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My friend is afraid to play Bloodborne.

Harmen

Member
I love Bloodborne, but longer sessions can be too much for me. One of the most oppressive atmospheres in gaming to me, and don't have a lot of trouble playing Silent Hill, classic Resi, Dead Space etc. Bloodborne just gets me and in contrary to many other horror games I have played, nearly every monster can actually kill me if I mess up the slightest. The gameplay also has me constantly on the edge.

In Dark Souls, I find there to be some sort of serene beauty that is calming in an odd way, Bloodborne is just vile and oppressive. I love both.
 

ElyrionX

Member
This is why I didn't play it. Dark Souls was almost the same as well but that was more depressing than horrifying for me.
 

Gbraga

Member
Apologies I'm over spending dozens of hours of drooling ripped apart festering monsters. The gameplay etc would work in a different setting without having to jerk off to a gore fetish.

I'm not opposed to the idea of Upbeat Souls, I even think Hidetaka Miyazaki would be a perfect match for an anime fantasy kind of game with some creepy stuff (think Children Who Chase Lost Voices or Spirited Away), but I really disagree with the idea that these games are "jerking off to a gore fetish". I dislike "gore horror" a lot, so it would absolutely feel cheap to me if that's what it was going for.

It tends to handle things in quite a classy way, compared to actual gorefests.
 

BizzyBum

Member
I hate spiders like a normal human being, but video game spiders I really have no issues with (like fighting giant spiders in Skyrim didn't bother me) but Bloodborne was the one game that gave me the creeps with fake spiders.
 

Sephzilla

Member
42b.gif



pTGoSks.gif

these will never cease being funny to me
 
I understand your friend, OP. I used to take long pauses before finishing the game, it made me way too tense. Sure, I eventually completed it (Bloodborne is the first game I ever platinum'd), but it was a bit of a process to get there.

On the other hand, I'd probably be way less scared if I played it co-op...
 

Moyospeed

Neo Member
I found the game pretty scary at times myself but eventually that became part of the charm. The snakes tho fuck those snakes.
 

zenspider

Member
Lovecraftian and cosmic horror it's is own subgenre. Some people are scared by it, others are not. Plus there's a lot of body gore and whatnot, so it's definitely not for everyone.

He nope'd out way before Eldritch horror came into it, besides a general madness.

I was nervous when I saw the Project Beast trailers that BB would be horror as opposed to "horror themed" - I'm kind of jealous someone could be legit scared from Bloodborne. The impeccable sound design with my Gold Wireless' gave me the willies, but I never forgot it was a game, like say P.T.

Full disclosure: the dog-birds in Nightmare in Mensis may have made me shit a little. Just a little.
 
Bloodborne is a masterpiece. Creepy sound design, unsettling monster design, the things it doesn't outright tell you but lets you figure out and then never confirms it but you know that it knows that you know what it means.

Yeah. And this is coming from a fucker that still hasn't beaten
Ludwig
. NG+, but nevertheless. Probably out to get on that, because I really want to finish this DLC.
 
I've been playing horror games for decades, and Bloodborne has a moment that scared me so bad that it continues to scare me to this day. The part where you take the lift down, and are walking through​ the dark, and then you bump into the Brain of Mensis. Even a year later if I'm walking through my dark house at night I will briefly​ imagine that giant eye-covered brain chilling somewhere in my living room.
 

LordOfChaos

Member
I've been playing horror games for decades, and Bloodborne has a moment that scared me so bad that it continues to scare me to this day. The part where you take the lift down, and are walking through​ the dark, and then you bump into the Brain of Mensis. Even a year later if I'm walking through my dark house at night I will briefly​ imagine that giant eye-covered brain chilling somewhere in my living room.

makes contact
 

balohna

Member
I find Dark Souls kind of terrifying in some ways, surprised that series is no big deal but this tilts it. I guess the aesthetic is outright horror vs. gloomy and imposing.
 

Luminaire

Member
It does not necessarily need to scare you to be considered horror. Things can be unsettling, disturbing, twisting, and even curious.

Horror affects people in different ways, and just because a person was not scared, it doesn't mean it's not horror.

Overall, Bloodborne is Victorian, gothic, and cosmic horror mixed into an action RPG where you have the tools to fight back. It scares some while others feel disturbed, it disarms some while others feel empowered.

I personally adore the game, but perhaps that's because I've been granted eyes.
 
Bloodborne isn't scary for me.. But it does kick my anxiety into gear.

Between the feeling of not wanting to miss anything.. Wandering in unknown territory with unknown beasts. Always watching your back.. The tension is what get me.

But as you go through the section of the game you gain confidence that replaces the tension.

These games are very good at having that to them. You build this confidence that just get thrown out the door when you hit the boss and into the new area.
 

zoodoo

Member
I've been playing horror games for decades, and Bloodborne has a moment that scared me so bad that it continues to scare me to this day. The part where you take the lift down, and are walking through​ the dark, and then you bump into the Brain of Mensis. Even a year later if I'm walking through my dark house at night I will briefly​ imagine that giant eye-covered brain chilling somewhere in my living room.

