This resonated with me. I picked up Bloodborne as a salve after I had failed a notoriously difficult scholarship exam in my university. One I had spent months and months preparing for. One that I woke up early for and had whole sheaves of notes written out and recited to myself sleeplessly. Didn't matter, didn't make it. I bought Bloodborne once I learned that I had failed. I needed some assurance that I could plunge myself into horrible and difficult things and still find something there. I actually bounced off the original Dark Souls (though I enjoyed Demon's Souls), so I think the Lovecraftian elements of Bloodborne were a necessary part of it for me. In the end, the game taught me a lot about being mindful in the face of impossible challenges. How to maintain some sangfroid. Right now I'm staring down a master's thesis draft that has gotten harsh feedback. I wrote it too densely - too many notes! - and this video is helping me reflect on those prior lessons.
I was so excited for this and it did not disappoint! Bloodborne is one of my top 5 video games and seeing this kind of attention to detail with it is an incredible experience. I swear, each video you make just gets better and better. I hope you're enjoying the production process as much as all of us are loving the final product!
Thank you so much Steve -- yes this one was such a lot of fun to do (I absolutely agree with you re: the game too) Thank you so much for watching and for the encouragement to keep going!
This was really good! I appreciate at least for the endings, you have an oddly more optimistic take as I've always found them a bit depressing but I guess they can be both. I look forward to whatever else you do!
Endgame by Beckett gave me shivers the night after I read it, and I felt the same shiver my first time playing bloodborne. The sickness of an ending that foreshadows itself with an ominous and unalterable destiny. Maybe I'll beat bloodborne someday.
@@JonTheLitCritGuy is that what I have all these extra tentacles? They come in handy when I'm bringing in lots of groceries or browsing forbidden tomes, but now that you mention it, people do tend to go mad at the sight of me.
This is really, really good. I haven't had the chance to play bloodborne myself all the way through, so all my experience of it is indirect - but I am glad to say, from direct experience, that the other games from the developers do share some of what you found in Bloodborne, but not quite the same either. They're absolutely worth visiting, if you find the time!
Well done getting through it. Bloodborne is a tough first From game. This was a fun angle to take with it, too. Everyone touches on Lovecraft, but it's inspired to bring in Beckett while discussing the experience of playing the game for the first time.
It's funny the difference in perception that people can have about something whose function they agree on. Specifically, the plot texts you mention at around 21:00. I agree that they are designed to do everything you said they do, but I also reckon that they are an absolutely horrible way to do it. Precisely because it's so explicit, blunt, and unnatural in how it's delivered to you. It doesn't feel like unraveling a mystery to me, it feels like I won't be able to unravel a mystery because the important plot elements will be handed out to me when the developers will decide they are, not through me searching for them. Which is really annoying due to how easily they could've done the opposite. Bloodborne should've been the ideal game for From's traditional way of storytelling, it should've been the best way for clues about the greater story to be peppered in item descriptions and notes left by actual people in journals and whatnot, and of course dialogues, that you would've had to piece together to naviguate your way. Instead of that ? You get one time where gherman is telling you to go clean old yharnam, and one time gilbert tells you to go find Amelia. Aside from that ? Mostly messages that come out of nowhere, and aren't even notes left by people, just... Writings that are there because. I didn't notice it the first time... Or the tenth or twentieth to be honest, but in the long run the more I thought about it, the more irritated I got at the sheer loss of opportunity. Edit : also, technically, the first ending is actually the ending you strived for, your hunter didn't put an end to the scourge, but that's not what you set out to do originally, originally your goal was to fulfill your end of the contract, and you did much more than that, and got what you asked for, you got the thing that lead you to yharnam in the first place, you're now free to go. Edit 2 : beckett's citations, at least without further context, sound a lot like word salad. Maybe it's because I'm not a native speaker, any explanation as to why they mean in context ?
I agree with your point in regards to the first ending, but even so, you don't get the typical hero ending -- the dream is over for you but the scourge of beasts continues... as for Beckett have a look at the link in the video description to Worstward Ho on genuis.com as I don't want to ascribe a definitive context but perhaps if you read some more of Beckett's work you'll start to see why I included them :) Thank you so much for watching!
@@JonTheLitCritGuy "even so, you don't get the typical hero ending" Sure, I should've made that clear in retrospect, but yeah I agree that although technically your hunter got what he wanted, the player may not feel like he got what he wanted out of the game after being told that he could put an end to the sourge. Thanks for the indications
The notes that are notes are left by people, you'll often find corpses next to them. The notes that the messengers show you (not online messages) are left by the messengers because, I believe, the messengers have a hidden agenda. With enough Insight, you will even see it is they who open the gate when you use the Hunter Chief Emblem. The messengers worship the Hunters and guide them, and there must be a reason. Traps in the underground labyrinth bear their visage and, in Isz, they themselves act as a trap. The 'messenger's gift', too, is a item used to trick other hunter's in pvp. With all this, I cannot help but see them as tricksters.
