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sanctaignorantia · 6 months

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Starting another text about how my mind is deteriorating as I think more about Death Stranding 2. Here we go!

Today we're going to talk about how I believe Fragile will be the friend who betrays us in the sequel, but not because she's bad, but because she had no choice or because she's in a risky situation.

Let's start with a few points (which may be confusing because my memory isn't great, sorry). During my conversations with @love-bigboss1fan-me about Metal Gear and how Kojima's mind works within his worlds I came to a few conclusions. Let's get started!

-> Fragile and Higgs will be "on the same side".

If we were to put APAC as the common point between Higgs and Fragile then I could assume that both would be working "together", without knowing it, or knowing it, but still with a certain dislike between them.

How did I come to this conclusion? Coffin.

Coffin is the only thing that closely links Higgs to Fragile and I am very suspicious of the ease with which Fragile closed Fragile Express simply to open Drawbridge. The Qpid that Sam will now wear is basically the same design as the necklace that Coffin wore. Higgs' cool sarcophagus has the same ideas, so we have Coffin linking Fragile and Higgs here.

And you know what's bizarre? I was looking for these photos and then I thought "Fragile's father reminds me of Higgs…", the type of hair, the style, I don't know…

But then you ask yourself "why would Fragile be involved?" - Was the design of the new Qpid made by Drawbridge or APAC? The DHV Magellan is something that was given to Fragile by APAC so I assume that all the technology Drawbridge has is thanks to APAC, the ship, the Qpid and the "rings". And then we come to the second very funny thing that makes me think APAC has Coffin's finger in the middle.

I thought this new technology represented rings, but it could also be miçanga, remember?

A bead (miçanga in brazilian portuguese) is a small decorative object made from natural materials such as stones, bones, shells, wood or, in most cases, glass. They are usually used to decorate necklaces (or any other ornament made from glass), and are recognizable because they have a small hole in the center for threading or stringing. They are then attached to a string, chain or necklace. Their colors and different shapes are widely used in fashion, handicrafts and decoration to create unique pieces. The use of beads originated in South Africa and surrounding countries, where they have a spiritual value, since these necklaces were used in their early days for prayer or devotion, or perhaps to ward off evil spirits. For indigenous peoples, their meaning is not purely aesthetic, for them there is a question linked to ancestry and corporeality. x

Coffin hands the miçanga to her husband and then he hands it to Fragile. The object is purely a bridge between mother and daughter and then becomes a bridge between Sam and Fragile.

These new miçangas will be used by us (Sam) and the entire Drawbridge team, each miçanga is a "knot" that is joined by a large cord, leaving everyone united.

So we have the design of the coffins, we have the miçanga, we have APAC behind Drawbridge and Higgs (according to theories), then we have Coffin. "But ah… Coffin is dead!" - Cool, since when was that an impediment in Death Stranding? Since when, for Kojima, is killing someone the end of the line? And I'm talking now because I have knowledge of MGS and all the architecture behind "bringing people back to life through AIs" - here in Death Stranding 2 we'll be going into a world that's "very Metal Gear on Kojima's part" so I think it's important to take into account the fact that he's going to CONTINUE using Metal Gear references. And I say continue because DS1 already has a lot of references...

Coffin may be dead, but her ideals still survive somewhere, in someone, and just as we believe that Higgs raised this cult of Amelie as an extinction entity, we can assume that leaving Coffin with her ideals somewhere, germinating, would not be crazy. The next point would be to think that there is something behind Coffin, in case Coffin is "the face" of APAC? Probably. This is Kojima we're talking about, and in terms of manipulation, things work like an onion.

In DS1 Fragile tells Sam the "whole truth" that Higgs tells her, before she leaves him behind on the Beach. Knowing the unknown field that is Higgs Monaghan I would have thought that handsome son of a bitch had a card up his sleeve from the start. He had to. He didn't look like someone desperate in the face of imminent destruction. So taking on his big Hollywood starring role, because acting is also his "thing", it would be easy for him to keep telling truths that hurt and he obviously does with Fragile since he was "about to die", but what would stop him from telling her that he also worked with Coffin?

They are damaged goods and damaged goods with common points that hurt both parties, they are already deeply connected by the red thread of destiny, they are already part of that great string full of miçangas.

