Adding to my gaming hot takes: Sekiro is an absolute trash "soulslike" game (I say, with confidence, as TheEldenCheese, the guy FromSoft stole the name from for Elden Ring).
It wasnt frustrating, it wasnt hard or challenging, it didnt engage me or encourage me to adapt and overcome.. it just bored me with forcing a passive, reactive playstyle, incredibly boring and simplistic boss fights that rely solely on a singular gimmick, all carried by a kinda okay stealth system that allowed you to at least not engage with the boring combat against most normal enemies and required planning and precision... well, until you figured out you can just run away when detected and they go "musta been the wind" and you can sneak up on them literally 30 seconds later.
Overall, the art style and visual direction are amazing, as all FromSoft games have, but despite being more polished and less janky/clunky than Dark Souls, it still somehow manages to be more boring, allowing for less ways to approach each fight, and less creativity. Yes, the parry system is cool, and i Loved the way you have to react differently for sweeps, thrusts, and normal swings... but that as the SOLE mechanic in the game during combat, is just unsatisfying. Throw Sekiro's deflect system into a normal soulslike, and itd be fire... but when thats literally the only way to defeat opponents in a timely manner, it is literally not worth your time to attack them, and you may as well sit there waiting for each swing to parry.

Finally, in advance of any weirdos who actually read this, and think "git gud" or "skill issue", I never once raged or got frustrated with this game. Even Elden Ring, which i got 100% trophies on in the first week it came out, made me pissed off more than a few times, because it was frustrating and challenging, mostly(sometimes it was just bad game design or bugs that pissed me off lol, typical FromSoft).. but this game had NONE of that element. No frustration or challenge to overcome.. just me trying to force myself to endure the boring gameplay. I literally have more fun, and have to use my brain more, while playing Stardew ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Valley.... Like... bro...