ActivisionI’ve played through FromSoftware’s excellent – if brutal – samurai adventure Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice a few times now, but not once did I imagine it could be improved by the inclusion of Woody – the lovable star of Toy Story, memorably voiced by Tom Hanks.
Clearly, we live in a world where there’s a mod for absolutely everything, and it’s starting to scare me. I’m not sure if modding the sheriff into Sekiro was supposed to be funny, but the results aren’t exactly worth a chuckle – Woody’s cold, unfeeling, plastic eyes become uniquely unsettling when he’s gutting his enemies with a sword, showering his lanky form in a spray of deep crimson.
Observe below. Tom Hanks is gone. Andy is long gone. Only Woody remains, and he’s not happy.
主人公をウッディにするmodってあったから気になって入れてみたらシュールすぎて腹痛い pic.twitter.com/DTluaOAhrc
— 👾すけお👾 (@nunswa08) July 26, 2019
If you’re wondering who to thank for this Pixar-inspired nightmare fuel, look no further than Nexus Mods user huckleberrypie, who explained; “My cousin and I have just watched Toy Story 4 at the local theatre lately, and since there’s been some videos of Sekiro being modded with funny meme mods I decided to join in on the fun.”
Fun. Sure. I can’t close my eyes without imagining Woody drenched in the blood of his foes now, but sure – it’s a damn hoot.
The mod works with an existing mod that adds GTA: San Andreas’ Carl to Sekiro, while Woody’s character model actually comes from a mobile puzzle game called Disney Dream Treats. That somehow makes the whole thing even creepier, right?
If you haven’t seen it yet, Toy Story 4 is really all about Woody trying to redefine himself and find a new purpose now that he’s no longer the “favourite” toy that he was with Andy.
The film tackles this question in an incredibly sweet and touching way, though now I can’t help but wonder what Toy Story 4 would have been like if Woody got over Andy by heading to Sengoku-era Japan to slay everything in sight with his blade, perhaps throwing his sheriff badge as a makeshift shuriken to blind opponents.
If someone could maybe add some kind of Tom Hanks voice pack to this Sekiro mod, I feel like that could make it a little less spine-chillingly terrifying? Then again, it could just make it a whole lot worse – I’m willing to roll that dice.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.