I can stun this guy, deflect his thrusts, dodge past his ashina cross or ishimonji but he has a perma-guard up at all times and his posture regen is so quick that a 5 minute attempt can make no dent.
Am i missing something? I only managed to get him to phase 2 spamming shurikens.
dodge when he does the dash and double slice, get a hit in there. when he does the big wind slam, get in a hit as well. whenever you deflect his attacks, he'll probably do a thrust when you have to do the mikiri counter. other than that, just keep on deflecting almost all attacks apart from the ones i've named and get in two hits whenever you manage to deflect a flurry of slashes from him. when you strike the second hit, you immediately try to deflect as he'll attack back immediately. as for the second phase, keep on punishing the big jump and use mikiri counters, this phase is same as second but oyu just have to incorporate the lightning reversal
Slip behind him when hes about to do the Hiten Mitsurugi style draw technique
This. Even if it's a typical opening he'll often take no hits from the front, so try side or back. However the mikiri does allow one front hit.
The windows of opportunity are generally tiny so the first fight is a war of attrition. I just kept my distance and waited for his ashina cross.
Why's he got a sudoku belly
you are supposed to break his posture. he has high health and guards quite efficiently. he goes down easily if you stop looking at his health bar and focus on ravaging his posture.
Cheers. Im finding it a hugely boring fight desu. Having to do genchiro every time is beyond dull and only frustates if you get lazy and have to restart the whole attempt.
"no"
When you hit enemies, even if they block, their posture doesn't regen.
Just be aggressive and know when to parry yourself or react to a special move. P1 is so easy you legit shouldn't even take damage.
Just use a trainer lmao
>but he has a perma-guard up at all times
What's the problem? Just break his posture and deathblow him.
>posture regen
Don't stop attacking him.
Anyway, you don't have to deflect EVERYTHING. Some attack can be just dodged, and then you will have an opportunity to do some vitality damage on him.
Killing genichiro takes legit like 30 seconds.
>deflect his thrusts
Mikiri them you scrub
...
This man hits like a truck
Surely he's not retarded enough to have made it to the last boss without using mikiri.
Right just had the worst attempt of my life thanks to advice ITT:
> "dodge through his dash and slashes!"
No iframes so immediately punished
> "at the end of a sequence he'll thrust"
Sweeps repeatedly
> "beat his posture"
Takes him three hits to break mine
Genichiro is like the easiest boss in the game to be aggressive with.
Deflecting his charged aoes or ashina cross is too kino
What i meant obviously as you can't deflect them otherwise.
>Following a guide to beat a boss for the first time
What happened to this site? This video is fucking retarded a minute in. The guy is too much of a brainlet to deflect Genichiro's dive attack and dodges it instead. If you block it you get massive free posture damage because he'll always do a special move afterwards.
Yes but then your posture doesn't regenerate and he'll destroy you.
Learn how to parry, you've had the entire game to do so. In phase 1 he will ALWAYS do a sweep after a parried draw attack, it's big free posture damage. After a palm strike he will ALWAYS do a thrust, mikiri it for big free posture damage.
Pay attention to what's happening in the fight instead of bashing your head against a brick wall and expecting it to break like Dark Souls.
pathetic spear phase play. killed him in 1 minute. retards just let the boss regain their posture by not attacking.
Dive attack? You meant the jump stab? I always just dash behind him and get like 2 free hits in
It's better to dodge through the long aoe sweep and do some vit damage, if your timing is good for that.
Also, you can manipulate his AI to cancel the ashina cross if you walk up too close too him, when he starts charging it. Then he will do a quick hilt stab and follow-up with a perilous sweep. Both of which can be easily avoided and the latter countered with a jump kick for extra posture damage.🐸
hold block
If you're parrying properly your posture will be fine.
Yes. If you parry it you get the posture damage from the parry, then he'll do a quick sweep-like move you can parry and then he'll do a slow as fuck special you can react to for big posture damage. It's way better than dodging him.
Yes i do pull back and hold block but his posture comes back faster than mine.
Just trade blows and deflect his.
Never attack twice in a row unless you’re behind him or he’ll reflect.
Watch out when he circles to the right because he’ll thrust, so get ready for a mikiri counter.
