#Soulsborne!Frozen | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

gryfon-spanish-werewolf · 4 years

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Soulsborne!Frozen AU: Great Knight Annatorias, the Abyss Walker

This is @jabs-wocks and @daughterofhel’s fault but I’m also @-ing myself because apparently I don’t need much encouragement to write stories sometimes so…

Before getting started, this entire 3.5k (yes, that's the correct number) brain-on-fire, sleep depriving idea, was inspired by two pieces by @azaffranist and one by twitter user @agongbushou. I highly recommend checking the linked art out before reading, since I reference them at times directly.

Okay Soulsborne!Frozen au, Anna is Knight Artorias, legendary fighter, sent to the Abyss to seek and destroy the Darkness of the world itself.

No pressure or anything.

Anna is a brave hearted woman, shoulder to shoulder with those who fought and killed nigh immortal dragons. Her kind pluck such foul creatures from the sky with arrows larger than trees, with lightning more forked than a hurricane, and slay enemies with the kindness of silver and gold-tipped daggers.

Her own mighty broadsword swings over her left shoulder with ease, a smile on her lips as she walks. The Age of Fire is upon them, but there is fear in the hearts of the gods, and to save those who would, without help, succumb to the evil inside of them Great Knight Anna will stop at nothing.

There are monsters to kill, perverted and misguided souls, each one more disturbing and profane than the last, as each is born from the Abyss itself, a dark, treacherous place where no mortal would dare tread. The city of Oolacile is threatened, sinking slowly into Darkness as an ancient, promethean man eats it from the inside out.

But Anna holds courage in her heart, and should she need a reminder of strength or solace, she need only look to her right and Elsa, her direwolf companion, is next to her, ice-blue eyes speaking more than a voice ever could. Her pure white fur makes the Darkness shrink, her frost-like Light magic a boon in the most murky corridor. Elsa has a nose for danger, and can conjure crystals to warn of dangerous earth, poisoned water, a new rash of weather over the mountains, or the lurking threat of fire. Her pelt is soft and warm, and in the mountains where they camp she’s as cozy as a bonfire, her fluffy tail wrapped around Anna’s middle as the Knight snoozes against her side.

With such skill and determination, and pureness of heart, Anna is more than well equipped to fight the Darkness, especially when Elsa is with her every step of the way.

The Abyss calls itself Manus and it is a nightmare.

For the first time, Anna is overwhelmed. She is battered against the walls of this cave, she is clawed and crushed and flogged with fists of pure Darkness. Her ears ring with primal screams. Elsa’s magic is no more effective than her teeth, and Anna watches as her companion lunges at the Manus’ middle, watches how the Darkness warps impossibly, sees a hand of incredible size form above Elsa’s unprotected back. Anna moves.

She does not feel her arm shatter (that pain will come later) but she hears it, cracking and shredding and splintering, heedless of muscle and skin.

The shield’s magic forces Manus back, screeching into the Dark. A brief respite.

Elsa pants hard, the concussive force of the hit rattling already exhausted bones, empty of energy and magic. Anna knows Elsa will not survive another blow. She is still young, a pup, and deserves to grow, large and strong. A pelt, a life, as bright as Elsa’s should not be swallowed by the Dark.

Anna speaks the runes and the shield ignites with Light, protecting Elsa from the Abyss forever, but also protecting Elsa from following Anna as she hefts her greatsword in her off hand and limps back towards the sound of Manus’ roars. She closes her ears to Elsa’s pitiful cries.

The Dark would not claim another victim.

But it does.

-----

Whatever thou art, stay away.

Soon I will be consumed by ‘Them’, by the Dark.

All of you… forgive me. For I have availed you nothing.

-----

Hundreds of years later Elsa’s ears pick up the sound of an interloper in the graveyard. She rouses herself, shaking rainwater from her coat. The snowflake mark on her brow has dulled, no longer lively purple but a morose kind of brown, the color of bloodied earth long dry.

Elsa is tired. Thieves keep coming to steal what is most precious to her. Could they not see the weapons of their fellows littered on the ground? Monuments to greed, pillars of failure each one of them, a blade planted vertically in the dirt next to small, unmarked headstones. Don’t they see? They seek an object that will only kill them, the wicked artifact that allowed Anna to walk into the Abyss unharmed, only for claws of black to tear her asunder. The cursed item that allowed Anna’s fate.

No one should have the power to throw themselves so willingly onto Death’s sword.

As the thief approaches Anna’s enormous headstone, reaches their hand out to touch Anna’s greatsword, Elsa makes her presence known. She is a formidable sight: a fully grown Great Wolf, she towers, mountainous, over this puny looter. Anger shoots through Elsa, igniting her limbs as she leaps down and tears Anna’s weapon from the dirt. Again. To stop one so desperate to kill themselves. Again.

Elsa howls at the moon, anguish and guilt and fury clashing within her.

Let Anna rest, her work is done. Do not walk in her footsteps, as there lies only suffering.

She repositions the sword in her mouth and swings, long and sweeping as she has seen Anna do many times before.

Blood stains the rocky headstones in crimson arcs.

----

Elsa awakes yet again and everything has changed.

It is dark, unnaturally so. There is no graveyard, there are no trees, no whisper of wind through her coat. She is flat on her back and there is a strange man in a wheelchair to her right, telling her things. Yharnam? An Outsider? He mentions blood and suddenly Elsa’s nose is filled with it, cloying and pressing against her. How had she not noticed it before?

How also had she not noticed she was strapped to a bed?

He begins his so-called transfusion and Elsa sees that her feet do not end in paws and her tail is missing. Her teeth are no longer sharp as she tests them with her tongue and her muzzle does not like to growl but to grumble, too short to carry the sound forward.

But she does not have time to contemplate this as her vision blurs and she falls backwards into the dark once more.

