That’s why she should’ve been called the tracker or somthing And make the skull merchant an actual cyborg or creepy salesman idk I’m still excited for her but her name is pretty misleading
I saw a lot of redesigns that give her cool prosthetic/cyborg legs so what if she lost her legs in a accident so her dad who was struggling to get his mangas published wrote one about a ritch badass with prosthetic/cyborg legs to make her feel better. Then that manga actually got published and her dad became engulfed in his work making her feel like he loved this character this version of herself more then his actual daughter. So she would become a tycoon investing heavily in advanced technology to impress her dad but when he disappeared she completely lost it and full embraced this character her dad made for her. This would give a deeper meaning and reason to her wanting to copy her dad's manga and give her cool robot legs!
Yeah but cyborg legs probably means another lame mobility killer that breaks the game when people actually realize what it's power does. There is already one Blight.
I definitely agree that when I read the story for the first time, I was just kinda confused as to how she went from a normal girl to a multi millionaire so quickly with very little detail. I guess we could just imply she went out of her way to learn a bit about engineering and technology to construct her drones, but I was interested to see how she became so successful and the story kinda breezes over that.
@@dumblenutz5561 agreed The trickster I think had the same issue, apparently his time saved him Hopefully if the SM gets a tome in the future it will save her I want my roots of dread tome now
I mean they explain the method by which she accomplished it, and then said she just did the same thing enough times until she was rich af. You can argue it’s a bit rushed, but they do cover how it happened.
I also like the fact that she's 100% in control of her life: she's got full agency in her lore. She's not Carmina getting buffeted by random bullcrap or Rin Yamaoka succumbing to ancestral rage spurred on by her father snapping, she's pure evil and she loves it!
Honestly her lore isn't bad, it's just that she was a disappointment from an overall game design perspective and her look in general can be seen as oversexualised for a base version of a killer. Seeing her lore though, I can definitely see her dressing sexy because she has control of her sexuality and using it to manipulate others.
@@floofzykitty5072 I’d say the sexualization is a part of her lore though maybe? I can certainly believe that under the mask and during the day, she’s likely very charming and attractive, which she then weaponizes to convince people to like her and let her buy them out, only for her to gut their companies and then sell them to get even richer. I wouldn’t be surprised if she exploits the sleaziness of businessmen to lure them into positions where she’ll either force them to sell, or kill them.
Honestly this. When Carmina came out everybody hated it because "why are all female killers victims rather than actually evil??". Now that we get a female killer who's actually pure evil, they hate that too. Honestly I feel like the only killers who never get hate at release are the IP ones. And Dredge for some reason (probably cause if you speak ill of Dredge it'll come out of your closet at night and kill you), at least lore-wise.
As the one of two ding-dongs who thought the killer power in the PTB was actually pretty cool and immediately loved the concept/vibe, this video makes me smile in my heart. Thank you
It's interesting how a good chunk of the base story sounds like the one for spirit, focusing on the downfall of the father rather than the one the stories may for
I guess my thing is that my pet peeves about DBD character design and traits really got cranked to 11 on Skull Merchant. To take Mikaela as an example. She can be boiled down to a laundry list of traits: She's a witch, she's an author/writer, and she's a barista at a cafe. Jonah he's a CIA agent, he's good at math, he's haunted by coordinates. Adriana's laundry list a little too all over the place for me, and also has maybe 1 or 2 superfluous ideas that I thought could be cut for the sake of giving her a leaner story. She's inspired by Manga, she's a businesswoman, she's an engineer, and she's got a weird thing for skulls. I will admit, part of my disappointment is from the fact that she wasn't a sci-fi killer. I've been wanting a sci-fi horror character in DBD for a very long time and to have that denied made me a bit upset. That's on me I shouldn't have set my expectations I should've walked into this chapter clean. However, I will rag a bit on the marketing team because after all they are the people that led us to believe Legion would be a disguise killer. I don't think that the Tools of Torment Teaser was nearly that bad, but I would compare to Spirit's teaser. In Spirit's teaser we were shown rin getting cut up by her father, a tiny tagential detail in spirits look and design. The same for Skull Merchant. The skull part of the skull merchant is a tiny tangential detail in her design and I wish the teaser had been a bit more honest and maybe had shown us her mask or her blade gauntlet to kind of tee us up a bit better. I don't hate Skull Merchant but I don't love her either. She's a sort eh way to close out year 6 of DBD. Other than that Year 6 has been wonderful. The last 3 chapter in my opinion have been bangers. Knight is cool, Project W was amazing. I LOVED Dredge. Hopefully the anniversary chapter can really wow us and assure us that DBD is still on the right track because things are certainly better than they were a couple of years ago.
Honestly I don’t think this was going to be a sci-fi chapter Tools of torment sounds like someone made tools to torment you So This wasn’t going sci-fi, we mite get a sci-if chapter in the future
The spirit's death at her father's hand is not even close to a tangential detail in her design. It's the sole reason that she has been cut into pieces, it's her mori, it's arguably the most important event that happens to the spirit in her lore.
I once heard her described as a scooby foo villain. Need to get rid of someone for economic benefit? Put on a funny mask and get some badly explained equipment and go nuts. She literally gets beat by meddling kids
Honestly, the idea of a Dead by Daylight killer that turned herself into a supervillain straight outta something like marvel is incredible. I think the writing itself leaves something to be desired, but honestly this is a Chapter I’m having more fun letting my imagination run wild with and filling in the gaps myself, like we used to with the og characters when the lore was more vague.
Wow, this video this video largely changed my opinion of this killer. At first, I thought that she was a complete and abject failure. But now I kinda see in a bit of a new light. She's not absolutely horrible in every way when I first saw her, she just okay with a couple of key problems that hold her back. Thank you for opening my eyes and not just trashing her and the entire chapter like almost every other creator is doing right now.
@@kaijuslayer3334 From what i gathered he prefers micromanaging or strategic killers then killers with a direct chase power. Unfortunately her design is an absolute failure in that department since all she's good at is defending three gens and there's absolutely zero strategy in that.
I like them going with the 'Merchant' angle, like they're playing on the Merchant of Death. I'm not sure if it's intentional, but I like the character being a bit of an homage to "The Most Dangerous Game", but updated to include more advanced modern tech. I also like that this is basically DBD's in-house version of The Predator. And to be honest, I prefer that they do this and not bring in an actual yautja, since I would hate to see a Predator running around gunning down opponents that explicitly can't fight back against him. But this chick, it makes perfect sense that she'd be happy to do that. All in all, I like the character, even if she has some weird qualities that you talked about.
Kinda sad that the first Brazilian representations that we get in the game received so much hate,i understand the reasons why but i hope that this feedbacks doesn't stop Behavior from making chapters that takes place in Brazil.
Well..yeah Bu the point is that it wouldnt matter where she came from, she would still recieve hate.. The problem is that Brazil was the unlucky one and got this bomb.. Still hope for more Brasílian killers
Regardless of where she was from even if she was American, almost EVERYONE would feel the way they feel currently. It’s the execution that rubs people the wrong way not the idea that she’s from Brazil.
When I told a mate I was looking forward to the new killer, he told me. "Your painting a target on your back, mate." I said to him; you know I've played wraith Since 2018, right? From being bong to lock-on, I'm ready to play in style. Thank you, pixel, for seeing the killer on what she is rather than the doom & gloom of other content craters. I'm thrilled with my first-ever patron pledge. ^-^
Thank you so much for putting into words my feelings on the chapter. Cause I felt this exact same way and didn't know how to describe it until this video. Love all of your work pixelbush and can't wait till the next one ❤️
By my theory, Adriana, her skull merchant version existed in the first place, possibly created by entity and she just existed, and saito stardet creating the character “skull merchant” when he had dreams of a dark place with despair, possibly the realm of the entity, and then saito dissapears for no reason at all while working on the manga that had the skull merchant character, possibly he is pulled to the entity’s realm, and the skull merchant the saito saw in his dreams is actually Adriana, his daughter, with that we can come up with the Idea of entity having full control of ones life, creation, fate and time, btw having saito as a survivor would make the chapter more Interesting, and the reason why Adriana’s killer name is “skull merchant” is completely about my theory, If It was not the case, they would give her a different name, so she is a creation of entity and she was going to end up in the fog in the first place, entity manifested future Adriana, the skull merchant onto Saito’s dreams, saito begins to work on skull merchant’s manga, Past Adriana gets Inspired by the manga, Saito gets pulled to the entity’s realm, Adriana starts to develop the skull merchant profile, Adriana becomes the skull merchant, she manifests onto Saito’s dreams, and this all goes on as a cycle. Its the entity guys, dont blame Adriana and Saito, ı want saito as a survivor now ngl.
Her sexualised design could actually work to her favour if they actually put an emphasis of her using her sexuality in her lore like the Trickster's lore explains his use of sexuality. They seem to imply this with her love of pop culture, which tends to oversexualise women, but a killer that also used their sexuality in life to manipulate others being a CONTROL based killer would really fit.
