#why does the lore have to be so convoluted its unreal

[stars-and-branches]

How i look trying to explain comic book timelines in a way that's coherent

[alatismeni-theitsa]

anti LO anon opinions

I am sorry for the delay. There were too many asks and too little time. 16 messages below the cut. Enjoy!

1) I like to mention that metis isn’t the mother Hera Demeter or Hestia rather she created them

2) Why is Metis being made into a fertility goddess? She's associated with wisdom and good counsel, she has no relation to fertility or agriculture. If RS wanted to be consistent with the fertility goddess=victory thing, then Hera fits that role just fine because she is literally a goddess of childbirth and motherhood!

3) The fertility plotline is already stupid by its own but also Metis who is the mother OF HERA DEMETER AND HESTIA( and not Athena because fuck it i guess) was already  very stupid and but nowZeus ATE the mother of Hera and Hera still  married  him in the comic?????!?!?!?!

Just whyyyyyyyy

Why rachel

Whyyyyyyyyyyy!!!???

4) Let me get this straight... Zeus ate Metis to help him overthrow Kronos because she's a "fertility" goddess? How does a goddess of wisdom suddenly become a fertility goddess?? Also, for a comic that preaches "feminine power" all the time, there is absolutely no power for women when they are being consumed just for the sole purpose of defeating a tyrant.

5) One of many things that bugs me about lo leto is that not only she looks identical to hera(besides of eyes) she dress in same colors as her and same clothes style. In episode that leto was in they give hera more blue collors but that doesnt change that hera dont wear blue so often.

6) Apparently, Metis isn't their ( Hera, Demeter and Hestia) mother in LO. Which doesn't make any sense because if she isn't their mom, then where did they come from? Just because they were created doesn't mean that's not their parent.

By this logic, Demeter and Persephone aren't related in LO. This just seems like a poor way of avoiding incest.

(The evidence is that Rachel changed the sisters to friends in episode 119 and said that they weren't related herself (can't find this one tho)).

7) I remember seeing a instagram post criticizing LO for making Apollo rape Persephone someone in the comments said “Well zeus rape persephone in the original mythology so It only makes sense that Rachel made Apollo do it” ???Like???Sis What???

8) Probably unpopular opinion : I don't like when people criticizes Lore olympus by saying " It is bad because in the original myth * insert female figure in Greek mythology*  is RAPED!!" because  most of the time, even if exception exist but the great majority of the examples used in these arguments came from ROMAN version!!

So if someone want to criticize Lore olympus its should at least use exemples/argurments based from GREEK mythology not from the Roman version(which cames much later) and it is pretty easy to do that.

9) Off topic but the fact that Hecate in LO looks so generic in recent chapters (a nod to the recent anti LO anon submission posts and one person says Hecate looks badly drawn(, that there's actually an instagram art account who plays art of withe fanart or original content, and their OC Nadia looks more like LO Hecate than LO Hecate. Link

10) Hekate in those panels (where she is talking with Demeter in ep. 145) looks like LEGO figurine.

11) Now in lo besides of all this unneeded plot about persephones trail, apollo trying to overthrown zeus now Smythe thought that this romance comic didnt have enough action so now she add Kronos coming back and possible another war with him! This supposed to be romance comic not some action one, and this bigger plots fell so much unnecessary and like some 14yearold fanfiction that wich each chapter self insert marysue have more unreal things to do Thats why pilot lo was better it was just romance

12) Why couldn't zeus be the villain of LO? In the myth, everything is very explicitly his fault. He tells hades to kidnap persephone and he never tells demeter that he married off her daughter until she starts going on an agricultural strike and blights the earth. No more of this evil demeter/apollo/thetis/thanatos/hestia bullshit! I want the mother/daughter duo to beat zeus to the ground dammit!

13) The age gap in LO is weird because persephone's age isn't specified in the myth, her supposed youth is a product of modern interpretation due to her kore epithet and status as demeter's daughter. She could've went the route of young hades if she wanted a young protagonist, but we could've also had old persephone, which has worked multiple times.

14) Oh god, lore olympus is gonna become the new twilight/50 shades of grey.

15) one thing i don't understand about metis in LO - wasn't she an oceanid?? why is she brown w wings? 

