Bloodborne : Joining Conflicting Genres
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Bloodborne : Joining conflicting genres Vinícius De Los Rios Haddad Laurindo Number 21800981 Discipline : Crítica e Análise de Videojogos Teacher Rui Craveirinha Universidade Lusófona do Porto June 2019 Summary Bloodborne is a game known for its gothic aesthetic and cutthroat difficulty, being generally highly regarded, despite the fact it tries to join action RPG elements with horror, two genres that are almost opposite in both execution and intent. And yet, it somehow works. Throughout this paper, we will explore what the definition of a genre is, how does it apply to a videogame, and study how Bloodborne manages to meld normally contradicting ideas into a cohesive whole. Introduction Bloodborne is a Playstation 4 exclusive videogame developed by the Japanese company From Software and published by Sony Computer Entertainment, released worldwide on March 2015. It was directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki; produced by Masaaki Yamagiwa and Teruyuki Toriyama; designed by Kazuhiro Hamatani; programmed by Jun Ito; and composed by Ryan Amon, Tsukasa Saitoh, Yuka Kitamura, Nobuyoshi Suzuki, Cris Velasco and Michael Wandmacher. Hidetaka Miyazaki Bloodborne sees an outsider wake up in the Victorian city of Yharnam, after undergoing a blood transfusion from the “magic healing” blood of the town. However, the area is now ravaged, and everyone has all but gone mad. Trapped in a living nightmare, the newly born hunter must now fend for themselves, as they try to discover the truth that’s hidden behind the madness, and maybe something deeper… It was received particularly well, not receiving a single review below 9 out of 10. And yet, it joins genres that, ordinarily, would never work together. Now, how does that happen? Genre First and foremost, before we can analyze genres, we must first define what the word means. Well, genre is one of those topics that you can identify the meaning of easily, but actually putting said meaning into words is complicated. Basically, a “genre” is, as defined by the Oxford dictionary, “A style or category of art, music, or literature” (Oxford Living Dictionaries). Essentially, what that means is that a genre is a collection of codes, styles, mechanics, what have you, that, when brought together, create a cohesive “feeling” to whatever work of art they apply to. From that, one can analyze any said work, and then classify it within whatever genre makes the most sense for it. If it has enough codes to be placed within an existing one, but is just outside of the box enough that it doesn’t quite blend in with other works of said genre, then it can create a “sub-genre”, where it’s codes become a new definition to compare with those of others. If the work is completely different, to the point it can’t fit anywhere, it creates it’s own unique genre. When it comes to videogames, there are a plethora of things that define each genre : gameplay, visuals, mechanics, narrative styles, besides others. In Bloodborne’s case, it belongs in a few : first and foremost, its an Action RPG, which is defined by an open world you can explore freely, good amount of character customization and real time combat; it can also be classified as a Souls-like, a sub-genre of RPGs with a strong emphasis on complex narratives and worlds, but, most importantly, brutal difficulty (which isn’t surprising, seeing as the game comes from the same company that made Dark Souls, which created this sub-genre); it also encompasses elements of cosmic horror, which is a sub-genre of horror specialized in existential terror, as well as gothic horror elements, most strongly characterized by almost human monsters and a strong emphasis on the macabre; and it can also be defined as a survival horror, best defined by (shockingly), the feeling of desperation as you try to survive a world that’s out to get you. “Why, hello there!” Now that we have a decent understanding of the genres of this game, the question remains : why are they conflicting, and why do they work? Well, to understand that better, we must first define better these genres, at which point it will become clear how they create attrition between each other. Empowerment As Ben put in his article about cosmic horror (Ben Kuchera, 2019), “The real tension of cosmic horror isn’t that the cost to stop an existential threat might be too high, but that the danger it poses may seem so all- encompassing that we’re comfortable doing nothing at all”. Cosmic horror is all about the unknown. Not because the scary monster is good at hiding, but because the scary monster is so powerful that it’s virtually impossible to even fathom its sheer might. More than anything, however, it’s