Souls series (Dark, Demons, Bloodborne)

[Segolia]

Recently bought DS2 today... and then I got Dark Soulsd

[cnoltz]

You should do a Bloodborne lets play as well, Souls without a shield!

[Segolia]

Just recently finished Bloodborne after playing it on and off since I got it on Xmas last year. Only got it because I got a surprise PS4 Xmas gift last year. Quite honestly one of the best games I've played next to initially playing Dark Souls 1.


It's basically Dark Souls but more fast paced, lack of shields, and Lovecraftian/Victorian/Gothic inspiration in it's art. Make me want to read some Cthulu books now after playing the game. The detail in this game is ridiculous, as dark and bleak as it is, in story and environment. You play as a hunter of beasts, as the scourge that has caused beast to spread quickly once again in the city of Yharnam. Of course there is some spooky Eldritch stuff as a result of it, and it's up to you how you stop it, figure out whats happening, or even embrace it. It's dark and very messed up, it will probably make you say "What the actual fuck" a couple of times, even more so once you look into the deepest of details. The story, as per usual now with From Soft's soulsy games, is hidden and broken apart. It's up to you to figure out whats going on, or even in some specific instances, make up what you think happened. I read a 108 page essay on someone theorycrafting what he believed happened. If you played through the game, I definitely recommend you give it a read: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JL5 ... K-vZ8/edit

Is it worth buying a PS4 just for it? Yes. It's not fair of course for it to be a console exclusive, it never is. A console will never out-feature and outclass a PC. It's a fantastic game regardless.

[Prime_Evil]

Just recently finished Bloodborne after playing it on and off since I got it on Xmas last year. Only got it because I got a surprise PS4 Xmas gift last year. Quite honestly one of the best games I've played next to initially playing Dark Souls 1.


It's basically Dark Souls but more fast paced, lack of shields, and Lovecraftian/Victorian/Gothic inspiration in it's art. Make me want to read some Cthulu books now after playing the game. The detail in this game is ridiculous, as dark and bleak as it is, in story and environment. You play as a hunter of beasts, as the scourge that has caused beast to spread quickly once again in the city of Yharnam. Of course there is some spooky Eldritch stuff as a result of it, and it's up to you how you stop it, figure out whats happening, or even embrace it. It's dark and very messed up, it will probably make you say "What the actual fuck" a couple of times, even more so once you look into the deepest of details. The story, as per usual now with From Soft's soulsy games, is hidden and broken apart. It's up to you to figure out whats going on, or even in some specific instances, make up what you think happened. I read a 108 page essay on someone theorycrafting what he believed happened. If you played through the game, I definitely recommend you give it a read: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JL5 ... K-vZ8/edit

Is it worth buying a PS4 just for it? Yes. It's not fair of course for it to be a console exclusive, it never is. A console will never out-feature and outclass a PC. It's a fantastic game regardless.

Bloodborne is easily on my top 5 games of all time. Better than DS1 imo and thats saying alot since i also love DS1 to death. I have dumped hundreds of hours easily into new games with freaky ass builds and naked runs (including DLC bosses ofc),

The story like you said is very open ended in most of it, but here's how it goes : (wall of text which i wil spoiler tag ofc because spoilers)

► Show Spoiler

Yharnam was never a blood ministration capital from the get go. In fact, it was built over a serious of ruins belonging to an ancient race of superhuman beings named Pthumerians, who had successfully unravelled the mysteries of the Eldritch Truth (basically they managed to commune and adapt to the reality of the Great Old Ones, the lovecraftian godlike beings who pull the strings of events in and around the world.) But as with all civilizations, the Pthumerians fell due to an undescribed event and became extinct (most probably something to do about over extension to the maddening logic and visage of Great Ones). Centuries or even milleniae later , humans founded Yharnam on top of those ruins, oblivious to the location's true history.

In the outskirts of Yharnman is located the university of Byrgenwerth where the scholars learned under advisement of Master Wilhem. He and his favored student, Lawrence, are the cornerpieces of Bloodborne. What they set in motion would soon lead to the ruin of Yharnam.

Scholar prospectors happened to find the Pthumerian ruins underneath the city in a catacombs system. In it they found evidence of this ancient race and also the Old Blood (coagulated blood from Great Ones) in it, and soon discovered that administering this blood would cure all diseases, with even rejuvenating properties. The patients would not only become free of illness no matter how terminal, but would also be alot more resilient as a side effect.

