#WE BEST BLOODBORNE

[undefeatablesin]

INHERITANCE 🌙

[swallowtail-ageha]

Idk how lukewarm of an opinion it is but hm. I am not the biggest fan of like pointing laurence as the sole corrupting force that caused yharnam to go to shit. Like yes, he is a monster, and he is the figurehead and catalyst of most of the torture and experimentation that happened there, but also to pin him as the only one rotten apple while he wouldn't have minimally gotten to that point if there weren't other major figures in yharnam enabling him. I do feel like it's kind of the point on why the dlc is structured like that, boss wise. You are presented with this string of figures that were important for shaping the in-game's yharnam culture (ludwig with the church hunters, maria with the experimentation that laid the fundation of the choir), which are all presented as burning in hell for their sins, and to see this and pin the blame on him and him alone is hm. Dont really like it

[death-rebirth-senshi]

Bloodborne's glorious "fuck you we're not telling you shit" Elden Ring's traitorous "fuck you we're not telling you shit"

[doedipus]

generic fantasy concepts are kind of like instant ramen in that if you just kind of drag and drop the most boilerplate version of something into your story it's going to be boring as shit and devoid of nutritional value. and this goes doubly so for big setpiece monsters like dragons.

you gotta like, either come up with a unique thing or make enough additions and substitutions to the stock thing that it meaningfully has its own identity or it's going to suck

[yharnamesque]

Just gone past them again which in turn made me think about it but man we really didn't pay enough attention to those zombies in the sewers of Yharnam did we. I mean it really is the WORST end for anyone living in that city, because at least with beasthood you have a full completed transformation and a bit of real power behind your swings and somewhere to sit in the new food chain

But those people discarded in the sewer? All they can do is rot away into nothing and hope that there's so little left that the blood can't fix them up and bring them back anymore. It's one thing to lose your mind to bloodlust and more primal animal instincts, but imagine if them lot haven't lost themselves. Imagine if they're still in there even a little bit, and they are fully aware that the skin and muscle is just actively sloughing off their bones more and more each day, and it hurts so god damn much but they just can't die no matter how many times they seem to black out and drown in the discarded sludge of humanity

[phoenixcatch7]

Spent the morning on bloodborne and the evening on stardew valley... Very different states of play. In bloodborne I've got 19 in blood tinge and 23 in endurance. In stardew valley I've got a 6 in fishing and 4 in foraging.

I've started the beach farm, which is a fairly challenging one and not one I'd recommend to new players - sprinklers don't work in the sand that's 70% of the whole farm. I figured going in I'd have to change my usual methods (huge fields) in favour of, well, everything else.

Usually my main focus is on the crops, with only a small orchard and few tapped trees, one shed, one coop and barn each. Most space goes to crops and, of course, animal grass. I've never had enough grass to sustain itself no matter what fencing techniques I use, so this time I'm going to section off a full third of the farm just to let them run free and hopefully get something I don't have to keep replacing, especially once I swap to blue grass late game.

I've also dedicated the little grassy meadow area to just decoration, which isn't my usual style but I was a little overwhelmed with the size. It'll be nice. I've planned for a hut and a well, just to feel nice.

When drawing up the blueprints on the sdv planner thing I like to leave it fairly undecorated, because a) that takes ages and b) it's nice to be able to come up with the designs organically with the actual resources I have when it becomes time and not try to get it pixel perfect according to a map I drew up weeks/months ago and c) inevitably it will fall apart and I'll have to do it differently anyway. So. No idea on the details or even if everything will work out as I hope but fingers crossed!!

I don't have any hardwood on the farm, I like to use the quarry for that, so that saves space. And I've remembered to block out a space for the stable! Didn't do that last time XD. I hope I'll be able to even fence off a little pseudo field. I really need to check if trees work the way I remember, I'm hoping for a proper orchard!

Ooh and I moved the greenhouse! I normally keep it close to where it started, but man I appreciate the ability to move it around. Took it off the little island and moved it just below my house. In its place I've built a circle of obelisks! (... Eventually. Even on my main farm I haven't got the final one (dragon teeth my beloathed.) Quite proud of that.

