#Sekiro meta

[altairattorney]

Also here is something that I never shared here about Sekiro:

anyone who played this game knows how difficult it is to come by any kind of healing. This game is so so difficult, maybe the hardest I ever played. In all my playthroughs Hirata Owl was the last boss I fought, and by the time I got to the end of the fight - so close to making it out alive, but not yet - the last healing items I had left in my whole inventory were Kuro’s rice treats. In other words, the metaphor,,,,,

[loxosceleslolo]

This and that interview with the one guy who's been doing Souls translations for years are why I take the people bitching about "mistranslations" with a grain of salt.

[kinnoth]

I'm gonna be that guy but:

Character A has a genetic disease that requires blood research to cure while his dedicated, devoted, and long suffering not quite/more than friend Character B braves literal gods and nightmares to make it happen, losing a limb in the process

Am I talking about Laurence and Gehrman or am I talking about Kuro and Sekiro

[qwertyprophecy]

The Illusion of Aggravating Player-ness

Pictured above: demo footage of me attempting to hit the Hero when their dodging program is turned to maximum. (I can only test this for so long before getting annoyed, which is exactly the vibe I'm going for.)

More about the feeling that has inspired The Dark Queen of Mortholme under the cut:

A couple years back I happened upon a tumblr post identifying a surprisingly common sentiment when playing Pokémon. The player has an edge over NPCs in battles for basically the entire game, because unlike those silly programmed losers we've figured out how to use healing potions. So upon getting to end game and witnessing our first case of the NPC trainer healing their Pokémon to full with a hyper potion, it feels like such bullshit. How come they get to do that? Only I get to do that!

There are instances of little details in many other games that evoke a similar emotion, like this one boss in Sekiro who can sneakily counter the player's charged attack with a move that till then only the player has been using. (Please let me know if you personally recall any examples!) The sheer audacity of non-player characters using player-only moves, being annoying as I am! It's a deliciously strong reaction that goes beyond the game's difficulty ramping up; I think it's about recognising ourselves, the essence of distinctly player-like behaviour in this fictional entity made from code.

While thinking about that I also happened to be mulling over what I considered a huge missed opportunity in the end boss of the game Katana Zero. Without spoilers, let's just say that it made me consider whether it would be even remotely doable to create a narrative boss fight against a player-like entity who appears to get to save and re-try the fight by themselves. In Undertale there's a brief illusion of a NPC saving and loading game states, but they don't quite do it like a player would.

The illusion would have to include a feeling that your opponent not only gets to try again but is learning from their mistakes. Furthermore it's specifically an advantage they have over you; you don't get to try again, nor do you get room to improve. And unlike them, your preprogrammed skillset is designed to have exploitable weaknesses and a static power level which can be surpassed.

No matter how skilled, you'd be doomed to lose against an opponent like that. The bosses we beat have it rough, huh. I myself am not particularly good at video games–when I try to get past a difficult boss fight in any game where those are designed to take a fair amount of attempts and learning, I feel in my bones that meta-level story of striving to overcome a seemingly impossible obstacle. It's a journey through various emotions from eagerness to frustration, culminating in the triumphant success.

But from the boss's point of view, that story takes a very different shape, involves different emotions, and (assuming the player keeps playing) invariably culminates in a predestined loss. Sounds unfun. So obviously, that's the experience I aim to provide! (Unfun games really are my forte, with my previous work simulating jubilant experiences such as job hunting blues! anxiety! exam anxiety! trying to fix a spaceship engine that's killing you!)

Who wouldn't want to enjoy being the most powerful being in their universe until some little dipshit bursts in and locks you in an unending battle till they’re satisfied and you’re dead?

[girlballs]

Why don't you like ds3? I think most people, including myself, really like it.

i mean. for one thing i kinda don't like how linear the critical path is compared to DS2 (having Archdragon Peak as a fairly large hidden area was nice though), and the change from spell slots to FP without keeping consumable FP regeneration items around like in Demon's's S'ouls sucked complete ass and keeping that system for ER was one of the worst decisions they made for that game

but also. it's kinda just obvious that fromsoft didn't really want to make it? taken as a whole (base game + both DLCs) narratively there's a thread of "you shouldn't force a thing to stick around longer than it needs to" which really feels like a meta commentary on them being contractually obligated to make the two sequels- DS2 at least got creative with things but then they backpedaled severely with DS3, mechanically and narratively (a fun and lethal drinking game is to take a shot every time DS3 makes an explicit callback to DS1) and basically ignored all of the plot of DS2 in the process.

like there's Parts of DS3 i like but as a whole i think it's worse than DS2. i wish they hadn't used it as the foundation for Elden Ring and allowed themselves to take more inspiration from Bloodborne and Sekiro

[miirshroom]

Elden Ring and Introduction to the FromSoftware Meta-Narrative

If a rune is a story and a great rune is a great story, then what are the great stories represented by the Great Runes? The answer that I have arrived at: The abstract concept of FromSoftware's various videogame development pipelines. Afterall, the Elden Ring represents a metaphysical concept, so why not an examination of the past, present, and future identity of a company that produces videogames. Major spoilers ahead for Elden Ring, Bloodborne, and Armoured Core 6, and minor spoilers for several other FromSoft games.