I found the fire umbrella very helpful, with its damage protection and it's "Projected Force" ability that slices with the umbrella for a hit that does as much as 2.5 regular sword cuts and stuns spear Isshin out of his charged attacks. Praying Strikes - Exorcism is the only combat art that is truly safe to use against him, considering it's even faster than swinging your sword. Good for posture damage
Just always be running around and baiting his attacks so that his posture is never recovering since he is always swinging. Learn his attack timings so you can parry them when you need to save yourself or put on the pressure. You will usually break his posture and deathblow him with him having 50% health left or more. When your posture is about to break, you can lower it very fast by just holding up your guard (I'm sure you knew this but Isshin is relentless against your posture bar so just a reminder).
Watch out for his dashing followup sword slices after he does his huge jumping spear chop, that shit will catch you even if you are running away full speed.
Here's a webm of someone whooping his phase 1 with the High Monk kick for good measure. I wouldn't do this though, it's very risky against him
Deflecting enemy attacks can't break your posture, you're capped at 99%. You will only get posture broken if you fuck up your deflect timing.
High risk - high reward. You can just pressure a boss with your constant offense and quickly deathblow him, without having to whittle down his vitality first.
>Here's a webm
HERE's a webm, I mean
See, this guy gets it. He becomes predictable as fuck in P1 if you maul him. Really easy.
Learn to mikiri, you're throwing away so much free posture damage, in P2 especially.
I can mikiri with no issue
>i do pull back
Dumdum, see .
so do it, do it every single time you see him do a thrust. And follow it up with a charged thrust attack of your own because it will always connect after a mikiri counter
That's fine but "perfect time 100% of his attacks" isn't exactly advice.
Make sure you have the upgraded mikiri so you deal more posture damage.
M I K I R I C O U N T E R⚾
It unironically is. That's how you're supposed to play the game.
The game is by default on Easy difficulty. Once you finish it for the first time you will have the option to play without the training wheels.
Meaning HALF the damage will go through your non-perfect blocks.❌
Run in circles and try to hit him from the side or his back when he misses you.
You need to remember that you can still dodge even when running though because simply running is not enough. When he comes after you while running you still need to step dodge and then run to his side and strike.
Good luck!
how do i achieve this physique
You can get two free hits in he first phase by keeping your distance and running behind him just as he does the cross-slash attack. No point in trying to guard it as it does damage anyway and the deflect timing is hard to get down.
Also, it's good to get the mikiri counter on the unavoidable thrust that usually follows the 2-2 slash combo (which you should be deflecting confidently). The timing is a bit weird though, you need to be slightly early.
And if you don't keep up the pace and cross swords with him his posture will practically reset. If you're afraid of his Ichimonji punish, then don't be, just learn the timing to dodge or deflect that as well.
I found the feather tool was useful here when he did his super powerful moves like the big whirlwind. You can TP above him as he swings and get a guaranteed hit coming down. It was just hard finding the timing cuz he has a bit of an abnormally long pause for some moves after readying them.
Shit i never noticed that.
Did he kill himself with the intention of being summoned by genichiro?
the timing is not hard to get down for that sword dash 2x cut he does in phase 1, just count to three in your head as soon as you notice the sword glint in the sheath and double tap the parry button *just before* you finish counting to 3
Some advice here is godawful. OP here are the tips: don't run from his ashina cross lmao, if you parry the first strike it's always a follow up sweep which is nice to jump on.
After a flurry of slashes he'll likely thrust but as he's spinning around you have to be sure you are facing him or it can fuck up.
For his charged attack i always kept my distance but some other user said umbrella and that's probably better.
Also he loves to punish healing so really keep distance there.
I just noticed that too, weird. I thought he died of his illness. And it's supposed to be his body from the past, is it not?Coin Flip: Heads
slay nippons x lifetime
>Also he loves to punish healing so really keep distance there.
sometimes it's better to go underneath him and dodge behind him to heal when he is rampaging after your wounded ass with endless leaping spear slams and sword dashes
I think getting his castle invaded, burned up and thoroughly buttfucked by central ministry is a big enough dishonoraburu dispray. I don't think he ever planned on "coming back", though, as Emma said, he really did wish to fight Sekiro.
Also another tip, in phase 2 if you wail on him at the start you can put off him getting his spear out for a bit.
i tried to pull that shit, but my reaction time is so bad, i got rek. am full of jealousy right now
>Some advice here is godawful.
Like yours.
>ashina cross
>if you parry the first strike it's always a follow up sweep
You can't only parry one strike of ashina cross. If it comes out it's always two slashes.
He does the sweep if he CANCELS the cross entirely, which is triggered by walking towards him while he charges it.
>For his charged attack i always kept my distance
You just miss out on free damage you could do if you dodged it. His hand is the tell for the charged attack, watch it closely.