All these buildings, but the main path runs along the very back! I hate having stuff or paths behind buildings, doesn't feel right at all. And I'm still not fully sold on where I'm putting the silos (because I'll need SO MANY to keep like 50 animals through the winter. Will need to do the maths later) but there should be space to move around.

One of my new problems was that usually I can put everything against the walls of the farm, but I can't do that now - it's all water! It'd be weird!

My favourite part is hands down the little sandy area sticking out with the return totem mouse, because I've put my fish ponds there and I'm going to put stepping stones scattered around so it's like rock pools :D.

The most important part of any sdv farm is the ability to match play progress. A patch dedicated to mystic syrup isn't much help in the first fifty hours, but you'll need space to put them on hour 60. I've got a patch ready for banana and mango trees, but for the majority of the time it's going to be more tree tappers, and maybe some seasonal forage seeds. The slime hutch is conveniently placed to leave empty, but if any of my other areas don't work the over flow can go there. I can fit it in the meadow.

But seriously, this is such a hard farm to design! I looked up inspiration and everything was either min maxed to death and stupidly high maintenance (think random tapped trees in every spare inch and 1 block wide paths) or way too aesthetic (random beehives and twisting impractical paths with long grass and stray fence posts EVERYWHERE and a plaza dedicated to the golden clock). A couple even had sprinklers in the sand, like way to show that you made it purely in the editor and haven't so much as looked at it in game.

But overall I'm really excited!! I've played a few other farms, but this is the project following in the footsteps of my year 5 wilderness farm. I feel like I've got a lot more experience and understanding of the game to bring to the table, especially late game stuff now I can't be spoiled, and I'm ready to tackle this challenge.

[fareehaandspaniards]

In case anyone was wondering, why my nickname is Fareeha AND some Spaniards, answer is right under the cut! (Since Tumblr is basically a diary, and I REALLY want to describe, tell, write down, draw and even put it in my blog) Long post ahead! Many screenshots, personal stuff, memes etc.

So you decided to read... Good :'D

It started with Dark Souls 3. The first game experience was very exciting. I spent for about 3 hours creating a character, dealing with a disgustingly made character editor, and they came out.... Simply terrible. Some chubby-cheeked femboy (I have nothing against it, even like it sometimes, but he looked really terrible) with a face like he wants to betray you right now, taking away your family castle and all your feudal possessions. What a waste of time… Also it was sad that I spent 3 hours in the game without starting it. Therefore, I deleted this character and hastily, literally in 5 minutes, created new one - I barely changed one of the in-game templates - slightly lengthened the nose (because big noses are an art); decided to take a hairstyle that would be a little feminine, but at the same time more or less practical - a bun :’D ; made a slightly more stern appearance and it turned out that he was very attractive! There was a problem with the name, but then I also took the first one that came to mind - Esteban. I took the Deprived class because I couldn’t decide who I want him to be and I also wanted to try the so-called “most difficult class,” which turned out to be the most comfortable.

During the game I fell in love with him so much exactly the way he was - and he turned out to be a little frivolous, jester, Casanova, just a handsome guy in my favorite armor of the Black Knights (those devils look INCREDIBLE and make me squeal) and funny older brother of my husband's character.

Tbh now I see that I am making a kind of a doll game out of Fromsoftware games, as it was in childhood - all my characters have their own story, relationships, preferences and strong family bonds lmaooo Why not (I won’t stop)

Esteban was the first "Spaniard". Playing with him as my avatar was incredibly fun - numerous deaths were not perceived so hard, there were LOTS of funny moments, I was scolding Esteban, amusing my husband… In general - we became close, and for a long time finishing the game I could not calm down and was talking about him too much (I genuinely don’t know how my hubbo puts up with me). I was drawing, even wrote a fanfic. And since I LITERALLY CAN’T live without a romantic story, Esteban was the first simp of Prince Lothric and a little bit of Orbeck and Fire Keeper xdd

