#oh hi sekiro

[elykodi-k]

I love it when my controller makes my Tarnished do a gesture in a battle, really fun when she gets decimated into smithereens

[verflares]

new guy just dropped

[fluffypichu876]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

not my sunbro...

damn you miyazaki...

[rex101111]

I think the reason why switching parts around every time you fail a boss in AC6 is fun for me instead of disheartening or tedious as it could have potentially been is that there’s just enough variety in the parts you can have that you can honestly tweak yourself to such a degree that you can pin point any given deficiency in your previous attempt and directly address it, instead of just going “uh, maybe this weapon will do more damage?” that I sometimes found myself doing in older Fromsoft games.

Instead its more like “oh damn it, fine let’s see...alright so his stray shots kept hitting me so i need to be faster so let’s bump up boost speed...energy weapons aren’t doing dick so lets focus on good ol’ bullets for a bit...most of the attacks go low so maybe go Tetrapod so fly over? eh, worth a shot...” And so on.

It really does feel like you’re sticking your head into your AC and tinkering with the insides, everything about this game just feels so right and connected and I can’t stop playing this damn game. Last time Fromsoft hooked me like this was with Sekiro.

Also I spent like 10 minutes painting my mech to look like a dragon with red accents on the weapons to make it look like fire/wings and I just don’t ever spend this much time on customization in games I usually don’t give enough of a damn to get that invested but this this stupid wonderful robot game got me painting my fucking miniuture

anyway try AC6, its great

[dragon-communion]

AU where instead of the Knight of Saint Trina, we get to the bottom of the crevasse and there's a sleeping dragon. Not only is it asleep, but it's overgrown, dripping with moss and lichen, half-sunk in the purple mire.

It's impossible to say what happened, why it's here. If it's guarding something. It's just... asleep. And surrounded by the bodies of other sleeping creatures.

You have three options.

One: sit down next to the dragon and pass out too. You get brief, confusing visions- someplace a little like the Haligtree, but off, saturated in lilac, and full of memories. Think the Sekiro memories where you go back and fight through/relive some things, except this is disjointed fragments of Miquella's memories that answer as much as they don't. And eventually they stop coming.

Two: Attack it or the surrounding mobs. Dragon doesn't wake up and seems to be constantly healing. The mobs wake up and die though.

Three: Attack it with holy damage/one of Miquella's spells, or maybe use his rune gesture. Dragon wakes up, the mobs wake up in waves, and oh dear god the dragon isn't just overgrown, it's potentially being piloted by flower vines like a horrifying flesh mech puppet.

Saint Trina cannot truly live alone. She doesn't just need to be protected- she needs to heal, be fed, hosted. She's still gentle. She cares, truly and deeply. But for lack of options, for lack of her partner, she will make do.

She's growing out of the hollow place where the dragon's heart should be.

[medi-melancholy]

i only know very vague things about the ER dlc from skimming tvtropes and glancing at twitter and looking up some music and cutscenes, but here's my takeaways so far, mostly about Best Worst Boy

miquella in the running for one of the best soulsborne characters ever oh my GOD i love his whole everything. what a fun fascinating fucked up lil guy. what a good year for beautiful awful well-intentioned extremists and their plans for utopia. it's impossible to say whether he's a Good person or Bad person but you can't deny he does both good and bad. at the very least his intentions and goals come from a good place but his methods and values are uhhhhhhhhh something else. i love it!

i'm seeing people very upset that the version of miq they had in their heads is ruined forever so they're gonna ignore canon and like. sorry i guess! but the foundations for what he's really like were always there, and the new revelations about his actions are interesting and also in line

miq and malenia's relationship isn't any less valuable and malenia isn't any less badass ok? ok. calm down lol

enjoyers of pure and helpless miq who makes for a pretty victim or damsel in distress can still keep that image, because, hey, playing that role was also within his plans, it seems! He Has The Range!