16) I personally don’t think RS has the majority of this planned, because if she did there wouldn’t be so much retconned stuff and these apparently major plot points wouldn’t be popped now, almost 150 episodes in! Like you said, they had to be built up and hinted at well before this to make sense. It’s either on the editor not helping her tighten up the story, or she, as she’s told us before, just writes it as it goes, and that seems far more likely. More so, let’s not forget the other plot lines that must be dealt with: Eros and Psyche, Semele and Dionysus, Leto now?, Persephone’s schooling (?), Minthe, Apollo, Thanatos, and Daphne (🙄), Hermes lying to hades, Zeus finding out about Hera/Hades, Persephone coming to justice, Thetis, Echo, Persephone even finding out about her powers (yes, almost 209 Eos in), HxP even getting together and married (+possible babies), and the ACTUAL myth with Demeter at a standoff! At current rate, it’ll need at least several more years to wrap up, unless most of those are dropped, in which case also proves she didn’t plan ahead, or else she wouldn’t have included them to begin with. How do you turn such a cut and dry story into such a convoluted mess. I’d be impressed if it wasn’t so aggravating.  

[terryblount]

Code Vein – Review

If you are reading this, chances are that you have played Dark Souls, or at least know about FromSoftware’s legendary series. How could you avoid it, really? Throughout three incarnations Dark Souls produced an experience so revolutionary that it carved out an entire sub-genre of action RPG’s. Nothing says you’ve shaken things up like having a suffix attached to your game’s name: Souls-like.

However, something unexpected happened on the 22nd of March. The gaming community could once again bask in the brilliance of Hidetaka Miyzaki’s design philosophy, but it was Seikiro and not Dark Souls 4 that landed on shelves. Seikiro looked, played, sounded and felt like Dark Souls, and rumour told that it even tasted the same if you licked your monitor.

Still, many felt something was missing. Many longed for the days when they could once again light bonfires amidst the ruins of a godforsaken castle. Their withdrawal symptoms did not go unnoticed by publishers eager to capitalise on the Dark Souls-shaped hole in our Steam libraries (that even the re-release of Dark Souls couldn’t really fill).

This is Io, one of the central characters in the plot. You can unlock new levels in your blood code by bringing her artifacts.

Some interesting attempts have therefore crawled out of the woodwork in recent times. There was an Irishman fighting Yokai in Japan, dudes in exo-suits wielding chainsaws on polearms, and even a game where developers couldn’t be bothered to give their characters faces. Now we have Code Vein, the latest game that looks at all the Souls clones and says: “Step aside folks! Let anime show you how its done.”

If you can’t beat ‘em… use a bigger sword?

It is seriously difficult to review Code Vein and not make it sound like I am writing about a FromSoftware game. Bandai Namco even used the catchphrase from Dark Souls “Prepare to die” and changed it to “Prepare to dine,” so you have an idea just how eagerly this game borrows from its pedigree.

As it turns out, this is only the tip of the iceberg. The characters in Code Vein also exhibit that same, floaty movement. There is a heavy focus on stats and the maintenance of your stamina bar. Enemies will likewise attack based on proximity triggers. The bonfires have now been replaced with ‘mistle’. The twisty, curvy paths are designed to curve in on themselves…

I could do this all day. Frankly, I almost got disappointed when I didn’t see the words “YOU DEFEATED” every time I destroyed a boss, and no “YOU DIED” when the last dregs of my health bar left the screen.

That’s the guy I made! They wear gas masks due to a poisonous miasma that has spread everywhere in the apocalypse.

However, there is something unashamed and deliberate about this ride on Miyazaki’s coattails because it is precisely in moments when Code Vein is most loyal to the Souls formula that the experience is at its best. The devs have replicated the FromSoftware formula with surprising accuracy, and as such, Code Vein feels more like a homage to the genre rather than a money-snatching knockoff disguised in anime.

As you would expect, this is a game that wants to make you feel vulnerable. Like the majority of its cousins, the gameplay involves exploring an extremely hostile, open world with environments that carry a persistent sense of death and destruction. Danger is everywhere, with enemies around every turn that can disintegrate the player in one or two swift swipes.

Why on earth go outside then? Well, this is all in pursuit of a central currency in this game called ‘Haze’ (which is Code Vein for ‘Souls’). Haze gets you the good stuff which could be anything from sword upgrades, maximising the efficiency of spells and leveling up.

My favourite weapon. You also get ranged bayonets to shoot from a distance.

As you’d expect the game will snatch all that Haze away from you if you die, but at least they will be floating patiently at the last spot you kicked the bucket. Make sure you do not die on the way to retrieve them though, as you will instantly loose all that sweet moola FOREVER… and ever… and ever…

Bloody good and bloody awful

One of the areas where Code Vein’s gameplay is perhaps superior to other entries in this genre is the emphasis on flexibility. When you look at the stats screen for your character, the abundance of numbers makes you feel like accidentally walking into a seminar on theoretical physics.

All of those stats are there for the player to manipulate as they see fit in order to turn themselves into their own best version of a vampiric fighting machine. You have access to a really staggering array of offensive perks and buffs which you can manipulate with numerous weapons, spells, armour (‘Blood Veils’), special items or by altering your entire character class (Blood Code) on the fly.