>if you parry the first strike it's always a follow up sweep
No, it's always 2 strikes you have to parry
What can't you react to? The sweep? You don't need to react. If you block the draw attack he'll always do that sweep right after.
I really don't care about the name of the attack, if you parry when he does the ashina cross he'll sweep. It's useful practical advice for OP. As for the charged attacks i said getting in might be good with the umbrella. Dodging is unreliable with it.
thanks could you make a webm on how to beat the 3 and 4 phase, this help with the 2..
i paused the game, am gonna wait on you
>webm
If you can't beat him on your own just search youtube for "Saint Isshin no damage" or something, you baby.
what are you niggas talking about
There are two versions of his "unsheathes katana" move in phase 1, one that is a real ashina cross that dashes him 50 feet towards you for 2 hits that you take chip damage on if you just block instead of parry and one that is like a fake-out Ashina Cross that comes out much faster, with just one slice instead of two and then followed by a sweep. You can see it here and the guy punishes it with a slam kick
His final phase is just phase 2 but easier because you can lightning counter his new move and do a million damage.
but it your webm that help me son.
If you're standing near him he'll always do the single hit one that turns into a sweep. He only does the actual Ashina cross if you're further away, which you should never be against phase 1 because rushing him down makes him extremely predictable and easy.
I'm not that user, and that's not even his webm.
>Here's a webm of someone
he doesn't, his belly just has chapped lips
You pretty much must go for a posture kill
OP as usual the only way is just learn his moves. In the first stage he has (to memory):
> ashina cross
> ichimonji
> energy project
> AoE
> four slash then thrust
> hand push then thust
> probably some other dash in then slash
I don't really need the money anymore but
>lost 12000 sen on death
Ouch.
You may want to try using an ungo sugar at the start of each of his phases, it really helps with controlling your own posture. Even when I was sucking ass I was at least getting his bar half full before having to worry about my own.
Firecracker is OP in this fight as it is in the entire game, throw it every so often after you do damage for another free hit, this may not seem like much but it adds up because you are only looking to whittle his vit down by about a quarter each phase so his posture will never replenish faster than yours.
Are you talking phase 1? Walk right next to him, circlestrafe left and you win by default. Do NOT walk back unless he's preparing the big AoE. Do NOT walk back if you need to heal, heal after one of punishable moves instead. First p-hase is the culmination of le stay aggressive meme. You're supposed to glue your face to his and it becomes easier than Genichiro.
He only has standard 4 attack combo (it's slow, don't try to attack in between hits) that you'll learn to deflect and all his other moves when close up are dodgeable and punishable, you only have to double dodge if he sheathes his blade.
the actual ashina cross is still very punishable, because his posture does not deplete for the whole time he is charging it anyway and if you get the timing down you can just use it to parry him for big posture damage or to dodge behind him as he does it for 2 easy back slices. Even if you suck, you can just run out of range of it then back into range after he swings for a single connecting charged sword thrust. Easy damage
>energy project
>Mortal Blade is only used during executions and in 1 (one) combat art
>Sekiro just leaves the second blade lying around in some random field
>No dual-wielding Mortal Blades for postgame/NG+
shit game desu
>he actually is this retarded.
Thrusts can be deflected if you do it perfectly, they just cant be parried.
>but he has a perma-guard up at all times
Dodge behind him and hit him in the back. Bosses in From Software games always have trouble turning around. You can get two, sometimes three un-guarded hits in a row in depending on how behind him you are
It taps away his lifeforce whenever he draws it dumbass
the Ashina cross charge will transform into a 1hit > sweep attack if you move closer to him.
No it doesn't
Source: gameplay
I was kinda expecting it to straight up kill you every time you used it
Parry is literally the same as deflect, retard. What you mean is they can not be blocked.
Phases 3 and 4 are pretty easy if you just chill and deflect. He gains many moves with superarmor, so stop attacking unless you managed to counter something, or he just walks around with his sword down in his idle walk stance.
The pistol shots into thrust for example is really easy to mikiri, even if you don't get much after it (like one regular hit and one or two blocks). The posture dmg will stack up eventually if you don't let him stand still in his idle pose.
