#shikhondo

[boredtechnologist]

"Shikhondo: Soul Eater" for the PlayStation 4 is a bullet hell shooter game rooted in East Asian folklore, particularly focusing on themes of demons and spirits that have escaped from hell to wreak havoc on Earth. The game's aesthetic and narrative context provides a unique stage for exploring profound philosophical themes concerning dualism, morality, the cycle of sin and redemption, and existential battles. This analysis will draw from the philosophies of Zhuangzi, Friedrich Nietzsche, Carl Jung, and Arthur Schopenhauer to delve into the game’s underlying philosophical and spiritual dimensions.

1. Zhuangzi and the Fluidity of Moral Boundaries: Zhuangzi, a foundational figure in Daoism, emphasized the relativity and transformation of all things, advocating for a perspective that transcends rigid moral and ontological dualities. "Shikhondo: Soul Eater," with its blurring of the lines between demons and the divine, humans and spirits, embodies this philosophical fluidity. The characters, whether they are soul collectors or demonic entities, challenge conventional moral categorizations, suggesting that good and evil are not absolute but interdependent and transformable states. Zhuangzi’s idea that “true men” transcend life and death, viewing existence from the perspective of the infinite, can be applied to understand the game's narrative of constant battle between realms.

2. Nietzsche and the Will to Power: Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of the "will to power" provides a lens to explore the characters' motivations and actions in "Shikhondo." Nietzsche proposed that the fundamental driving force in humans is not survival or reproduction, but a fundamental will to manifest power. The intense, endless battles against waves of enemies can be seen as an expression of this will, where each character strives to assert their dominance and achieve mastery over chaos. This philosophical perspective highlights the existential dimension of their struggle, emphasizing the game’s portrayal of life as a perpetual conflict and quest for self-overcoming.

3. Carl Jung and the Shadow Self: Carl Jung’s theory of the Shadow, the unconscious aspect of the personality which the conscious ego does not identify in itself, is vividly relevant in "Shikhondo." The game’s demons can be seen as manifestations of the Shadow self, representing the repressed, darker aspects of human psyche that must be confronted and integrated. Jungian analysis would suggest that the battle against these demons is symbolic of the psychic battle to acknowledge and reconcile with one’s own darker sides, a necessary step towards psychological wholeness and individuation.

4. Schopenhauer and the Metaphysics of Will: Arthur Schopenhauer’s pessimistic philosophy, which posits that the world is driven by a blind, irrational "Will" that manifests in visible phenomena, can be applied to the chaotic and violent world of "Shikhondo." Schopenhauer viewed human actions as influenced by an underlying Will that leads to suffering and strife; similarly, the endless conflict in the game can be interpreted as the unfolding of this metaphysical Will. The cyclical nature of battles in the game, where peace is perpetually disrupted by new threats, mirrors Schopenhauer’s view of existence as a constant cycle of desire and suffering.

In conclusion, "Shikhondo: Soul Eater" serves not only as a visually engaging bullet hell shooter but also as a profound philosophical text that invites players to reflect on the nature of existence, the boundaries between good and evil, the psychological integration of the self, and the existential and metaphysical battles that define the human condition. Through the integration of Daoist relativity, Nietzschean power dynamics, Jungian psychology, and Schopenhauerian metaphysics, the game becomes a rich medium for exploring deep and often dark philosophical questions.

[thesplintering]

Fantasy Shoot ‘Em Up “Shikhondo: Youkai Rampage” Coming Soon to Switch, Steam PC

Fantasy Shoot ‘Em Up “Shikhondo: Youkai Rampage” Coming Soon to Nintendo Switch, Steam PC | #Gaming #Nintendo #Steam #PCgamimg #NintendoSwitch

[studiodaydream]

Hopefully its a quick stream today cuz i have to do something later and i wanna put something out so, please join me for 3 Short Games! Lol

YouTube:

Twitch:

[gameboyguru]

The mid-90's brought us an innovation in the shooting game genre with the advent of the danmaku, or "bullet hell" shooter. Developer Cave set the standard, and many studios and doujin developers have tried to replicate and innovate upon that over the years, with varying success. As the genre in general has seen a renaissance over the past few years, new developers have added their ideas, and tried to iterate on the formula. Some recent devs have garnered acclaim for bringing interesting new elements to the table with their entries into the shmup landscape. South Korean indie outfit Deerfarm has thrown their hat into the ring, and tried their hand at replicating that style, with Shikhondo Soul Eater.Shikhondo Soul Eater is a Korean bullet-hell shoot ‘em up set within a beautiful and bizarre world of Asian mythology.

Armies of demons known as yokai have escaped from Limbo. They are spreading like a plague across the land, sowing fear and stealing souls. You must destroy the pestilent invaders and free the captured souls from eternal torment. The game is available digitally on all modern console platforms (Switch, Xbox One/Series, PS4/5), as well as on PC via Steam, and also on iOS and Android. Physical versions for Switch and PS4 were published by Eastasiasoft, and released Exclusively through Play Asia. Join the RF Generation Shmup Club as we explore spooky yokai mythological nightmares in Shikhondo in October 2021!

