From software's new project, shadows die twice
They've given us 13 seconds of footage to work with but in a way
the less there is, the more there is to talk about.
For example, have you noticed the Japanese script in the background or the oriental instruments?
What about those shavings in the corners or the chisel that likely caused them?
Which components of this mechanism move first. Is this phrase a name or a tagline?
And will all my theories be proven wrong in a day, or twelve months?
Listen on and let's find out.
Now everyone's first impressions
Including mine was that this looks like Bloodborne 2, right?
In fact, my first thought was that this mechanism looks a lot like a trick weapon
Gehrman's long-handled scythe in particular.
Furthermore the tense cord could be fortified with blood
Just like trick weapons are fortified with blood gems
And it's very likely that we're seeing this mechanism tested or even attached to an arm in some way
but more on that later
next the phrase 'shadows die twice.'
it's worth noting that there's a full stop after this phrase which indicates that it's not a game title
And that it's more of a tagline like prepare to die
Shadows die twice.
It carries themes of death and resurrection
Which are two very heavy themes of souls like titles obviously
in Bloodborne in particular shadows crop up a number of times
There's the orphan of Kos, who's shadowy spirit arises from his mother
There are the shadows of Yharnam, and there is really their concept of dying twice in Bloodborne
Because you can die both in the waking world and in the nightmare realm, where your consciousness resides.
Lastly the font of 'shadows die twice.'
resembles Libra Baskerville or Garamond which are fonts that are almost identical to Bloodborne's menu
and item descriptions
But now how many of you guys noticed all the oriental themes in the teaser?
Many characters in the background appear to be really elegant kanji
written vertically as many East Asian scripts can be
In addition, have a listen to these instruments
That's an oriental flute for sure, maybe a
Shakuhachi or a side blown kung fu flute and now listen to the drums
These could be taiko, which is Japanese drumming that's commonly used for dramatic tension
So Bloodborne and an Asian theme
Hmm. There doesn't seem to be much overlap at first glance.
Until you remember Yamamura the wanderer
who was locked in an underground cell just past Ludwig
where his secrets decay in the fallow darkness
Yamamura sports the garb of a distant eastern land and once pursued a beast for honorable revenge
Before becoming a hunter of the league. He wields a Chikage, which is a blade forged in said Eastern land.
There are of course other lands outside of Yharnam's gothic victorian themes
and Yamamura is our link to them.
Could he have been our Bloodborne teaser character for shadows die twice all along?
Kind of like how Chester was our teaser character for Bloodborne in Dark Souls
Maybe.
If Bloodborne was to have a successor
I've always thought that it would really need to shed the stale gothic theme that it has
and Lovecraftian feudal Japan would be this perfect spin for Bloodborne 2.
Now do I actually think it's Bloodborne 2?
Not really.
Honestly it almost feels too obvious based on that trailer like that's what they want us to think
and Miyazaki has said that he doesn't want to work on Souls-Borne sequels for several years if ever.
and also I hope it's not Bloodborne 2.
FromSoftware does a way better job with new IPs and new spiritual successors
rather than sequels in my opinion and
Bloodborne is just a beautiful game on its own,
and I don't really want another console exclusive
Please don't take away my PC cheat engine camera angles
Anyway, regardless of which game this turns out to be
we've established this oriental Theme as a certainty
and putting aside these
Distant references of eastern lands that we see in Bloodborne and Dark Souls as well
remember that FromSoftware has worked on heavily Japanese themed games in the past.
Namely Kuon and Tenchu.
Let's take a look at these.
So Tenchu is a third-person stealth game
based in feudal Japan, with sort of demonic themes simmering just below the surface
many of these tenchu games carry the word shadow in their titles
and a couple of characters keep on coming back to life
and I found this cutscene
Referencing a main character's shadow.
"I sent my shadow far and wide across the land."
As for the mechanism in the teaser and its references to Tenchu
Where there's a theme of puppets and reanimated skeletons
and some even speculate that this mechanism is a reimagined grappling hook
Which plays a role in tenchu
and some people are even saying, that there's a kunai throwing dagger embedded within the red cord.