also it's not a bad thing that we see a physically older/more mature version of miq! that's a win-win tbfh! and has some fascinating implications to me, from an outside perspective without all the info--did he find a way to break his curse, even if only temporarily?? is it tied to him nearly entirely reaching godhood?? i think it's neat and he looks gorgeous! it's not like everybody's gotta throw all their fanart away now, again, calm down

mohg isn't instantly some innocent victim in all this nowwwwww aaaaaaaaaaa he was still a really fucked up dude, and idk if we even know exactly how deep miq's charms over him went, maybe miq took advantage of some feelings or urges that were already there, maybe mohg's preexisting traits and personality made him do even more things than what miq himself was expecting, idk! there's room for interpretation and regardless he's still a fascinating monster of a guy, and i love having ansbach for perspective

this fucking family tree keeps getting BIGGER because so many fuckers got wiped from history because no one fucking gets along. it's so funny to me

i sure as shit wasn't expecting radahn to come back or be relevant in any way but yknow i do kinda dig it! he's a great and iconic character. yet i am seeing lots of complaints about that too lmao,, ER at its core was always based around and focused on That Big Goddamn Family so having things circle back around to figures already involved in things makes sense imo

but also GODWYN IS DEAD GODWYN IS VERY VERY DEAD GODWYN IS BEYOND DEAD i was hoping for some more info about him at the very least and maybe there's some i haven't heard about myself yet but holy shit ok he wasn't gonna have a physical appearance or be a boss or anything, but i'm seeing a ton of people disappointed that isn't exactly what happened

so what if things are messy and complicated and fucked up and squicky all over, welcome to soulsborne, like, idk what to tell you, i'm still so baffled by people who are shocked and appalled by dark or unusual content in elden ring and don't wanna talk about it or acknowledge it. where did yall come from???? did you play des or ds or bloodborne or even sekiro?? ? ?? ?????

i also saw some people complaining about the tragic/hopeless/depressing/upsetting quest or story parts and i'm so ???????????? seriously does no one realize what they're playing, why does this feel like an ER exclusive problem for from games?

music is great as ever i don't care what anyone says

messmer is cool as hell and super interesting and i can't wait to read up on him even more. i loooove his voice and just, how he looks and moves. he has a ton of personality and presence about him

leda what is wrong with you. i love you so much girl

happy pride month! 🥳

also i saw this phrase uttered along the way and i'm kind of obsessed with it lmao

[wafflebloggies]

I have never played a fromsoft game but as someone who is always very into lore and story I don't know how ds/bb/sekiro/er fans aren't just endlessly frustrated with their shtick, like I'll see a cool-looking character with an interesting quote attached and I'll be like 'oh I wonder what their story/deal is?'

and invariably I look it up and it's like 'Braun the Last Razor, he has a cursed(?) hat and many suspect he is the son of Rolodex, Castigator of Schedules, as the embroidery on his hat is similar' and then twenty people arguing this point in the comments

which is clearly not a case of 'oh you really have to look for the answers and the lore but it's there' - people solved PT in hours, souls fans are rabid, if the answers were there they'd be available on twenty wiki pages by now, period.

like I'm sorry but anyone can design a character to look cool and then instead of a backstory be like 'tee hee hee you lot figure it out'. that isnt master storytelling, that's just being annoying.

[walkingpipebomb]

BEHOLD: an accurate retelling of Elden Ring

Ok so you wake up and fight

1. Old man with stick (only an apparition

2. An arm and a leg... And another arm and leg... Exponentially oh god and a dragon

3. Wrath of the stars (sleeby lady)

4. Large man who loves his horse (he's also a cannibal)

5. OH GOD SNEK AHHHHH

6. the actual blood god

7. Old man with stick returns (the stick is sharp and he is real)

8. Sir Rolls A lot

9. Sekiro boss that got lost

10. Tag team but you kill one and they come back and I hate both of you go to sleeeeep (attempted orenstien and smough)

11. DOG IN ARMOR

12. God of time has scales

13. "Well actually" the person

14. GIMME A HUG

15. This is why we say gingers don't have souls

16. Slug God.

This is an arbitrary list made from my own brain... 🙂

On this walk through hell you do things like burn this world's equivalent of the cross, marry a blue puppet, and kill god. You may also befriend a furry, Santa/Target/Kale, lady snake, and the prawn man. You get called bitchless by a surgeon that had their license revoked and then they show you god (of the bloody variety). Alternatively you can incinerate everything to save your friend but she hates you and wants you dead but WORTH! And through it all you got your horsy and Gatorade of the blue and red variety.

This is my favorite game.

[cerastes]

So finally got around to watching the Ultrakill VOD, and I have to say, I was not expecting it to end with you fucking W+M1ing V2. I don't think I've ever been this simultaneously impressed and angry. Well done.

