Sekiro's Parry and Other Pursuits of Perfection

my roommate passed me the salt during dinner the other day and i accidentally mikiri countered his arm into oblivion

I love how Jacob can transform the phrase "git gud" in a 23 min video essay

"I can't resist the feeling of getting better" is a great quote to live by

I've literally never done anything in my life that was more satisfying than beating sekiro on ng+7 kuro's charmless, demon bell, no prosthetics, and no mortal blade. Just parry everything perfectly and win and there's no room for error. You simply must play perfectly or you lose and that's why I love this game and really hope we get a sequel

I find that "connecting oneself to someone else's art at the highest possible level" is a fantastic description of this channel as a whole.

"You will begin to touch heaven, Jonathan, in the moment that you touch perfect speed. And that isn't flying a thousand miles an hour, or a million, or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit, and perfection doesn't have limits. Perfect speed, my son, is being there." -Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull I know you read the book already, Mr. Geller. But I wanted to share the one quote from that novella, the one that still gets me teary eyed when I read it, to everyone else here :)

me after beating chained ogre:

for someone whos experiencing the "stuck" in my art, my studies and my hobbies, ive cried a little when you spoke about it. I really needed to hear that.

I sometimes feel weird about watching someone else play a game or reading about how they beat a difficult boss, but then i remember that my favorite part of games isnt always the problem solving, its the achievement of getting better, because watching a video or reading about someone else's experience does not magically impart those skills onto you, you still are the one that has to apply what you learned on a macro level, and you just kinda really hit the nail on this head with this one.

You basically describe how I am with lockpicking. I started practicing it more than 10 years ago as a curiosity. It was a "wow, normal people can buy lockpicks?" moment. It wasn't until recent years when it really started to become a huge part of my life and who I am today. When you first start picking you probably have little to know idea what's going on. You probably have an idea of what tools you need, and where to put them, but when you put them into practice you just fumble around in a lock with no success. However there comes a moment when you start to feel it, like something clicks in your head and you start to realize little by little what's actually happening inside of the lock and what these sensations you're feeling in your hand through the pick your holding actually mean. It's after this moment that the lock you've been having so much trouble with before finally opens. You may struggle to get it open on every attempt, but you know that you can get it as long as you keep at it. I remember my first lock with security pins, and how excited I was when I finally conquered it, but that was nothing compared to opening my first Medeco. Now there's another layer to the whole thing. It isn't just about sticking a pick in the keyway and lifting the pins until they settle at the correct height. Now you have to learn a new skill and understand new sensations because these pins also need to be rotated into the correct orientation in order to allow the lock to open. Who does that? Who figures that stuff out? It's insane. But to my astonishment one day when teaching a class and mindlessly picking a Medeco cylinder I did it. I didn't quite understand how, but I did it. The following days I analyzed what I did, and soon enough I was able to reliably open it. There are more hills I conquered, like picking open a Mul-T-Lock Interactive. A different kind of beast thought up by an Israeli company that has pins inside of pins (like, who does that?!), but that's a comment for another video. I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you're ever even the slightest bit interested in picking locks, Mr. Geller, let me know. I'll be here.

Hey, piano/music teacher and first time viewer here, just wanted to say how muchI loved the unexpected twist to the video. I had pretty much the opposite experience: learning how to actually practise, which happened pretty late in life, changed my experience of playing games, and I love playing "hard sword games" for what seems like the same reasons you do. In turn, this has changed how I feel about learning music I see as beyond my playing level. It's funny about learning to block all the attacks, it sounds exactly like when I suggest a student could see every note as important. Sometimes it's better to economise effort like in the fourth approach, sometimes it's best to really wrestle with it, as long as you're enjoying it it doesn't matter. Thanks for making this and I hope your playing brings you happiness.

As a pianist and programmer, who has never played Sekiro but came here because of this strange attraction I feel when I watch Sekiro videos, I found this video completely enlightening. You have an amazing conversational style, and your thoughts are so lucid that I found myself feeling like I was reading a really good book. Thanks for making this.

the incredible smoothness by which you timed the phrase "there's this stink" with the moment where the guardian ape was throwing poop is truly remarkable, thank you Mr. Geller

Years later, the Genichiro attack rush is still ingrained in my muscle memory.

You found exactly why I'm in love with playing the guitar. Not for the sake of one day becoming a renowned musician. It's to chase that high of succeeding at something that felt impossible before. One of the reasons I absolutely adore souls games

I can relate so much that way of thinking of like “You can’t get help from other people, do it yourself because it won’t make victory feel earned.” For me personally, I always relied on practicing for hours playing a fighting game but also looking up videos to see what I should be doing or learn new techniques to get better and incorporate it in my play style. Unfortunately for me I had friends that did not rely on outside sources for help and they kept doing trial and error just so that they find out themselves. I remember a time where I have played Smash Bros with them and they were pretty bashful of my play style saying that I was too much of a sweat and that I shouldn’t play to win. I even told them that I got better playing the game by practicing or just looking up combos or techniques that I can do. They told me that I shouldn’t do that and that “you shouldn’t look up people playing the game for you and then learn because what’s the point on playing the game if you’re not gonna do it yourself?” Needless to say my way of thinking was considered wrong from others’ perspectives but the way that I went about it has given me the ability to be patient, careful, and very acute to small details because I actually put the work in. I’m proud of myself for that and I’m happy that I have that patience and everything. I wanna play Sekiro now!

The feeling of stuckness you talked about reminded me of when I was in college studying psychology. It was a surprising revelation to learn that in both humans and many animals, the emotion that generates a violent reaction most reliably is not anger, but frustration. That really stuck with me for some reason.

Jacob covering Sekiro is something I welcome greatly.

Ah yes, a 23 minute deep dive into the game system that sucked so many hours out of me in the pursuit of perfection. Love this game so much, gitting gud also means being able to style on them so hard because you're literally guiding them into the fight you want, just to best them

Bro… I came here to learn the parry. Instead got an emotionally articulated life lesson I’ll remember for the rest of my life. Incredible video