Assuming that in the trailer 1 when Fragile escapes with Lou, the vehicle she uses already contains the Drawbridge logo, then she will basically have had her team assembled since the beginning of DS2. I'm going to conclude that, in trailer 2, when we hear her telling Sam that she's closed down Fragile Express and set up Drawbridge, it's actually at the very beginning of the game, probably in one of the scenes where we have Fragile visiting Sam to look after Lou for a few moments. So these visits will be frequent in the same way that Fragile's insistence on Sam coming to work with her at Drawbridge will initially be frequent. When the trailer 1 comes to an end and Fragile invites Sam to meet her crew, that's Fragile's last attempt to convince Sam to work with her, and guess what? It works because Lou is gone… There's nothing left for Sam… AGAIN!

We have some points that I haven't been able to think about yet, like Higgs. If he's with APAC because there's Coffin's "face" behind it, then why is his cult for Amelie and not for her? That sort of thing. But let's leave it alone because I believe that, although Higgs and Fragile may have this much in common, they still have particularities that will set them apart.

-> Higgs is not so "bad".

Evil is a point of view, and in my honest opinion Higgs was never a villain, he was a victim.

As @love-bigboss1fan-me always reminds me, no robot/human character in MGS is a total villain. They always come across as "neither friend nor foe" (although most of them are more like friends, but they don't admit it). So I'm taking into account that Higgs in DS2 will be an anti-hero. Messing around and creating chaos is still his thing, he's there to do it and he enjoys it, but he's going to help us.

Higgs in DS1 wasn't afraid to get close to Sam, to look him in the eye, to break the safe distance of Sam's private zone. No, Higgs wasn't. Higgs would pierce any barrier Sam put between them. Higgs puts his tongue in Sam's cheek without trembling, he likes it. But in trailer 2 he simply keeps his distance, he hardly looks Sam in the eye. He touches the gun, a soulless husk, he touches the puppet, knowing that it is a soulless little husk, and then he touches Lou's empty pod.

But while Sam? Well, he only touches Sam with his words and, probably, with his truths. When he says later on that Sam will have to seek the truth and that the pain he's in will only get worse, I don't believe he's only talking about Lou because later on we have lines from Fragile indicating that "it wasn't her intention to string him along". And it's not as if Fragile is the villain, perhaps the lie she tells Sam is exactly the omitted truth "I didn't tell you because you never asked!".

If Fragile and Higgs have a link to APAC because APAC is linked to Coffin, then why should this be Sam's business? Sam doesn't seem to share his visions of Cliff out there, so "everyone take care of your family" and we'll be fine, but back to Kojima and his way of telling stories, we know that family isn't exactly what descends from our own blood or genes, family is what passes on and leaves a connection in us. And connections are what Death Stranding is all about. Humanity needs to connect, because humanity is the Great Family here…

-> Is it Higgs who "kills" Lou?

I can see Kojima saying "we need to set it up so that everyone thinks Higgs is the one who shoots. Maybe he shoots Fragile, maybe Lou. But actually Higgs is shooting at whoever is chasing Fragile and Lou. Higgs is helping them."

They don't look shot to me. The background isn't even the same color and for the situation to get to where it is, with this fire and destruction, then there was a lot of fighting, something that just one shot would have solved, one shot would have ended the show.

And Higgs, like a good son of a bitch, is going to help with his own intentions behind it. He's going to help Fragile and Lou, but maybe he's going to kill whoever's after them while acting as if he killed Lou and got Lou out of there (here comes the theory that Lou is closely linked to Amelie and then Higgs' interest with his EE cult). Higgs had opportunities to destroy Fragile and never did, Higgs had opportunities to destroy that baby in the pod and never did. Higgs talks too much, but he wouldn't kill them. Fragile gave him a choice, shoot or be trapped forever on the Beach. Fragile was merciful so I don't see Higgs wanting to get back at her.

So how could Fragile become the "villain", but not because she wants to but because she "had no choice" or "is at risk"? APAC is a new face, a new company, Kojima likes to deliver the new as friendly and then that's not really a very friendly thing. We'll have APAC vs UCA then we have the top of the pyramid. These are dangerous names because they are names that have power, so these are the names that will be in control. Seducing Fragile and Higgs using their deepest connections isn't something new for Kojima either, we're still treading the same minefield as DS1 and the entire MGS franchise. The big problem is what's behind those masks, what's behind all the curtains when the show is about to start and then when it's over, what only the people who have that power in their hands will be seeing. We are just puppets, pawns.

You seduce them, hand them a fraction of that power through weapons and soldiers (for Higgs) and technology (for Fragile) while they believe they are using it for THEIR OWN INTERESTS, when in fact they are bait, they are "the pawn bridges" for the purpose of these "kings".

