--Cover art by Anirudh Bhattacharya(@ink.for.oxygen on instagram), follow him- dude's the best.
"Genichiro: The Rival [REMASTERED] " is the latest release in the "Genichiro-The Last Stand" mod series; it is the most well-developed release so far, with the highest difficulty.
This release has far more combo attacks than any previous release with consistent reacts and punishes- many attacks have extra effects and VFX added in as well!!
[ To check out the other releases before the  "Rival" release, you can check out my github modding repository]
Points to be noted:
Genichiro has now been balanced for charmless players, feel free to go in charmless for a challenging, but fun experience!

Listed below are some of the changes and additions described in detail, feel free to view the changelogs for more precise and chronologically accurate information.

I strongly suggest giving the information below a quick glance at the very least, since it has details about mikiri reactions and 
specialized lightning reversal, so you'll have a basic idea of what to expect in the battle.


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Genichiro: The Rival [3.0.1-OLD]

Version 3.0.1 additions:
For Genichiro: The Rival (Phase 1 and 2)-

• Mikiri countering Genichiro will usually cause him to react aggressively immediately after- Continuing offense after a mikiri counter might be unwise.
• Chasing slice, floating passage and certain other heavy attacks now do chip damage (even with kuro's charm active).
• The heal punish is fail-safe, try healing only if you are perfectly sure it is safe to do so.
• Genichiro is wearing armour and has drunk from the waters of rejuvenation, keep this in mind if you think of attempting to cancel him out of a combo attack
• Genichiro will attempt to recover posture if Sekiro dies mid-battle, the only way to stop this would be to resurrect and attack as soon as possible- the window is pretty tight.
• Try knocking Genichiro out of a sheathed attack stance, see what happens.
  

         (Both when close to him, and when far away from him)



For Genichiro: The Heretic (Phase 3)-

• Genichiro is desperate, he will do anything it takes to defeat Sekiro- whether that be abandoning his humanity and developing a weakness to flames, or consuming a sugar which takes away his life and vigour in exchange for additional strength.
• Genichiro consistently reacts to being mikiri'ed, mantaining an offense immediately after a mikiri counter would be unwise
• Genichiro has learnt more from Lady Tomoe than you might think.
  -LIGHTNING REVERSAL CHANGES: The lightning of tomoe can no longer be reversed by Sakura dance or simply taking a direct hit while in the air and spamming attack. To reverse lightning, either use mist raven, or jump up and block the lightning attack, then press attack to reverse it. [JUMP->PRESS BLOCK/DEFLECT->PRESS ATTACK]

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CHANGES AND UPDATES IN V 3.1.2(Genichiro:The Rival-REMASTERED):
[NEW]
This release reduces RNG dependancy of move-choosing for phase 1 and 2, and makes certain reactions/combo-attacks phase -dependant.
New cancels and combos have also been designed and added to both phase 1 and 2, be sure to check it out!

General Changes:

• The third hit of Genichiro's Sakura dance now deals Max-Level Hitstun-->
  

• Deflecting the third hit will cause a katana drag animation for Sekiro.
• Blocking the third hit will cause Sekiro to be knocked back dramatically.
• taking an unblocked hit will send Sekiro flying back.
  

• Most of Genichiro's attacks no longer have infinite super armour (unbreakable even by Mortal draw), and now use Medium armour
  (breakable by ichimonji double), allowing for more player aggression and increasing interaction for the player.
  

Phase 1 and 2 changes:
1) Genichiro will no longer perform a quick homing grab after being knocked out of his punch grab attack in phase 1, and will always respond with an armoured bow move. The distance dependant homing grab reaction now activates only in phase 2.
2) Genichiro now has a sakura dance cancel, and may now choose to transition into a bow/melee attack instead of the third hit of sakura dance. This occurs predominantly in phase 2, and is helpful in preventing players from dodging under genichiro to avoid hit #3 of sakura dance and get free damage.
3) In Phase 2, Genichiro may choose to cancel out of his follow-up floating passage and switch into other attacks/combos(This will happen right before the last hit in the animation)
4) Miscellaneous balancing changes/Patches.