For what it's worth, and I don't know if this is something you've already had conversations about or thought about, but, I suspect part of the problem you were having was how consistently you were staying away from V2, and thus not being in range to heal. Between you moving around trying to avoid damage and V2 doing... well, the exact same thing, it's definitely pretty easy to wind up having that happen.

Right up until you went "fuck it" and ran in to start beating the shit out of that red fucker, anyway.

EHEHE NO ONE LIKED THAT ❤️ I hope the VOD was fun.

I think you’re right! Let me explain my logic for going in like that on V2: He was majorly chipping me out with shotgun pellets most of the time, and I was too far to heal. V2 also has that distance based enrage, so my first thought was “oh it enrages him because it puts him at a disadvantage for too long”, but when that clearly wasn’t working, the follow up thought was “Oh, I’m going about it wrong, the game is trying to tell me that staying far away is bad, and is punishing me for it, because I’ll get no healing, I have to go IN so I can damage and heal, I’ll look for the sound cues in order to know when to dash, and if I get hit, it’ll never be a OHKO so I can heal it out.”

So I started moving directly at V2 dashing whenever I heard a cue for an attack, and initially, I did plan to use the shotty and the nail gun, but… The revolver was just working out so well that I thought “man it’ll be probably be hilarious if I just only use the revolver” so I committed to the bit. I played it like a Dark Souls boss, basically.

In hindsight, it makes a lot of sense and I think V2 is well designed: NONE of my losses against V2 felt unfair or like I was cheated, and his enrage only really kicks in if you stay FAR away for a while, meaning you are only dealing damage with revolver potshots, MEANING you are laming it out and going against the game philosophy of being hyper aggressive and up close with enemies. Kinda like how Sekiro will punish you for, funnily enough for this context, playing it like Dark Souls.

[demilypyro]

Oh demily great demon lord of tits, burgers, gaming, gundam and drumming

Hi! How do you rank the soulsborne games + sekiro

Bloodborne > DS3 > Elden Ring> DS2 > DS1 > Demon's Souls

Haven't properly played Sekiro yet

[teecupangel]

Are you familiar with demon slayer and the AC JPN dubbing , if you do. Then be prepared for this. The demon slayer voice casting has 6 VAs who does the voices of the AC protagonists

Altair & Uzui

Ezio & Sanemi

Connor & haganezuka

Arno & tanjiro’s dad

Jacob & enmu

Bayek & yahaba “arrow demon”

Aya & Daki

Imagine them meeting the voice counter parts

Oh, yeah, I’m a bit familiar with the Japanese dub of Assassin’s Creed and I watch Demon Slayer when it’s airing in Japan then I rewatch it in the English dub because I enjoy watching English dubs in general XD.

Before anything…

Imma list the names of their JP voices and a few other characters they voice. (And I will be focusing on the ones listed by @ullyaboo because… well… this would get too long if I start listing everybody...)

Altaïr is voiced by Katsuyuki Konishi

(Sombron/Hubert/Xander/Randal from Fire Emblem, @princesslikesfanfics might recognize him as Tory Innis from Ancient Magus’ Bride, Diavolo from Jojo, Lloyd Irving from Tales series, America/Canada from Hetalia, and mecha fans might recognize him as our bestest aniki Kamina)

No, seriously.

Can we just take a moment to think about how Altaïr’s JP voice also voiced these characters as well:

Also, shoutout to him being the voice of the dead big brother of my Trails blorbo XD

Ezio is voiced by Tomokazu Seki

(HE VOICED MIGUEL O’HARA IN THE JP DUB OF ATSV, oh and Toad in the Mario movie, Jojo fans will probably find it funny that he voices Father Pucci and his stand, Panda from JJK, Gilgamesh from Fates, mecha fans would remember his “SHINING FISTS” as Domon Kasshu, he’s also Toya in Cardcaptor Sakura, and Van Fanel of Vision of Escaflowne (one of the earliest isekai anime))

Ratonhnhaké:ton is voiced by Daisuke Namikawa

(Lindel from Ancient Magus’ Bride, Anasui AND Giogio from Jojo, Yamato from Digimon, Persona 4’s MC, the jp voice of Sekiro from… well… Sekiro, Richard from Tales series, Italy from Hetalia, and Lupin the 3rd’s Goemon)

This deserves to be seen: Ratonhnhaké:ton’s JP Voice also voices Oikawa (Haikyuu) and Italy (Hetalia - also Romano) (this means that Ratonhnhaké:ton sang the Hetalia ending song)

And he’s the JP voice of Jake Muller, Wesker’s kid in RE6.

