Ok

Elden Ring, is the nice boy in class, he has all the good grades, he's not particularly ugly, he's cultivated, he'll likely gonna get into a good university once he's gonna graduate, he seems to have no flaws, except one, he's painfully boring in its flawlessness

Demon's Souls on the other hand, he's the bad boy , he's dark, sinister, a bit cringe , he has black hair, he makes barely passable poetry , he smokes marijuana and is involved with several case of high school crime, he always brings a guitar and listen to 21 pilot on his airpods, not the kinda guy you should get interrested in, he looks silly , he looks like a fucking looser, he thinks he's goat, but he's not goat, he's just a piece of shit edgy kids and oh my god I hate this guy, but one day you go to a party

Who did you end up in bed with ? That's right , not fucking ER, he's too good for this, It's DeS, you woke up next morning, and he fucked you and you look past the bed border and your mom is lying on the floor , fucked like she never has been before. Then he wokes up with pancackes, kiss you goodbye and leaves you with a teen pregnancy he's never gonna act upon. But the memory of such an experience will last with you for the rest of your goddamn life

Yes, indeed.
Kichikuou Rance is viewed as one of the most important Eroge ever created.
A work that requires extensive historical discussions.
But that is not all.
Because the game’s narrative itself—is in need of such discussions as well, but from a philosophical perspective.
A story with endless layers, complex character arcs, and overarching—partially meta—themes such as conflict, love, and free will.
A game that can be re-visited countless times over the years thanks to the incredible freedom the player has while experiencing it. Even after reaching the true ending, much is left to be discovered. It feels like you’ve merely scratched the surface of what the game is hiding.
A game that will make you realize what art can achieve through the sheer passion of its creators.
A game that will leave you speechless.
A game that makes me proclaim: “Yes! This is why I love humanity!”

We are all individuals. We should live naturally.
Don't live for some duty, for some God. Live for yourself. Live for the individual.
Sadly, it appears that this message of Terranigma is commonly misunderstood, and people believe the game promotes self-sacrifice and bowing down to nature, when it's in fact about the beauty of humanity that allows us to conceptualize reality on a grand scale and create.

The gardener caring for his pretty pumpkins is happy and prideful because of his own accomplishments, because he lives for himself.
The butcher is happy because he can create a new meal.
The inventor is happy because he himself invented airplanes that will allow all of humanity, including himself, to improve.

And finally, Ark, the protagonist, is happy and filled with pride, because he helped the world grow. He learned, he improved, which is the greatest joy there is.
In the end, he's not rewarded with death. The game does NOT contradict its own message by hypocritically having the protagonist die for his duty, for a God, for someone other than himself. Rather, he is gifted with a dream, flying through the world in pride, knowing he was what led to this beautiful earth. And afterwards, although his journey as a hero is over, he will continue to live on. For himself. In happiness, together with his beloved.

An utter failure of a work.
Elden Ring completely misunderstands its own essence, what it means to be a Souls game, in favour of empty, superficial, unrewarding level-design and combat.

Ugly, angering graphics - the high-fantasy style creates controversies at every corner.
A bland soundtrack, with only a handful of decent songs among a hundred.
A completely generic story that has nothing to say - as if the former Souls Games, misunderstood by their own creators, were stripped of all their essence.
And gameplay that is so weightless, so unpolished, filled with horrendous scaling - from random encounters hitting as strongly as literal Gods - that its ridiculousness is simply baffling.
Clearly, all of these changes appeal to a wider, mainstream audience - one that favours superficiality such as the game's high-fantasy visuals over true thematic depth - but with these changes, the Soul-Series becomes nothing more than another series of Marvel Films.

And the worst flaw of all: The utterly shameless repetitiveness.
The beauty of Dark Souls 3's true ending, ruined to create one more empty, boring, badly written boss called Radahn.
Mechanics and designs of the previous games, used for the eight time in a row, without even understanding the initial intentions behind them anymore.
Merely mindlessly following the formula that previously brought success - and the mainstream audience loves it.

I fear for the future of Souls games.

Essentially: One of the most intelligent, significant pieces of art in the history of humanity turned into yet another Marvel movie, one that has nothing to say, is as safe as possible to appeal to the widest audience possible, and will ultimately be forgotten. Labeled worthless by the flow of time.

Insulting on every level. One of the worst works of art ever crafted.

"Music has mysterious power.
By listening people can calm their hearts and purify their minds."

It's such a sweet little tale of the transition between the first and second stage of humanity.
First, the genesis - God created everything and God is everything, we must depend on Him, and all is how it is because He said so. Certainly a step up from living merely to sate one's carnal desires as a beast that knows nothing but pleasure felt in the moment. It gives humans the ability to think on a higher level, utilizing the materials found within reality to further the quality of life, thereby prospering. And yet - this cognitive thinking, it still feels lacking. As if humans have still not reached their full potential.
Second, the modernity - God is Dead. He is left behind as quickly as He arrives, as human progress is ever the speed of lightning. People stand on their own two feet instead of depending on a transcendental being.
And that's for the better.
Humanity is so much more beautiful without needing help from God.
It's a message that reverberates even through Quintet's very first work:
"Life for yourself. Always pursue progress. Chase after your dreams. Don't let God dictate your life."