After DS3, we started Elden Ring. There I created Miguel - also a spaniard, Wretch, cheerful, but more mischievous and feminine than Esteban. I couldn't stop changing his appearance for a very long time until I found something that suits Miguel and fully reflects his character. I really liked Gideon Ofnir, well, really, really liked, but Miguel didn’t share my interest, and I couldn’t really ship them (except for a few explicit drawings :’D). Miguel stayed with Ranni, whom I love dearly, and I started the game again, with a new character. I created a girl. She turned out to be french and received the name Fiquet, and she not only gave me inspiration to finally write a fanfic about her and Gideon, but also brought me mental satisfaction because I finally took the Sorcerer class and spent the entire game killing enemies so easily (except for Mogh and Malenia) with a few hits, without tactics, thinking or other crap. Fiquet, my girl Q_Q

I miss them, enjoy the pics of them

Hello, sir :^)

After Elden Ring we started DS1, where Ramon was created in the same way, and also Jose in DS2 (I didn’t go further than Majula, I can’t help it - I don’t like this game. The desire to continue appears only because of Jose, who is my funniest character I think)

Ramon as his is. No screenshots of Jose, he jumped of a cliff and now looks kinda bad lol...

So it became a tradition to start the game with pathetic (I mean his class xd) spaniard and continue with girl (although I have only Fiquet for now. Others are not much remarkable). That’s how Guillermo was created for playing Bloodborne! I already did absolutely everything I could in BB (I even created a female character to come to Edgar so choir boy won’t be so sad :'D), but Guillermo remains with me - kind, sweet, a little nervous, like an angel from vintage postcards (I see him that way xD), caring, kind of mother figure, confident in his rightness, responsive and sensitive, but at the same time with an impenetrable moral shield (I mean, it’s impossible in any way hurt his feelings). I brought him together with Micolash (not surprising, I guess), came up with a tragic and romantic story for them and an AU with a continuation of the plot after the squid hunter ending for a happy end, endowed him with the blessing of Kos and gave him a backstory. There is something attractive about it when a man receives the blessing of a female deity who protects women - it says a lot about him as a more feminine person on the inside than he appears on the outside.

When I imagine any cool plot with Guillermo x Micolash, I feel like

Guillermo in case if you hadn't see him already:

You know, all my oc x canon look like that

(my OCs are always sort of Sportacus for their loved ones lol And also their loved ones are almost every time evil and edgy)

With all this I want to say that my spaniards and Fiquet have probably become like children to me... I love them, I continue to write about them, they are an integral part of my perception of games, and yes, this is probably really a peculiar need to play with dolls at my age xd Maybe that's why Guillermo wears Doll's gloves, Esteban enjoyed wearing Zullie the Witch's dress and gloves (with ADORABLE manicure yknow!!!) and etc lol...

Thanks for reading! I love to tell stories (As you may guessed lol), tho it take a plenty of time to translate it. Love yall

[slightly-gay-pogohammer]

btw we're in curse of strahd without clerics thats fun

[blood--king]

A few small sharp taps resonated against the large display case of the long projecting window of the king's office, a large arctic white owl was shown staring into the eyes of the monarch. Its thick plumage barely allowed one to see the well-papered and embellished letter that hung from its neck with a blue ribbon.

The owl hooted a couple of times before leaving the letter in front of the window and flying back to its origin, its work had been accomplished.

Opening the envelope imitating an antique porcelain pattern, there was a small congratulatory letter inside, with more text behind it:

"We hope wholeheartedly that your reign continues to be as prosperous as always since your coronation. We wish you a well-enjoyed day on your Anniversare and we hope that our gift is worthy of your Majesty to give it a little taste:

We present the blue wine, a quite popular drink in our territory. This drink is a mixture of red and white grapes with natural organic pigments that give it that characteristic and striking color. Regarding the aroma and flavor of this wine, we could say that it is also very similar to a white wine, since floral and fruity notes are perceived and in the mouth it is fresh, with present acidity characterized by red wine, and in several cases it is sweet, which makes it very easy to take.

However, it would be a pleasure to know your personal opinion regarding our product.

Sincerely,

Avenel dinasty."

With letters finely and carefully written to reflect pristine elegance, the text was sealed with a characteristic "ℐ" captured in golden glittering wax.

