Deceptively simple designs

[@ZullietheWitch]

There's an interesting kind of dissonance that enemies like Bonewheels, the Mushroom folk, and the Helianthus machines create, where an idea that could seem somewhat goofy forces you to take it very seriously. Something that many properties that tried to copy Dark Souls failed at is not understanding the importance of these kinds of contrasts.

[@bohr7610]

The Helianthus reminded me of the Saw of the bagger 288 excavator by how big it is

[@JoseViktor4099]

Ah yes, the FromSoft urge to make the goofiest frog you will ever see to have the power to oneshot and leave you with half health. Man , reminds me to Jojo sometimes , where a man with an seemingly stupid ability has the power to make the protagonist greatly struggle.

[@leithaziz2716]

It's called moments of levity. I would argue Fromsoft games don't have those moments as much as they probably should, but they are welcome whenever they do happen. Wether it's the Onion Knights, Patches' shenanigans, The "WOOOOO" guy from Sekiro and other funny stuff.

[@LokeGermanLp]

Also reminded me of a flamming wheel enimy from Nioh. Having a flamming breath and in the fasst google look up being called Wanyūdō.

[@leithaziz2716]

@@JoseViktor4099 Let's not forget the rat in Part 4 that almost killed Jotaro. I love JoJo.

[@theknightikins9397]

“But apparently hey are also full of missiles” works for just about anything in Armored Core

[@louieberg2942]

6 Legs! 4 Cannons! 2 Gauss Rifles! High maximum velocity! Impenetrable armour! Also... missiles! Lots and lots of missiles!

[@raydhen8840]

The neverending Itano Circus

[@CyberDagger003]

Then there's the Balteus, where "full of missiles" is an understatement.

[@peterjohansson1828]

One of the things i wondered when fighting Balteus is " Where dafuq is it keeping all it's missiles" as it launches another goddam wall of missiles.

[@umdadvocate]

And flamethrowers, don’t forget about the flamethrowers

[@Ahrpigi]

"Carl, why does the mining grinder need missile launchers?" "Stop asking questions and keep welding."

[@manfredrichtoften8848]

RRI wondering why they gave air defense subsidies to their mining division: "Eh, might as well."

[@professorcryogen6419]

The Helianthus machines also having missiles is a truly spectacular punchline. It isn't enough to be an autonomous, spinning, bladed murder-wheel. Neither is it enough to be able to breath fire too. No, it must also shoot heat-seeking missiles. Spectacular stuff.

[@LordDragox412]

Shame the heat-seeking missiles don't target the fire breath :P

[@hideous_taco_michael_zacki]

What were those freaks in the Rubicon institute smoking when they invented all this shit lol😂

[@jacobsiron6929]

On the ground? Absolutely not safe. In the air? Still nothing. In the air a good distance away? Nope!

[@hideous_taco_michael_zacki]

@@jacobsiron6929 Hardly anyone plays tetrapod or hover tank builds, they aren't really popular in PvE. So yeah, it's unlikely a lot of people are going to utilize this strategy, everyone just gets fucked on the ground. That's why these wheels have such reputation of being a pain in the aas.

[@jacobsiron6929]

@@hideous_taco_michael_zacki actually, the "nope!" Was more in reference to the fact that you'll still absolutely get missiled

[@user-sm4rx3to3s]

Fun fact: there's a medieval execution method that involves breaking all the bones in your arms and legs with a wooded wheel and then weaving your broken limbs through the spokes. So while the bonewheels are humorous to a degree, I always found them quite unsettling with this stuff in mind

[@leithaziz2716]

Someone clearly read Berserk.

[@robotjunkie3764]

Gotta love medieval times

[@AlastorAltruistGaming]

Do you refer to the Rack? Or is there another execution device Idk about? Ik there’s the Blood Eagle according to legend, Ik there’s the Bronze/Brazen Bull, Ik there’s the Rack, the Scavenger’s Daughter, the guillotine, the Spanish Donkey, pretty much any torture/execution device you can come up with.

[@JammingGerald]

@@AlastorAltruistGaming Look up the term "Breaking Wheel". It was a somewhat similar form of execution to the rack.

[@Federico-mj3si]

Fun fact: the bonewheels take clear inspiration from a group of enemies from the manga Berserk, "heretics" who died exactly as you described and came back to assault the protagonist.

[@Kektus1]

Having the end-card channel icon centered inside the wheel was a nice touch.

