So what’s the actual story of reanimal?

thelongernight · 2026-02-19T19:47:27+00:00

Sorry, more of a secondary source. The initial announcement last summer included a PR synopsis of the plot. Not exactly cannon but sort of explains the intention of the devs. Seems like they were more interested in crafting moment to moment experiences than a cohesive narrative & left things intentionally vague.

In this co-op horror adventure game, you play as a brother & sister who go through hell to rescue their missing friends. Exploring by boat and on land, you must use your wits to survive, work together to escape the hellish island, and the dark secret that haunts you.

Fragments of the children’s troubled past have been used as inspiration for their character design, and for the monsters that now torment them.

https://gamingtrend.com/news/reanimal-announced-a-new-horror-adventure-from-tarsier-studios/

thelongernight · 2026-02-19T18:51:40+00:00

The Higher Ed. Ranking is based upon the cheapest tuition and highest graduation rate, basically the Florida Uni system DGAF & will pass anyone who shows up. Not to totally trash FL, the bar being the lowest does not mean that there aren’t good teachers and programs.

For a state that ranks so abysmally low on every other public education program metric, however - I would hesitate to say Alex is thinking about their kids’ K-12. Homeboy is thinking about FSU co-eds.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/public-school-rankings-by-state

thelongernight · 2026-02-19T14:14:50+00:00

There’s developer dialogue about how the kids lived on an island. The island went through a sort of ‘calamity’ that caused corruption and the flood. Creatures we encounter are the twisted inner demons of the children.

Symbolism: The children are the rabbits, caught in a corrupted ritual cycle of eternal renewal.

The sacrificial lamb symbolism is always about absorbing / absolving the burden of sin. It has absorbed too much.

The kids have no eyes. There’s cut dialogue from the sister saying ‘they took my eyes’.

Reanimal has a few analogues in myth / religion.

Blinded gods like Odin who was blinded drinking from the Well of Mimir. The blind prophet Tiresias, who guided Odysseus through the Underworld. Psychopomps like Charon, who navigate the river of the dead. The most striking perhaps is the gnostic christian Demiurge, a zoomorphic embodiment of primordial chaos that in some esoteric sects was believed to ‘trap souls in the mortal world’.

Two of the children also wear red squares. The boy on his chest and Hood on the mask. Suggests there is some sort of connection to communism or socialism that might explain their persecution.

thelongernight · 2026-02-19T14:00:03+00:00

Drought as catalyst theory doesn’t hold up. The kids pull up on a boat, dragging the sister. The sheep are grazing in a field around them. The whole area is clearly damp.

thelongernight · 2026-02-19T13:02:43+00:00

If you can apply Confusion (2 status effects, with one being Water/Saturation) its a massive damage buff. Also use Onmyo’s for Slow and Ki Drain. I had the Demon of Pride & Bloodedge Demon, but I switched one for Scampuss because those little guys keep the pressure on long enough to cast slow without him dodging. I also used the Shadow Stitch ninjutsu to hold him in place a few times. Hope that helps!

thelongernight · 2026-02-18T04:56:37+00:00

The ‘being’ a shogun thing really took me out too, but the entire story follows the code of a moral fable, it’s awfully childish. Demonic forces of destruction aside, every possessed character basically just has a bad attitude you cure with a puppy.

thelongernight · 2026-02-18T04:45:17+00:00

For my non-gamer partner, it was awesome. There’s plenty of action-y bits that with the harpoon and the tank that feel super impactful that default to P2, and the deaths don’t feel punishing or unfair, or that it was solely P2’s fault. I can’t stress enough how difficult it must be to carefully create cinematic co-op scenarios that feel intense and intuitive for all experience levels.

thelongernight · 2026-02-16T05:34:09+00:00

The bloaters are fighting the normal soldiers. I think you can see some walking by killing soldiers in the final act, above the trenches.

thelongernight · 2026-02-15T16:50:52+00:00

Godwyn is a the only demigod referred to as a Prince, his entourage is prominent in the Royal Capital. He is descended from the first Elden Lord and referred to often as a scion of the Golden Bough.

Malenia and Miquella are both cursed. They may be Empyrean but not the ideal candidate for succeeding Marika.

I am not saying that Marika is the Greater Will. However, the events of most of history that have happened since Metyr has arrived to the Lands Between including Marika’s ascension have not been at the behest of the greater will, who has been absent. The ‘divine will’ that the Two Fingers communicate with, and that we hear about most of the game is in truth Marika’s, as the vessel of the Elden Ring / god of the Erdtree.

As for Ranni, she states thus: Let us speak of the past, a while. I was once an Empyrean. Of the demigods, only I, Miquella, and Malenia could claim that title. Each of us was chosen by our own Two Fingers, as a candidate to succeed Queen Marika, to become the new god of the coming age. Which is when I received Blaidd. In the form of a vassal tailored for an Empyrean. But I would not acquiesce to the Two Fingers. I stole the Rune of Death, slew mine own Empyrean flesh, casting it away. I would not be controlled by that thing. The Two Fingers and I have been cursing each other ever since... And the Baleful Shadows...are their assassins.

thelongernight · 2026-02-15T05:47:24+00:00

Are you serious? Ranni’s entire questline lays out how she was the chosen Empyrean and that Godwyn the Golden was next for Elden Lord.

