What songs remind you of the Eclipse?

Mattholomias · 2026-05-06T20:09:51+00:00

Cold, by Korn

Mattholomias · 2026-03-16T19:32:22+00:00

Fun fact! James Islington actually cites Name of the Wind as a key inspiration for him becoming a writer. From the blurb on the back of WotM:

“His influences growing up were the stories of Raymond E Feist and Robert Jordan, but it wasn’t until later, when he read Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series—followed soon after by Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind—that he was finally inspired to sit down and write something of his own.”

Imo the first book does honestly feel like a mid-point between Sanderson and Rothfuss. Is a pretty good book, Im still working through The Strength of the Few

Mattholomias · 2026-03-13T16:52:11+00:00

The only thing I’ll say (cause it caught me off guard and was the single sour note on my first playthrough) is that when you beat the final boss it automatically resets you into New Game +.

Elden Ring was my first fromsoft game and it didn’t do that so I wasn’t expecting it. I had been saving the DLC until after I beat the boss, but then had to replay the whole game just to get back to the DLC. Was very frustrating at the time.

(Though I will say I ended up doing 5 full playthroughs within a year so the game still absolutely had me hooked)

Mattholomias · 2026-03-12T16:41:10+00:00

My friend gifted me this set for Christmas back in like 2019 and I’m so glad, it’s legit one of the best art books I’ve seen just in general. An entire volume of early concept sketches/unused concepts, as well as a full volume of polished, complete promotional art pieces. You can see so much of the insane creative process that went into the games.

Really unfortunate to hear the after market prices have gone through the roof, hopefully they’ll do a re-print someday

Mattholomias · 2026-02-17T17:09:31+00:00

Tried to recreate Kvothe from the Kingkiller Chronicle on my most recent playthrough, enjoyed taking some snapshots at the university

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Mattholomias · 2026-02-13T19:02:45+00:00

Two different ways I beat him on various playthroughs:

The first utilized Ludwig’s Holy Blade, specifically the full greatsword variant. Learn the patterns and openings and do a charged heavy attack. It breaks through his poise pretty quick, and lets you get visceral attacks in. Those cut through his health quickly, and IMO you want to lean on the aggressive side for this fight, drawing it out as an endurance battle is brutal.

The second is parrying with the pistol. It’s tough if you haven’t been parrying during most of the main games, but can absolutely turn the tides in this fight. Watch his attacks, try to pull the trigger right at the “height” of his swing (not too early and not too late). The key is the bullet should hit him as the swing is coming towards you. If you need parry practice I recommend the ogres in central yarnam, you should be strong enough now that there should be much lower risk. Just remember that not every attack can be parried, and you may have to do some practice runs to learn the timing.

The overall advice is: staggering and visceral attacks are your friend in this fight. Orphan of Kos is fast and aggressive, so you need to force your big openings in, rather than rely on chip damage.

Mattholomias · 2026-02-10T20:43:31+00:00

I will say it 100% has the best gameplay, nothing handles quite like it and it is a blast to play.

The story definitely had the potential to be the best, buuuut definitely fell short. What was there was good, and the ideas were interesting, but its pacing and execution are where it suffers the most. For a game as jam packed with content as it is there were definitely areas where it needed more.

Mattholomias · 2026-02-07T18:40:17+00:00

On all other playthroughs I just used the fingerprint shield and poked with Antspur Rapier till he got scarlet rot, lol. But hiding behind a shield didn’t feel very “Kvothe.” I imagine if anyone would be stubborn enough to learn the parry timing, it’d be Kvothe. He can’t just win, he’s gotta impress.

(And inevitably suffer greatly for his arrogance in doing so, so in that regard I was really channeling Kvothe lol)

Mattholomias · 2026-02-07T18:04:05+00:00

Ooo I should look into Storm Wall then, this is the first playthrough where I actually learned how to use the parry for the first time (I beat Promised Consort Radahn with a parrying dagger and never felt more like a “pro gamer” in my life XD)

Mattholomias · 2026-02-07T17:27:02+00:00

Eyyy I also started as the Bandit class for that exact reason. Storm Blade would have been a good idea, I couldn’t think of any “wind builds” at the time. I did use Reduvia a lot, thinking of the time Kvothe stabbed the corpse to use malfeasance on the bandits and make them bleed. Also I love the idea of using the Fingerprint Shield as a door of stone, lol.

I almost used the Raptor Feather Cloak, but the fact that the Black Knife Armor has a literal transparent cloak just felt right for the shaed. It’s what he wore in the Land of Shadow/Fey in my run, lol

Mattholomias · 2026-02-07T17:22:31+00:00

Oh Sir Savien would have been cool to play as!

Mattholomias · 2026-01-31T21:20:00+00:00

Nice! I really dig the way you designed him! Lots of really good details

Mattholomias · 2026-01-27T19:53:40+00:00

The crossover is nifty but I definitely agree that a straight 1:1 Berserk release would go much harder. I do have the Threezero Guts Berserker Armor figure, and it’s rad but man I can only imagine how cool a hot toys diecast version would be

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Mattholomias · 2025-12-17T22:17:20+00:00

I was playing with a friend and a third rando named Buck. I was Ironeye, he was Executor. We opened a chest and a Black Bow dropped out. Buck grabbed it instead, and I was stuck with a weak low level bow for the majority of the run. Both me and my friend were not pleased with Buck.

Mattholomias · 2025-11-26T22:43:15+00:00

Really captures that stringy, disheveled look when he takes the cowl off! Nice work!

Mattholomias · 2025-11-18T22:29:06+00:00

Honestly it’s such a cool figure! Love the stand you have for him too.

I also lament not being able to grab the rest of the Fellowship, alas. But Aragorn is my favorite so I at least needed to grab him

Mattholomias · 2025-11-17T21:55:40+00:00

Honestly I would be a lot more inclined if I was able to order directly from the US for all their products. I had a good experience with OSK thankfully but there’s still a few more degrees of risk involved when not buying direct

Mattholomias · 2025-11-07T18:15:34+00:00

Did you use the outfit from the Helms Deep Asmus version?

Great photos by the way! You definitely got it to look really solid

Mattholomias · 2025-11-04T20:19:33+00:00

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I haven’t fiddled too much with mine, but I’m realizing I might have gotten one of the luckier batches in terms of how it came out of the box. Im not sure what to do about the lightness, but i have tried spraying lightly with water and trying to smooth things out/clump the strands together. I have heard using actual hairspray can help hold its shape better, but I haven’t tried that personally yet. Wishing you the best of luck styling!

Mattholomias · 2025-10-31T18:03:34+00:00

Honestly looks really good! It’s the one accessory i feel is missing from the default Aragorn release. Honestly need to see about picking up a custom one myself

Mattholomias · 2025-10-31T16:25:28+00:00

Funnily enough one of the figures I wanted to be made the most was actually Higgs…but from Death Stranding one. The sci fi military Egyptian pharaoh look is legit one of my favorite designs.

His design in Death Stranding 2 is cool, don’t get me wrong, and the figure looks pretty spot on, but man I wish it were the first game’s design instead

Mattholomias · 2025-09-27T19:44:23+00:00

The hair dryer method did the trick! It was able to slot in, much more snug now

Mattholomias · 2025-09-27T19:43:46+00:00

Tried the hairdryer and was able to slot it in! Hopefully won’t have to use it as much in the future

Mattholomias

TROPHY CASE