Lawrence became fascinated with the prospect that this blood would help him ascend as a Great One. Wilhem disagreed. He believed one would only commune with the Great Ones and transcend the mortal coil and becoming Kin (Great Ones) through Insight, but was yet unaware of the means to get such Insight (he would later come to his own conclusion that to ascend, one needs more eyes, in the very literal sense, hence the eyes jars all over Byrgenwerth). Grant us eyes... Wilhem saw Lawrence's defection of that school of thought as a betrayal, but Lawrence assuaded him by saying he would never forget his teaching and old adage "Fear the Old Blood" ; or in other words, dont fall like the Pthumerans did by misusing something mortals were never supposed to acknowledge. Lawrence totally followed this rule.

Lawrence founded the Healing Church in Yharnam who provided blood ministration for free as long as people acknowledge the Church as the true saviours of Men. It propelled his status, making him the most influencial person in Yharnam.

However...

Lawrence was unaware that the Old Blood also had "disadvantages". It carried a bloodborne (hence the game's name, hrr hrr) pathogen that would in time corrupt the mind of the patient, destroying his/her sanity and replacing it with animal instinct. Their bodies soon followed the transition into nightmarishly mutated creatures, which the Church dubbed "Beasts". Enter Gerhman, the first Hunter. Lawrence appointed him as the go-to guy with the necessary skills to stalk beasts and slay them in the cover of night, lest the human populace learned of this dark secret. So he did, for a time. However due to an unspecified event (probably the secret got leaked) Gerhman was decommisioned and his Hunter workshop situated in Cathedral Ward abandoned. The Church would employ their own clerics as Hunters dressed in black (lower tier) and white (superior hunters). Amongst them, the first was Ludwig, The Holy Blade. The clerics, because of the hunter craft, relied on blood as well. The ones who were too good at their job would also fall to the scourge of the beast, their bodies turned into gigantic monstrousities (Cleric Beast , Amelia , Lawrence, Ludwig , etc) .

Back into the greater scope of things : The Great Old Ones (hereby refered to as Kin) can be considered a race of beings, however their bodies do not obey a specific "race" trait, nor are they aligned with each other. Indeed, most of the times, Kin are involved in petty rivalries with each other, to the point of hatred. Enter the Moon Presence.

The Moon Presence is Kin, but one that wants all other Great Old Ones destroyed, and sees the Scourge of the Beast as something that undermines its ambitions while boltering its enemies. It approaches Gerhman. It reaches into his memories of his now abandoned workshop and takes him to a separate location from the waking world called the Hunter's Dream. This place is inspired almost stone by stone by the old workshop , taken straight out of Gerhman's memories. It is a place where he lives on to guide fellow Hunters in the seemingly endless Night of the Hunt (countless hunters are known to have been guided by him as apperant from the gravestones).

The events of Bloodborne begin when a mysterious foreigner (the playable character) seeking something or someone called "Paleblood" arrives in Yharnam and is administered some of "Yharnam Blood" as the Blood Minister calls it (the tainted Great Ones blood sample) and is thus dragged into the Night of the Hunt as a Hunter of Beasts after a rather rude awakening at Iosefka's clinic. At first oblivious and somewhat amnesiac, The Hunter must find the truth about Yharnam's current delapidated state, fight hordes of maddened humans and beasts, and basically, survive the endless night of the hunt and see it through.

Wow. End of text wall. Fingers hurt.

I didnt cover the three endings because yeah. Dont open this spoiler tag if you havent seen all endings. I still think

► Show Spoiler

The 3 umbilical cords/turn into an infant Great One squid thing is the canon ending due to baby crying foreshadowing (but that might be strictly and only Mergo's Baby, id like to think not though. Open ended like i said.)

I really fucking love Bloodborne.

[Segolia]

► Show Spoiler

For the majority of the before mentioned essay, it builds up a lot of evidence talking about what most of the great ones want. The Moon Presence itself however is an exception to it all. When a great one dies, it wants to make a new baby, which apparently means it must impregnate a mortal (or immortal, if Analiese would bear a child) to make a baby. The Moon Presence wants all other great ones dead from what it seems. Out of all the Great Ones, it seems to be either a good guy, or a psychopathic murderer. Maybe even both.

However, when the play consumes all three umbilical cords, and kills the moon presence, the cycle begins again. A great one dies, then another great one wants to have a child. You just ate three (or even four) umbilical cords of a great one. You become the new child (or maybe give birth to a child) for... The Doll.

The Doll herself is a great one. Attack her, she bleeds pale blood. You can only see the doll moving and speaking when you at least have one insight, similar to Amygdala before the bloodmoon rises. She was born out of the sorrow of Gerhman's loss of Maria, and the great ones gave birth to the doll because they are rather sympathetic. And in my theory, when you slay The Moon Presence, the Hunter's Dream is not gone. It's not his dream, it's the Dolls'.