Godrick's Great Rune

The Dark Souls (2011-2018) Great Rune seems obvious - Godrick's Great rune. If the 3 ringed shape wasn't the tip-off (corresponding to 3 games) then perhaps that the dragon figure on top of the Banished Knight helmet is the same creature as the Nameless King's mount. Dark Souls Eygon of Carim wears the Morne set and guards a fire keeper named Irena, while in Elden Ring Edgar of Castle Morne in Godrick's territory loses his eyes to frenzy after discovering the death of his daughter Irena.

Godrick himself seems to function as representative of Dark Souls Remastered, in a sense that the repulsive practice of grafting is being equated to the creative dead-end of revisiting old games such as Dark Souls (2011) and pasting on updated graphics and quality of life features while having to work around out-dated code. I think that Godefroy could be seen as a much earlier use of this practice as the difference between original Dark Souls and the Prepare to Die edition (2012) that included improvements + Artorius DLC. And Godwyn's parallel would be Dark Souls 3 (2016). I would thus consider Godwyn and Godrick as brothers in Elden Ring because in the internal logic of FromSoftware there were always planned to be a trilogy of Dark Souls games.

Dark Souls 2 is annoying to explain succinctly partially because it was directed by Naotoshi Zin Yui Taimura (correction: Naotoshi Zin was the supervisor, which was his role on all Dark Souls games as president of the company from 1986-2014) instead of Hidetaka Miyazaki. In short, there are some blurry lines between Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin and Bloodborne.

Malenia's and Miquella's Great Runes

Malenia herself has an obvious match in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019) - it is in the Dragon Rot being correlated to Scarlet Rot, the parallels between Malenia's dedication to Miquella and Wolf's dedication to Kuro, and that it's one of the few recent FromSoft games to be released without paid DLC or sequel (which as it happens is common among all empyrean and their game counterparts). Numerous people have commented that Malenia feels like a Sekiro boss to fight - although with the added twist of mechanics like clearing her poise break that allow her to "cheat" compared to the bosses of that game.

However, the exact nature of Malenia's Great Rune is more nebulous - probably could be a stand-in for multiple Japanese-style combat games in the catalogue including Shadow Assault: Tenchu (2008) and Otogi: Myth of Demons (2002). Certainly, it has been confirmed by FromSoftware representatives that Sekiro was internally considered a Tenchu game for some time before release, as discussed in the aptly titled 2018 GameSpot article "Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Originally Started As A Tenchu Game".

Miquella may or may not have a Great Rune. If he does, it would correspond to games in a similar spirit to Déraciné (2018), the game which Miquella most likely represents. A much smaller game, the idea of which originated in the wake of Bloodborne's release at around the same time that the idea for Sekiro began to form - twin ideas. The game Kuon (2004) also seems to have served some inspiration for the Haligtree, as there is a side-story told about silkworms and a central Mulberry Tree in that game.

Radahn's Great Rune

Radahn's Rune represents the Armored Core franchise - or perhaps the broader idea of mech combat games - while he is himself a personification of Armoured Core 6: The Fires of Rubicon (2023). The opening part of his boss fight is an artillery bombardment, similar to the long range weapon capabilities of the AC units. The central motifs of AC6 are "fire" and "coral" - and the general theme of Caelid is using fire to control the rot that has eaten Radahn's mind and which manifests in the landscape as growths resembling coral reef.

A major part of Radahn's character is that he idolized Godfrey, who is himself embodying AC4 (2006)/4A (2008). The name "Loux" means "Lynx" - and in a departure from the Ravens of earlier titles AC4 introduces the Lynx units. It also simply makes sense that the progenitor of the Golden Lineage - who I previously correlated to Dark Souls - would be represented in the first game that Miyazaki directed.

And I can see the objection that this doesn't make sense because we know that Radahn must have been born before Malenia/Miquella, so how can he represent a game that came after? Simply: it's not about when the game idea was executed, but about when the concept was first proposed. FromSoftware probably knew that they would eventually return to Armoured Core at about the time they wrapped on AC5V.

Morgott and Mohg's Great Runes

Now that some boundary conditions have been set it is easier to speculate on the nature of Morgott and Mohg - AC5 (2012) and AC5V (2013), respectively. Points of comparison: 1) They are of the Golden Lineage as they preceded from AC4A represented by Godfrey, 2) They are omens that any game without Miyazaki attached will be perceived poorly in hindsight (as he did not direct either game), 3) The AC games were at the time FromSoftware's most well known and active franchise before being overshadowed by souls games - those touched by the Crucible were once considered divine and only later fell into disfavor.