A Beast of blood emerges from the floor but Elsa feels no kinship with it. The Beast is twisted and wrong, and as it reaches out to touch her it bursts into flame, screaming. Perhaps her Light magic still works here… or perhaps Anna’s shield is still bound to her, after all this time. For surely that creature is borne of the Abyss.

So too must these small pygmy-like wretches crawling up her stomach and chest. Fear jolts through Elsa’s heart as these pale things are not deflected by magic and instead reach her head and cover her eyes. A voice whispers in her mind.

“Ah… you’ve found a hunter…”

Anna?

The Hunter’s Dream is serene and soft compared to the Night eating Yharnam alive. Here there are flowers, a pleasant breeze that does not carry wails, and though there are graves it seems a peaceful place of rest for all, not just the dead.

And this is where Elsa finds her.

Anna. Her Knight, her long lost friend, lying against the garden wall. Her eyes are closed, peaceful in sleep. Elsa approaches with great joy but… something is wrong.

Anna… doesn’t smell like Anna. Elsa presses her nose against the woman’s cheek, just to be sure, but is chastised by the man inside a house at the top of the steps, the one who must have brought her here. Elsa remembers a piercing pain in her chest followed by a long dark like a heavy blanket, deep and inevitable. Perhaps she died the night of the thief, and this world is simply the next one. Anna, or perhaps not-Anna, has not stirred in the slightest to Elsa’s presence, and with another beckoning of the old man, Elsa realizes this is a mystery to be put aside for the moment. Besides, Anna is peaceful in this state, and… she was not peaceful the last time Elsa saw her. Maybe this is where she has been sleeping all along, as Elsa watched over her grave in the other world.

Elsa slowly gets used to walking on two legs, though she always misses her tail, expecting it on the back of her calves every other step. She is both taller and shorter than she feels she should be but the little pygmies do not laugh when she misses her target because of this. In fact they are friendly, bringing her trinkets at times. She understands them a little, as they too are non-verbal. Human language still eludes her, though Elsa realizes she has now, the ability to speak it, as clearly and easily as she used to speak to Anna with just her movements. No one seems to mind her silence, and in turn she feels no need to break it.

Except for the Doll.

That’s what the man calls her, the not-Anna. Now awake, she is kind and gentle, and while her warmth kindles familiarity in Elsa’s soul, it is not enough like the bonfire of a spirit Knight Anna always possessed. Though she shares Anna’s face, her voice is thinner, like a creek through reeds, shallow like music from another room. If this is what her Anna has been reduced to, then Elsa will care for her as she always has, her silent companion. But it is the only time Elsa wishes she could speak, align her muzzle and teeth and tongue in the right order for speech. But she, the Doll… Anna… this woman, seems to read Elsa’s eyes well enough, and always wishes her wellness and luck in her hunts.

The Yharnam Elsa now stalks may be new, but it is not unfamiliar. There are monsters here too, but they are not undead but Beasts, sick like the Darkness made humans sick. The town conjures a feeling of familiar unease, it is like Oolacile being consumed all over again. Elsa has been given a strange blade: a cane-sword, they called it a trick weapon. It has a different kind of grace than Anna’s greatsword, but Elsa can admire its stinging, erratic bite as it curls around shields and tears flesh with the same ease as her old jaw.

Elsa resigns herself to the Doll, this copy of Anna, a pale comparison but not an unkind one. Until the day she learns of Lady Anna, an Old Hunter, experienced slayer, and roaming ghost of Yharnam. The man tells Elsa that Lady Anna wishes to exterminate Beasts so that people can live in peace, forever, and she is as ruthless as she is discerning, relentless in her quest. Even the Doll has nothing but admiration in her too-soft voice for this person.

Elsa needs to meet this her, and sets out immediately. She sounds… very much like Great Knight Anna: firmly set in her beliefs and desire for goodness and peace in her grisly work, but Elsa swallows the glass-like shards of hope rising in her throat. Disappointment would be its own kind if dying.

She finds her in the Clock Tower. The likeness is uncanny, but if the Doll was an enthusiastic replacement, this body was a carbon copy. The swallowed glass gets lodged, stabbing into Elsa’s heart, but still, she dared not hope. This person, Lady Anna, was so… still. Knight Anna was never still, so much boundless energy, so much eagerness, the will to do good, to make safe haven, sometimes even robbed her of sleep. The woman sitting in a lonesome chair is not like that at all, she is calm, collected.

Perhaps she is dead.

Indeed, Lady Anna is covered in blood and Elsa does not see her chest breathe, not even an inch. Tentatively she reaches out a hand. Oh, now this would be cruel indeed - to find her Knight only for her to be dead and bloodless and empty of everything once again.

The vice-like grip around her wrist shocks Elsa from her thoughts.

“A corpse… should be left well alone.” A corpse, a corpse!? But Lady Anna is so very alive and her voice--

Unmistakable.

But quickly Elsa realizes she’s fighting for her life. There’s so much noise and movement and blood, so much blood it reeks. Lady Anna’s swings seem to come from nowhere, fire igniting in the wake of every slash and it’s dazzling and swift and uncanny… and yet.

Her stance may be foreign but her prowess is not, she directs her weapons with grace and skill, and the blades dance towards Elsa’s throat with a precision borne from battle hardened assurance.

Just like a knight. Just like Anna with her greatsword.

Suddenly Lady Anna is upon her, grabbing Elsa’s collar and pulling, clutching Elsa to her chest. It’s rough and unfriendly but Elsa knows deep down this is new and startling for both of them. Anna’s breathing is ragged despite her absolute dominance over the battlefield, her voice shaking with some burdening magnitude.

“I know you,” Lady Anna whispers in her ear.