@@insertnamehere001 I'm not really sure where you're going with this, especially since I already knew all but one of those things. Which brings me to my question : do you have a source for the claim that they are the ones that open the door ? I couldn't find that info on generally reliable wikis and have never witnessed it myself
This is wonderful, much better commentary on a Soulsborne game than the average. If you liked BB, you should definitely play the Dark Souls games, and probably Sekiro as well, as there are cross-references and thematically shared elements between all of them. You might find Dark Souls 2 the better starting point, even though they are ideally played in order. I'm struck by a certain difficulty in the Beckett line "fail better," in that it's not clear what exactly that means. Does failing better mean to get better at failing itself? To fail faster, more efficiently, or more completely?
Hey thank you so much for watching! And I agree with the Beckett line but for me (and only in the context of Bloodborne) it's about failing more completely. Going all the way through failure as it were. In the third ending you fail so completely you go all the way through humanity itself which is why it's paradoxically the bleakest and most hopeful ending to the whole game.
But did you enjoy the game? Did you do really do something other than omnitasking here (because you did make something with it)? Did your fail at not omnitasking?
This resonated with me. I picked up Bloodborne as a salve after I had failed a notoriously difficult scholarship exam in my university. One I had spent months and months preparing for. One that I woke up early for and had whole sheaves of notes written out and recited to myself sleeplessly. Didn't matter, didn't make it. I bought Bloodborne once I learned that I had failed. I needed some assurance that I could plunge myself into horrible and difficult things and still find something there. I actually bounced off the original Dark Souls (though I enjoyed Demon's Souls), so I think the Lovecraftian elements of Bloodborne were a necessary part of it for me. In the end, the game taught me a lot about being mindful in the face of impossible challenges. How to maintain some sangfroid. Right now I'm staring down a master's thesis draft that has gotten harsh feedback. I wrote it too densely - too many notes! - and this video is helping me reflect on those prior lessons.
Thank you so much for watching. I'm really happy it resonated with you and I hope that thesis doesn't seem quite so bleak now.
I know this is far from the topic but thanks for the words salve and sangfroid dude looked them up pretty cool
Awesome analysis. I never got the White Ribbon because after finding the Red Ribbon, I was like "I'm going to stop interacting with this family..."
Ah the Bloodborne hero's journey is "oh god I'm making everything worse"
Love this!
Thank you so much for watching ✊✊✊
This essay is intentionally imperfect, meandering, unsure. This essay is simultaneously the best discussion regarding Bloodborne I’ve seen.
"Contains Tedious Introspection" really got me in the first few seconds. You really have a knack for this!
Look, it's only fair that people get a warning 🤣 and thank you so much for watching
I was so excited for this and it did not disappoint! Bloodborne is one of my top 5 video games and seeing this kind of attention to detail with it is an incredible experience. I swear, each video you make just gets better and better. I hope you're enjoying the production process as much as all of us are loving the final product!
Thank you so much Steve -- yes this one was such a lot of fun to do (I absolutely agree with you re: the game too) Thank you so much for watching and for the encouragement to keep going!
Glad you mention Beckett; I absolutely love some of his work, and it's very fitting.
Thank you so much for watching 😊😊😊
@@JonTheLitCritGuy Thank you for making it.
This was really good! I appreciate at least for the endings, you have an oddly more optimistic take as I've always found them a bit depressing but I guess they can be both. I look forward to whatever else you do!
Thank you so much!
Endgame by Beckett gave me shivers the night after I read it, and I felt the same shiver my first time playing bloodborne. The sickness of an ending that foreshadows itself with an ominous and unalterable destiny. Maybe I'll beat bloodborne someday.
One day ✊
No, it's fine, it's fine.
Its... fine.
I love it. I love how you mention a couple of times that you didn't play the other games, as a good omnitasking academic would have... 😄
I just needed to work harder 😅
@@JonTheLitCritGuy NEVER. STOP. OMNITASKING.
so quiet, had to turn up the volume ~25% to get equivalent volume
I think the game is saying that the real cosmic horror is...man.
Turns out the real monster all along was... You.
@@JonTheLitCritGuy is that what I have all these extra tentacles? They come in handy when I'm bringing in lots of groceries or browsing forbidden tomes, but now that you mention it, people do tend to go mad at the sight of me.
This was great! (commenting to give the video a well deserved algorithm boost)
Thank you so much watching!
I loved this and found it very relatable
This is really, really good. I haven't had the chance to play bloodborne myself all the way through, so all my experience of it is indirect - but I am glad to say, from direct experience, that the other games from the developers do share some of what you found in Bloodborne, but not quite the same either. They're absolutely worth visiting, if you find the time!
