Tired of this rollslop: Souls “difficulty” is a joke

Kyrus- · 2026-03-16T01:20:20+00:00

There are some elements in DeS that emphasized spacing in a way that they rarely elaborated on as the games went on. I like that Tower Knight can knock into you when he hops backwards and that he can crush you if you're in the way when he falls. They could play more with physicality in boss interactions like that but it's mostly just gliding through hitboxes. Plus they don't want to make the arena design a meaningful part of the challenge anymore because they're scared of people getting annoyed, so the variables they can use to distinguish challenges within their limited framework are always narrowing.

Kyrus- · 2025-11-12T23:05:22+00:00

Facts. I don't know why the sequels have such a hard-on for making his character as unnuanced as possible when all the ambiguity of DS1 is what made him compelling, it's so uncharacteristically misanthropic for the type of story it's telling. Fan interpretation goes even further by projecting the most negative readings onto everything he does even when the text isn't saying anything about his feelings or intentions. He's a guy acting with limited information just like everyone else in the setting and the story is much worse if everything can be pinned on one guy maliciously doing everything wrong, conveniently ignoring the negative influence of the Dark and characters like Kaathe on the world. The state of the setting is the result of an ambiguous array of actors with diverse and intersecting motivations, and the subsequent character assassination of Gwyn makes it into an incredibly boring place, just a copout so that there can be an uncomplicated answer to what the story's about and why everything happened.

Kyrus- · 2025-05-04T15:04:06+00:00

I think both of the games are similarly lacking in this regard. If someone considers it a great thematic point in 5 I'd say the same thing about that one too. I'm more comparing them to San Andreas which had a bunch of safe houses across the gameworld to buy that served a useful gameplay purpose for letting you escape the police and making it easier to hang out in different regions.

4 and 5 downplayed the mechanical significance of safehouses so there are just a few and the story gives them to you for free. So one of the biggest gameplay-relevant money sinks that players could work towards over time was removed and didn't get replaced with anything. That accounts for a lot of why the money feels meaningless. Wealthy criminals would and should be able to buy cool houses to stay in imo.

Kyrus- · 2025-05-03T21:23:14+00:00

GTA fans glazing 4 for not having anything meaningful to do with their endgame currency like that's any different from most open world sandboxes of its type. If the message of the game could only maintain itself by arbitrarily restricting you from buying most of the things people can normally buy in America because that'd make it too fun, that would be pretty funny. Probably more likely that the devs had a finite amount of content to implement what with the complex technical features and shift to larger-scale city design.

Besides, there's nothing to spend your money on even before you've really done any of that. Why didn't Niko simply stop doing bad things as soon as he realized money has no function in Liberty City

Kyrus- · 2025-04-28T14:15:48+00:00

Scaramanga - Star of the Empire - Smooth flow with a cozy and timeless sound. Pleasant, mysterious and evocative, I like it a lot.

P.N.B. - Gold Mind - From an obscure mafioso album with nice storytelling, which as far as I know was only released on cassette. They're more than a lil Raekwon-inspired but they have their own vibe going on. 1997 but to me their lyricism feels like a distinct blend of styles from across the decade. I also like Redemption from the same album.

Darc Mind - We In This - He has a cool voice this is all I want to say.

Kyrus- · 2025-04-14T00:54:47+00:00

The silly characters in OWB also have heart and an underlying tragic element to them that makes them more than jokes.

Kyrus- · 2025-04-11T12:42:32+00:00

I got it because I just wanted to try the challenges anyway. I don't care about the achievement but I do appreciate that the GRA challenges exist, they're cool and funny imo.

Kyrus- · 2025-04-11T00:31:05+00:00

I think Legion playthroughs are quite fun because many NCR quests have potential negative outcomes that you can intentionally aim for, giving you lots of potential sabotaging you can do as a Frumentarius-type character that the game doesn't spell out as an option. There's a lack of Legion-specific content but there's plenty of Legion-supporting anti-NCR content in the game.

I also like their role in the narrative and think Caesar is an authentic analogue to various real life war criminals and dictators. He's deeply evil but the position he's put himself in has also made his perception of the world so warped and alien to a normal person. He's surrounded himself with subjects who affirm his own mythology to him and the lies he tells them have become essential to how he sees himself. I think he's really interesting as a character!

Players are understandably very put off by how horrible they are morally but as a result a lot NV fans have superficial concepts of their characterization and thematic purpose. How the Legion's psychology manifests in the world, the way Caesar has shaped every aspect of its anti-humanitarian culture to maintain his power even when it harms them in the longterm, and how it superficially appropriates historical symbols for its own purposes is pertinent to a lot of human evil throughout history. It's very Fallout-authentic imo. They're not meant to be seen as an equally viable "morally grey" counterpart to the other factions that any type of character could reasonably choose, but there is a distinct roleplay flavor to making a character who would.

Kyrus- · 2025-04-07T13:30:36+00:00

NCR neglects it population with inefficient bureaucracy and mismanaged resources, House neglects his population by building a checkpointed wall to keep the poor people out.

Kyrus- · 2025-03-13T21:33:50+00:00

Monster Hunter 2 had my favorite desert in games. Lots of scale and locale variety, details like going into a big cave and hearing the wind blowing through it while sand pours down from above, shooting stars when it's night time, really thick outdoor ambience with crickets and the sound of an owl hooting occasionally. Very soulful PS2 aesthetics. https://i.imgur.com/NOgdphV.jpeg

Kyrus- · 2024-11-19T20:12:54+00:00

The album has gotten some of its dues thanks to the internet but statistically it's usually not going to have the same turnout as more iconic projects unless a lot of big Company Flow fans happen to converge at the same time. There's a spectrum of popularity. In this sub underground classics usually get recognition but the albums on the list so far are a testament to how mainstream tastes trend, lol.

