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Is Bloodborne a Horror Game?

Painticus

110,240 views

This town's finished.

Is Dark Souls a Horror Game?: Is Dark Souls a Horror Game?

Twitch: Twitch: painticus
Patreon: Patreon: painticus
Discord: Discord: discord

Referenced videos/Bee information:

SmoughTown lore videos: Bloodborne Lore

VaatiVidya lore video: Bloodborne's Story ► Explained!

The brothers' code lore video: Bloodborne - Story Explained

Bee sting research: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles..., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles...

Everyone insists that including keywords and detailed summaries in your descriptions makes videos perform better in the algorithm. So with that in mind, here is the first paragraph from the game's Wikipedia page blatantly stolen:

Bloodborne is a 2015 action role-playing game, developed by FromSoftware and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. The game follows a Hunter through the decrepit Gothic, Victorian-era inspired city of Yharnam, whose inhabitants are afflicted with a blood-borne disease which transforms the residents into horrific beasts. Attempting to find the source of the plague, the player's character unravels the city's mysteries while fighting beasts and cosmic beings. And now some little twerp is going to ask if it's a horror game or not.

Music used:

Myuu - "Unspoken", "Prey", "Prey - Reprise", "Strange Vision", "Bad Encounter" (yes I chose this one for its name during the Micolash section), "On The Chain", "Untold Secrets"

REPULSIVE - "Les Vieux Habitants", "Akane's Regret", "Cry of the Unheard", "1908 Vol. II", "In my dreams, we sat there for hours...", "hidden and unchanged; devotion", "Tryst"

Bloodborne OST

Dark Souls 1, 2, & 3 OSTs

TimeSplitters 2 & Future Perfect OSTs (Notre Dame, Scotland the Brave)

World of Warcraft OST (Duskwood, Icecrown (Night), Hellfire Peninsula, Shadowmoon Valley, Terokkar Forest, Ghostlands Forest, Coilfang Reservoir, Haunted)

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. OST (Ghost City)

Fallout OST ("Metallic Monks")

Amnesia: The Dark Descent OST (Brennenburg Theme, Theme for Unknown, Ending - Alexander, Ending - Alexander (Alternative))

Amnesia: The Bunker OST (Officer Hub, Soldier Quarters, Save Room, Arsenal)

Silent Hill 3 OST ("Never Forgive Me, Never Forget Me")

Scratches: Director's Cut OST ("Where The Dead Might Lie", "The House, in Dust", "A Bump in the Night")

Additional viewing: "Mammy, you gotta get me aff this muck"

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Introduction
00:03:07 The Night Begins
00:21:42 A Brief Approximation of Lore
00:30:20 Old Yharnam
00:33:25 Chalice Dungeons
00:34:58 The Night Continues
00:37:11 Yahar'gul, the Unseen Village
00:43:51 The Nightmare of Mensis
00:49:56 Forsaken Cainhurst Castle
00:53:05 The Old Hunters (DLC)
01:07:30 The Night Ends
01:14:03 The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde
01:17:38 A Sceptical Reading of the Great Ones
01:33:34 The Old Blood's Real Counterparts
01:37:25 Is Bloodborne a Horror Game?
01:50:44 Was Dark Souls a Horror Game?
01:58:48 Closing Thoughts

Business Email: painticus@gmail.com

20 Comments

@QuintessentialWalrus 3 months ago

10/10 content warning at the beginning there, it's always good to let people know when the UK will be mentioned.

@STC0451 3 months ago

>buy the new fromsoft game set in britain
>go outside, fight the knife wielding demons that try to jump me
>confront the ancient one
>be irrevocably changed, unable to recognize yourself anymore
>get home
>play the game

@udoncat.underscore 3 months ago

i'm so excited for "Is Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice a Horror Game?", the four hour video where paint explains that since he hasn't finished playing it, he can't possibly comment.

@nicodemusedwards6931 3 months ago

If Bloodborne is a horror game, where’s Freddy Fazbear?

