One of my favorite games of all time and I couldn't tell you anything about the story. No idea. Don't know a single character's name, any of the lore, nothing.
Did you enjoy Bloodborne's story?
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It's a Dark Souls story, which is to say that there isn't much active "story" because almost every event of note has already happened in the past. You're just wandering through after the apocalypse and trying to piece together the lore of what happened (and that lore is amazing imo).
I found the plot completely underwhelming. Yeah there's a cool world if you read item descriptions but that's not a way to experience a world imo.
I think its a huge mark against Miyazaki and his team that you have to delve into a wiki to figure everything if you don't want to obsessively read every item description.
Just show me a god damn interesting story for once.
I think its a huge mark against Miyazaki and his team that you have to delve into a wiki to figure everything if you don't want to obsessively read every item description.
Just show me a god damn interesting story for once.
I don't think I could name a single major story point, despite loving the hell out of the game. I'm just not a fan of having to read item descriptions to figure out what's going on, but it was still fantastic thanks to it's gameplay.
I've got all these extra eyes inside my skull so that I can read the lore in more ways than human numerical systems can fathom.
(I liked the story and the world more than those in the Souls games.)
(I liked the story and the world more than those in the Souls games.)
I dont disagree with that at all, but I don't think that applies to bloodborne. One dreary destroyed/abandoned place to the next, it all bleeds together. With context from some lore from that ring you picked up 10 hours ago, the cryptic npc who mentioned running away from the place you met on your 1st run through the main square, and the bosses body part it dropped when you killed it when your finally reach said place, it colors in some details. None of which tells a story of why your going through this graveyard except that it was the only path open to you after reaching the zone.
Ok- from memory (and a bit of googling)
There are various (ordinary) "plagues" that occur within the world at large. Yharnam has become known as a city where miraculous healing occurs that could cure such plagues (one in particular, the "ashen blood" plague is referenced a few times) but everyone that attempts to travel to Yharnam lately doesn't come back.
The player is one such traveler that arrives in Yharnam, promptly gets his ass handed to him by some fairly horrific things, and is given a "transfusion" of blood that turns him into a Hunter, giving him the strength and power to take down the things wandering around in the now-cursed city. He is also instructed to "seek paleblood to transcend the hunt."
The entire game is basically the Player-as-Hunter searching through a cursed city seeking a cure for an unnamed affliction, thinking this cure to be whatever Paleblood is. During the course of the game, we find that the "horrific things" wandering around Yharnam are caused by the same thing Yharnam is famous for- an infusion of blood, drawn from eldritch gods that will initially cure any ailment but will inevitably transform those that partake of it into horrible beasts. The blood was discovered and administered by an organization called the Healing Church, which as one might suspect is not much of a church at all. It spun off from the scholars at Bergenwerth, and from the Church spun the "Choir", an organization that seeks and worships the Great Ones and seeks contact with them.
The player continues to travel through Yharnam, and during this search finds Bergenwerth, which was at one point a place of higher learning which discovered all manner of bizarre, arcane things related to the elder gods the blood originated from. Within Bergenwerth lies Rom, a "Great One" that at one point was a scholar of Bergenwerth, elevated to the level of a diety (or close to it) by another Great One. Rom appears to be some cross between a spider/slug/similar, but it's purpose is to shield the citizens of Yharnam from seeing the horrors that ACTUALLY inhabit the space they live in, or to prevent the choir and church from being able to complete their rituals.
Killing Rom causes things to go straight to hell.
Nightmarish things become visible in Yharnam now that Rom is dead (you couldn't see them previously, but occasionally could be affected by them) the Blood Moon descends, and the rituals commence.
The attempts of the Choir/Church/Mensis Scholars are now successful, with ROM out of the way, and The One Reborn is a horrible, mostly failed attempt to ascend to Great One status (or at least create one) using the bodies of the people of Yharnam. The player of course has to kill this.
The player also finds that the Choir/Church/Scholars were also attempting to commune with a Great One by holding its child hostage- this is Mergo, child of Queen Yharnam (who you can find deep in the labryinths if you're a masochist) and Oedon, one of the great ones. You can find a weeping "image" of Queen Yharnam close to where Mergo is being held/guarded by an atrocity called Mergo's Wet Nurse...which the player has to kill, of course.
Mergo appears to be the source of the "nightmare" and freeing it appears to end the game's events. Returning to Gehrman he offers to "kill" you and wake you from the events of the game, now that Mergo is free. You can refuse and fight him- and the game ends one of two ways, either by directly engaging and beating him and thus taking his place as a being embraces you, forcing you to take Gehrman's place within the Hunter's Dream OR:
by consuming three umbilical cords you find within the game- umbilical cords which would allow a mortal to commune directly with a Great One, though potentially at the cost of your own sanity. Consuming these before fighting and beating Gehrman allows you to reject the embrace of Moon Presence, the final Great One in the game and the architect of the Hunter's Dream and (presumably) the actual entity behind the hunt and the events of the game.
in-game text refers to the "nameless moon presence" as the "Paleblood" referenced in the game's opening sequence. The only way to transcend (i.e. stop) the Hunt is to seek it, and kill it.