But as I already mentioned, with speculation that Radahn holds the Armoured Core Great Rune Morgott and Mohg must have claimed some other stories. This also aids in understanding how they can exist as multiple copies - there is the version of them before and after claiming Great Runes that do not match their original natures. Morgott is the easiest to figure out - it's the Elden Ring (2022) Rune. There is one Great Rune in the entire game that is mandatory to beating the game, and it is the one held by Morgott. Perhaps this raises a question of how can the Elden Ring have a single Great Rune dedicated to itself, but as I have been attempting to describe - all FromSoftware games should be treated as a single body of work looking backwards from Elden Ring. The initial concept of an "Elden Ring" stretches back at least as far as Eternal Ring (2000), and Morgott's rune is described as an "anchor ring that houses the base" so it does have a central importance.

And there's a relatively straightforward answer to which game would be considered a twin to Elden Ring - Demon's Souls (2009). The leitmotif in the menu music for Elden Ring has been identified as a more triumphant version of the Demon's Souls menu music. The core themes of Elden Ring are also much concerned with philosophies of identity in much the same way that Demon's Souls explores the definition of the self as an entity that thinks (look up "Philosophical Analysis of Demon's Souls" by The Gemsbok on Youtube for more on this). And Elden Ring serves as something of a bookend to Demon's Souls - both games are divided into 6 sections via 6 stone structures (the Archstones of Demon's Souls and the Divine Towers of Elden Ring). The 6th Archstone of Demon's Souls is broken, but what lies beyond is a snowy landscape. Elden Ring finally provides access to that snowy landscape in the Forbidden Lands, which is again only available after defeating Morgott - and with the Great Rune being activated at the tower closest to this area.

But there are independent reasons why Mohg's Great Rune should be the one that encompasses Demon's Souls. The Demon's Souls franchise potential has been irreversibly corrupted by the recent remake. The philosophy is still generally intact - that is portrayed through text. But critical aspects of art design have been altered beyond recognition - mostly of interest to me is the portrayal of the Yellow Monk and the Fool's Idol and the area of Latria in general. Mohg himself has this in the design of his robes and trident which steal the motifs of the helix and the black flame but corrupt them in ways that read almost as gibberish compared to their deliberate uses elsewhere.

The four-armed doll of the Fool's Idol hints at who the original owner of this rune might have been - Ranni's mentor Renna. And through embodying the witch Renna, it may be that ownership of this rune was transfered to Ranni before she chose to discard it. Demon's Souls did generally fit the previously established criteria of Empyrean game (no sequels or DLC), but the potential for future games is lost now as creating a sequel to the original would alienate people confused by the aesthetic corruption of the remake. There is also a rabbithole here for what all this Great Rune encompasses because Demon's Souls itself did not spring out of nowhere - it is of a similar approach to game design that was previously last seen in Shadow Tower Abyss (2003) and Kingsfield IV (2001).

The Great Rune of the Unborn

The Great Rune of the Unborn is a difficult one to pin down through this method of unpacking the Great Runes as much as any other. It seems possible that Miquella wanted this Great Rune and thought that it could be obtained by arranging his own rebirth. It is also one of two stories that must be obtained for Ranni's Age of Stars to be possible (the other being Radahn's story) - indicating that it represents something that did not exist at the time of Elden Ring's release. Running low on demi-gods, perhaps this is best understood as Melina's Great Rune. It is implied through Melina's abilities to channel Marika's echoes and through her descriptor in the code "MarikaofDaughter" that she is an offspring of Marika. Contradictory to the other demi-gods who can typically be matched to FromSoftware games, Melina's bodiless status seems to indicate that she never has been and her burning at the Forge of Giants is acknowledgement that she never will be. A comparison can be drawn between Melina and the disembodied Ayre - voice of the Coral in AC6. The unrealized potential of the Great Rune of the Unborn seems a good match to Melina.

Rykard's Great Rune

So, by process of elimination there is one rune left and it is Rykard's Great Rune. Fitting that the one game candidate remaining is Bloodborne (2015). An article titled "How the Spirit of Bloodborne Lives on in Elden Ring" (posted on VG247 by Alan Wen) goes over the ways that Volcano Manor evokes Bloodborne. The Manor sits on top of a hidden town of gothic architecture similar to Yharnam being stacked on top Old Yharnam, the Ghiza's Wheel weapon found in the manor has a clear design lineage to the whirligig saw from Bloodborne, the Iron Virgin at Raya Lucaria transports the player to a secondary location similar to Bloodborne's Kidnappers. But to me, the most clear connection is the finding of the Serpent's Amnion and Rya's dismay of being born of a hideous ritual. This seems a form of call-back or iteration to the ending of Bloodborne that involves consuming four 3rds of umbilical cord and being reborn as a Great One - a repellent little squid-slug thing.

[miloscat]

[Review] Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (PS5)

They made Elden Ring 2 and called it a DLC.

Since playing Elden Ring (an instant classic of the dark fantasy hardcore action-RPG genre), my appreciation for it has only grown. I've watched countless lore videos and fun challenge runs that show just how deep it is, and comparing it to previous FromSoft games shows a level of polish that represents a peak for the whole meta-series. I still think the open world and material/crafting system are a bit much, but still. Great game. So I was excited to dive right into its expansion pack as soon as it dropped. A week and more than 50 hours of gameplay later and it's done; wow.

