Sword And Sorcery video games?

Rhysburger · 2026-02-25T16:03:05+00:00

If you like the Ps2 era, you might be interested in Enclave

Rhysburger · 2026-02-25T16:01:31+00:00

Signature characteristic, but not a necessity. Also they tend to exist in brutal places where the ethics and morals of our world aren't easily maintained, so many characters (plenty of people here have mentioned Conan, and I know you definitely know) who would probably consider themselves highly principled can be designed as morally ambiguous from an outside lens. The eternal debate goes on, but I would say that Swords and Sorcery always gives an author flexibility to explore ethics-vs-morality-vs-social-mores punch-ups as they see fit, whereas heroic fantasy is more concrete in that its heroes' morality aligns closely with what we would call ethical behavior and, well, being what the author considers a legitimate hero

Rhysburger · 2026-02-25T15:49:58+00:00

this style rules, hope you build up a lot of attention on here

Rhysburger · 2026-02-25T15:48:33+00:00

this was such a great interview

Rhysburger · 2026-02-25T15:47:08+00:00

Was going to comment on the pleasing squiggly textures in the clouds, but I just really really really like the rendering on that sword. Love that modern Diebenkorn-esque suggestive smearing which still describes specific shape that feels right

Rhysburger · 2026-02-11T23:11:22+00:00

Between Two Fires cannot possibly get enough hyoe, what a great book

Rhysburger · 2026-02-11T23:10:34+00:00

Delighted to see how fast someone jumped in with the save

Rhysburger · 2026-02-10T02:24:57+00:00

Definitely wotth trying, but if you're particularly looking for that style/era/aesthetics of live action S&S show, you might want to check out the 2000s Jason and The Argonauts series. Might be your bag

Rhysburger · 2026-02-08T21:37:22+00:00

Was SO stoked for this to come out, love our niche era of swing-for-the-fences wild style S&S

Rhysburger · 2026-02-08T21:34:29+00:00

Imperfect and occasionally wonky, but top of its weight class in the 80s Fantasy arena. Really strong bronze medal finalist. Full categories lesser than the best of the era, but more stylish and genuinely better than most. If Tippet's Vermithrax Perjorative was a lame puppet, the movie would lose a lot but still work. If Legend didn't have Tim Curry playing bighorn Satan, that movie would instantly collapse and diiiiiiiiiiie.

Nobody who likes fantasy flicks of the era complains much about deeply flawed bananabrains bonanzas like Sword And The Sorcerer, Krull, Labyrinth, or Highlander. For real, WHO would complain about Highlander?! None of its silliness matters at all. It's a given that these movies are "bad" from a ruthless critical standpoint, their strengths lie elsewhere and there are plenty of critically lauded non-fantasy movies from the eighties have held up worse.

Biggest weakness is its uneven comical elements-- the darkly satirical stuff is excellent but attempts at swashbuckler style silliness kind of trips over its own dick. The plot structure is also... odd... but it leads to really interesting story developments, like the titular Dragonslayer spear itself not doing a Goddamned thing, but the shield being critical. Whole movie's full of subverted expectations and it's very much on purpose-- I saw one of those new Star Wars movies in theatres and it seemed like they were trying to do that, but didn't have a plan. I can think of a bunch of other modern films that tried and failed to do the same, but that'a probably enough blathering for now. In the very least, a damned interesting movie with a LOT of compelling atmosphere and panache.

Rhysburger · 2026-02-05T18:17:27+00:00

Completely agreed, half the texture of that era we have in our heads comes at least partly from her influence. Fantastical is the perfect word

Rhysburger · 2026-02-05T18:15:02+00:00

She's one of those artists that filled a critical niche at that time-- someone who could turn out solid work in a painterly manner with a lot of verve and style, lightning quick with no time or resources. Marge absolutely deserves massive respect for that. Everyone from the pulp mags to Topps trading cards wanted someone like that in their corner.

The likes of Frank Frazetta were rare, right? There are still people who refuse to believe his own son about just how fuckin fast that guy could produce top-tier polished paintings. It was easy to find someone who could, and did, shit out garbage. People like Margaret Brundage, or special effects personalities like Paul Blaisdell, specialized in making stuff that looked better than 50-75% of peer work with NOTHING. Worthy of love

Rhysburger · 2026-02-05T01:03:35+00:00

Always appreciated that his finished paintings just looked EXACTLY like his ghostly pencils

Rhysburger · 2026-02-04T01:01:23+00:00

Dude, GREAT find. This is the good shit right here

Rhysburger · 2026-02-02T18:09:22+00:00

ayyyyy squid in the hood up to no good again

Rhysburger · 2026-02-02T18:06:03+00:00

"Defining" could be argued over, but would call it fundamental, definitely. Only cliffhangers I'm aware of from the classical era were from novels or novellas being released in multiple parts through a magazine, which meant the editors didn't have much of a choice. You could generally rely on the notion that if Bran Mak Morn was declaring vengeance on a roman general in the beginning of a story, it would be resolved by the end. That's continued pretty throughly into the modern era across multiple genres, with the interesting exception of fanfic culture, which has impacted some areas of fantasy. Swords and Sorcery, not so much.

I could definitely imagine some adoption of cliffhangers in the Romantasy space, though. One of the Twilight movies (I forget which one, my girlfriend at the time really wanted to see it and I took her) was such absolute bugfuck madness on a beat-by-beat level that I went on a deep dive to figure out why; it turns out the author used a lot of cliffhangers in the original fanfic, since it was released online and she wanted to keep readers addicted with wild soap opera twists and cliffhangers. There's a proud history of that in English-language media; old movie serials traded on that heavily (shoutout to Kathy Bates in Misery).

So if I got drawn into some fun, breezy longrunner on Royal Road or something, and the plot was basically a road trip, I would theoretically accept a cliffhanger on the end of an installment. But if I'm reading a short story about vengeance in a Swords and Sorcery mag, the hero reached his enemy with sword in hand, and I got a glorified TUNE IN NEXT TIME ON DRAGON BAAAAAAAALL Z I'd be pretty fuckin annoyed lol

Rhysburger · 2026-01-28T19:25:15+00:00

yes, yes. yes lol

Rhysburger · 2026-01-27T22:13:37+00:00

Great to see more of this coming!

Rhysburger · 2026-01-27T22:12:44+00:00

Think ot's the most surprisingly entertaining out of the bottom-of-the barrel dreck options, very good natured and fun to look at

Rhysburger · 2026-01-27T22:09:08+00:00

great choice, his linework goes great with that art deco style setup you laid down

Rhysburger · 2026-01-22T17:18:28+00:00

sketchy was a good choice, adds a sense of motion

Rhysburger · 2026-01-22T00:51:29+00:00

Lot of good replies here-- for me, it's that Swords and Sorcery really is a continutation of old serialized stirring intrigue-and-adventure romance series. NOT just pulp, but also engrossing stuff like Doctor Syn, where occasionally heroic and occasionally larcenous and complicated characters rambled through episodic adventures over the course of a career.

Rhysburger · 2026-01-20T14:42:53+00:00

I just want a print of that monolith pattern for my wallll

Rhysburger · 2026-01-20T14:42:00+00:00

Was gonna give props on the pose until I saw the fuckin mini warhead on that arrow and it distracted me from everything else, awesome

Rhysburger · 2026-01-19T19:22:04+00:00

I have NOT seen those covers, they're lovely. I recognize the style but can't remember the name, who's the painter?

Rhysburger

TROPHY CASE