#I apologize for the shitty quality for the cutscenes

[crystallizedday]

Mkay, so I just woke up & I feel like spitting some facts today while I’m still in my BATDR hyperfix, especially since I’m pretty sure not a lot of people have this idea as well & I wanna get it out there somehow.

So…

The Ink Demon is like… written SO fucking well in this game, or at least as I interpret it.

& I figured this shit out like GRADUALLY.

The first tid bit that hit me like a fucking truck was how CANONICALLY the Ink Demon is in DESPERATE need of any kind of love and affection. While it’s hinted at a little bit in the games, the smoking gun comes from the VOICE ACTOR FOR INKY HIMSELF Sean Crisden.

Yes, I looked through his entire Twitter to find this again just to prove I’m not insane.

Like… even if Sean isn’t caught up entirely on the lore, there’s no reason he would say this only knowing the Ink Demon through his lines. After all, my guy has to be told about the character to voice him, so for him to address this pretty much makes it as close to being confirmed officially as we can.

The second thing that hit me like a truck was the YouTuber Pastra’s review video on the game, where he details how the Ink Demon’s mocking in the last chapter is towards HIMSELF, not Audrey, & he’s just projecting all HIS shit onto her.

Not even I caught this, since I always thought Inky was right about the “your life is a lie” thing due to her not being fully human.

But then Pastra emphasized the “mistake” bit. Audrey wasn’t a mistake, far from it. The Ink Demon, BENDY, was. HE was a mistake, born solely to be a living mascot to entertain, & when he came out WRONG, he was locked away, neglected, abandoned by the man who created him.

So he looks at Audrey, someone who was made by the same man who made him, someone who was treated so much better because of how she came out “perfect”, & tries to bring her down on the same level as he is by berating her.

& while this is stretching a bit, him comforting her at the end feels a bit like he’s trying to comfort himself, tricking himself to believe there is SOMEONE like him, someone who was ABANDONED & lied to, & thus giving Audrey the opportunity to live so he can indulge in that comfort.

It’s a BIG stretch, but god DAMN is it a gut puncher!

Like I’m sure he also did it to manipulate her & shit, but like… he can have MORE than one reason to do shit, & if he really did try to comfort himself like that, if that really is true… then I’m gonna fucking sob, man.

BUT THAT IS NOT FUCKING ALL!!

Cause I got ONE MORE mind blower I had, mainly (but not entirely) on my own after that one!!

& it has to do with Baby Bendy.

A LOT of people think Inky got his mind split in two when he was imprisoned as Baby Bendy due to how different he acts around Audrey.

But I beg to differ.

I think the Ink Demon is ABSOLUTELY still conscious & in control as Baby Bendy. He just couldn’t do shit to anyone before Audrey came about & accidentally freed him (cause I am ALSO subscribed to that theory Pastra addressed in his video), so he just minded his own business.

Perhaps his new emotional responses spoken of in the Keepers’ tapes come from him being more powerless & vulnerable where the only thing he COULD do was cry.

& the reason he acts so friendly towards Audrey once she meets up with him near the city? Because she was kind to him, she actually gave a shit about him. She apologized to him about hurting him & wanted to take care of him.

NEVER in Inky’s life has he EVER had someone genuinely care about him & his well being, something he always wanted from ANYONE but never got. So when he finally has that opportunity with Audrey, he jumps to it, going along with it, even if he desperately didn’t want to visit the Gent labs again.

More evidence of this is detailed in a post by @jupiter-jellies titled “Ink Demon VS Vesty” which I really like (I apologize for the tag, I don’t know if there’s an easier option to showcase the post itself, but I still wanna credit you nonetheless) as it makes sense of the sequences of events that happen from when Baby Bendy first joins your party to when he disappears & the Ink Demon comes to stop you from entering the Keepers’ area. Seriously, that shit blew my mind when I read it cause it explains WHY Baby Bendy went missing & why the Ink Demon would try to stop Audrey from going THERE in particular.

It just makes sense that the Ink Demon was still HIMSELF in both forms, he just acts differently to compensate for his lack of powers & to be given the love & affection he always wanted.

… But then it gets sad.

Cause the more I thought about it, the more fucked up it became. The ONLY time the Ink Demon EVER got someone to reach out to him & make him feel cared for… is when he’s in a “perfect” form. Only when he was cute & innocent & TRAPPED against his WILL could he be EVER loved, that if only he came out RIGHT in the first place, then he would DESERVE all the love that Audrey offers him.

If Joey & the others neglecting & abusing him when he came out wrong when he was JUST created didn’t solidify this idea in his head, Audrey treating him like a friend in his “perfect” form & an enemy in his true form DEFINITELY sealed the deal to him.

& it only gets worse.

I was re-listening to Joey talking to Audrey at the tail-end of the game to try & snap her out of the dark mindset Inky put her in when I realized something.

The Ink Demon was RIGHT THERE, listening to his abuser talk directly to AUDREY the ENTIRE TIME, telling her how she was loved & how she’s not this monster, that she was his pride & joy, his ONLY success…

& that PISSES Inky off.

In INKY’s point of view, only after Joey had a creation that WASN’T an abomination did he suddenly have a change of heart, that all it took was to get something he always wanted to be a better person as he completely ignores his biggest mistake that was RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM.

That… has GOT to sting, really bad, to feel abandoned AGAIN in favor of the “better sibling” that Audrey was.

I have a feeling that he didn’t crush Joey SOLELY so he couldn’t get through to Audrey. I think he also did it because he couldn’t take LISTENING to him talk like this anymore, to be reminded that he was a failure that didn’t deserve the love that Audrey got, & lashed out to shut Joey up.