The new adventure is intended for endgame characters, so I took my completed game save in there. The difficulty does indeed continue to ramp from that point, but there's a new character scaling mechanic similar to Sekiro's memories/prayer beads, whereby you can buff your damage and defence by collecting new thingamajigs. There's also cool new weapons in there and they absolutely throw smithing stones at you. I kept my ultra-heavy greatshield but soon swapped out my Rotten Battle Hammer/Serpent Hunter/Straight Sword for the Milady, an example of the new Light Greatsword weapon class. It's got a great balance of reach, power, and speed, plus neat combo attacks where you can rapidly chain multi-hit heavy attacks into fast sweeping light attacks. Other new weapons have fun gimmicks and twists beyond what the base game encompassed, although you pretty much have to upgrade them to the max for them to be viable.

The Land of Shadow is the new setting, a realm sealed off and teeming with bitter and twisted creatures abandoned by the outer world. The story has you following in the footsteps of the lost demigod Miquella, deciding the fates of his followers, and ultimately stopping his quest for godhood. Focusing on this one plotline with a small cast of characters makes for a strong story thread, although there's plenty of side distractions along the way that all flesh out the larger story of the Lands Between. I can't wait for further analysis of the details and connections here.

This shadow realm is an excellent setting, with some stunning new biomes, like the plains full of graves, the finger-sprouting wastelands, or the stormy mountain dominated by dragons. What I most appreciate about this new zone is its density, a tightly overlapping landscape with more memorable setpieces and crafted spaces by area than the base game's world. And this despite the new map being nearly half the size of the original map, which for a DLC is huge! There has clearly been some effort to bridge the gap between the open world bloat and copy-paste filler dungeons, and the intricately designed Legacy Dungeons, and I appreciated the balanced approach here.

As always, the combat encounters are a big highlight, culminating in epic boss fights. There's a lot of variety in enemy design and much of it is brand new, with a lot of care in level design and such to ensure memorable fights. As for the bosses themselves, there's some super cool ideas and a lot of them! The base game has 15 major "remembrance" bosses, and this DLC adds a whole 10 new ones. There were many deaths in my playthrough but I'm proud to say I didn't struggle too much with most of them... until the final boss, which really, really makes you work for it. It's kind of nutty. Playing your cards right with the NPC sidequests lets you bring a couple of summon buddies into the final fight, and I really needed them. As per usual, this quest progression can be obscure and parts can be missed or skipped, so I made use of various guides along the way.

Shadow of the Erdtree complements the base game so well, filling out and expanding on aspects of it perfectly. I also think it improves on design decisions while adding some creative new sparks along the way. Taken on its own, it may be the strongest FromSoft "game" yet, and makes Elden Ring as a whole even better. So yeah, it's good. Now to watch countless more lore deep dives and challenge videos!

[a-stardusted-sky]

For the ask meme: 🍒🪞🎶💫? For any oc(s) you want!

Ask link:

Hey! Ty for the ask! 🪞💫 were answered, so:

(Long post incoming)

🍒 -

Dazor - Well, the easiest friend for him to get along with would probably be Kirby, once Dazor realizes Kirby’s not going to backstab him at first opportunity. Gooey and Elfilin he'd be close with too, Dazor appreciates that despite their dark origins, they got good hearts (even if Gooey is quite scatter-brained). I can’t see him getting along with Zan though - her refusal to respect anyone beyond her circle (and eventually Kirby) would absolutely rub him the wrong way. DMK he’d try to avoid. Daroach he just wants to sTOP TRYING TO STEAL HIS STUFF, thank you very much. He and Magolor don’t like each other too much either - Dazor dislikes Magolor’s mischief and over-the-top, un-genuine nature (not to mention his infamous betrayal), and Magolor would think Dazor’s too boring and that it’s a shame he won’t share any Ancient related knowledge. In a similar vein, Dazor would… not get along with Marx, to say the least. For the other friends, Dazor would be on positive or at least neutral terms.

Ao-Yong - Their laidback nature would allow them to get along with just (or at least avoid conflict with) about all of the dream friends. They probably wouldn’t be too fond of Susie though, while they can sympathize with her struggles caused by the Ancients' legacy, they find it much harder to sympathize with the part of colonizing and destroying others' lives for her and her company benefit, having seen that story play out time and time again.

Ky: *Struggling to think here* I can see them enjoying sparring with Meta Knight and the Mage Sisters! I'd also see them being interested in Elfilin given their connection to Elfilis.

🎶- Oh god, this is probably one of the harder questions for me bc my brain just... doesn't really connect music with my ocs? But I do got a few things:

Dazor - The first song is the Aviary Village shop theme from Sky: Children of the Light. It's a relaxing, peaceful song associated with rebuilding and renewal, which is great for Dazor's story. And the second song - whiplash incoming - is Hell’s comin’ with me - Poor Man’s Poison. Pro tip: Dazor is a people-pleaser, he's conflict-avoidant and would rather not fight, much less kill. But if you choose to hurt him or his loved ones, he WILL remember, and he will NOT forget (This will be plot relevant down the line).