And Elsa, having not made a sound this entire time except in exhaustion or pain, gets her too short tongue working and too small teeth out of the way to say, “And I know you. You are Lady Anna, protector of Yharnam, slayer of the Darkness that lurks in the hearts of men to make them Beasts, and you have done well to make a name for yourself here. But all of that I know only because I found myself here, in a Dream. When I was young, and Awake, I knew you as Great Knight Anna, warrior against the Darkness itself, and you held in your powerful grip a sword as tall as you so that you could always slay something larger than yourself. It flashed as brightly as your smile until it could no more. And the last I saw you was when I had no shared language to warn you, no voice to scream in grief as your arm shattered and yielded to profane horror. Despite your broken body you used your only able limb to shield me against death itself, magical and eternal. But it kept me from you, and you walked back into the Dark where I could not follow and then there was the most terrible quiet. I saw someone go in afterwards, and only then did I hear your voice again, but as it was never meant to be: broken and hollow and defeated. Dark.”

Lady Anna’s hand shakes, her other poised over Elsa’s heart. It could drive right through her chest, seek the Beast in Elsa’s blood and rip it out. But perhaps it was there before the infusion, one of kindred spirit instead of illness and madness. Anna releases her hold without warning and Elsa’s knees hit the ground hard.

“I… have felt a loneliness for so long,” Lady Anna says, almost to herself. “I have searched for years, every nook and cranny, guided by nothing but some deep knowledge of a phantom ‘other’ by my side, etched so deeply it could be in my very own blood. But this presence, this… twin soul, has never showed itself.” She looks at her swords. “They did not used to split, it was one weapon, until I could not stomach the void anymore. I threw it away, and fashioned these. They… somehow I knew I needed two. There were supposed to be two. Two… of… us.”

Elsa goes to answer but the words tangle in her mouth, gargled and guttural and rough. Speech flees from her again, focus gone, and Elsa clutches her throat, gasping. Lady Anna twitches, hands tightening on her weapons.

Anna’s voice holds the tension of a tripwire. “You--... She... I gave someone a name once. My closest friend. She had unique Light magic: small diamonds, blue, beautiful.” Her eyes flashed with her steel. “Show me. Tell me her name, or be not Hunter but Beast.”

And Elsa does.

The Clock Tower fills with floating diamonds, glittering and bright, etched with symbols of safety and protection and Light. They move and spin, arranging themselves into a shape, not a Yharnam rune but an older one, one only Anna would know. Elsa’s name in the language of the Age of Fire.

Anna drops her swords, clattering to the floor and embraces Elsa with arms so fierce and desperate that Elsa cannot breathe, until Anna’s shoulders slump and hitch with sobs and now Elsa holds Anna with tired, grateful hands.

“I thought…,” Anna manages, trembling in Elsa’s grasp, “I thought it was a Dream. All that before… really happened.” Anna clutches at Elsa’s clothes, like burying fingers in thick fur, “I have missed you every moment of my death, including all the seconds from when I Awoke without you, until now.”

Elsa wipes Anna’s tears away, clumsy in her joy but her eyes say everything her stubborn tongue won’t, and it is just like before, when she knows Anna understands her completely.

“In my defense,” Anna sniffs, regaining a bit of control, “I thought you’d be taller. And well, you were a wolf the last time we met.”

Elsa can’t help but smile at that, lending Anna an arm as they stand. The smile turns into quite the wolfish grin indeed when they realize at the same time that Elsa is in fact, an inch or so taller than Anna.

“You really did grow up without me, didn’t you?” Anna says wistfully, as though to chastise for leaving her behind.

Elsa makes a huffing sound that they both know is laughter and presses her forehead against Anna’s.

Finally. Her Knight. Her Lady.

Her home.

This time, neither will face the Darkness alone.

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Alternate Endings, courtesy of questions asked by @daughterofhel (who patiently let me tell the ENTIRE story of Artorias and Sif AND the Good Hunter and the Doll and Lady Maria to contextualize this… entire… thing)

-Lady Maria!Anna is not immune to Beast blood like in canon and after joining up with Sif!Elsa actually succumbs to the plague and goes feral. Their roles are now reversed, Elsa is the badass Hunter with a Beast companion. They still know each other well enough to communicate but are ostracized from the other Hunters because Elsa refuses to kill Anna

-Because Elsa was a creature in her past life, the Beast blood takes hold very naturally, and it does not change her personality or sense of self. Lady Anna reclaims her greatsword trick weapon and travels Yharnam with Elsa by her side, now a were-beast. The magical snowflake on her forehead comes back and her fur is the same white/white-blonde as when she was a Great Wolf

-Lady Anna actually DOES rip Elsa’s heart out of her chest like that killer parry (for female Hunters only!), realizing seconds too late she has killed her life long friend who crossed time and space to find her. Distraught, Lady Anna consumes Elsa’s heart, drawing upon her vampiric, Vileblood ancestry to bond Elsa’s soul to hers. Other Hunters begin to hear rumors of a unique Beast stalking Yharnam, slaying it’s own kin and leaving behind oceans of blood. It has patchy red and white fur, a greatsword strapped to it’s back, and two different colored eyes: one green, one blue. Some even claim that it speaks to itself, though broken and twisted, and it will leave a trail of blue-glowing diamonds in areas safe to return to, lighting up the dark.

