Bloodborne

Eldritch horror isn’t scary because it shows you something big and scary, a monster the size of a planet or grotesque tentacles emerging from the deep black abyss of a sea. It’s scary because it plants the idea in your head of learning about something “unthinkable”. An ant, becoming aware of us, our existence, our creations, our capabilities.

We are the ants – the eldritch knowledge is World War II.

Bloodborne sets the tone and atmosphere of eldritch horror perfectly. It’s another one of Fromsofts games, and as usual they crafted a masterpiece. It’s difficult for me to say which Souls game is my favorite, but it’s probably a tie between Sekiro or Bloodborne. But this post is about Bloodborne, a dark, brutal and horrifying RPG.

Of course, the mechanics of Bloodborne will be similar to their other games. You have your stamina bar, “bonfires”, limited health supplies and a metroidvania-esque exploration system. The combat in Bloodborne is much faster than their earlies IP’s though, and there’s an emphasize on aggressive fighting. If you get hit and lose HP, you can regain some of it by quickly hitting the opponent back. Instead of dodge rolling, you dash a few meters, and to parry an enemy you blast them in the face with your gun. It’s a quicker experience in general, and before Sekiro I actually thought Bloodborne was their hardest game to date.

Discussing difficulty in the Souls community can be divisive, but aside from an overall agreement on “NO DIFFICULTY OPTIONS” the community will be pretty split on which game is the hardest. For some it’s the slower, more methodical combat of the Dark Souls games, for some it’s the parry focused battles of Sekiro, and for some it’s the more aggressive nature of Bloodborne. But as always, the combat of Bloodborne is the absolute highlight of the game.

You play as a “Hunter”, waking up in a broken and desolate town overrun by beasts and monsters. Your goal; to stop the infestation. As you play the game you need to piece together the story in true Soulslike fashion. It isn’t told to you outright, but it was told to me.. on Youtube. It’s a great story that feels inspired and captures the essence of eldritch horror perfectly. Grotesque giant monsters, mysterious cults and knowledge that breaks the mind. Bloodborne is one of those games where the story and lore is so rich that you can spend hours researching it. While Dark Souls has multiple games to its name, Bloodborne only has one and still manages to stand on par if not higher than Dark Souls in terms of storytelling, setting and lore. Art is always going to be extremely subjective though.

Usually I dislike when games are turned into films, and vice versa, but Bloodborne (and most of Fromsofts games) would be so dope to see in an animated series. The story and lore is that good.

Aside from all this, the game has one of – if not the – best DLC’s I’ve seen in gaming. It’s as rich as the base game, and the final boss is one of the coolest bosses I’ve come across in all the games. The PvP is solid, albeit slightly dead, and the music is beautiful.

The only thing I feel that Bloodborne is sort of missing is the emotional message that many people felt when getting into Dark Souls. The community, and the inspiring words of “Don’t you dare go hollow”. I’ve yet to see a video named “Bloodborne saved my life”. But that’s fine, I’ll just make one myself even if it isn’t true.

There it is, Bloodborne in a nutshell. Another masterpiece by Fromsoft – a gaming company who can’t seem to fail. If you enjoy RPG’s or is interested in the cultural impact of videogames, it’s difficult to not recommend all of Fromsofts games. 10/10!