Ao-Yong - Their battle theme would probably be heavily based off of Landia's theme and, I don't know, Sekiro's Divine Dragon and/or Elden Ring's Elden Beast. A regal, alien, powerful theme that tells you that you should not be fighting them.

Ky - they can have a leifmotif/theme based off Landia's theme and/or Two Planets Approach the Roche Limit due to the connections with their owners, maybe more the latter since Ao has the stronger connection to Landia here.

[eldenringslut]

Hey people, sorry I’ve been away so long. Uni has been inverting my legs recently so I only managed to finish AC6 last night.

These will be my (spoiler free) thoughts on AC6 as a long-time Fromsoftware and souls game fan. And as someone who has never played another Armored Core game before.

The first thing to realize is that, more so than any other fromsoft game, AC6 is NOT a souls game. It doesn’t play like one and it doesn’t feel like one. It is different on a very fundamental level. The combat, the exploration, the gameplay loop, the controls and the customisation, all of these are vastly different to what you’d find in a souls game.

Now this isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. Fromsoftware are clearly going for something different here, and so long as you don’t go in expecting a souls game you wont be disappointed (although the banging-your-head-against-a-wall bosses remain and still feel amazing to finally beat).

Now for the most important part (in my opinion), is the game fun? FUCK YES!!!

The combat system and controls take some getting used to, but after that the gameplay loop quickly becomes addictive. Even before you enter a mission you are constantly building, customising and testing new equipment. The game does an excellent job of incentivising customisation, with every setup having advantages and disadvantages that are needed for specific scenarios.

The game lets you save multiple setups and easily swap between them as needed. This eventually gets to the point where you’ll have multiple ACs set up, and will be theorising about what you’ll need and which one to bring before the mission even starts. Even better is that if you ever die, the game will let you change your setup before respawing at the last checkpoint. Without having to restart the mission.

This loop is perpetuated by how you’re constantly unlocking new parts. So it will take a long time before you exhaust all your customization options. And i cannot tell you how awesome it feels to slowly and precisely tailor the perfect AC setup for a specific boss and then finally beat them.

The story, music and art direction are, as expected from a Fromsoft game, all fucking amazing. The story is similar to Sekiro’s in that the main plot is told to you pretty directly, but you can still uncover a wealth of other information by reading logs and item descriptions. The game even incentivises this, rewarding you with parts for finding audio logs. There are several bosses that are so goddamn cool to fight that i didn’t even mind when they turn me into whipped cream. The game also has great replayability, with multiple possible mission paths and 3 endings (one of which includes several unique missions that can only be played in ng++).

Now obviously the game isn’t perfect. Some of the missions are objective defensive and can be kind of annoying. And for some of the bosses the best strategy is just to be as tanky as possible and just outgun them (which can be kind of boring). This is also a problem in PVP, with the meta setups being far too oppressive and skill mattering too little for my taste.

Additionally, you really don’t have that same sense of fear and caution you get from playing a souls game. You are much more likely to be worn down over the course of a mission (running out of ammo or health) than to die to any one tough enemy. The low ammo capacity of some weapons can also make them unusable in certain scenarios, which can be a bit annoying.

Overall however, this game is one of the best I’ve ever played and I 100% recommend it. The game is so good that it’s making we want to go back and replay missions to find all the secrets i missed. I recommend it whether or not you’re a souls fan.

9/10 absolutely fucking amazing.

[ursbearhug]

One thing I don't think I have said here before is how much YouTube and "content creators" is vexing me when it comes to game balancing and game reviewing.

Overall, I have 0 problem with random bloke going like "I played [X] and here are my thoughts". That's fair, I wish I knew enough editing software to be him, slay King or whatever heteros say. But when you have Mister Big Brain going with his unsolicited worst steaming hot garbage take on a game genra he never played before, I about to flip fucking tables.

When this happens (or situation akin to this; like uneducated hoes going on tiktok sharing 'psychological' advice, with sources from FUTA) I'm always like; hey do you see me making videos on quantum physics? No? Because I don't know anything about quantum physics. And neither do you when it comes to ARPGs, so, how about you shut the fuck up before somebody takes your 6 milion views video seriously?

And I really want to explain this as calmly as possible. Again there ain't nothing wrong with Filip age 25 making silly little video talking about experience playing Sekiro. His video will probably reach like 100k people at best and he's transparent on his status as strictly non-souls-like player. But then you have Arthur age 25 making 10:01 long video, securing that sexy sexy ad revenue, making same point 5 times because he literally has nothing to talk about, clickabait all over the goddamn place being like "this game is garbage!". And when asked how often he does play arpg games, because his complaints are about most common aspects of dungeon crawler arpgs, he's like "well, shut the fuck up". Like, my bitch. You should have just sat there and ate your damn food but no. Gotta get involved in shit that doesn't concern you. Happy 6 miliom views and engagement from hidden dislikes you absolute shit peddler.

