So I just beat Bloodborne and feel a need to talk about it. And just the Fromsoft Soulsborne games in general. This thread can also act as a sort of general purpose Fromsoft fan thread. You like The Adventures of Cookie and Cream or wish people had played King's Field before it became cool under the name Dark Souls? Then come here. Assume spoilers for the various Souls games. Anyway so Bloodborne. It was great. I think it might be my favorite of the Souls games yet, though I am horribly biased because I am a horror junkie and gothic and lovecraftian horror are my favorite sorts. Bloodborne is definitely that in spades and I feel that they did a really, really good job at it. Since seeing the Oolacile Township and the Tower of Latria I knew that Miyazaki and his team could make a good horror game. They rather outdid my expectations, I feel. Because it was just that. It was also the fastest and most frantic Souls game yet gameplay wise. It's like playing through the climax of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre in terms of how it feels. Jesus christ. Really I want to write a big thing about it as horror. I should do that. Now.
As said Bloodborne is very clearly pulling from both Lovecraftian and gothic horror. On the outset the gothic theming is most apparent. You're in the city of Yharnam, which is modeled quite a bit on a variety of European cities with London being one of the more obvious. The beasts look like horrible werewolves and yet also feast on blood and are made stronger by it. This is very much like some vampire stories from the Victorian era and so on. It has a very penny dreadful feel to it and you take up the role of your very own Van Helsing basically. However as things go on you begin to see hints that there is more going on. Something very cosmic and Eldritch. Get enough insight or go to the right places you might even come face to face with these things from beyond the stars. Then you find a school filled with horrible fly creatures and kill a boss and everything quickly descends into Eldritchean madness. Bloodborne doesn't just pull on the face of gothic horror and lovecraftian horror. Bloodborne works very much with the themes of these styles of horror. The beasts stand out for example. When you start you get horribly mauled by some werewolf looking creature in a clinic. The townsfolk you find meanwhile are all kind of not right. While they can talk and do talk, at times they'll let out bestial growls. To the surprise of absolutely no one the beasts were former humans. This being the end result of the Blood Plague, and they seem to actually be sapient still. We have ourselves a nice working with the idea of man becoming beastlike, a rather common theme of gothic horror. Where I think Bloodborne really succeeds though is how it merges the two kinds of horror together almost seamlessly. You learn over the course of the game that the Beast Plague is the result of the Healing Church using the blood of Great Ones, amazing godlike beings of the cosmos. The Healing Church meanwhile was born out of the College of Byrgenwerth. Plot wise all the seemingly pure gothic elements of the story are revealed to be very lovecraftian in nature. This also carries over with the themes, I feel. Miyazaki managed to take things like the idea of man being bestial and horrible and really apply that thematically to what is a cosmic horror story. The Great Ones and Kin are not so unfeeling as they would be in a Lovecraft. They are feeling and thinking beings who are mentioned as being sympathetic to the plights of man. They answer our prayers to them, using their ability to mold reality through dream. They also have a very human need for children, are seen mourning over their dead, and so on. These are creatures of vast and unimaginable vastness, and yet we can gain glimpses of something very human in them. Meanwhile the scholars of Byrgenwerth and the church born from the dissenting scholars under Laurence become truly monstrous. In their pursuit of knowledge they become blood hungry beasts, and the worst beasts by far are those who were high up members of the church. The pursuit of knowledge being our undoing and the fear of man as beast were combined together very nicely and the two themes work together. Then there's the historical references. There is a character in the story who is a prostitute for example because, well, this is Victorian England but not really. You have a heavy use of incense to ward off the beasts, who are described as being a plague. The Hunters of Hunters wear outfits very reminiscent of plague doctors. This is mentioned as being to suggest sky burial. Letting the crows have the dead and hopefully they will be purified on their trip to the skies. As mentioned though incense is a very popular item in terms of warding off beasts and plague doctors are known for stuffing incense in their beaks. You have the various plagues. Then there's the abuses of the Healing Church. A lot of their shit seems very inspired by the actions of the Catholic Church. Not just in terms of how they look and chant, but also in terms of the fucked up shit they get to. It's really nicely done and it still feels very fresh and unique. Which brings up the popcultural references. Because this is a Fromsoft game it is teeming in those. H.P. Lovecraft in particular obviously. Hell there's a rune that looks quite like the letters H and P with an l in between. Berserk is also referenced seemingly through things like the brutal nature of the game and the Hunters mark. Again though while all these things are referenced and someone familiar with these things would notice it it does feel like it's its own thing. This happens with folkloric references as well. The beasts seem rather inspired by creatures like the varcolac. Bloodsucking werewolves. But the Beasts are their own thing. The Vilebloods too. It's lovely. Then there is the thing that got to me most about the game. Bloodborne is very much a game about pregnancy and motherhood. You have pregnancy scares, an unwanted pregnancy, someone who wants to be pregnant so she can be CHOSEN and made special, forced abortions, kidnapping, orphans and more. While it's all taken to a very fucked up height in the end the horror is very real and very distressing to me. Also that soundtrack. That soundtrack and the sound design is just. Fucking amazing. Works really well with setting the tone. There are cheesy scare chords in the Upper Cathedral Ward. There is creepy Latin chanting. You have so many of the great sound traditions of horror and yet they're all used rather well. The scare chords of the Upper Cathedral Ward are actually pretty fucking terrifying. The best thing about Bloodborne as horror though is its pacing. Pacing is very key to horror. Almost as much as tone and theme. These are the three musts of horror to me. Plot? You can do without a good one. Character? You can have cardboard. But pacing? If your horror story isn't paced well it is shit. That I think is the problem with most creepypastas and bad horror in general. It's not that a video game being possessed can't be scary. It's that the writers of these stories cannot pace. Bloodborne tosses you into a violent world like the rest of the Souls games. It explains things to you very slowly and opaquely. You can see hints of the eldritch truth if you are observant and spend lots of time with the game. And over time it progressively grows more and more fevered and more and more eldritch. Until at last you kill Rom and the game just dives off the deep end.
