DBD Has An Aesthetic Problem
I've thought for a while that DBD has a bit of an aesthetic problem, but I think Skull Merchant really solidified it. I'm just gonna share my thoughts on it. Please feel free to comment what you think, maybe you think I'm wrong, that's okay. (Also if I'm writing in caps I'm not actually angry I'm just making a point that in my POV is obvious.)
Aesthetic is certainly an important part of a game. It helps set the tone and atmosphere, which obviously helps with the immersion. Horror games are no exception, I mean find me one person who likes horror, but doesn't like the vibes Silent Hill gives off. In fact, would Silent Hill 2 hit the same without it's lonely, creepy, liminal atmosphere? I don't think so.
Dead By Daylight had a creepy atmosphere at one point, I feel it's lost though. It's like the more it gets updated, the more mediocre, and normie it starts to feel. Dead By Daylight is literally a game about an eldritch being that sucks them into a realm so it can feed off their fear and hopelessness. The characters are literally faced with nightmarish killers in recreated horrifying places. Why should it not feel creepy, and grainy?
Here we can see some glimpses into older maps. As you can see, IT'S ACTUALLY NIGHT TIME AS IT SHOULD BE IN A GAME CALLED "DEAD BY DAYLIGHT"!!! Do they not look more sinister, more like a place you are motivated to escape? Do they not fit the feeling of a place that's like a horror movie with an actual killer? What happened?
WHY IS IT ALREADY DAYLIGHT?!?! WHY IS IT RELAXING?! The Legion is already not that intimidating, but they still fit DBD (IMO). The old Ormond was a cold, dark place, where this grungy, unhinged gang would hunt you down, and the old Coldwind, it was this eerie dark rotting field where a tragedy took place, and this maniac would chase you with a chainsaw. It's so bright now, so comforting, why? Lets get to the characters...
First of all, I don't mind a few gag skins, or more fancy skins, that's fine. I do have an issue with this.
Why is this modded Fallout 4 raider showing up alongside Leatherface, Michael Myers, The Doctor, or even The Huntress? I know the game isn't scary anymore, but there is nothing wrong with a moody horror aesthetic. A lot of people got into the game because they think it's cool to play as and against HORROR CHARACTERS! Why is it turning into Fortnite? We could have had a creepy deformed cyborg killer that actually fits the name "Skull Merchant" but instead we got millionaire Mary Sue manga lover...
Yes, I know the game isn't scary, I'm just focused solely on aesthetics and what fits the game and lore. What do you guys think? Again, I love hearing the rest of the community's thoughts. :D
Comments
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Honestly Its been so long I forgot how much darker Ormond was before the update.
I 100% agree no map should be set in daylight or even near dawn in my opinion. They should all have a darker & tone & look. (While not being so dark you litterally can't see what you're doing!)
There should also probably be a thick (ish) fog as standard on every map so you can't stand at opposite ends & wave to each other (again without making it impossible to see 5 feet in front of you)
Welcome to the fog has little meaning these days there really isn't any of note even when offerings are used.
Can't really comment on the skull merchant part of your post because I don't personally mind her (other than game play styles but hey each to their own on that front)
She doesn't especially fit the horror category that well in a similar way to a lot not liking or wanting Trickster, but she is different (good or bad depending on individual pov's) & better to have variety.
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Agreed, also old Ormond looks so much better that it's painful. I wasn't around in those days, and I still think Ormond still looks okay, but the old version looks just like a straight upgrade to the current version. Same with coldwind.
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Visually, I'd agree with Coldwind.
I quite like Ormonds aesthetic right now though. It feels cold.
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There did used to be fog on the maps and I remember reading that it ended up being too difficult for console to run, so the fog was removed. Not sure if that's actually the truth but I read it awhile ago in a discussion.
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I respect that, I probably just like old Ormond better because I'm a sucker for the dark and gritty aesthetic. But Ormond now is still good, like you said it feels like winter, old Ormond didn't.
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bHVR has guts for stepping outside traditional iconic horror aesthetic.
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The game looked so much better years ago. Now most maps are...I don't know. Cheerful?
