I have been away from the game for a long time, but popped back to check out the weird new guns that seem to be inspired by Cronenberg's film Existenz. I couldn't resist reading up on podcasts thanks to Al's transcripts and saw this in podcast 51:
Q: And for some other long term stuff… Of all the mysteries we've not yet managed to solve since the game started, can you tell us anything about your favorite?
A: There is a, obviously quite a few refereces to Matsuo the Demonslayer. There's a bit more to that than just callbacks to a cool show, and I think people will be very pleased when they find that.
Rather than look into what brought me back, I've got the bug to take yet another crack at some now 10 year old mysteries. Here goes nuthin'.
We know from TV that one of Matsuo's many opponents is "his own dark reflection". So my basic idea is to see if anything cool happens if you fight an appropriately Matsuo-y clone in pvp while all Matsuo-y yourself. Some thoughts on what might matter:
- Having the Channeling Matsuo effect active seems like a must
- Being Etheric would probably help make weird stuff happen
- The techniques you can learn from Channeling Matsuo are Swordplay, Parry, Power Strike, and Leaping Dodge, so that's probably a good deck to be using
- As to equipment, one possibility would be for both fighters to wield the replica sword
- Since it looks like Kinak was working on the pvp revamp that included the Matsuo finale at about the same time as the Ghost Ship stuff, a more elaborate possibility that goes all-out on the "dark reflection" thing would be for the clone to use the black silver blade and maybe also a black silver visor, blackened vest or nightmarish gang jacket, and a shadowy heart while the attacker uses a shining blade shining mask, shining vest or shining gang jacket, and a hidden heart. Going one step even farther would be to actually have the Undead Scourge and Mercy Killer skills, respectively.
I got a Sea Lord's crown ages ago for spading something-or-other that I no longer remember, so I can't help with the very last idea (at least, not anytime soon), but I'd like to try everything up until that if anybody else is up for it.