[@takonaegi2967]

Yeah, I never got a chance to watch them that closely. They have surprising amount of details and moving mechanical parts.

[@jgmweston]

Zullie does framing so well with shots like that!

[@zhenweilai799]

it's a fire channel no?

[@RashFeuer26]

2:21 Man, I always forget that we're giant mechs in this game. You get used to the massive scale of everything, it's terrifying when you realize how big everything is if you aren't inside a 10 meter mech...

[@davidsphere43]

I keep trying to imagine myself standing next to it and looking up and my brain just can't handle it

[@georgiykireev9678]

​@@davidsphere43and now, to be even less able to handle it, imagine those things rolling at full speed. They're damn near supersonic, which is horrifying considering they look like they weigh thousands of tons

[@GERAT023]

the Sunflowers would probably chew through and literally eviscerate about anything in their path... i can easily imagine these things rolling into the Sekiro dragon, or even the giant dragons of elden ring, and just tearing them apart kind of like piranhas would. if anything... i find them as a "weapon" concept, quite the twisted and insane thing. its not just a roller wheel. its a literal metal grinder, that can probably eat about anything you command it to eat. probably one of, if not the most twisted and insane weapon in the whole AC series... probably only behind the Kojima weapons, that are essentially weaponized ultra radiation

[@draydra]

​@@GERAT023 Kojima Cannons are unironically Nukes in a Gun

[@moddedpan4252]

even with all of the canonical magic in the world of Elden Ring it's interesting to think that the sci-fi armored core robots and mechs would still annihilate the strongest monsters in that game @@GERAT023

[@setcetc]

The phrasing "without supervision," makes them sound like a roving gang of wheel-shaped delinquent teenagers.

[@insert-name-here._.]

the fact that these things are the size of the fire giant and move that fast is terrifying 😭

[@skrubknight884]

in almost any other game these things would be a final boss or a massive threat to everything around them. meanwhile in AC6 they're just the bull to your matador.

[@AdellRedwinters]

I think fromsofts ability to laugh and make a comedy out of some of the darkness of their worlds is what makes them so appealing. A giant mushroom man capable of dropping haymakers on your character is there to, in a weird way, humanize that world and make the bleakness stand out.

[@lordanonimmo7699]

You need to be able to laugh when you get beaten by a skeleton and loses 10k souls at the start of the game to properly enjoy the series.

[@sturmfall1050]

Moments of relief and humor are both powerful tools in accentuating bleakness and despair for sure.

[@noatrope]

This is something I try to keep in mind when worldbuilding - a world can have a theme to it, and usually has to, but it's too large for only a single mood. So the Gothic Horror planet also has vermin armadillos (as a nod to the Bela Lugosi Dracula).

[@CaptainSkylocke]

I laughed my ass off when the big mushroom one bombed me for the first time 🤣

[@BobisOnlyBob]

Get your laughs while you can.

[@HardCodedGaming]

These are also *really* similar to the firewheel monks from Nioh, which are derived from a classic Japanese monster. But, yeah, it was really hilarious running into these guys and being like "oh, haha, they're like bonewheels... OH NO, THEY'RE LIKE BONEWHEELS"

[@dragonslayer3552]

I think what happened here is that the fire monks were inspired by the bonewheels but the devs thought "let's make the bonewheels but put our own spin to them" and then fromsoft saw the fire monks and was like "let's make the firemonk but put our own spin to it" If this is actually what happened then it's actually really beautiful to see how inspiration for enemy design jumps back and forth between studios and resulting in incredibly memorable enemies

[@paladin181]

The wheel monk is a figure in Japanese mythology. It was not copied from FromSoft.

[@dragonslayer3552]

@@paladin181 I didn't say it was copied by fromsoft I said that the fromsoft saw the nioh wheel monk and liked how it fought and then made their own version of it And despite the wheel monk being a thing in mythology doesn't mean that nioh didn't get inspired by dark souls when making it

[@therighttrousers343]

There's also Enchants in Bayonetta, more flaming wheels, though as angels. And of their source in Christianity, Judaism, the ophanim or thrones Wikipedia says.

[@vermansh]

The first time I see them rolling like bonewheel while also leaving a trail of fire, I know they're bad news if I'm not careful. Though I guess almost all nioh's enemies are dangerous.

