FromSoftware is a video game studio that keeps on giving. One of the games they created was Bloodborne, released in 2015. Fans immediately greeted Bloodborne with positive praises upon its release. It had the unforgiving gameplay FromSoft games are known for, and it's a completely new identity that somewhat distances itself from the highly renowned Dark Souls franchise.
One of the most incredible things about Bloodborne is its Lovecraftian elements. Fans of H.P. Lovecraft will recognize the author's influence in this game right away. Judging from how the game played out, it also seems like Hidetaka Miyazaki himself is a fan of H.P. Lovecraft. There are a ton of nods to Lovecraft books and elements borrowed from it present in this game.
Updated on May 12, 2022, by Ritwik Mitra: Bloodborne is one of the greatest PlayStation exclusives of all time, although a lot of fans are begging for a PC port at this point. The game's nightmarish atmosphere and tough enemies make every single victory a massive achievement, no matter how minor it may seem. A big part of the game's scary nature comes from its Lovecraftian roots, with many fans of this author being able to understand some of the more obtuse aspects of the game.
13 The Surreal Nature Of The Game
Throughout Bloodborne, players become aware later on that they're actually dreaming and are stuck in a nightmarish loop with seemingly no hope of escape. This leads to the game feeling extremely surreal at times as if some events aren't really happening, even though the player can see them unfold right in front of them.
Surrealism is a huge part of what makes H.P. Lovecraft's work so haunting, with some of his best stories feeling absolutely bizarre at times. It's only a given as to why Bloodborne also feels so odd, given its inspirations.
12 The Oppressive Sense Of Isolation
There's a constant sense of oppression and loneliness scattered across most of Lovecraft's work. The protagonists are nothing more than regular humans who find themselves in dire straits with no one around to help them, barring a few minor exceptions that end up subverting expectations anyway.
While players can still summon hunters to defeat certain bosses, they'll be alone for the majority of their journey. This adds to the haunting atmosphere of the game, with players feeling downright helpless at times as they try and figure out how to progress further in this tough game.
11 The Implication Of The Amygdalas
The Amygdala boss fight is one of the more challenging and entertaining boss fights in the game. The fight against this otherworldly being in the Nightmare Frontier is still pretty manageable, but players absolutely hate the version of this boss that comes in the Defiled Chalice Dungeons.
However, beating this massive boss isn't really all that great an achievement. After all, this was just one of the many creatures hanging around in the Cathedral Ward and Yahar'gul, which does bring out a sense of hopelessness within the player - as is the norm with most Lovecraftian tales. The monumental achievement of beating one boss loses its luster when players find out it was just one solitary being from a species that is tracking and keeping an eye on them every step of the way.
10 The Old Ones
The Old Ones being the central driver in Bloodborne's story is something right out of an H.P. Lovecraft story. The Great Old Ones, as they're called, are ancient, extraterrestrial beings of immense power and knowledge. In Bloodborne, the scholars of Byrgenwerth become more and more obsessed with these beings, which led to their collective demise.
H.P. Lovecraft is a writer who wrote a ton of "Great Old Ones" with Cthulhu being the most popular of the bunch. Many of the main bosses in the game minorly resemble what a Great One should look like or, at least, how humans perceive them. That usually includes giant beings with squid-like features, tentacles, glossy skin - the works.
9 Cosmic Horror
The cosmic space and the world beyond our own is something many people consider to be fascinating. There's a sense of grandeur to something so wide yet so unknown. It is hauntingly beautiful...almost. To H.P. Lovecraft, however, there is nothing beautiful about the cosmic realm. To him, it is the most horrifying thing there is.
Anything a human does that involves the Great Old Ones only leads to tragedies. This is the very same thing that happened in the world of Bloodborne. The moment they started playing around with forces they couldn't control, that hubris bore monstrous results.
8 The Fear Of The Unknown
"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." Those are the words of H.P. Lovecraft himself, and they echo throughout the story of Bloodborne. This is even reflected with the adage of Byrgenwerth: "Fear the old blood."
