u/HollowledNomad

For almost a year, I was responsible for preparing a weekly report that needed information from four different department managers. The report was due every Friday morning. I could usually complete my part in less than an hour, but only after everyone sent me their numbers.

One manager almost always submitted his information late. Sometimes Thursday night, sometimes Friday morning, and occasionally not until after the report was already due.

Whenever senior management asked why the report was delayed, he would say that I had trouble “staying organized.” He never directly accused me of refusing to work, but he made enough small comments that people started treating the delay like my problem.
At first, I tried reminding him earlier. Then I sent follow-up emails.

Nothing changed. So I stopped handling it privately. I created a shared tracker showing the exact time each department submitted its information, when I started working on the report, and when the completed version was sent. I also added automatic email reminders and copied the project director on them.

For the first two weeks, the manager ignored the tracker and continued submitting late. Then we had a meeting about “ongoing reporting delays.” He started giving the usual explanation about my organization. The director opened the tracker on the conference-room screen. Every other department had submitted its information by Wednesday afternoon. His section arrived at 9:42 a.m. on Friday, twelve minutes after the full report was supposed to be delivered. The tracker also showed that I had completed and sent the report twenty-eight minutes after receiving his numbers.

The room went quiet. The director asked him why his department had missed the deadline eight times in ten weeks. He tried to say the tracker was unnecessary and made the process too complicated. The director replied that the process only seemed complicated because it now showed where the delays were happening.

After that meeting, responsibility for collecting his department’s numbers was moved to his assistant, and the reports started arriving on time.
He never apologized to me. He also never mentioned my “organization problems” again.

I like how many options the prosthetic tools give you, but the Spirit Emblem system sometimes makes me too careful with them. Instead of experimenting, I catch myself saving emblems for a boss or some “better” moment that may never come. Then I finish an area having used almost nothing except the sword.

I understand why the limit exists. Without it, some tools could probably be spammed through every encounter. But it also feels strange that one of the most interesting parts of Sekiro’s combat uses a resource that can make players afraid to experiment.

Once I already know an area or boss, I use the tools much more freely and the combat becomes more fun. Do Spirit Emblems create a good limit, or do they discourage players from using prosthetic tools enough?