I don't speak out about high brow cinema masterpieces or whatever because I know little about criticising movies for their shots or music choices. I don't talk about wine tasting because for me all wine taste like piss and I cannot be asked to taste 9000 years old wine for sublime taste and aroma or whatever the fuck. But I can go on for 30 minutes talking about my favourite games and the genres they fit because I have hundred hours of different experiences racked up. I also have some idea about meta and how balancing works, so I can make some accurate remarks for changes.

It pisses me off because sometimes critism that is done super loudly and in the most obnoxious way possible, is being taken seriously and implemented but the actual problems and fixed are being misread and considered as "unpopular" opinions and go under the radar.

Like, Arthur nobody cares you've been one shot because you don't have fingers and eye to hand coordination and cannot dodge attack that is being delayed for an hour, please go kill yourself and stop making these motherfucking unfunny memes, I swear to Gods.

[palant1r]

i do think its kinda funny that i started elden ring like "uhhhh idk uhhhh im too scared to play anything but samurai since i just finished playing sekiro, i just gotta poke things with a katana" and ended up stumbling ass backwards into a meta build

[elfcow]

Sekiro and specifically Sekiro's relationship with Isshin also serves as a meta-commentary on the relationship between between traditional martial arts and competitive MMA and self-defense.

Of how traditional martial arts both feel left behind and yet have so much hidden depth to offer, but more in a pick-and-choose what works buffet style than the complete system mastery that their practitioners would have you believe. And how the competitive MMA/self defense world thrives on pressure-testing and only using what works, yet due to this cultural disconnect and isolation might not have the opportunity to pressure test everything - there's still so much to learn and test!

And Sekiro's rigidity of adherence that gives way to the fluidity of survival, Isshin writing a codified text for his people to follow while living and preaching the opposite - only winning matters, only what works matters, all else is chaff - and together they each take the best of every hidden, secret, incomplete and rigid tradition in the land. And meet in an open field to test it well and truly.

[beardedhandstoadshark]

Which character from any show or game worth a spinoff? Their character is very interesting and should have their own show or game.

…I wanna say perry the platypus but technically it already IS his (+ doof‘s and Candace’s) Show. Phineas and Ferb are less the protagonists than they are the setting for whatever is going on with those.

Also I‘m a Zelda fan so obligatory "Zelda/Ganondorf should have their own game!“ but. Playable Zelda might just be part of the regular games, and as interesting as playing a character who’s morally in the wrong and destined to lose could be, Nintendo ain’t gonna do that ever. They do bittersweet endings, not bleak. Even the two games where you nuke a whole reality still give you a "but they lived on in some way and even fulfill their dreams“. Also having character whose whole entire deal is being op af doesn’t…really sound like fun gameplay? Not unless you circle the entire gameplay around that or their strength is a thing in the background.

Ganondorf Monster Castle Management Sim when Nintendo

…anyways, have you ever seen Bandana Dee? He’s the player 2 of modern Kirby games. He’s a waddle dee, who are like the Goombas (and toads) of this series. The first time you meet him he’s a joke boss who’s just a regular enemy you can down in one hit. But he trained a lot to improve himself, and now he’s an actual character just as capable as the rest of the gang!

Granted, Bandee’s character itself isn’t the most interesting but idk, something about seeing the flagship starter enemy, the lowest of the lowest, grow to become just as bright of a star as the protagonist, the strongest of them all, is really cool. Might be nice to see that play out in a game!

It could be like Kirby but with level ups and skill points to really drive home the growth. And the levels could be more catered to his spear weapon that way, as it would be the only thing he uses. You can unlock new skills by meeting different friends along the way. A Fire Upgrade from King Dedede, Speed and Combo lessons from Meta Knight, Idk. The last level is Green Greens and you can see Kirby have his first adventure in the background sometimes and his actions change things in the foreground

Or maybe it the Kirby series‘ version of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice lmao. Dark Souls but you only have 1 weapon. And in this case a lot more colorful and friendly. The biggest plot twist is the lack of an eldritch horror as a boss XD

[teragames]

"Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice" logra vender más de 10 millones de unidades

El juego del año de 2019, nos referimos a "Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice" (@sekirothegame), celebra haber alcanzado los diez millones de unidades vendidas.

Sekiro: Shadow Die Twice, el ganador del Juego del Año de 2019 —de los renombrados desarrolladores FromSoftware y publicado por Activision— ¡ha alcanzado oficialmente la meta de 10 millones de ventas! La aventura de acción en tercera persona dirigida por Hidetaka Miyazaki se lanzó en marzo de 2019 con excelentes críticas y ha deleitado a millones de jugadores en todo el mundo. Sekiro: Shadows…

[altairattorney]

Wolf is (not) the land of Ashina

Dear Sekiros, my insomnia has been resurrected and made exponentially worse by hormonal problems in the past few months. As I toss and turn, trying to fall asleep despite my body having turned into an oven, my nocturnal brain gets very active. So I decided to get back up and very quickly type yet another piece of meta about our favorite piece of Fromsoft pain, Sekiro.