As if it had been planned, as soon as the letter was read, a greenish and golden mist with dazzling shine appeared above the desk. It took a few seconds for that magic trick to dissipate, showing off a bottle of wine decorated with some symbols that would represent the Owl clan in a black velvet fabric bag.

||No wonder why Irina is a pro at giving gifts 🏃🏼‍♀️🏃🏼‍♀️✨️✨️✨️||

The king was probably the most capable vampire in the universe, he had smelled this owl's scent since it entered the walls around the castle. As soon as he heard the taps he turned his head to look at it. The pale man approached the window, he opened it and took the envelope, subsequently he raised an arm and created a bat on his hand. —Follow it. —ordered the monarch to his vampire servant, who with its superior eyes, that detect blood even inside other beings, was going to keep track of that visitor.

As soon as he read the congratulations, he couldn't help but smile at this refined greeting. He wouldn't say it but he was a man who enjoyed respect and worship. Since this letter was clearly not from his kingdom, the person who sent it had enough respect for him to call him "Majesty".

He processed to read behind to the he letter. One the first thoughts Hell had was focused on one of the very few phrases, maybe "they" just wanted to be polite, but there was also the possibility that they had some sort of gathered information about his reign, which would be incredibly rare, although the possibility of someone who had been around the year of his coronation is even lower, since it was over 10 thousand years. As he continued, he found interesting this new type of wine, however, as open minded as he was, he still would prefer his always loved red wine, though he wasn't close to taste this one. The vampire also thought that this could be the emergence of a competition, he smiled again, this could be a rather interesting matter. Nonetheless, he didn't forget the probability of some kind of fanatic of his company of wine, perhaps that's why they wanted to know his opinion.

—Now this is intriguing. —said right after reading who was this from. A dynasty he didn't know wasn't rare, after all, he belonged to the longest dynasty of the Nix in terms of time, and other civilizations could make over a hundred dynasties in only five hundred years. There has been over a thousand years since the Angel Empire fell, of course there could be new dynasties, but they are probably from another continent of this planet.

When the bottle appeared on his desk, he voiced his strongest suspicions. —Magic? Or... voodoo? —This just became more interesting, before even thinking about having a sip of this beverage, he contacted his bat with his mind, ordering to come back home as soon as the owl's owner notices his presence. The king was eager to meet this person, he covered the bottle with dark energy to keep it cold, and continued with his work.

[secretaryofdarkness]

Bloodborne is an amazing game because you are never given a diegetic choice to question your surroundings. You're a foreigner in a strange town, you're hated by everyone, you're given strange substances, and you know what you don't do? Ask any fucking questions. The beasts starting slashing and you just fucking roll with it.

A lesser game would give you a voiced protagonist, dozens of scared and confused voice lines, text prompts displaying fear and confusion and revulsion. Not Bloodborne. You kill and get killed in a horrific place with almost no semblance of realness left to it and you either roll with it like the game expects or you stop.

It's this lack of asking that is so poignant. After a while the game slips away because to a point you really do embody the character; you also just arrived here and decided to pick up a weapon without asking questions. Is it human nature to swing an axe just because it fits our hand? Do we question the means that brought us here or do we see them to their ends? This lack of choice and reflection is one of the best pieces of commentary that Bloodborne makes about systemic violence, because both we and our characters took part in it thoughtlessly.

[theboywithburninghands]

Some of the themes I’ve noticed playing FromSoft Games

Dark Souls: The end of one thing is always the beginning of something else. History is always more complicated than what we initially believed. You should always think carefully about what people in power tell you, because they most likely don’t have your best intentions in mind.

Dark Souls 2: Everyone is special, but only for a short period of time, because entropy is inevitable. Memories are important, treasure them and preserve them before you can’t remember them anymore. People who do bad things are often scared and hurt.

Dark Souls 3: Sometimes it’s better to let things end rather than drag them out until they’re exhausted. When times are tough, that’s when you should be most vigilant for bad influences. Having a purpose doesn’t always mean changing the world.