Players who fight this Beast are startled to learn that the heat-up phase is actually the Beast transforming into a much smaller, very human figure who begins to wield the trick weapon on its back with swift, deadly, and ferocious attacks. The figure will sometimes scale walls and launch attacks from above, the air along the cut of the weapon’s blade igniting into flame and leaving explosive blue crystals behind. Upon the boss’s defeat the player gets double the amount of Blood Echos they expect and as the person collapses a white soul emerges to entwine around a red one, dissipating into the ether together

#yeah I had this whole tag paragraph planned out but like -- I literally cannot remember it LMAO #anyway this was fun as HELL and really FUCKING SAD to write because Soulsborne is NOT HAPPY like EVER #obviously I bent the rules a little bit and changed some canon stuff because it fit better as a crossover but TBH #I have so many pages open with references to like. double check my memory on things #and I listened to all the boss themes while writing this and bruh the TEARS #but look I pulled a g-s-w fastball special: I WILL get my mildly happy ending and pluck it from the jaws of snapping depression if I have to #I mean the world of Bloodborne is still PRETTY AWFUL buuuuuut at least they're together and NOT TRAGICALLY DEAD #thank you #azaffranist #for your amazing excellent show-stopping feels-inducing brilliant art work #I had them pulled up in a side window the whole time I was writing so I would never forget them #sending an internet thank you out also to #agongbushou #who as far as I could find does not have a tumblr but thank you for your piece too it was BREATHTAKING #and hey jabs-wocks??? ily and I wanna say thank you to you too for being a TOP NOTCH enabler #this is for you buddy: may it quench some of your Dark Souls/Bloodborne Frozen needs #jabs-wocks #daughterofhel #Soulsborne!Frozen #Soulsborne x Frozen #crossover #my writing #I am GOING TO BED X'D #it is 6am and I have spent many many MMANY hours on this holy cripes

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yffresbeard · 3 years

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this is gonna be hard to explain and probably be an unpopular opinion but i actually prefer dying in video games to like, bullshit rng type stuff rather than mechanics or just Not Being Good Enough at the game?

like if its bullshit and i die, thats not my fault, therefore i can do it

if i die fairly, that IS my fault, and even if i know what i did wrong, that doesnt necessarily mean im capable of doing it correctly

failing over and over to rng is bearable. failing over and over to my own incompetence is not

#tmi but i actually accidentally hurt myself after 2 hours of dying in vMA on the rink of frozen blood #not tes #mod post #not exclusively eso but not not eso either #i started thinking about this while talking to friends who play soulsborne games #and how a lot of people say its fair but horrifically difficult #fair as in you know exactly what u did wrong when u die #but like knowing what u did wrong and knowing how to do it right. doesnt mean i can execute it yknow #thats way more frustrating to me than like #this thing spawned on top of me so i died

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foxingpeculiar · 2 years

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Sekiro Diary:

Oh my god, I did it. I fucking did it.

Okay, so after practicing last night, Genichiro and Isshin phase 1 were basically pretty easy--I learned their attacks and counter patterns and could basically no-hit both of them.

Phase 2 was another matter--I was getting my ass handed to me. But then something clicked. Where, in the first two phases of the fight, the solution was getting up in their respective faces, once Isshin whips out that spear, distance was the key. Basically, run the fuck away, wait til he comes at you. He's either gonna shoot four blasts from the gun, which you can avoid by running sideways and then repositioning, or he's gonna do the jump attack. Dodge under that, turn around, punish him twice and deflect 1-2 times immediately. Then run the fuck away again and repeat. Once the final phase comes around, don't even fuck with the lightning, just keep doing that.

And it worked! It was close going--had to use all 6 of my gourds and a Divine Grass, but I FUCKING GOT HIM. And, I got the Dragon's Tears and the Frozen Tears, so I got the "best" ending.

I have a blister on my thumb again, but I did it. I've now beaten all 6 Soulsborne games, plus all 7 DLC for the DS trilogy and Bloodborne. I kinda wanna do a write up about it--which games/bosses are the hardest/easiest and why, etc. But I dunno.

But now I'm ready for Elden Ring. And I've got Hollow Knight to keep me busy in the meantime.

#personal #video games #Sekiro #From Software #Hollow Knight #Elden Ring

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lostinmemoria · 2 years

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i feel so neurotic and nervous about elden ring coming out. like, i don’t think i’m going to buy it tomorrow because i don’t want to drop 60 dollars on a game right now. which makes me worried about encountering spoilers. i follow so many damn soulsborne streamers. then again, i never played sekiro and i know fuck all about sekiro still to this day.

i didn’t play sekiro because i had no interest in a souls game that didn’t have a leveling system, different weapon choices, armor choices, and, most importantly, character creation. so while everyone else was tiding over their soulslike hungers with brand new sekiro, i was still replaying ds1-3+bb and beating a dead horse i’ve played these games so many damn times.

also, i’m wondering about the character creation. is it going to be like bloodborne, or like ds3? because i find it impossible to make a good looking character in ds1 and ds3. whereas in bloodborne, i was able to make a cutesy doll-looking boy with a loooot of trial and error. i tend to always make the same damn blonde twink in every character creation game (just look at my dang ocs on my vidjo gaim blog).

i am just having a lot of fomo feels right now. i felt this same way when ringed city dropped and my paypal was frozen, so i couldn’t purchase the game. but i wanted to play it so bad i ended up begging my parents to buy it for me (which they did, i ashamedly admit.)

i might end up buying it depending on how bad this fomo gets me.

#also i still haven't played the ps5 demon's souls...even though i have a ps5 and it's one of the only few ps5 exclusive games #i just hate re-buying games i have for old systems #even though the des remake is nothing like original des i hear

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leam1983 · 3 years

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Felix the Reaper - Thoughts? Review?

Can't really go into too much detail, it's rather late as it is and the ol' bed is beckoning, but I also want to couch this down somewhere while it's still fresh...

So, Death as a concept - as a character - obviously permeates the whole of human civilization. You've got Anubis and Osiris, Humbaba the Undying, thousands of years of mythology surrounding the concept of life leaving you and your flesh-bits rotting, generation after generation of people processing grief in visual and abstract forms - and now, we're sort of living in a context where Death isn't really all that scary anymore. We understand it, we can push it back in some cases - and when we can't, then we can sort of map out its occurrence. What started as just this inexplicable force swiping at hunter-gatherers and that warranted Danse Macabre paintings across Medieval France is now something we can put an almost-precise date and time on. There's a bunch of "death clocks" online that project a potential DOD based on your age, gender, health status, habits and BMI; sort of turning the concept of memento mori into a shockingly literate manifestation.