[@CuriousLumenwood]

Fighting thru a bouquet of these things just to get the Moonlight blade was worth it

[@Jim-Bagel]

You don’t need to fight them. I just jumped down took it and zipped off

[@IHiggs]

@@Jim-BagelIf you want all the combat logs to HAVE to fight them they were a pain in the ass 😂

[@KeDe1606]

@@IHiggshaving to fight two ACs, 9 of these… *things* in groups of four each (+ the introductory one on the bridge), 2 Heavy MTs AND arguably the most difficult boss in the game right after another in order to get all Combat Logs in one go was… an inspired choice on fromsoft‘s part. Well, at least you don’t have to fight them in the alternate version of this mission

[@Indra_the_goblin]

​@@KeDe1606I'm kinda happy I took it in chunks, as the two MTs can be taken on separately and hit before waking up

[@SolaScientia]

@@KeDe1606 For damn sure. I didn't do it till NG+. That said, since I have the coral version of the Moonlight, I haven't used the Moonlight at all.

[@DoctorKingWeegee]

I love how FromSoft has a staple enemy archetype of "sentient buzzsaw". Even in the games where actual buzzsaws are present (like Elden Ring having Ghiza's Wheel/Iron Maidens but also having Red Albinaurics to give you the Bonewheel Classic).

[@GODZILLAmonsoon]

They've always induced such a sheer and utter panic in me that the sunflower resemblence never occured to me. I grow sunflowers.

[@GODZILLAmonsoon]

I also grow insectivorous plants, like pitcher plants. I always thought of Nepenthes as being kind of a stretch in it's resemblence to it's namesake, but if you imagine the whole cavern as the _pitcher_ while the weapon is saturating the whole place with weapon fire, maybe akin the the way actual pitcher plants are filled with a fluid that drowns prey, it makes more sense to me. That said, "nepenthes" is the name for monkey cups, the more dangly pitcher plants, while the boss here I would say is more reminiscent of sarracenia. ... Yes I'm autistic why do you ask

[@manfredrichtoften8848]

​@@GODZILLAmonsoonhonestly, people ften obsess over little things in hobbies they enjoy, so the autism comment caught me iff guard.

[@librus8680]

... I remember when I first encountered them, being very amused that they'd actually fall onto their sides when staggered. It's this detail that makes their design all that much more humorous: this angry, almost *spiteful* wheel being rendered immobile and helpless when thrown off balance - only to violently right themselves up by wobbling around and give (terrifyingly fast) chase yet again. Kudos to some of those camera angles, by the way. The shot of the Tetrapod AC through the opening in the center was especially fantastic.

[@Mare_Man]

They really put the Moonlight in a swamp full of mecha-Bonewheels. Never change, FromSoft

[@nematode8293]

Zullie has single-handedly reawakened my love for the marvellous soundtracks of the Zelda franchise through this channel.

[@elijahcafazzo-joyette8226]

“I’ll try spinning, that’s a good trick.”

[@Synkhan]

I love how the models in armored core are actually large in size, even though they didnt need to be. Its such an interesting detail.

[@GuyWithAnAmazingHat]

The true inspiration for all these wheel enemies not just in fromsoft games but all Japanese media is the very well known yokai Wanyudo, or Wheel Monk. The Wheel Monk is a wheel with the face of a monk in the middle, it also breathes fire or lights the entire wheel on fire, you can see this referenced in armoured core. For a 1 to 1 direct reference in a game, the Wanyudo enemies in Nioh basically look, function and have the exact same lore since the game is based on Japanese myths.

[@23Scadu]

I remember that guy in Actraiser.

[@TriforceWisdom64]

I remember those guys in Okami

[@alastor8091]

They literally just lifted Wheel Skeletons from Berserk.

[@GuyWithAnAmazingHat]

@@alastor8091 Straight up Berserk and all of Soulsbourne are based on Buddhist philosophy and mythology. All of Berserk's demons are Buddhist demons, not just Wheel Monks, the horse and bull demons are prominent Buddhist hell guardians, seeing them is like see Cerberus. The concept of endless cycles that's the central theme of Soulsbourne and Berserk is from Buddhism, Buddhism says that desire and attachment leads to suffering, the more you want something, the more suffering you'll get, you continue to suffer the more attached you are to what you desire. Gods want to link the flame, dragons want to return to the good old times, mortals want to become gods, want eyes, want blood, want revenge etc., all of them continue to suffer because of their attachment to their desires, which is why every single character has a bad ending, they suffer and become corrupt from their desire. And all of this is an endless cycle because people always fall into the same trap of desire and suffering, in Buddhism we call it a samsara, the cycle of rebirth. You die, respawn, suffer again, die, respawn, suffer, repeat. This is the curse mark, the sign of your attachment to your dark desire, the source of your suffering, the demons coming after you.