>No dual-wielding Mortal Blades
(!) Shura...!
this, just gotta be aggressive and not let him get his posture back. dont even gotta get his health that low for a break
You don't even have to be that aggressive against his spear phases. He is so aggressive himself that his posture only ever regenerates when he starts casually walking, because otherwise he is always sprinting or attacking and his posture is just staying the same
only made it to that third phase once, but seeing a successful lightning reversal do a fourth of his vit AND stunning him felt so good
Also for phases 3 and 4 he has a cheap thrust with the spear that always looks like a sweep. Dishonest move and frankly lazy from From.
I've noticed on many fights, that deflecting the FINAL attack of an uninterruptible combo leads to a big punish. But if you simply block the last attack, you don't get an opening. Like Centipede Giraffe's combo. If you don't deflect the last hit in particular, he doesn't do the sweep. Or Ape doesn't topple if you don't deflect the big slam. Etc.
And this applies to you too. The enemies can't interrupt (most of?) your combat arts, they'll just block it all and take the posture damage. But they will deflect the final hit and use one of their deflect counters.
In this particular webm, if you deflect the last hit in his spear combo, he will follow-up with a thrust, which you can mikiri for big posture damage.✔️
>that always looks like a sweep
use ur eyes nigga
The stab and the sweep come form opposite sides
And he does the stab way more often anyway
It does
Source: lore
>no reversal reversal mini-game when you and the boss keep reversing the lightning back and forth at each other at gradually increasing speed until one messes up
>draws sword during scripted execution sequence
>nothing happens
wooooow
I mean it killed him the first time he drew it
run and hit him once he commits
>tfw he only did the lightning attack once the very first time I got to phase 3 and ate it to the face
>beat him the 2nd time I saw his final phase and never got a chance to reverse it
Yes of course you can learn it but it's a pointless difficulty. The spear thrusts start with him swinging his spear out round the side and back in, turning to a thrust last minute for no other reason to make him unwinnable without trial and error.
>draws sword
>it kills him
wooooow
This doesn't even work against Isshin very well, you actually do have to mainly parry because he can catch you if you're sprinting
Actually it doesn't kill you. I played up to this point without dying twice, and drawing the mortal blade didn't start the resurrection mechanic tutorial.
>Let's go, Sekiro
What mechanic? Im on NG+8 and have yet to die. I can only play it during the odd hour off my physiotherapy as i lost both arms recently in a car crash.
>pointless difficulty
Holy shit nigga
He's not gonna do a left to right sweep while wielding the spear in the left hand, that would look dumb as fuck
He also brings his arm back way too much for a sweep
It's not the game's fault you can't recogize an animation
Idiot, of course it doesn't because it is a cutscene death. It is still a death.
>no spear
>It's not the game's fault you can't recogize an animation
Not that user, and I'd usually agree, but not on this part in particular, not entirely. The fucking susuki grass hides the boss' weapon half the time.
>The fucking susuki grass hides the boss' weapon half the time
I mean, yeah, that's a problem. But he wasn't complaining about that.
Wrong
Bosses from memory who start a sweep pulling it up to one side then across:
> monk
> guardian ape
> seven spears
> headless
> gyuobo
Technically demon too but his sweep is more of a mess
Alright, and how is that at all relevant?
>Let's give the final boss in our swordfighting game a gun.
It is kind of funny but it ruined the fight for me honestly. It's not even a very threatening move, it's just shits on the aesthetic of the battle.
Why does this dude want to fight me? Why did he crawl out of Genchiro's neck?
That sweeping is typically done by drawing the weapon widely out to the side then drawing it across. A thrust would bring the weapon in towards you then you would push forward with it.
Isshin swings the spear out to the side, as most bosses do for a sweep. Then he pulls it in quickly and thrusts. It's time wasting dishonesty in a fight of the same tier as dark souls holes in the floor.
Japanese sex games.
it just shows he's a master of all weapons and will use whatever it takes to win, which is the Ashina style. Plus, he already had a spear and a sword, I don't think he had room for a bow
>A thrust would bring the weapon in towards you then you would push forward with it
lmao what
>time wasting dishonesty
Seriously, just git gud
Monk does the same fucking move as Isshin: left to right (right to left for Isshin since he has the spear in the left hand) sweep, then pulls back, then thrusts
Yes oddly you don't thrust with the weapon out to your side dumb dumb
Ishinn is a good fight. He's terrible at first but teaches you to actually look at the enemy. I don't know if it was just me but coming from bloodborne i really just looked at general movement and my own health and stats. To beat ishinn i had to actually start watching his arms.
