"first off, pickle, and then try sage" -a message on the ground, providing a delicious soup recipe

as some guy who likes exploring in video games and isn't satisfied until every square inch of the map has been scoured, this game is incredible and peak. everybody knows its strengths at this point, probably, but i am crawling over the finish line two years after the game came out so you'll have to give me some grace here. do you get it. grace like the. grace in game. haha

really though, it is actually absurd how many unique items, tidbits of storytelling, beautiful locations, and just adventures there are hidden away in mostly every nook and cranny of this world. there were multiple times i'd doubt my completionist's urge, thinking i had to be insane for attempting to check the most random spot for a path or dropped item, only to find that curiosity rewarded. and then they hide entire area entrances and bosses through illusory walls and off the sides of inconspicuous cliffs. of course. that's definitely where i'm most thankful for player messages (it's a strand-type game) since they can both tip you off towards those esoteric secrets and warn you when a long, annoying pathway in fact does not have anything hiding at its end.

the diversity of enemies and bosses is something i have to shout out to the void as well. i've seen some grumbling over bosses, enemies, assets etc being reused over time, but i feel like the variety here is honestly incredible with far more diversity than any open world game i've played before. if you told me there were like 100 enemy types in this game i'd believe you. every encounter brings a new arena, new mixes of combatants, and oftentimes some cool lore or environmental storytelling to go along with it. even in those cases where bosses graduate from "big encounter" to "just another enemy" it still feels interesting - like this beastman dude is pretty interesting, wonder what "farum azula" is. then you get to farum azula and there's a ton of him and it makes sense that he's not special there, he's just some dude, some beastman of farum azula. there's absolutely nothing like the capra demon spam of the dark souls endgame, or the undead dragon spam on that wondrous note.

i feel like you could get a phD in the weapons, weapon skills, sorceries/incantations, all the craftables, the weird niche interactions between enemies, it's all so much that it makes me want to do multiple new game cycles just to understand and appreciate it all. not to mention fashion souls, which of course returns. all of this freeform collecting and character building leaves the difficulty curve feeling totally adjustable. i for one marked most of the runebears on my map for later, because screw those guys until i'm overleveled. my only real complaints off the top of my head: what the hell is the fall damage, and we need new rats

perfect timing for shadow of the erdtree, just need to get my ten hours of youtube lore video studying in. now we can devour the gods togethaaa

i discovered a picture of a missing kid on a milk carton. in the living quarters of a small yacht, next to its decaying captain, i found an image of a creature. nearby on the beach, i made camp. as night fell, a group of tall, pale men emerged from the forest and stared. their silhouettes melted into the trees. in the morning, i found a hole. curiosity wore me down until darkness fell again, and i couldn't stave it off anymore, so i ventured inside. the creature was there at the bottom, screaming. i only needed a glimpse to turn tail, to run. guided only by torchlight, i sprinted through the forest as those pale visitors chased me from that hole. all i could see was the brush rushing by, and the leaves, and the fire, and the blurs of relentless tall bodies. i turned and swung. a man caught fire. i kept running. not even my camp on that beach was safe anymore. into the water. into the waves. onto the yacht. i slept next to the dead body. in the morning i looked out at the sunrise, and at the shore. nothing felt safe anymore. i don't want to think about what happened to that kid.

the forest is filled with these moments, these micro stories formed through the melding of scripted events and dynamic game systems. the behavior of the cannibals of the peninsula is incredibly unpredictable - a search party might observe you at night, seemingly observing, scouting, only to lead a full-on assault to your camp a few in-game hours later. you might fight off a group, landing a few arrows in a lone survivor who scampers off into the woods, back to their camp, then returns much later with reinforcements, still bearing those arrows. paint yourself red, and the cannibals will kneel in some sort of primal reverence or learned fear of you. some scrounge through the dirt and infight. some patrol what they see as holy trees. some tower above the rest, serve as nomadic warriors.

and then there are the mutants. the creatures. the twists of countless arms and legs, skin grafted over mouths, tumor-like growths of flesh, far too many eyes. they'll visit you too. they're named after children.

a vast, intertwining cave system winds through the earth beneath the primal, natural greens of the forest. a giant pit craters the center of the peninsula. dark, alien metal veins the sediment. crosses everywhere. ancient human remains. remnants of something unhuman. you'll find traces of both personal belongings and horrific, esoteric horrors while exploring this landscape. it's a slow burn of storytelling, all hinting at something else, something more. why is there footage of a helicopter on a video camera? where did these documents come from? what is sahara? who is matthew cross? what is that horrible throbbing hum, that black pyramid? this isn't just a forest. these aren't just cannibals. these horrors were already too much to bear, but you have to go deeper. you have to find your son.

i traverse the pit. i navigate what is only known as the 'hell caves.' i find a door. i find the red hallway. i discover the truth.

actual peak.