Something that drove me insane with the whole "She's not a robot argument" is, when has BHVR's trailers for original killers ever been strait forward. The only one that was pretty blunt was the knight and that's because we knew about him for 6 months. I like her. I'm gonna use some head cannon with her like I do with Hag.
It’s weird cause I absolutely instantly loved her visual design the first glance I got! It’s kinda like a cyber/steampunk Borderlands sexy psycho and I’m all for that. So hearing so many people hate it was kinda shocking to me cause I think it’s a perfect 10/10. Her power definitely needs more strength in either it’s tracking, stealth or exposed to give it a true reason you’d pick her gameplay wise over Doctor, Ghostface, or Bubba, but that’s stuff that can be buffed overtime
I feel like a few things could’ve been done/changed in order to make her entrance more well-received: •(like you said) touching up her lore •changing her title ( *The Skull Merchant* doesn’t quite sit right with me and her design. *The Businesswoman* would be much more fitting and menacing but something along the lines of *The Headhunter* would also work I guess) •Make the trailer and chapter name focus less on her tech stuff, it all led us to believe that it was gonna be a (already highly anticipated) sci-fi killer which made people disappointed when she wasn’t. • her power needs a few tweaks to make it more… usable. I actually kinda like it tho (yeah, it’s pretty weak but a killer power doesn’t need to be strong to be fun)
@Sessoka I'd personally go with *The Engineer,* due to her making these cool gadgets and gizmos. It's kinda like The Oni when the Samurai was called that for his misdeeds, and The Ghostface because of the mask and identity he has.
12:44 As a French person, I feel offended you manage to do a French-accented English so perfectly well I briefly considered if you lied to us all this time about being British That said, good video as always! I always thought the Skull Merchant was 90% brilliant and but that 10% missing made it... "hollow" isn't the right word but it lacked something, and you explained what it missed very well
Thank you! Thank you completely. This is what I was saying to many when the excessive hate for this chapter came down. That everyone was hating on it, not because she was a bad idea, but because they didn't get what they wanted. That it is on them, not on BHVR. The King spoke of her having 'the worst mori ever' and he is a self proclaimed TRAPPER main! Is he serious? Personally, I think she has one of the most character accurate mori. More than most. She releases a drone. This makes her UNDETECTABLE. This explains the confusion of where she is. Despite the audience seeing her, the victim cannot. One of the most classic horror tropes there is. Then she grabs them from behind almost seductively and stabs them in the back....as the drone FILMS it. She is making a trophy, a recording of her claiming 'this one' as her own, to watch and savor at a later time. To make it perfect, BHVR should add a voice line from Adriana telling her victim "Smile for the camera." I look forward to getting to play her and finally try out "the worst killer in DBD history " and I once again thank you for understanding her a little bit better than most.
@Martin Wilmoth Yeah, I agree. The King does NOT know what he's talking about, and neither is SpooknJukes! They're both blissfully ignorant about the whole thing. This chapter is fire!
One thing I hate is when killers don't have a direct relation to their power. I think Adriana's story would be better if instead of a CEO she was an engineer who got canned, this would give her a more personal relation to her in-game power instead of a CEO with a side of drones.
Disagree; It fits with her backstory on a thematic level both in terms of her father's work and also shows how she views anyone or anything working for her: Mere tools to be used and broken how she sees fit.
This video was absolutely fantastic. I think you nailed the issues with her character and where she works vs doesn’t work. You’re completely correct; when you back up and look at her story from a wider lens, it’s a fantastic story that’s scarily accurate to the real world and has its place in horror. It’s the focus on the wrong aspects of her character, too much focus on her father’s backstory, and blatant holes (where did she suddenly get drones? Did she make them? Was she a tech genius or did she steal the design from someone else?) that detract from the fantastic concept of a truly evil woman. It’s kinda funny, people have been joking about wanting an American Psycho-esque character and a woman without a tragic backstory, and now that we’ve gotten a character that’s both of those things, she’s extremely unpopular. I think the discussion on sexy vs sexualized is something that’s incredibly hard to talk about in video games, because so many people don’t understand that it’s not black and white. You can have a character that’s sexy and know that the purpose of her being sexy was still fanservice. I’m not sure how I feel about her thirst trap design, because you bring up a great point that she chose to wear that outfit. But I don’t trust video game devs to have created her look with “female empowerment” in mind. Just look at Spirit who is naked for some reason in her default cosmetic, and the fact that Kate and Jane have jiggle physics. Sorry for the essay in the comments to essentially say good video. It’s just refreshing to hear a different take than “everything about her is trash.”
A fantastic story? Now you’re bullshiting. Also regarding the Spirit being naked part. I would note that’s quite a common trope for onryo or vengeful spirits in depictions in Japanese art. The devs weren’t exactly going off on their own when they went with that design.
I just wanna say, as someone else who's genuinely really excited for this new killer and absolutely adores her, thank you so much for making this video. Yes, she isn't perfect and has a lot of needless problems that are frustrating in how they detract from her, but nonetheless she is for sure the killer I've been most hyped for in a long time. You've basically summed up my entire thoughts about her perfectly, and it's refreshing to get a break from the constant negativity and unconstructive criticism of the community.
Given how many people have put in input to fix her power, to call that all unconstructive makes me think you just think any negative criticism is not constructive.
This idea that negative opinions us unconstructive will always rub me the wrong way. You don't need to know how to cook to criticize food you eat at a restaurant and k kw it's bad. You don't have to k ow what it takes to be a teacher before you can criticize a teacher for having an awful teaching style. You most certainly don't have to have the solution to the killers issues simply because you don't like it. This idea that criticism is harmful has always rubbed me the wrong way. Sure, excess, and even harsh and mean criticism is not useful to developers but their customers should have to be solving their design problems just to criticize their new content
I agree that the second half of the Skull Merchant's story feels cut. However, I don't think that is because they thought it was too short. I think the issue is they intend to use the 2nd half as a tome story. Like you said, the story feels like there needs to be more and with the recent Behavior tomes that are basically a "story midchapter" for the more recent originals (Trickster/Yun Jin and Knight/Vittorio got tomes right after their release) it looks to me like the choice was deliberate, and not accidental. I could by wrong (and cynical), but I imagine that we'll probably see the 2nd half when the next tome comes out.
I believe that the large gap in her lore is to leave room for her future tomes that will probably focus in on her 15 year murderous evolution, with her background out of the way they can have a lot less constraints.
Long rant ahead: TL/DR I'd give her way more slack if she had a decent chase theme, visual design, and supplementary chase power. Or at least one of those things. My biggest problem with her visual design is that she just looks like a normal person wearing a costume. Even the more human-esque killers like Trickster, Deathslinger, or Clown have some pretty inhuman attributes to make them unsettling. Why the hell did they go with a rhinestone half gas mask and not, I don't know, a SKULL mask?? Hell, have it be an ACTUAL skull if you want! Something! Anything! Don't just slap them in a jumpsuit with a cosplayer mask and a forklift arm. Her cosmetics will probably fix this but still. I understand that the way she looks makes sense when you consider her lore and characterization, and I do respect them sticking to their guns on this, but I'll admit I was a little disappointed that she wasn't a cyborg or something. The Entity can bring killers from the past into its realm, why not people from the future? I could ignore EVERYTHING wrong with this killer, the animations, the lore, her power, the god awful chase music, and the underwhelming perks. I could ignore ALL of that, if they had just nailed her visual design like they have with other killers with similar problems like The Knight, Spirit (who was incredibly bad on the PTB), Doctor (Same deal), and Trickster, just because they managed to nail their look and vibe so perfectly. But as it stands, even after watching your video which made several well presented and logical points, I'm still really struggling to find even a single redeemable quality other than: she's almost good. Another big problem is that while they can absolutely fix a lot of the issues with her, as long as they're going to stick to her current design philosophy, there is very little they can do to make her fun to play as or against. This is coming from someone who mained Trapper pretty much since the beta, map control killers are boring as shit for 95% of the trial, and incredibly satisfying for the other 5%. If they just gave her a chase ability like a Demo Shred or something she'd be so much more fun. Just something to do in chase other than holding W would be nice.
I honestly love the character design. I get what you’re saying about the conflict between shiny mask and practical suit, but I enjoy that contrast, especially since the blade itself is much more theatrical than utilitarian. She really looks like someone torn between having to deceptively conform to the standards of reality (specifically the business world,) and someone eager to live out her power fantasy of being a manga-inspired supervillain. Her outfit serves as a cosplay of an ideal version of her life: a version that never has to hide behind a business suit and a disarming smile, and can instead always focus on the thrill of the hunt and the kill. It’s very fitting for a deranged serial killer imo, and I also just think it looks cool affff ❤
I too have a lovw for the unpopular and unloved killer. I actually find that I 4k a lot more as her than any other killer. I think this is because she works the way I tried to make other killers work through perks.
