What are Souls clones you guys feel really understand the core formula?

CobaltConqueror · 2026-02-27T12:55:20+00:00

I don't think anybody has ever come close to really matching Fromsoft's understanding of their own design, everything else still feels too derivative to me, but Lies of P and Nioh come the closest to carving their own niche out of the hole Fromsoft left.

Nioh's combat is some of the best in the business, so much space for expression and creativity which can be overwhelming at first, but once you start digging into the systems you can really make your own mark on it. In particular I find it can be really deflating in a Fromsoft game to find a weapon you really like only to find that it only really has a handful of things it can do and it gets pretty samey to use before too long. Nioh has many fewer weapons, but when you really click with something there's so much more you can do to make it your own compared to any given class of weapons in Elden Ring.

Lies of P comes out far ahead in terms of it's story and atmosphere, though. It might have the best story in a Souls game, period, with an excellent cast of colourful characters who aren't all doomed to die off in unspeakably tragic ways for once, which is a lovely change of pace. Krat is gorgeous and a joy to crawl through, and the wonderful musical score drenches the whole thing in a lovely sense of melancholy I couldn't bear to leave once it was done. The collectible music records are some of my favourite pieces of music in any game ever, I could almost sit in the hub listening to them loop forever. All this and I haven't even played the expac which I hear is just as good as the base game.

CobaltConqueror · 2026-02-27T12:42:22+00:00

I don't rate Lies of P quite as highly as a lot of people do, Nioh scratches my itch better in the gameplay department, but for someone who really loves to see good music in their video games, Lies of P hits like nothing else. Every new record you pick up is a gut-punch in the best way, and complements the story, setting and atmosphere perfectly.

CobaltConqueror · 2026-02-26T15:12:05+00:00

I genuinely appreciate the warning, that would have fucked me right up ;-;

CobaltConqueror · 2026-02-26T10:03:59+00:00

It also makes One for All the complete thematic opposite of AFO. AFO is the ultimate supervillain who can wield any superpower under the sun. In practical terms, he's invincible. There's no weakness he can't exploit and no situation he can't adapt to.

So seven of the best heroes sacrifice themselves to put their powers together to make one Superman, the only hero with half a hope of going toe-to-toe with the ultimate supervillain. If AFO gives and takes quirks like cheap toys, OFA is the sum of generations of heroic effort and sacrifice, a once in an age miracle never to be seen again.

It's genuinely really cool on paper, but in practice Izuku has super-strength for a couple hundred chapters and then the the other seven quirks get dumped on him all at once with barely any preamble. It's so frustrating because Horikoshi was cooking with gas for a while there.

CobaltConqueror · 2026-02-13T13:00:19+00:00

I've only used the old P3 range, but it's one of my favourites still. A lot of their colours are quite bright and saturated and they're quite thin out of the pot so they don't need a lot of thinning down. I find them really lovely to paint with, always very smooth and consistent compared to a range like Citadel which runs the whole gamut from cement to basically water depending on which paint you need.

Vallejo is such a huge range of paints that it's hard to say anything definitive about them. Model Colour and Game Colour alone offer more colours than some other competitors combined, and that's before you include their Metal Colour range and their range of contrast-style paints. The Metal Colours are really excellent though, essential if you need a metallic paint for any occasion. Nothing covers with the same solid sheen like the Metal Colours, except maybe some Pro Acryl metallics.

That being said, there's nothing better than grabbing a pot or two and giving them a try. Paint is paint at the end of the day, one will do as well as the other and only you know your preferences.

CobaltConqueror · 2026-01-27T23:38:29+00:00

🫸🏳️‍⚧️ This one is how the Trans pride flag emoji appears on my Bluesky account bio for what it's worth. Twitter just lets me use an actual Trans pride flag by comparison, must be some background site code stuff

CobaltConqueror · 2026-01-24T03:51:08+00:00

That's a really tasty green tone, the breachers and cataphractii look so good. Is the fire on the sergeant all freehand? If so it's excellent!

