Bloodborne
I can only, in good faith, reward the “most special” designation to my one true love, Bloodborne, which takes all of the expected elements of a FromSoft Soulslike (collected XP points, limited health top-offs, rest locations, extraordinary music, etc.) and dyes it nightmare black.
Bloodborne is Lovecraftian, intimidating, and disgusting. One of my favorite bosses, Mergo’s Wet Nurse, looks like a clump of hair caught in the drain. But none of it is scary enough to make you want to run away. It’s too well-crafted. Eventually, the game’s total cohesion entreats you to stoop to its level without you even realizing it.
Your gameplay shifts as your character is exposed to mystic locations and bosses, lifting their third eye with Insight. Like its blood-possessed inhabitants, Bloodborne eventually makes you obsessed with aggression, too. You get health back when you land attacks immediately after a hit, so you keep hitting things.
Like with other FromSoft titles, violence triggers plenty of deep contemplation about systematic power here. But Bloodborne is so peculiarly bleak, so stalked by spilled blood and uncontrollable, cosmic horrors, that you wonder less about if struggle should continue than how struggle should continue. Do you join it in the sky, or do you die in your dreams? It’s a complete gothic Rubik’s Cube, and there’s nothing else like it.
What’s your favorite FromSoftware game?