Wonderfully done review of the lore; I'm so happy you could sum up her core story! I really liked what this killer was bringing to the game! The gameplay was catering to what people had been wanting for years; when people were begging for a Scream chapter. Everyone was wanting a way to track survivors (with a phone call). Lo and behold, we finally got it! Along with some perks that were just nice "Fill in" perks. Nothing overly game-changing to break any meta without some hard thought. Albeit, all of this was brought in with a bit of rough lore for the skull merchant. (Which no one really seems to care about :( which is a shame! Especially when they bring judgement on her!) My own thoughts here: The writing/creative teams fumbled a little here I think; since it felt like they were mixing in two vastly differing themes, and none of them got cohesively brought together (visually at least IMO). The separate elements make sense when you see them, but put together, it could have harmonized a little more. It looks like they were maybe going for a ghost in the shell, cyperpunk theme; but it just doesn't read. (I think overwatch or Evangelion's style may have suited the lore a little more. Something vibrant and dramatic that feels more like bringing her father's fiction to life.) The big story this chapter was big entrepreneur vs little local influencer/business. An interesting and modern story which got a little jumbled adding the "manga" aspect to it; ultimately feeling like the lore needed to over explain why it got added on (which feels purely for aesthetic) and derailed so much of her killer story in my opinion. (At some point it felt more like a story about her father as a mangaka, overlooking much of her Brazilian heritage.) However- the fact they don't bring in her business(es) (yet) being anything relating to tech is such a shame! I'll be honest; initial impressions made it seem like she would be a black-market weapon/tech maker. Her drones and arena/combat style map looking "Most Dangerous Game" esque; perfect for live-streaming and promoting her tech to some dark-web shady cultist and warmongering corporation (tying in to lore from Jonah or something); all while looking flashy™ and competent doing it. Showcasing how much she doesn't need to sweat in order for her tactical, methodical, and brutal violence. (Which I think is what her Mori and casual walk were going for.) Instead, we got a cosplayer murdering other moguls just for fun. No real purpose besides "it's fun and I'm bored." Which is valid I suppose, but doesn't make us (sane people) feel invested.There's no stakes or relatablity. She just... got whatever she wanted and her biggest obstacle was her own want to kill. 🤷(and some kite-flyers) Still I can appreciate what DBD was going for. Maybe if they just left everything to cook just a little longer, we could have gotten something a bit more cohesive and refined! Hope any tomes to release in the future focus on her tech, since that was the initial idea of the killer: "The fear of technology."
The over negativity of this chapter got me to look at the perspective of other people who actually liked this chapter which made me appreciate the positive of the chapter
It is perfectly fine to like her. She is a really unique killer for DBD People are just mad that she isn’t a robot like her teaser vaguely suggested. If you take that expectation out, like you should, she’s a pretty damm good killer~
My problen with the lore is that she goes only halfway in every direction. She tries to be so much at the same time, for example: 1. She is a ruthless businesswoman with scummy business tactics, that likes to hunt humans for fun in her free time (That is a trope in it of itself and would have been enough as an overarching concept, but ...) 2. She is also an obsessed weeb, who hypes her father's poorly recieved story up to the point that she commits her killingsprees in a way that pay hommage to its plot 3. She is also a Killer that focuses on technology, but if IIRC she isnt an engineer like the Deathslinger 4. She hot (Has the beautiful seductress ever been explored as a killer in DBD? Outside hooked on you of course?) Long story short: Many overarching concepts smashed together at highspeed in the hopes it works. I mean it absolutely could have.
Conceptually, she’s pretty interesting, the application is kinda tragic. Every new killer doesn’t have to be the new Blight or Nurse, but they should at least be pretty cool.
I daresay this might be your best video yet. I can't say I was a big fan of other killers you love (Twins, Plague, Artist, etc.), but honestly Adriana is without a doubt one of my favorites alongside Amanda, Wesker, Trickster, and Doctor. I love her power and lore, and while I do agree that it's rather odd her lore doesn't touch on how she became so proficient with drones, but to me, I saw it as an intentional blank left by BHVR to one day write an archive tome about her. As someone who mains Symmetra in Overwatch since Day 1 just because everyone said she was the weakest character, I'm so excited to be playing more of Adriana and proving what a good killer she can be.
I think it would have been nice if the reason why she has the gear she does, was partially inspired by the manga her father liked- if he was a fan of mecha or cyberpunk manga then I could see why she’d find interest in that
I'm glad someone was able to put into words about what made her design seem off for me. It def is just disorganized and doesn't blend well together. While I doubt I'll play her because I'm more of a fan of killers that have chase oriented powers rather than macro play ones, I hope she gets buffs that actually let her macro abilities make her more lethal and not turn her into knight 2.0 where the best strat is defending 3 gens till the end of time.
I have to say, I was beggining to doubt that you were really british for a second there, but that french accent certainly reminded me that you were indeed a born and bred englishperson. glad to see you engaging in the longstanding tradition of frogbashing, havent laughed so hard in months
This video showed me that I could've liked this chapter. Not even her power. But her design gives me a brain anyurism. And her lore has so much wasted potential. Her power being doo doo is just the cherry on top. I love Trickster becouse of his concept and becouse I love his neon asthetic. I wish his hair was more messy and clothes dirtier and torn. His base lore wasn't amazing but good enough for me. His power is disapointing to say the least but I love his main menu theme (Especially the PTB version). His tome is also my favorite dbd story I think. Adriana is just kinds lame in my eyes.
I really appreciate this video. I really do as a fellow fan of the Skull Merchant. It's refreshing and I needed this constructive criticism. I really enjoyed this video. Thank you for making it. You rock, as always.
Thank you so much for looking at the new killer with a fair and open mindset. Ever since people have been ragging on the Skull Merchant from day one I felt like it was a little unwarranted. Most of the critiques and arguments I've seen are from that sheer initial disappointment from the new chapter not being what *they* wanted. I'm glad you could discuss the character while also offering valid critique. The DBD community has always had a weird sense of entitlement so I'm glad to see you delve into that and how sometimes a new dlc just isn't going to be your thing. The new killer is what I've always wanted in DBD, and without leaks we had no idea of what the killer was going to be. I fell in love with the new killer exactly because she wasn't what we thought she was going to be. Could the marketing have been better? Sure, but that's always been an issue with DBD as well. Just getting something like The Skull Merchant completely out of left field was refreshing and I hope they keep being experimental and taking design risks and hope they continue to do so despite the community reaction.
Refreshing to hear someone not shitting on this chapter. Sure she might be weak and there is like one interesting perk but I think her power actually seems kinda neat and I actually really like the look of the new survivors. I almost wonder if people were rubbed so wrong by the Knight's chapter that now people have zero tolerance for killers with powers specifically meant for zoning.
I've said this in the last video about the Skull Merchant but now that we're talking about lore and themes, i think it would be appropriate. Whenever i thought about BHVR doing a brazilian killer or chapter, i thought it could make good use of our extensive folklore, literature or whatever cultural aspect that suits Dbd's horror inspirations, because it definetely has a lot of potential. Of course, BHVR has no "obligation" to do that, they can just create a killer and set her origin in Brazil without too much thought, but the fact that they missed that opportunity to create something so uninspired (in my personal opinion, i get where you're coming from when talking about why you like her) is where the disappointment doubles down. Seriously, her design, personality and even mori are so dull and get even duller when you consider the amount of potential her country setting has. Besides, it's pretty sad that the japanese killers have so much inspiration from their horror media and culture and pay great homages to them while the brazilian playerbase gets whatever they were trying to do with Adriana. Survivors are pretty cool though.
What’s funny is despite being Brazilian. She was more influenced by Japanese culture because her whole getup and name was a response to her Japanese father’s manga.
On the topic of SM's sexualisation, I think a lot of people's problem is that it feels like BHVR are relying on it as the sole thing that will sell this chapter, because just about every other aspect of her design is pretty heavily lacking compared to usual. If she had a power that didn't feel like it was designed specifically to 3 gen with I don't think there'd be nearly as big of a crowd complaining about it. Edit: Also they did really shoot themselves in the foot with the teaser. What did they think people would expect?
For the first one, literally every Killer can 3 gen, so this argument is moot. For the second one, this argument is also strange because, simply put, you people manufactured your own expectations; I even saw some people in the comments of that teaser trying to make a Terminator connection even though it was obviously NOT Terminator.
I like her for her natural ruthlessness, business and engineering intelligence ( I’m assuming she made it herself and learned everything), work ethic, and I have a thing for women with short hair, and business attire her being sexy with her hip and body sway is a bonus.
I have really warmed up to her. I really like Twins and Knight so although I was skeptical when she was on the PtB, I really enjoy playing her, especially after her buffs. I am excited for The Singularity too, because his cameras also seem tactical and more macro.