Join the play-through here on RF Generation: http://www.rfgeneration.com/forum/index.php?topic=19595.0

Join the RF Generation Discord to discuss the game there, or share your high score! https://discord.gg/Ndx9jPY

Or tweet at the podcast account on Twitter, to signal your participation: https://twitter.com/shootcorecast

Thanks, and we hope to see you join us!

[rnokou]

any touhou fans who’ve played shikhondo? what’s your opinion? it looks kinda nice in the switch eshop

[retrogamedaddy]

Here are my pick ups from last week! This marks the first time that I have a recieved a game directly from @limitedrungames and let me say that it is awesome! Im really suprised by the high quality of the trading card and will be trying to collect them more in the future! I also recieved Shikhondo: Soul Eater from @playasia which is an @eastasiasoft exclusive! These are both great games although short and ive already beaten the pair!⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ What game should I grab next?!?⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ #bloodstained #bloodstainedcurseofthemoon #limitedrun #limitedrungames #shikhondo #shikhondosouleater #playasia #eastasiasoft #friezenewyork #switch #nintendoswitch #nintendo #switchcollection #switchcorps #switchgames #nes #snes #videogames #gamer #gaming #videogameaddict #instagaming #gamerdad #retrogamer #retrogaming #retrocollective #retrocommunity #nintendolife #igersnintendo #gamecollection #videogamecollection (at Frieze Art Fair) https://www.instagram.com/p/BxK0IH8lRt4/?igshid=f98k262l1nkc

[rohisato]

シクホンドをプレイしてみた。(Shikhondo Soul Eater Walkthrough Gameplay)

[yannosh51-blog-blog]

[Avis à Vif #62] - Shikhondo (Playstation 4)

[Avis à Vif #62] – Shikhondo (Playstation 4)

Voici mon avis à vif sur Shikhondo que je viens de terminer!

Retrouvez-moi sur Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/colikfantastik/

[thedroprate]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0W7lJXryZU)

[outdatedreferences]

I felt strongly compelled to buy #shikhondo because it was made by a indie Korean developer. Also, lately, I’ve been leaning hard towards #switch ports over #PS4 ports. #gaming https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq-nLZJFUBf/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1uprll9k9phxf

[clickbliss]

Shikhondo is a beautiful hand drawn shooter-em-up that lives for aesthetics

by Amr (@siegarettes)

Shikhondo: Soul Eater

Developer- Deer Farm

Publisher- Deer Farm

Switch, PC

Shooters live on spectacle. A good shooter can get by on satisfying gunplay, but an exceptional one often enhances it with strong aesthetics and world design. Aesthetically, Shikhondo has it nailed. Its detailed, illustrated style evokes both modern anime and traditional Japanese ink paintings, with subtle animated touches. The animation itself uses popular paper doll style techniques, with small distortions to the illustrations to give them a bit more life. It’s an impressive look, and even the UI feels stylish. But even with this close attention to the art direction, Shikhondo has some major inconsistencies, which damage both the art and its readability as a game.

Shikhondo uses a familiar shooter set up. There’s a weaker, wider attack that allows you to move fast, a more concentrated weapon that slows you down and allows more precise movement, a special attack that’s powered by flying close to enemy bullets, and a limited stock of bombs used for clearing the screen. Anyone with experience with shoot-em-ups will immediately understand their function and the back and forth between slow, fast and special attacks serves Shikhondo well. But even here, at basic character control, there are small annoyances. For one, the shot types aren’t separated into different buttons. Instead, one button alters the properties of the main shot button, and the bomb and special attacks share the same button, which changes functions depending on the state, which feels more complicated than it needs to be.

Then there’s basic problems with the UI, which make it difficult to read. When moving slowly there’s a circular meter surrounding your character that fills as your special attack is powered up. It’s a good solution for keeping you focused on the action instead of looking away and getting shot. There’s also another elaborately detailed bar on the right hand side, which only after experimenting did I find out was the same meter that appears around your character. What threw me off was the glowing soul shaped animated icons, which read like remaining bombs, but didn’t seem to deplete when I used any of my attacks. 

Turns out the icons were completely decorative, and what was important was the thin bar underneath the icons which showed how full your special attack meter is. The soul icons only acted as markers toward that progress, which isn’t particularly useful since special attacks are only available when the bar is full. As it turns out, there’s also another set of soul icons that I missed near the bottom of the screen, which are the remaining stock of bombs, not to be confused with the other soul icon with the number next to it, which shows how many souls have been collected from enemies.