Killing the moon presence elevates the player to status of an infant Great One himself, and presumably ends the cycle of beast plague/hunt.
There's a lot of other tangential lore around the central narrative (The Cainhurst stuff in particular is fascinating) but this is the central narrative of the game.
It's a muscle you flex, same as anything. I've gotten better at processing these games over time. Lore videos aided in that, but it's more than just giving you the information, it's providing insights about structure and how the puzzle pieces connect. I'm actively looking for and thinking about things in way I didn't(and wouldn't have known to) starting out years ago.
Exactly. Paying attention to the events of the game makes it pretty clear that even in just the setting of Yharnam itself *these things have happened before* and will inevitably happen again until someone kills off Moon Presence.
When i was playing through the game and found out it was less Bram Stoker and more Lovecraft, it really was a great moment.
Even though I'm not well read in all of what the hell is going on, the world From built is amazing.
We need a theme park lol
Even though I'm not well read in all of what the hell is going on, the world From built is amazing.
We need a theme park lol
Fans of the game should take time to read The Paleblood Hunt: https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1JL5acskAT_2t062HILImBkV8eXAwaqOj611mSjK-vZ8/mobilebasic
It involves a lot of guess work and assumption but it's the best attempt I've seen at pulling together everything we know from the in game lore
It involves a lot of guess work and assumption but it's the best attempt I've seen at pulling together everything we know from the in game lore
I thought the date scene with Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos was cute. She's still the hottest female in any action game this gen.
This is partly why I wouldn't want a sequel, personally. The plot was a beginning to end throughline, the player (that's you) reached the destination they reached. That's the epilogue.
Can we talk DLC?
Can we talk DLC?
Immensely. I think the lore in Bloodborne is the best in Soulsborne. Great story with great backround and characters.
I suggest reading the Paleblood Hunt ,a thesis level research by a redditor on lore and setting of Bloodborne. Makes for an excellent read
I suggest reading the Paleblood Hunt ,a thesis level research by a redditor on lore and setting of Bloodborne. Makes for an excellent read
Im jealous. I wish my brain worked this way, but I just can't help that when I read alot of flavor text in game, I'm not really digesting it, just processing it enough to understand what comes next. With lore scattered across the game and in items, I simply have no chance because nothing is immediately reinforced like say several audio logs or journals found in quick succession all about the same event or place.
That's a pretty sweet write-up! Thanks!
Are the events that are happening in Yharnam happening elsewhere as well? Like, is it ever said if there are Rom-type Great Ones providing reality altering illusions in other lands, or is Yharnam basically just ground zero and the rest of the world is seemingly normal?
And on a similar note, is it ever explained what exactly is the point of... everything (like the hunt) from the perspective of the Great Ones and the Moon? For inter-dimensional beings of such great power they just kinda stick around and fuck with the populace through these cyclical events, but they also aren't omnipotent since a regular (juiced up) human is able to kill them. Is their "goal" ever explained?
all indications are that it's just Yharnam. A lot of what happens is specific to the locale. The Old Blood that is used in the blood ministration was discovered by the Healing Church beneath Yharnam, and "queen Yharnam" for whom the city is named (and who is the mother of Mergo) remains imprisoned within the labyrinth beneath the city.
The Healing Church (and the choir and scholars) are specific to the locale, and they use entities and arcane blood that only appears in the area. Note that Cainhurst which underwent a similar affliction was caused by a scholar of bergenwerth smuggling "forbidden" blood that had originated from Yharnam but had somehow become tainted in the process. When the Executioners caught wind of what was happening at Cainhurst they invaded the place and wiped it off the map.
The Cainhurst example is the clearest one that this can't be happening elsewhere.
My interpretation here is that the Great Ones don't exactly all get along with each other, and Moon Presence is using the Hunt as a vector to get rid of other Great Ones he's not fond of. It's Clear that Moon Presence is orchestrating the entire thing- the Hunter's Dream (and Gehrman's role) is his creation, and the Mensis Ritual that calls the moon that 'blurs the line between man and beast" is a method to summon Moon Presence itself.
It's not entirely clear what happens to Mergo after Mergo's wet nurse is defeated- but the implication (because the crying just kind of...ceases) is that Mergo dies. This could be the goal of Moon Presence overall- it wants the infant Mergo eliminated and the Hunt is the best way to do this. Complicating this is that Oedon is formless (and presumably can't be killed- at least not via any means that we understand), is attracted to "certain" human women and inevitably will make more children...which Moon Presence will likely similarly want to get rid of.
During the course of the game we see both arianna and the "fake" iosefka impregnated by Oedon. The death of either one of them after a certain point results in an umbilical cord, which means that their children would have eventually matured into "true" great ones, like Mergo was.