Bloodborne: There are some things we don’t or can’t understand, and it’s better to just let them alone. There are good, moral people in rotten institutions. Morality often can’t keep up with progress until disaster strikes.

Sekiro: Having morals is good, but they shouldn’t interfere with love or common sense. Sometimes breaking the rules is the right thing to do, even if it means sacrificing comforts. It hurts to admit you’ve been manipulated, but it’s better than remaining manipulated.

Elden Ring: All leaders are people, thus all leaders are flawed, and anyone who says they’re perfect is lying. The ends do NOT justify the means. The cycle of violence is endless, and if you can’t stop it you should at least be aware of it.

[katyspersonal]

I absolutely agree with this. The Twitbr side of Soulsborne fandom is really dead-set on gaslighting people to think that it is "redditbros" who are the "real" scourge of the fandom, whereas here is "the most supportive tight knit community 🥺" but a LiE wiLl rEmAiN a LiE or whatever.

Honestly, them being cringe by drawing bodies of female characters inaccurately in horny fever or sounding arrogant if your headcanon didn't coincide with what Vaati/charredthermos said is like...... such a lesser issue than the toxicity of statistically average fans here! One of my favourites is how the same people who blame Redditors for bad takes on the characters (like Malenia) are the exact same people who turn around and clown on characters like Gehrman or Godrick? 🙄

But mental health topic. Ohhh boy. I sincerely have no idea what the hell like 70% of the Soulsborne Twitbr fans are even DOING in the fandom, if they are unable to withstand any sort of strong/"""scary""" mental issues, get every other person they called friend yesterday experiencecurate'd for showing any human faults and demand sanitized """content""" as they call it. You'd expect people that engage with the story that is full of insanity, despair, weird tropes, existencial horror and dark topics, that draws a lot from imagination of Lovecraftian horror and Berserk whose writers themselves were...... questionable people, let's say so, to have strong stomach and at least 2 PTSDs hfhghvnn. And yet, you get mean girls (gender neutral) that are toxic all over, starting with asking people to not ship an unhealthy/weird ship and ending with side-eyeing anyone who broke the routine of "consuming content" with their pesky emotional problems. Starting with promoting complete lack of lore knowledge and trivializing complicated characters into endless unfunny modern AU shitposrs and ending with bullying lore enthusiasts as obsessive, creepy no-lifers. Good display of how you ACTUALLY feel about autism, ADHD, depression, DID, generally trauma and loneliness and so on so on so on... you jerks.

At least, the worst thing Redditbros can tell you is that you are overthinking something or that there is no proof for your headcanon. They won't try to question whether you are 'impure' on the accounts of -isms and -phobias. They won't dig under your skin trying to figure out how much of a "no life looser" you are. They won't tell their garbage control freaks Discord server crew to "be careful" with you over one negative interaction you had when you was rude in responce to them bashing your headcanon using very vile manipulations as their bullets. They won't think less of you over a mental breakdown. They won't send you anon hates. They won't call you "weirdo" and vagueblog about you for the "wrong" take on their blorbo while having a worse take on YOUR blorbo in literally the next post. And above all, they are willing to put away dumb lore debate away to make sure you are doing alright. For them genuine pricks is exception, here it is a rule, and their pricks are arrogant, not ableist.

Honestly, shame on the "community" that claims to be sooooo feminist and queer and supportive, unlike them dreaded cishets, whereas they constantly shun or eat their own over the dumbest fucking reasons. You are not building community, you are building a CULT and purging impure members without even a dignity to do so through FAIR battle!

Mental health topic below, scroll past if you need to.

Now that I've been active on tumblr for 15 years (why do I hear clown music), and on reddit for over a year, there is one painfully big difference in how the crowd behaves towards certain topics. I see a lot of people making fun of reddit and "gamer bros" here all the time, but let me talk about something positive.

Very interesting (and to me, surprising) to see that on tumblr, if you talk about or reblog something about heavy mental health issues, such as suicide or self-harm, the girlies on here will either:

report you to tumblr, they used to terminate blogs back then if you even just reblogged a manga panel with suicide / cuts on skin in it, regardless if you used it as coping or not. Not sure if they still terminate blogs for it today, would be stupid for sure. All that does is enhances the stigma around it.

mass-unfollow you

use it against you

use it against you with your favourite character as a tool, happened earlier this week actually.