Arno is voiced by Shinichiro Miki

(ROY MUSTANG from FMA, Randy Orlando from Trails, Sir Nighteye from BNHA/MHA, James from Pokemon, Alucard from Castlevania, Lockon Stratos (*haro voice* Lockon, Lockon, Lockon, incoherent sobbing) from Gundam, Hijikata from Hakuoki)

(side note: Elise’s JP voice is Toyoguchi Megumi who voices Rengoku’s mother and I don’t want to mess up Tanjiro’s family but… half-brothers Tanjiro and Rengoku AU???)

Jacob is voiced by Daisuke Hirakawa

(Kakyoin from Jojo, Cao Lee and Rufus Albarea from Trails, Rei from Free, Makoto Ito from School Days (lollol, at least Jacob doesn't have the worst love life in this list), and Orlando Bloom in Kingdom Hearts games XD)

Bayek is voiced by Jun Fukuyama (JP voices of Origin (and Valhalla) weren't in Behind the Voice Actor so I had to doublecheck with JP wiki XD)

(Persona 5’s MC, Lelouch Vi Brittania/Zero from Code Geass, Yukio from Blue Exorcist, Korosensei from Assassination Classroom, Maximilian from Valkyria Chronicles, Watanuki from xxxHolic)

Aya is voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro

(female Robin from Fire Emblem, Milla Maxwell from Tales, Katalina from GBF, Elizabeth from Persona, Jolyn Cujoh from Jojo, Shinku in Rozen Maiden, Franziska von Karma in Ace Attorney, Celty from Durarara!!, Touko from Danganronpa)

Now…

For the actual ask portion:

Altaïr would probably be annoyed at Uzui at first because he’s so flashy. They’d probably spar and Altaïr would start to respect him after understanding that, underneath all that ‘flashiness’, Uzui is strong and has conviction (side note: Uzui’s three wives makes me think Makio - Maria, Hinatsuru - Adha and Suma - Kadar XD)

Ezio would think of Sanemi as having skills and potential but he won’t like his attitude. AC2!Ezio would definitely butt heads with Sanemi a lot, especially after he sees how Sanemi acts around his younger brother (since he doesn’t know the whole story) and he’d definitely try to act like a nice big brother to Genya, Brotherhood!Ezio and Revelations!Ezio would not be provoked by Sanemi and act more like an older brother/mentor role that Sanemi doesn’t want at all and thinks is super annoying.

Haganezuka would totally like Ratonhnhaké:ton because Ratonhnhaké:ton would take care of any weapon he receives from Haganezuka. Ratonhnhaké:ton will also be willing to listen to Haganezuka talk about swords for houurrrss. Achilles would have to be the one to smack Haganezuka to get out of the homestead after giving Ratonhnhaké:ton his sword. (Why is Achilles there? Idk, crossover???)

All I can think of is Arno getting adopted by the Kamado family. Tanjuro is quite frail and he’s been sick for a while now so their meeting would probably remind Arno of his late father. But, man, just imagine Arno dancing Hinokami Kagura…

Oh god. Enmu would totally fuck with Jacob using his dreams/nightmares. Like, every pain and weakness Jacob has, Enmu would take advantage of it. Worst of all? Jack the Ripper's actions would definitely haunt Jacob till the day he dies so Enmu using Jack in the attack would really hurt. Enmu wasn’t even a good person as a human but considering Jacob’s luck and bad judge of character? Absolutely won’t be surprised if he invites human!Enmu to the Rooks as a ‘doctor’.

I think Bayek has a good chance of taking out Yahaba. Dude got an actual flaming sword in the main story and I’m sure Reda would have a weapon made of Scarlet Crimson Iron Sand and Scarlet Ore for some reason and, as long as Bayek understood how Yahaba’s blood demon art works, he’d be fine. Bayek took out giant gods (in the Animus), he can take out this demon.

Oh, Aya would not like Daki at all. She might even be reminded of Cleopatra a bit because of her arrogant and dismissive personality which wouldn’t help the situation. They’d definitely fight and… Aya would probably need help on this one. I’m not sure if she ever got into any Isu BS that ended in a boss fight so I can’t be sure how she would handle fighting Daki and her obi attacks. Human!Daki though? Aya would definitely recruit her and her brother to the Hidden Ones if she found them as kids. But if she saw her as her usual cruel self? Yeah, Aya’s not going to like her.