[@ChioniLoux]

@@GuyWithAnAmazingHatyooo this is so powerful. I’ve always thought their games had something to do with desire and attachment, but I never considered the link to Buddhism.

[@user-ss4no3sx9b]

I love the details FromSoftware adds, like the vents or whatever they are inside the Helianthus 'core' even though nobody in the game would ever notice them.

[@Gamer3427]

At this point I have to wonder if they do it partly because they know people like Zullie will eventually have those close looks at things. Though at least in AC6 there is also the photo mode you could activate mid fight, so you could zoom in on them yourself if you want. You know, if you're willing to try to pause at the right time to get a good view through the photo mode.

[@samfivedot]

I love the detail of the teeth rotating in opposite directions to make it turn

[@moooky52]

1:30 such a sick shot, i love these videos so much

[@louis559]

You could argue that coral-powered machines are also "undead" like the bonewheels

[@GenericProtagonist118]

I remember reading somewhere that in a lot of the Souls gameplay there is a lot of comedy style pacing. Despite the fact that, yes, the stories of these games, the lore, and the world is extremely bleak and grim, the gameplay of the games themselves can be really humorous. You start DS1 and immediately fight a boss. You encounter wheels being riden by skeletons. You encounter things that are dumb and hilarious that break up the bleakness of the world. I think that's one of the important parts of what makes the Souls games so addicting and still fun despite it all.

[@tarille1043]

I think one of the more interesting things about Bonewheels is their existence likely refers to a dark practice. Back in the medieval times, there was a type of punishement where a person was tied down to a wagon wheel and were beaten so badly that their arms and legs would be broken. Which would likely be how these skeletons ended up trapped in these wheels and providing additional contrast against their rather humerous method of attack.

[@Federico-mj3si]

Yeah, they are inspired from Berserk, which took inspiration from that

[@katamariroller2837]

"humerous method of attack" Don´t know if typo or...

[@user-en4qj9to8l]

In France, I don’t know how, but this torture was transformed in a song for kindergarden named « Jean petit qui danse » (little John who dances)

[@Phootaba]

The first time I encountered the elden ring 'balls' I had a laughing fit, as it seemed the thing was playing hide and seek and was trying to hide behind a pillar, like a toddler. I really think the From games have a great sense of humor!

[@SleppySnek]

that final shot with your avatar perfectly placed in the "donut hole" was incredibly satisfying

[@notloopers1110]

i love how the guarded the ultimate from soft consistency, the moonlight great sword, with the other from soft consistency WHEEL ENEMIES

[@thatoneflamingguy]

The Anemone label may be a reference to the Sea Anemone rather than the plant. Both Nepenthes and Sea Anemones are predatory fauna that passively wait for prey to stumble into their pitchers/tentacles. I wonder if the label is a reference to the actual model (it looks like a sea anemone) while the in game name is more thematic (you are descending into this great pitcher that will kill you, like a nepenthes flower.)

[@skrubknight884]

not to be too pedantic, but the traps on pitcher plants of all types, nepenthes species included, aren't flowers, but leaves. This is actually true of every carnivorous plant, their traps are all highly modified leaves. Funny enough most of them do flower, and they make sure to put their flowers on a crazy high stalk so their pollinators don't get caught in their traps right after.

[@teslashark]

They probably labeled it as Anemone because DxM already has a Nepenthes

[@tailesque]

Perhaps also worth mentioning is V.III's AC name and associated emblem: Barren Flower. The emblem in particular greatly resembles the profile view of Helianthus machines, and subsequently, a sunflower. Though I would be hard pressed to definitively claim that this is an intentional connection, it is an interesting detail either way.

[@friendoftheoyster3906]

Theres also giant sunflowers found in bloodborne at the top of the research hall, and the area before it is where you find the moonlight sword

[@cheftroyardee7982]

Sun and moon... Coincidence? Maybe.

[@A_Toaster]

Armored Core quite literally continues to be "manmade horrors beyond my comprehension."