And of course, it's on multiple blogs, because during the 15 years, I've had (still have) many.

Most of the things above happened to me, though I never was terminated.

Meanwhile, on reddit, in the "gamer bro" crowd no less, since I exclusively post on gaming subreddits, if they come to visit your page looking for shitposts, and stumble upon personal posts regarding both suicide and self-harm, they will shoot you the most genuine, helpful sweet message you have seen. Complete stranges, mind you, whereas on here, even people who follow your blogs will do quite the opposite (so not entirely strangers). In over a year on reddit, I received a lot of sweet private messages and just plain comments on posts, and that has me absolutely flabbergasted and it is frankly, very moving. I did NOT expect gamer redditors of all people to be awesome like that.

Very positive experience.

[otomeorangejuice]

The last post I reblogged sent me on a spiral so here's how all the LADS LIs are nerds.

Zayne: He's a surgeon, that went through med school. Next.

Jk. Definitely the kinda guy to tell you random facts about the body, forgetting how gross some of them are and getting really embarrassed when his medical nerd talk puts you off your dinner. Loves explaining things whether it's his job or weird things about the human body. Tbh if he wasn't a doctor he'd probs be a teacher. Also ik it's his job but the lab coat SCREAMS nerd.

Caleb: military pilot with gravity powers, NERD. His fave subjects in school were probably physics and maths. Can name pretty much any aircraft at a glance and will yap to you about physics theories and the inner working of his favourite planes if you let him.

Everybody except those closest to him thinks he's just smart and cool but MC, Zayne and Gideon know that he's a chronic nerd that shows his affection by yapping at you about how cool planes are.

Rafayel: Art nerd. Now I don't think he'd care much about human art history overall, although I do feel he'd have a soft spot for the likes of Impressionism. But he's a nerd about the craft, the materials. He canonically creates his own pigments from seashells and such (which as a fellow art nerd I find so cool) but I personally believe he's probably experimented with trying to get natural pigments from all sorts of things.

This man is a colour theory girlie and he will ramble on to anyone about specific pigments and how he's aiming to achieve them. Thomas can pretty much rattle off the way he works by memory and sometimes finds himself looking at different things and wondering if that will give Rafayel the shade he's looking for. He low-key hates it but he tells himself it's for the good of the exhibitions and the art scene at the end of the day.

Sylus: Now I know we all joke that he's an old man but personally I think he's both a music and tech nerd. Like every person who knows about technology only trusts it so much (Catch him hating how much AI junk is infecting our lives ATM) plus Mephisto exists, like I think his tech parts are Sylus' doing. He's also a nerd about weapons and mostly collects them for fun only having a few that he actually uses for combat while overall preferring to use his fists and his evol.

Now he can't play music to save his life but he has the best audio systems money can buy, he has several record players, some vintage, some modern and he collects all sorts of vintage music paraphernalia. (Catch him having one of Eddie Van Halen's guitars on display). He canonically likes the Beatles (there's a pile of records as a decoration for his room on one of them is labeled Beatles) so I think he'd be a classic rock fan (Fits his vibe) but he still enjoys classical and opera

Xavier: Now Xavier is the only one who I don't think is a nerd. He's worse. This man is a gamer. From old school Nintendo to the newest VR releases he's played a good mix of everything. Personally I feel like he leans towards cozy games, has the cutest animal crossing island and the most impressive farm on stardew valley. Has definitely made himself and MC in the Sims (and then made Charlie and removed the ladder while he was in the pool). But he's also a god at the likes of the Bloodborne series. If he's feeling particularly jealous or pent up a few rounds of bashing bosses on Elden Ring will make him feel better. Also don't try playing a fighting game with him, he'll wreck you at Street Fighter.

And there we are the nerd (and gamer) squad.