I don't believe that Higgs becomes "the villain" in DS1 because he wants to, and I don't need to explain his reasons. So here I don't believe that Fragile would be the "villain" because he wishes it when everything is about manipulations and well-rehearsed lies. Fragile is at risk because she does again what she condemned in DS1, she will ally herself again with something "faceless" because it gives her powe/and or has things in common (technology, dhv magellan, connect the world, make deliveries) and that will lead her into the hole. In the same way that we have Higgs doing again what he did in DS1, letting himself be seduced by icons. And we have Sam doing exactly what he didn't want to do in DS1, teaming up with a "great idea" to connect the world, this time, because it's the only thing he believes he's good at, and because he has nothing else left and because someone told him that it would heal him. THE SAME CYCLE IS STARTING ALL OVER AGAIN.

And when I talk about cycles that repeat themselves, I talk about reincarnation, I talk about how a spirit needs to repeat the same things during its spiritual journey so that it learns from its mistakes and breaks this karmic cycle and thus evolves. We see this in MGS with Hal, for example, breaking the "karmic cycle" that his father Huey "started" and so on with "the future generations" or "descendants" that are placed in the story and that can also be interpreted as "future reincarnations" of the same "soul" = idea, ideal, character. And yet, we can compare the karmic cycle of all humanity, which, in both Death Stranding and Metal Gear, continue to practice/and or be part of the same "karmic cycle" that only generates its own destruction.

#about-ds #death stranding #death stranding 2 #parallels between ds and mgs #coffin #higgs monaghan #sam porter bridges #fragile

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robogart · 11 months

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I'm playing Dark Souls 3 right now and I have some thoughts/wonder if other people have experienced something similar?

So I've played through DS1, Bloodborne (favorite) and Elden Ring - really enjoyed all of those (except for the Lost Izalith area in DS1, woof) but I find myself really struggling with the enemies - specifically the Toughest Guys In The Area - so much? And it's sort of like "yeah, doy, that's what it's supposed to be?" but hear me out!

It just feels like that they not only have a lot of HP, but also punishing hits, SEVERELY long combos, and they also just don't stun or their parry windows feel SO small? Even trying to side-dodge or move around them is usually punished by the combo because they'll have back-reach that hits you anyways.

And the fact that they'll maybe introduce one of these Big Lads and you're like "okay cool, got it" but then from then on there are like 2-3 of them all together in your path (not like, guarding a good item in a little corner, they're in your progression route) and it's like?? What is going on? Granted I'm a dex build but that's what I play most my first/second playthroughs as, but I feel like the other games always felt more fair/surmountable in their encounters? I felt like I usually had a chance and the layout seemed balanced? But in DS3 I feel just SWAMPED by the amount of heavy-hitters there will be all together, and I find myself just having to run past them.

And it's not for lack of trying! I just feel like ONE misstep and I get caught in a Stupidly Fast combo! It's so much! ;; w ;;

And I'm ALMOST done with the game! Currently doing the Ringed City DLC right now before I get to the final game boss. And the boss fights have really been spectacular! I just did the Ariandel big boss and they were GREAT - had to summon help because I was getting spanked in the third phase, but it was SO FUN!! It's also so much fun to help other people! Jolly cooperation let's go!

But I don't know - I feel like this game is just less balanced feeling than the other titles? I love the weapons system, the boss fights, the areas and enemy design - but I feel like the enemy layout is just unreasonable at times - more times than I feel it should be? I feel like I've read that they used the same enemy ai as they had in bloodborne, so maybe that's where the misalignment sits for me? That game had a great fighting system that awarded aggression from aggression, your character is always meant to move fast and doesn't roll heavy or anything because armor isn't AS important as it is in Dark Souls, and the parry system was SET to be used in tandem with all enemies. And I feel like you could argue that Elden Ring is similar with DS3 with its enemies, but I feel like that game gives you SO much space, ease of movement (torrent) and the ashes system, so you're able to get some heat off you (especially if you're playing lighter builds). It just feels more balanced to me!

Ahh anyways - trying to gear up to maybe continue a bit more tonight! I'm so close... = __ =;; But I just wanted to rant and was curious is other people felt the same or not? I'll concede when something is a skill-issue in games - especially these games, where a lot of it IS learning the patterns and/or parrying - but somehow DS3 just feels weirdly stacked. Is it just me? Jesus?