I half expected them to give SM a cartoon golf course of some kind.
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at this point, i just see trickster as off-brand dio
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A Dio inspired Mori would not be a bad thing.
Muda'Muda'Muda'Muda'Muda'Muda'Muda'Muda'Muda'Muda'Muda'Muda'Muda'Muda'Muda'Muda'Muda'Muda'Muda'Muda'Muda'
ROADE ROLLAR
WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYyyy
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not every horror has to be dark and creepy. I do like the "deceptively peaceful) thing and I think Coldwind with the cowtree got that down to some degree. - I would like some more horrifying details tho. Peaceful and reassuring at first glance - but quite unsettling upon closer inspection.
As for Ormond I think it lacks that quality. Even the main Building just looks like it's been closed for a few years. - Place some skeletons in the ski lifts for starters. And maybe add some mokre unsettling things along those lines.
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At that point, just get us Part 1 Dio as a Killer.
Sassy #########-talking British vampire? Yes please.
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I think it's possible the game does not looks as good as it could because it's designed for switch and supposedly designed to be adapted to mobile as well.
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"Killer i don't like aesthetically" = "DBD has an aesthetic problem"
Kinda ironic saying that and posting pics of legion which are the most non-horror/anime/manga/fortnite/tiktok char in dbd
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No thanks. Get me classic Dracula instead.
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I think the problem with this take is that it presents "horror aesthetic" as being one, incredibly restrictive thing: dark and gloomy and grainy. That obviously isn't the only aesthetic that a horror movie can have, so why should a game that's all about celebrating the horror genre stick to it obsessively without any room for variety? That's not to mention the gameplay requirements of a game like this which necessarily require certain elements be at least toned back-- while there's a lot of discussion about how the balance of The Game (the map, that is) changed in its update, it's undeniable that brightening that map up helped it immensely because now you can, y'know, actually see and navigate around it.
To pick another example, let's look at Coldwind. It's true that the maps used to be more straightforward in their atmosphere, very dark and foreboding, but they were also completely miserable to play on because you couldn't see anything, especially in the corn. So, they got brightened up, and now they function far better as gameplay maps - except for Cowshed, but that's balance, not aesthetic. Even with the new aesthetic, they didn't move away from horror in general, they moved to a different kind of horror; bright, glaring, sun-blasted, the new Coldwind maps look, fittingly, like certain portions of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and I doubt anyone would put an asterisk next to that movie's horror atmosphere.
A similar thing applies to the killers. We do have traditional dark and gritty looking slasher characters, but we also have a few monsters and a few characters from other types of horror- like Trickster coming right out of a psychological horror movie, and Skull Merchant being an example of the rich hunting people for sport, a very classic horror archetype. That doesn't clash with DBD's aesthetic, it enhances it, allowing the game to show and represent more kinds of horror than just, Jason Voorhees number fifty-three.
TL;DR: Horror doesn't have to be visually dark and gloomy, so there's no reason DBD should have to be either.
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They used to have a much more dirty, dark, gritty aesthetic but people wanted fancy, bright, colourful skins and then BHVR found out those sold really well they toned down the dark, dirty, gritty atmosphere across the board.
Post edited by Krazzik on0 -
The thing is, they KNOW how to make atmospheric content for maps. Just look at the past Halloween event. That was amazing! Hold the lame ass cosmetics from the event tho, I dont need your gumball machine censer or your x-ray t-shirts.
I never thought that any of the maps were too hard to see in, or that that should even be something survivors in a horror game should complain about.
If brightness was a problem then they could make the game look darker for survivors than it would for killers. They already do this with The Dredge, so its not a mechanical impossibility.
Ive played since 2017, and I know quite a few things were rather fugly, but the rusty foggy atmosphere pulled everything together despite all that.
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Most games that make money off of cosmetic sales inevitably start adding tacky and tone-breaking outfits because people like being tacky eyesores. Nearly every outfit Feng Min and Yun-Jin Lee have is obnoxious to look at, and then there's Legion and Trickster on the killer side.
It infamously happened to Team Fortress 2 and now it happens to every game, because gamers have terrible tastes in fashion.