>Yes. If you parry it you get the posture damage from the parry, then he'll do a quick sweep-like move you can parry
after his jump attack he does 1 of 3 things:
a piercing attack
a sweeping attack from the right
a combo attack from the left
because of the tall grass it was very hard for me to see which of the unblockable attacks he does, so I chose the easy way and just dodged it
How do you reach the final boss without learning how to play the game?
>you don't thrust with the weapon out to your side
In videogames you do
Have you played a single Souls game, or even an action game that had a spear?
A lot of thrusts with big weapons have telegraphs like that, where the character pulls the weapon back at an angle, then thrusts
Lead every boss to the poison pools.
I don't watch japenese cartoons if that's what you're asking.
HEAR HOW MY BLOOD BOILS, COME AND FIGHT ME, SEKIRO!!!
So you don't play videogames, got it
If you are here describing the move to us then you can't rightly complain that it is "dishonest". You know the attack, the problem from here on is you not reacting to it properly.
Literally a lie.
I killed him by dodging his jump attack and 1 hit punish and mikiri countering the last hit of his combo whenever he did it for any reason.
I didnt parry a single blow
>uses literal cheats aka mikiri
>calls others scrubs
lol
Genichiro should just be postured down, vitality approach takes ages and is dumb when you can just rush him.
That's like saying i can describe the hidden skeleton who leaps out of the ceiling for a cheap kill in souls. Doesn't make it good ganeplay.
With praying strikes you can pretty much juggle him. Every 2 sequences of it he'll jump, dodge that and start again.
You can sprint away from SOME of his attacks, but he 100% can catch you with some, in his 2nd form at least.
> but he has a perma-guard up at all times
no he doesn't
run to the left when he tries to do the ashina cross, then punish his ass. bonus points for using spear trust type
run to the left when he doesn the vertical air cut, then punish his ass. bonus points for using spear trust type
wait for him to do finish a combo and sometimes he will start walking sideways 2-3 meters before doing a small trust, dodge and do a double ishimonji with no loading for at least one direct hit
remember, Hesitation is Defeat. you can do it user
his entire moveset is combat arts. as soon as you realise this he's a cakewalk.
You can get past phase 1 in less than a minute if you attack and perfect parry his shit. Occasionally mikiri counter him.
It's absolutely worth perfect parrying both hits of his draw technique.
LADS I DID IT, fuccckk so happy right now thank you jesus
Do you think O'Rin gave that man a quickie before she disappeared?
uninstall this garbage
>umbrella w/ projected force attack
this works extremely well against spear isshin, I beat all of his final phase with only 1 pellet for healing by turtling behind the umbrella and whipping him with the umbrella fan blades when he finished his combo
How much attack power does a boss memory increase?
and how much does the sugar? Also why does the sugar last only 20 seconds
Does it work against normal attacks? I tend to just use it for energy style ones.
Do high monk after his sweep attack and it fills his posture bar by about a quarter.
>tfw you can get through genichiro and isshins first phase without taking a hit but still can't beat him
I just tried this - the purple umbrella doesn't work.
*ahem*
I used the fire umbrella and it could block his plunging spear slam and combo followup without breaking my posture if I parried w/ it for the last hit. It worked best for when he did shit like running at me shooting his gun, I would block the bullets then umbrella unzip attack him as he still had his gun out for a lot of damage
Am I doing lightning reversals wrong? I get hit in the air and spam attack but when I land I still get shocked. Am I supposed to be using deflect?
Does anyone know why the Ashina clan? Do they have any historical significance other than being btfo by Date?
You have to press attack before you hit the ground.
Why is he even fighting us?
His older self clearly was against Genichiro and hated the idea of immortality, so why is he obeying his grandson's request?
He literally told Emma he wanted to fight you because you're the best warrior he's ever known.
Why did the Interior Ministry want to invade anyway? Ashina as far as I know just keeps to itself. It's not like they're trying to invade any of the other territories in Japan.
Because it's his grandson's dying wish and the man just loves a good swordfight (with spears).
He was against using the power of the dragon heritage or rejuvenating waters to save Ashina, but he respected his grandson's willingness to sacrifice everything for her.
Their story isn't that documented. That gave them freedom to not fuck around with important figures.
above all else isshin loved battle, founding a country was just the excuse he used to justify his murder campaign in the story. probably why ashina failed as a country
he even calls genichiro pitiful when he firsts comes out for having to resort to this in the first place
Is Sword Saint's spear the same spear that was used by that big dude in the opening cinematic?
>That gave them freedom to not fuck around with important figures.
>implying Japan gives a fuck about historical accuracy
You don't really think softcore pornographic media is representative of all Japanese media right?