#dark souls 3 #ds3 #ds3 thoughts

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stimulated-radiation-emission · 8 months

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ive only played ds1 and elden ring but patches being a character in every fromsoft game is so funny to me. developer-constant character. just stole from his chest, beat him up when he attacked me, spared him, then looted his second chest that just teleported me into the middle of some woods filled with bears while he was like "HEHEHEH THIS IS VENGEANCE U GOT WHAT WAS COMIN TO YA" but i had a grace like 3 feet away and just teleported back to him and he was like "omg! ur safe! im so glad, that was so weird how u were poofed away D: Hey maybe take this as a lesson to stop looting other peoples chests tho."

#sarke plays elden ring

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gorbagegorl · 3 months

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thinking about my experience with the souls(bornering die twice) series

tried dark souls for the first time in like 2014 maybe? didn't have a controller i could connect to my pc so i played with mouse and keyboard. no dsfix. struggled for hours to make it to taurus demon and im not sure if i beat him. definitely got stuck on the bell gargoyles if i did. no summons bc i didn't know about them. it was such a tense and terrifying experience. killing every enemy every time, incredibly stressful to gain an inch of progress bc i knew i could lose it all at any time.

i tried bloodborne next and the opening bit of yharnam also had me stressed over every inch of progress. but i got past it and got pretty far into the game. it was fun to go fast and parry things. no summons again bc i didn't have ps plus. i think i stopped on the approach to mergo's wet nurse bc giant spiders started to show up, dropping onto u from above, and that was too scary for me.

tried ds1 again years later with dsfix and a proper controller. i got way further, making it to ornstein and smough but i couldn't beat them. no summons again, not because i didn't know how to use them but because i had fooled myself into believing that the "true" way to play dark souls was without them. the main feelings i remember from this run were frustration and anger. banging my head against a brick wall until it broke. getting frustrated when the wall wouldn't break after the most recent hit. getting angry when it hurt to hit my head against the wall. feeling nothing when i finally broke through.

i didn't try ds2 or 3 bc i hadn't finished ds1, and sekiro looked way too hard, so my next game was elden ring. no summons bc i still thought that was the best way to experience the game (did use spirit ashes and a ton of spells though.) again, i bashed my head against the brick wall until it broke, getting frustrated and angry when i died and not really feeling satisfied when i won. but i did win. it was the first souls game i beat. i even did Ranni's questline and got her ending, despite it being optional and hard. i had finally proved that i could beat a souls game the "intended way." and again, it mostly just made me feel frustrated and angry. after all that effort i learned that it would have probably been much more fun if i had just used summons. i enjoyed the exploration though and my appreciation for the combat grew while learning how to fight some of the world bosses (specifically the magma wyrms.) despite my anger and frustration i enjoyed elden ring enough to put over 100 hours into it, eventually trying out randomizers and the seamless co-op mod as well. i think the most important thing i took from my time with elden ring was getting so used to fromsoft controlls it became like second nature. being able to run while keeping an eye on the boss, without lock-on, can be unbelievably helpful in certain situations, and i would not have been able to tackle the next game without that familiarity.

next was sekiro. sekiro pissed me off more than any game i had ever played before, and it is the game that finally made the souls series fully click for me. it was frustrating to adapt to sekiro's style of play after 100+ hours of elden ring, frustrating to have no choice but to approach bosses with the sparse (compared to other games mentioned) options provided by the game, frustrating to still feel like the only option was to bang my head against a brick wall until it broke. i actually made two attempts at playing sekiro, the first of which ended at lady butterfly- i didn't understand how sekiro's combat rhythm differed from fromsoft's other games, so i felt like it was impossible to make progress in the fight, got mad (especially on juzou) and quit. my second time trying sekiro i fought gyoubu before attempting lady butterfly, which worked out way better and gave me a feel for the rhythms of the game. this time when i fought lady butterfly, i understood what the game wanted from me and i felt i had a chance at seeing an ending. i would still get frustrated and angry but once in a while i would actually feel satisfied after a fight; i could see what the game wanted me to do and i delivered. no longer would i launch assaults of the cranium upon the brick wall with no end in sight, i could now read the game and see a path through.