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And to say something about the Skull Merchant, while I think her design is lackluster, the thing that really kills it for me is that mask she has. Everything else, I can at least kinda see something going on: she's wearing practical clothing for engineering (boots, coveralls) over her ritzy corporate flair (blouse, necklace, and earrings) and has a big stabby robo-arm and... weird things(?) on her fingertips that I still don't understand. That's all okay enough, nothing amazing but it's whatever, there's some sense of design to it. But that mask? I don't understand it at all. Why is it so flashy? What's it made of? Why does it only cover one eye with a bright red lens? Why does it have spikes on the gas mask's filter? I can't stand that mask at all, I don't know what it's supposed to be, and it looks so goofy, wrecks the whole thing for me.
And above all else, why does the Skull Merchant not wear a mask that looks like a skull?
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The diamond mask look also looks bad to me. It's strange because some of the mask retextures in her skins remove the jeweled look on it, and it looks so much better without it. Idk why they didn't give her mask that clean metallic look in one of her skins by default. It would have fit much more nicely.
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There definitely used to be more fog when I started years back can't remember how much honestly I didn't record games back then but certainly not like it is now.
I even played with new moon bouquet offerings those were some great games (though would be hated today or played with a regular basis even then)
Honestly as a starting point making each map night time or even just dusk would be a good start.
Rework Freddy's only redeeming feature for me is when I play against him on the farm or crow map at least they look better in the dream world!
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my friend came up with a better SM design that sounds intimidating after I showed him your post
we came to the conclusion that Trickster is better than her for the fact that he actually looks insane
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For me, I always got a more "Clockwork Orange" vibe from him, with that combination of style, egotism and soulless depravity.
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I don't really like Trickster's style at all but at least there is an aesthetic cohesion to his design. They wanted an insane k-pop killer, and that is exactly what Trickster looks like. I might not like it, but it is what it was meant to be, so at least the design is successful.
Can't say the same for Skull Merchant. Both her appearance and her lore lack cohesion, like it's a grab-bag of random ideas haphazardly glued together. Manga fan, ruthless corporate executive, insane wealthy hunter, technological genius, and skulls. Very little of that is represented in her appearance.
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If I broke into BHVR HQ, I'd reset Coldwind back to its original variant for a start 😏
As for Skull Merchant, its a blatant 2nd attempt at pleasing the horny community, which is a sizeable chunk of the fanbase if twitter is anything to go by. But look at it this way, this is a horror game, and we got Skull Merchant before;
* Werewolf
* Pirate
* Vampire
* Witch (Killer version)
* Jason
Hopefully its back to horror next time out.
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As I said, thought so for a while, but Skull Merchant solidified it.
Legion isn't that scary, and I admitted the game itself isn't that scary. Legion does have this gritty grungy feel to them though. I don't think they are very anime or Fortnite at all, I can admit Susie, and Susie only seems a little Tiktok. I don't think there's a lot wrong with the concept of Legion, they are an "edgy" gang of killers, it was gonna be added eventually, they are sort of in a way Scream rip offs. Scary? Nah, but to me it fit.
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I don't think you are wrong, but the game is still called "Dead By Daylight" and given the Entity feeds off fear, and hope, I think it would make sense to be as gloomy as possible. It's a nightmarish otherworldly place that's MADE for people to be hunted by killers. I see what you mean by balancing though, I just feel like literally making it daytime is too far.
Also Trickster was obviously just there to cater to the K-pop craze, not a huge fan of him, but hey, he does have a more interesting power than Skull Merchant.
She just became a millionaire who gets away with murder out of nowhere.
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Well, you said it yourself- the Entity needs survivors to feel some degree of hope. Wouldn't it be more hopeful to be somewhere a little brighter?
Besides, like I said, the gloomy aesthetic isn't a requirement for horror. Brightly lit places can be foreboding and scary even in real life- ever been in a hospital long after dark? Empty, sterile halls, with harsh and unnatural lights making it impossible to tell how long you've been there or what time it is unless you get to a window...