Guess it's time for me.to.finally give Dark Souls a go....
Fantastic!
Thank you so much for watching 🙂
Well done getting through it. Bloodborne is a tough first From game. This was a fun angle to take with it, too. Everyone touches on Lovecraft, but it's inspired to bring in Beckett while discussing the experience of playing the game for the first time.
Really appreciate you watching!
It's funny the difference in perception that people can have about something whose function they agree on.
Specifically, the plot texts you mention at around 21:00.
I agree that they are designed to do everything you said they do, but I also reckon that they are an absolutely horrible way to do it.
Precisely because it's so explicit, blunt, and unnatural in how it's delivered to you.
It doesn't feel like unraveling a mystery to me, it feels like I won't be able to unravel a mystery because the important plot elements will be handed out to me when the developers will decide they are, not through me searching for them.
Which is really annoying due to how easily they could've done the opposite.
Bloodborne should've been the ideal game for From's traditional way of storytelling, it should've been the best way for clues about the greater story to be peppered in item descriptions and notes left by actual people in journals and whatnot, and of course dialogues, that you would've had to piece together to naviguate your way.
Instead of that ? You get one time where gherman is telling you to go clean old yharnam, and one time gilbert tells you to go find Amelia. Aside from that ? Mostly messages that come out of nowhere, and aren't even notes left by people, just... Writings that are there because.
I didn't notice it the first time... Or the tenth or twentieth to be honest, but in the long run the more I thought about it, the more irritated I got at the sheer loss of opportunity.
Edit : also, technically, the first ending is actually the ending you strived for, your hunter didn't put an end to the scourge, but that's not what you set out to do originally, originally your goal was to fulfill your end of the contract, and you did much more than that, and got what you asked for, you got the thing that lead you to yharnam in the first place, you're now free to go.
Edit 2 : beckett's citations, at least without further context, sound a lot like word salad. Maybe it's because I'm not a native speaker, any explanation as to why they mean in context ?
I agree with your point in regards to the first ending, but even so, you don't get the typical hero ending -- the dream is over for you but the scourge of beasts continues... as for Beckett have a look at the link in the video description to Worstward Ho on genuis.com as I don't want to ascribe a definitive context but perhaps if you read some more of Beckett's work you'll start to see why I included them :) Thank you so much for watching!
@@JonTheLitCritGuy "even so, you don't get the typical hero ending"
Sure, I should've made that clear in retrospect, but yeah I agree that although technically your hunter got what he wanted, the player may not feel like he got what he wanted out of the game after being told that he could put an end to the sourge.
Thanks for the indications
"Bloodborne's narrative works because doors open."
The notes that are notes are left by people, you'll often find corpses next to them. The notes that the messengers show you (not online messages) are left by the messengers because, I believe, the messengers have a hidden agenda. With enough Insight, you will even see it is they who open the gate when you use the Hunter Chief Emblem.
The messengers worship the Hunters and guide them, and there must be a reason. Traps in the underground labyrinth bear their visage and, in Isz, they themselves act as a trap. The 'messenger's gift', too, is a item used to trick other hunter's in pvp. With all this, I cannot help but see them as tricksters.
@@insertnamehere001 I'm not really sure where you're going with this, especially since I already knew all but one of those things.
Which brings me to my question : do you have a source for the claim that they are the ones that open the door ? I couldn't find that info on generally reliable wikis and have never witnessed it myself
This is wonderful, much better commentary on a Soulsborne game than the average. If you liked BB, you should definitely play the Dark Souls games, and probably Sekiro as well, as there are cross-references and thematically shared elements between all of them. You might find Dark Souls 2 the better starting point, even though they are ideally played in order.
I'm struck by a certain difficulty in the Beckett line "fail better," in that it's not clear what exactly that means. Does failing better mean to get better at failing itself? To fail faster, more efficiently, or more completely?
Hey thank you so much for watching! And I agree with the Beckett line but for me (and only in the context of Bloodborne) it's about failing more completely. Going all the way through failure as it were. In the third ending you fail so completely you go all the way through humanity itself which is why it's paradoxically the bleakest and most hopeful ending to the whole game.
One of my favorite spooky leftists making a video about one of my favorite games? Ahh Kos, or some say Kosm, has heard our prayers.
Thank you so much for being here. ✊
But did you enjoy the game? Did you do really do something other than omnitasking here (because you did make something with it)? Did your fail at not omnitasking?
I know I know 😳😭
@@JonTheLitCritGuy I just think it's the most fitting thing 💙
What was the short story mentioned? My auditory processing couldn't catch it
It's "Tidal Forces" by Caitlin R Kearnen
Its a nice video and all but god damn man speak up, I could barely make out your words at max volume
Yeah, fair point.