Watched someone (ManlyBadassHero I think) play this when I was younger and now I have all three games (yay!!!) so please ignore the fact that I've only played 2.5 hours so far haha My review will literally just be about the spirit designs (which in my opinion this game does the best job at out of all of the spirit hunter games, not to say the rest are bad, these are just the cream of the crop oo boy) SPOILERS AHEAD: SPOILERS AHEAD: SPOILERS AHEAD: SPOILERS AHEAD: Main Spirits: Hanahiko: The perfect level of weirding me tf out to the point of scaring me and also making me go "awwww just a lil guy" I love their malformed head with the bulging singular eye and all the placements being in the right place vertically but not in the right place horizontally, and not like they just used the circle clip and move tool, like they molded their face like clay- oooghg it's so good. The broken-in head (I'm gonna keep up the clay-like attributes) looks like a pot cracked and shattered in firing which makes the mishapen face look even more like the entire thing was a mistake by a potter. The plants coming out of their head is a nice detail too, obviously alluding to the plants Hanahiko is known for but the way their arms look like vines floating in place- the entire design does ghostly body horror perfectly. Shimi-O: I LOVE INSECTS BURROWING HOLES IN FLESH FOR HORROR DESIGNS!!!!! Insects gross me the fuck out and if I see one I freeze up and stare at it so I don't lose where it is, and having the idea of one of those things I fear literally ripping into me to make a home is so viscerally terrifying so the concept is great for horror imo. This design is perfect. The holes in the chest where the bees come out of look organic and natural (obviously) without looking like it's normal and doesn't hurt. The belly fat folds turning into rows like how wasp nests have a paper lining(? I think that's what it's called) is amazing and a great way to incorporate more vesperian (I don't think bees count in vespers but uhhhhhh I can't think of another word for it) imagery. And the teeth being the only part of the head showing is just a great inhumanly human part of what makes the horror truly scary- he can still breathe (if he were alive) he's having to exist roaming around with a colony of bees living inside his flesh- ohhhh it's so good. THE BEES COMING OUT OF KIMURA'S FACE BY DIGGING INTO HIS EYE OGGGHHHHH so gross I hated it it's such good horror. The holes and larvae in his flesh, the tumorous looking hive growth by the bees, the sagging skin, HE'S SALIVATING- It's all great dead body visuals. AND THE BODIES WITH THE TRIANGULAR CONE HEAD HIVES AAAHSDJIHSDJKFHKSDHFKD it's great and I hate it. Hanayome: The weakest design of the main spirits imo, she was terrifying to me until she took off her veil and then I thought "she goofy as hell" cause she looks like the distorted face of a stretch armstrong when you flatten or elongate their head too much. Now, I understand her neck is supposed to be long (she hung herself) but my issue isn't with the shape- it's with the eyes. I think her design would have been peak if they didn't give her those goofy ahh eyes. In her story there's bloody pictures with nails and curled wire going through the paper, they could have had nails driven into her eyes or smth instead of them misshapen looney toons eyes. The veil over her long neck and head is a great silhotte (I'm not even gonna try to respell it) though- It's just the eyes. The eyes ruin the design. Everything else terrified me. Miss Zoo: Honest to god I don't even know what to say about her. Her head is creepy, and smacked utop a conventionally attractive female body is a good juxtaposition but the rest just kind of makes me go "yeah...no...." The ENTIRE snake being there AND moving around just makes me cringe a little, and not in a horror way, in a "this is cringe" way. If it was lifeless and flopping about that would make it more terrifying (for me anyway, this is all just my opinion and again, I love this game and this series) since she just has a dead, rotting animal stapled to her and she's talking about transcending beauty or whatever. It's the snake that takes me out, she is genuinely creepy otherwise. Kannon Soldier: Literally no design notes this is so unsettling to me. The name being Kannon, the goddess(? in western terms I think) of mercy is such a tragic irony it's amazing. Oooogggghhhh the writing on the side of the torso, the hands pulling at the hair and covering the eyes, the slits that look so surgical and deliberate, the bloody flesh peeking out underneath the armor replacing skin, the blood from the neck it's all sooooooo good oh my godddddddddd 10/10- and the way its animated is so creepy it's so good I cannot even ohhhhh Red Riding Hood: For me, the details are amazing- but the overall design is kinda lacking to me? I dunno. Like the hair looking like the spider legs, being suspended in the air upside-down by your hair sounds painful, and the way her head/neck is placed really shows how uncomfortable that would be but like... the face looks too perfect, even with the four eyes. Her skin is too smooth on her face, she has human teeth and a shiny nose- it just makes her look less scary. And the hair/silk covering her boobs? That's just goofy to me. I like how they added the hair on a spider's legs onto her arms, but honestly? Put more body hair on her. Games with these aesthetics so rarely give women body hair- give her some armpit hair, some chest hair (NOT THE FREAKING HAIR BRA IT'S SO BAD), something natural and not smoothed over. Have spiders crawling out from her mouth (which could have mandibles!) or worse, where her eyes used to be (gouged out eyes is a simple horror design trope which honestly? I understand the somewhat overusage of.) Mary: Fnaf four nightmare freddy looking ahh Oh and the CGs of other people dying in this game are gruesome and just the right amount of fleshy weirdness god I love the art direction for this game. a non spirit but Edit: MASHITA IS SOOOOOO HE IS SOOOOO Man, I love Mashita.
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