Or, to repeat my earlier example, Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Parts of that movie do take place at night, but parts of it take place during the day, and they all contribute to that movie's masterful horror tone.
The name is just a name, it's okay if not everything in the game follows it to the letter. Not every character in Overwatch is from the actual organisation Overwatch, for example.
As for Trickster, it doesn't really matter why they decided to make him, what matters is if he's a horror character- and he is, very much so. Same as Skull Merchant.
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Definitely seems they're relegating their decision making to whats popular, which is not inherently bad but-- Trickster was to appeal to the K-Pop influx, Stranger Things for obvious reasons-- Resident evil for obv reasons (though Wesker is amazingly well made.)
I think, honestly, the developers are either completely UNABLE to create a dynamic light engine for this game, or they simply want to appeal to the newbie players as much as possible by removing all spooky, oooOOOooO elements from the game entirely which is why it is so well lit. I personally love the darker levels we still get now and then, like the Yamaoka Estate, or Midwhich, Badham, etc,. But it would be nice to an actually improvement to the aesthetic.
Skull Merchant, like others said above, is a BLATANT attempt to appease the Horni and the 3-Gen Meta (which no one likes, because it is boring.) Her Lore is absolutely hot garbage.
"She studied at the library."
I'm sorry. What writer actually crafted that little nugget that's legit in her wiki. She studied investment and economics at the library and shazam, she's rich? Maybe the devs are having as much burn out as the rest of the community?
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It would make more sense for well lit areas to be threatening/dangerous if the lighting in the game actually lent to that. There's so many aura revealing perks it's kind of pointless to need to play on Coldwind, for instance, because of visibility. I LOVE the dynamic lighting of the upcoming TCM game, it looks legit spooky because the sheer contrast gives it more than just everything being dark blue. Dynamic lighting/shadows changes the experience insanely.
"As for Trickster, it doesn't really matter why they decided to make him, what matters is if he's a horror character- and he is, very much so. Same as Skull Merchant."
To this part, well, it's kind of the argument of "well he was made to be horror, so there you go, the end."
We can criticize intentions, especially if the intent is just to piggy back off what is current but then not do much else. SM is an example of the faults of piggy backing off the "Sex sells," energy and really falling flat. SM is bad design, part of the overarching aesthetic/design direction that the game has been facing.
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That's not the argument at all. The argument is, divorced from the popularity of k-pop, Trickster is still very much a horror character. He would make the perfect subject for a horror movie, his story and design are clearly a part of the horror genre, and so... he's just a fine character for DBD. It doesn't matter that k-pop is popular enough for BHVR to have tried making a k-pop killer based on potential profit alone... because they succeeded. They made a good killer that fits into the game, at least in terms of aesthetic and story.
Same with Skull Merchant. I think it's a giant "citation needed" to say she's a sex-sells type of character, basically the only thing you could fairly connect to that is her walk cycle and that's pretty tenuous evidence, but even if she were- the end result is very clearly a horror-appropriate character. She's just not a grimy slasher, she plays off different horror concepts.
One thing I find so interesting about the argument that Trickster and now Skull Merchant don't fit in DBD because of how little they resemble the archetypal killer, someone like Trapper, is that nobody complained when we first got killers that are as far away from traditional slashers as Trapper is. Blight and Demogorgon represent just as big a change in aesthetic design as Trickster or Skull Merchant, but because they differed in a way that still bent towards the visually scary, nobody batted an eye.
DBD is a game that is meant to celebrate horror, the "horror hall of fame" as they call it. Eventually you run out of slashers, and you start addressing other kinds of horror- like monsters, or rich people hunting humans for sport, or the horror of someone using their social status to get away with torture and murder. Those things don't test this game's aesthetic and concept, they're just already a part of it.
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The fact that you shrug Trickster off simply because he's kpop related is not only funny, but it also tells me that your views on horror are quite frankly narrow.
Literally go watch horror movies like The Neon Demon, Blood Rage, American Psycho or Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. The killers in all those movies all falls into the same catagory of murder type as Trickster does. A killer who hides behind a facade of normality but is twisted and unstable on the inside.
