I feel so lucky that I ended up playing this (near) on release and didn't know anything else about the game / wasn't inundated with its cultural connotations, and was able to just play this game exactly as I was naturally impelled to do and not view it through that lens of "zomg difficulty / git gud" it would later take. To that end, I feel everything you wrote here so hard and these are the reasons why I tried to convince my friends so hard to give it a shot, of which I'm happy to say that most took to it for similar reasons (sense of being within the world, holistic aesthetic of which challenge is just one part of, emergent moments that feel so memorable to one's run, etc.) but I can only imagine how many people who would've loved this for these same reasons either held out on it for so long due to the aforementioned pop cultural 'vibes' it (unfortunately) absorbed, or will never get to experience it at all.

So glad to hear you found yourself playing and loving this down the road, and loved this write-up :')

I remember playing this on-release when I was younger and really stupid (no ability to describe my thoughts) and found myself beyond taken with the game for all you just wrote here, both back then and throughout the years. DS2 is one of the jankiest games I've ever played, if not in production then certainly in its very DNA of which all else emerges, and I don't think I've ever read anything that captures my exact feelings on why this will remain my favorite (ok ok tied with BB but I like being a contrarian and calling this my fav) game they've made.

Phenomenal write-up

I don't really see how I'm being misogynistic, I feel like that is quite a leap to make given what I wrote.

The signifiers that this was written by a white women are pretty strongly there imo, namely a particular attitude towards men that scream very "I understand gender entirely from a white-orientated lens", or, white feminism. Plus a bunch of other small things that are difficult to atomize precisely but if it smells like a terminally-online white-feminist trans girl then chances are it's a terminally-online white-feminist trans girl. Critiquing white feminism =/= being misogynistic, and jumping straight to saying that people who do critique it as being misogynistic is incredibly myopic and lacks understanding how differing vectors of oppression interface with each other.

Or, wouldn't it be better to just have said "I don't really like what you wrote because—" without being racist?

aw ty all sm, i didn't expect this shitpost to be read by anyone tbh but i appreciate the kind words and hope you're all doing well :') <3