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the way in which you uncover the mysteries that formed this world, and the moment to moment story plot points you pass through as a player are both so well woven together and carefully unveiled at just the right pace...I've never experienced anything like it. I'm utterly in love with it. And the DLC managed to do it all over again, although granted with less of a plot on its own this time, but the entire purpose of it was to delve deeper and uncover answers of the past.
Not really, I guess? Like most Souls games (with the possible exception of Dark Souls 2, and I haven't played Sekiro) I was vaguely aware of some of the broad strokes, but it was mainly gameplay and aesthetic stuff that kept me going. I didn't have a clear understanding of the story until watching videos after the fact, which is a pretty big strike against storytelling for me. I'm not sure I'd categorize it in the "lore instead of storytelling" trend games have fallen into lately, but it's close.
It was mostly non existent pointless drivel. It was interesting when I watched some lore video but having to watch those kinda feels like a failure on the devs part.
The lore is amazing. In fact when i was playing it back then i thought ff13 could learn one or two things from that game
it was much more easy to piece together yourself than the sometimes overly obtuse stories in dark souls games. i liked it a lot
I've beaten every Souls besides 3 and BB. I can't tell you what their stories were outside "defeat the bad guys".
Sekiro is the only recent from game i've played where the story I recall a bit more. But that's mostly due to it putting the story on the player far more than their other titles do.
Sekiro is the only recent from game i've played where the story I recall a bit more. But that's mostly due to it putting the story on the player far more than their other titles do.
Perfect timing for this thread. I am happy that the majority of fans are saying the lore is worth it because I just picked up this game yesterday on the recommendation of a friend. I've never played a Souls game (well I did once but I never got far in it) so I am very much so looking forward to playing through this one based on what everyone is saying about it.
That's kind of hard question to answer. If left to my own devices I'm sure I'd be answering this "I don't remember any of it," I love the setting and the atmosphere but I don't remember picking up on two many specifics. I knew the scholars at Byrgenwerth were conducting some kind of bizarre experiments, that Ludwig had some kind of disagreement with the leader of Byrgenwerth and started the Church, etc. But I had little idea of how it all fit together.
However, I find VaatiaVidya's channel fascinating and I have a pretty full understanding of the lore from watching his videos.
So based on the game itself the lore is interesting but too dense for my taste, with outside help it has easily my favorite story in any game I've ever played.
However, I find VaatiaVidya's channel fascinating and I have a pretty full understanding of the lore from watching his videos.
So based on the game itself the lore is interesting but too dense for my taste, with outside help it has easily my favorite story in any game I've ever played.
There's this thing about souls games where I genuinely can't tell if this is a genuine, sincere question.
I play Bloodborne for the wickedly chilling atmosphere and awesome combat mechanics. The story/lore is great, too, but I feel that is more of a "cherry on top" than the "meat and potatoes". It is definitely of an amazing quality that I respect, though. After watching countless YouTube videos on Bloodborne lore/characters/story, I was shocked at how much I had missed during my first couple playthroughs.
For one, it's not exactly gripping or in-your-face. You have truly seek to understand and appreciate it. I think most players can get to the end credits without ever really understanding or appreciating the huge world built underneath the obvious surface, which is exactly the main game.
Using no guides or walkthroughs, you can EASILY skip most of the optional areas/items/bosses without even knowing they exist. That goes for the story as well. You can enjoy the game for what it is without ever acknowledging how deep the story/lore runs. Though, you could say that about most Souls game, we can all agree that Bloodborne does it much better with it's Lovecraftian/Cthulhu inspiration.
If you read up on the conspiracy theories and such, it makes the experience better IMO. The mystery of Yharnam's plague, Iosefka's blood vials, Father G's daughter/wife, the Healing Church and scholarly institutions, the Umbilical cords, The Great Ones, etc ... Really fantastic and rich cosmic fantasy.
For one, it's not exactly gripping or in-your-face. You have truly seek to understand and appreciate it. I think most players can get to the end credits without ever really understanding or appreciating the huge world built underneath the obvious surface, which is exactly the main game.
Using no guides or walkthroughs, you can EASILY skip most of the optional areas/items/bosses without even knowing they exist. That goes for the story as well. You can enjoy the game for what it is without ever acknowledging how deep the story/lore runs. Though, you could say that about most Souls game, we can all agree that Bloodborne does it much better with it's Lovecraftian/Cthulhu inspiration.
If you read up on the conspiracy theories and such, it makes the experience better IMO. The mystery of Yharnam's plague, Iosefka's blood vials, Father G's daughter/wife, the Healing Church and scholarly institutions, the Umbilical cords, The Great Ones, etc ... Really fantastic and rich cosmic fantasy.
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First play through I was able to piece a couple of things together specially in concern to
Being able to give put him out of his misery was enough for me. After the playthrough I hit the lore hard with Vaati/additional playthroughs and wow that lore just sticks with you.
Gherman