This is ALL very headcanon-y, but… it really does paint the Ink Demon in a more complex & tragic light.

The Ink Demon was NEVER just a mindless monster that killed whatever it wanted on sight. He was capable of emotion, & he could’ve potentially been capable of being something so much more if only he got the proper care & reassurance he DESPERATELY needed.

& GOD I love his character for it, he’s my favorite character in the game BY FAR because of this, GOD I hope this is canon so I can give massive props to the writers for this game!!

[haila-wetyios]

Some Black Desert pros and cons

A while back, I joined the bandwagon for this game when it was only available through Russian servers and much later was convinced to actually get the game when it came to US. And now that I’ve had the chance to stop and play and try to understand a little more, there are a few things I’d point out that are great for a game this immersive, and others that make this look like an unfinished product.

This thing turned larger than I expected so stuff under the cut.

Pros:

- Open world: I cannot reiterate how huge this world map is, I’m almost at the maximum level available on the game, and still have uncovered like 30% of the map. 

- Immersion: For those who probably don’t know, this game pretty much removed a few things that most players are used to for convenience. Teleport being a huge factor, it is still possible, but only through 1 time use items that are for sale for real cash. While it may seem annoying, it does bring a good sense of realism to the table. Storage as well, sending your goods to other towns via actual boats and cargos that take time to arrive.

- Dem graphics: I’m not a fan of Korean games, mostly because I know very well how they catter to fanservice and deforming female bodies to the point it is disgusting visually sometimes. (Blade and Soul being a good example of this to me). But still, this one has had some of the highest quality graphics I’ve seen that is maintained through the game.

- Engaging combat style: The pace of the gameplay is absolutely not friendly for disabled players if you mean to level up to accidentally get attacked by hordes. But the fast paced motions and controls are pretty simple to learn with enough practice. Even more, if you don’t want to remember all the combos, certain skill can just be put in hotkeys to help.

- Acceptable music: The soundtrack is not something to be completely amazed, but the tracks are actually good for the environment, it makes you feel as if you’re really in this fantasy world, and depending on the area, some can be really good to just sit around and enjoy life.

- Encouraging bonuses to level up: I’m not sure if it is something that was added recently or much earlier, but the game does encourage you a lot with exp bonuses that can last an hour to 30 min daily depending on how one feels. Even more, many of the things including the money that you make and contribution/energy points, are actually shared between characters you make, so moving around on alts is not much of an issue.

That being said, I’m pretty sure there are more things, but I’m having a hard time mentioning them all at once because here comes an actual list of things that may also be best to consider.

Cons:

- Not PC friendly: This game has been great so far, but if you’re running on low spec computers and little storage in your hard drive, it’s gg. The game itself weights 46GB plus the extra space it may take, and due to the graphics load, if someone has a normal PC, you’re going to have to get used to running the game on 8-13 fps. Traveling on horseback might be your worst enemy at times too, because the game might not be able to keep up while loading terrains and freeze your character on the spot until the areas load enough to be passable. This has made me dread going through certain towns, since a ton of people love to leave wagons parked on top of each other.

- Gender locked classes: While the game is working on fixing this issue with the relase of Muse and Maehwa and Kunoichi and Ninja respectively, it is still an ongoing problem for many classes such as Archer, Tamer, and Sorceress. Most classes are locked under female characters, and all of them have such a strong stereotype that you will still have a hard time making them look different than their base. A female elf, an asian loli and a seductive older woman. Same goes with Berserker and other male locked classes though.

- Bug festival: This is almost guaranteed to show up at least once an hour in game. It is so full of bugs that half of the time I’m doing simple fetching quests, I need to have google or  BDO forums open on the side in order to check if the quest itself is bugged or not. Same goes with certain areas in game, and you’re bound to get stuck in between objects more than once depending on the spot. Your markers on the map and even your skills on your hotbar are at a risk of resetting randomly too. You’ll get teleported by the game itself too if something bugs out to the point it has a hard time recognizing your position or your horse’s.

Constant DDS attacks: I’m not sure why, not am I aware how long this has been going for. But for my mailbox to be stacked up with rewards of apology from GMs for the game having been down too often is not a good sign. The attacks even happen every now and then, causing the server to lag out and put all channels on cooldown.

- Extremely shitty storyline: This was never meant to be the game’s forte. In fact, The original KR Black Desert didn’t come with a story at all because players are known to grind more than caring for the actual game there. A main scenario was added much later to comply to player demands and even like that, the lore may be so complex of not important at all that you can skip all the quests or read them, and it wouldn’t make a difference.There’s even a main factor that makes it worse. There is no straight line in the storyline. You can beat an important boss without having even done a single quest from the beginning or how to get there or why it is relevant. The quests will pretty much pop up randomly, and if you didn’t pay attention and do another one that’s much closer to your location, you’ll suddenly get slapped with a cutscene about something you had never seen to begin with.

- That immersion: While it is also a pro to me, it does get tedious every now and then. Crafting, trading, gathering, everything pretty much happens in real time, and certain things such as workers making something for you with a timer will only function as long as you’re online. The in game timer is also very close to rl time, so if you’re on midday and an NPC tells you to do a quest at night, have fun spending a few hours sitting down doing nothing.

- Very tedious minigames: Some quests and even crafting to a degree will require you to play minigames, there is just one problem. Most of them have little point to themselves while others are just not worth the effort to level up certain skills.

There is much more to the game, but that is by far all I can number at this moment. Immersion and being able to do things at my own pace have kept me going and enjoying it more, but all the cons do remain every day despite being bearable enough. That still shouldn’t be the case though.