Amendments

* I unfairly threw Ratatoskr under the bus. I included him here because that video embodies a review of a game that only talks about the negative aspects really succinctly. But there is a difference between his work and the other critics I talk about. Although I dislike that video because I'm more interested in his whole opinion than the 0.2%, I don't think he's guilty of the same style of critique that I'm really addressing here. I should have made a clearer distinction. He's been cut from the intro. His thumbnails show up a couple times in the vid but please know I'm not equating him with the other people I'm talking about. Sorry, Ratatoskr.

* I have trimmed out the small section about the great runes. It was the part that was the most common criticism and I always felt if I had another edit that I'd cut it. I was a bit too snarky about Joseph not getting it. Mainly because he said it "ruined his run". But my argument was never that the text was confusing. It was that it was not "objectively bugged". Subjectivity is not implied when you say "objectively bugged" and it can't be "objectively bugged" if it is a mistranslation. It can't be objective if it is either/or. Regardless, it's really unimportant to my overall argument and it is distracting people from what I have to say so I've taken it out. Sorry, great runes.

* Seems like I fell into the very common trap of calling Nietzsche a nihilist. Although he is important to nihilist philosophy and he leant into nihilism more explicitly later in life, he's a more complex guy than that and my interpretation of his work was shallow. My interpretation in the video still stands as an analogy to the game and it's still important to show Feeble's misquotation and lack of sources. Even if my interpretation was flawed, I argue that it's still stronger and better researched than Feeble's one. But please do dig into Nietzsche's work yourself because I don't represent his ideas super well here. Sorry, Nietzsche.

*Unfortunately, in the "difficulty was never the point" section it looks like I've attributed a quote in one article to Miyazaki that was actually paraphrased by the writer of the article, Keza MacDonald. Here's the full quote with Miyazaki's actual direct quote included.

Demon's Souls was born out of a desire to return gaming to its fundamentals - that is, to re-embrace the trial and error and difficulty that we used to take for granted, and leave the player to work things out for themselves. "From the outset, we started making it based on a 'back-to-basics' concept," says Miyazaki. "We wanted a 'game-like game', something that was fun in the way games used to be, and we were confident that we could do it". (The sentences without quotation marks are Keza MacDonald. The sentences with quotation marks are Miyazaki.)

My sincere apologies on this one. A commenter pointed this out for me. This is not a direct quote from Miyazaki but paraphrased by the writer of the article. Sorry, Miyazaki.

*Death of the Author - A commenter correctly pointed out that Death of the Author is not concerned with the theory that the author has intended you to do whatever you want. The core of the idea is that the intention of the author is irrelevant. It's not their intention anymore. It doesn't matter what they intend. I've sort of conflated both authorial intent and death of the author in the point I make. The point still stands that you can play the game however you want, even if it goes against what you may perceive as developer intent.

Keep the discussion civil. I don't mean ill will to the people I talk about in this video even if I am quite harsh and snarky throughout. This is a discussion of art and ideas. It's also a genuine plea for self-reflection. This isn't a take-down. It isn't content cop.

You're allowed to not like things. I'm allowed to like things. Let's be cool about it.

We are currently accepting new members to join the Cult of Fromsoft. Praise be, Surrogate-All-Father Miyazaki. He who satisfies our victim complex

Gred

Time to change my entire world view about a subject based on the opinion of a video essayist until the next guy comes along and do it all again 😔

“The Fromsoft community has become the most toxic fandom”

As an Overwatch player this feels like stolen valor.

"I've never changed my mind about any of the games I've reviewed." Yeah, that's not the flex you think it is bro.

As the developer of Ultrakill once said: "if you guys made Ultrakill, it would suck"

“In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.”

Such a good quote it’s still accurate in this current age.

"I never said I dislike the death knights, I just included them in a list of enemies and NPC fights I disliked and everyone assumed." This might be the funniest, stupidest thing I've ever heard

"This video is a masterpiece, you shouldn't watch it" Joseph Anderson.

If you ever saw joe play a game, you would see that every single time he just tries to brute force everything, refuses to engage in the mechanics of the game, and then had the nerve to criticize the game for flaws that the mechanics he ignores solve.

He would then will always excuse this behaviour by blaming "chat" for "pushing and being annoying", when people are just telling him to use the mechanics of the game before giving a review.


I have no idea how he is still popular, dude acts like a child.

Imagine looking at the sheer scale and artistry of Elden Ring right after a release like Sekiro and thinking a studio is coasting

Really made me remember exactly why I grew to harbor such disdain for video critiques when I used to like watching them.

Feeble King unintentionally mimicking Anderson's cadance is so uncanny valley...

If theres any feeble king fans here from Feeble's last video then i just want you to know that Feeble threatened Gred with a lawsuit before deleting it for this video.

Can't wait for Olive Garden to drop the next masterpiece in the emerging "play as a human man" subgenre.

"If you tell me something tastes like shit, am I supposed to assume you enjoyed it? Do you enjoy the taste of shit?" jfc dude I almost choked, absolute banger video

Something not mentioned is that even outside of beating the Putrescent Knught rewarding you with the Trina questline/moment, you literally get a Remembrance for a unique boss weapon like every other main boss.

I'm so glad I clicked on this. I always thought it was weird how these "critics" who love these games had so much unsubstantiated shit to talk about them. I get it now.

Sup dog. We heard you like critiques. So we critiqued your critiques in your critiques so you can critique the critique of the critique in your critique.

23:30 That point reminds me of Jacob Geller's video, "The future of writing about games", where he states that reading great critique on games can help you with eventually learining the ability to analyze and formulate your own critical opinions about games. And that similar sentiment applies to art in general.

Can't believe Feeble King threatened a defamation charge over this lmao