If anyone wants an actual Demon Slayer x AC crossover idea, let me know?

[dykeishheart]

Dlc is cool, and I'm only very short into it, but my notes so far:

Bosses seem like a total miss. They're for somebody, but they're not for me. Like out of the five I've seen only the reused dragon was actually kinda fun.

They're doing more with death sorcery!! Yay!!

I actually think this dlc is gonna give us a lot of lore about Godwyn too. I think maybe the shadow lands are the place where Godwyn's soul is post night of black knives? But idk yet

Good god this color pallette is drab

Oh my god the recontextualization of the warrior jars is horrendous and I absolutely love it

Messmer soldiers use moves reminiscent of Godfrey, which makes me think of the line Melina tells you Marika said about how he and his warriors would be hounded from the lands between. Were they sent here? Maybe Messmer took control of Godfrey's old army?

I have found no new spells of any kind and only like two weapons so far, so I think this dlc is perhaps uhh. Huge?? Because I sunk three hours into this already and really haven't found much yet, which means I'm only scratching the surface

I kinda wish this was the dlc for Sekiro instead bc I *really* feel like some of these enemies need to be deflected and jump stomped. Swordmaster Onze especially made me think "oh this is like, an unused Sekiro boss. I need to mikiri this man" I died a LOT trying to fight this guy like a souls boss and then basically immediately won as soon as I started treating him like a Sekiro boss, using fast attack interrupts in lieu of deflection and jumping everywhere I had initially rolled.

[mohgreal]

Hii long anon, I went anonymous because I felt self conscious about writing a lot and I'm new to tumblr haha. I think I've been going kind of insane over the DLC, mostly because it's just so. disappointing? Elden Ring got me into Fromsoft, and I loved the world building, but with the DLC it feels so. broken? Just full on contrived and boring. Miquella feels secondary to the DLC. The twist feels like they chose it because people liked the one character. Even "Evil" Miq could've been cool

Elden Ring also got me into Fromsoftware. I tried dark souls 1 for a few hours but I couldn't get into it and the lore didn't seem interesting enough to me. I tried dark souls 2, and then 3, and then sekiro, and then armored core...

none of them clicked. then I played elden ring and I LOVED IT. it's still one of my fav games of all time no matter how bad SOTE may be. It is very disappointing in so many ways. It feels unpolished and empty at times in terms of gameplay, and the lore...oh the lore.

It feels like they went with this weird no hope grimdark path for the dlc which I really hate because if everything is so dark, why should I care in the first place? To add, its not even cool like frenzied flame or destined death. No, it's just this bland sandwich of storytelling that feels so...nothing? I can't remember the last time elden ring lore felt so boring.

I would've loved to see "evil" Miquella if they leaned into it, not this half baked attempt at making him morally grey with the bewitching stuff. The bewitchment stuff is very inconsistent imo.

If they were going with a "evil" Miquella they could've had a corrupted deathblight Miquella or something. It would include Godwyn and give us that corruption fight alot of the fanbase seems to want. Since the eclipse failed (which is then never mentioned again in SOTE), he could've been infected with the death curse, and then turn 100 percent evil and go crazy. That would've been much more fun and interesting then we got. Hell, we could've had a morally white good and nice boy Miquella and it would've been better. It would give that undertone of hope elden ring so desprately needed.

I just don't understand the whole "boring griffith" approach on Miquella. He feels like a backround character in his own DLC, mind you. They couldn't even show us his face or full body. He barely shows up and only gets mentioned through his followers. I will admit I like how saint trina is written for the most part, even if I would've prefered a "evil" saint trina and "good" Miquella.

and there I go ranting about sote lore again, well whatever

[kuiperblog]

How often do men think about Japan's warring states period?

Imagine a woman who is obsessed with Miyamoto Musashi, the 16th century Japanese swordsman and philosopher. Okay, she might deny that she's obsessed with Musashi, but here are the things that an objective observer might note:

When people ask her what her favorite book is, she says it's the The Book of Five Rings, the book which contains Musashi's teachings, or the Niten Ki, the earliest biography of Musashi.

At least once a week, she makes a post on her Instagram that is a quote from the The Book of Five Rings or Dokkodo, like "Do not let yourself be guided by the feeling of lust or love" or "Do not fear death"

She has a group of friends that she specifically met through her love of Musashi. Once a week, she grabs her copy of The Book of Five Rings, and goes to meet up with her friends to discuss a specific passage from the book and how to apply its message to their lives.