You will die, one day. We're so aware of that that a bit of science and Web design wizardry can shit out a half-serious guesstimation of when it'll happen. Pre-Colonial aspects of Death survive in Mexican culture in the forms of both calaveras and the Santa Muerte cult, and the inevitability of death now even counts as a game mechanic in the SoulsBorne genre. You've got Terry Pratchett's extremely Humanist rendition of Death and, well, Hollywood faff à la Meet Joe Black. The short of it is we're far from the robe-wearing zombie we used to plop everywhere as a reminder of our own supposedly sinful urges or on the fleeting nature of youth.

Another item that's of interest is the notion of life and youth being represented as the Maiden - and of Death being in love with her. Sometimes, the affection isn't returned and disgust is shown. That's most of Holbein's death-related works, in this case. In others, the Maiden leans in, lets the skeletal figure push a hand underneath her skirt and against one of her thighs. They share a kiss, press against one another in the way honest lovers might. He's a dried-out corpse with a bloated midsection and she might've stepped out of some sixteenth-century church in the Netherlands, but their liplock is intense and genuine. In one statue, the Maiden looks like she might've just surrendered to the Reaper's arms, but her hands are also touching his scythe....

Eroticism, a commentary on suicide or plain acceptance - there's several ways to look at that duality, and it's even managed to worm its way over to cultures that don't natively have similar associations with human remains. The Japanese, for instance, do have their own Gashadokuro concept, but the locals of Nagasaki needed their initially-exclusive exposure to Portuguese traders to shrink down their massive skeletal eidolons of doom and to design woodblock prints where a Danse Macabre effectively meets the dress codes and habits of the locals under sakoku, or the Emperor-mandated closing-off of Japan to the outside world.

Death as a dancer. Death, especially, as a force that's quite lively, despite its attributes. A force that falls head-over-heels for Life in its own anthropomorphized form.

This is what Danish devs Kong Orange opted to work on in Felix the Reaper. Their Death has a human name, has a thing for the stuffier ends of Business Casual, is maybe eighty pounds overweight - and won't ever, ever, let the music die. He's also in love, obviously - and in love with Betty, the equally portly and nimble personification of Life. The pair look a bit like a Fernando Botero couple waiting to happen, with ample waists and sagging breasts held aloft by spindle-thin legs - but if Ghostbusters taught us not to cross the streams, then you can assume that Life and Death starting a tango in the same workspace could have severe coincidences on the biosphere. Not that Felix cares, he'd want nothing more than for Betty to notice him. His supervisor is voiced off-camera by Sir Patrick Stewart, who's as delightful as always, and who sort of plays the part of the well-meaning supervisor who eventually realizes his new employee's quirks don't diminish his potential.

And what is Felix's job, exactly? Well, he's Death. He's not getting paid to distribute hugs and kisses, obviously. He gets sent to the mortal plane to, well, kill people, and more specifically, to kill people in precise and pre-ordained ways. His "televator" takes him to an instant frozen in time, and he has to alter the surrounding scene so that once time resumes its course, the requisite accident or happenstance occurs. You do that by picking up items, flicking switches, and placing targets in the path of whatever it is that's set to kill them. You also move the sun around the world using a magical sundial doohickey, as Death can only move in shadows. You're basically Death in the same sense as in the Final Destination movies, except you really, really, really want to twerk and sashay your voluminous heinie through the small changes needed to turn a nothing-burger into a drunk huntsman getting his head stuck in the stump of a decapitated deer, so the dejected and near-sighted hunter you've been following mistakes him for a target and shoots his spear through his brain-case.

And yes, Felix does twerk and he certainly sashays. Dude dresses like a stuffy librarian, sure, but seemingly loses all inhibitions once his headphones come up - which allows the player to share in his personal soundtrack. This particular Reaper seems to have a thing for very bass-driven and samply EDM, with occasional forays into Ambient and Jazz. His many, many, many idle animations all sync with whatever it is that's playing, and so does the variety of prances, somersaults, grands jetés and twirls he goes through while moving from place to place. Comparatively, you get the sense that Felix's coworkers are more the dour and solemn type - with a few unsubtle cameos from Skeletor and Manny Calavera in the opening cinematic - and Felix, well...

Let's just say it's a wonder he has those hips and that paunch. If he twirls around for every little thing he does, then you'd assume he only sits down to hoover an Olympic athlete's worth of food once a day. Or maybe I'm overthinking things because, well, death.

And therein lies the problem, honestly. In thinking, I mean. Felix is a puzzle game through-and-through, and also ties into a Challenge system in order to really tickle those completionist nerves. The starting scenarios are braindead-easy, but the later ones left me stumped for fifteen minutes per screen. Add to that the notion that the game doesn't check off some of them as complete if you only do the bare essentials, and you're left with another would-be mobile offering that doesn't reach its endpoint until you exhaust every little bit it has to offer - even if you're effectively done with the main gameplay loop. It's a great game, but there's just not a whole lot to do in those six chapters, beyond repeating bits of drudgery until your noodle clicks or you give up and look up a solution online.

It's a shame, too. The isometric perspective is perfect, and the game could've been pitched as a hybrid between a puzzler and, say, XCOM: Enemy Unknown. You'd take cover to hide from moving targets or to escape daylight and instead of shooting at them, would emerge from cover to move items around or solve puzzle elements. You could've had Death evoke the illusion of a friendly face to inject some more concrete narrative delivery, for instance. Steal a friend's features, magically conceal yourself, and then have your target piece her own weaknesses together, leaving you to retreat and regroup before executing your plan of attack. But no, everything is out in the open and everything is spelled out for you. Kong Orange could've also stolen a page from Hitman Go and set multiple triggers in place to truly sandbox the experience.