Basic stats screen. The icons on the left are all the different blood codes you can collect which change the gameplay in subtle yet perceptible ways.

The combat may be rather clumsy and the levels often smack of being designed so that enemies can jump out from behind objects, or drop from the ceiling at the player. However, using this impressive arrangement of variables, perks and play styles always made the combat so damn interesting.

It really surprised me how soon I could be turned into chopped liver being dependent on one particular character build, only to emerge victorious by swapping around a few things. In this way, the gameplay always felt like it presented a consistent difficulty and that I was being pushed to play smarter rather than easier.

This customization even stretches to your companion, which is perhaps one of Code Vein’s biggest idiosyncrasies. For players that prefer a little companionship while they slaughter, you have the option to to string along a constant co-op partner to bully monsters. You get to choose your partner in case you prefer more help with spells, or if you would like an extra sword beside you.

Okay, you got me. For all the complexity to be found in the character builds, Code Vein does not quite match this with the same levels of sadistic difficulty as Souls games. For veteran players, I would advise tapering your expectations. To the working gamer struggling to find time to git gud at a single game, the more forgiving difficulty might be far less jarring.

I have been putting off discussing the central plot in Code Vein because I still don’t really get what the hell is going on here even after Steam has just ticked over to 26 hours. Something about the miasma causing people to die who were brought back to life by viruses, and then trees stopped giving off blood beads because of the zombies everywhere, so the strong vampires enslaved the weak ones, and then the humans became enslaved. Your character can make the trees bleed again because they are all connected by arteries underground and your job is to kill the queen vampire… wait what??

I am no stranger to the convoluted narratives of anime, but in Code Vein I had no idea what my character was supposed to be involved in. This is because of the game’s tendency to overload you with plot details at every chance, which didn’t so much build up the lore as making me feel lost.

Also, many female characters like Io sport excellent boobs (more on that below!) so I was… uhm… a little distracted perhaps when they were discussing important plot points. Naughty Pieter!

Yet another visual triumph

The Unreal Engine 4 is now officially my favourite game engine of all time. Every single title I have played over the last year looks freakin’ awesome on this platform, and Code Vein firmly joins the ranks.

While the enemy designs feel awfully generic, this is definitely the most colourful and flashy game I have ever played in this genre. It is a refreshing change from the washed out greys and browns we have been inundated with in Soulsborne games.

The frantic particle effects are one of several layers of icing on the game’s visual design, and there are also some striking animations for finishing moves as well. However, the biggest award in aesthetics must go to Code Vein’s character creator.

Dramatic and beautiful

As noted by Jim Sterling, the greatest achievement by Code Vein is the fact that players have been given customisation options to rival even The Sims, and Bandai Namco have not asked for a single cent extra in microtransactions. Whether you want to spend hours making your perfect waifu, or trying to recreate the leading characters of your favourite anime, chances are you will have a blast with all the options available here.

Better than when my sister asked me to play Barbie with her.

I have been reading quite a few objections to the opulent cleavage in this game,  but I kind of like it because it takes me back to when anime games were allowed to be sexy. Rather than seeing this as rampant sexism, it is nice to see a game being a little more daring in terms of depicting sexuality.

This kind of audacity is just rare in games nowadays, and I prefer to see this as the game affirming it is not for kids. If anything, this just shows I am an aging gamer from a bygone era. If you are offended, don’t worry: we are a dwindling breed.

Stories around the bonfires

Whenever you have a genre that begins filling up with copycats, it always makes the whole thing feel like a fad the industry needs to get over. This is particularly the case with battle royal games where it seems like studios are more eager to stick a finger in the pie made of money rather than taking risks with their own ideas. The market is more competitive than ever, yes, but even highly-populated scenes should still reward originality, right?

Made you look…

I almost do not want to like Code Vein as such. For all its visual fanfare, Code Vein is far from original in its basic formula which makes it hard to recommend for veterans of this genre. If you play this stuff all the time, I cannot guarantee that this game will not just end up feeling like more of the same once the novelty wears off.

Then again, it is precisely Code Vein’s surprisingly meticulous adherence to the blueprints of FromSoftware that may appeal to you, and it is what I liked most about it. There is a rock-solid Soulsborne experience lying underneath all the anime hullabaloo, and the versatility in the gameplay makes this game an excellent point of entry for the newbies and pro’s alike.

Diverse character builds

Gorgeous visuals

Amazing character creator

True Souls-like title

Bland enemy design

Convoluted narrative

Information overload

          Playtime: 26 hours total. Includes substantial amount of… uhm… dying

Computer Specs: Windows 10 64-bit computer using Nvidia GTX 1070, i5 4690K CPU, 16GB RAM – Played using an Xbox One Controller

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