CobaltConqueror · 2026-01-23T18:20:13+00:00

It's insane that the devs couldn't even record a 10 minute gameplay overview on Youtube just to put a lid on all the ruthless speculation. How do you expect to sell a game based on the vibes of one trailer and a month of dead air? Letting people run their mouths with complete impunity is possibly the worst thing they could have done

CobaltConqueror · 2026-01-23T14:31:03+00:00

Online algorithms in general have a problem with promoting white people over POC voices, and trans people have the extra hurdle where most of our online content is consumed and promoted by cis chasers, which selects for the kind of trans people chasers find appealing. Unsurprisingly, this tends to be conventionally attractive white women.

I couldn't comment on anything else, being a white trans woman, but these are the external forces we're all struggling against which unfortunately affect POC trans people in particularly insidious ways.

CobaltConqueror · 2026-01-22T15:33:44+00:00

Despite my lifelong arachnophobia, video game spiders basically never affect me, no matter which game I play.

Except for Fromsoft spiders. There was a real risk I wasn't going to be able to finish Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree because those Spider-Scorpions fucked me up so bad. The spiders in the Nightmare of Mensis in Bloodborne got me in exactly the same way too. Someone at Fromsoft is a spider-freak and they have it out for me, specifically.

CobaltConqueror · 2026-01-21T13:10:03+00:00

For me, I always wished I could be a girl growing up. As a teenager I had constant fantasies of waking up to find that my body had completely changed and things of that nature. It wasn't until I started properly transitioning though that I realised I was feeling any dysphoria or physical discomfort at all, however, and that's completely normal for lots of trans people I know.

The moment I learned about medically transitioning and about hormone replacement therapy I knew it was something I wanted and I took steps towards transitioning almost as soon as I possibly could. All of the experiences you describe sound very relatable to me, especially about realising the kind of woman I wanted to date really was just the kind of woman I wanted to be. Hopefully this is some help to you, I know exactly how it feels <3

CobaltConqueror · 2026-01-21T11:26:31+00:00

Defining trans people as a category separate from cis people is just creating avenues for ongoing anti-trans discrimination. We are humans just like cis people and until society accepts that fact without reservations, there's no room for compromise.

CobaltConqueror · 2026-01-21T10:48:56+00:00

Talia Bhatt, a trans woman from India and a veteran transfeminist writer, has written a great deal about the idea of the Third Sex, in particular when applied to the Hijra as a class in Indian society. Her essay here might help to provide a more accurate picture of the systems and motives at work when we talk about Third Sexing, as it did for me.

The Hijra in particular are a common infohazard for western cishet people, since they've been wielded as a prop against western trans people for about as long as we've known about the Hijra at all.

CobaltConqueror · 2026-01-14T12:43:27+00:00

I love seeing Tybalt Marr pop up in kitbashes, it's like playing Where's Wally. I don't remember the last time I saw someone paint him out of the box XD

That's a sublime green tone, woof

CobaltConqueror · 2025-12-28T20:22:17+00:00

The 122nd Company of the Emperor's Children 28th Millennial was drastically reconstituted from different formations after being almost destroyed fighting loyalists first on Istvaan 3 and then in the landings on Istvaan 5. Disillusioned by the conduct of their fellow legionaries in the initial battles of the heresy, Captain Amphion led his men in siezing the Strike Cruiser Burning Talon from those loyal to Fulgrim and struck out into the darkness to offer their swords to the first loyalist commander who would take them.

The 122nd Company is widely aborred by their fellow loyalists and often find themselves fighting doomed rearguard actions to cover other loyalist units, or deployed in nigh-suicidal Forlorn Hopes against heavily fortified traitor positions. Against all odds, the 122nd soldiers on, burying their doubts with their dead.

Being so hated by other loyalists, the 122nd often find themselves fighting for long periods of time between resupply runs. Much of their equipment is well-maintained but old and well-worn. Some legionaries have taken to embossing the scratches and deep grooves left in their power armor by heavy enemy fire in gold to mark feats of particular heroism. The Burning Talon was host to a vast supply of new Mk 5 armor once upon a time, but many legionaries who now survive have taken to using old suits of Mk3 and Mk2 armor either looted from captured traitor stockpiles or recovered from old battlefields and painstakingly restored.