then i fought Owl (father.) Owl (father) was the most Piss Me Off fight i had ever fought. i could learn when to be agressive, what to punish, how to parry parriable moves, but it did not lead to victory. i would maximize the uptime of my agression and owl would end up maneuvering us into a corner where i could not see or effectively avoid certain attacks. i would attempt to punish a move i had punished dozens of times before only to discover that the contours of the dirt floor of the arena had positioned us in such a way that my attack would just barely miss, allowing owl to hit or even kill me with an attack that was normally safe to punish. i would parry and dodge perfectly, reach his second phase, bring him down to a sliver of health, only for his fire-owl summon to get caught on a pillar in a way that delayed its movement to punish my regular dodge timing that usually worked for that move. this fight pissed me off so fucking much. i got embarrassingly mad. it took me three days to beat him. i did not feel satisfied. but this was the last time i didn't feel some kind of satisfaction from beating a boss in these games, and after this fight i felt that the souls games finally fully clicked for me. it's hard to articulate but it's like i had a better sense of what was and was not my fault when i died in these games, as well as being more capable of working around things that were unfair. after three days of seeing exactly how to beat this boss and having my plans foiled by quirks of level geometry, i slowly realized that that kind of situation had basically never happened before or since. and when i do encounter some capital b Bullshit i can quickly figure out how to avoid or mitigate it as much as possible. three days of walking a straight path up a hill and falling flat on my face after tripping on a rock i hadn't noticed before taught me that if i see a path to the end i absolutely can make it, i just need to accept that sometimes i will still fail. it was an infuriating lesson to learn in the moment, but it has greatly improved my enjoyment of these games. i defeated isshin with a smile on my face, each new move and phase that killed me a joyous expression of how fucking cool games can be.

i still get frustrated and a little mad at these games but nowhere near what i felt before. but finally, every part of these games was fun. i tackle new bosses from the elden ring dlc with the same enthusiasm with which i finished sekiro.

idk if i had a point i was working towards. i guess it's that u can absolutely get into the souls games by playing it the Pure way, spending dozens upon dozens of hours with mounting anger and frustration and no help, but you could also just have fun and use summons while you can bc ultimately what's important is spending time getting used to the quirks of these games (also bc summons aren't available in sekiro and you should play sekiro :3)

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beesmygod · 11 months

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What is your ranking of the 'souls' fromsoft games you've played and why? I SUSPECT bludbornt takes the number 1 slot for reasons.

this is actually really really hard because while i love the bloodborne story, some of the structural and pacing issues can result in an awful gameplay experience. like if its your first time playing the game the last boss you're going to fight is mergo's wet nurse which is a huge wet fart of a final boss with a dogshit soundtrack. some of the boss fights are rank as well. like laurence is fucking awful. rom is a SLOGGGGGGG i dread having to fight rom every time bc its just a test of my patience instead of a skill check. defiled watchdog and amygdala are terrible. not fun. very bad. great dlc tho

it ties with dark souls 1 which i dearly, dearly love so much i could play it forever except once you play literally any other fromsoft game it is so hard to go back to. the quality of life additions in later games like "being able to fast travel without needing to complete half the game" and "being able to move at a reasonable pace instead of plodding around like the gravity on planet dark souls is stronger than earth" are completely absent. is...almost a little too mean. some of those boss runs are real rough. also great dlc. i love broken pyromancy so much. wait i just remembered centipede demon i hate that fight. fuck him. and fuck his ketchup kids

ds3 is a close second bc its ds1 but they gave it a bunch of quality of life fixes that make it much less frustrating to play. however, the pay off is that it has one terrible dlc and one thats just ok. i hate the final boss of the base game i think it sucks. nearly everyone disagrees with me so dont listen to me. but i think it's a stinker lol. the midir fight is grueling, unfun. ive done it and it was awful. i think there are too many "puzzle" bosses (wolnir, yhorm, ancient wyvern) that feel like they were imported from a zelda game. i do not like those at all. dont waste my time from! im here to kill monsters by the skin of my teeth!!! not play donkey kong!!!

i took a long time to warm up to sekiro and really disliked it until it "clicked" and then it became mind-blowing. i really hope they make more like this with this fighting system. maybe even a sekiro 2 (tomoe story PLEAAASSEEEE FROM. it was teased so hard...). it has an incredible plot, world, means of delivering its story, heart pounding battles, and the single best fromsoft final boss fight ever. bar none. sword saint isshin is an unbelievable experience.

but...fromsoft what the fuck am i supposed to do with all this currency ive amassed lol. they forgot to give me things to buy. you dont have this problem in souls games because you use them to level up, but in sekiro you have to fucking git gud. there's no level system and defense bonuses are tied to defeating bosses. if you can't defeat a boss you are absolutely fucked and have to throw yourself against the wall over and over, which can truly be a terrible grind.

some of the boss fights are h o r r i b l e. most fromsoft games have me chasing down minibosses to beat for fun but the headless are literally dreadful. i just skip them altogether now because if it wasnt enough that they cast a "remove fun" AOE spell, but the items they drop are worthless. i will never use these lol. what the fuck from. the second fight with the ape is stupid. im never going to fight the demon of hatred sorry lol. you can't put a fucking bloodborne beast in a game almost entirely revolving around human enemies.