It's sort of hard to tell if you can see it here
Or if it's just the metal twisting.
Have a look.
Another possibility is Kuon which is a survival horror game that was developed for the Playstation 2 by FromSoftware
Kuon has maybe one reference to the teaser trailer, that I could find
namely this jump-scare sound that is almost identica,l to the string based jump-scare sound of the trailer
Next I should probably mention shadow tower.
Which I'm literally only mentioning because it has the word shadow in the name
It's this first-person dungeon crawler, which is similar to some of the Kingsfield games that inspired demon's souls
But again, not that much of a relationship here, except the name.
And finally demon's souls.
Demon's Souls has an arch stone that is called the arch stone of the shadow men
which leads to all the shrine of storms levels.
Now these shadow men are said to
worship storms, mourn the dead and reside in other bodies.
There's also the sound of a storm happening in the background of the teaser trailer.
and FromSoftware and partners did all recently shut down all of their Demon Souls servers
In anticipation of a sequel perhaps?
Or perhaps not because I have to say as fans who are sort of confronted with something that we don't recognize
it's almost natural for us to have this tendency to
Cling to what we know
Bloodborne, Kuon, Shadow Tower, Tenchu, Demon's Souls,
It's just as likely to be none of these things and a new IP altogether.
So don't get me wrong the only reason I don't talk about it as much being a new IP
Is there's not much for me to talk about beyond saying it
But in the spirit of analysis let's look at what could be happening in this scene, with less bias this time
Firstly this metal tool with a wooden handle
Jutting from the parchment seems to be a part of a screwdriver or more likely a chisel
I leaned towards chisel as it explains the shavings that might be appearing in the top left and the bottom right
Was the bone being stripped or something beforehand?
Secondly the entire mechanism
Wavers gently in the early frames, as if it's suspended in the air
The first part to move is actually this lighter blood-stained chunk
That's connected to the top of the bone, and the bone is almost certainly the bone of an arm or a leg
Next to move is the cord, which is pulled taut,
but it moves independently of the first motion I just mentioned in the top left.
It's almost as if there's something in the bottom right causing tension as well
In fact most of the twisting related to the cord is actually taking place at the base of the cylinder in the bottom right
Indicating that there is a lot of pressure being generated
from within the sheath in this direction
Basically, there's so much going on off-screen that it feels really impossible to know for sure what this is.
I've watched it hundreds of times today, so now I can't wait to see what it actually is
It could be a winch mechanism, which is something used to haul or lift
But it doesn't seem to be lifting anything just tightening and creating tension.
So it might be more of a turnbuckle mechanism
which was used to create and maintain tension
I Imagine this would have been used in those old torture devices that pull people apart
So could it be a corpse attached to a pulley torture system?
Obviously torturing a dead person or their bone is redundant
, but the title is
'Shadows die twice' which indicates that there might be a reason to kill someone a second time.
and after all
Skeletons are reanimated in pretty much every FromSoftware game
Why not now?
And finally could it be a mechanically augmented arm or body of sorts?
A sort of medieval take on human augmentation with
mechanisms instead of technology
would be a pretty crazy new area to dive into.
But in conclusion at the very least it looks like we can expect more information within the next 12 months
and likely even a release date in late 2018
My source is Yasuhiro Kitao who used to work for Sony on Bloodborne
and who now works for FromSoftware.
In addition there could be a trailer at PSX in a day or so which is really soon
Christmas seems to be coming early for Souls fans and I think I'm always gonna be here
telling you kind of why these gifts are awesome
I can't wait to see what you guys think in the comments
Because it's been the first time in a long time that we've talked about something new on this channel, and I'm really excited and tired
Because it's 4:00 a.m.
But.
I'll talk to you guys again soon.
Also in the last video we held a vote for which video I should work on next
and the winner was
the shared timeline of Soulsborne. So thanks to everyone who became a patron, to vote
I really appreciate your insight into the channel, so thank you, and I'll see you again soon