You know how she cannot even get beyond the first range Sekiro: Shadows die twice without crying? Well this guy can play the whole game in less than two hours, blindfolded.
As part of this year’s awesome Awesome Games Done Quick, the total raised an incredible $3.4 million for charity, speedrunner Mitchris tried FromSoftware’s 2019 action-adventure without his eyes. Which is ridiculous.
You might think I would add the caveat here. Die: “But of course he was guided by a friend who told him where he was.” Nope. None of them. There was a comment but it wasn’t available for the runner as Mitchriz just did the damn thing straight.
The extent of this is contrary to belief. It’s not like he’s stumbling around hoping to score a goal by accident or survive a fight. This is absolute speedrunning madness, using those glitches and exploits that make you blink in confusion on a normal run, but are entirely based on memory and sound.
The feat requires extensive memory of the game’s layout and the use of audio cues at each point to understand exactly where he was standing and which direction he’s facing. There are extraordinary moments where you see Mitchriz standing against a wall, then experimentally move and rotate to hear specific sounds so he can position himself accurately. Or when he casually leaps down cliffs to skip sections in a way that would take a mortal human 300 tries with both eyes open.
The fights are impressive too – many boss fights obviously can’t be skipped, so instead they invent techniques where a given moveset is guaranteed to dodge any attack from an enemy. Hit, hit, listen to attack, roll right for an easy one. Listen for the attack sounds of a larger boss, realize it’s a three-hit combo, and then respond appropriately, move, and attack. At some point (around 22 minutes) he loses his camera lock and uses echolocation to find the boss.
As I watched the run, I kept forgetting that the player couldn’t see. As with any speedrun, I stare in amazement at the skill shown, the knowledge of a game, and the precision required to do it all. He does it all! Only, you know, without seeing anything at all.
It’s also so detailed. Picking up certain items, bags in the middle of the ground in the middle of nowhere. bonkers.
Of course, Mitchriz isn’t doing this for the first time. He was the first person to do so, finishing the game blindfolded in July last year. then it takes almost five hours. God knows what he thought he was doing, strolling around, not seeing the sights. Since then, the record time has been held at 1 hour 32 minutes by a Chinese player who was not broken here.
This remains an exemplary performance worth watching. The excellent comment by LilAggy really adds a lot, explains every step and does everything with covid! Kudos to everyone involved.
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