What is there is fun - it oozes personality and charm - but there's just not enough of it to justify Steam's full asking price, IMO. Comparatively, the Switch's online store is currently running a sale for it (as of Sunday the 15th, at least) and lists it as being 2,15$. Two bucks for a few hours of harmless fun is a pretty good deal, as far as I'm concerned. It also underlines why the devs and Daedalic Entertainment alike consider it as having "bombed", as the marketing effectively targeted Devolver's usual stable. It's not crunchy enough, however, and not exactly irreverent enough to warrant that comparison. A more hefty Felix could've earned its full 20$ price point on PC - and Kong Orange's very design for Betty makes it obvious that if Felix ever returns, it'll be in a co-op setup with the love of his, well, unlife.

I'd be up for more of this cuddly, swinging skelly - assuming the devs mature a tad and put something together that's just a smidge more compelling.

#felix the reaper #pc #switch #ps4 #review #puzzle #game #indie #felix #the #reaper #fat #skeleton

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mrslittletall · 4 years

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Based on the old street food hcs do you have anything for what soulsborne characters would make for deserts?

Oooh, thank you for that ask, Kirk! For some context, I went to a street food festival last year (thx Covid for cancelling everything this year) and when I got back we started to talk about the Dark Souls characters have as food trucks, spawning the food truck AU. Well, I am absolutely sure Artorias would bake cookies, that is in my headcanon anyway. Cookies and cake. He can make really good and delicious pies, especially with fruits. Ciaran would make puddings... she is a big sweet tooth anway, but enjoy making puddings, because they are very easy to hide poison in... uh, the one she sells aren’t actually poisoned, that is just a side job. I think we had the HC that NK would make curries instead of continuing Gwyn’s traditional pizza food truck. I don’t know anything about indian desserts sadly, so if anyone of my followers now, feel free to educate me. Now that I mentioned Gwyn, he would make his own ice cream for dessert. He is italian in that verse and really really proud of making his own ice cream. However, his child Gwyndolin is LOADS better in making ice cream, so they are in charge of that while he keeps burning pizzas. Gwyndolin also cooperated with Seath to make “Moonlight Ice Cream”. It is even sword shaped. Solaire was the one who made sun shaped food... I think he was baking sun shaped cookies, but I also like to think that he likes to use sunflower seeds in his food and desserts. For some reason, Rhea and the clerics make frozen yoghurt in my headcanon... I forgot what Lautrec’s deal was. I have the feeling he would make some very traditional desserts, but I don’t know from which country he should be in that AU, hmm... what is Carim? England or something? Isn’t british food peculiar and weird and their sweets even weirder? Any british followers here who can help me out? The Siegmeyer family is from Catarina, but because I like to think that they are references to german knights, they very clearly make pretzels. They are soft and tasty. Siegmeyer and Sieglinde stem their truck alone since Siegmeyer’s wife died. Laurentius is making chili chocolate. He enjoys putting some spiciness in the chocolate bars. He melts the chocolate with his pyromancy btw. That is all I can think about of the top of my head. Please followers, enhance on this list and put more Souls characters into the food truck business. Oh, as a little bonus, I think I had Laurence selling blood orange juice ^^

#ask answered #thx for the ask #dark souls #food truck au #longfingerkork

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wolfoflua · 4 years

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CainHurts

So after running through cainhurst and dying many times due to being woefully under-leveled to get to the Knight set (because fashionsouls), I have a few questions

So, uh, whats the fandom meta/5 hour lore video on why some nobody hunter gets an invite from the spooky vampire castle to come visit. Is this a Jonathan Harker and Dracula Situation? Is the Good Hunter a Real Estate Solicitor? is Queen Annalise sick of her cold haunted ass castle with a spooky giant dead guy frozen outside? Because that’s fair. Don’t worry Annalise, I’ll find you a nice estate in fantasy London! I’ll even help you pack your thousands of candles!

Whats with Soulsborne games and people wanting you to come places, but unleasing their hordes of monsters on you while you try get there?

See: priestess Emma’s guards attacking you despite her wanting to meet you, Gywndolin siccing every silver knight in Anor Londo on you, and now Annalise letting the ghostly remains of her people tear me apart!

Is Alfred dumb enough that he can’t make it to a castle thats clearly visible from Hemwick Lane, or is that an unrelated castle? How did the spooky carriage get me there with the bridge out? How far away is Cainhurst? Am I still in Yharnum? If it’s still in Yharnum, how did it suddenly get so cold? Who was driving the coach? Did the horses just know what to do?

Also

#bloodborne blogging #anyway I'm going to become a vileblood #because I'm gay and vampire hot #sorry Alfred but hot vampire lady #you can't compare

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jessiethewitchzard · 7 years

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People like to talk about Soulsborne protagonists and their superhuman stubbornness, but I think we also have to mention their nigh-suicidal levels of curiosity. Off the top of my head:

Dark Souls - When the Chosen Undead finds a nest belonging to an enormous crow, they decide to curl up like an egg. Luckily, this convinces the crow to transfer them to its other nest.

Dark Souls - The Chosen Undead finds an enormous magic painting, and obviously has to poke it. When they do, a magical vortex begins to pull them into the painting. Despite having several seconds to react, they don’t take their hand away.

Dark Souls - When the Chosen Undead finds what they know full well is the grave of the legendary Artorias the Abysswalker, they can’t help but put their grubby hands on it, which pisses of its ancient and powerful guardian.

Dark Souls - When the Chosen Undead loses their good friend to a cave dwelling parasite, they remove the still living parasite from his corpse and wear it like a hat, since it works as a convenient source of light, evidently assuming that it won’t also infect them.

Dark Souls - The Chosen Undead finds an open sarcophagus in a haunted crypt full of necromancers. Naturally, they decide to take a nap in it. When skeletons carry the sarcophagus deeper underground to the chamber where the God of the Dead resides, the Chosen Undead decides to join his cult and gets a cool sword.