never finished ds2

#soulsborne

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miquellah · 2 months

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3, 16, & 19 for Dark Souls 1 AND 2 🖤🔥

3. What is your favorite boss lore-wise?

DS1- PINWHEEL. as in, there’s really no lore…. but a necromancer at the bottom of the catacombs, implied as an amalgamation of a whole family resurrected. he’s memed on sooo much, but i feel the implications are so tragic, and also hinted as someone who tried to steal the very power of nito??! crazy

DS2- THE LOST SINNER. first of all making a design like that a woman is so based. second of all the implications of trying to create a new Flame, and then reaching such regret as to engage in torturous penitence… and the bug??? what the fuck is up with the bug. we may never know

16. What is the most underrated NPC in your opinion?

DS1- i love you female undead merchant. she likes moss and she talks to me so sweetlies whenever i buy her wares :)

DS2- magerold of lanafir… good bit of worldbuilding just for implying lanafir alone. was a welcome face to see when i was afraid and dying in that area. also there’s a neat little theory that hes also actually Jester Thomas

19. Favorite line of dialogue?

DS1- “Are you back for more of my moss, then? Plenty of it here. Freshly peeled, just for you! Vee hee hee!”

DS2- whatever the fuck Aldia is on

#asks #THANKUUUU

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amyjo7791 · 1 year

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I just finished my second playthrough of Dark Souls 2 and I want more of it :(

It takes a bit (more than halfway into the game) for me to become super comfortable but I really enjoy the game even though it's clunkier than DS1 and its bosses... really aren't anything special but... I love it so damn much.

I should try out some of the weapons I haven't used before and keep exploring because I want to learn the game.

Honestly, even though I love Bloodborne a whole lot, I'd rather see a remake of Dark Souls 2 than a sequel/"remaster" of Bloodborne

#196 #r/196 #dark souls #also fuck emerald herald #not in that way silly

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ambyes · 4 months

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I've been researching for a FIC and realized that 'On the Beach' is being toted as a reference to the novel of the same name. In that novel there are a lot of similar themes: knowing death is coming and accepting it, the death of children, a submarine that offers hope when it seems everything is over, and at the end the fact never deviates, they will all die. In Higgs words, referenced from the talking heads (so says the internet), same as it ever was. Live, fight, die, or some sort of cycle. I think Fragile can't shoot Higgs and leaves him there to be stuck forever in limbo, and he shoots himself, but with the beaches in limbo, he gets spit out or found on a random beach by the cultists.

I hope to see references to evolution, since water is a heavy theme in the game. Squids and jellyfish, regrowing limbs, regenerating perhaps. That would be a neat literal way to represent his being reborn, since he's no repatriate. Unless Amélie sent him back somehow, but I think he'll be seeking revenge, hence his crow inspired outfit.

I'm interested in the same as it ever was line because when interviewed“ the writer said “, “We’re largely unconscious. You know, we operate half awake or on autopilot and end up, whatever, with a house and family and job and everything else. We haven’t really stopped to ask ourselves, ‘How did I get here?’” and also ““Maybe I’m fascinated with the middle class because it seems so different from my life, so distant from what I do. I can’t imagine living like that.””

The first half of the quote reflects Higgs in ds1, he keeps trying to get Sam to see the truth to 'get it'. He's sort of baiting him the entire time. Trying to get Sam to ask himself that exact question. Higgsactions, is very aware of his goals and actions, even if eventually I do think he loses autonomy. The second quote is interesting too because Sam grew up privileged compared to Higgs. Higgs was poor, abused and unwanted. Sam was rich, pampered and sought after. I could see Higgs being fascinated, esp. when Sam chooses to exile himself, whereas Higgs is begging to be taken in.

Though to be fair, fragile offered him a place and kindness, just like she did for Sam, but Higgs shot for the stars and burned in the atmosphere. Sam refused, drowning until he was literally dragged out by his found family. Coffin couldn't offer Higgs anything but anger. So anyway, this devolved into me being so interested in a character I really didn't care about in ds1. I'm glad to see him come back and be more developed.

#i like the line same as it ever was implying everything will keep repeating #death stranding theory #ds2 #death stranding 2 #higgs monaghan

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ashkav · 8 months

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Rock a bye baby (where am i?)

