Dead by Daylight will soon update, taking us to Japan for the stories of Rin Yamaoka "The Spirit" and Adam Francis "The Teacher." Though it won't be officially released until September 11, a demo for the new chapter has been released, with the vengeful Spirit as the main attraction. The last killer we got was the Clown a few months back, and while reception to him was lukewarm initially, over time players found him to be a strong killer. With the Spirit's interesting ability and "hard" rating, this seems to be a similar situation, and I feel like she could become incredibly useful. In life, Rin Yamaoka was a Japanese student, according to her Wiki page. She attended a prestigious school that put monetary strain on her family, which only got worse when her mother fell ill, despite Rin getting a job. Her father, now in debt, began to lose sleep after taking double shifts, only to be fired as the scapegoat for a defective product. Finally snapping, he killed Rin's mother with a katana just as Rin herself got home, turning his attention to her. With the sword in hand, Rin's father brutally hacked at her body as she tried to escape, severing her arms; one in two places; and a leg. Thrown a floor down through a glass window, Rin was further damaged crawling through the broken shards. As she began slipping into death, Rin's mind filled with rage and a desire for vengeance against her father, giving the Entity the chance to swoop in to recruit her. Adam Francis, on the other hand, was born in Jamaica according to his Wiki page, and lived with his strict-but-fair uncle after his dad died in a car accident. He became an academic, and though becoming a target for bullies, Adam was able to learn how to tough it out. Becoming a teacher, Adam took the opportunity to go overseas, heading to Japan where he initially struggled to learn the language and adapt. Eventually getting the hang of it all, Adam found himself on the train to work one day when it crashed. Noticing a door hurtling toward another person, Adam used his body as a shield, only for the Entity to take him away. With bios out of the way, lets take a took at the new abilities the two characters are bringing to the game. As with other killers, the Spirit has her own particular ability, such as the Trapper's bear traps or the Hillbilly's chainsaw sprint. The Spirit's power allows her to enter the leave her body behind as a husk. In doing so, she enters the spirit world for a limited time. Here, she moves faster and can't be seen, similar to Freddy or the cloaked Wraith, though her husk is still visible. The Spirit in this form can also not see the survivors, but can more easily see scratch marks and blood splatters. Because of this, she can quickly follow the survivors, but similar to the Nurse, who blinks around the map, survivors can counter her power by doubling back, which can seem to make them disappear. This is one area that leads to her being classified "hard," because players will have to learn how to predict survivor paths. That brings us to her special perks, and again the last new killer, the Clown, is relevant because she is also a counter to looping survivors. The Clown has the perk "Bamboozle," which allows him to block off a window for a time after jumping through, preventing survivors from using it. The Spirit brings a similar perk, Spirit Fury, changing the focus to preventing pallet looping. By destroying four pallets, the Spirit gains the power to immediately destroy a pallet when she is stunned, though she is still penalized. Her second ability is Hex: Haunted Ground, which like her last power, is similar to an existing ability: Thrill of the Hunt. This preexisting Hex gives the killer a notification when survivors cleanse totems, giving away their position. On a similar note, Haunted Ground brings in two trapped totems, and upon cleansing one, the other goes dull and the survivor becomes "exposed," allowing them to be downed in one hit. This lasts for 40, 50, or 60 seconds, depending on the perk's level. Her last ability, Rancor, focuses on an obsession, and is also similar to another perk: the survivor ability Object of Obsession, which lets the obsession and killer see each other when the survivor sees the killer from far enough away. With Rancor, for a few seconds the obsession can see the killer when a generator is completed, and the killer sees everyone. After the final generator is completed, the obsession becomes exposed and the killer is able to kill them, rather than having to sacrifice them on a hook. Then there's Adam, whose abilities also seem to be a way of deterring players from the now-popular running and area looping techniques survivors have developed. Adam's first ability is Diversion, which allows him to toss a pebble 10, 15, or 20 meters away to distract the killer once he's been within the terror radius for 45 seconds without being chased. This makes Adam much more of a stealthy character, and potentially less useful for trying to escape chases. His second ability, Deliverance, is a crutch to counteract this chase weakness, however, while simultaneously having another negative side effect. Upon unhooking another player, the survivor has a 100% chance to escape a hook, but they then become "broken" for 100, 80, or 60 seconds. Like No Mither, this means the survivor can't be healed to full health during this time. Adam's final ability is Autodidact, which starts him out with a 20% penalty when healing survivors, and prevents him from getting great skill checks. The ability doesn't work when using a med-kit, and successful skill checks while healing others gives Adam tokens at most 3, 4, or 5, with each granting him a 20% bonus while healing survivors. With the new characters done, let's take a look at the new map, Yamaoka estate, which I really think is a refreshing change of pace. For the new map, the devs have taken us to the Spirit's home in Japan, with a beautiful and eerie classic home, covered in vines. Surrounding the building are typical rocks, trees, and tall grass, but they are different from what we're used to from other maps. The other outside maps are all different in some ways, but overall because they take place in America, they're similar in some physical aspects. Indoor maps were drastically different, but that could be bad in ways, as it could be incredibly difficult to find your way around, though changes from rocks and trees could be interesting. Now, we're in what appear to me a more feudal, or at least classic, Japan, and it gives a new feeling with different looking foliage and an eerie building filled with light and surrounded by glowing lanterns. Even the wooden structures, and hooks are different, with the former appearing to be a different material and overtaken in foliage like the house, and the hooks taking on a different aesthetic. On a similar note, while Adam fits in with the other survivors, I personally have started out feeling like the Spirit looks a bit different from the other killers. She overall fits with the game's vibe, but something about her felt odd to me, though I figure it could just be because she's new. Overall I love her design despite it feeling different, as being someone who isn't afraid of clowns, the previous killer's outfits just looked silly to me. Here, we have a clearly angry ghostly woman wrapped in bandages, and you can see the effects of her father's brutal assault. Her arms aren't and leg aren't fully connected, clearly staying together but floating, and shards of glass protrude from her shoulder and hand. Her sword appears in a rather odd way, appearing to me like a bunch of sci-fi data gathering together, but it makes a satisfying noise and appears just as brutal as her father's attack sounded. In the end I feel like the new chapter is partially an effort from the devs to more balance the game and make killer scary again by bringing in survivor perks based around hiding and saving, along with killer perks that counter looping and gen rushing. We're still only in a demo for now, so there are sure to be issues and things that will be changed, but in this time players are definitely finding combinations already to make the new characters work, and I'm excited to see more when the new chapter is officially released to the public. "First Cut" chapter trailer from the "Dead by Daylight" YouTube.
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