Bloodborne and H.P Lovecraft

[Zak757]

Obvious spoilers, but for anyone who likes Bloodborne, or is a fan of Lovecraft/cosmic horror and is looking for a game that provides similar themes and imagery, here is a video worth watching.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Hmyeah, the problem with these comparisons is that there is little to no "action" in Lovecraft stories, while narrators themselves take a backseat approach to the plot, which is a very un-PC thing to do in a game. In true Lovecraftian fashion, monsters would never take the center stage, you'd never get a very good look at them, nor would you get to fight them. In fact most of the story would probably take place within a another story gleaned second-hand from diaries and letters.

Another thing that people tend to downplay (unfairly) when discussing "Lovecraftian" works are sensations other than the visual ones. All five senses were given equal attention by HP in working an atmosphere. Like this lovely passage from The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, which centers in sound alone:

It was a godless sound, one of those low-keyed, insidious outrages of Nature which are not meant to be. To call it a dull wail, a doom-dragged whine or a hopeless howl of chorused anguish and stricken flesh without mind would be to miss its quintessential loathsomeness and soul-sickening overtones.

I have yet to hear the videogame equivalent of that.

I guess you could talk about similarities, but it would be extremely superficial ones.

 

[Ravinoff]

Hmyeah, the problem with these comparisons is that there is little to no "action" in Lovecraft stories, while narrators themselves take a backseat approach to the plot, which is a very un-PC thing to do in a game. In true Lovecraftian fashion, monsters would never take the center stage, you'd never get a very good look at them, nor would you get to fight them. In fact most of the story would probably take place within a another story gleaned second-hand from diaries and letters.

Okay, you wanna know how to do a Lovecraftian game while still keeping the requisite action and player involvement? Motherfucking Delta Green. It was a sort of side-setting released in the mid-'90s that ran on the standard Call of Cthulhu/modern D20 system, and to the best of my knowledge it never went really huge like it should have. Short version of the plot is that the PCs are agents of a highly secretive ex-government group dedicated to securing the US (and the world) against Lovecraft mythos threats. Lots of political intrigue, horrors from beyond reality, SAN loss, combat, everything. It's got Nazi remnants, Mi-go meat puppets, Majestic-12...the image below about covers it.

Spoiler

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Hmyeah, the problem with these comparisons is that there is little to no "action" in Lovecraft stories, while narrators themselves take a backseat approach to the plot, which is a very un-PC thing to do in a game. In true Lovecraftian fashion, monsters would never take the center stage, you'd never get a very good look at them, nor would you get to fight them. In fact most of the story would probably take place within a another story gleaned second-hand from diaries and letters.

Another thing that people tend to downplay (unfairly) when discussing "Lovecraftian" works are sensations other than the visual ones. All five senses were given equal attention by HP in working an atmosphere. Like this lovely passage from The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, which centers in sound alone:

It was a godless sound, one of those low-keyed, insidious outrages of Nature which are not meant to be. To call it a dull wail, a doom-dragged whine or a hopeless howl of chorused anguish and stricken flesh without mind would be to miss its quintessential loathsomeness and soul-sickening overtones.

I have yet to hear the videogame equivalent of that.

I guess you could talk about similarities, but it would be extremely superficial ones.

You're talking about effects that rely on your imagination, versus ones that are put directly in front of you.
The two are pretty much incomparable.

I'm talking about a kind of poetic process that is exclusive to literature. I think there is a genius behind a single sentence like "a hopeless howl of chorused anguish and stricken flesh without mind" that, as a thought, holds no parallel in gaming, because there is no gaming equivalent for words, and thought tends to be rigurously streamlined in terms of patterns and objectives. Poetry is given very little elbow room.

 

[NoDamnNames]

I am a HUGE lovecraft fan. my old job let me have headphones in and i must have listened to all of his stories in audiobook format several times each. I am very weary of lovecraftian video games and movies though from past experience. same with stephen king it rarely translates well unless it is handled by a very special team of artists.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I'm talking about a kind of poetic process that is exclusive to literature. I think there is a genius behind a single sentence like "a hopeless howl of chorused anguish and stricken flesh without mind" that, as a thought, holds no parallel in gaming, because there is no gaming equivalent for words, and thought tends to be rigurously streamlined in terms of patterns and objectives. Poetry is given very little elbow room.

Yeah... And Lovecraft wasn't much of a poet.

This is a statement fueled by personal opinion. But I meant poetry as in "writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm", not in the terms of metric verse, which I think is what you took my mention of "poetry" for.

Lovecraftian isn't in reference to incomprehensible poetry that tells the reader nothing. It's in reference to something that can't be understood, can't be fought off, can't be comprehended, sometimes can't even be seen, but you are now confronting it.

I agree, which is why any sentiment of "cosmic horror" is lost the minute you confront the player with a creature that clearly sports a bright red lifebar that measures its durability in points, and whom I can farm for XP much like I would jerk off a cow's teat for milk.

 

[Spacewolf]

I seem to remember the writer of DS saying he got alot of the Ideas from translating Western Mythology, I wouldn't be surprised if he'd done a Lovecraft book and taken afew ideas from there.

I would say that in Bloodborne the Great ones are all described as sympathetic unreliable narration not withstanding.

 

[The_Darkness]

So - is the undeath mechanic in Bloodborne ever explained? I mean, in Dark Souls and Demon Souls it was made clear that you were dying, you just didn't necessarily stay dead. Is there a similar explanation in Bloodborne, or do they just use a similar mechanic (the Blood Echoes) but without justification?

 

[SeventhSigil]

So - is the undeath mechanic in Bloodborne ever explained? I mean, in Dark Souls and Demon Souls it was made clear that you were dying, you just didn't necessarily stay dead. Is there a similar explanation in Bloodborne, or do they just use a similar mechanic (the Blood Echoes) but without justification?

I have the impression they DO have an explanation for the mechanic, but like most of the other narrative elements, it's going to be something for the player base to piece together. xD

If I had to guess based on what few elements I've gleaned here and there, I'd say that your immortality is tied to the Hunter's Dream; whatever created it is responsible for your ability to reincarnate, perhaps because of what your ultimate (secret third ending) destiny SEEMS to be, which I won't spoil. Basically, I have the suspicion that the whole hunting beasts ultimately wasn't about saving the city/world, but was about making your character strong enough for something else altogether. Dialogue from hostile hunters who try to kill me suggest that they, at some time or another, were able to access the Hunter's Dream as well, (one asks quite pointedly, once he kills you, if you 'Still Dream,') but have since lost that ability, as well as the immortality that comes with it. This is based largely on the aforementioned 'Do you STILL dream' question, suggesting that he, and possibly others, have since willingly or unwillingly stopped, and the fact that these hunters are the few enemies that don't respawn in an area.