approaches the stage with 73809 page manifesto on Demon's Souls' impact and its troubled dev cycle and why it is both one of the most interesting, rewarding narratives told in gaming history and one of gaming's most incredible dev journeys, from beginning as what was originally thought of as a complete failure before being repurposed into Miyazaki's true directive breakthrough and then being cut in half, and how time-constraints have prevented it from ever truly being returned to in the manner it deserves
ahem
screams into microphone, tears running down my face
YOU HAVE A HEART OF GOLD
DON'T LET THEM TAKE IT FROM YOU
and
YOU FOOL
DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?
NO ONE WISHES TO GO ON
THE DEMON WAS DESTROYED
is dragged offstage while singing the true ending theme

A Denpa visual novel to its core.
Countless times, what you thought of as a certainty transforms into something indescribably alien, something frightening, something scarring.
It is quite a morally complex story.
Indeed, the line between villain and hero often blurs.
Who should partake in your affection?
Who should you despise?
Who is at fault, truly—who caused all this misery?
It such a tale that you’ll find behind the amateurish yet surprisingly fitting presentation.
A tale about abuse.
A tale about mob mentality.
A tale about fear of the unknown.
Yet.
Above all else.
A tale about a single girl’s emotional struggle.
For sure, the growth of our protagonist can only be described as brilliant.
Altruism is a failure.
It's fine to be selfish.
It is those lessons that Mercy must primarily learn.
She must move past her scars, and move on—into the future.
Such a story it is.

And so - Ash is born.

This world, created by the Gods, obsessed to the point of ruin to spread their name far and wide. Nothing in their minds but to drag out their long-since stale-grown world.

The next world, created by someone with no name to give. A Nameless Creator, not concerned with worship. So no Gods are born in this new world. Leaving only place for Humans, who may shape this world as they desire.

BLACK SOULS markets itself as an utterly miserable experience. Through the visuals, music, and storytelling, it presents itself as the edgiest video game ever made, and that's, on its own, not a bad thing at all. It's fun to see a story be so brave and open about what it truly is. Not just fun, it could be something truly great.
However, when you actually play the game, this dark, gritty, and supposedly unforgiving world constantly spoonfeeds you with items to raise some meaningless number in your stats, a level-up system that's a huge downgrade from the original Dark Souls - after all, there is absolutely no trade-off to leveling your stats, as all of them get equally raised with every level-up - and, I cannot state enough how baffling this is, it REWARDS you for dying by giving you another item that raises your stats.
The worst part, however, is that there's an actual difficulty slider. A game called "BLACK SOULS," which signals from the very start that it's a game that shows you how kind Dark Souls actually was, is too cowardly to give you a set difficulty, so you can make the experience easier, you can get spoon-fed once more, whenever you want to.
It is complete ludonarrative dissonance. Nothing in the gameplay feels BLACK, it all just feels like an ignorant attempt at making the player crawl through the mud, to replicate Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, without actually knowing how to do it. I cannot feel the story's misery when I'm too concerned with managing all the stat bonuses I keep getting.
Playing this game on the initially set difficulty is a walk in the park. In the second half of the game, you can beat some of the most powerful beings on the planet by spamming a single move three times.
For most games, this would be inexcsuable. It would be such bad game design that nobody should ever play it, a completely worthless experience. However, what makes BLACK SOULS nevertheless recommendable is the incredible storyline. The story is so good, so well-written, that it alone makes the game worth it.
Therefore, despite the mediocre game-design, I can't wait to play BLACK SOULS II and see how the story unravels.

Side-note: After finishing the series, I will go back and play through these games on the highest possible difficulty. In the hope that the higher difficulty will finally give the game the atmosphere it deserves.
If this higher difficulty actually turns out to be amazing gameplay-wise, I will recommend everyone, even if it's their first playthrough, to use the highest possible difficulty setting. This doesn't excuse the horrendous idea of having difficulty settings in the first place, but at least it gives me some sort of peace of mind.
Because, really, this series looks like it could be one of the greatest stories ever told. If I can get rid of the complete mismatch in tone between gameplay and story, I will give this game the title of masterpiece it ought to deserve.

There is a fundamental fact about storytelling that appears has never been found, nevermind documented, based on my knowledge.
It's this simple truth: Fairy Tale re-tellings are a conceptual failure.
At BEST, they are a flawed analogy to convey the themes of a story. For example, a story re-telling the tale of the beauty and the beast to talk about the dichotomy between carnal desires and reason.
At WORST, they are stuck inside the past glories of these tales, incapable of telling anything themselves beyond the border of the fairy tale they chose to replicate. They have nothing new to say. For example, the mindlessly boring first hours of Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, in which nothing is said and everything is merely a re-telling of something humanity has already seen before: Fairy Tales that everybody knows.
The story has nothing new to add, no insight whatsoever; the protagonist serves as a passive observer that has no particular thoughts whatsoever on the events that happen in front of him.
When, in addition, I was forced to walk through the same superficial landscapes with nothing interesting inside them over and over and over again, I soon grew too impatient and gave up on the whole thing.
The main plot of the first game is nothing special: "The Chosen One" is used as an anology for people born with higher intelligence who are capable of changing the world. He then learns about the different parts of it through exploring the different fairy tales. Then he defeats stagnation/the darkness/nihilism/the heartless. Nobody cares.

It's utterly baffling how this series is considered one of the greatest artistic achievements in the medium. But perhaps that is prove that nobody seems to have ever bothered to think about the inherent nature of fairy tale re-tellings? It's all so bizarre.
The awesome cover art and great main theme really fooled me into thinking this would be special.
Nobody should bother with it.