meme at this point.

** 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.
** The Shinobi Firecracker is highly useful in situations where the player is surrounded by multiple enemies and prove to be quite effective against bosses by interrupting their attacks and leaving them open to counterattack. Many players have gone through the game rarely, if ever, using any other tool, finding nothing else to be as effective as just spamming firecrackers and attacking the stunned enemies.

** 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.

** The use of centipedes as an {{Immortality}} device — those with a passing knowledge of Shintoism will know this arthropod symbolizes ''kegare'', the concept of spiritual defilement. Those who willingly infest themselves with a centipede to become undying, like the monks of Senpou Temple, do so at the cost of decaying both [[BodyHorror physically]] and [[DamagedSoul spiritually]] .

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Is the Demon of Hatred an exciting BonusBoss and a brilliant CallBack to previous Soulsborne bosses, or an incredibly unfair fight that punishes you for using tactics that the game has been pushing you to learn and adapt?

* BrokenBase: 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.

* UnintentionalUncannyValley: Old Dragons of the Tree have unnervingly human faces.

* UncannyValley: Old Dragons of the Tree have unnervingly human faces.

** The use of centipedes as an {{Immortality}} device — those with a passing knowledge of Shintoism will know this arthropod symbolizes ''kegare'', the concept of spiritual defilement. Those infested with a centipede to gain immortality, like the monks of Senpou Temple, are morally decayed.

** The Headless' grab attack; it teleports behind you and then literally tears part of your soul out ''through your asshole''.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Is the Demon of Hatred an exciting BonusBoss and a brilliant CallBack to previous Souls bosses, or an incredibly unfair fight that punishes you for using tactics that the game has been pushing you to learn and adapt?

** 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. Aside from a couple of new moves and a different model, he's identical to Juzou the Drunkard, a WarmUpBoss you killed a few hours into the game. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFIayJx7IMw His slow and lumbering swings are very easy to dodge]], and his perception is crap so you can land a stealth death blow with little effort before the fight even begins, knocking off half his health. The only challenge is that, if you ''do'' die to him (possibly, because his health is scaled to [[DamageSpongeBoss end game levels]]), you have to clear out all his minions again before fighting him again (unless you want to get ganked), which can be tedious.

* EvenBetterSequel: Even though it's a SpiritualSuccessor by design, it's probably the best ''VideoGame/{{Tenchu}}'' game ever made, with the combination of it and Souls resulting in a truly special experience. It's gone on to be critically acclaimed, and is considered one of Miyazaki's best works.

** ''"Mada mada..."''[[labelnote:Explanation]]Roughly means "Not good enough" in Japanese, commonly said in response to deaths and failures in the game. The original line is said by Lady Butterfly every time she kills you.[[/labelnote]]

* MagnificentBastard: [[spoiler: Usui Ukonzaemon, better known as The Great shinobi "Owl", is a talented ninja who once stood alongside the Ashina Clan. Betraying the clan to hunt the Dragon Heritage manifest in Lord Kuro, Owl directs the Interior Ministry and bandits to assault the Hirata Estate while faking his death. Suspecting his partner, Lady Butterfly of treachery, Owl has his adoptive son Wolf deal with her while disappearing so he can play all sides against one another. Returning to claim Kuro, Owl plans to seize all Japan with the dragon heritage and even upon his defeat, uses his final breath to express his pride in the ninja Wolf has become.]]

* BestBossEver: {{Creator/FromSoftware}} are no strangers to making awesome bosses from the Souls games and Bloodborne, and ''Sekiro'' [[AwesomeBosses/SekiroShadowsDieTwice brings its own contenders into the fray.]]
* BrokenBase: 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.

* 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".

* 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) 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".