[Prime_Evil]

► Show Spoiler

My own theory about the Moon Presence is that it is actually Formless Oedon. It impregnated humans when the Blood Moon was out, but before all that it also impregnated Yharnam the Pthumeran Queen, because it needs a connection to the waking world, it needs form by proxy through its offspring. Also , i think the Moon Presence is supposed to be one of Nyarlathotep's guises. Nyarlathotep is dubbed "The Crawling Chaos" , a black mass of tentacles. In H.P. Lovecraft works, his coming is heralded by "a moon dressed in the whiteish red" (from "The Rats in the Walls" book) "Behold, a Paleblood sky!!!" - Inscription found in Yahar'gul streets. Also , "Chaos" implies no definite form, ergo "Formless Oedon" ; i think "Oedon" is just the closest to its true name as its possible for the Yharnamites to pronounce.

And as far as morality goes , Great Old Ones are beyond that concept. The Moon Presence is neither good or evil. It just is. If anyone in the whole game fits the archetype of "evil" it would be Micolash, since he egotistically trapped everyone in the school of Mensis in a living nightmare when he used his umbilical cord because he wanted to become a Kin. He did it knowing he would doom everyone into a living hell and didnt care about it. Didnt go so well for him in the end tho.

On a side note about the Doll, i think she exists in the Dream to make sure the Hunter becomes less beast and more human. With humanity comes transcendence. "I feel your presence soothes me, i can feel the ancient echoes coarsing through your veins. This is good." If you submit to Gehrman and "die", she will weep on your grave in NG+, meaning your purpose and hers wasnt achieved last game. If you deny the Moon Presence's embrace to become the next hunter guide, and destroy the entity that created the Hunt in the first place, then there's no reason for the Hunt to exist anymore. Furthermore by eating the umbilical cords in conjunction with all the insight the Hunter gathered on his journey plus the "Ancient Echoes" in his veins (blood echoes from defeating Great Ones, she will only say this after killing Rom after all , a Great Old One), you become the Great One that under her motherly care with "usher humanity into its next childhood" (taken from PS4's trophy description) . In short, i think you as a newborn Great One will replace Formless Oedon (which i think is Moon Presence) as humanity's next "God" , but one who has the humanity to guide it in the right path (raised by Doll). This is another reason why i think this end is the canon end, because it brings everything full circle. You come to Yharnam seeking Paleblood. You find it, and in the process you turn into a squid that transcends the notions of morality, humanity and mortality , things that Master Wilhem and Lawrence could only dream of. Not bad for a waste of skin trait character right? And Doll the waifu is happy, her real purpose for existing now complete.

And now for something not that completely different but thats making me want to cover it soon since i already did Ludwig's theme :

[iwansquall]

I enjoy playing DS series although I admit I didnt fully experience all the component (because YAWR!! version and I disliked multiplayer in general).

Dark souls 1 is more about getting used to clunky mechanic, especially on pc without controller. The environment and lore of it is very rich and I feel bad because I read a lot of spoiler because I kinda try to understand the game more after getting ass kicked 125353 time at 2nd boss LOL.

Dark souls 2 scream PC OPTIMIZATION~~ on how smooth the game is despite I was running it on my old pc (7years?~~). Although boss and environment design abit lackluster, but I love several improvement on battle mechanic (dual wield greatsword sword? fuk yeah!). Despite hardcore player hate it, I can say that I enjoyed most of the DLC especially the last one (the ivory king?)

Dark souls 3 on the other hand, MORE ENVIRONMENT DETAILS, return of firelink shrine and interesting boss fight, although sometimes it feel weaker because of the linear progression, weird bonfire location and lack of poise for heavy armor build. I think enemy design and AI quite more abit interesting although sometimes there are couple of SURPRISE MUTHAFUCKA mobs placement.


Personally I dunno which one was best for me, but I gonna say I enjoyed Dark Souls2 (scholar of the first sin) and those DLC the most than DS1 or DS3(without DLC).

*If only they remastered demon souls, probably I can get PS4 just to try it with bloodborne.

[Segolia]

I personally hated 2 with a burning passion in my heart in comparison to 3 and 1. The development of it had to be re-done entirely partway through it's creation, and a lot of it shows. PvP was good, but I don't play any of the souls games for PvP primarily. Haven't played Demon Souls myself sadly, I badly wanted to when I heard about it in my early teens.

[Prime_Evil]

Yea, didnt like DS2 much either. the DLC was better than the vanilla game but the damage was done.

[Prime_Evil]

Bump.

Bloodborne is one of the best games ever.

/bump