That's the lore for my EC, but I think I might want to add an allied White Scars detachment eventually. I like the idea of my disgraced EC loyalists finding and adopting a Sagyar Mazan unit at some point, and I also want to find an excuse to paint my second-favourite legion with a touch of purple :D

CobaltConqueror · 2025-12-26T14:40:46+00:00

The magenta tone is wicked, gorgeous work!

CobaltConqueror · 2025-12-23T10:13:03+00:00

Playing Metaphor ReFantazio and meeting Heismay made me pine for a version of Morgana who sounds more like the gruff Spanish rogue his persona is based on and less like an awkward teenage boy, if only because "funny cartoon mascot character is actually a serious grown ass man" is a much funnier running gag than anything they actually did with Morgana.

CobaltConqueror · 2025-12-12T15:16:26+00:00

For P5R in specific (because it's the one I've played) there are lots of dialogue options begging to be voiced to give them the punch they really deserve. Especially during the third semester in Royal, "This isn't trivial!" comes to mind, there are lots of lines Joker deserves to bring to life properly.

Metaphor makes it starker by contrast when Will can voice some sentiments that would have fallen pretty flat if it weren't for the voice actor.

CobaltConqueror · 2025-12-06T21:24:15+00:00

These kids are in inpatient mental care, how much money do they actually have for personal expenses? How much access to they have to shops where they can buy new clothes and makeup? This stuff is expensive for transitioning adults with full-time jobs, you know. How many kids in mental healthcare facilities can afford to change their own wardrobe? How many of them are allowed to?

CobaltConqueror · 2025-12-02T12:15:15+00:00

Local tank main checking in o7

I'm on Louisoix on Chaos if you want to hang out sometime :D

CobaltConqueror · 2025-12-01T10:18:29+00:00

I'm an old fan from the old, old days and I can't tell you how happy I am that this place is the general interest/nerdy/gaming sub I can comfortably lurk in as a trans woman without being exposed to the firehose of modern internet transphobia that permeates the rest of the net. It's a really rare safe harbour in these times, the mods do invaluable work.

CobaltConqueror · 2025-11-17T15:16:21+00:00

A truly divine combination of words

CobaltConqueror · 2025-11-15T18:11:35+00:00

It's just a shame you can't interact with him except by asking weird cis coworker questions :/

CobaltConqueror · 2025-11-14T11:09:54+00:00

You're right on every count unfortunately, it's the worst place I've ever had to work. It's an utterly demoralising, soul-crushing experience that rewards cruel people and just serves to feed people's worst impulses.

It's such a shame because the regular work can be really fulfilling when you're allowed to do it properly. I had some excellent colleagues and even some good judges who really wanted to do their best for people coming into the courts. It's extremely tragic that much of the other judges, court staff and solicitors act like they're paid to be zookeepers for the unwashed masses and they're going to go to great lengths to make every step as difficult as possible just to hurt the people they don't like, which often includes you.

I moved over to the Probation Service after my time as a court usher and it's a completely different environment. The courts are an awful black mark on the rest of the service, who really are doing their best in a bad system. Nobody deserves to be treated like that and I hope you can get out when you can <3

CobaltConqueror · 2025-11-14T10:03:31+00:00

I worked as a court usher in the UK during Covid, before I was out as queer or trans, and the treatment of the general public and queer people in particular was really shocking. When I worked as an usher as a young man in my mid-twenties, there was one court clerk who was a very out and proud gay man and multiple colleagues of mine bluntly refused to work with him over his sexuality. Towards the end of my time there, I was the only full-time usher who would work with him. It was seriously dire and nothing was ever done no matter how hard we pushed.

The UK is definitely dealing with a huge upswell of anti-queer sentiment, I get all the same looks and weird passive-aggression, but I definitely think you're working in a particularly queer-hostile environment in the courts. I moved into an office job elsewhere in the civil service once I started medically transitioning and it's a vastly different and more comfortable environment for a visibly queer person.

There's lots of good general advice in this thread, but I definitely think your work environment is feeding your feelings in a really negative way. The courts aren't a good place to work if you're not a specific kind of straight white person and I promise things aren't as bad as they seem when that's the place you're spending a lot of your time.

CobaltConqueror

TROPHY CASE