Trickster being kpop related means Jack sh!t when his lore and mannerism clearly reflects and shows that he is a psychopath and a horror character.
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Dbd has long ago turned into an strategy action game when survs stopped hiding and started looping the killer for 3 gens. Especially now that hiding perks are nerfed, aura reading perks are everywhere, and survs are teabagging at every pallet stun.
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The easiest answer is that generally speaking while people miss the more "moody dark" aesthetic of old dbd they also forgot how god awful playing some of those maps were. Now part of the issue is we're not even completely playing the same game as back then as the game did get an overhaul. So things like fog are kinda not as prevalent even after using murky reagents and moon offerings got totally deprecated. Though the game is much better to play and in a lot of ways more universally stable.
As for individual character aesthetics I feel people are too attached to pigeon holing horror into a "dark moody" box. Like dbd isn't hurting for a metric butt ton of classic horror archetypes and licensed marketable horror icons. What this game has a distinct lack of is representation of more distinct horror subgenre archetypes. Grindhouse, campy, high scifi, cartoon, asylum style etc. I think killers like Trickster and Skull Merchant lean more towards a bit more of the niche and even oddball horror motifs. It's different and I think it fits well even if the execution isn't great with Skull Merchant.
As for having a murderous cyborg hunter. BHVR literally made an entirely separate asym game where that was literally every single 'Hunter' just in different flavors. It was called Death Garden and that game failed not once but twice sadly. So I don't blame them if they are perhaps a little less keen on a full commitment to running that idea in dbd.
Aesthetics in dbd to me haven't really changed a great deal other than having more of a focus on being either highly playable or highly stylized. Also don't be so down on daytime horror, plenty of scary stuff happens under the sun. Hell Texas Chainsaw Massacre is primarily a day time movie, hell even Halloween had Myers ganking folks at lunchtime and being creepy generally the from morning through evening. It's easy to fear the darkness but until we get a vampire killer the entire cast can work just as well in the light. Well maybe not Wraith.
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This is the kind of thread that needs to be pinned.
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I'm sorry but whether you like Skull Merchant or not there's no way Trickster has a more interesting power. He just throws knives...that's it
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I think the answer lies in broad appeal.
What tends to happen is a niche item starts to grow in popularity, it expands, it tries to take on a broader appeal to further that expansion.
This inevitably dilutes what made it unique and interesting and it becomes a blander, more homogenized, generic experience that all can enjoy.
It happens to games, whether they be miniatures, cards, RPG's tabletop or digital.
Eventually someone in a meeting room somewhere will throw out the word "broad appeal" or similar in order to make it for everybody and suddenly its not really for anybody anymore.
Its not always pessimistic many things manage to expand and still keep the unique aspects that made it an interesting niche to begin with but generally the bigger something tends to get the blander it often becomes in order to broaden its appeal.
I miss a lot of the the older darker grittier bloodier grainier DBD too.
(Although I don't mind the sepia look of coldwind its very texas chainsaw massacre in its colour palette).
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horror is good when it is pitch black and a man with a knife chases you and bad when its literally anything else. so says i, DBD fan #5913571. aka the judge, jury, and pyramid head of what is and is not scary.
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I mean this just seems like making a mountain out of a molehill since
1. The aesthetic of horror isn't so monotone as to just be "dark and gloomy." In fact, one of the maps you cite as less scary now (Coldwind) is literally a reference to Texas Chainsaw, a horror movie that's touted as one of the greats for showing you daytime isn't some "time-out" from the horror
2. The title Dead by Daylight means very little. It's a reference to the subtitle of Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn. Plus, if you wanna get pedantic, survivors don't "die" so they can't be Dead by Daylight ™️©️ anyway
3. Since those two map reworks happened there have been dark and gloomy maps and killers to enjoy. I mean those came out in 2020-2021. RPD and Garden of Joy had come out in that time, they just made both Red Forest maps and Shelter Woods even gloomier and darkerer, and depending on what you define as a "scary" killer, we got like 6 of em. Hell, people loved Dredge and said it was their favorite killer design-wise and he's right up your alley.
