70 hours to clear but I was quite thorough about doing sidequests and optional areas and going back to old parts of the map to check if there was anything new I could access

Game’s great! Can’t wait for act three.

The second fight with Lace fucking ruled, and Grand Mother Silk was a cool final boss

I liked that the way she just sort of hovers in the background with no hitbox makes her feel weird and unearthly when every single other thing in the game has collision damage

So okay. Here are some thoughts on what’s been going on here

Obviously, Grandma is a Higher Being, like the Pale King and Radiance and Hera and etc. That’s explicit.

The whole of Pharloom was built to suit her needs. But, like, it’s all gone fucky

The mechanisms that held it all together are falling apart and there are fewer and fewer bugs left to keep it running

Lace and Phantom were made to be Grandma’s daughters, but they weren’t enough for her. Because they were just made of silk?

Weavers were once Pharloom’s ruling class but have since been forced to flee beyond Grandma’s reach. Grandma’s loyal troops dutifully track them down and bring them back to her. Lace at least believes that she does this looking for a true daughter.

But the Weaver bloodlines are dying out and whatever they’re trying to do with the ones they capture, it clearly isn’t working

And Grandma just keeps sitting on top of the world in her massive cocoon, calling out to lesser bugsm mind, drawing them to make a pilgrimage to her Citadel. But her own defenses keep turning them into mulch.

Is the giant cocoon a protective shell for her? Or a prison?

I think Widow is terribly interesting in this context because she IS a weaver, just one who had been thoroughly mutilated

But she was being punished for...something

Something of note: Hornet has had the option to just walk away for a long time. When you hit the Blasted Steps, you can just keep walking left and eventually Hornet will acknowledge that you’re reached the boundary of Pharloom.

But she insists that she can’t leave until she’s gotten to the citadel and fucked up whoever’s in charge

She explains that if she leaves it unsettled they’ll just come after it again

But like. Is that the Calling that all the pilgrims hear, whispering in her ear