I have been looking for the song that plays before you drop the brain and cant find it. So scary
 

zenspider

Member
Sure but Bloodborne goes beyond just the asethetic of horror. Out of curiosity why do you not consider Bloodborne to be horror.

I'd say it's not horror in the videogame sense of the genre, but if you were to say more general horror than sure you could make that argument.

I imagine someone could play that game and not really engage with the lore or even notice it (people who say BB, of all Miyazaki games, is too obtuse boggles my mind), so your basically in DMC or Castlevania territory - horror themed.

Bloodborne is like literary horror or great thriller, suspense, or "psychological horror" movies in that the terror comes with the realization of the truth, what's happening, etc.
 

Lorcain

Member
I'm usually ok with 3rd person horror/survival games, but 1st person horror games can really get to me. The first video game to truly make me feel like I needed to go get a diaper was System Shock 2 in '99. It was a masterpiece of audio and visual horror, all built around first person perspective. I think it was one of the first games to feature creepy as fuck audio logs too.

For me BB's horror is more atmospheric, enhanced by great audio and art design. It's an unsettling, oppressive feeling...until you get to the point in the game when everything starts to click and you become a hunter. That point in the game when there's a mental transition from feeling like a DS survivor type character to I'm a badass hunter of monsters is what makes it so brilliant. Nothing really changes in the game itself, it's the player mastering the controls and starting to understand their role in the game world.
 
I just started playing Bloodborne with headphones ever since I realized I can plug into the controller (thanks to the Switch thread complaining about the missing feature) and it's SO much better. The background noises and grumblings that you miss sans headphones, along with the amazing music take the game even further into masterpiece territory.

I can definitely see how people consider this a horror game. The atmosphere is creepy and the world is alive and swallows you into it.
 

Sanctuary

Member
Really want to convince one of my good friends to play this game, but any game that has "stats" that you have to think about for more than two seconds, or items that can be upgraded terrifies him. It suddenly becomes this super complex RPG that he aggrandizes to absurd levels. He basically won't "play" them unless I allocate everything for him, and I honestly don't believe that it's an issue with his understanding, and more that he's just mentally lazy sometimes. It took a year just to get him to finish the first Mass Effect (slightly understandable I guess), but the second game is so much easier to digest, but "Oh no, stats!".

This is someone who grew up on the NES, Genesis and Saturn that considers himself "good at video games". I still, to this day have no idea what RPG abused him as a child so much as to make him so gun-shy around them. Yet, he wants to finish the Zelda series, and has also finished Bioshock and all of the God of War games. None are technically RPGs, but they share mechanics that are not that far removed from some similar mechanics that are seen a lot in the modern RPG.
 
My cousin had the same reaction after I let him start his own save file when he stayed over. He said it was too frightening and stressful. He made it to Father G, beat him after a number of retries, then noped out.

Upper Cathedral Ward offers some of the best horror I can remember.
 

Sanctuary

Member
I find Dark Souls kind of terrifying in some ways, surprised that series is no big deal but this tilts it. I guess the aesthetic is outright horror vs. gloomy and imposing.

I'll never understand this distinction. Both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are horror because of the gloomy atmosphere, and...uh...dread. It doesn't need to look like Van Helsing or have gallons of gore to be horror.

I also find it hard to argue against when many of the creature designs could be interchangeable within each game, and that even happens in Dark Souls 3. All that's left after that is architecture; which again, copious amounts of Bloodborne's aesthetics are liberally transplanted into Dark Souls 3.
 

NEO0MJ

Member
Really want to convince one of my good friends to play this game, but any game that has "stats" that you have to think about for more than two seconds, or items that can be upgraded terrifies him. It suddenly becomes this super complex RPG that he aggrandizes to absurd levels. He basically won't "play" them unless I allocate everything for him, and I honestly don't believe that it's an issue with his understanding, and more that he's just mentally lazy sometimes. It took a year just to get him to finish the first Mass Effect (slightly understandable I guess), but the second game is so much easier to digest, but "Oh no, stats!"

What's funny is that BB is probably the simplest souls game to get into. Way less stuff to think about here.
 

balohna

Member
I'll never understand this distinction. Both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are horror because of the gloomy atmosphere, and...uh...dread. It doesn't need to look like Van Helsing or have gallons of gore to be horror.

I also find it hard to argue against when many of the creature designs could be interchangeable within each game, and that even happens in Dark Souls 3. All that's left after that is architecture; which again, copious amounts of Bloodborne's aesthetics are liberally transplanted into Dark Souls 3.

I agree, I was just trying to understand how OP's friend could possibly be fine beating multiple Dark Souls games but can't even play Bloodborne. To me, the dread and gloom are the scary parts, and Demon's/Dark have those just as much as Bloodborne. Hell, they might even be worse in that regard.
 
The sense of dread and utter negativity is at level 11 in Bloodborne.