Bloodborne - The Good Hunter touches a beast skull resting on the altar in Yharnam’s Grand Cathedral, which causes them to have a flashback of it’s previous owners memories. Later, in a warped nightmare version of the Grand Cathedral, they find the warped nightmare version of the same skull, and touch it AGAIN. Luckily it’s just the hidden trigger for an elevator, but still.

Bloodborne - In a research hall where the patients have enormous bloated sacs of fluid for heads, the Good Hunter finds a severed still-wriggling head sac. Naturally, they decide to wear it like a hat.

Bloodborne - The Good Hunter goes to loot the corpse of a woman sitting in a chair along in a big room. Unfortunately, she’s still alive, and grabs them, then chastises them ‘a corpse should be left well alone’ and kicks their ass with dual flaming swords. They continue to loot corpses after this incident.

Bloodborne - The Good Hunter finds three pieces of the umbilical cords belonging to ELDER GODS, so naturally, they decide to EAT THEM. As it turns out, this is arguably a good idea, but the Good Hunter has no way of knowing this.

Bloodborne - The Good Hunter finds a note on a door that says ‘don’t come in, hunters not wanted here’ naturally, they go in anyway. A man on a tower threatens them and tells them to leave. They keep exploring. He tells them to leave, and goes so far as to obliterate them with a mounted automatic weapon. For no reason except curiosity, they keep exploring anyway. While hiding from machine gun fire.

Bloodborne - when the Good Hunter finds a corpse frozen in a strange position with it’s arms out, they decide that corpse must know how to communicate with eldritch beings. This insane troll logic happens to be correct.

Dark Souls 3 - In a graveyard, The Ashen One finds an enormous armored man with a coiled sword through him, naturally, they pull it out, which causes him to come alive and attack. Later, when they travel through a shadowy version of the exact same graveyard, they find a shadowy version of the same sword stuck through a shadowy version of the same armored man. They pull it out. Despite all odds, the shadowy armored man comes alive and attacks again.

Dark Souls 3 - In the deepest chamber of the Catacombs of Carthus, there is no sarcophagus or undead king or anything. There’s just a skull goblet on a pedestal. Naturally, the Ashen One pokes it, causing black haze to seep out and flood the room. After a short delay they are warped into The Abyss and attacked by an enormous skeleton.

Dark Souls 3 - In Archdragon Peak, there’s a big lever with several warning signs carved into the floor that say ‘warning: do not pull this lever’. Obviously, the Ashen One pulls the lever, causing a magical thunderstorm and drawing the ire of the Nameless King.

#dark souls #ds3 #soulsborne #bloodborne #bb #chosen undead #good hunter #ashen one

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ryo-maybe · 7 years

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Top 5 SoulsBorne bosses

Artorias the Abysswalker. Without a shred of doubt one of the best battles in the series, and the best fight in Dark Souls, period. The sheer intensity and pathos of a fast-paced duel with a fallen hero, the brutal impetus of Artorias’ each and every movement, it’s a fight worth living (and dying) through as much as it is merely witnessing it!

Burnt Ivory King. The best way I can describe this fight is by calling it cinematic, especially when played right - that is, with a full company of Loyce Knights. Absolutely everything about it drips with awe-inducing magnificence, up to and starting from the segment immediately preceding it: witnessing the frozen hall in all of its eerie stillness for the first time, as Alsanna beckons you from beyond your sight, is already setting the mood for what’s to come - and it is something grand. Together, you approach the chasm leading to the Abyss, the Loyce Knights awaken and prepare to follow you into a quite literall hell; together still, you jump straight into it without the slightest bit of hesitation, finding yourselves met with the battleground for the impending gauntlet against the Charred Knights who contrast so vividly with the pristine form of your allies. As the battle goes on, the Loyce Knights sacrifice themselves to seal the doorways from whence enemies keep pouring in, until at last silence falls, a calm before the impending storm. It’s then that he makes his entrance: flames erupt and part, seemingly slashed away by the imposing presence that emerges from them, and it is then that you know it in your blood, that the GAME IS ON. This is probably one of the most fun fights to approach with a group of friends, especially in case you need to compensate for the lack of Loyce Knights on your side. It’s challenging, emotional and simply a wild ride from start to finish!

Sir Raime the Fume Knight. What can I say? It’s the dignified, worthy successor of Artorias’ fight. A duel to the death with a fierce adversary capable of testing the worth accumulated throughout countless hours of bloodshed and punishing you for the slightest mistake or show of cockiness. The first half of this fight is a technical exchange that sets the bar high, only for the second half to come out of nowhere - the first of probably many times you’ll likely test your mettle against him, anyway - and demolishing your suspension of disbelief along with your character because no way, this super difficult dude has a second phase and an even harder one at that? Disgusting. I love it. 10/10 would punch while wearing nothing but a Flower Skirt again.

Sir Alonne. Starting to see a pattern here? Honestly, I was debating on whether to put the intense battle against Sir Alonne higher on this list - I daresay right in the first place, even! There’s little in the way of fanciness about this fight, and perhaps that’s what I like about it so much, aside from the gorgeous theme that accompanies it, undoubtedly one of my favorite in the entire series.

Velstadt the Royal Aegis AND/OR the Looking Glass Knight. Both great boss fights in their own regard, especially the Looking Glass Knight’s player summoning gimmick and “battle in the rain aesthetic”!

#landoftheway

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terryblount · 5 years

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Meck’s Top 5 Games Of 2018

What a good year for video games this has been. A ton of great single-player games on the AAA front to sink your time in. The more niche, indie titles also got some good hits too with the resurgence of strategy tactics and builder games on PC.

So as a person who enjoys a diverge of different game genres with a bias towards gameplay over story, I was spoilt for choice. There’s plenty of good games, some I was given opportunity to review by the publishers, though some I missed just because of budgetary reasons. (WE NEED MORE MUNNEH!)

Anyway, before moving to the Top 5, a quick shoutout to these games that I loved but did not make the cut.

