Many people understand halfway through the game that the story of "Bloodborne Curse" is a Cthulhu Mythos theme.
As a game of the same type as "Dark Souls", the innovations in the combat system and level design of "Bloodborne" are not the biggest highlights of the game. If there are highlights, it probably encourages players to attack more, so that the game Become more "reckless", thus creating a more aggressive fighting style than "Dark Souls".
The biggest highlight of "Bloodborne Curse" is its unique world view structure, which is inspired by the Cthulhu mythology system.
In fact, "Blood Curse" is indeed regarded as one of the best Cthulhu mythological games.
So, what is the Cthulhu mythology
In short, Cthulhu mythology represents an "indescribable fear of the unknown".
However, this fear is not static, but a very complete progressive experience with cause, process, and result.
That is to say, due to the nature of human beings, they constantly explore the unknown and realize the true nature of the world beyond their own understanding, which leads to a feeling of loneliness, despair, powerlessness and hesitation.
Cthulhu myth is undoubtedly very successful, it is widely used in film and television, games and novels.
In fact, the Cthulhu myth should not be limited to the setting, and not all stories with similar themes need to use the names of ancient gods such as "Cthulhu" and arrange good scenes for them.
Although many of the entire world view of "Bloodborne Curse" and the ancient gods in it all allude to the Cthulhu mythology, they are very original, and it does not affect that it is one of the best Cthulhu-themed works.
Cthulhu mythology believes that human abilities are limited, people cannot see the truth of the world, and their understanding of the world and the universe is at a very superficial stage.
Human beings are like nameless islands living in the dark ocean, and the ocean is like the universe. Human beings should not sail too far and explore too deep, otherwise it will lead to a catastrophic ending.
The story of "Blood Curse" is such a standard Cthulhu myth.
In Yanan, humans and powerful ancient gods already existed. Human beings cannot see the ancient gods, nor can they understand what kind of existence the ancient gods are, let alone understand the level of thinking and vision of the ancient gods.
When the player's spirit vision is not enough, they will not be able to see ancient gods like Amidala at all, they will only see whirlpools appearing out of thin air in the air, and they will die if they are caught.
However, the Yanan people discovered the ancient tomb, and their curiosity began to drive them to explore continuously, to go deep into the realm of the ancient gods, to search for spiritual vision, and to obtain the truth of this world.
Because humans and the ancient gods are not creatures of the same dimension at all, and the way of thinking and living is completely different, it is impossible for humans to resist the ancient gods, and forcibly accepting knowledge beyond the scope of human cognition will drive them into madness.
Master William, Lawrence, and Miklash are all exploring the ways of the ancient gods in their own ways, but this has brought devastating disasters to Yanan, whether it is the brain fluid experiment, lycanthropy, or the ritual of the red moon. A disaster caused by the forcible acquisition of abilities or knowledge beyond the limits of human beings.
And the final ending of "Bloodborne Curse" is meaningful.
The first ending means that the player gave up the search for the truth, chose "foolish people have foolish blessings", and continued to live in the world as a human being, no longer trying to seek the knowledge of the ancient gods.
And the third ending means that the player is still moving forward firmly, even after encountering so many tragic things, he still has to understand the truth behind the world, defeat those powerful ancient gods, and then let himself evolve into a superior person, even Don't hesitate to abandon the human form.
And all of this can be seen as the unique thinking of "Blood Curse" on the Cthulhu myth.
Some people may think, what is the significance of the Cthulhu myth? Isn't it just deliberately fabricating some disgusting creatures as "gods"? Isn't it just to deliberately belittle the abilities of human beings, and even see the ancient gods will go crazy? What is the meaning of this kind of "fear of the unknown" fabricated and forcibly created
The significance of Cthulhu Mythos lies in subversion and reflection.
It subverts the image of God. The so-called God does not look like human beings, and God does not necessarily love its creations. God may be an existence that is completely beyond the scope of human understanding, such as countless eyeballs and disgusting tentacles.
It is meaningless to speculate on the image of God with human aesthetics, because since it is a "God", it should be a higher-dimensional life form that completely surpasses human beings in terms of thought and existence. It does not matter what kind of life form it has. Not surprisingly.
It subverts the horror genre. It is not purely bloody, nor is it simply scaring people with monsters, but creates an unknown feeling. The more you explore, the deeper the fear of the unknown, and even after endless exploration, there will be a kind of despair. This unique horror is also unprecedented.
It subverts the concept of good and evil and mainstream thinking. In the descriptions of many other themes, good is good, evil is evil, angels are handsome men and women with wings, and demons are villains with horns.
But in the Cthulhu mythology, the ancient gods did not have much hostility towards humans. They viewed humans as humans viewed ants.
The ancient gods massacred humans, just like humans trampled to death a lot of ants. Humans would not feel guilty for trampling ants to death, and the ancient gods would not feel sad for killing humans.
That is to say, in front of the ancient gods, the existing three views of human beings are completely subverted. As a special existence beyond human beings, the ancient gods have no similarities with human beings in their logical thinking and emotional ethics.
All kinds of subversion have made the Cthulhu mythology an extremely distinctive type, which is quite different from those mainstream world views.
The Cthulhu myth is also a kind of reflection. Human beings are more aware of their own insignificance in the process of constantly exploring the universe. The more knowledge they know, the more they can feel the limits of human beings.
For example, this sentence: "The real mystery is not why the world exists, but that the world actually exists."
Of course, the charm of Cthulhu is indescribable, and its fear can only be experienced, just like being in the dark, the more fantasy, the more terrifying.
When the Cthulhu mythology is combined with the suffering gameplay of "Dark Soul", a brand new product is born, that is "Blood Curse".
This allows "Curse of Blood" to acquire completely different characteristics from "Dark Soul" in terms of worldview construction.
The dying fire turned into a hunter trapped in an eternal nightmare.
The fire king became an unknowable and powerful ancient god.
The endless journey of spreading fire turns into killing the old gods and replacing them.
What looked somewhat similar turned out to be two completely different stories.