[demilypyro]

Your streams and posts have inspired me to play through dark souls 3 again! Anyway whats your ranking of all the level up maidens in the souls games. Counting melina too of course

The Unnamed Firekeeper (Dark Souls 3)

Melina (Elden Ring)

The Emerald Herald/Shanalotte (Dark Souls 2)

The Firekeeper/Anastacia of Astora (Dark Souls 1)

Irina of Carim (Dark Souls 3)

The Doll (Bloodborne)

The Maiden in Black (Demon's Souls)

The DS3 Firekeeper wins mostly because she's very charming and she has a small amount of agency in the plot. If you give her the Firekeeper's Eyes from the hidden Untended Graves area, she becomes open to the idea of betraying her religion (epic) and snuffing out the fire entirely, and I'm always down to blaspheme with my wife. Having a firekeeper be materially relevant to one of the endings is a lot of fun, and I'm always happy to go back Firelink and see her again. I love emoting near her.

I quite like Melina. I'm pretty sure she has some of the most dialogue of any level-up girl in the series, and she has some actual agency in the plot. Unfortunately, most of that dialogue is just lore dumping, and you never really get a sense of what her deal is. She's one of few characters in Elden Ring I never fully figured out the lore of? She's Marika's daughter, I think? And she wants to do... stuff? For reasons? And unlike best girl Ranni, she never really has a cute, disarming moment where the mask slips and she's really straight with you. I dunno she's good but she could've been better.

Shanalotte from DS2 is somewhat similar to Melina, in that she has a goal of her own that she manipulates the player into completing. However this twist is pretty out of nowhere and is ultimately pretty inconsequential, because what she wants you to do is... kill bosses? And killing bosses was always the goal anyway so it's not like we weren't gonna do that without her tricking us into it. I dunno, she cute.

Whether the Firekeeper from DS1 even counts for this list is debatable, since you can level up at any bonfire, and there's even multiple firekeepers. But when she dies you can't level up at Firelink Shrine anymore, so I guess that sort of counts? Idk. She's alright. I always let her die but then go kill Lautrec and give her soul back so she can speak. She's very adorable.

Irina really is just here on a technicality. Her ability to level you up is more like an easter egg reward for getting the good ending to her questline. She's mostly just a miracle trainer. I like her though so she goes on the list. It's my house.

The Doll from Bloodborne is decently charming but there's really nothing going on behind the eyes with her. While she questions if her feelings for you are genuine or artificial, nothing ever really comes of this one way or the other, so she falls kind of flat for me. She does win some points for responding to emotes though. Idk Maria better.

Finally you can tell the Maiden in Black is sort of the prototype for all the level-up ladies to follow. A lady, chained to the hub area by duty, who can't see and has bare feet? Miyazaki really showed his whole ass right from the get-go. There's really not that much to her beyond that though. She alright.

[drenched-in-sunlight]

"Marika becomes the sum of all the Fromsoft girlies" is nice but you forgot Nashandra who actually has parallels with Marika! Recommending to check it out, she's cool!

let’s get this out of the way now… I love DS2, I think the vibe and gameplay is immaculate and I’ll defend it as a whimsical and enjoyable videogame experience till the end of time.

But my god, I hate how they handle female characters in that one 💀

In fact, I don’t like how they handle female characters in DS franchise in general. It got a bit better in Bloodborne and Sekiro and especially AC6, but overall ever since I started playing Fromsoft game in 2020, my main gripe with them is they only have 2 tropes to shoehorn their female character into: helpless victim of a system that would mangle and exploit them OR serious sword lady. And if I’m being real, it’s the main gripe I have with Elden Ring base game too?

I didn’t discuss it on tumblr because back then I were still trying to keep this blog art-focused, but when the game came out in 2022, I did express my concern on twitter that I found the female characters cast… strangely lacking. Because I went into the game expecting Ema-level of writing (literally Sekiro’s Ema is one of the best female characters Fromsoft has ever written to this day I could and have talked ppl’s ears off about her. And I’m glad she on her own is very different from Marika. That means they could at least write 2 more types of female characters now the bar is on the floor but I’ll take it and cherish what I have), but it felt like they got reset back to DS franchise with ER base game.