[@assasinsbear]

The sunflower symbol also resembles the "circumpunct". It is a symbol with various historical meaning; in Plato it symbolizes the Monad, and in alchemy it's Gold. Both of these meanings are reflected in the character of Goldmask

[@masterxl97]

This is the one enemy in the entire game that deliberately feels like Miyazaki himself designed it.

[@zayffon1325]

Zullie, your videos put my soul at ease. Not just the obviously cozy music, but the care and thought you clearly invest into them. You’re an intelligent and talented person possessed with a certain kind of rare and valuable creativity.

[@HeisenbergFam]

You gotta give props to Skeleton lodged inside a wheel patiently waiting for death from the hands of player

[@ihatehandleupdate]

what

[@LovelyHick]

I cannot understate how much of a massage for my brain these videos are, the topics, music, shots and slow zoom out, its a higher state of art, thank you so much

[@cabellism]

I love the blurring the line between genres and universes. From Software has shown they take elements and Deviled little details from multiple games and just smoosh em and make it work. Fucking GOATS.

[@michaelmannix1604]

It's funny, I was recently replaying Bloodborne and thinking about how the whole concept of voices within the Coral that become visible through contact is strikingly similar to the lore of the Research Hall in Bloodborne. "In the old days of the Healing Church, the great ones were linked to the ocean, and so the cerebral patients would imbibe water, and listen for the howl of the sea." "Ah, my guide... I see your voice clearly as it bends and bleeds. My own revelation... just for me." Even the way V. II Snail sneers about the Rubiconians and their lack of appreciation for the potential of Coral re-education, dehumanizing them as "apes," strikes an eerie parallel with the beast scourge, and the equation of stupidity with devolution. And of course... Bloodborne's Lumemflowers, tended to by the Research Hall patients, resemble giant sunflowers.

[@74oshua]

These things are a testament to the mind-altering effects of using Coral

[@JohnSmith-fs6xe]

Ah yes, the murder sunflowers

[@stryder414]

I'm getting flashbacks to grinding out an S rank on the 'Defend the Strider' mission with a suboptimal build... giant, spiky, missile spamming flowers of death!

[@mrloadinggame]

**Zullie the witch publishes a video** I know the next 2 minutes will be mindblowing

[@halcionjoy7]

I haven't seen anyone else mention it yet, so I guess I have to be that guy. The bonewheels are from Berserk. They even roll around in the manga. The only real difference is that they had more flesh on them in the source material.

[@louieberg2942]

That's Hidetaka Miyazaki for ya. Perhaps those in Berserk are, in turn, based on the Wanyudo oni. Wanyduo is just a massive (flaming) ghost face on a wheel, though.

[@skootz24]

That picture of Dark Souls Guy getting folded by the Shroom 'o Doom is my new spirit animal.

[@EnergyBurst2]

If that enemy truly is based on sunflowers, then I guess you could spin the missiles to make sense by saying its them shooting their version of sunflower seeds at the player.

[@thejuiceweasel]

I still find it insane that you can import an AC6 model into Elden Ring and even up to scale, it looks like it was made with this size in mind. I'd expect for the textures to look real bad, but they do not.

[@bismarkeugen6881]

Fighting that thing as a Tarnished would be hell... I love the design and concept of them.

[@level10gnollwarlock]

i just want to picture that helianthus grinding the fire giant into a fine paste.

[@PlushLordOfTheSeas]

I dread seeing the grinder wheels more than most enemies in the game, if they catch you off guard, ouch.

[@Joesmho23]

S ranking the walker mission with all these wheels was probably the hardest one to do for me. I don’t even remember how I did it with my build honestly.

[@va5780]

I did it with a light build that had 2x10 missile launchers on its back and a flamethrower. Funnily enough, a flamethrower is a *hard* counter against those. What puzzles me is how Vaati S ranked that mission in his quad legged AC that had almost exclusively plasma cannons.

[@apophisstr6719]

@@va5780 Yea energy weaponries are nearly useless against there guys unless you really aim their weak spot well with every shot.

[@Mordalon]

@@va5780 I believe he also used the flamethrowers and the SOUP missles, but the quad legs help keep you out of range of their blades and most of their flamethrower attacks.

[@va5780]

@@Mordalon I tried his build out and I kept eating the missiles. I guess that was a skill issue on my part

[@queencyrys6309]

My build was a high speed quad leg build with the 10X milssile pods and the handheld missile pods. Stayed above them, was fast enough to avoid their missiles, and each pod had enough kick to stun a wheel.