Yeah
Shadowrush worked for me for some openings. High Monk can too if you're feeling frisky and don't want to spend spirit emblems.
>some daimyo getting too big for his britches, what with all this talk of immortality and shit
>immortality
Nope, can't have that, torch the place.
Wasn't the guy Isshin himself? Not the big guy, the other one. Could've taken it as a trophy.
It's just the same name but it's not the same Ashina clan. Check the clan crest.
>this phase is same as second but oyu just have to incorporate the lightning reversal
You can literally just run around in the lightning phase baiting lightning attacks and doing lightning reversals. EZ. I haven't managed to get hit by the environmental lightning yet but I'm guessing you can use those too.
Sekino
Keep trying. You end up mastering phase 1 till a point you just stay at melee deflecting as a beast taking him down at 80-90% HP as you probably do by now with Genichiro.
Phase 2 and 3 are easier once you learn his attacks since Mikiri is way more abusable than in Ph1.
Game is settled in Sengoku Jidai if i recall, so maybe he was the Nobunaga of their time.
he tries to parry the final deathblow he was a hard bastard
Am I getting old? I spent about an hour just on the first boss guy after the small tutorial area. It feels like every enemy strike launches so goddamn fast I can't react to them.
How git gud?
Ashina is a bunch of heretics in the eyes of everyone else, if they don't have power everyone else will want to crush them because fuck their beliefs and their fucking centipedes.
>dying soldier: hey Shinobi, can you help us please? we're being invaded by the interior ministry
>sekiro: ok
>helps kill the red ninjas
>the ashina guys STILL attack me
So much for being a nice guy.
The first few areas of the game don't really teach you how the game should be played. They are filled with easy mobs that die to attack spam or a single deflect.
How to trade blows with your opponent to break their posture or how to punish and deal heavy damage is something you will learn after killing a bunch of bosses or minibosses, since they are varied enough to show what tactics work and when. That is unless you manage to cheese them all, but even that should teach you when to use what items/tools/moves
>Owl 2
WHAT THE FUCK?
бaтя тoж гaмaeт гpит мaлaцa хopoшo здeлaли
И кaк бaтя? Oбeзьянy yбил yжe?
He's super easy when you realize your swings generally come out faster than his do from neutral, making it pretty safe to just throw out random slashes all the time. His phase 2 is easier than his phase 1 because the owl just exists to indicate where he's gonna teleport to (easily punishable) and to indicate he's gonna do his charging thrust (counterable). Make sure you stand under him as long as possible when he's doing an overhead slam, only dodging at the last minute because he'll cancel into a sweeping slash if you get out of the kill zone too early. If he does a shoulder-barge get the fuck out because firecrackers are on the way and can be a 1HKO. In fact always get the fuck out when you see black gunpowder in the air.
Unrelated to OP.
If I fight this nigga on the roof of ashina castle who's got my little twink captive, that's not going to give me a shit ending or anything is it? For some reason it feels like it could end the game prematurely.
It's not like the dying guy had a chance to text everyone else that you're okay.
Genichiro? No, he's the early boss intended to teach players the ropes before sending them elsewhere.
AAAAAHHHH just got the fuck down to one third health final stage and then tried to use jizo statues, divine grass and rice to help but items and healing make him go mental so although i was doing ok he then went ape each time and killed me...
You're only halfway through or two-thirds, depending on how you approached it.
>teach players the ropes
He's like 5 bosses in. How many teaching the ropes bosses are there? All of them up until the final boss?
He's the second boss tho
Genichiro is either the 2nd or 3rd boss unless you hit later areas first.
You can't fight any of the bosses in the side areas until you beat Genichiro, except the ghost monk.
Can't you do ape then double ape too?
I struggled alot with phase 2 and 3 but his first phase is insanely easy if you keep up the aggression. You can get him stuck in a permanent loop of canceling his perilious sweep with an attack then parrying his follow up, breaking his posture in about 30 sec.
No, the gates in the Gun Fort are closed until you get the key from Kuro, which happens only after you beat Genichiro.
I don't think so. Maybe you saw a speedrun skip or something? You either need the key from Kuro to open the gate in gunfort or the puppetter ninjutsu for the kite which you can only get from the monkeys which you can only access after Genichiro.
Normal sugar is 12.5%, the one that halves your hp is 25%, so pretty neglible.
Divine Confetti is better than either sugar.
I got him, I just played really cautiously till his entire move-set was installed in my mind.