(This has an added layer of me being a girl born, raised and lived in a Sinosphere country that is entrenched in Confucius values just like Japan, so yes I do understand and experience firsthand the underlying culture values that shapes their writing. Hell, I live and study postgraduate in Japan for 2 years too).

But we are going off track, this is about DS2. Now, my problem with DS2 is, see, with 1 or 3, the female characters either have very little agency or no agency at all. And it just…. be like that. The male characters are somewhat the same, so it really doesn’t bother me that much. The cool, unique, not sexualized design is enough. But 2?

2 has a lot of female characters…. who either play no role in the world setting or sinister figures that charm men and bring ruins to kingdoms? What?

(Before anyone says “but Lucatiel—” Lucatiel is the beacon of light in that game, yes, but at the same time her purpose centering around her brother is… also a problem I have with the way they handle Malenia’s story. My Fromsoft experience has lore to it as well jfc)

Like, it’s just ??? to me half of those women have no agency or backstory whatsoever apart from being the Dark’s daughters that would bring doom everywhere they go??? You can say everything wrong in DS2 world is their fault and I actually wouldn’t have much to argue. Actually, it’s interesting you bring up Nashandra because I do think Nashandra has parallel in Elden Ring. But not to Marika.

Nanaya.

That’s who reminds me of Nashandra in Elden Ring. Literally the mysterious, lowkey nefarious lady and her old man husband with questionable dynamic DS2 trope 🧍‍♀️ you can actually see that in their name too.

If I have to pick a character in DS franchise specifically to make parallel to Marika, it’ll always be Gwynevere. Because I honestly think it’s amazing they took a character that has the least amount of agency they’ve ever created, and turned the core concept of her (warmth, healing spells, sunlight, mother, daughter, queen, faith) into another character with actual good writing.

That’s why I didn’t include Nashandra in my previous post. Not because I don’t know about her. It’s because I know.

[justmaghookit]

I've seen a lot of reviews and even casual saying that dav is "a bad dragon age game but a good action rpg" but i gotta say i...

I don't think it's a good action rpg? I think it's kinda mid?

I'm not gonna go on about the story and characters because you all already know how i feel about that. But the gameplay???

The gameplay doesn't innovate in anyway that hasn't been done before and done better by other games.

As I was playing I often turned to my partner and says "It feels like I'm playing God of War, but less fun." I remarked that Atreus was a far better combat companion than you companions in this game. That a character that was literally a CHILD was capable of taking down enemies on his own where the supposed Heros of the Veilguard cannot.

I felt like I was doing all this combat alone and the only thing my companions where good for was combos and occasional heals. I saw my partner desperately struggling to play as a ranged mage because there really are no dedicated tank options to pull enemy agro and the ones you DO get are inefficient. If you want to feel like a powerful ranged character you literally have to go into the combat settings and turn enemy agro DOWN.

The gameplay is also hurt by trimming the party down to a total of three instead of four.

Maybe I'm just a tactical games pilled bitch but i think to do away with those parts of DA entirely have hurt it. I think letting Rook use the dagger to access all your companions abilities was a mistake.

You SHOULD have to go back and switch your companions out to access hidden areas! And the maps should be flavoured in such a way that the companion who calls them home should be able to flex more when on their home turf!

"ooooh but its tedious" i hear you cry

and i cry back "i don't think you actually enjoy rpg's!!"

Personally I find a game holding my hand and going "its ok sweetie we did away with all those hard gameplay decisions for you" beyond insulting!

the repetitive enemy hordes, the copy and paste mage boss fights, the environmental puzzles that aren't really puzzles because you have the master key in your back pocket! You don't have to think about your party composition because everyone can heal and they're only useful for combos really because their damage output fucking sucks.

Honestly it just adds to the feeling that Rook is shouldering everything on their own, even though the game repeatedly tells you you aren't!! Look at all your friends helping!! Aren't they cool and strong and powerful? Best in their fields!!

And i go "really? i don't see it"

Your gameplay isn't good when every time I'm fighting a new repetitive horde of enemies all I could find myself thinking was

"Damn I should play BG3 again." Or "Man I should play God of War again."

And of course the always in the back of my mind "I wish i was playing Bloodborne"