It definitely has the best PvE experience in the series, and atmosphere on par with the best Demon's Souls had. With the added bonus that the game mechanics are not as absolutely inscrutable, janky, and unpolished as Demon's. Bloodborne unfortunately is a step backwards in terms of the PvP and in terms of the online connectivity and mechanics in general compared to Dark Souls 2, but as a single player experience it's some of the best content the souls series has to offer. Also I hope you played the DLC because it's fantastic. There's an area that's like the Tower of Latria and Duke's Archives' fucked up gothic horror lovechild, and shit just goes full on Innsmouth at the very end in closing, allow me to present you with some fashion courtesy of my Dark Souls 2 and Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin characters e: also also its quite fortuitous you made this cuz i was considering doing a soulsborne thread myself sometime soon in anticipation of the upcoming release of Dark Souls 3, which I'm looking forward to playing quite a bit.
Yeah I noticed that. Dark Souls 2 is the best where PVP and such is concerned. It didn't really bother me but then PVP is just kind of...a side interest to me. I'm more into the lore finding and the PVE. Co-op getting a slight priority over PVP in terms of my interests. I did really like how summoning other players worked in Bloodborne though. Just ringing a bell and then promptly not giving a shit. Also having penalties for doing so. I wish I had screenshots of my DkS 2 characters...THE HANDMAID IN PARTICULAR.
oh i had all kinds of fun playing dressup in that game e: unfortunately since my hard drive died the old save data i had for vanilla dark souls 2 is gone now. and all these builds with it. but i've not been as into dks2 lately as i used to be. i'm playing through scholar verrrrry slowly but i've just got the one character (the one with the lance up there in my first post)
Mine are all based on Homestuck characters. My first one through each game being Aranea. ALWAYS. Though in Dark Souls 2 I did make a build that was the reborn Gwyndolin. Because rebirth themes are my jam and also Gwyndolin is my Souls waifu.
Has anyone else ever gotten hosts that summon you for bosses and like they have no estus and like half health at best. Because this has happened to me more than a few times and I fucking hate it. I'm not helping you fucks. I am going into that room just so I can watch you die because I refuse to do all your work for you. see also: hosts who clearly view their help as entirely disposable trash. Like yeah they're there and they might die and we all know that you're the priority as the host but christ. We're trying to get shit done too.
*Combat rolls into the thread* I am so HERE for Bloodborne talk. It was the first Soulsborne game I played and it remains my favorite of the ones I've played (the others being a bit of both Demon Souls and Dark Souls). I think one of the big reasons I have a hard time getting into the others is actually the weapons. I developed a pretty deep connection with my weapons (Ludwig's Blade and Blades of Mercy), and the generic nature of weapons and armor in the Souls games just... Makes me not as invested? I know it's a small thing and kinda dumb, but it really harms my enjoyment. I also just enjoy the faster pace of BB combat, with SO MUCH ROLLING. In terms of story, I just love everything about the genre, but I feel like Aon has gone over that pretty thoroughly. Spoiler: Bloodborne Ending Spoilers I really like the endings, and I think there's good endings for every character. My Hunter, Elinor, in her first go became the new host of the nightmare. I HC that the Doll (who Elle was in love with and who returned the feelings as much as she could) sent Elle back with the intent of her taking Gherman's deal and leaving Yharnam safely. I'm still kinda torn on what ending I want for her, but she now considers Yharnam and the Hunter's Dream her home and won't abandon it, taking the Childhood's beginning ending (also I want to fight the Moon Presence) I have the vague fic idea of exploring the beginning of NG+. I think Elinor has no real memory of the past game, and starts in nearly the same frame of mind she did in NG, which is to say totally fucking terrified and overwhelmed. But after grabbing the bag of gear (her bag, but she doesn't know that) and encountering her first enemies, muscle memory takes over and she fucking annihilates them. She's a little scared by this sense of deja vu, how she isn't as scared as she thinks she should be whenever something jumps out at her from behind a corner. She knew, somehow, just before it happened that it would, and all she feels is adrenaline. Same when she encounters the early bosses. The Cleric Beast? Why doesn't this phase her? Gascoigne's transformation? Doesn't surprise her, she just takes the moment's pause to transform her blade into its two handed form, knowing it'll serve her better.
If you prefer the faster rolling and what not 3 might be more to your speed. It took from Bloodborne in some of its design choices combat wise. But only somewhat. It's still definitely Dark Souls. It's just a faster, more twitchy Dark Souls. You might also find Dark Souls 2's healing system interesting. It allows for looser play like Bloodborne's does but for different reasons. Basically you have these things called life gems that you can purchase or find through the map. You pop them and they gradually restore health over a set amount of time. This works very well with the fact that Dark Souls 2 is very focused on chaotic group encounters. Dark Souls 1 is, funnily enough, my least favorite game in the series. Despite it having my favorite character, being my first Souls games, and having the neatest maps.
If you like Bloodborne and DS3 you might like the combination Bloodborne and DS3: there's a mod for DS3 that imports Bloodborne bosses, characters, and weapons into DS3. No idea how good the balancing is, but still.
I watch a bunch of lore vids because I'm no good at horror media. Can't play the game or watch something myself, but I still want to hear about it! I can read books, though.
