I've been trying to emulate other easier methods by just parrying his double slash but I wont get into it much but its a gamble for me. I'll give him another go that doesn't involve JUST parrying him.
In regards to parrying, don't be scared to just hold LB and not deflect it perfectly. Part of what took me so long to get over my DS habits were 1) the dodge (oh god, the dodge... Sekiro truly shines how forgiving rolling i-frames were in DS, pretty much OP), 2) following #1, get in the habit pretty much replacing your dodging frequency with the Parry button.
For a lot of enemies that chain attack, it's often very difficult to parry the first hit perfectly. It's much easier to just hold LB in anticipation of the first landing attack of a combo and
then start deflecting perfectly once you get in the rhythm of the enemy's attack.
I still have a long way to counter all Mikiris because for some enemies that have thrust/ slash attacks, it's difficult to tell from the animation what they're going to do... with the spear users being the worst offenders.
Anyways, it never hurts to watch a few YT videos for pointers on how to parry correctly either. No shame in that. Dark, on the other hand, has to prove to everyone he can beat the game and claim he doesn't use a guide although he obviously started doing so around the Guardian Ape fight.
One last thing in regards to Dave beating Sekiro: i believe it speaks volumes to the polish and the amazing progression-based system in regards to the game mechanics. If someone like DSP can finish the game (even if he cheesed some of the harder bosses
and used guides), it just shows how they perfectly implemented the game's learning curve; FromSoftware is just so good at incrementally making you better at the game through tough encounters. You'll die, you'll suffer, you'll get frustrated, but you'll eventually beat it.
If DSP, arguably one of the worst Let's Players on YT, can beat the game, anybody can. That should be motivation to finish the game if anybody hasn't.