4. I'm very curious how SM is a "Mary Sue." At least, enough of a "Mary Sue" to be called out as one. Being exceptional is a part of most of the characters' lore in DBD. Like these people get opportunities left and right and are basically the best at what they do. SM is no exception
Creatively, DBD is doing fine. Gameplay is my main concern at the moment.
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Being exceptional is a part of most of the characters' lore in DBD. Like these people get opportunities left and right and are basically the best at what they do.
Personally I wish we had less exceptional people, especially in regards to survivors. The early days, most survivors felt like ordinary people, like Dwight and Claudette, David and Ace, Adam and Jeff. Even if they were talented or successful, they still felt like grounded characters. But then we ended up with famous celebrities like Jane, Kate, Zarina, and Yun-Jin; rich upper-class people like Elodie and Felix; or geniuses like Jonah, Yoichi, Felix (again) and Vittorio. It feels weird to me, I'd rather play as characters that I do or could have common ground with.
It's less of a problem with killers. I'd say Skull Merchant being an exceptional person isn't the problem, it's that her exceptional qualities are badly written or poorly explained.
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Great discussion and points!
My opinion is as simple as this. I agree with you on maps and disagree on killers.
Maps = I miss most older maps compared to their newer reworked counterparts. Specifically, Coldwind Farm maps. That being said, I was quite impressed with the latest round of reworked maps and actually do like the aesthetics of Red Forest more now.
Killers = aesthetically I trust the Devs. If you would have told me they were adding a colorful K-pop star as a killer, I would have laughed. However, personally I think they made it work and well. I definitely prefer killers on a more monstrous level like Dredge & Demon. But I also think that one of the best parts of the Horror genre is that "Horror" can be attached to anything.
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i recently watched a gameplay video with old realms (i started to play dbd in early 2020, sweet memories) and it looks so much more atmospheric. The new maps probably appeal to a broader mass of gamers (who maybe wouldn't play the game if it would be too horror focused) but the game lacks character since then. It's cluttered with content and there is no clear recurring theme.
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Old Ormond actually looked like an abandoned lodge and Coldwind actually looked eerie and felt very uneasy (I felt that a lot back in the day when playing on Coldwind). I really miss the creepy, out of place aesthetic the game had back before the maps got reworked. Even the old survivor models looked cool, they actually looked scared and like they were trying to survive. I also miss the fog.
With that being said, we have had some gloomy, dark maps recently (Garden Of Joy, RPD, New Red Forest). And we have had some more scary killers like Dredge, for example. Personally I don't mind more human killers, but Skull Merchant's backstory is horrendous and poorly written imo.
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I completely agree. My cousins and I were just talking about this. We hadn't started playing DBD yet before they changed many of the maps asthetics, but when we watched videos of earlier versions of the game, we were surprised why they changed it, because we thought it looked way better the way it was, dark and creepy. And we also talked about how we weren't a fan of many of the killers have been not scary/creepy.
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The realm was created by the Entity, it doesn't make sense for it to look like a real world horror movie. It should look like a place you hope to escape, not hope to vibe at.
Trickser's design and story are more like a K-dating sim, and that may sound weird, but this generation and especially anime fans (not the same as K-pop but they can overlap) love the whole scary sadistic romance. I can tolerate Trickster tho, but Trickster + Skull Merchant? I feel like that's too much to ask lore wise.
I think there's a citation needed as to why she could go to the library get millions and get away with murdering other millionaires. I think by ignoring that part, you're setting your expectations too low as a player and consumer. She's not like a horror character at all to me, I mean her weapon, fair enough, but she still is based off more of a modded Fallout 4 raider, there was also I think a DC comic book character with almost the exact same visual design. I think MintSkull said she looked like a merc who had some military background.
You do keep saying there are more horrors than just dark and gloomy ones, well there's more to horror than just slashers too, also thrillers, and actions movies are not always horror. Trapper does seem like a very typical horror character to me tho... I think he's based on Jason. Blight is like this body horror zombie creature, and Demodog is from an actual horror series. He's like this alien creature that opens his head. He is pretty cute, but I can see how he's scary.
