Time to git gud.

this boss was amazing, i was so enthralled that i forgot that i had prosthetic tools

Best skill-check boss in the game. Died to him 30 over times before i finally beat him with only basic skills, no cheat engines. Simply over the top satisfaction. Timing and patience are keys to victory.

“FACE ME SEKIRO!”
I get chills every time he goes into second phase and busts that spear out and chambers his Glock.
When Isshin died, sword in hand, he was headed out to die fighting against the Central Forces. Probably expected to kill a few before being overwhelmed, but that didn’t happen. But when he’s brought back by his grandson and squares up with Sekiro, there’s no quarrel or bad blood. He’s honor bound, same as you, and what he’s hoping for is a true final battle. And that’s exactly what you give him. When you get the final death blow, he shows respect to a worthy adversary. This is without a doubt the best final boss experience I’ve ever had in 30 years of gaming. The perfect payoff.

He deflects almost all of your attacks,so how to beat him? CHIP DAMAGE,using any flame vent+living force and then a combat art which deals damage through guard.my pick was floating passage and it wrecked him. Charged flame vent attack-->living force-->floating passage.

If you lure him onto the paved path and then use the hidden tooth you can get a great angle on his feet ;)

Why are there so many people on the Demon of Hatred page complaining that boss doesn't utilize the game's core mechanic (deflecting), but then everyone on this page recommends avoiding all of Isshin's attacks with the umbrella instead of...deflecting? Almost every single one of them can be deflected with no damage.

This was my 5th From Software experience, and it took me a while to warm up to the parrying mechanics. It's surprising to me how many commenters relied on cheap/evasive tactics to cheat themselves out of a great experience with this boss.

My advice to ANYONE facing Isshin: Just do the hard work. Learn the moves. Train yourself to recognize the patterns. Every time he beat me with the sweep attack after the sword combo, I reminded myself OUT LOUD what I messed up. Every time he circled around me and I missed the Mikiri counter opportunity, I reminded myself OUT loud why I got confused.

Do yourself a favor - don't cheese him, don't hide behind the umbrella, don't run away every time he charges up an attack. Do what the game taught you to do. Stand your ground, deflect everything, and truly earn your victory. This is how I took him down with zero items/prosthetics, and it was 100% worth it.

As somebody who's been downright terrible at the entire game's mechanics, but with a good supply of patience, I ended up whittling this geezer down with single pokes during only the safest openings I could read in each phase.

During phase one, I waited for when he starts dashing and follows with a thrust and two slashes. Poked him just briefly after the second slash. Otherwise, I was constantly encircling him with a comfortable space buffer while sprinting. The danger move for me was when he looks like he's dipping. That was my queue to change sprint direction to away from him, as he'll gap close toward you with quick slashes.

During phase two and three, whenever he leaps and slams his spear, he'll gap close toward you with a slash. I'd be sprinting in the opposite direction from him up until he's about to slash, in which case I turned and went in for a poke.

Depending on how he reacts after a poke (e.g. sometimes he'd bust out an ichimonji), I'd occasionally fit in another poke before playing the move waiting game again.

Now to try do the same for the flames of hatred...

After going through the game and fighting various foes, many of which were incredibly skilled with swords I was very excited to fight Isshin the sword saint.

You can Imagine my surprise when he whipped out the UwUzi and cut me down in a hailstorm of 9mm.
This is unironically the best souls game I have ever played.