I was re-watching the trailer again after getting pretty far into a new playthrough of DS1 when something clicked. we've heard the lullaby at the very end of the trailer before, in DS1:

(starts at 9:25 in the trailer, and a couple seconds in in the second video)

youtube

when we meet Mama and her BT baby the exact same section of the exact same song is playing as the trailer, but a little extended and with more melodies going. and the song is pretty significant even in DS1 without connecting it to DS2: this is the only other lullaby we hear in the game that isn't BB's theme. and it plays directly before we meet the third most important child character in the game, after Lou and Sam. and the order we hear BBs theme and rock a bye is even the same! the first trailer, Higgs sings a warped version of BB's theme, which we hear in DS1 near the very beginning after hooking up to Lou for the first time and seeing Cliff sing a section. the second trailer, a warped version of rock a bye, heard for the first time about a third of the way through the game when first meeting Mama.

the song is slower and simpler in the trailer compared to in DS1, with a very old almost broken down sound. the octopuses on the mobile seem really relevant considering just how many references to tentacles we've seen in the trailers so far: Elle Fanning's sucker arm, the tar-cat's tongue, the DHV Magellan's logo. and we know some time has passed since the end of the first game. could the song be coming from the same mobile?

thematically, it would be a fitting gift, if it was given as a gift to Sam - if the theories are right and Lou is haunting the BB pod then it'll be an object shared between two impossible BT babies. LockneMama would be the literal best person for Sam to get in contact with again, being the only person (people?) to actually have gone through something similar with a dead not dead daughter. (and it's a completely impractical gift for a living baby with squishy skin, being metal and likely to cut or injure a grabby infant.)

I don't know. i think it would be a really neat narrative parallel if Mama played a role in DS2, but since Margaret Qualley has not been mentioned in any promotional material I doubt she'll be in the game in any major way. that doesn't necessarily mean the theory is wrong; the character could still interact with Sam through emails but the reduced presence doesn't seem

ok wait had a brain wave does Shioli connect to this somehow? complete hunch based on nothing but the first song was obviously the song that connected Lou and Sam, as they're both BBs and the theme is used for both of them. we've seen absolutely nothing of who Shioli is despite knowing she must be a major character based on her poster and her name on the credit list. is rock a bye the song that connects Lou and Shioli's character?

her character poster:

rock a bye baby is about a baby being 'lost' - "when the bough breaks the cradle will fall/ down will come baby, cradle and all."

euphemistically, it can be about child death due to negligence or instability, but going 'down' in the case of death stranding also immediately brings to mind tar, the sinking and the rising. is she 'down' at the beach?

'cradle and all' seems to me to imply there's other things related to cradles that are all going down with the baby, blankets, toys, etc. lots of mobiles attach to cradles.

maybe i'm grasping at straws with the Shioli connection, but the lullaby is the only part of the trailer that doesn't seem to obviously link back to or directly relate to the known characters. and since Mama isn't going to be a major player, maybe Shioli will fill the same thematic presence in this game as Mama did in the last - Mama, too, was lost in a sense, her Ha and Ka split when her baby died and untethered when her psychic link to Lockne broke. Mama was an inversion of the stillmother - maybe Shioli is an inversion of Lou?

#what being an inversion of a BB means is anyone's guess #but young women in death stranding are literally always the most important characters lore wise #and since this game seems to be about learning more about BBs and Lou in particular i would bet a lot that shioli is related to that #death stranding #death stranding 2 #lou #mama #shioli kutsuna #theoryposting #Youtube

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jarognieva · 1 year

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Jara!

For the ask game, what's you favorite boss fight in every game you played?

Heyyy Fan!!! ❤️

For now I played only Bloodborne, Elden Ring and Dark Souls 3 (I began to play Sekiro and DS1 but shortly after them Lies of P took all of my attention so I'll finish them later. It's not like they're worse or better, just the rumours calling this game "Bloodborne 2" were perfect bait for me xD).

Okay sooo soulsborne games made me realise that I'm masochist so the hardest fights are my favourites xD In Bloodborne it's Orphan of Kos - he's so poor little baby screaming of pain and grief... I would hug him but ughh it's soulsborne so I must kill him (xD) to release his soul from the nightmare. And I totally love the most "powerful" moment of the fight - when Kos hear his scream and defends him (I mean when she do this thing with bolt) even if she's "dead" (ok I know it's not like she's exactly dead...). She's true mom-goddes 🥺❤️

Honorable mention: Maria, Micolash

Dark Souls 3 - Slave Knight Gael. I love everything about him, the fight, the lore. The whole atmosphere of fight at the very end of the world!