Into The Breach – The followup of the developers of FTL combines rougelike and strategy tactics to perfection. I did a review here.

A Way Out – A bold co-op only adventure game that reignites my belief that one day, these narrative adventure games can be something worth my time playing through.

Tetris Effect – I want to get high on Tetris so bad.

Marvel’s Spider-Man – I only got to play it at a preview event, but I loved what I played. It’s good seeing my favourite developers still going strong.

And here’s my Top 5:

5: Spyro Reignited Trilogy

Spyro! I managed to finally play it after we crowned this game the Best Remake/Remaster for 2018. And it definitely lived up to my expectations.

Twenty years ago I discovered a magical game thanks to a demo disc from a UK magazine. So it’s a PAL disc which meant everything ran in black and white on the NTSC PS1. But, it opened my eyes to a different kind of game- a game with open-ended levels and sandbox design that you can stray away from the critical path for a while and be rewarded for your curiosity.

Spyro The Dragon is the Super Mario 64 replacement for me growing up. Spyro 2 is one of the first games I properly beat to 100% completion. Spyro Year Of The Dragon taught me piracy is wrong since I never found a working bootleg copy back in those days. It kept crashing, the progression loop was broken, some levels won’t load or unlock and then the in-game message seals the deal. That scarred me.

The faithful remake of the trilogy is what I expected bar a few nitpicks. It’s like playing the old three games through nostalgia-laden rose-tinted glasses.

Also, the original Spyro games are how I fell in love with Insomniac, in case you’re wondering.

4: God Of War

Two action game franchises that I never played back at its inception on PS2: Yakuza and God Of War. I’ve finally played Yakuza Kiwami early this year but I did not expect to give God Of War a try.

I was cynical, thinking it would be another The Last Of Us, a great game yes, but I mean it as a ‘oh, it’s that game again’. I also thought that the new dark souls style controls was a weird choice.

I was definitely wrong in all of those accounts.

God Of War is a masterstroke at balancing two extremes you did not expect. It is both a soft reboot and a hard sequel to the three numbered games before. It is a hard-on character action game but with the slower and methodical approach Soulsborne players familiar with. It blends its cinematics and its gameplay into one cohesive package polished to the brim.

God Of War deserves all the praises it gets. It’s not that high on my personal list because I don’t have much attachment to the series and story, but it’s a remarkable masterpiece you should at least give a chance.

3: Frostpunk

So the developers of This War Of Mine made a city builder this time. The city builder aspect got me interested, and the aesthetic of a frozen wasteland with makeshift steampunk technology has a cool, unique look to it.

But man, it pulled some heart strings in me.

While a competent scenario-based city builder at first (it now has a endless mode which is great), the setup and world building around Frostpunk makes it hard to just make the optimal decision. Each choice has a consequence, both good and bad. It’s a matter of choosing what you can cope with right now, even if it sounds wrong.

Making children overwork that can lead to deaths, or amputating injured workers immediately if their limbs broke sounds harsh, desperate and cruel. But times are ending and desperate times calls for desperate measures.

And the most horrific of all is the two philosophy where you can rule your city with- building up faith and become a zealous, cult-like religious fanatics or a safe, over-protective communists that requires 100% obedience to the supreme leader.

But through all of the alarming decisions, the harsh conditions you are tested, there’s always a glimpse of hope that the city will survive. A ray of optimism always shine through this gloomy game and it made such a big impression on me, and on the review for the site.

Plus, I just love city builders in general. About time we got a decent one.

2: Red Dead Redemption II

May I?

I love Red Dead, but oddly it came from the PS2 Red Dead Revolver rather than the first Red Dead Redemption, which I have yet to play to the finish. That did not stop me from enjoying every single bit of Red Dead Redemption II.

I have always wanted a long game to sink in myself in like how I lost myself in Skyrim and Red Dead Redemption II hits the spot. The numerous mechanics never felt tedious or in the way for me, just enough to make me invest in the ever-changing world and, more importantly, invest in Arthur Morgan. That man carries a lot of nuance not only to justify the need for an Honor system, but makes him such a believable character.

I have issues with the controls and it’s not as realistic or system driven as it may look, but you should check my review for that.

You can see from a mile away the story of Red Dead Redemption II will end up and it’s still a gut-wrenching ride. Let me tell you, I was shooketh to the end.

If you ever wanted to see a tragic story being unfold like FFXV but delivered better, Red Dead Redemption II is it.

Also, Arthur for best game dad 2018. The dad of all horses.

1: Hitman 2

This is an obvious pick if you have followed me enough on social media or listen to the many episodes of dia.log – The Gamer Matters Podcast or checked out my review.

There’s something I really enjoy about deadpan humour. The Yakuza series did those well. And now Hitman has upped their game with Hitman 2.

I’ve always been a fan of the series so seeing Hitman 2 realising the full potential to Hitman 2016. And that’s great! But what’s better is how the game embrace the deadpan humour. From your typical black comedy to more absurd, ludicrous references and easter eggs, Hitman 2 is not afraid to have fun.

Yeah, smuggle a fish in that briefcase. Bring it out and throw at someone. Someone else saw it? Now throw that briefcase as it it tracks and curves to reach its target. Why not dress as Knight and pretend it’s Dark Souls? Or grab a shovel instead and pretend you’re playing Shovel Knight? The developers know you want to goof off after the finishing the levels on your first run properly. So they reward you for your curiosity.

And even if you prefer a more linear experience than uncover the secrets of the levels on your own, Hitman 2 nudges you in the right way and also present to you some hilarious circumstance your targets can die from.

If you love Metal Gear Solid and prefer to play stealthily, check out Hitman 2. Skip Hitman 2016, buy Hitman 2 and the Legacy Pack DLC and trust me, it’s fun and brimmed with content now.

2018 was great! Here’s to more good games in 2019!

Meck’s Top 5 Games Of 2018 published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

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