(She used to have a previous friend group that was really into Musashi in the city where she went to college; when she moved, one of the first things she did was find a new group of people who like Musashi as much as she does.)

If you asked her what she's looking for in a husband, one of her qualifying criteria would be, "He has to love Musashi and live in accordance with Musashi's teachings."

One day, she's scrolling through TikTok and sees a video from a woman saying, "Ladies, did you know that all men are obsessed with Sengoku-era Japan? If you don't believe me, go and ask your man how often he thinks about the Japanese warring states period."

Our Musashi-loving heroine laughs and says, "Oh, my boyfriend would never." But, amused by the idea, she asks him, "Hey babe, how often do you think about the Sengoku period?" He pauses and says, "Hmm, maybe once a day. Isn't it common for most men to think about serving under a daimyo who orders them to pick up a katana and march into battle?" She laughs and says, "You're doing this as a bit, aren't you?" He says, "No, I was obsessed with the Sengoku period as a kid, and I still am." He pulls up his Steam profile and shows her that he has spent 500 hours playing "Total War: Shogun 2," then shows her his PlayStation profile, where he's completed all of the achievements for Sengoku Basara 3, Sengoku Basara 4, Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. He then shows her his DVD collection, which contains movies like Seven Samurai and Heaven and Earth. He says, "when I was a kid, I had a LEGO set with samurai characters, and I would play with them and imagine what it would be like to live in Japan during the warring states period. I still think about that, from time to time. Sometimes, I'll see a knife with a particular shape that looks sort of like a katana, and it makes me think about the Sengoku period."

She laughs. "Okay, okay, you've convinced me. I didn't realize that men spent so much time thinking about the Sengoku period."

He then asks her how often she thinks about Sengoku-era Japan. "I don't know," she says. "Like...never? Not since high school history class."

During this conversation, it doesn't occur to either of them to comment on the fact that she is a huge fan of Musashi, one of the most famous historical figures who lived during the Sengoku period.

That would be weird, right?

Okay, now replace "Musashi" with "Jesus," and "Sengoku-era Japan" with "the Roman Empire."

[avatarofwar]

i saw you talk about wolf a few times from sekiro and was wondering if you'd want to share more of your thoughts on him or sekiro as a whole, the game really interests me compared to other dark souls games so i wanted to ask

sorry for the late reply but oh boy do I have thoughts abt wolf. trying not to spoil the game, so I'm gonna refrain from talking about the story. might go into just restating known things about the game, but I'd much rather play it safe and not spoil the story

before going to that. the game is very much different from dark souls (setting wise, while taking place in a fictional country it is in a historical setting. I cannot comment on the setting properly bc I don't know much about the time period, however), most notably in the combat (primarily shifting from a dodge-centric playstyle to a parry-centric playstyle (significantly easier than dark souls/elden ring parrying, however), with dodges having significantly shorter i-frames and being very unreliable for dodging attacks). it's very different but something I really enjoy, even if I'm not as good as I am at typical soulsborne combat. it's really fun when you get the hang of it, and while I might not be The Best at it (which is mostly bc of how different it is from soulsborne games, so ofc I'm not as good at is as I am at the other fromsoft games I've played), it's something I can still enjoy

a huge thing about sekiro is the difference in how the story is told. in soulsborne games the story is something you have to figure out; progressing through the main path doesn't give you enough to piece everything together if you don't read any lore. with sekiro, however, the story is significantly more obvious, on account of the playable character having unique ties to the world and its characters, rather than going the soulsborne route of being one of many people (wording hard, but the chosen undead for example is no one special, just one of many undead trying to link the flame). it's a very different method of storytelling, but is still something really good. for as much as I adore having to actively hunt down lore and story in soulsborne games, it's also great experiencing story through natural game progression

wolf is also canonically disabled (loses his left arm at the start of the game) and has a really fucking cool prosthetic that is a whole part of the combat system (even though I personally keep forgetting to use it). so good for him. he deserves a prosthetic that can have deadly weaponry attached to it. like a mini-flamethrower. he deserves a mini-flamethrower, as a treat.