For habitual and new readers alike, here are the essentials we have discussed many times before:

One of the central themes of Sekiro’s plot is how agency changes your fate and your future.

The emotional core of the story is the Kuro/Wolf/Owl dynamic, which metaphysically links care to salvation and abuse to perdition. This message is so important it is depicted on Wolf’s very face, with his right side hair white from the Heritage and his left eye bearing Owl’s scar.

The narrative of Sekiro is a game of mirrors, whose meanings are deduced by observing similarities and differences between the various players.

With that out of the way: for some unearthly reason that must be tied to insomnia, my brain suddenly realized that the relationship Wolf has to Kuro and Owl has its very own parallel in the most unexpected of characters: the land of Ashina itself, with Genichiro and Isshin at the opposite ends of it.

Let's try and understand what I mean a little deeper. While Ashina is, in the more literal sense, a place with its people and its traditions, the game often offers us a more complex depiction of it. From certain points of view, Ashina is represented as an entity. It is spoken of with obsessive reverence by Genichiro, and described by Isshin as alive yet terminally ill, edging ever closer to its inevitable fate.

The idea of Ashina being something mortal is, in itself, already enough to personify it. But the concept grows even stronger if you consider how many times, throughout all of Sekiro, immortality is depicted as non-human - divine in origin, and by design incompatible with mortal life. 

You can say just about anything when it comes to Sekiro, except that it shows confusion in its core narrative concepts. The writing team working on this game knew exactly what they were doing. So, what is Ashina? Isshin tells us: it is the homeland to a fierce and proud people, willing to defend their long-standing local traditions at any cost. While Ashina may not die as a land, it can as a collective identity. And the writers, without room for any other interpretation, rooted it firmly in the realm of Sekiro’s mortal characters.

Now, Ashina in this point of view bears striking similarities to our protagonist and his circumstances. If we consider Isshin’s opinion as being closer to reality and Genichiro’s fight being delusional, we can draw some parallels.

By the time the game begins, Wolf and Ashina are both already dead.

Their existences are being prolonged by unnatural means external to themselves. 

Another character in the game sees them as a person/entity, chose to keep them alive with desperate measures and is looking for a better solution: Kuro for Wolf, Genichiro for Ashina.

A different character sees them as a thing that has outlived its function or natural lifespan: Owl for Wolf, Isshin for Ashina.

There truly is a lot of nuance in these similarities, even if these characters are all radically different from each other. None of the elements I outlined are exactly the same, and yet - the similarities ripple throughout these parallel narratives, leaving their echoes of each other.

The reasons why are sometimes different, but the outcomes are very much the same. The glorious Ashina of Isshin’s youth is dead to him today, as much as Wolf is dead to Owl if he forsakes his own old function as a tool. 

On the other hand, Genichiro and Kuro are very similarly driven to desperation by the pressure a bloodline they did not choose. And like Genichiro would do anything to save Ashina, the only purpose he has left, Kuro would do anything to save Wolf, the only family he has left. No matter the ending, Kuro always expects to willingly give up his life for Wolf; no matter the ending, Genichiro always does for Ashina.

Yet, even when we look at the Wolf-Ashina comparison in the most superficial way, we cannot help noticing the most glaring difference between the two lies in the outcome of their stories. Wolf has a chance to be saved, Ashina does not.

Isshin, aware that the Ashina of the past cannot return or be preserved, will use his newfound strength in resurrection to fullfill his personal wish and die as a warrior, in a glorious fight. Why was the story written this way, then? What sets Wolf and Ashina apart?

The answer is a shocker which nobody could ever see coming:

A G E N C Y

This is something I have talked about before, especially in my post Agency and choice in Sekiro. Still, in case you aren’t familiar, here is what I mean: the narrative is hellbent on telling you that the more you can choose and act for yourself, the better your destiny will be.

Owl may have forgotten, but we haven’t: Wolf is a person. As such, he can react to the way he is treated by others in different ways. From Kuro he learns what it means to be valued, protected and loved; he compares it to the way his own father treated him and sees, at last, an opportunity to do more than mindlessly obey. Wolf can feel, can learn, and ultimately can choose.

On the other hand, despite the ways its people may feel about it, Ashina is not a person. Its very nature takes away all the chances Wolf has to choose for himself. This is the deep tragedy Ashina and Genichiro share: the impossibility to change, caused by lack of human connection.

In Sekiro, agency is salvation. It is born of the bonds between people, and the strength their teaching give us. No matter who we are and where we come from, all of us deserve and can find a way to choose our own fate.

By design, Ashina has no way to learn agency. Wolf does.

That difference is where all of our hope lies.