Honorable mention: Sister Friede, Midir, the Dancer

Elden Ring - Malenia! I can't count how many attempts it took me to win but it was... A LOT. Her ability to heal herself with every hit, her strength, her skills, her second phase... Yes, I was irritated with all of this at the very beginning but after some time I was like... She's fucking GODDESS, what did I expect? XD

Honorable mention: Mohg, Radagon + Elden Beast, Placidussax

Link for asks here x

#asks #ask game #soulsborne

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sanctaignorantia · 5 months

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Hear me out!

I'm going to draw a parallel between this DS trailer and this DS2 trailer, what do they have in common?

In one we have Cliff fleeing with Sam in his pod while BBs Theme plays in the background, now we know everything that happened and we know that he was trying to save Sam. In the other we have Fragile running away with Lou in his arms while BBs Theme plays in the background (this time sung by Higgs/Troy)… In both cases we have someone trying to save a baby while this lullaby plays in the background. OK, I GET IT.

We know that during DS1 we were only able to access Sam's memories because of Louise, and that it's thanks to her that Sam discovers the whole truth of his past, so we now know that all those scenes with Cliff weren't "real", they were just "memories".

Now let's go back to the theory that this guy here is Higgs and that he's shooting at Fragile or Louise:

Now let's take 2 pieces of information that the second DS2 trailer gives us:

1) here is the first time Sam meets Higgs after he returned from the Beach because Higgs is giving an "entrance show" and also because Sam asks him about Lou's death. If it wasn't their first time meeting again, then perhaps none of this would be happening;

2) the sentences thrown into the middle of the trailer while Higgs is making his big rock diva entrance:

Fragile: He's alive? Sam: He called himself a ghost, but… Fragile: He found a way back from the Beach just so he could kill us? Sam: He said he came back to get revenge on you and me.

-> If Sam is warning Fragile that Higgs is back, then this part of them talking is probably after the scene of Higgs appears to Sam, right?

-> And that scene where Higgs introduces himself to Sam is the same scene where Sam questions Higgs about Louise's death.

If this scene of Sam talking to Fragile is after Higgs' "return", then how could Fragile say that Higgs is there to kill them if the scene of Fragile running away with Louise and being "shot by Higgs" happened first?

This leads me to think that the scene of the guy pointing the gun and the scene of Fragile and Louise in that field full of fire may not even be part of the same thing (now) and if they are, they can't possibly be happening at the beginning of DS2's story - unless the whole scene is a dream of Fragile's about the future, but it still wouldn't make sense how Higgs would kill Lou in the future if when Higgs comes back Lou will already be dead - unless at that moment nobody knows that the man with the gun is Higgs… Then nobody knows he's back.

But back to why I mentioned that DS1 trailer…

We know that Kojima doesn't place anything by coincidence, everything has a connection. If we know that Cliff was part of Sam's memories and his battlefield was part of his own spiritual memories of grief and anger over the loss of his son and wife and the relationship between that and Bridget, then what would stop this whole scene with Fragile being the same?

If we're trying to find out what happened to Lou then I think it makes sense that in DS2 we'll have something similar to Cliff's super cell, but this time, instead of going to Cliff's "personal hell", we'll be going to Louise's "personal hell" (and I think I've already said something about that) but only Fragile will have access to this "battlefield" and so we'll be able to play with her. With Cliff, our mission was to defeat the mysterious soldier who kept shouting for his BB. At the end, after defeating him, we were sent back because Cliff hugged Sam. Here with Fragile this "spiritual pain simulation" would end every time Lou died.

I know it seems painful to relive the girl's death from time to time, but that's the great mystery of the game, just as Cliff was the great mystery of DS1.

Sam: I was there. I saw her home. And it was a hellhole.

*Making an edit to add something: -> If Higgs had really killed Louise in that scene from the first trailer, then when Sam questions him Higgs would react in a way to brag about it, we know…. If his intention is really to get revenge on Sam and Fragile then killing Louise would be doing it in a very terrible way. But no, we don't have Higgs bragging about it, on the other hand, he seems to feel sorry for Sam and seems to want to help him understand what happened to Louise.

Higgs : You still don't know, do you?

What's Higgs talking about?

Don't we know it wasn't him who killed Lou?

Don't we know that Lou isn't dead?

Don't we know that Lou never existed?

ANSWER US HIGGS!

#about-ds #death stranding #death stranding 2 #louise #fragile #higgs monaghan #sam porter bridges #clifford unger

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