Tag: Souls-Like

Not quite eating crow…

In my neck of the woods, there’s a restaurant chain called Culver’s, famous for their “concrete mixers” (custard shakes), and burgers billed as “butter burgers.” Delicious, but probably even more horrible for you than your average fast food burger, which is saying something. That said, I always assumed that the chain was just named after someone–and it is. But it turns out “culver” is also an actual word, and now that I know what it means, I’ll never be able to look at the restaurant the same way again…

culver, noun – a dove or pigeon

Learned from: Elden Ring (PC, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, XBox One, XBox Series X/S)

Developed by FromSoftware

Published by Bandai Namco Entertainment (2022)

FromSoftware games are known for being punishingly difficult, but also pretty dang weird sometimes. Case in point: Rennala, one of the main bosses of Elden Ring. When you first face her, she’s floating in the air, surrounded by a horde of half-formed…daughters, I guess? And she’s cradling something in her arms, cooing at it and calling it her “little culver.” It’s hard to really make out just what it is at first, but the whole situation is a bit creepy.

Regardless, I now have the irrevocable connotation that there’s a fast food chain that’s essentially called “Pigeon’s.” And I want to note, I in no way mean this to imply that Culver’s serves burgers made from pigeon meat (AKA: squab, so you’re getting a two-fer, today!). It’s just an unfortunate, and kind of amusing coincidence that their name happens to have another meaning.

KFC, however, I have my doubts about. (Pardon the AI art)

No theme this time

Nothing immediately jumped out at me as a theme for this week, so I decided to just go with the most recent word I’ve learned from a game so far.

cenotaph, noun – A monument or tomb containing no actual remains.

Learned from:  Immortal: Unchained (PS4, PC, XBox One)

Developed by Toadman Interactive

Published by Sold Out Sales and Marketing Ltd. (2018)

Immortal: Unchained is a game affectionately referred to (by those who’ve actually heard of it), as “Gun Souls.”  And it is a game that tries to imitate the Dark Souls formula as closely as it can, in a sci-fi setting–but like a child wearing its parents’ clothes, the final result is…uneven, at best.  The format is pretty similar, with obelisks standing in for bonfires, a nebulous quest for which you’re the Chosen One, and all that.  But the difficulty curve is all over the place–case in point, the second-to-last area is a cake walk (minus the boss), but the final level is flat-out unfair.  To the point where most regular fights felt like taking on the Capra Demon for the first time: i.e. you don’t have enough room (or time) to get out of the way of everything that suddenly pops up.

Even the backstory is imparted in the same way as in the Dark Souls games–that is, primarily through item descriptions.  Every gun you pick up, or lost idol you find will have some lengthy synopsis of where it came from, and what group of people was using it.  The problem is, there are so many different factions, and mythical figures, and conflicts that have happened off-screen, that it’s hard to keep any of them straight–especially when most of the enemies are just dark humanoid dudes with glowy bits on them.

Speaking of them, in addition to guns or health kits, enemies will occasionally drop things that are referred to as cenotaphs.  If you’re feeling charitable, this choice is almost poetic, considering your enemies are the undead remnants of fallen civilizations…at least, I think that’s what they’re supposed to be.  (As I said, the story’s kinda vague.)  The civilizations themselves quite literally have no remains of their inhabitants left, since they all seem to be rising from their graves, so these “cenotaphs” (which can be anything from pendants, to data pads) are the only memorials left that speak of their history.

Or, maybe I’m giving too much credit to a mediocre game.

Immortal_Unchained.jpgStill might be worth checking out, if you can find it cheap.