Exclusive Way of Tomoe Rework(Genichiro, The Heretic):
Way of Tomoe has been reworked, giving him new combos, reactions, and attacks- I won't be able to cover everything in this description, but will go over the major changes.
New Moves:
1) Heretic's Ichimonji:
In this move Genichiro will raise his sword above his head in the posture recovery stance, and immedietly bring it down in a heavy vertical
swing. Unless this move is deflected, Genichiro will recover posture along with posture recovery VFX. This move is generally performed after
a mikiri counter
2) Sakura Slam:
This move involves Genichiro charging up his blade and slamming a sakura disc into sekiro, the animation is similar to the mortal draw
attack, and is generally performed as a response to the player trying to create some distance between themselves and Genichiro.
3) Aerial Sakura Slam:
This move involves Genichiro charging up his blade with wind and jumping into the air to slam a sakura disc into sekiro, the animation is
similar to Vanilla Way of Tomoe's lightning sword-slam attack.
Other Changes:
1) Running away from Genichiro mid-combo during the way of tomoe phase will no longer work, most animations now have a distance check
and gapcloser follow-ups.
2) Genichiro may choose to cancel out of both sakura dance and lightning sakura dance, transitions will occur after the first two hits and vary
from bow attacks to sword attacks.
3) Genichiro now has both a custom floating passage cancel, and the vanilla floating passage cancel for Inner Way of Tomoe from base game.
4)Certain distance covering-moves like chasing slice have been upgraded to behave like a sakura dance disc(both VFX and hitbox wise), this
further punishes running away mid-battle from Genichiro.
5)Multiple new combos and interactions have been added, be sure to check them out!

Version 3.1.3 changes:

Changes/Additions/Patches in V3.1.3

• Added extra follow-ups to multiple moves, moveset complexity improved significantly.
• Designed a new spinning counterattack, to force the player on the defensive in case they display extreme aggression
• Added a camera shake effect on the sakura slam/other charged attack in Way of Tomoe phase.
• New 6-arrow loaded move, be ready to get shot down.
• Special posture break punish in WOT phase, if Sekiro's gets posture broken very close to Genichiro, Genichiro will immedietly grab him, and
  stab him through the chest, a highly damaging move- can kill the player if they have taken even a little damage before.
• The perilous downward stab attack in phase 1 and phase 2 will now consistently be followed up by either a heavy bow attack or a quick backward step bow attack to prevent the player from capitalizing on the heavy attack, should it miss.
  

Patches in 3.1.4.2.2 include extra VFX, balanced hitboxes and fixed bleedover issues (MelodyGaySharks was a huge help here)!

If you would like more orderly details on the updates and changes, feel free to check the changelogs-I update them every time I
patch a release.
I value your feedback, so feel free to comment on my nexus mods page, or if you'd like to have a conversation with me, you can message me on discord: nikhil.exe#6003


I would like a few words before wrapping up:

I'd like to thank my mentor Ionian(Discord name) for teaching me the ropes of modding with sp-interrupts and LUA, helping me setup my modding tools, and motivating and encouraging me throughout the development process. He's developed the Sekiro overhaul "Resurrection" mod, you can download that here
I'd also like to thank the modder Sauce(Discord name) for helping me develop the only-block lightning reversal, answering my doubts on SP-effects and blocktables, dropping interesting modding facts and information every now and then, and being so very encouraging.
Sauce is the genius behind the "For The Sake of Ashina Mod", and you can download that from
here
If you'd like to try out another genichiro focussed mod, I would recommend Nuffly's Genichiro mod- Genichiro, Way of Ashina,
you can download that from here
Further, a discord buddy(Gothos) of mine and I might release a collaborative one-time mod release called "The Warriors of Ashina", which would contain his modded Sword Saint Ishhin, and my modded Genichiro Ashina, so stay tuned.
Now, without further ado-
"Face Me"
"Shinobi, I didn't think I'd see you again"