Not through the entire video just yet, but I wanted to comment and mention that my internet is really bad and this video stopped to buffer the _second_ before the clip of the guy throwing the ball at the cybertruck finished, which felt like great comedic timing "We'll be right back" level stuff
I can see SM fitting neatly right next to Twins, Dredge, Knight, Leagion in my box of good time killers (hard to kill with but damn satisfying to win without meta perks)
I really, DESPERATELY want to like her, she feels so well tailored to my tastes... But as it stands she just doesn't meet up to my standards for quality. I envy you for being able to like her as she is ;-;
I don’t, bro’s gonna be wasting money on a subpar DLC. It would be different if we weren’t be expected to pay for it. Unless of course, he’s gonna grind iridescent shards.
I like the character personally and plan of getting it rather quickly after she comes out. At this point she may become the next twins for all the wrong reasons so not a lot of people will get really good at countering her...as little that's needed in the first place but still!
When the Cenobite came out I fully believed that it was going to be a Springtrap chapter and when the Pinhead chapter came out I was disappointed. However I came to love the Hellraiser franchise despite its flaws. P.S. I also like the Skull Merchant as a concept, so much could have been done right but she just falls off short. and yeah she's curvy.
Ever since the PTB was released I couldn't really understand why I loved this killer so much but after watching this video, it all just makes sense I hope bhvr keeps up with creative chapters like this, it's so good
I can definitely see why people would like her. She’s not my favourite (mine is Artist) but I do hope that more people can grow to like her over time. Still waiting for Artist to receive that treatment tho.
YEAH, this video represents perfectly what i feel about her, the character i wanted and is good but has some flaws dragging her a bit down, I'm really looking forward for her and any other additions to her that may make her better, probably will be my second main besides Twins
Since I first read her Lore ,the last few sentences, I could not shake the words 'this is just like in my japanese cartoons' from an old but popular metal gear solid parody.
This vid was very educational, you explained why I like the lore (she's a megalomaniac businesswoman with a penchant for theatrics) as well as why other people don't like it (it focussed too much on the manga and less on the business/technical competence, which is what I actually latched onto). Your discussion on the cosmetics was also great, I can kinda respect it a lot more since it shows her personality!
i think a lot of her ideas are stuff ppl asked for over time, like i've seen ppl asking for killer that installs cameras, the pure evil woman and so on. i think a lot of her hate come from players hating the knight, hating eruption meta, al lthe negativity brought up by leakers (not just the predator consiracy theory), all that just priming players to want to be angry at everything company does, so new killer just being another aggressively mid tier character became this demon that ruined the game somehow
I'm so excited for this chapter more than the moment I saw it's reveal. I wasn't 100% on board because I thought her design wasn't as interesting and her lore left something to be desired, but the more I sat with it the more I liked it. (I actually changed my opinion the night of the reveal actually.)
I was kind of expecting her to be like a Squid Game rich person with the bedazzled mask honestly, with like a human hunting island that she used the drones to livestream
I like her design and lore but it kinda killed off the expectation of a robot killer. Nonetheless doesn't hurt to play around with the Skull Merchant to see if she's fun in your own POV.
I understand you points you made across I am still not the biggest fan of the killer however there was one thing I disagreed with it when you when you mentioned Re5 Jill design to be objectification I do believe that what they were going for as she was under Wesker control and Wesker is a sick individual so it makes sense for him to choose and outfit like that Good video and enjoy the content
I agree, the problem is that instead of "The Deadliest Game" we got "Mom says we have Predator at home". The issue is the sloppy implementation. The gameplay doesn't feel solid, but it doesn't feel fluid, it's more like trying to walk on a nonnewtonian substance. You can't swim, you can't walk, just just have to run and pray that it was mixed right, but you know it has many visible spots proving that not to be the case. Can she be fixed? yes, but how long will that take?
Honestly I see this as your opinion as should everyone else me personally I wanted a better, scarier design and it felt that we were being teased for that but I guess not and her power does feel weak and gives the okay for the most frustrating playstyle in the game holding W like the knight her lore just makes weird jumps all over the place but im not really worried about that since they can easily fix that with a tome and honestly I still think she needs a rework maybe adding another ability for chases and/or punish holding W and her design can be fixed just be adding good skins so honestly im just worried theyre NOT going to do that and announce the anniversary chapter just to get ppl hyped and forget about her hopefully they slow their roll and go back and add more care and time to her. But im glad that are people out there who dont have alot of the same opinions like yourself who love this chapter even for the flaws and same with twins although im sure people like twins its just recent bugs and needed QOL changes keep people away from her. Lore wise im just getting into the lore in general with this being one of my first introductions to lore itself and going out of my way to read it felt amazing especially for the survivors of this chapter they are amazing thank you for also helping me get into the lore more I watched your artist video and it was great ofc there are some problems but hopefully bhvr realizes the lore is really valuable and gives up more tomes to fix more lores P.S Im definitely going to give her a shot when she releases even to my disappointment on a number of things
I need to say before I read her lore I saw some discussion and noticed some keywords, and I was pretty certain that her lore would be about that her father was that manga writer and Adriana really loved his creations, at the same time she had bad influence in school and had anger issues or something of these sorts, then when her father released his greatest work: The Skull Merchant, he got laughed at and that manga was considered as a joke and not real product and this made him commit suicide, this touched Adriana as she really liked it and wanted to take revenge on people by showing how powerful The Skull Merchant really is. Ngl this is somewhat similar to what we've got. And I really like your analogy with the suit!
So, is this the devs response to the community bashing the character? If so... That's really clever. I have to give a round of applause to this, this is just like Stephen King with MISERY.
Very insightful as always. There is only one thing that feels a bit off. When you said that the killer may just “not be for you”, what if it wasn’t made for 90% of the playerbase (number taken from my arse for illustrative purposes) does she still have her place in the game? Her design and lore makes more sense than I thought as you clearly explained, but could she have a good design and a great lore without necessarily fitting in the game?
At least her trailer didn't make her power seem something entirely other than it is. Remember the launch trailer of Darkness Among Us? And what it implied the killer to be able to do? And then Legion released and their power was running faster and stabbing more.
What I hate about her lore is the corporate related crap which lead her to be a billionaire. It serves NO purpose in her character development and it is simply unbelievable. I wish they turned her story into a sort of Dr Jakyll and Mr Hyde kinda story, where The Skull Merchant slowly comes to life as Adriana succeeds and eventually takes over. Would have been more compelling then daddy issues girl becomes a billionaire and kills for fun
I’ll admit that I was one of the people who was disappointed we didn’t get a cyborg or robot killer, but honestly, I’m not mad about the results of the Skull Merchant- someone who’s unapologetically confident and powerful but corrupt and egotistical and very dangerous. I still think her mori needs a bit of a change because it’s underwhelming to me, but that’s all. I’m hoping we get the techy killer we’re all looking for!
i love when she said its merchanting time and merchanted all over those innocent kite fly-ers
I love that a highly sophisticated drone gets taken out by a kite.
Most original TH-cam comment:
@@GabeTypes_ thank you, i really am ahead of my time
@@CyanLovesYou most smartest youtube commenter:
I relate to Skull Merchant in the way that she liquidates companies and completely removing unions. I love doing that
Pinkerton spotted!
She and Walt Disney would've been best racist friends together.
But competition is good.
Liquidation is the transaction of the Gods. CEO mindset, fellow automaton.
I still can’t believe that she doesn’t sell or buy skulls.
"That's because she took her name from the character in her dad's-"
Oh wait, that one doesn't sell skulls either.
That’s why she should’ve been called the tracker or somthing
And make the skull merchant an actual cyborg or creepy salesman idk
I’m still excited for her but her name is pretty misleading
@@PancakesTsuki The Closer.
@@PancakesTsuki "the huntress" would work well if it wasn't already taken
@Michael DeLarge it's a super villain name dude. Like that's Like me saying mr fantastic should be called Mr. Stretchy
I saw a lot of redesigns that give her cool prosthetic/cyborg legs so what if she lost her legs in a accident so her dad who was struggling to get his mangas published wrote one about a ritch badass with prosthetic/cyborg legs to make her feel better. Then that manga actually got published and her dad became engulfed in his work making her feel like he loved this character this version of herself more then his actual daughter. So she would become a tycoon investing heavily in advanced technology to impress her dad but when he disappeared she completely lost it and full embraced this character her dad made for her.
This would give a deeper meaning and reason to her wanting to copy her dad's manga and give her cool robot legs!
Yeah but cyborg legs probably means another lame mobility killer that breaks the game when people actually realize what it's power does. There is already one Blight.
I definitely agree that when I read the story for the first time, I was just kinda confused as to how she went from a normal girl to a multi millionaire so quickly with very little detail. I guess we could just imply she went out of her way to learn a bit about engineering and technology to construct her drones, but I was interested to see how she became so successful and the story kinda breezes over that.
I mean it’s a base lore
They usually don’t go to much in detail
might be a knight situation where they made the lore intentionally lackluster in some areas just so they can make a tome to explore it later
@@dumblenutz5561 agreed
The trickster I think had the same issue, apparently his time saved him
Hopefully if the SM gets a tome in the future it will save her
I want my roots of dread tome now
She's like an evil Tony Stark. She's cool.