[@vit968]

Ever since the invention of the wheel, mankind has been under threat.

[@ScorpDK]

There's so many little details and design decisions going on in FromSoft's games that 95% of the playerbase would be wholly unaware of, wasn't it for Zullie and her peers taking a closer look at the models.

[@Ravii697]

Omg I feel so fucking dumb I never realized Elden Ring's big balls were silver tears

[@tarille1043]

I guess them literally dropping Larval Tears didn't clue you in?

[@Ravii697]

guess not @@tarille1043

[@usamimi-no-majo]

I remember when these things first popped up and my immediate reaction was "...Oh no. Bonewheels."

[@koover]

The duality of how funny realizing the missile ports look like googly eyes versus how terrifying it is realizing how big they are.

[@WynterLegend]

You know... as of late, I've been looking for a juxtapositive design. I think these and the bonewheels is what I've been looking for.

[@Orillion123456]

Yeah the AC6-bonewheel-equivalent is truly terrifying. One moment you think you're just escorting a walker, the other moment you suddenly find yourself in one of the hardest battles in the game.

[@walaxometrobixinodrink1727]

fromsoft knows that ennemies rolling is peak design

[@gengarisnotinsmash...]

I find a lot if tips for fighting these things recommended using missiles, which I find very funny. Not because it doesn't work or anything, but because I went through almost the entire game with a reverse joint missile build and these things STILL gave me more trouble than most bosses in the game, even with one and a half playthroughs of experience with that build.

[@picklejho69]

I did make a missile build based on the spring chicken legs and using the SOUP missile launchers plus two quad missile launchers and it absolutely ripped the HELIANTHUS machines in the "escort the strider" mission, mainly through sheer overwhelming volume of fire (this build also hard countered the institute drift missiles in that mission), but I alos found that a really good counter to the spinny bois was to use quickboosts to get as close as possible after their little drift maneuver or after they try to ran you, then blast them in close range with dual Sweet Sixteens or Zimmermans. They get absolutely rocked by the impact.

[@SolaScientia]

@@picklejho69 I love the Soup missiles. The flamethrower also works wonders against the wheels. I used in the escort the Strider mission.

[@annoyedzebra6362]

Yesterday I watched Gundam F91, which features similar autonomous robot death wheels with the same external spikes (not the internal ones though) in a mecha setting.

[@lennynull-funf-zehn5416]

Zullie in every AC6 Video: "ight now let's import it into Elden Ring because of course we do"

[@ZullietheWitch]

I skipped doing it once and got dozens of complaints, so I'm not going to make that mistake again.

[@davysamir2289]

The lands between after Gold Mask achieved his goal is surely something weird to look at

[@rickydo6572]

I imagined this thing going crazy around my neighbourhood and destroying everything, with that size and speed it would destroy absolutely everything in a matter of minutes. Quite scary x.x

[@menialbee]

the only thing this video was missing was a shot of an elden ring bone wheel spinning alongside its AC counterpart

[@Verminator4]

Possible inspiration was taken from Gundam F91, where Cosmo Babylonia, the villain faction of the movie, made autonomous aerial buzzsaws called Bugs to murder people that looked quite a lot like this, though they flew rather than rolled along the ground.

[@saffral]

Oh that endscreen circling around the channel photo was the perfect use of that clip.

[@johndelanie3649]

Truly the answer to the question of enemy design is "What if it had missiles"

[@asdfgibberishjkl]

Love the consistency, with your AC looking like your usual avatar.

[@Bitscreed]

I absolutely love the ongoing inclusion of "Tarnished-for-scale" moments in these AC6 vids.

[@NTBXP1]

Now imagine if people find a way to make these enemies functional in Elden Ring.

[@VelvetVexations]

The Helianthus don't seem overly goofy to me, but they do strike me as the kind of design I'd expect to see in one of the more fantasy-inspired games.

[@theoutergod8666]

Funny thing is that just a single of these funny, silly, haha wheels would be a weapon of absolute terror and doom in Lands Between. It could just roll through armies of fire giants. And everything else would not even be worth mentioning.

[@xpatrstarx]

The animation they used for them is like the bone wheels from ds3. Last thing I expected in this game was bonewheel enemies

[@sirthanksalot97]

I do wonder if "Anemone" refers not to the flower genus, but rather the sea creature. It's got a similar trapping mechanism as pitcher plants and other carnivorous plants, after all.