@sarahtonin6367 3 months ago

"If it's normal to weaponize blood, you're in a frightening setting.

If it's Norman to weaponize blood, you're in...Death Stranding."

Thank you sir, you made me choke on my drink.

@Ayalolis 3 months ago

"This video contains [...]
Several mentions of the UK"
clicks off the video

@goobhatestomatoes 3 months ago

Thank you for the content warning for the multiple mentions of the U.K., definitely a difficult topic to discuss. Your bravery is appreciated 🙇🏻

@hunterv9259 3 months ago

funny that "ominously glowing fortress that hurts to look at" also came back in Elden Ring. guess we can add that one to list of Miyazaki's Greatest Hits next to the poison swamp

@LemonChad049 2 months ago

As a longtime bloodborne fan with it being my favorite game of all time, this is my new favorite video essay. Your “moisture” analogy made so many things about this games lore I thought I knew click instantly for me in a new way. Gained insight watching this, ten outta ten.

@LovelessDogg1 3 months ago

"Vaguely Welsh"
The True Horror of it all.

@Uptown_Rat 3 months ago

13:29 I always interpreted the coffins being chained out of paranoia that the dead might turn to beasts as well, or that the beasts might open the coffins to eat the corpses. I love that there's so many interpretations of the environmental storytelling and NONE of them are comfortable to think about lol

@plebisMaximus 3 months ago

"I'm now gonna spend the rest of the video sort of vaguely circling that topic while discussing a load of stuff, both relevant and tangential" So regularly scheduled programming. Just what I'm here for.

@Spiggo97 3 months ago

I always took Kos/Kosm to be a literal stand in for the Cosmos, and the child of the cosmos being born as an orphaned violently flailing manchild fighting tooth and nail to survive after the death of it's godly parent as a bleak "microcosm" of humaniy. might be very on the nose, but I think most things in those games are

@ML4HYJ 3 months ago

Bro uploaded right when I needed him (I’m stuck at a party I don’t wanna be at)

@kikaru25 3 months ago

The giant brain in the pit has its own fun, relevant lore: The Brain of Mensis is described as a Great One they "found in the nightmare," a giant rotting brain covered in madness-inducing eyeballs and completely incapable of doing ANYTHING, but still a Great One nonetheless. Really sets the bar for Greatness kind of low.

@anab3168 3 months ago

When you brought up the real world parallels, the one I always think of but i personally haven’t seen broght up is the opioid crisis! Pharmaceutical companied peddling a miracle pain medication with absolutely no side effects nah don’t worry… leading to thousands addicted to opioid medication and their illegal counterparts, walking the streets a shell of their former selves all because an institution promised them healing

@julian0451 3 months ago

Bloodborne is actually a racing sim with flight combat elements

hi painticus glad to hear you're still kickin' (and screamin')

@sharkray3938 3 months ago

I miss videos like the ones you make honestly. Being a video essay enjoyer I have watched so many that I absolutely loved both as a breakdowns of a thing I like and a video that is itself something to be enjoyed watching. But lately most youtubers that make them I feel like just make a video only explaining the plot of something and that's it, no thoughts about what they think of the piece as a whole, no comparison to how it relates to other similar media, just a waste of time stylized as some incredible exploration. Like I watched your granny video which is a game series I absolutely do not care for in the slightest and I still enjoyed it. Keep up the game man.

@mekabare 3 months ago

1:35:00 I thought you were going to mention Cyclonopedia. It's a middle-eastern cosmic/theory horror book with the premise that oil is "sentient", or the blood of whatever is sentient and WANTS to be burned and permiate humanity. Sentient oil as the explanation for most of the violence and ill in the world (related TO oil, or where oil is found) is a fascinating concept and reminds me of the manipulative Moon Presence reading you had.

@benre 3 months ago (edited)

21:21 it only leads back to the bridge where you fought the cleric beast, it was most likely closed due to loading issues and not removing the prompt was an oversight