I mean they explain the method by which she accomplished it, and then said she just did the same thing enough times until she was rich af. You can argue it’s a bit rushed, but they do cover how it happened.
I also like the fact that she's 100% in control of her life: she's got full agency in her lore. She's not Carmina getting buffeted by random bullcrap or Rin Yamaoka succumbing to ancestral rage spurred on by her father snapping, she's pure evil and she loves it!
Honestly her lore isn't bad, it's just that she was a disappointment from an overall game design perspective and her look in general can be seen as oversexualised for a base version of a killer. Seeing her lore though, I can definitely see her dressing sexy because she has control of her sexuality and using it to manipulate others.
@@floofzykitty5072they do just immediately gloss over how she became rich.
@@floofzykitty5072 I’d say the sexualization is a part of her lore though maybe? I can certainly believe that under the mask and during the day, she’s likely very charming and attractive, which she then weaponizes to convince people to like her and let her buy them out, only for her to gut their companies and then sell them to get even richer. I wouldn’t be surprised if she exploits the sleaziness of businessmen to lure them into positions where she’ll either force them to sell, or kill them.
Honestly this. When Carmina came out everybody hated it because "why are all female killers victims rather than actually evil??". Now that we get a female killer who's actually pure evil, they hate that too.
Honestly I feel like the only killers who never get hate at release are the IP ones. And Dredge for some reason (probably cause if you speak ill of Dredge it'll come out of your closet at night and kill you), at least lore-wise.
@@robertaspiga9840 she's actually evil but her lore makes no sense and her design sucks
As the one of two ding-dongs who thought the killer power in the PTB was actually pretty cool and immediately loved the concept/vibe, this video makes me smile in my heart. Thank you
i really enjoyed her power too
can't wait for her buffed version to come to live, that's gonna be fun
When you explained her as a James Bond villain EVERYTHING clicked. I like her even more now
It's interesting how a good chunk of the base story sounds like the one for spirit, focusing on the downfall of the father rather than the one the stories may for
I guess my thing is that my pet peeves about DBD character design and traits really got cranked to 11 on Skull Merchant. To take Mikaela as an example. She can be boiled down to a laundry list of traits: She's a witch, she's an author/writer, and she's a barista at a cafe. Jonah he's a CIA agent, he's good at math, he's haunted by coordinates. Adriana's laundry list a little too all over the place for me, and also has maybe 1 or 2 superfluous ideas that I thought could be cut for the sake of giving her a leaner story. She's inspired by Manga, she's a businesswoman, she's an engineer, and she's got a weird thing for skulls. I will admit, part of my disappointment is from the fact that she wasn't a sci-fi killer. I've been wanting a sci-fi horror character in DBD for a very long time and to have that denied made me a bit upset. That's on me I shouldn't have set my expectations I should've walked into this chapter clean. However, I will rag a bit on the marketing team because after all they are the people that led us to believe Legion would be a disguise killer. I don't think that the Tools of Torment Teaser was nearly that bad, but I would compare to Spirit's teaser. In Spirit's teaser we were shown rin getting cut up by her father, a tiny tagential detail in spirits look and design. The same for Skull Merchant. The skull part of the skull merchant is a tiny tangential detail in her design and I wish the teaser had been a bit more honest and maybe had shown us her mask or her blade gauntlet to kind of tee us up a bit better. I don't hate Skull Merchant but I don't love her either. She's a sort eh way to close out year 6 of DBD. Other than that Year 6 has been wonderful. The last 3 chapter in my opinion have been bangers. Knight is cool, Project W was amazing. I LOVED Dredge. Hopefully the anniversary chapter can really wow us and assure us that DBD is still on the right track because things are certainly better than they were a couple of years ago.
Honestly I don’t think this was going to be a sci-fi chapter
Tools of torment sounds like someone made tools to torment you
So This wasn’t going sci-fi, we mite get a sci-if chapter in the future
Well put!
The spirit's death at her father's hand is not even close to a tangential detail in her design. It's the sole reason that she has been cut into pieces, it's her mori, it's arguably the most important event that happens to the spirit in her lore.
I once heard her described as a scooby foo villain. Need to get rid of someone for economic benefit? Put on a funny mask and get some badly explained equipment and go nuts. She literally gets beat by meddling kids
Honestly, the idea of a Dead by Daylight killer that turned herself into a supervillain straight outta something like marvel is incredible. I think the writing itself leaves something to be desired, but honestly this is a Chapter I’m having more fun letting my imagination run wild with and filling in the gaps myself, like we used to with the og characters when the lore was more vague.
Her lore would be infinitely better if it WAS more vague, but they don't allow you to fill in the blanks by making it so specific in weird places
Wow, this video this video largely changed my opinion of this killer. At first, I thought that she was a complete and abject failure. But now I kinda see in a bit of a new light. She's not absolutely horrible in every way when I first saw her, she just okay with a couple of key problems that hold her back. Thank you for opening my eyes and not just trashing her and the entire chapter like almost every other creator is doing right now.
I mean that’s cause Pixel Bush is a bit bias for this killer. As to why, I do not know.
@@kaijuslayer3334 From what i gathered he prefers micromanaging or strategic killers then killers with a direct chase power. Unfortunately her design is an absolute failure in that department since all she's good at is defending three gens and there's absolutely zero strategy in that.
23:32 PREACH!! ❤️
As a fellow Skull Merchant Enjoyer, this made me so happy to hear. It's what I've believed since day one.
I like them going with the 'Merchant' angle, like they're playing on the Merchant of Death.
I'm not sure if it's intentional, but I like the character being a bit of an homage to "The Most Dangerous Game", but updated to include more advanced modern tech.
I also like that this is basically DBD's in-house version of The Predator. And to be honest, I prefer that they do this and not bring in an actual yautja, since I would hate to see a Predator running around gunning down opponents that explicitly can't fight back against him. But this chick, it makes perfect sense that she'd be happy to do that.
All in all, I like the character, even if she has some weird qualities that you talked about.
Kinda sad that the first Brazilian representations that we get in the game received so much hate,i understand the reasons why but i hope that this feedbacks doesn't stop Behavior from making chapters that takes place in Brazil.
Well..yeah
Bu the point is that it wouldnt matter where she came from, she would still recieve hate..
The problem is that Brazil was the unlucky one and got this bomb..
Still hope for more Brasílian killers
The Brazilian twins are at least well received, Thalita is my new favourite
Regardless of where she was from even if she was American, almost EVERYONE would feel the way they feel currently. It’s the execution that rubs people the wrong way not the idea that she’s from Brazil.
@@usarhabilidade2697 I agree
They could’ve represented Brazil in a more respectful fashion is the major problem.
When I told a mate I was looking forward to the new killer, he told me.
"Your painting a target on your back, mate."
I said to him; you know I've played wraith Since 2018, right?
From being bong to lock-on, I'm ready to play in style.
Thank you, pixel, for seeing the killer on what she is rather than the doom & gloom of other content craters.
I'm thrilled with my first-ever patron pledge. ^-^
Thank you so much for putting into words my feelings on the chapter. Cause I felt this exact same way and didn't know how to describe it until this video. Love all of your work pixelbush and can't wait till the next one ❤️
By my theory, Adriana, her skull merchant version existed in the first place, possibly created by entity and she just existed, and saito stardet creating the character “skull merchant” when he had dreams of a dark place with despair, possibly the realm of the entity, and then saito dissapears for no reason at all while working on the manga that had the skull merchant character, possibly he is pulled to the entity’s realm, and the skull merchant the saito saw in his dreams is actually Adriana, his daughter, with that we can come up with the Idea of entity having full control of ones life, creation, fate and time, btw having saito as a survivor would make the chapter more Interesting, and the reason why Adriana’s killer name is “skull merchant” is completely about my theory, If It was not the case, they would give her a different name, so she is a creation of entity and she was going to end up in the fog in the first place, entity manifested future Adriana, the skull merchant onto Saito’s dreams, saito begins to work on skull merchant’s manga, Past Adriana gets Inspired by the manga, Saito gets pulled to the entity’s realm, Adriana starts to develop the skull merchant profile, Adriana becomes the skull merchant, she manifests onto Saito’s dreams, and this all goes on as a cycle.
Its the entity guys, dont blame Adriana and Saito,
ı want saito as a survivor now ngl.
The time you put into these deep dives is unmatched
My favorite part about Adriana's lore is when she sells skulls
Her sexualised design could actually work to her favour if they actually put an emphasis of her using her sexuality in her lore like the Trickster's lore explains his use of sexuality. They seem to imply this with her love of pop culture, which tends to oversexualise women, but a killer that also used their sexuality in life to manipulate others being a CONTROL based killer would really fit.
Something that drove me insane with the whole "She's not a robot argument" is, when has BHVR's trailers for original killers ever been strait forward. The only one that was pretty blunt was the knight and that's because we knew about him for 6 months. I like her. I'm gonna use some head cannon with her like I do with Hag.