Master Willem, the head of the school, always believed that the blood of the Old Ones wasn't the key to enlightenment, but rather its eyes that will allow people to see as the Old Ones do. It's a rather bizarre formulation, sure, but he knew to fear what he did not understand, so he set forth to understand it.
7 High Insight Leads To Instability
One mechanic in Bloodborne is if a character has a great deal of insight, they are also prone to Frenzy, a buff in the game that depletes health to almost zero. This isn't just some mid-tier mechanic either as it also makes sense in the game's lore. The more knowledge a player has, the more unstable they become, as is evident with many of the NPCs in the game.
This also mirrors H.P. Lovecraft's beliefs when it comes to eldritch understanding. At the core of it all, the eldritch truth is that learning about the Old Ones and anything that remotely coincides with them will only lead to mental decay.
6 Shadow Over Fishing Hamlet
If Bloodborne's Lovecraft influences weren't on the nose yet, the Old Hunters DLC surely cemented this fact in the form of the game's final level: the Fishing Hamlet. This area of the game is filled with fish-like creatures ranging from being the size of humans to being monstrously huge. They also worship an Old One who has washed up ashore like their own deity.
H.P. Lovecraft released a short novella titled The Shadow Over Innsmouth in 1936. The seaport town of Innsmouth and the Fishing Hamlet have a lot of similarities. Both are fishing villages and they both have citizens that have fish-like attributes. Both also worship an Old One because they believe the great being will provide them nourishment and sustenance.
5 The Desire To Understand Or Reach The Level Of The Gods
There are two main factions within the world of Bloodborne that play around with the knowledge of the gods, but their means and goals differ very differently. The first one, Byrgenwerth, is a learning institution that aims to attain the level of the Old Ones by imbuing their heads with more eyes. The other, the Healing Church, studies their blood for it apparently contains healing powers and explores ways to hold audience with the gods to understand them better.
While Lovecraft's work recurringly states the danger of learning about the Old Ones, he has also written about constitutions and groups that study and even worship them as deities. All of these are very evident in Bloodborne, as well.
4 The World Of Dreams
The concept of dreams is a recurring thing in H.P. Lovecraft's works. His books have often stated that dreams are spiritual, grand, and somehow related to something other-worldly. "Wise men interpret dreams and gods laugh," according to Lovecraft. He even has a different series of books involving the world of dreams called The Dream Cycle.
Dreams are a very evident concept in Bloodborne, as well. The Hunter's Dream and Hunter's Nightmare are planes of existence that are outside the physical world. It is also asserted that these realms were created by the Old Ones.
3 The Opening Of Eyes
In Bloodborne, once players gain enough Insight, they suddenly start to see and hear things they could not before. Lesser Amygdalas scattered all throughout Yharnam, arrivals of other monsters, the cries of an infant Old One - these are things that become visible and clear as granted by high enough Insight.
H.P. Lovecraft has one such story called "From Beyond" that involves being able to see planes of existence outside accepted reality. Though the means are much more biological rather than mystical, this is yet another motif Bloodborne borrowed from Lovecraft.
2 The Moon Presence
The Moon Presence is an Old One responsible for the creation of the Hunter's Dream. Arguably, this is also the Old One who sent the player on their quest to slay another Old One. The moon itself is a very major aspect of the world of Bloodborne.
At first, the Moon appears regular, and it shifts through various phases as players progress through the game. Once they defeat Rom, however, the veil is removed and the Moon hangs low, shining with a blood-red hue. This results in the unveiling of everything the player was once blind to such as the presence of the Amygdalas all around Yharnam.
A Lovecraft story tells of someone who sees the moon as terrifying and hideous rather than loved and beautiful. If that character were to see how the Moon affected the world of Yharnam, he'd be correct in his fearful assumptions.
1 Gods And Surrogacy
In the world of Bloodborne, it is said that every Great One loses their child and yearns for a surrogate. Due to this parental yearning, a recurring theme in the game are women becoming pregnant and acting as surrogate mothers to Great One infants. Unfortunately, women do not always enter into these situations willingly.
One of H.P. Lovecraft's most popular books, The Dunwich Horror, tells a very similar story about a character who is later revealed to be a half-human and half-god offspring of the Old One: Yog-Sothoth.