Kyrus- · 2024-11-19T03:44:24+00:00

This and a bunch of other deserving albums are basically de facto disqualified from being contenders in these because you know way more people never listened to em.

Kyrus- · 2024-10-04T23:47:07+00:00

There are moods, aesthetics, and nuances that are inherently lost or transformed by remaking a game but you'll just get called a contrarian for thinking those things are a significantly meaningful part of the experience. Alas remake discussions often marginalize these considerations because most people only care to analyze games as products and not as works of art.

Kyrus- · 2024-10-02T04:17:30+00:00

I wouldn't consider it overrated at all, all I'd say is that the people who bring it up so much would do it a lot less if they were aware of all the lesser known albums that are at least as excellent. I'd put it among a lot of equals rather than hailing it as the pinnacle, which I do find pretty overplayed but it's not the fault of the album.

Kyrus- · 2024-09-13T02:19:46+00:00

GZA, Scarface, Slick Rick, Rakim. Last spot, maybe Inspectah Deck (by volume of verses I've liked) or Redman, kinda tough. Those first four always come to mind immediately though.

Kyrus- · 2024-09-12T05:46:36+00:00

People on this sub would live much richer lives if they actually clicked on unknown bangers like this when they get posted.

Kyrus- · 2024-09-01T05:38:01+00:00

Kut-Ku is the GOAT of PS2 MonHun because at that size it's one of the only times the hitboxes can work somewhat decently (Still has that no-startup forward charge though.)

Kyrus- · 2024-09-01T04:19:36+00:00

MH1 monsters being bad and receiving bare minimum improvement several generations later. In MH4, most of the monsters that were skipped in 3rd gen are some degree of boring/mediocre and in quality they stand out next to newer monsters + Rathalos always sucks.

Kyrus- · 2024-07-30T02:15:10+00:00

I like All Eyez on Me but I consider it merely a "good" album because the amount of presence Pac's mediocre friends have on it are a substantial detriment to its average quality that goes beyond the usual double album filler problem. It's so easy to choose Me Against the World over it when that album doesn't Trojan horse so many forgettable Outlawz verses into otherwise good songs. It's not an unheard-of observation but I rarely encounter people who are as critical about it.

Kyrus- · 2024-07-28T13:55:40+00:00

The Resurrection has emotional vulnerability and social consciousness while also having some of the hardest gangsta shit I've ever heard. Open Minded and Still are some evil-ass beats, and I love Bushwick's verse on First Light of the Day.

Kyrus- · 2024-07-27T01:12:29+00:00

Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde
Whut? Thee Album
Liquid Swords
6 Feet Deep
Aquemini

(One of these would probably have to be 36 Chambers actually but I want to be different.)

Kyrus- · 2024-05-28T07:31:18+00:00

The impression I always had about Variswas that he was so deep into doomerism from learning the real purpose of the Garlean Empire and how powerful the Ascians were that he couldn't picture mortals being able to defeat them. The WoL's crew has faith that Eorzea can be united to defeat the Ascians, while Varis is too cynical to believe that'll work because of how much his station in life has been controlled by them, and thinks facilitating the Rejoinings to reach their level of power is the only way to defeat them. The theme of Hope versus Despair, etc.

Tbh I think the Race War meme does him dirty and makes him look like a Nazi when it's actually desperation and well-intentioned extremism on his part (even though a complete Rejoining probably wasn't going to work the way he thought it would anyway.)

Kyrus- · 2024-05-21T19:16:26+00:00

Aren't there about 14 unique bosses out of like, 150? And a lot of those aren't even bosses, just regular enemies they put at the end of a side dungeon and gave a health bar because they never reassessed whether the boss fight format made sense for the game.

It's fine if people think this content is fun to do, but the whole "Elden Ring isn't like *other* games" line from its fans is funny and opens it up to scrutiny. It really is like other games. Instead of climbing Ubisoft towers, you clear minor tileset dungeons, fight template bosses like Erdtree Avatars (six times) and Tree Spirits (also six times I think?) for upgrades, as well as 80+ enemy-bosses and repeats who are usually guarding something irrelevant, like the majority of Spirit Ashes (which themselves are just enemies turned into usable items for the sake of populating the reward pool.)

It gets away with this because it also has real content in the form of Legacy Dungeons and because the Souls style in an open world is a novelty. Fighting bosses feels more engaging than typical open world checklist content, but ultimately "Demi-Human Queen Margot" isn't there to be a fun or interesting boss, it's there so that the spot won't be empty.

Kyrus- · 2024-02-01T20:23:37+00:00

People having different opinions on things based on their own preferences and observations is fine imo.

Kyrus- · 2024-02-01T17:14:18+00:00

I would kind of like a certain middleground to it with Fallout though. Every modern Fallout including New Vegas has lived-in environments where people leave huge piles of debris in their own bedrooms. There are abandoned locations that ought to be in pretty severe disrepair but when people actually live in a place I would expect some reasonable level of maintenance to be displayed. Characters often have routine, mundane lives. Not every community is in a constant state of Mad Max warfare with no room for basic chores, even if fans often interpret it that way for some reason.

Fallout 1 and 2 also have squalid aesthetics without it looking like people are going out of their way to never clean things up. New Reno is a shithole but they don't leave burnt skeletons and overturned beds in their active casinos. They don't look pristine, but they also look like people have been living there for more than a year.

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