It’s weird cause I absolutely instantly loved her visual design the first glance I got! It’s kinda like a cyber/steampunk Borderlands sexy psycho and I’m all for that. So hearing so many people hate it was kinda shocking to me cause I think it’s a perfect 10/10. Her power definitely needs more strength in either it’s tracking, stealth or exposed to give it a true reason you’d pick her gameplay wise over Doctor, Ghostface, or Bubba, but that’s stuff that can be buffed overtime
At least we have one person who doesn't want to go on a crusade against Skull Merchant.
the video foretold in legend, this will decide the fate of The Skull Merchant
I feel like a few things could’ve been done/changed in order to make her entrance more well-received:
•(like you said) touching up her lore
•changing her title ( *The Skull Merchant* doesn’t quite sit right with me and her design. *The Businesswoman* would be much more fitting and menacing but something along the lines of *The Headhunter* would also work I guess)
•Make the trailer and chapter name focus less on her tech stuff, it all led us to believe that it was gonna be a (already highly anticipated) sci-fi killer which made people disappointed when she wasn’t.
• her power needs a few tweaks to make it more… usable. I actually kinda like it tho (yeah, it’s pretty weak but a killer power doesn’t need to be strong to be fun)
@Sessoka I'd personally go with *The Engineer,* due to her making these cool gadgets and gizmos. It's kinda like The Oni when the Samurai was called that for his misdeeds, and The Ghostface because of the mask and identity he has.
@@Sweet_Z_Official that’s actually a really good idea!
12:44 As a French person, I feel offended you manage to do a French-accented English so perfectly well I briefly considered if you lied to us all this time about being British
That said, good video as always! I always thought the Skull Merchant was 90% brilliant and but that 10% missing made it... "hollow" isn't the right word but it lacked something, and you explained what it missed very well
that’s not fair, BHVR is from Québec and our english accent is a lot better than the french 😉
Rawest intro to a dbd vid I’ve seen yet lmao, great video as always! 💙💙
Thank you! Thank you completely. This is what I was saying to many when the excessive hate for this chapter came down. That everyone was hating on it, not because she was a bad idea, but because they didn't get what they wanted. That it is on them, not on BHVR.
The King spoke of her having 'the worst mori ever' and he is a self proclaimed TRAPPER main! Is he serious?
Personally, I think she has one of the most character accurate mori. More than most.
She releases a drone. This makes her UNDETECTABLE. This explains the confusion of where she is. Despite the audience seeing her, the victim cannot. One of the most classic horror tropes there is.
Then she grabs them from behind almost seductively and stabs them in the back....as the drone FILMS it. She is making a trophy, a recording of her claiming 'this one' as her own, to watch and savor at a later time.
To make it perfect, BHVR should add a voice line from Adriana telling her victim "Smile for the camera."
I look forward to getting to play her and finally try out "the worst killer in DBD history " and I once again thank you for understanding her a little bit better than most.
@Martin Wilmoth Yeah, I agree. The King does NOT know what he's talking about, and neither is SpooknJukes! They're both blissfully ignorant about the whole thing. This chapter is fire!
Even if I dislike the chapter, it's very refreshing to see the brighter side of it and listen to an unique take on the character
I feel like the dbd writers should start to write a bit smaller stories, letting them focus on how the stories are written rather than their length.
One thing I hate is when killers don't have a direct relation to their power. I think Adriana's story would be better if instead of a CEO she was an engineer who got canned, this would give her a more personal relation to her in-game power instead of a CEO with a side of drones.
Disagree; It fits with her backstory on a thematic level both in terms of her father's work and also shows how she views anyone or anything working for her: Mere tools to be used and broken how she sees fit.
We already have an "engineer gets fucked over, seeks revenge using technology" story with the Deathslinger though
@@abox6989 If you call a spear gun
“Technology”
@@BARelement It's less advanced by modern standards, but it's undeniably technology
@@BARelementThat’s a pretty advanced thing for the Wild West. Bro’s not from the modern day.
This video was absolutely fantastic. I think you nailed the issues with her character and where she works vs doesn’t work. You’re completely correct; when you back up and look at her story from a wider lens, it’s a fantastic story that’s scarily accurate to the real world and has its place in horror. It’s the focus on the wrong aspects of her character, too much focus on her father’s backstory, and blatant holes (where did she suddenly get drones? Did she make them? Was she a tech genius or did she steal the design from someone else?) that detract from the fantastic concept of a truly evil woman.
It’s kinda funny, people have been joking about wanting an American Psycho-esque character and a woman without a tragic backstory, and now that we’ve gotten a character that’s both of those things, she’s extremely unpopular.
I think the discussion on sexy vs sexualized is something that’s incredibly hard to talk about in video games, because so many people don’t understand that it’s not black and white. You can have a character that’s sexy and know that the purpose of her being sexy was still fanservice. I’m not sure how I feel about her thirst trap design, because you bring up a great point that she chose to wear that outfit. But I don’t trust video game devs to have created her look with “female empowerment” in mind. Just look at Spirit who is naked for some reason in her default cosmetic, and the fact that Kate and Jane have jiggle physics.
Sorry for the essay in the comments to essentially say good video. It’s just refreshing to hear a different take than “everything about her is trash.”
A fantastic story? Now you’re bullshiting. Also regarding the Spirit being naked part. I would note that’s quite a common trope for onryo or vengeful spirits in depictions in Japanese art. The devs weren’t exactly going off on their own when they went with that design.
I just wanna say, as someone else who's genuinely really excited for this new killer and absolutely adores her, thank you so much for making this video. Yes, she isn't perfect and has a lot of needless problems that are frustrating in how they detract from her, but nonetheless she is for sure the killer I've been most hyped for in a long time. You've basically summed up my entire thoughts about her perfectly, and it's refreshing to get a break from the constant negativity and unconstructive criticism of the community.
Given how many people have put in input to fix her power, to call that all unconstructive makes me think you just think any negative criticism is not constructive.
This idea that negative opinions us unconstructive will always rub me the wrong way. You don't need to know how to cook to criticize food you eat at a restaurant and k kw it's bad. You don't have to k ow what it takes to be a teacher before you can criticize a teacher for having an awful teaching style. You most certainly don't have to have the solution to the killers issues simply because you don't like it.
This idea that criticism is harmful has always rubbed me the wrong way. Sure, excess, and even harsh and mean criticism is not useful to developers but their customers should have to be solving their design problems just to criticize their new content
I like skull merchant too and she still have a chance to be good dbd community gives up on a character so fast
Damn, the suit analogy was actually really good. This video may have sold me just a little bit on this chapter conceptually.
I agree that the second half of the Skull Merchant's story feels cut. However, I don't think that is because they thought it was too short. I think the issue is they intend to use the 2nd half as a tome story. Like you said, the story feels like there needs to be more and with the recent Behavior tomes that are basically a "story midchapter" for the more recent originals (Trickster/Yun Jin and Knight/Vittorio got tomes right after their release) it looks to me like the choice was deliberate, and not accidental. I could by wrong (and cynical), but I imagine that we'll probably see the 2nd half when the next tome comes out.
I believe that the large gap in her lore is to leave room for her future tomes that will probably focus in on her 15 year murderous evolution, with her background out of the way they can have a lot less constraints.
Long rant ahead: TL/DR I'd give her way more slack if she had a decent chase theme, visual design, and supplementary chase power. Or at least one of those things.
My biggest problem with her visual design is that she just looks like a normal person wearing a costume. Even the more human-esque killers like Trickster, Deathslinger, or Clown have some pretty inhuman attributes to make them unsettling.
Why the hell did they go with a rhinestone half gas mask and not, I don't know, a SKULL mask?? Hell, have it be an ACTUAL skull if you want!
Something! Anything! Don't just slap them in a jumpsuit with a cosplayer mask and a forklift arm.
Her cosmetics will probably fix this but still. I understand that the way she looks makes sense when you consider her lore and characterization, and I do respect them sticking to their guns on this, but I'll admit I was a little disappointed that she wasn't a cyborg or something.
The Entity can bring killers from the past into its realm, why not people from the future?
I could ignore EVERYTHING wrong with this killer, the animations, the lore, her power, the god awful chase music, and the underwhelming perks. I could ignore ALL of that, if they had just nailed her visual design like they have with other killers with similar problems like The Knight, Spirit (who was incredibly bad on the PTB), Doctor (Same deal), and Trickster, just because they managed to nail their look and vibe so perfectly.
But as it stands, even after watching your video which made several well presented and logical points, I'm still really struggling to find even a single redeemable quality other than: she's almost good.
Another big problem is that while they can absolutely fix a lot of the issues with her, as long as they're going to stick to her current design philosophy, there is very little they can do to make her fun to play as or against. This is coming from someone who mained Trapper pretty much since the beta, map control killers are boring as shit for 95% of the trial, and incredibly satisfying for the other 5%.
If they just gave her a chase ability like a Demo Shred or something she'd be so much more fun. Just something to do in chase other than holding W would be nice.