about existential terror. What that means is that cosmic horror isn’t so much about a dangerous supernatural being that poses a direct threat to you as much as it is about a dangerous supernatural being that humans are powerless to do anything about. It thrives in that feeling of meaninglessness, that maybe we are nothing compared to the universe. That maybe, when faced with something actually important, we would just be insignificant. Disposable. That we don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. One of the best examples of that feeling can be found in the story “The Call of Cthulhu”, by H. P. Lovecraft (effectively the father of the genre). As the ship crew, now utterly devastated after a brutal ship battle, boards the enemy ship, the Alert, and, as they scrounge for resources, the tides twist and turn to reveal an ancient… something. Made of material that can’t be aptly described, and with a geometry that can only be defined as “wrong”. Howard Phillips Lovecraft Amidst the weirdness, however, they find a gargantuan door that, when opened, reveals a similarly gargantuan monstrosity. As the thing starts swallowing the sailors down, they all run, desperately, back to the boat. Only two make it back. The captain, in a panicked frenzy, however, tries to ram the boat into the beast. Much to his horror, however, not only did the monster not even seem to react, but the little damage dealt heals effortlessly in seconds. Realizing that it’s worthless to try and fight off the thing, he flees. Needless to say, his crewmate seems to go mad following the event, and the captain goes into what can only be described “The Cal of as a paranoid lunacy. Cthulhu and Other As one can tell from that summary, Cthulhu Weird Stories” isn’t scary because he’s a big and dangerous (1999) monster. He isn’t a character. He is existential terror in the flesh. To him, a human is as ants are to humans, utterly insignificant. You can’t defeat Cthulhu. You can’t reason with Cthulhu. All you can do is hope that you can run faster than he can give chase. And you probably can’t. More than anything, as with most horror stories, but especially with cosmic horror, the main goal is to disempower the reader. To make them feel small and afraid. That is, to some extent, the exact opposite of the action genre, which aims to empower the player, often by letting them control a weapon of mass destruction resembling as a human (Kratos from “God of War” is a good example). As a result, the two genres are particularly contradictory, seeing as the two attempt to evoke directly opposing feelings. As such, the question remains : how does Bloodborne manage to conciliate both into a cohesive whole? Well, the best way to understand the success of one is to understand the complications of achieving such success by way of examining another’s failure. The Call To better explore how difficult the task of joining such opposing genres can be, it would be preferable to showcase how attempting said feat can backfire horribly. For that purpose, one of the better examples is “The Call of Cthulhu : The Dark Corners of The Earth”. It was a videogame released in 2006, developed by Headfirst Studio and published by Bethesda Softworks, to absolutely no fanfare, being a commercial flop and sinking its developer into bankruptcy. It is a cosmic horror first-person shooter with adventure game and detective game mechanics included. Right off the bat, much like Bloodborne, The Call tries to meld two genres that attempt to invoke wholly different experiences : cosmic horror and first-person shooter, the former being built around disempowerment, the latter, about empowerment. It also does quite a few similar things to Bloodborne : the player character finds themselves stuck in a dangerously unwelcoming town, which is plague-ridden by a disease that mutates and twists the residents into terrifying abominations. Being hunted unceasingly by the horde of monsters, they have no choice but to adapt and face the danger head-on, if they have any hope of seeing the light of day again. It is almost uncanny, although such similarities could be chalked up to their mutual inspiration in cosmic horror, especially in Lovecraft’s mythos. However, unlike its high-profile counterpart, Dark Corners doesn’t quite stick the landing, failing to join its genres in a way that feels satisfactory. That can be mainly chalked up to the fact that it does a poor job of mitigating the empowerment aspect. At first, when all the player can do is crawl and hide, the monsters pose a legitimate threat and thus, the player feels afraid. And yet, once you get a firearm, the once dangerous residents of Innsmouth become cannon fodder, being easily dispatched by a couple well-placed shots.