Ever since I put down Sekiro (10 playthroughs, lol) I spent an ungodly amount of time on various meele-combat games and chew through probably up to 100 different main bosses…and all of that just made me appreciate the Genichiro fight even more.Honestly, I think this boss-fight should be considered the reference point by any meele-combat game. It’s the Gold Standard.I did think that he is the best boss I’ve come across even before I could beat for the first time. It was a joy, even in defeat.But now, after seeing how boss fights are typically designed, my fondness just grew even further.More specifically, a couple of factors that make Genichiro excel so much:Balancing:He hits harder than you do, as a boss should, but he doesn’t eliminate you in 2 hits. This gives you an actual opportunity to learn and improve with repeated attempts.General game mechanics = boss game mechanicsThis is actually a pet peeve of mine. In most combat games I played with, the way you ought to play the game in general, gets flipped on its head once you enter a boss-fight.You can eliminate most mobs and general enemies one way, but then against bosses, 90+% of those ways becomes completely ineffective, or even counterproductive. That’s fine to an extent, but there should still be considerably overlap.Genichiro is perfect in this regard. He is like a super-charged version of the general mobs, with cooler movesets, and obviously more robustness and attacking power.Within Sekiro, my second favourite fight is Lady Butterfly, but she is still considerably behind him. If Genichiro is 10/10, she would be 6.5/10, maybe. (or, if she is a 8/10 then Geni is 11.5/10) And the main reason for me is her second phase. They take a really good duel, and mess it up with those projectiles that start flying at you from random directions. Again, the challenge becomes something that the game is generally not about. It’s a bit of a shame, because otherwise it’s a really cool fight.Also, random point:Why are games obsessed with making bosses literal giants? In Sekiro, even your own damn father is like 2x your size.Well, Geni is luckily good even in that regard, albeit he is bigger than you too.FairnessGenichiro is a tough fight and it will take some doing to master it, but it’s fair. During the fight, you have ample chances to heal, or in other words, you are allowed to make mistakes.Also, every move is telegraphed very nicely. His swings are coming fast, but they are reactable, even with “average” reflexes.This is great, because the game doesn’t give you a strong incentive to try and cheese the boss. (though luckily he is not very cheesable, at least not in an easy way)And generally speaking, people don’t even seem super interested in cheesing him. Some are, of course, but compare this to other bosses, it’s not even close.For a boss that is a serious roadblock for many, that’s actually quite incredible.Also, thank God for the camera not being an issue at all in this fight. The size of the arena is also perfect.Beautiful end-game to the fightAt first, Genichiro can look damn near unbeatable. If you master the fight though, not only will you be able to beat him, but you will actually boss him - you will look like the main boss.And on top of that, the fight is actually aesthetically gorgeous. His movesets are really cool looking, and when you become a worthy match by deflecting those moves, arghhh…deflectgasm.So, yeah, I so wish more games learned from what they did with this boss-fight. Also wish that Elden Ring took more from the spirit of what made this boss-fight so great…or what made the combat of Sekiro great, in general…
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