I honestly love the character design. I get what you’re saying about the conflict between shiny mask and practical suit, but I enjoy that contrast, especially since the blade itself is much more theatrical than utilitarian.
She really looks like someone torn between having to deceptively conform to the standards of reality (specifically the business world,) and someone eager to live out her power fantasy of being a manga-inspired supervillain. Her outfit serves as a cosplay of an ideal version of her life: a version that never has to hide behind a business suit and a disarming smile, and can instead always focus on the thrill of the hunt and the kill. It’s very fitting for a deranged serial killer imo, and I also just think it looks cool affff ❤
I too have a lovw for the unpopular and unloved killer. I actually find that I 4k a lot more as her than any other killer.
I think this is because she works the way I tried to make other killers work through perks.
Wonderfully done review of the lore; I'm so happy you could sum up her core story!
I really liked what this killer was bringing to the game!
The gameplay was catering to what people had been wanting for years; when people were begging for a Scream chapter. Everyone was wanting a way to track survivors (with a phone call). Lo and behold, we finally got it! Along with some perks that were just nice "Fill in" perks. Nothing overly game-changing to break any meta without some hard thought.
Albeit, all of this was brought in with a bit of rough lore for the skull merchant. (Which no one really seems to care about :( which is a shame! Especially when they bring judgement on her!)
My own thoughts here:
The writing/creative teams fumbled a little here I think; since it felt like they were mixing in two vastly differing themes, and none of them got cohesively brought together (visually at least IMO). The separate elements make sense when you see them, but put together, it could have harmonized a little more. It looks like they were maybe going for a ghost in the shell, cyperpunk theme; but it just doesn't read. (I think overwatch or Evangelion's style may have suited the lore a little more. Something vibrant and dramatic that feels more like bringing her father's fiction to life.)
The big story this chapter was big entrepreneur vs little local influencer/business. An interesting and modern story which got a little jumbled adding the "manga" aspect to it; ultimately feeling like the lore needed to over explain why it got added on (which feels purely for aesthetic) and derailed so much of her killer story in my opinion. (At some point it felt more like a story about her father as a mangaka, overlooking much of her Brazilian heritage.)
However- the fact they don't bring in her business(es) (yet) being anything relating to tech is such a shame!
I'll be honest; initial impressions made it seem like she would be a black-market weapon/tech maker. Her drones and arena/combat style map looking "Most Dangerous Game" esque; perfect for live-streaming and promoting her tech to some dark-web shady cultist and warmongering corporation (tying in to lore from Jonah or something); all while looking flashy™ and competent doing it. Showcasing how much she doesn't need to sweat in order for her tactical, methodical, and brutal violence. (Which I think is what her Mori and casual walk were going for.)
Instead, we got a cosplayer murdering other moguls just for fun. No real purpose besides "it's fun and I'm bored." Which is valid I suppose, but doesn't make us (sane people) feel invested.There's no stakes or relatablity. She just... got whatever she wanted and her biggest obstacle was her own want to kill. 🤷(and some kite-flyers)
Still I can appreciate what DBD was going for. Maybe if they just left everything to cook just a little longer, we could have gotten something a bit more cohesive and refined! Hope any tomes to release in the future focus on her tech, since that was the initial idea of the killer: "The fear of technology."
The over negativity of this chapter got me to look at the perspective of other people who actually liked this chapter which made me appreciate the positive of the chapter
It is perfectly fine to like her. She is a really unique killer for DBD
People are just mad that she isn’t a robot like her teaser vaguely suggested. If you take that expectation out, like you should, she’s a pretty damm good killer~
My problen with the lore is that she goes only halfway in every direction. She tries to be so much at the same time, for example:
1. She is a ruthless businesswoman with scummy business tactics, that likes to hunt humans for fun in her free time (That is a trope in it of itself and would have been enough as an overarching concept, but ...)
2. She is also an obsessed weeb, who hypes her father's poorly recieved story up to the point that she commits her killingsprees in a way that pay hommage to its plot
3. She is also a Killer that focuses on technology, but if IIRC she isnt an engineer like the Deathslinger
4. She hot (Has the beautiful seductress ever been explored as a killer in DBD? Outside hooked on you of course?)
Long story short: Many overarching concepts smashed together at highspeed in the hopes it works. I mean it absolutely could have.
Conceptually, she’s pretty interesting, the application is kinda tragic. Every new killer doesn’t have to be the new Blight or Nurse, but they should at least be pretty cool.
Just from a visual standpoint I already knew I was gonna love this chapter the designs were so creative uh I just love it
I daresay this might be your best video yet. I can't say I was a big fan of other killers you love (Twins, Plague, Artist, etc.), but honestly Adriana is without a doubt one of my favorites alongside Amanda, Wesker, Trickster, and Doctor.
I love her power and lore, and while I do agree that it's rather odd her lore doesn't touch on how she became so proficient with drones, but to me, I saw it as an intentional blank left by BHVR to one day write an archive tome about her. As someone who mains Symmetra in Overwatch since Day 1 just because everyone said she was the weakest character, I'm so excited to be playing more of Adriana and proving what a good killer she can be.
I think it would have been nice if the reason why she has the gear she does, was partially inspired by the manga her father liked- if he was a fan of mecha or cyberpunk manga then I could see why she’d find interest in that
I'm glad someone was able to put into words about what made her design seem off for me. It def is just disorganized and doesn't blend well together. While I doubt I'll play her because I'm more of a fan of killers that have chase oriented powers rather than macro play ones, I hope she gets buffs that actually let her macro abilities make her more lethal and not turn her into knight 2.0 where the best strat is defending 3 gens till the end of time.
I have to say, I was beggining to doubt that you were really british for a second there, but that french accent certainly reminded me that you were indeed a born and bred englishperson. glad to see you engaging in the longstanding tradition of frogbashing, havent laughed so hard in months
This video showed me that I could've liked this chapter. Not even her power. But her design gives me a brain anyurism. And her lore has so much wasted potential. Her power being doo doo is just the cherry on top.
I love Trickster becouse of his concept and becouse I love his neon asthetic. I wish his hair was more messy and clothes dirtier and torn.
His base lore wasn't amazing but good enough for me. His power is disapointing to say the least but I love his main menu theme (Especially the PTB version). His tome is also my favorite dbd story I think. Adriana is just kinds lame in my eyes.
I really appreciate this video. I really do as a fellow fan of the Skull Merchant. It's refreshing and I needed this constructive criticism. I really enjoyed this video. Thank you for making it.
You rock, as always.
Thank you so much for looking at the new killer with a fair and open mindset. Ever since people have been ragging on the Skull Merchant from day one I felt like it was a little unwarranted. Most of the critiques and arguments I've seen are from that sheer initial disappointment from the new chapter not being what *they* wanted. I'm glad you could discuss the character while also offering valid critique. The DBD community has always had a weird sense of entitlement so I'm glad to see you delve into that and how sometimes a new dlc just isn't going to be your thing. The new killer is what I've always wanted in DBD, and without leaks we had no idea of what the killer was going to be. I fell in love with the new killer exactly because she wasn't what we thought she was going to be. Could the marketing have been better? Sure, but that's always been an issue with DBD as well. Just getting something like The Skull Merchant completely out of left field was refreshing and I hope they keep being experimental and taking design risks and hope they continue to do so despite the community reaction.
Refreshing to hear someone not shitting on this chapter. Sure she might be weak and there is like one interesting perk but I think her power actually seems kinda neat and I actually really like the look of the new survivors. I almost wonder if people were rubbed so wrong by the Knight's chapter that now people have zero tolerance for killers with powers specifically meant for zoning.
I've said this in the last video about the Skull Merchant but now that we're talking about lore and themes, i think it would be appropriate.
Whenever i thought about BHVR doing a brazilian killer or chapter, i thought it could make good use of our extensive folklore, literature or whatever cultural aspect that suits Dbd's horror inspirations, because it definetely has a lot of potential.
Of course, BHVR has no "obligation" to do that, they can just create a killer and set her origin in Brazil without too much thought, but the fact that they missed that opportunity to create something so uninspired (in my personal opinion, i get where you're coming from when talking about why you like her) is where the disappointment doubles down. Seriously, her design, personality and even mori are so dull and get even duller when you consider the amount of potential her country setting has.
Besides, it's pretty sad that the japanese killers have so much inspiration from their horror media and culture and pay great homages to them while the brazilian playerbase gets whatever they were trying to do with Adriana.
Survivors are pretty cool though.
Yeah...they got the amazing and inspirared killers
And we got
Discount bootleg predator...
What’s funny is despite being Brazilian. She was more influenced by Japanese culture because her whole getup and name was a response to her Japanese father’s manga.
On the topic of SM's sexualisation, I think a lot of people's problem is that it feels like BHVR are relying on it as the sole thing that will sell this chapter, because just about every other aspect of her design is pretty heavily lacking compared to usual. If she had a power that didn't feel like it was designed specifically to 3 gen with I don't think there'd be nearly as big of a crowd complaining about it.