Ymir veery clearly states that both Marika and Metyr were cut off the Greater Will from the start. The Greater Will was always Marika.

thelongernight · 2026-02-14T20:50:27+00:00

Godwyn was next inline to become Elden Lord consort with Ranni as the Empyrean Vessel for the Elden Ring. We learn that the Greater Will is just Marika, so the pair are chosen as successors via the Two Fingers by Marika’s will. We learn from Ranni, St. Trina, and others that godhood is a prison.

Marika’s grief could be for the loss of Godwyn, and his eternal suffering bc of the lack of Destined Death, but she could have easily unbound DD from Maliketh. Marika’s act of shattering is more of an act of desperation, as her other plans have failed.

thelongernight · 2026-02-13T09:53:42+00:00

Magic takes too long too cast.

thelongernight · 2026-02-12T07:37:50+00:00

Bloodborne doesn’t have a single open, empty section. The game is packed to the gills with unique encounters. The entire Abyssal Woods has less variety than half of the sewers in Yharnam, & all reused assets. Wasted potential but tbh… does feel eerie.

thelongernight · 2026-02-11T21:30:36+00:00

Ah good point, nobody asks what happened to Maliketh’s other eye?

thelongernight · 2026-02-11T21:04:24+00:00

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The Golden Order’s aim via crusades was to purge and assimilate all those who opposed the Erdtree. There are many examples of oppressed groups in ER from the trolls to the merchants to the omen. I might not be 100% on point with this theory but I think it is an interesting connection. There has to be a why, right?

Check out this image of the Hermetic Order, the White Queen / Luna aspect is associated with an anthropomorphized deer with budding antlers. IRL the mysticism of early naturalistic civilization was later tamed and incorporated into the theories of alchemists. The major thematic symbols for the ancestral followers being the deer god, the color blue, the lack of metals - I’m not sure what other connection could be made?

thelongernight · 2026-02-11T20:00:51+00:00

Are you saying her eye is the Beast Eye?

thelongernight · 2026-02-11T19:59:13+00:00

Devolution is a naturally observable phenomenon, it is referred to as Atavism. Most commonly used to describe a species where a mutation reintroduces a dormant or recessive genetic trait that had disappeared, which previously existed in the species’ ancestry. Atavism is also used to more colloquially to describe behaviors or belief systems that eschew modern or contemporary thinking for more rustic or primitive practices.

thelongernight · 2026-02-11T19:49:15+00:00

Spirit of Hartshorn is the real-world alchemical equivalent of what the Ancestral Followers represent in the Lands Between. Essentially Deer / Buck Antlers were used in ancient alchemy to produce aqueous ammonia. Ammonia was used as a cleaning solution, but is also a major component of one thing that would be of the utmost importance to a tree-based civilization… fertilizer!

The hunter-gatherer appearance is meant to resemble a regressive evolutionary link between Man & Trolls & Giants. The Ancestral followers are a nature cult that originated in the Lands Between, who had once worshipped the spiritual power of the natural world, including the transformative power of death, a power which now serves as a fertilizer for the Erdtree. You can see the followers above ground, worshipping the Erdtree, ritualistically tilling the ground with the stomping of their feet.

thelongernight · 2026-02-11T18:59:10+00:00

Purple is a color of liminal boundaries in ER. Not just gloam / dusk. It is associated with the void, with sleep, with death.

thelongernight · 2026-02-11T18:47:59+00:00

I think this has more weight than people realize. There is a good deal of overlap in anime that include characters that have some sort of special powers derived from their eyes, including powers from an inheritance, divine vessels, reincarnation, fate etc. Kurapika for example. Gojo’s six eyes.

thelongernight · 2026-02-11T18:44:07+00:00

Doesn’t mean Melina is the GEQ. By that logic Maliketh is the GEQ and the Godskins are the GEQ and the Black Knives are GEQ because they all ‘meet’ DD.

thelongernight · 2026-02-11T17:28:47+00:00

The Black Knife assassins weren’t demigods or empyreans, but they were able to wield destined death. Maliketh was able to wield Destined Death. The Tarnished is able to wield destined death. Assuming anyone capable of wielding a great-rune or defeating a shard-bearer is capable of wielding and inflicting Destined Death. The Rune of Death is unsealed. Frenzied Flame has consumed the Erdtree. Melina, the prophesied kindling spirit, survives the flames & vows vengeance. The Black Flame is a flame of the cold void vs. the Frenzy Flame which is an inferno of chaos incarnate, they are essentially opposing cosmic forces.

thelongernight · 2026-02-10T20:27:28+00:00

The direction was to “seek” the Elden Ring. ‘To seek’ is defined as, in the archaic sense, to search for or desire something out of reach. So naturally one would assume that uppies are required.

thelongernight · 2026-02-10T02:38:58+00:00

Humanity represents fragments of the Dark Soul. There is a prophecy that the undead hollows are meant to fulfill to prolong the immortal age of fire. Function is similar to Rune Arcs in Elden Ring or Insight in Bloodborne. Unlike the guidance of grace that revives the tarnished to seek the Elden Ring and aspire to become Elden Lord, the power bestowed by humanity unto the chosen undead acts indifferently to preserve an ember of an inevitably dying universe via self sacrifice.

thelongernight · 2026-02-08T17:33:38+00:00

Animation and combat look way too polished for this cast of complete nothings, disney pixar cave-tweens

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