DBD already has rich people hunting humans sorta, Trapper. Trapper is also rich for a reason, he didn't just walk into a library and become a Gary Stu.
I guess I see what you're saying from a gameplay POV, but I still think there is no excuse to have relaxing happy daytime maps. I think people give the whole "It's normal from the outside, but when you look closer, it's scarrrryyyy" take when talking about DBD. Idc if there's a tree of dead cows, Coldwind is just not what it once was. It's just like a normal farm now. Rotten Fields doesn't look so rotten.
They could have had a really cool scifi killer, they had a cyborg! They could have done so much with it, but we really did get more of a Fallout aesthetic.
I am familiar with Death Garden, and I'm sorry to say it but that failed Bhvr game actually nailed the horror aesthetic better than Skull Merchant. It's not as flashy, a little more creepy, you can't see the faces as well, making them appear less human, which does add to horror. I would compare Joey from the Legion to Death Garden more than Skull Merchant, honestly.
As I mentioned in the comment, the realm is created by the Entity. I wouldn't compare it to a horror movie that is supposed to take place in the real world, even if our boi Bubba is included, in the realm it makes more sense for him to be in the creepiest darkest version of his home. Halloween's daytime moments were there as a build up, the climax took part at night.
I can't disagree, but at least it doesn't feel like you're playing Huntress. If you're playing Skull Merchant, you could be playing Knight, or Clown, or Artist, or any zoning killer.
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Let's see how to tackle this..
I guess let's start with Deathgarden: One of the last hunters they added to Deathgarden was a granny soldier with a grenade launcher called the Veteran and you could very much see her face. There was also the poacher whose scarred up mug was on proud display as well. Only the Inquisitor and the Stalker wore masks.
Entity realm creation: The Entity creates the realm based on what is in the survivors and killers' heads. It's also clearly stated that the entity doesn't have a contextual understanding of the human world in the same way as I we do. So why is there an expectation that it will have a preference over daytime or nighttime when those concepts seem wholly inconsequential compared to ritual of feeding off survivors? If we're going to lean heavily on lore then the switches from night to day on some maps is purely the entity either not caring or not knowing the difference between the two in context of the human mind.
Skull Merchant lore: First she didn't go to a library, she's obsessed with her father's mangas. She got to indulge in her degenerate weeb fantasies in the comfort of her own home, she's taking cosplay to the darkest level. A millionaire who gets away with killing other millionaires isn't that far fetched considering rich people have a long standing history of getting away brutal crimes against each other and even more so those who occupy any station below their own class. I get people don't think much of her lore cause it isn't exactly quality, but let's not be so disingenuous as to not respect what is there. She doesn't get caught because she's weird, but not dumb. She spends a considerable amount of time and money to stalk, kidnap, and then hunt down her targets in the wilderness rather than just mercing people at home. Also yeah, Trapper is rich, he's like 1800's mining family rich as opposed to 2023 new money rich and he also buried all of his workers in a mine collapse cause reasons.
Artist: Just take a moment to have a moan about Artist. This killer should not even exist considering her backstory actually makes no freaking sense for a killer to have! She's has the backstory of a survivor, a set of powers that legit amount to "haha, entity like bird!", and her actual gameplay is both annoying and hyper limited in ways that I would say are more egregious than Skull Merchant. It's one thing to have a silly backstory, but it is another to ask the reader to sit through a backstory where they show you an actual killer torturing someone only to kill him and then make the torture victim the entity's new killer. That makes no sense in the worst ways. At least Skull Merchant is the active party in her backstory and that is a million times more palatable than the hot mess of Artist.
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"Do they not fit the feeling of a place that's like a horror movie with an actual killer?" VS "it doesn't make sense for it to look like a real world horror movie."
Please pick a lane and stick to it.
Except they did expand upon Artist's backstory in one of the haddie tomes which adds more depth to Carmina's backstory overall.
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I'll be honest with you, I don't play enough to unlock tome lore and haven't had time to read most of it through other means yet.
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I wouldn't say that these maps are inherently bad, as someone that played this game since 2016 the old versions of the maps were eye vomit to look at
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