[lovelypieceofjade]

Long post about Sekiro lore and Isshin

Sorry im on mobile so i cant put a "read more", just scroll a lot if you want to skip it ig sorry

So I've been thinking about Sekiro religiously because I'm Obssessed rn (and i need to distract myself from the mag finale). I've been scrolling through the tag and there's something I was thinking about that hasn't been talked about very much or at all from what I've seen and that is: Wolf is at least partly responsible for the fall of Ashina, and Isshin almost gives you his explicit consent to do so.

throughout the first half of the game, we're forced to fight our way through Ashina's first lines of defense against the Interior Ministry, in 2 different entryways into what seems to be Ashina's last and most heavily defended stronghold, the Castle. The first real threat is General Naomori Kawarda, a strong man versed in the Ashina artstyle and in charge of the farthest reaches of the currently free territory, which you cut down. Next is the Chained Ogre, a beast placed there probably to deroute the Red Guard, which would let General Tenzen Yamauchi and his men have a chance to push them back. You effectively destroy that line of defense and let one of the main entryways into the castle (the destroyed bridge which is quickly replaced anyway) free for the Interior Ministry.

The other main entrance to the Ashina Castle, the main gate, is guarded by (MY NAAAAAAAAMMEE, IIIS) Gyoubu Masataka Oniwa, a fearless warrior completely devoted to Genichiro if not the land of Ashina. He's alone in this task, and the boss stage littered with Interior Ministry corpses serves as proof of his ferocity and efficiency. But he's no match for a Wolf desperately trying to reach his lord. With him gone, only the Blazing Bull guards the Castle entrance, a desperate effort to keep the Red Guard at bay should Gyoubu fail.

Once in the Castle, you not only take down General Matsumoto and his squad of gunmen, you also eliminate one of the Seven Spears of Ashina in the reservoir, and once in the Castle proper, Jinsuke Saze, a master of the Ashina arts (and, since we find him in the dojo, probably not only a high-ranking member of their dwindling military but also a teacher for the soldiers and Samuraï. Killing him may have an effect on the overall mood of Ashina). Finally, you force Genichiro to flee, consumed by his desire for Kuro's immortality which he thinks will give Ashina the much-needed edge to win this war, even if their walls hadn't been systematically torn asunder by the Wolf.

What interests me is that, through all of this, Isshin has obviously kept a close eye on you. Not only that, he seems to give you the all-clear to tear down Ashina by giving you the secrets to his own school of sword-fighting! The first time you meet him is in his Tengu of Ashina disguise, right after killing Gyoubu, so you're obviously no match for him at this point. If he didn't want you to go through his own defenses, he could have given us knowledge of other entryways or ways to get around them and to Kuro, or simply kill you right here (which he won't, since he believes his own grandson to be in the wrong about immortality). Why would this man, who invented his own school of fighting and bathed the lands in blood for his ambitions, let you destroy the efforts of a lifetime?

I think the answer comes from his dialogue once you give him Ashina sake. During this interaction, the Wolf asks about the rebellion that happened in his youth. Isshin then reminisces about the past, and the land of Ashina. Paraphrasing: "It was a place where the (probably rejuvinating) water flowed straight from the source. We loved our land dearly, but we were heretics, and weak, so we were overrun. Amidst the chaos of war, we took our land back." Here, in few sentences, we get a snapshot of Ashina's history and of their people, people who worshipped gods that weren't aknowledged in the rest of Japan (probably the Divine Dragon and the Serpent God). During a time of intense war in all of Japan, Isshin Ashina cut through everything and everyone to free the land of his ancestors and take his rightfull place as not only a Lord, but a Sword Saint, someone who mastered fighting to a point his name alone struck fear in all of his enemies for decades to follow.

But then, he follows with (direct quote from the english translation): "But now... it's a place of death... it's a bitter thing indeed." He might be referring to the Interior Ministry cutting through his people, at least that's what I first thought. But there may be another meaning, coming from "bitter thing". My guess is that he's talking about the obsession with immortality that has taken hold in every part of Ashina, rotting away what made them proud in the first place. He has a distaste for the curse of the undying, that's made very clear by his implicit help given to the Wolf in multiple occasions to end Kuro's divine heritage.

So, I think that while Isshin doesn't want Ashina to burn, in his eyes, maybe it is worth burning anyway. The Buddhist priests of Senpou Temple have long since forgotten their original teachings, replaced by the search for immortality. Mibu village is controlled by the nobles of Fountainhead Palace (who were once human, at least some of them, before they craved the vigor of the young) and are now undying, corrupted. His own adopted grandson and head of military drank the Rejuvinating sediments, slowly corroding his humanity away. The only people not consumed by this quest are the inhabitants and protectors of the Sunken Valley and even then, immortal beings live there (the Guardian Ape being an example). Isshin Ashina may not want to see his work turn to ash, but if it eradicates this thirst for ressurection, the price may be worth paying. He will fight to the very end but never sink so low as to shed his own humanity.

This probably also ties in to how Isshin himself never became Shura despite the atrocious amount of killing he did to create his techniques, but that post is already way too long lmao I'll maybe try to dig my brain abt this later.