DARK SOULS II
nothing embodies this experience better than the 1-2 punch of the loopy arthouse perfume commercial intro followed almost directly by the mcdonalds ass "595,839,122 deaths served worldwide" advert in majula
on one hand we got a game that foresaw the ever-escalating arms race the series would find itself in and tried to preempt it with radical mechanical changes, and on the other we got a game that thinks Rat With a Mohawk is a really sick idea for a boss. given the chance to do a remix/remaster they chose to ignore all feedback, double down on the bullshit, and name it SCHOLAR OF THE FIRST SIN like it's a terrence malick movie. the haters never had a prayer against this kind of power
oscillates between achingly beautiful and sandy petersen's work on doom II. presents characters as haunting as vendrick and lucatiel then goes and reskins dark souls' most emotionally resonant encounter as ripper roo. both modern fromsoft's most melancholic, human game and the only one where you're forced to play as an absolute mutant
I'm at the point where I'm glad the lighting got downgraded before it came out. it should be fucked. it needs to feel sickly and eroded and wrong. iron keep has to be something you can't understand and the transition from shaded woods to drangleic castle has to be as disorienting as possible. every time you question the earthen peak elevator I only grow stronger and more insufferable
this is the response to a call no one made. it's gotchas behind gotchas behind gotchas, noble failures, bandai namco marketing quotes, and fromsoft's most indulgently experimental design since demon's souls. it's the gimp door, the gender coffin, npc invaders modeled after the least likeable players, and the cumulative psychic damage of the frigid outskirts
it's fighting the rotten four times to skip half the game, becoming drangleic's next top model, and having NAMELESS CHAD kill you while you idle in iron keep. it's backstep iframes, powerstancing demon hammers, unbelievably good pvp, and yui tanimura's masterful turn as director of the dlc trilogy
keep talking shit
a lie will remain a lie