I've just released Persephone's 2025 Metroidvania Corpus* as a PDF! I did this to allow for easier accessibility using Adobe's bookmark system. The corpus combines "From Master's to PhD" with my earlier postgrad work on Metroidvania, "Mazes and Labyrinths," merging them into a single, larger document alongside extra material (originally 74 pages, v1.0; currently 867 pages, v2.25c2).

*Said work also connects to Persephone's Sex Positivity book series and Amazon research but also her anti-fascist muckraking work versus Karl Jobst and the gaming community protecting him (re: "Hot Karl," 2025).

Editor's notes, 1/29/2025: The corpus was originally SFW/ages 10+ but now contains censored, fig-leaf-style nudity for educational purposes, ages 16+ (see: patch notes). You can download it on my 18+ website. The individual portions of said research, as they exist on this blog, remain SFW unless age-gated.

Corpus current edition, v2.25c/c1/c2, 4/1/2026: Added a postscript regarding Chozologist, "Nature vs the State," in the table of contents (re: "Peer Review" and "Nature vs the State"), plus an asterisk footnote in exhibit 0 concerning Jodi Byrd and Indigenous zombies vis-à-vis survival horror media; e.g., the Resident Evil franchise. / Added "Nature vs the State" after "Thanking Chozologist and Holiwell," and tweaked it slightly. / More tweaking.

Older Patch Notes

v2.25b, 3/24/2026: Added "Thanking Chozologist and Holiwell" at the start of "Once More unto the Breach"; expanded on the map as a technology of conquest, in my conversation with Chozologist; added various other small changes, including adding info about the instruction booklet to NEStroid [1986] during the Full Commentary section.

v2.25a/v2.25a1/2, 3/23/2026: Fixed the footnotes of "Once More unto the Breach" (for the blog version); added info about rape and incest themes in Walpole's fiction; updated several other footnotes and various small changes throughout. / Clarified the essay thesis in the foreword, and some definitions (and the first footnote about the Promethean Quest) in "Metroidvania Guru (and Metroidvania definitions)." / Various small addendums and small changes.

v2.25, 3/22/2026: Added a forth module, Collabs, including its first publication, "'Once More unto the Breach'; or, Reading and Responding to S. R. Holiwell's "A Maze of Murderscapes: Metroid II" (2026). Updated "About the Author" and "About this Corpus."

v2.05a, 1/29/2026: Rearranged the disclaimers and added a disclaimer on fig-leaves to the general corpus disclaimer. Updated the Further Reading section.

v2.05 (10/31/2025): Updated "the Final Score for Act III" and added multiple drawings for "Best and Worst," in "Silksong Symposium"; made other small changes throughout symposium.

v2.04 (10/20/2025): Proofread "Kicking Things Off," making small additions from "Pros and Cons" to "Best and Worst." Small corrections made throughout the entire symposium.

v2.02a (10/13/2025): Lowered final score of Silksong to 92/100 due to long-standing design issues; i.e., terrible backtracking thanks to false walls, huge gameworld, one-way routes, and no map squares/useless map in Act III.

v2.02 (10/9/2025): Fixed some small mistakes in the new Author's Foreword/some formatting errors throughout. Added "Other Books by Persephone" alongside "Further Reading by Persephone."

v2.0 (10/8/2025): Organized the corpus into modules; re: Nulla, I, II, and III. Added an Author's Foreword (for v2.0) and a general corpus disclaimer while moving the Sex Positivity disclaimer to the front; added a section concerning further history about this corpus vis-à-vis my entire body of work, and how I'm treating its reading level/audience as 16+ despite certain portions being 10+. Finalized my "Silksong Symposium" (refer to its changelog for changes to it, specifically).

v1.90 (10/5/2025): Added "The Abyss, part two: More Boss Keys" and "The Abyss, part three: Flower Acquired; or, Going Back to Hell" to "My Gameplay Notes" [in my "Silksong Symposium"]. Small changes throughout document.

v1.85 (9/30/2025): Added "Review Addendum: Act III: the Abyss, part one; or, Going Back to Hell," to the "Final View" section [in my "Silksong Symposium"]; added "Actual Act III/the Abyss, part one" to "My Gameplay Notes." Small changes throughout document.

v1.80 (9/29/2025): Wrote another extension for my "final" Silksong review [in my "Silksong Symposium"]—this time including frustrations to vent after reaching Act III (mostly concerning fetch quests and lack of useful hints; i.e., from the game's caretaker at First Shrine). Added a new section to the "First Impressions" section: "G2A3 (cont.): Fetch Quests." Wrote the opening to "Actual Act III/the Abyss," too.

v1.75 (9/27/2025): Wrote an extension for my "final" review [in my "Silksong Symposium"] for Silksong to include me getting to Act III (G2A3). Divided "Act III" of my "First Impressions" section into three parts: "Some Transitional Notes" and "Getting to Act III (G2A3), or Act II, Extended," both completed; and "Actual Act III/the Abyss," yet to be written. "G2A3" is extensive enough on its own to justify uploading a new edition (~90 new visual aids in "G2A3," alone).

v1.69 (9/25/2025): Wrote a pros/cons (tl;dr) section [to my "Silksong Symposium"] and put it and the review (for the base game) at the start of "Kicking Things Off." Put "Symposium Focus" and "Summarizing My Broader Work" before that, in a section called "Last Call." Various signposting and small changes throughout. Proofread my notes for Acts II and III; still need to proofread "Extra Theory" and "Thematic Analysis," but decided to proofread those after uploading a new version of the corpus containing the current proofreading changes (v.1.69).