putting the wolf thoughts beneath a read more because this is getting long and I might spoil some stuff (mostly relationship with another character, I'll try to refrain from story spoilers. also spoilers in general, but there might be some), and he has definitely become a blorbo (additionally, content warning for abuse)

first of all. wolf makes me want to throw myself off a cliff and I mean this in the most positive way ever. he is great and I love him but man he needs so much fucking therapy and he doesn't even realise it (therapy probably doesn't exist in that time period, but besides the point). he is very much traumatised and has been heavily shaped by it and doesn't even know it.

prior to the events of the game (I forgot how long ago it was) he was orphaned by war and got taken in by owl, a shinobi and also a piece of fucking garbage. owl raises wolf to be a shinobi under the iron code, with the number one rule being loyalty to his father (owl), with his master (kuro, the divine heir) a close second (and also to give his life for his master if necessary. which is also a whole other thing to get into).

owl is very explicitly abusive. he raises wolf as a tool rather than a person, and that upbringing severely affects wolf as a character - he is an incredibly capable shinobi, but lacks any skills other than that; he does not know how to be a proper person, he is a loyal wolf, but he does not know how to be anything other than that. hell, without spoiling too much about the context, there is a cutscene in which owl actively attempts to guilt trip wolf, going as far as using fake tears (saying anything specific is very spoilery. this isn't even the only horrid thing he's done, but I'm trying to refrain from too many spoilers).

wolf canonically does not value himself without anyone to serve (we see this at the beginning of the game, as events prior to the start of the game not yet known about leads him to believe he has no one to serve, and thus no purpose, so he isolates himself from the world in a well for 3 years). while he does have compassion for others (most notable example being concern over victims of dragonrot), he starts off the game driven primarily by duty. he is loyal to a fault, willing to do anything for kuro, but also valuing his service to kuro more than himself (cannot remember the exact wording, but when kuro expresses concern for how many times wolf has died for him, wolf states that it does not matter as it was in service to him).

there's also the fact that wolf canonically eats uncooked rice and genuinely doesn't know - as a fully grown adult - you are supposed to cook it, which is... genuinely something awful if you truly think about it and what more it implies about his upbringing especially considering it's one of the most basic things you could learn how to make (just... says a lot about owl if you seriously think about it).

he is a loyal wolf, but he doesn't know how to be more than that. he doesn't know how to just... exist for himself, to be his own person separate of his duty and he doesn't even recognise just how fucked up it is, because how could he, when he was shaped into this as a child, when his own father wanted him to be nothing more than a tool to use.

I could say a lot more about his relationships with other characters (that are actually good people) and how it just. makes me lose my mind, but this post is almost 1k words. so, simply put, kuro genuinely caring about him makes me so fucking emotional, especially bc of owl; his father might be horrible and an abuser, he might not know how to be more than he was raised, but at the very least he can serve someone who actively cares about him and his wellbeing.

[questionablepastries]

Wahoo I beat armored core (just now now!) thoughts below (and spoilers of course)

I can’t believe they made me fight an upgraded balteus lmao but what balteus wasn’t ready for was an upgraded ME 😈

Good game! Visually very very pretty to look at, mentally I’m clapping a lot at the credits rn lol

And the choices the game made me do lol aaaaaghhh. I almost considered putting the game down for the day when it asked me to betray carla. Same thing with eliminating G1 Michigan, only because I thought VIII Pater was my friend (turns out he’s sick in da head!! Scary guy. Really lives up to his AC name “dual nature” whew) less messed up arquebus members the better. In the end I went with ayre all the way but not because I like ayre but because of 2 things

1) carla she did try to kill me once (she made up for it by saving my ass out of prison tho)

2) (the more important reason why I sided with Ayres idea) — who knows what the ecosystem of the planet would be like with the complete removal of coral, not to mention coral is semi sentient so it’d be like super massacre if I went with Carla (and Walters) idea of destroying it all. ALSO, the destruction of the giant space ship crashing into that coral harvesting place, like what would life be like for the rubiconians? Even worse? Nobody has their interests in minds bc as far as they’re concerned they’re always caught in the middle of some corporation war, so if I sided with Carla it’d be adding fuel to that corporation war fire :(

Like ayre says at the end though, I’m sure we can avoid a fires of ibis situation 2.0 if we work really hard together. 621 is a human that didn’t lose their mind completely after contact with coral voices and maybe it has to do with the fact that they’re a fourth generation human (since the later generations worked out the kinks of not having to hear coral anymore)

Also. During the very sad heartbreaking (for me) killing carla mission, do u know how excited I was to beat the shit out of snail lmao

