It is plain tbh. What makes it feel interesting is that it never explains 99% of the lore. You have to pick up on it through tiny little details in the game. Sometimes it’s more blatant, sometimes it’s super subtle.
Just reading up on it doesn’t give the same experience as “did the incarnation of the limitless void just turn into Kirby for a second there?”
OI I KNOWZ DAT!! I IZ A BADMOON OLDHEAD, BUTZ I GOTZ TO DUM IT DOWN FOR DEEZ HUMMIEZ! DEY NOT READY FOR “DAKKA IZ AZ DAKKA DOZ” OR ANY’TING BOSS GHAZGHKULL IZ YELLINZ ABOUT!!
It’s endlessly funny to me that Orks are among the most brutal, caste-system based, martial strength = legitimate authority, but they are powered by feels.
A Eldar or Guardsman would look at a typical Shoota or Mek built by Orks see a series of parts assembled to a facsimile of the intended device - but it is the Ork’s belief that it will work, that makes it work. In a future where the Imperium will invade whole systems over rumors of ancient human technology that is superior to their creations, Orks pop up from spores and can bullshit themselves to overcome physical laws.
Yep, as a fictional concept they are fascinating. They’re less of a nation or a race, but more like an invading self contained ecosystem that makes supply lines obsolete. Their technology is so ridiculous that it’s almost useless in other species hands, but they can pillage their enemies weapons to their own advantage. Their entire species social class structure is based on merit, biggest ork is DA BOSS, because it’s biologically baked into them.
Just to give things some scale, the longest book series in WH 40k is the hours heresy. It’s 60+ books. And that takes place in the 30th millennium, so it’s just background to current times lore.
There are more than 300 novels to read, and that’s just counting novels. There are also codexes (codecies?), other supplementary books, other game books (like dark heresy), and the many issues of the white dwarf magazine.
I think some of them are pretty good! My favorites are the Ciaphas Cain series and Eisenhorn series. Gaunts Ghosts is also good if you want a more serious military read. If you want non-humans, check out “The Infinite and the Divine”. It’s about necrons (highly advanced ancient space robots/terminators).
I finally got round to listening to a bunch of 40k stuff, I’ve read some in the past but not a lot and it’s been a while. I started with the ciaphas cain series, it’s somewhat comedic at times and the main character reluctantly gets into situations thanks to his heroic reputation. Lots of fun. Now I’ve been going through a bunch of Dan Abnett’s stuff, eisenhorn and gaunt’s ghosts. They both take themselves a lot more seriously. There’s like 11 cain books and 16? Gaunt’s ghosts books. It’s all down to preference but I’ve been enjoying the guard-focused books a lot.
I think it’s worth getting into, but you will quickly find authors you like and ones you dislike. I think the worst part of reading 40k is that you’ll find a book you like, but it isn’t a part of a larger series. For example hellsreach, or rin’s world.
Maybe watch some YouTube videos about the setting first to see what interests you about the lore, and then start with books about that.
Don’t worry, most worldwide fans didn’t either. Outside of first world countries few can afford such a hobby so a big chunk of the community are just lore enjoyers
That’s it. That’s the lore. That’s how much people like to hype up kirby lore despite it being a big ol nothingburger. That’s why he’s just so upset about all that hype and then… the big reveal. Kirby eat things.
There’s also the fact that there are other potential incarnations of Kirby also wandering around the universe, except they’re evil. Also they seem to be able to kill omnipotent gods somehow. And potentially create them too. I think there was also something about Nova or whatever his name was being made by the same species Kirby is?
Which, because they’re all dead except Kirby and Metaknight implied that there’s something capable of killing them, too, that we’ve never seen.
Also Kirby probably never killed 0. It would seem he can’t die in fact. And he seems to be what happens when Kirby reincarnates as evil instead of good.
The final boss of Kirby Squeak Squad is implied to be an incarnation of 0. In Japan his name is even “Dark 0.”
Kirby lore is basically “Lovecraft for Kids” if you ask me. Way simpler than traditional cosmic horror, but it has the same elements.
In the last game, Forgotten Land, Kirby fights against a god level dimension warping motherfucker who corrupted all the animals and steals souls for power. After being Kirb stomped, Fecto Elfilis creates a pocket dimension to escape to that contains all the souls and warped versions of the bosses. A pivotal part of the end boss build up is a wall of flesh/psychic material chases after you, the goopy mass swarming with the faces of those it’s consumed.
This isnt even lore yet - it’s gameplay. Kirby is also haunted by Meta Knight, space wizards from other dimensions, and so much more. It isn’t hype to just talk about what’s happening in the game.
Depends on the game as the characters grow from enemies to conflicted allies who have to fight wizards and extra dimensional beasts. But yeah, they’re pretty chill around each other as long as no one fucks with the Waddle Dees.
It’s less about length and more about absurdity and power levels. As a rough translation, imagine if everything ever done by chaos was defeated by a single entity that ate them. That’s basically how Kirby lore works.
The games aren’t deep per se, but they just get a little tonally weird towards the end given the franchise’s cute presentation. You go from fighting a tree who won’t stop disrupting forest creatures to battling an unknowable alien incarnation of darkness who wants to take over all of reality. The series has a lot of, “Oh no, our friend’s been possessed by a manifestation of pure evil!” plots.
An eldritch god birthed into existence as a counterweight to the overwhelming darkness of the universe, a force of nature, regardless of intent (I think, it’s been years since I took that plunge)
Imagine all the people who would do the Matrix thing and learn martial arts… Only to gain the wisdom that knowing how to do martial arts doesn’t make it any easier when you’re fat and out of shape.
The Matrix thing is only really useful when you go inside the Matrix, where your limits are your mental strength. Outside the Matrix you’re still a weedy little person. Look at when Neo and Bane/Smith fought: it was messy, ugly, and the opposite of choreographed martial arts.
And those with motivation and willpower do it the old fashioned way. Plenty of people would jump at the chance to take a shortcut like downloading the knowledge into their brain, only to realize knowledge alone doesn’t make one a kung fu master.
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