Edit: Also they did really shoot themselves in the foot with the teaser. What did they think people would expect?
For the first one, literally every Killer can 3 gen, so this argument is moot. For the second one, this argument is also strange because, simply put, you people manufactured your own expectations; I even saw some people in the comments of that teaser trying to make a Terminator connection even though it was obviously NOT Terminator.
Can't blame BHVR for YOUR expectation. You guessed, you guessed wrong. All on you.
Their power is not the weakest in dbd history, that honor goes to original ptb Ghostface.
As a Brazilian, I really want to like her. And while I don't hate her design, the survivors are so much cooler, I loved them!
With drones now in the game I hope we can see "AM" as a killer in the future
I like her for her natural ruthlessness, business and engineering intelligence ( I’m assuming she made it herself and learned everything), work ethic, and I have a thing for women with short hair, and business attire her being sexy with her hip and body sway is a bonus.
I have really warmed up to her. I really like Twins and Knight so although I was skeptical when she was on the PtB, I really enjoy playing her, especially after her buffs. I am excited for The Singularity too, because his cameras also seem tactical and more macro.
My boy looking dapper off the bat
Not through the entire video just yet, but I wanted to comment and mention that my internet is really bad and this video stopped to buffer the _second_ before the clip of the guy throwing the ball at the cybertruck finished, which felt like great comedic timing
"We'll be right back" level stuff
I can see SM fitting neatly right next to Twins, Dredge, Knight, Leagion in my box of good time killers (hard to kill with but damn satisfying to win without meta perks)
I really, DESPERATELY want to like her, she feels so well tailored to my tastes... But as it stands she just doesn't meet up to my standards for quality. I envy you for being able to like her as she is ;-;
I don’t, bro’s gonna be wasting money on a subpar DLC. It would be different if we weren’t be expected to pay for it. Unless of course, he’s gonna grind iridescent shards.
@@kaijuslayer3334 whats the problem with spending money on something you like?
I like the character personally and plan of getting it rather quickly after she comes out. At this point she may become the next twins for all the wrong reasons so not a lot of people will get really good at countering her...as little that's needed in the first place but still!
When the Cenobite came out I fully believed that it was going to be a Springtrap chapter and when the Pinhead chapter came out I was disappointed. However I came to love the Hellraiser franchise despite its flaws.
P.S. I also like the Skull Merchant as a concept, so much could have been done right but she just falls off short. and yeah she's curvy.
Ever since the PTB was released I couldn't really understand why I loved this killer so much but after watching this video, it all just makes sense
I hope bhvr keeps up with creative chapters like this, it's so good
I can definitely see why people would like her. She’s not my favourite (mine is Artist) but I do hope that more people can grow to like her over time. Still waiting for Artist to receive that treatment tho.
YEAH, this video represents perfectly what i feel about her, the character i wanted and is good but has some flaws dragging her a bit down, I'm really looking forward for her and any other additions to her that may make her better, probably will be my second main besides Twins
Since I first read her Lore ,the last few sentences, I could not shake the words 'this is just like in my japanese cartoons' from an old but popular metal gear solid parody.
This vid was very educational, you explained why I like the lore (she's a megalomaniac businesswoman with a penchant for theatrics) as well as why other people don't like it (it focussed too much on the manga and less on the business/technical competence, which is what I actually latched onto).
Your discussion on the cosmetics was also great, I can kinda respect it a lot more since it shows her personality!
Got her recently because why not and I like playing as her tbh
Finally your video about new killer came out ❤
Damn I’ve never seen your actual face, looking sharp in that suit man love your content
i think a lot of her ideas are stuff ppl asked for over time, like i've seen ppl asking for killer that installs cameras, the pure evil woman and so on. i think a lot of her hate come from players hating the knight, hating eruption meta, al lthe negativity brought up by leakers (not just the predator consiracy theory), all that just priming players to want to be angry at everything company does, so new killer just being another aggressively mid tier character became this demon that ruined the game somehow
I'm so excited for this chapter more than the moment I saw it's reveal. I wasn't 100% on board because I thought her design wasn't as interesting and her lore left something to be desired, but the more I sat with it the more I liked it. (I actually changed my opinion the night of the reveal actually.)
To me this chapter reveals that there's waaay more micro then macro killers XD
I was kind of expecting her to be like a Squid Game rich person with the bedazzled mask honestly, with like a human hunting island that she used the drones to livestream
I like her design and lore but it kinda killed off the expectation of a robot killer. Nonetheless doesn't hurt to play around with the Skull Merchant to see if she's fun in your own POV.
I understand you points you made across I am still not the biggest fan of the killer however there was one thing I disagreed with it when you when you mentioned Re5 Jill design to be objectification I do believe that what they were going for as she was under Wesker control and Wesker is a sick individual so it makes sense for him to choose and outfit like that
Good video and enjoy the content
I agree, the problem is that instead of "The Deadliest Game" we got "Mom says we have Predator at home". The issue is the sloppy implementation. The gameplay doesn't feel solid, but it doesn't feel fluid, it's more like trying to walk on a nonnewtonian substance. You can't swim, you can't walk, just just have to run and pray that it was mixed right, but you know it has many visible spots proving that not to be the case.
Can she be fixed? yes, but how long will that take?
Suggestions?
Well since she can stealth in a drone I'd probably add a short duration camouflage stealth to compliment her kit
You look so clean in a suit 🗿
Honestly I see this as your opinion as should everyone else me personally I wanted a better, scarier design and it felt that we were being teased for that but I guess not and her power does feel weak and gives the okay for the most frustrating playstyle in the game holding W like the knight her lore just makes weird jumps all over the place but im not really worried about that since they can easily fix that with a tome and honestly I still think she needs a rework maybe adding another ability for chases and/or punish holding W and her design can be fixed just be adding good skins so honestly im just worried theyre NOT going to do that and announce the anniversary chapter just to get ppl hyped and forget about her hopefully they slow their roll and go back and add more care and time to her. But im glad that are people out there who dont have alot of the same opinions like yourself who love this chapter even for the flaws and same with twins although im sure people like twins its just recent bugs and needed QOL changes keep people away from her. Lore wise im just getting into the lore in general with this being one of my first introductions to lore itself and going out of my way to read it felt amazing especially for the survivors of this chapter they are amazing thank you for also helping me get into the lore more I watched your artist video and it was great ofc there are some problems but hopefully bhvr realizes the lore is really valuable and gives up more tomes to fix more lores
P.S
Im definitely going to give her a shot when she releases even to my disappointment on a number of things
This realllly just makes me want shirtless Pablo In the evil dead game😢
Lovely video 😁
I need to say before I read her lore I saw some discussion and noticed some keywords, and I was pretty certain that her lore would be about that her father was that manga writer and Adriana really loved his creations, at the same time she had bad influence in school and had anger issues or something of these sorts, then when her father released his greatest work: The Skull Merchant, he got laughed at and that manga was considered as a joke and not real product and this made him commit suicide, this touched Adriana as she really liked it and wanted to take revenge on people by showing how powerful The Skull Merchant really is. Ngl this is somewhat similar to what we've got.
And I really like your analogy with the suit!
So, is this the devs response to the community bashing the character? If so... That's really clever. I have to give a round of applause to this, this is just like Stephen King with MISERY.
Very insightful as always.
There is only one thing that feels a bit off. When you said that the killer may just “not be for you”, what if it wasn’t made for 90% of the playerbase (number taken from my arse for illustrative purposes) does she still have her place in the game? Her design and lore makes more sense than I thought as you clearly explained, but could she have a good design and a great lore without necessarily fitting in the game?
Her lore is the DBD version of "somehow Palpatine came back"
At least her trailer didn't make her power seem something entirely other than it is. Remember the launch trailer of Darkness Among Us? And what it implied the killer to be able to do? And then Legion released and their power was running faster and stabbing more.
The best head on the market, call her the skull merchant.
I'd love a Silence of the Lambs update, with Hannibal Lecter and Clarice
What I hate about her lore is the corporate related crap which lead her to be a billionaire. It serves NO purpose in her character development and it is simply unbelievable. I wish they turned her story into a sort of Dr Jakyll and Mr Hyde kinda story, where The Skull Merchant slowly comes to life as Adriana succeeds and eventually takes over. Would have been more compelling then daddy issues girl becomes a billionaire and kills for fun
Upgrade your browsing experience with Opera GX today here: core.yematube.com/support/khhh/pixelbushyt/OperaGXII/link
18:24 “Are you my mummy?”
Only the coolest kids get it 😎
@@HughJayness-pd5hn You are cool.
I’ll admit that I was one of the people who was disappointed we didn’t get a cyborg or robot killer, but honestly, I’m not mad about the results of the Skull Merchant- someone who’s unapologetically confident and powerful but corrupt and egotistical and very dangerous. I still think her mori needs a bit of a change because it’s underwhelming to me, but that’s all.
I’m hoping we get the techy killer we’re all looking for!
Where did you get that Artist poster at the beginning?