v1.65 (9/21/2025): Added my "Silksong Symposium" (2025) which dedicates to my playing and studying Team Cherry's long-awaited Silksong (2025)!

v1.45 (9/2/2025): Includes a small update to my X-Fusion review called "Fix It in Post," which reviews X-Fusion v1.2 quite positively.

v1.40 (8/26/2025): Added a short follow-up to my X-Fusion review, one where I view the hack more favorably when played by a skilled, practiced player.

v1.39a (8/21/2025): Moved "Further Reading by Persephone" to the start of the document; added "Persephone's Anti-Fascist Research" (re: on Karl Jobst) to said section.

v1.39 (8/6/2025): Expanded my review for Metaquarius' X-Fusion (re: "A Beautiful Lie"), adding footnotes/small additions and correcting various small errors.

v1.38 (8/4/2025): Included my review for Metaquarius' X-Fusion (2025), "A Beautiful Lie."

v1.35 (7/29/2025): Wrote a new essay—or series of smaller essays bundled together to make the second half of this corpus, called "X Marks the Spot." Added various paratextual documents to account for/accommodate the new material; i.e., for being more erotic, marrying my SFW Metroidvania research to my NSFW book series, Sex Positivity. The visual aids are censored, but remain censored nudity and sex work; i.e., in a way that doesn't exist in the first half.

v1.22 (7/12/2025): Wrote a new essay for the corpus: "Joy Under Fascism."

v1.21 (7/4/2025): Proofread the entire the corpus (again); i.e., to prepare for reading it on my YouTube channel (for archival purposes). Various small corrections throughout, including fixing broken hyperlinks and adding links, in the PDF version, to the source images; i.e., for anything with tiny font; e.g., the Twitter screencaps. Expanded the opening to "Metroidvania (all definitions)" for additional historical context. Moved "About the Author" (reprise) to the back of the document. Revised the PDF's front Table of Contents.

v1.20a (7/1/2025): Resized the Amazon illustrations in "Regarding My Amazon Research."

v1.20 (6/21/2025): Expanded "Regarding My Amazon Research" to give the document more poetic analysis, versus its primarily historical approach; placed it after "Content Warning." Tweaked "What Are They (my definition)?" Several other small changes made throughout.

v1.19 (5/27/2025): Tweaked some formatting. Placed "Metroidvania: What Are They (my definition)?" at the start of the corpus. Updated some incorrect dates, added some small definitions and other paratextual details.

v1.18 (5/11/2025): Added a further reading section that covers Persephone's research parallel to Metroidvania, including Tolkien, ludo-Gothic BDSM, and Amazons/the Medusa and Amazonomachia (the monstrous-feminine). Added some additional coverage on Karl Jobst at the start of "Those Who Walk Away from Speedrunning"; e.g., him losing the lawsuit and his racism, which feature in a 2025 write-up/compendium on Karl, one where I expose him based on my and others' investigations: "Karl Jobst: Still Racist (and Fash), in 2025."

v1.17a (3/27/2025): Added some additional definitions to "Persephone's Academic History": "the euthanasia effect (rabid token Amazons)," "mirror syndrome," "Amazonomachia (Amazon pastiche, subjugated/subversive)."

v1.17 (3/23/2025) – Expanded on "Summarizing Persephone's Metroidvania Praxis" in "From Master's to PhD"; i.e., to feature "ludo-Gothic BDSM," but also to discuss more of the history that occurred for Persephone between 2018 and 2023. Includes new interview portions with Scott Sharkey. Also added new essential glossary terms to "Persephone's Academic History." Not all mention specifically in this corpus, but do relate to my Metroidvania work as a sex-positive device, post-PhD; i.e., regarding my activism surrounding the universal liberation of sex work (thus all work) using Metroidvania as a holistic and flexible teaching device.

v1.16 (1/15/2025) - Recorded a live reading for "Doom Eternal (2020) Review: No Girls or Trans People Allowed," but also respond to the years' worth of transphobic hate mail that review received: "Persephone's Metroidvania Series #6" (2025). Added the links in this corpus. Some small typo fixes and corrections.

v1.15a " - Recorded a live reading for "Those Who Walk Away…" and added the links in this corpus. I did so because the reading also includes a full response to speedrunner Karl Jobst's old pick-up artist video; i.e., by breaking it down and critiquing his bad dating advice, sleazy antics and predator grifter behavior: "Persephone's Metroidvania Series #5" (2025).

v1.15 (1/13/2025) - Added "Those Who Walk Away from Speedrunning" (and its historical 2020 companion piece, "Postcolonialism in Doom") to address how speedrunning—although still important to my work—is something I, a trans woman an-Com, ultimately walked away from; i.e., while keeping my interest for Metroidvania (vis-à-vis ludo-Gothic BDSM) largely intact.

v1.1 (1/7/2025) - Expanded "Persephone's Further Reading (on Metroidvania)" to include ancillary research to her Metroidvania work, namely on FPS games. Includes reviews and on write-ups on Ion Fury, Blood and Doom Eternal (among others), but also additional interviews with game devs (e.g., James Towne and Yellow Swerve), filmmakers (e.g., the cast and crew of "Alien: Ore") and world-class speedrunners (e.g., FrostyXen, CScottyW and King Dime). Full changes are under "Further Reading."

v1.0 (1/6/2025) - vanilla release