[@notsandwich2322]

Mankind knew they could not reinvent the wheel. So instead of reflecting on themselves, they made it gigantic, autonomous and shoved a metric ass tonne of rockets in it.

[@MrDemonKing21]

Helianthus design makes sense form a machinery stand point. It's internal design looks like a Wire Stripper machine. The outside also has a function, they seem to be machines designed for the purpose of tearing apart old machinery into scrap pieces. Running into old machinery and tearing it to pieces. That's just my opinion of the design.

[@Gamer3427]

I feel like the random humorous enemies is something most soulslikes don't manage to incorporate properly even when they're tying to emulate From's games. It's actually a really nice little touch to include because it's hard not to either laugh at it or at least be shocked by the absurdity, which gives you a break from the tension that can build up when dealing with more standard enemies.

[@2Dement3D]

Elden Ring's scariest "rolling enemy" are those pesky Red Albinaurics that keep getting in the way of my peaceful rune farming.

[@Mene0]

Oh the ending with the channel logo in the middle of the well was really cool

[@ethanstewart5108]

Please do more videos about AC6's enemies and bosses, it's really nice to see their designs close up in a way that's very difficult in game on account of them trying to kill you constantly.

[@ASpooneyBard]

Another great example of a "humorous threat" is the giant bone katamari in DS3. It could have just been a rolling boulder like in Sen's Fortress, but instead you can actually see the skeleton arms pulling it along. There's also the infamous crab... Likewise, you defeat this threat by killing a specific, unique skeleton that is presumably controlling it. This skeleton could have been marked with a magical aura, or he could have been holding a staff, but no. He's wearing a pointy "wizard hat" and nothing else.

[@Cheattoe]

I need fanart with the fire giant riding inside one of those like general grievous with a spiked motorcycle helmet as he runs over the tarnished

[@TheRealNekora]

This disonance is actuly one of the things that ive loved about FromSofts gamrs, tho inve not ben able to put it into words until you said it here. Thank you Zullie

[@thephysicsgamer123]

I like that the little dots make them look like goofy guys with eyes on either side of a circular mouth (though the third dot undermines this somewhat)

[@PalindromeAAF]

Thank you for all the work you do, Zullie! We appreciate you sharing your view of these worlds with us ❤

[@MainTopmastStaysail]

They might be made to resemble a flower but the two irregular bumps to the left and right of the hole make a derpy face.

[@eris9062]

Other plant inspiration includes “xylem” a series of tubes that transport water around in vascular plants, among other things

[@chrispysaid]

Zullie, your videos make me extremely happy

[@forlidman]

I can't help but notice some similarities between the Helianthus wheel and the wheel monk enemy from Nioh. In that games it is a fiery head and wheel that spins at you and breath fire in a similar way to AC6. That enemy was based on a Japanese Yokai and probably influenced by the wheel skeletons.

[@tomisabum]

Skeleton Ball and Bonewheelers just seem like they're having a jolly good time. Let them revel.

[@ahrims7]

one of the chief rules of From Soft games: If its silly, run.

[@Nypotet]

Love the composition in your shots❤ Great stuff as always, Zullie

[@86fifty]

Whoo! That final shot of the round center of the machine while the circular avatar for your channel showed up in the middle?? Perfect example of one of those "oddly satisfying" clips. Symmetry is a lovely thing :)

[@Bearded_Badass]

I don't know if the bone wheels were meant to be humorous but I'm glad some can find humor in something so grim

[@SunspotSolarbird]

Hello Zullie! Thank you for another wonderful video. It is lovely to see you back around making videos once more. I hope you are managing to do it in ways that are sustainable and comfortable for you, because you bring us many gifts, and deserve peace and comfort too. Best wishes to you, yours, and theirs. Stay safe out there, neighbor and thanks again for all the wonderful deep-dives.

[@prins-henrik1530]

When first going through the area, I definitely felt that the moonlight sword location was a callback to demons souls, where it is also surrounded by many slug creatures in a swamp.

[@AngryAragami]

I remember looking down at the lake the first time I played this mission, seeing these buggers wheeling around, and thinking "Hell is empty, cause all the demons are here".

[@KaptinScuzgob]

the two domes on either side of the central hole gives it a silly face too

[@coteof7055]

I remember the moment I saw the first helianthus machine come rolling across the bridge and just started cackling.