After reading that his augmentations were only perfected thanks to who knows how many innocent deaths, and his mind re-education shenanigans I’ve hated his ass since DAY ONE. Even IF he’s a sassy funny guy

Ok the ps just told me the trophy for this ending is called liberator of rubricon. Whatever ending that is lol idk what ppl are calling it

God I already miss Walter why’d they make me kill him too lol

ON THAT NOTE I MISS RUSTY I THINK WALTER MAY HAVE KILLED HIM. I’m gonna stick to anime rules for this one and that’s “no body seen no death” yup rusty is still out there (<- copium)

Oh wow ok I guess NG+ just starts like that huh, that’s ok w me I’ll do a NG+ run just to see the other endings, they better not make me actually kill rusty tho that’d break my heart more than it did to take out carla and chatty : (

Also pvp is fun but I’m ok at it lol I keep losing a ton but I’ve had a couple of close matches and won like 4 matches so far

Oh right about snail tho, back in the Carla mission? I was talking mad shit while fighting him like “I ALREADY BEAT YOUR DATA IN THE ARENA YOU THINK YOURE HOT SHIT??” that sorta thing. And u know how dissapointed I was that I didn’t kill him right then and there? His ass escaped that ass beating. Don’t matter tho I terminated his ass for good when he was riding that toddler ass upgraded baby chair balteus 2.0

Idk how from soft does it but they keep making these super super climatic boss fights and super fucking awesome attack patterns that are both visually appealing and difficult to evade/survive but when you do it’s like you’re really in the fight in that moment it’s awesome :) this happened with balteus, balteus 2 purple laser moment, and the fuckinnggggg icewormmmm, malenia elden ring comes to mind (alongside demon souls king of storm)

And I can’t believe they got me with the sekiro monkey “it’s not dead! It’s getting up again!” Moment too god damn that flying boss whew, sad the game wouldn’t let me use that boss’ sweet ass wings as a part to equip :(

Rusty really warmed up to me, initially I was a hater because his ass was always setting me up with these missions that always had an extra lil spice in them meant to kill me or set me up in some way (probably arquebus’ fault) but he…. Waghhhggg………”the first to join” ok cool….ty for being so eager to reunite with me rusty…I honestly thought he was dead after the ice worm mission….and the fucking line he says “there’s only one person who can keep up with me” with 621 in on the comm to listen in on….what are we…….(we’re buddies…)

Great game. And amazing cast of characters, like maybe it’s the voice acting that really nailed it but for me to care about a bunch of people (g1 Michigan…..) that you never actually see in game and only hear is wild lol

I do not care for ayre tho. I’m sorry I’m a hater, she always said some common sense stuff like “remember to dodge” baby we been on how many missions together now please. If she was a deep voiced lady I would’ve been on my hands and knees tho, and if she had a male voice I’d be even worse lol

Cortana ass!!!! Anyways cutest ayre moment was 621 and her watching these giant nuke missles hit a massive structure and she’s like (cutely) “they’re really like fireworks” & I had to laugh and be like we gotta get u some real fireworks ayre they don’t look like this gsvdvdvd

Right and do u know how much I was pogging when the fake raven or Rather the Real Raven showed up??? Damn what was that guys situation about and their handler too? Hmmmmm (dlc potential?)

Fun ass game! Slow start but momentum wise it keeps speeding up and then the end is like WHAM did ya like it and I gotta be like YEAH. I DID. Now I have the urge to play the other endings in ng+ since my AC is geared the fuck up to handle anything I feel like. Kinda wish the pacing at the start stayed the whole way as in slow pacing the entire game with the game letting me kill more shounen protagonist types lol (although that would mean killing ppl like Rusty hmmm my sadism for wanting more murder of naive protagonist types and love for rusty is like oil and water when it comes to that idea lol)

One complaint tho just one, the ost can be somewhat lacking. It has its moments tho!! There’s like 3 tracks that really kill it, and they’re at important moments too. Iceworm, balteus 2.0/snail showdown, and Carla fight are good. The rest went over my head tho sowwy

Now that I’ve achieved credits in this game im a certified armored core fan (even tho this is my first one) and I’m glad this game is getting attention! I really hope they release more AC games bc this kicked ass, maybe they can take a break before taking that on though, because every single mission is pretty breath taking visually, and MASSIVE in terms of sheer size sometimes like damn. Lots of love!