I also think it has one of the most vicious and harrowing sound designs outside of maybe Silent Hill. There's some seriously pained and eerie enemy sounds and getting hit and hitting sounds incredibly brutal to me.

The combination of beautiful architecture and skies with the total degradation of filth etc. everywhere is also extremely effective.

In general, the game is pure Gothic Horror cranked up all the way. The fact you're not ultimately powerless or it not being a Survival Horror game in itself doesn't detract from that in my opinion.
 

Neiteio

Member
Vicar Amelia's scream is probably the most bone-chilling thing I've heard in gaming. Or at least it's up there. Laura's shriek in The Evil Within might be worse.
 
It's completely ok to be unnerved by Bloodborne. I'm a person who can't even watch other's play horror games yet when it came to Bloodborne, I was so fascinated with all the monsters and settings that it didn't bother me so much. Which is incredibly strange because I can be the biggest chicken.
Everyone has different fears and it affects them differently. Bloodborne is a very ominous world with a lot of dread and loneliness.
It makes me happy you played through the game with him, Being able for him to play through it completely and hopefully experience the story.
 
There's nothing creepy about BB outside that haunting music when you go to Hypogean Gaol when you realize this is hell.. you're going to die.. and this music is telling you it's inevitable
 

Maxinas

Member
I found it terrifying at times, they did a great good with the atmosphere as you start to uncover more unholy secrets throughout the game. Didn't stop be from platinuming the game though, would play again.
 
Does anyone have a good link where I can read the lore of bloodborne?

Neve finished but want to read more about the lore and people's theories
 

nkarafo

Member
I wish i could be terrified like many of you with these things. But i'm 100% desensitized. I can handle almost anything (except real animal abuse which pisses me off and ruins my week). The last time i felt somewhat scared by a game was in Silent Hill 2. And before that i think it was DOOM but i was a kid. As an adult i just enjoy the atmosphere but i'm never scared. The notion that some adults are so scared that they can't even play those games seems completely alien and somewhat ridiculous to me.
 
I'll never understand people being scared of a screen, whether that's a movie, TV show, or game. I just don't get it. Doesn't compute.

But I don't have to get it. I know that some people are, and that's fine. So let them play or watch what they do like.
 

Google

Member
The notion that some adults are so scared that they can't even play those games seems completely alien and somewhat ridiculous to me.

It's the feeling of a complete lack of control.

I'm not necessarily scared because I think it's real or that anything is going to happen to me in real life. I'm 'scared' because I'm out of control of the situation and I dont know what's coming. So in a game like Bloodbourne where 30 minutes of progress can be lost because of turning down the wrong alleyway or meeting the wrong boss at the wrong time, there's an additional feeling of anxiousness.

When you add that anxiousness to the already creepy music and aesthetic it adds up to an experience that is very difficult for me to get over. I'd rather spend my time in a situation where I can see in front of me what I need to do.
 

Blinck

Member
Some people are confusing scariness with unease and being disturbed.
There are almost no jumpscares in bloodborne, but the atmosphere makes me super unease. It's hard to play for a long time. The only time this happened to me was in Latria in DeS.
The first time I saw an Amygdala outside Oedon Chapel I got seriously disturbed.

Other disturbing things:

- Finding Arianna in the sewers having given birth to an infant great one. The whole scene accompanied with the sound of achieving "insight" made me shiver, along with her cries and the "baby" movements. Fucking disturbing.

- The Brainsucker enemy. When you first meet one you are just not expecting them as they are different from the usual "beasts" (since they are kin). The fact that they do magic and suck your brain out....Fucking disturbing.

- The whole Upper Cathedral Ward area. That fucking music playing constantly, the lack of light, the baby great ones...everything is just ....Fucking disturbing.

- Vicar Amelia cries and animations as she desperately tries to kill you. It's honestly terrifying... it really sounds like she is suffering through the whole fight. Fucking disturbing.

- The first time the apparently "normal enemies" in the forest have their head explode into snakes. That was honestly just Fucking disturbing.

- Ebrietas, praying at an alter apparently made of another great one. The whole thing is just unexpected and she won't attack you. She is a fucking ugly disfigured lovecraftian monster, but she's just there..praying. Fucking disturbing.

- Ludwig, the fucking disfigured Holy Blade. His sounds, his dialogue, his shape and his aggressiveness through the whole fight. Fucking disturbing.

- Mego's cries after the blood moon descends. You hear a god damn baby cry until the rest of the game. Can it get any more Fucking disturbing?

- Yes it can. The Research Hall. The only other level of a video game that had this sense of unease to it (maybe even more) was Latria from Demon's Souls. The patients..the (optional) stealthy gameplay..the greenish sickly colors.. all those dark rooms with those fucking bloody water bags lying around...it all amounts to an incredibly tense place that you just want to leave asap.

Absolutely fucking disturbing.

P.S. - I love this game! Will add more disturbiness if I remember.

P.S.2 - Being scared or disturbed or whatever is something highly subjective. It depends more on the player than on the game. What is creepy to some is just funny to others.
 
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