These might seem like minor issues, but I bring them up because they illustrate the kind of basic visual design problems that mar Shikhondo. It affects not only the surrounding presentation and UI, but basic game elements as well. There are problems with the layering of bullets--enemy bullets aren’t canceled out when using your special attack, and they’ll sometimes sneak through the hail of massive gunfire you’re outputting to kill you. Bosses have elaborate full screen introductions, but they’re much less impressive if you happen to be firing, since your bullets will obscure their artwork by appearing on top of them, even while everything else is hidden under them. So you get this stream of bullets, coming from nowhere, plastered over the elaborate painted character portraits.

Boss fights turn out to be a good illustration of the problems with Shikhondo’s approach to visuals. Their artwork looks great in fullscreen introductions, and often endows them with an intimidating presence. Then they shrink down to the playfield, where they feel miniscule and the details of the character art become lost. Shikhondo’s use of scaling in general feels like a misstep. While scaling pixel art has its own challenges, the game’s scaling hand drawn art creates a very ugly effect and gives even the best illustrations an amateur look. The thickness and quality of lines distorts noticeably, which makes objects look out of place and destroys visual consistency. Not only is it distracting, but it makes the game harder to read at a glance, and hard to play well. This becomes a repeated problem in both boss fights and during the stage. It damages the basic flow of the game, and makes it difficult to get the feeling of a consistent space.

Shikhondo is undeniably a beautiful shooter. Its mix of subtle animations and lavishly painted artwork stands out among its peers. It’s easily got the spectacle aspect of the shoot-em-up covered. But its flaws highlight the other aspect that make a shooter truly great, and the small touches you don’t notice until they’re absent. As it turns out a good shooter can shine with great aesthetics, but great aesthetics can also hide a weak shooter.

[thezerolevel]

Slope's Game Room - Shikhondo: Soul Eater

Slope’s Game Room – Shikhondo: Soul Eater was originally published on Channel Zero

[gamerwebpl]

Shoot'em up Shikhondo: Soul Eater latem zadebiutuje na konsolach - Gamerweb.pl

Opublikowaliśmy nowy post https://gamerweb.pl/shootem-up-shikhondo-soul-eater-latem-zadebiutuje-na-konsolach/

Shoot'em up Shikhondo: Soul Eater latem zadebiutuje na konsolach

[thelordreylus]

Switch Collection: December 2018

Shikhondo - Soul Eater: Released November 11, 2018

The third game for Play Asia's Exclusives and the coolest in my opinion. The art style is beautiful and the gameplay is chaotic and fast paced. I have more Shoot-em-ups then ever before and this is at the top.

Resident Evil Revelations Collection: Released November 28, 2018

Purchased this for close to nothing after helping a friend get Switch Online Service. Love the series and I am happy to have not one, but two titles for my system now. I played through the first chapter and the mechanics of the new system are interesting, and I have a lot of replayability with all of the new modes.

Katamari Damacy Reroll: Released December 6, 2018

This is one of my girlfriend's favorite games and the first that she purchased for herself to add to our collection. I've played a handful of levels and love how much there is to collect and how everything interacts with the sphere due to size and movements.

Super Smash Brothers Ultimate: Released December 7, 2018

Great game, lots to do and collect. I finished the story and am trying to accomplish all challenges to complete the game. The graphics and controls are so wonderful, and well designed. I can see me playing this more and more each day.

Limited Run Games

I had two shipments of titles come in this month from LRG. While Oceanhorn is only distributed by them, the games are awesome additions to my collection. Furi is brutal, Night Trap is entertaining, Golf Story and Yooka-Laylee are classic style games, and Kingdoms has to be my favorite so far as the gameplay is straight forward and the pixel art is refreshing to me.

Christmas 2018

I grabbed a few games that I have had interest in with gift cards given to me for the holidays. Penny Punching Princess is a cute and funny game with lots of upgrades and collectables in the form of bribed monsters and items. Where as on the other hand, SNK Heroines is a fighter with a huge photo system. Both are unique to my collection, and ones I want to play more when the time comes.

Party Arcade: Released November 9, 2018

My last game of the year and #110 to the collection. This game came to me for nothing online with another Switch title for $11. I had heard the game was not good at all, but once I tried it, I found it to be enjoyable. My favorite game inside is the Pool Tables as they function the best with the motion controls.

[endworldgaming]

Shikhondo: Soul Eater by DeerFarm - Releasing on PS4, XBO, and NS starting August 28, 2018

[xboxhubs]

!!SALE!! Shikhondo - Soul Eater buy it now for ONLY 5,25$ and SAVE 62%. www.XBOXHUBS.COM - Discounts 50-80% #shikhondosouleater #xboxseriess #xboxonex #xbox #insidexbox #seriesx #dealswithgold #xboxlivegold #videogames #gamers #xboxone #xboxgamepass #xboxcommunity #gamepassultimate #gamerlife #gamepass #xboxones #gaming #seriess #xboxseries #gamer #xboxgaming #xboxgames #XboxGamePassUltimate #xboxgamer